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The hype for My Hero Academia is understandably high at the moment. The manga has just ended, the seventh season of the anime is currently airing, and there is a new movie out in Japan right now. With all that going on, fans around the world were intrigued by the promise of a new My Hero Academia “secret project” set to be unveiled today. 

Would it be a new anime movie? A second manga set after the original’s ending? Perhaps we would finally get a My Hero Academia: Vigilantes anime series we’ve all hoped was coming. The lack of information sent fans around the world into overdrive. Unfortunately, what finally got announced was a bit of a letdown, to say the least.

Rather than any new content for My Hero Academia, the “secret project” that was teased last week is just a worldwide character popularity poll taken after the ending, allowing fans to take the full story of My Hero Academia into account when choosing their favorites. We’ll admit that is a good idea for the marketing behind the series – character polls are often used to help inform which characters appear on what merchandise – but framing it as a secret project and announcing it as fans are reeling from the ending of the manga just set us all up for disappointment.

If you want to take part in the My Hero Academia World Best Hero poll, you can head to their website to vote. The first round is currently open for voting and includes 278 characters from the anime and manga. After that stage ends on September 30, 2024, the top three characters will enter what they are calling the Plus Ultra Stage for a final 24-hour flurry of voting to crown the most popular character in the series. Which, let's face it, will probably be All Might for obvious reasons.

The final results of the worldwide My Hero Academia popularity poll will be announced on December 2, 2024.

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