‘My Hero Academia’ April Fools’ Day Gag Will Become an Actual Anime Special

The My Hero Academia manga has been on a bit of a break over these last couple of weeks. In the meantime, two new anime announcements have been made for the series. According to Anime News Network, two new OVAs (original video animation) will be released in theaters in Japan from June 16–19 before they stream online this summer. While we don’t know what the second OVA is, we do know that the first will focus on … baseball?

What we know about the baseball OVA so far

🥎球春到来🥎

野球好きプロヒーローたちにより設立された野球リーグ
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【#HLB ＜ヒーローリーグベースボール＞】
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いよいよ開幕！

ギャングオルカ事務所“オルカーズ”
シシド事務所“ライオネルズ”
Mt.レディ事務所“マウンテンズ”
ファットガム事務所“ファッツ”#ヒロアカ #heroaca_a #4月1日 pic.twitter.com/wvMtqm5L0V

— 僕のヒーローアカデミア “ヒロアカ”アニメ公式 (@heroaca_anime) March 31, 2022

Initially posted on the official Twitter account on “trust nothing on the Internet” day, it turns out this baseball AU was legit. Of course, we had no reason to believe that. My Hero Academia gags are great for fandom hijinks and a whole lot of fan art, but we generally don’t get an entire episode dedicated to a joke. Of course, now that the possibility has been opened, I request an OVA based on the 2019 April Fools’ Day gag, please and thank you.

Deku vs Kacchan is no more, Mothrariya vs Bakuzilla is where it’s at pic.twitter.com/51vus1M3x2

— 💥Roo💥✨✨✨ (@Color_Division) March 31, 2019

Here’s what Anime News Network says about the upcoming episode.

This season the Gang Orca-led Orcas and the Shishido-led Lionels are vying for the top. Both teams are determined to win, and so they call upon the students at U.A. for support. All players are allowed to use their Quirks in the upcoming game.

I’m hoping the use of quirks makes the episode about as wacky as the 21st episode of Jujutsu Kaisen where everyone played baseball. I’m also hoping that the characters on the poster get a majority of the screen time, as I’m an unapologetic fan of Gang Orca, Fat Gum, and Tamaki.

While this may feel like a silly extra episode (note: it is), it’s a very welcome one, as the manga has been very intense lately (as I mention in this spoilery write up here) and the anime probably will be, too, considering what could happen in the sixth season (again, more spoilers here). My fangirl heart hopes the second OVA is the fantasy AU from the third ending theme, but I dunno if 2022 is gonna be that nice to me.

Not the first sports-themed My Hero Academia episode

Honestly, I’m surprised this baseball episode isn’t being used to start out season six. The My Hero Academia anime tends to start its seasons with a recap episode that can range from “reporter investigating the school” to “Katsuki Bakugo is a really big dork who rides into battle on top of a car like All Might did.”

For season 3’s recap episode, the kids ended up having their own little over-the-top sports anime moment with a swimming competition. Initially starting out as an excuse to see the girls in swimsuits (if you’re familiar with the series, you know who came up with the idea), the boys ended up going head to head to see who was the best … at swimming.

We never get an answer (the kids run out of time at the pool), so perhaps the baseball episode will finally answer who’s the best sports hero at UA. There’s no word on when these episodes will be available for streaming, but I’m excited to watch them whenever they’re available. The REAL question is one of how long will it take for the fandom to gift us with fan art and cosplay. I’ll give it 12 hours, at most.

(Featured Image: © K. Horikoshi/Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project)