Where Does My Hero Academia Take Place? Answered

During the entirety of My Hero Academia, we follow Izuku Midoriya’s journey to become the greatest of all heroes, but where does this story take place? We know it happens in Japan, but there’s a specific location where students go to become heroes.

What’s the Setting of My Hero Academia?

My Hero Academia takes place in the fictional city of Musutafu, in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. This is where the U.A. High School happens to be located, so most of the story chapters happen here. There are a few exceptions, though, such as during school trip arcs or movies, when the students visit new places, cities, and even countries sometimes.

One of these examples would be during the training camp arc. Students headed to a faraway forest located in Nagano, a real-life location in Japan. Both Nagano and Shizuoka exist and are quite distant from each other, marking one of the few times the main story takes place outside of Musutafu. Another even further location was the I-Island, the moving island visited by the students during the My Hero Academia: Two Heroes movie.

Related: Are the My Hero Academia (MHA) Movies Canon?

But there are also situations in which we accompany heroes other than Deku and, consequently, we venture outside of Japan. Season 7 introduces Stars and Stripes, U.S.A.’s Number 1 hero, showing more about how people with Quirks are born all around the world and take on fighting crime for a living. All Might himself trained in California during his early years, and this is referenced in his Smash moves’ names.

In case you’ve been wondering, Musutafu is named as a direct reference to the Mustafar planet from Star Wars. Series author Kohei Horikoshi happens to be a huge Star Wars nerd. This is frequently shown in the series with various design choices, story beats or, more commonly, in naming conventions, such as Musutafu itself, the Tatooin Station or Mirio’s Phantom Menace attack.

But in the end, it is precisely in Musutafu where most of the story of My Hero Academia will take place. That’s where the homonymous academia is located, after all.