A Fifth-Generation Kyoto Printmaker Carves Deku's Final Battle
The prints are the work of Takezasado, whose artisans still make ukiyo-e with the same hand-carving and hand-printing techniques used in the Edo period. Kenji Takenaka (竹中健司), the fifth-generation master printer who runs the studio, led the project, and he framed the job in terms any My Hero Academia fan will recognize. "It's not like we invented woodblock printing," he said in the announcement. "We're just carrying on something that has existed for a long time, and my job is to connect what I've inherited."
These are not anime frames run through a press. Takezasado's artists drew each composition from scratch, imagining final-battle scenes for Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and Shoto Todoroki. According to the PR TIMES release carried by Oricon News, a Japanese entertainment news site, the carvers cut lines as fine as one millimeter to get each character's personality into the block. The release calls the finished pieces "Reiwa-era ukiyo-e," new prints in the old tradition.
Warrior Prints Were the Shonen Manga of the Edo Period
CRAFTALE comes from HIKE, a Tokyo entertainment company founded in 2018 that works across anime production, live events, and merchandising. The brand's whole idea is matchmaking: take Japanese craft techniques that are losing ground with time and pair them with anime, manga, and game properties that younger fans and overseas audiences already care about, so more people have a reason to pick up the real thing.
My Hero Academia is a pointed choice for the debut. The release argues that ukiyo-e was the mass media of its era, and that the warrior prints Edo readers went wild for played roughly the part shonen manga plays today. A story about heroes passing a torch between generations, printed by a workshop that has handed its own techniques down five generations, is about as on-theme as merchandise gets.
HIKE also says this is only the start. CRAFTALE plans to work with craft-producing regions across Japan, applying the same formula to other traditional industries.
Price, Lineup, and How to Buy
The lineup covers three prints, one each for Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki. Each costs ¥55,000 (about $370), tax included, and comes framed with a certificate of authenticity. Sales open July 31, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. Japan time through the official web store and select physical shops, and the run ends once the planned quantity sells out. CRAFTALE says further details will go up on its official X account and Instagram.
Looking Ahead
The July 31 launch lands less than three months after My Hero Academia aired its final episode in Japan on May 2, 2026, with the final season streaming worldwide outside Asia on Crunchyroll. Kohei Horikoshi's original manga is complete and available in English from Viz Media, so the source material is easy to reach. The open question is access to the prints themselves. The release names an official web store and select shops but doesn't say whether international shipping is on the table, so overseas collectors should watch the brand's social accounts for ordering details. Beyond that, HIKE hasn't announced a second CRAFTALE collaboration yet; the company only says more craft partnerships around Japan are coming.