My Hero Academia's Most Outrageous Hero Has a Hilarious Real

The My Hero Academia hero Best Jeanist is a master of denim style and fiber control, but his name actually comes from a surprising real world award.

The My Hero Academia series has a number of truly weird heroes, but one of the strangest, Best Jeanist, actually has a bizarre real world origin that's both fitting and hilarious.

Best Jeanist is the number three hero in My Hero Academia, just behind Endeavor and Hawks. His Quirk gives him control over fibers, and although it sounds silly, it's actually proven to be one of the strongest abilities in the series, time and time again. Aside from his Quirk, Best Jeanist is known for his love of denim, as he's almost always seen dressed head-to-toe in it. Denim is a particularly tough fiber, so there's a practical element to it in terms of his Quirk, but more than that, Best Jeanist just really enjoys denim fabric, and as it turns out, that's a fitting trait, considering his namesake, the "Best Jeanist" award.

As it turns out, Best Jeanist is actually a real title, bestowed upon select celebrities and public figures by the Japan Jeans Association, an industry organization meant to advance awareness of the fabric. Each year since 1984, Japanese citizens vote for a man and a woman who will receive the title, based on public figures who have frequently been seen wearing denim. Past winners have included the wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who won in 2009, and K-Pop star Jae-Joong, who won in 2020. Those who win the vote three times are named "Lifetime Best Jeanists."

No doubt, Best Jeanist would be a contender for the title in-universe, and in fact has canonically won the award a whopping eight times in a row, according to chapter 3 of the manga, meaning that Best Jeanist is, in fact, a Lifetime Best Jeanist. A superhero themed around denim does seem like an obvious choice for the award, and Best Jeanist is already a fairly popular hero, so winning has probably been trivial for him. Given Best Jeanist's enthusiasm for denim, he likely takes being a representative of the fabric very seriously, which makes it all the more surprising he didn't dress Bakugo or his other interns up in denim outfits like his (several were seen wearing jeans, though).

Best Jeanist often comes off as a very silly character at first glance, and his association with this award likely only enhances that among those in the know. Still, he's proven his value as a hero time and time again, coming in clutch during the Paranormal Liberation War. Despite his goofy origins in a real-world contest, Best Jeanist ranks among My Hero Academia's top heroes for a reason, and has somehow become a heartfelt character in spite of all that stands against him.