Warning: Spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 379My Hero Academia chapter 379 features a fairly noticeable Mario cameo, but eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that a few of Mario's go-karting pals made an appearance first.
My Hero Academia is no stranger to cameos; a well-known Chainsaw Man cameo was recently cut from the anime, for example. The series is actually littered with references to Star Wars, with everything from locations to characters taking their names from that film series. For a while now, the Central Hospital has been a favorite spot to slip in surprise cameos, especially since badly injured characters have been spending a lot of time there.
My Hero Academia's Mario Trend
In chapter 379, on the very first page, a doctor is seen yelling at Lady Nagant for getting out of bed. The doctor has a mustache and is wearing his hair in the shape of Mario's iconic hat. In addition to being a Mario reference, the character is actually a bit of a joke based on the puzzle-solving spinoff Dr. Mario, nowadays best known for appearing in Super Smash Bros. Skeptical fans might be suspicious, as the resemblance (aside from the hair) is only passing, but Dr. Mario here is actually just the most recent in a long-standing trend of having Super Mario characters appear as doctors. Another recent example is a doctor who resembles Yoshi, and was seen taking a stand against Spinner back in My Hero Academia chapter 372. In the same chapter, a flashback is shown to an older doctor with a mushroom head, closely resembling that of Toad.
This isn't only a recent trend, either; both the Toad doctor and Yoshi doctor have appeared several times, and even showed up recently in the anime, where the Yoshi doctor was confirmed to have a blue-green skin tone similar to Yoshi's. Sliding in references via side characters like these can be a good way for an author to have a little fun, and the cameos actually do lighten up the otherwise dark mood of some of My Hero Academia's hospital scenes. It's also fun to imagine what other friends of Mario's might show up one day. Dr. Bowser, anyone?
Given the fate of some other cameos in My Hero Academia, it's good to see that at least these have managed to skate by without attracting any negative legal attention that would end with them getting removed. The resemblance is only passing, after all, and it's already made its way into the anime.
New chapters of My Hero Academia are typically released on Sundays, via Viz's Shonen Jump app.