Kohei Horikoshi is a master of character design, and his heroes and villains have the potential to star in their own series. But because the My Hero Academia world is just densely packed, some of the arcs with the greatest potential were discarded as the story rushed toward its big finale in favor of the Deku and Shigaraki confrontation.
We were shown characters with god-like quirks, with underlying psychological trauma, and interesting backstories that could have developed into so much more, but were simply put on hold in the background as the world was close to its end. These are not just small background characters; they are characters who had the storytelling significance to make the whole series but were left on the side of the endgame that Horikoshi was more focused on instead.
My Hero Academia: 18 Strongest End Of Series Characters
My Hero Academia has some incredibly overpowered characters and these are the ones who stand out on top.
Ryuko Tatsuma
Ryuko was introduced as the No. 10 Pro Hero with a quirk of changing into an enormous, powerful dragon called a Dragoon. She was a key mentor during the Shie Hassaikai raid and played a significant role in mentoring Nejire Hado, Ochaco Uraraka, and Tsuyu Asui, but she always expressed a subconscious humility that she had not earned her high position. Such inner struggle implied an engaging storyline of self-esteem and how to be a high-ranking female heroine in a society that cares about the status quo.
Even with her amazing design and sheer physical presence of her dragon form, the development of Ryukyu stopped after the Overhaul arc. During the last wars, she was reduced to a tank that was glorified, she took hits and transportation but never got the win or the character-defining moment she obviously lacked to get her insecurities out of the way. Being a Top 10 hero with a design that Horikoshi evidently enjoyed drawing, she lacks any notable dialogue or a character-specific final test and is therefore one of the least used pros in the show.
Inasa Yoarashi
Inasa Yoarashi was presented as a beast of Shiketsu High; a student so gifted that he was first in the UA recommendation entrance exam, only to drop out. His quirk of the Whirlwind is possibly one of the most adaptable and potent elemental powers in the show, as he can control hundreds of wind currents with the precision of a microscope. His backstory, a young boy who loved heroes and had his idolism suppressed by the coldness of Endeavor, provided an ideal parallel to the trauma of Shoto Todoroki himself.
Inasa practically disappeared in the main story after his energetic act in the Provisional Hero License Exam. Although his presence in the last war was a brief, flashy one where he was required to offer aerial support, his position as a competitor to the UA students was never truly fulfilled. He was a symbol of heroism beyond the boundaries of UA, but this world was mostly overlooked when the story focused on a smaller scope. Inasa possessed the character and the strength to be a main-cast mainstay, yet he served as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency background star.
Momo Yaoyorozu
Being a student of class 1-A with the quirk of Creation, Momo Yaoyorozu has the most theoretically broken ability, atleast on paper. Her strength enables her to materialize any inanimate object due to her knowledge of its molecular makeup and her own lipid reservoirs. This involves an intellectual capacity and scientific knowledge of genius level that places her a step ahead of her time. Horikoshi played into her low self-esteem and her own inability to make split-second decisions under pressure early on, which prepared her for a huge strategic payoff but never happened.
The weakness that she experienced, which was the time to synthesize large objects and the physical burden on her body, would have been addressed with more supportive tools or more creative spamming of smaller and more high-impact tools. Rather than being the battlefield tactical commander, she frequently found herself appropriating shields or cannons on which other people could deploy their own talents instead of having their brilliant mind being used to its fullest extent at the most critical moments in the series.
Gentle Criminal
Danjuro Tobita, aka Gentle Criminal, has been one of the most human and relatable villains in the history of Shōnen. He did not seek to destroy but found himself desperately in need of memory after an unsuccessful effort at heroism resulted in a socially isolated life. The emotional core of the School Festival arc was his association with La Brava, which gave a mature examination of how society throws out those who do not conform to the conventional view of a hero.
My Hero Academia: 13 Characters With The Saddest Backstories
When it comes to sad and tragic backstories in My Hero Academia, these characters in the anime series have had it the worst.
In the last war, Gentle came back, which is why fans were extremely excited when he employed his special ability of Elasticity to literally support the collapsing UA fortress. The structure of the character of Gentle was constructed towards a long, redemptive curve that would explore the grey spaces of her society, but he ended up serving as a literal prop to support an island. Following such a subtle setup, it was a pity not to get more of a thematic payoff when it comes to him and La Brava, beyond turning him into a single-purpose powerhouse without further development.
Hitoshi Shinso
Hitoshi Shinso, the boy with a "villain" quirk, who struggled to enter the Hero Course, was one hero that fans hoped would have a bigger role. His brainwashing power is a complete game-changer; as long as the opponent talks to him, he takes the fight over him immediately. Having trained with Aizawa, where he had perfected the binding cloth and the Persona Chords to imitate voices, he appeared to become the winning factor in the war on the Paranormal Liberation Front.
The truth of the matter was far more disappointing. Although he was the ultimate counter to the talkative villains, Shinso was hardly used in the last confrontation. During periods when the life and death of a person were at stake, the Pro Heroes should have given priority to having a student who can escalate a situation with a single word. Rather, the long-hoped-after Hero Course of Shinso was lost in the immensity of combat, and, at bottom, his own tactical niche had remained largely untapped in the end-game.
Tamaki Amajiki (Suneater)
Being one of the big 3, Tamaki Amajiki was shown as one of the strongest students in UA history. His quirk "Manifest" is so imaginative as he is able to assume the traits of anything he swallows. He demonstrated that he possesses the fight IQ, as well as the brute strength to deal with several threats of high caliber at the same time, as his fight against the three Hassaikai bullets revealed. With an embarrassing social anxiety, he was a fan-favorite powerhouse thanks to his character design and quirk but sadly never given the love he deserved.
Towards the final arc, Suneater had lost much of his significance. He was also involved in the "Vast Hybrid" assault on Shigaraki, a movement that united several potent manifestations into a single huge explosion, but it left very little impact. It was hard to digest that fans saw the former second-strongest student in the school being downgraded to a lowly-supporting role who couldn't even make a lasting impact. Tamaki needed to have his last moment, where he would be recognized as a hero of the Big 3 and not a background character.
My Hero Academia: Every Main Character's Age, Height, And Birthday
My Hero Academia is made up of a dynamic cast of characters. Here's what you need to know about every major player.
Kai Chisaki (Overhaul)
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Kai Chisaki had one of the most frighteningly efficient quirks in the show, Overhaul, which was the power to deconstruct and reassemble matter at touch. He was the ideal evil reflection of Shigaraki, and the fact that he lost his hands was a masterpiece of poetic justice. However, he was brought back during the escape from Tartarus, and there was a sliver of hope that his personality would be redeemed in a morally corrupt manner or at least explore more about his attachment to the science that destroys quirks.
A Goal With No Plan Is Called A Delusion. You Need A Plan In Order To Achieve Your Goal — Overhaul
Rather, Chisaki was depicted as a shattered, confused shell of a man who is only focused on trying to tell his ex-boss, sorry. As much as this underscored his complete failure, it was a wasted opportunity for one of the most complicated villains in the series. The reality that the ultimate power of Shigaraki was actually the same as the so-called decay that the quirk of Chisaki could theoretically have resisted with (via reassembly) made their final ideological or physical clash to be an incomplete thread. He ruined his own legacy, yet the story did not afford him the time to contemplate it.
Eri
The Rewind quirk that Eri possesses is basically a God-mode power. She has the ability to undo the condition of a living creature, i.e., to heal every wound, to fix all the traits of a creature that have been lost, or even to erase someone completely. The show made her a ticking time bomb of power, and although she helped revert the quirk of Mirio Togata, she was almost criminally underutilized in the final war. Since the heroes were to die at any moment, the fact that Eri could restore their physical states could have been such a massive advantage which even AFO used.
Horikoshi attempted to offset this by making her power depend on the growth of her horn, but in comparison with the spamming effect of Aizawa's Erasure, used to the extent of long-term eye damage, the lack of Eri seemed like a convenient plot device. If she was able to as a child completely erase her father out of existence, without being trained, she alone could have been a potential adult, or a trained hero. Leaving her as a completely passive figure merely to serve as a horn through which others can get cured was like leaving a great deal of under-utilization of a character who could have easily solved the biggest tragedies of the series simply by a touch.
- Release Date
- 2016 - 2025-00-00
- Network
- TBS, MBS, Nippon TV
- Directors
- Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano
Cast
-
Daiki YamashitaIzuku Midoriya (voice) -
Kaito IshikawaManga Fukidashi (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the "One-For-All" quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 8
- Studio
- Bones
- Franchise
- My Hero Academia
- Producers
- Hayato Saga, Shingo Kunieda, Wakana Okamura, Kazutaka Yamanaka, Koji Nagai, Takayuki Oshima, Atsushi Higashiyama, Akihiro Sotokawa, Hiroya Nakata, Mirei Tsumura, Masahiko Minami, Keiji Ota, Hiroaki Sano, Yoshihiro Oyabu, Kohei Takenaka, Gen Fukunaga, Kazumasa Sanjouba, Hiroyuki Fujita, Akifumi Fujio, Yoshihisa Heishi, Soukichi Onoda, Soichiro Saito, Norihiro Miyamoto, Ryu Takahashi
- Characters By
- Kohei Horikoshi
- Japanese Title
- Boku no Hero Academia
- Based On
- Manga
- Creator
- Kōhei Horikoshi
- Distributor
- FUNimation Entertainment
- Main Characters
- Tsuyu Asui, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki, All Might
- Production Company
- Bones
- Story By
- Kōhei Horikoshi, Yōsuke Kuroda
- Number of Episodes
- 159
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu, Crunchyroll
- MyAnimeList Score
- 7.85 (Season 1)
