Summary
- Many side characters in My Hero Academia lack development due to the focus on the main personalities.
- Characters like Ojiro, Koda, and Sato are underutilized and fade into the background.
- Class 1-B, including Nejire Hado, exemplifies underutilization and wasted potential.
While it's important for most anime to introduce various characters to flesh out the world, this comes with a major drawback. Eventually, as certain personalities become more important than others, most of these side characters end up fading into the limelight.
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It's a drawback of character-driven stories that fans have come to accept, especially in shows like My Hero Academia. The series has introduced so many characters that it was only a matter of time before the vast majority of them would fade into the background as the story's stakes were ramped up to the max.
8 Mashirao Ojiro
Martial Arts Hero: Tailman
- Debut: What I Can Do for Now (Episode 5 of My Hero Academia)
Ojiro is a character with one of the most underwhelming Quirks in the series, to the point where his inclusion in Class 1-A must be questioned. It's hard to believe that a character with some martial arts skills and an extra tail qualified to be in the best class.
It's easy to see why fights with this character aren't exactly interesting, forcing him to become a background character in later episodes. Given how many interesting Quirks exist in Class 1-A, Ojiro is quite disappointing in this regard.
7 Koji Koda
Petting Hero: Anima
- Debut: What I Can Do for Now (Episode 5 of My Hero Academia)
Aside from his unique looks, nothing about Koji stands out in My Hero Academia. His Quirk should've allowed him to become a competent hero, but he barely gets the time to shine in the series.
Talking to animals and issuing commands can make for some interesting action sequences, so it's a shame that Koji failed to live up to his potential. Other heroes and students took over the limelight instead and became vastly more relevant to the story.
6 Rikido Sato
Sweets Hero: Sugarman
- Debut: What I Can Do for Now (Episode 5 of My Hero Academia)
Sato needs a dose of sugar to increase his strength and become powerful in combat. This is what makes him such a unique hero who could've participated in his fair share of comedic battles, but this wasn't to be.
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Keen eyed viewers and readers may have picked up on these small bits of foreshadowing in the My Hero Academia story.
Instead, this sweet-toothed student has become another background character who barely gets any moments to shine in the series. He's another Class 1-A member who takes a backseat to other, more important aspiring heroes.
5 Mezo Shoji
Tentacle Hero: Tentacole
- Debut: Start Line (Episode 4 of My Hero Academia)
With multiple arms and impressive close-combat skills, Shoji is certainly more relevant than most other heroes in Class 1-A. However, this doesn't translate since he barely gets a chance to shine in the series.
Instead, all he does is take part in unimportant melee battles where his accomplishments are rarely acknowledged. Other relevant heroes in the series get more screen time, leading to Shoji being left in the dust more often than not.
4 Hanta Sero
Taping Hero: Cellophane
- Debut: What I Can Do for Now (Episode 5 of My Hero Academia)
Novel Quirks can be great in My Hero Academia, with characters showing how a simple Quirk can end up being pretty useful in the right situation. Such is the case with Sero's Tape ability, which can play a valuable support role and bind enemies in combat.
However, he barely gets to show how much his Quirk has evolved. A few seconds of screen time are all he gets before other MHA heroes take the spotlight instead.
3 Sekijiro Kan
Blood Hero: Vlad King
- Debut: In Each of Our Hearts (Episode 13 of My Hero Academia)
The homeroom teacher of Class 1-B should be powerful in his own right, but a lack of quality screen time hurts Vlad King considerably. Blood manipulation is a great Quirk on paper and could've been used creatively in a whole host of situations.
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Instead, Vlad King is somewhat of a disappointment and doesn't get to show off his blood manipulation abilities all that much. He became a rather forgettable character who personified the irrelevance of Class 1-B compared to their rivals.
2 Nejire Hado
Wonder Hero: Nejire Chan
- Debut: A Season for Encounters (Episode 62 of My Hero Academia)
Despite being one of The Big Three of U.A. Academy, along with Lemillion and Suneater, it's criminal just how underutilized Nejire is. Her Quirk allows her to create powerful spiral shockwaves using her stamina.
While these shockwaves are slow and leave her drained, that should take nothing away from the potential of this Quirk. Instead, compared to her friends, Nejire Chan is woefully underutilized and a perfect example of wasted potential.
1 The Entirety Of Class 1-B
Equally Irrelevant, Barring A Few Exceptions
- Debut: Roaring Sports Festival (Episode 15 of My Hero Academia)
This may be unfair to some of the members of Class 1-B who got their time to shine, but there's no denying that most of the students in Class 1-B are almost entirely useless, to the point where the show won't be affected if their presence is removed altogether.
The only reason they exist is to make Class 1-A look good, with the only relevant member of this class, Hitoshi Shinso, being shifted to Class 2-A instead. As a result, this rival class gets even less screen time and is jam-packed with some of the most useless heroes in the series.
- 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)
