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One of the best arcs inMy Hero Academiacomes around in season 5 of the anime, in the short-lived but highly impactful “My Villain Academia” arc, in which Tomura Shigaraki(Real Name: Tenko Shimura | Quirk: Decay)and his allies in the League of Villains all undergo a period of self-actualization in which they develop their abilities in a highly riveting series of events that see Shigaraki turn his Decay ability from a real threat to an overwhelming force, while Himiko Toga undergoes a period of radical self-acceptance that enables her to not only take on the appearance of people whose blood she has consumed, but their abilities as well. Shigaraki’s tumultuous past was also put on display, firmly rooting him asthe foil character to protagonist Izuku Midoriya(Hero Name: Deku | Quirk: None/One For All)
This arc becomes the basis of the development of Shigaraki from a relatively minor league villain to becoming the seed that sprouts into the overarching villain of the series. Ultimately,the main villain, All For One, winds up using Shigaraki’s body as his new vessel, blurring the lines between the two characters.
What Makes For An Interesting Villain?
Giving Context to Shigaraki and All For One
All For One, as the somewhat fabled main antagonist ofMy Hero Academia, exhibits a rather classic expression of villainy. He’s a supervillain who has always been evil, from the days before the development of One For All as we know it. The contestation between the wielder of One For All and All For One is one that began as a disagreement between brothers, with the younger desiring to stand up to the budding evil that was his older brother. Over the course of several generations, the Quirk that came to be known as One For All grew from simply being the ability to store power, to becoming the amalgamation of various Quirks that soon became the symbol of hope in theMy Hero Academiauniverse when All Might was its sole user.All For One’s characterizationthroughout the series has been that of a manipulative, egomaniacal sadist who, as Alfred puts inThe Dark Knighttrilogy, “just wants to see the world burn”. We have minimal insight into his inner machinations and motivations beyond this primal evil that he supposedly embodies, which serves as a contrast to the indomitable force of good that was All Might in his prime. On the other hand (pun intended); however, All For One’s protégé, Tomura Shigaraki, has a rich, tragic past that directly connects him to One For All (and therefore, to All For One) in incredibly interesting ways that create the sense that Shigaraki was destined to go down the path he eventually took. Shigaraki, originally known as Tenko Shimura, is the grandson of the 7th wielder of One For All, All Might’s mentor, Nana Shimura(Hero Name: Unknown | Quirk: Float/One For All), whose heroics led to her estrangement from her family, earning her the contempt of her son, Kotaro, Tenko’s father.
Kotaro developed a hatred for the world of pro-heroes, firmly, and abusively, banning any kind of hero talk in his house. When Tenko and his sister discovered a photo of their grandmother in full hero regalia. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, and the lack of intervention from the other adults in his family fostered a deep fear, and resentment within Tenko, and when his Decay Quirk finally manifested, he used it todestroy the family house and annihilated his entire family. The incident deeply traumatized the then-five-year-old Tenko, who wandered the streets looking for help that never came, until he was one day approached by none other than All For One, who offered him the one thing the child needed most: acceptance. After inciting the boy’s first murders, which he conducted after donning the hands of his family members as a mask, All For One renamed him Tomura Shigaraki, and thus the tragedy of Tenko Shimura was complete. He repressed his childhood memories, becoming a hollow husk of a boy who never quite grew up normally despite his average upbringing (aside from his father’s abuse incited by a hatred of heroes). The memories, which were buried under heaps of guilt, resurfaced during Shigaraki’s battle against Re-Destro, an incident which brought about the rapid evolution of the Decay Quirk, andturned Shigaraki from mere understudy, to a full-on supervillain.
Why Shigaraki is More Compelling Than All For One
A Brilliant Origin Story Makes For an Incredible Antagonist
The aforementioned origins of Tomura Shigaraki are at the heart of what makes him so incredibly interesting as a villain, despite having been secondary to All For One for the longest time inMy Hero Academia. Like his mentor, Shigaraki is placed at odds with the wielder of One For All, but what truly connects them is how either of them could have gonedown the path of tragedy. In his youth, Shigaraki was a character similar to Midoriya in temperament, a good kid who loved his family and deeply admired pro-heroes, but by losing the genetic lottery, Shigaraki was subject to a household that wasn’t accepting of his interest in heroism, and thus didn’t nurture his virtues for him to become the kind of genuinely good guy that his polar opposite, Deku, became.The fact that Shigaraki had all the same hallmarks of a younger Deku, but wound up on the darkest possible path speaks to the unfairness brought about by hero society, as, in the wake of the worst incident he has ever experienced, young Tenko couldn’t get help from those far more fortunate than he.
The path to Shigaraki’s villainy is paved with tears and blood, a tragedy borne from a little boy’s ignored cries for help; for genuine acceptance and safety. The ability of All For One to manipulate Tenko into becoming a cold, sociopathic killing machine with a chip on his shoulder was, in effect, a grooming, and as a result of multiple traumatic incidents and experiences building upon each other, the kind-hearted Tenko was subsumed by the personality that is Shigaraki. Where All For One is representative ofa pervasive, immutable evil, Shigaraki is one of multiple characters in the franchise whose circumstances gave rise to multiple tragic incidents. In effect, Shigaraki’s superiority as a villain stems from his complexity as a character, and the origins of said villainy are far more interesting than the primal evil that is his mentor. The tragedy of Shigaraki’s villainy, and his development into the series' overarching antagonist, overpowering even his mentor All For One when it finally came down to it, make him a far more compelling antagonist, and an example of the ultimate shōnen antagonist in the current age.
My Hero Academia is available onCrunchyroll. The 8th and final season airs in October.
