Tomura Shigaraki is a terrible villain. But here’s the thing: What I love about him is his terribleness is it’s completely by design, and that’s what makes his arc so fascinating. Now when I say Tomura is a terrible villain, I mean that not in the sense that he’s a bad guy who does terrible things. No, he is terrible in the sense that he’s not very good at being a villain.
His motivation is awful, none of his plans are particularly well thought out, and he wastes countless resources and other lesser villains on vain useless goals, like trying ineffectually kill All Might. His primary motivation is just “to destroy stuff I don’t like.”
Pro heroes even go as far as labeling him a Man-Child. This is about as boring and basic as you can get for a villain. But here’s why I love him and why I believe his general awfulness in My Hero Academia is a part of Kohei Horikoshi’s master plan for the series.
So from here on we’re going to get into Manga spoilers because to fully delve into all of the elements for my critical analysis I need to discuss all parts of the text at hand. So shoo away if you don’t want learn about what comes later in the series. What Horikoshi is building is not just Deku’s journey to becoming the greatest hero. There’s also a parallel narrative that we’re seeing coincide with Deku’s story, and that’s Tomura Shigaraki’s arc of becoming the greatest villain.
As of right now in the anime he’s basically just a Saturday morning cartoon villain who just pops in to wreck things, but ultimately is chased away promising he’ll get them next time. But Tomura is forced to grow and evolve after the introduction of the series' next major villain, The Hero Killer Stain.
Now what makes Stain a much better villain and a more powerful figure then Tomura is the fact that while on a surface level his goal is to just murder every pro hero he can get his hands on, but his motivation is driven by a greater ideology.
Stain believes that the hero world has grown complacent and corrupt, with most professional heroes working only out of ego and financial self-interest. In the world of My Hero Academia, the act of heroism has literally been turned into a commodity that can be bought and sold. Pro Heroes must worry about their popularity, and endorsement deals, and about keeping up their sex appeal. It’s within all of this that the true value of their original purpose gets kind of lost.
Stain seeks to remind the public and return to a world of pure heroism by murdering any hero he deems unworthy, saying that the only one worthy of stopping him is All Might. He even goes as far as saving Deku, because he deems him a worthy hero due to his selflessness.
Now let's take as step back from the world of My Hero Academia. Think about the villains that really stand out to you. The truly immortal villainous characters who have stood the test of time. It’s usually not because they're the baddest or the strongest characters.
The most iconic villains become icons because they stand for something. They embody a twisted ideal, a grand thesis they want to prove to the world at any cost.
The reason why a character like the Joker has managed to persist through so many years and so many incarnations isn’t because of all the various petty crimes he’s done in Gotham. He stands as the ultimate foil against Batman, a figure who thrives in anarchy and chaos.
The reason why stories like the Killing Joke and The Dark Knight have managed to persist in the public consciousness is not because the Joker is unbeatable, but in both of these stories all of his crimes are designed to serve a greater purpose in exposing that sanity and morality are just a facade.
The Joker is getting his PhD in anarchy and chaos, and he’s using the citizens of Gotham as tools to compose his grand thesis. Every action he takes is to prove that purpose, whether it’s driving Commissioner Gordon mad by giving him the ultimate bad day or forcing the citizens of Gotham to kill each other in a twisted morality play.
The Joker believes we’re all selfish animals and with a few bullets and explosives he can bring down the grand farce of civilization.
That’s why people keep coming back to the character again and again and again. That’s why he’s stood the test of time for 75 years and will probably be around for 75 more. Tomura doesn’t have a grand thesis; he is a child lashing out at things he doesn’t like, but the one thing he has going for him is a mentor in the shadows.
Just like how All Might is crafting Deku into the symbol of peace for tomorrow, Tomura has a sensei looking to forge him into a villain worthy of carrying the rest of My Hero Academia forward.
Chapter 69 of My Hero is easily one of my favorite ones in the entire series. Here we see Tomura confront Deku directly in public. He holds him hostage with his disintegration quirk, all so he can have a little interview.
Tomura doesn’t quite understand why he didn’t get any attention while Stain the Hero killer seems to be getting a tremendous amount of public adulation. Kids want to be him, other villains look to emulate him and it infuriates Tomura because he sees them as both having done the exact same thing.
In Tomura’s eyes both he and Stain just like to destroy shit that pisses them off. So why has Stain become such an icon while Tomura’s is still relegated to obscurity for his acts of villainy? Deku cuts to the heart of the matter. While he doesn’t accept Stains methods he can empathize with him and understand him.
He can tell that he was fighting for an ideal, something greater then himself. An ideal which he doesn’t compromise or give up on when faced with adversity.
Then everything clicks for Tomura. He sees what he’s been doing wrong. That ultimately if he’s to become a villain worthy of carrying this series, his actions must be in service to prove something greater and that’s his arc for becoming the greatest villain. My Hero Academia is still in the infancy of its serialized run in Shonen Jump, having not even crossed the 150 chapter threshold.
But for me it’s exciting to see the series grow as it’s quickly gained steam to becoming a potential successor to the empty thrones left behind by Naruto and Bleach. Much like how Deku is fighting to inherit the legacy of All Might. If My Hero Academia is to inherit the legacy and become flagship series, the crux of whether or not it’ll ascend to those heights lies on the long term arc of Tomura Shigaraki.
Much like how we’ve seen Deku grown and develop we’re still seeing Tomura’s villainy remain in it’s infancy. Just as Deku has struggled to live up to an impossible ideal Tomura has failed just as badly in terms of living up the villain legacy set by All Might’s nemesis All for One.
But what I’m very hopeful for is that as the series progresses we’ll see Tomura become the villain we deserve and the one that My Hero Academia needs to go beyond—PLUS ULTRAAAA!
Table of contents
One of the best things about My Hero Academia as a narrative about superheroes and a superpowered society is the character of Tomura Shigaraki (Quirk: Decay), whose development in the series from small-time baddie to cataclysmic threat has occurred in parallel to Deku's slow mastery of One For All. The character's relevance to the My Hero Academia story, as well as the fated connection between himself and the Quirks All For One and One For All, and his ascension in the latter parts of the series have made him one of the series' best-developed characters.
Shigaraki's development gets particularly interesting after the retirement of the former Number 1 hero, All Might (Quirk: One For All) in the aftermath of his brutal battle against the main antagonist of the franchise, the wielder of All For One, and now having reawakened in the current War Arc, Shigaraki has become the biggest threat the heroes have faced since All For One. Adopted by All For One as a child, Shigaraki's origins were a mystery until the My Villain Academia arc which was a part of the anime's 5th season. Here's why Tomura Shigaraki is rapidly becoming an example of the ultimate villain in shonen anime.
Introduction
Tomura Shigaraki (Real Name: Tenko Shimura | Quirk: Decay) is the series' introduction to organized villainy in the My Hero Academia universe as he is first introduced leading a group of discontent individuals in a faction known as the League of Villains. They were revealed to be directly affiliated with the biggest villain in the world, the immense threat who permanently injured All Might in their last encounter – All For One. Shigaraki's relationship with All For One has always been shown to be that of master and student, and it quickly becomes apparent that the series' primary antagonist is looking for a way to develop a new generation villain to follow in his footsteps.
This is quite obviously the series' contrast for Deku's inheritance of All Might's abilities in the One For All Quirk, and the series narrative is slowly but surely revealed to be a contestation between the original wielders of either Quirk, with One For All being passed from generation to generation with the hopes of it one day evolving into the kind of multi-faceted Quirk capable of dealing with the sheer oppressive power of the sheer number of Quirks stolen with the All For One ability. This makes Shigaraki the dark mirror to Izuku Midoriya.
This major threat to the world is introduced as having been slowed down, but not subdued after his last battle against All Might, which left him gravely injured. Shigaraki is hence All For One's solution to the Deku problem, and his next means of trying to absorb One For All – once and for all. Shigaraki makes his series debut as the primary antagonist of the U.S.J Arc, in which he leads a faction of rogues in an invasion of U.A. High.
The invasion followed the news that All Might joined the school's faculty. The "U.S.J. Incident" as it came to be known was an assassination attempt on All Might orchestrated by Shigaraki and his League of Villains. This event is the series' introduction of one of the most indomitable threats to the heroes, the Nomu. While the attack fails, Shigaraki grows as the series progresses, and it is the final leap in his development that turns him into a major threat.
Shigaraki is already a huge danger to society prior to his awakening and the subsequent transplant of All For One and all associated Quirks into his body. His original Quirk, Decay, is capable of disintegrating anything he touches with all five fingers, whether the target is organic or not. This disintegration travels from the touch site, and will engulf the victim's entire body if they do not get rid of the decaying body part – meaning that depending on the situation, Decay is almost always fatal. One of the Quirk's weaknesses is that it travels through solid matter and cannot affect liquids and can thus be countered by any particle manipulation Quirk.
His initial awakening in Deika City saw his Decay Quirk evolve and become lethal even when Shigaraki hadn't touched the target. However, after having the All For One Quirk inserted into his body among others, Shigaraki's combat abilities shoot far beyond anything anyone has ever seen before. Not only are his Quirks a major threat, but he has become monstrously strong in other respects. He can jump further, climb higher and hit harder, all while being able to rapidly regenerate; see the location and weaknesses of his enemies, and cause instant death. Upon seeing an unconscious Shigaraki in his bio-canister prior to his awakening, the Number 5 Hero, Mirko, experiences a feeling akin to the instinct of a rabbit being hunted by a predator in the wild. Her instinct as an animal let Mirko know that the entity within is not one who should be allowed to awaken.
During the My Villain Academia arc, which happened during season 5, the true origins of Shigaraki Tomura were revealed. This showed how the unfortunate child, Tenko Shimura, caught up in family trauma caused by the heroics of his grandmother, Nene Shimura, the wielder of One For All who mentored Toshinori Yagi (Hero Name: All Might | Quirk: One For All). Shigaraki's father was explicitly anti-hero after his mother, Nene, left home to focus on fighting crime. The reasons behind Shimura's decision to abandon her family, while unfortunately unavailable to her family, are quite apparent as it is well understood that as a vestige or wielder of One For All, being a hero was secondary to preparing the self for the unavoidable battle against All For One. This locks anyone who possesses One For All in an inevitable battle akin to that of Bast and Apophis. Due to the trauma of being abandoned, Shigaraki's father became hateful towards the concept of heroes, and didn't consider heroes to be inherently just or virtuous because his mother abandoned her family to be a hero.
Despite this, Shigaraki wanted to become a hero as a child; however, a traumatic event involving a lie told by his sister and abuse from his father saw 5-year-old Shigaraki get locked outside with the dog. As a child, he suffered from intense itching and dryness which eventually became the Quirk known as Decay. It unfortunately first manifests while young Shigaraki is embracing his dog, and had slowly been progressing prior to its awakening on that fateful day. Young Shigaraki ends up murdering his family, destroying his home with his Quirk and living on the streets for a while before being picked up by the series antagonist and nurtured to become his successor, the new Symbol of Fear.
What makes Shigaraki particularly compelling as an antagonist goes beyond his actions within the narrative. His position in the My Hero Academia narrative as the dark foil to Izuku Midoriya, while also having an intricate connection to the main character, the main Quirk in the series and the original antagonist of the series makes the pay-off regarding Shigaraki's origin and awakening during the My Villain Academia arc truly enjoyable. Centrality to the narrative makes an antagonist even more compelling – this is evident in one of the Dragon Ball franchise's most iconic villains, Frieza. Due to his grandmother being a wielder of One For All, Shigaraki's home life was destroyed and he was subject to various kinds of abuse and discouragement.
Like the young heroes in the series, he also had a great admiration for professional heroes and aspired to be one, but a poor upbringing in an unhappy home led Shigaraki down the darkest path very early on in his life. He had no chance. His connection to Nene Shimura, the predecessor of his mentor's greatest enemy, All Might, creates a level of irony as the family of one of the most important heroes became the incubator of one of the world's most dangerous individuals. Shigaraki is an incredible shonen villain because he is feared in his respective universe, is deeply connected to the most significant characters in the narrative in a way that employs a kind of tragedy in Shigaraki's characterization to give credence to his hatred of the status quo and fealty to evil. This, in addition to chilling character design, brilliant depiction in the anime and an arc that is drawn-out but has great pay-off, make My Hero Academia's Tomura Shigaraki an ultimate and exemplary villain in shonen.
MORE: My Hero Academia: Quirk Awakenings, Explained