Not all characters are created equal; while Kohei Horikoshi has created some
of the most interesting characters in superhero fiction, there are definitely some bad apples
in the barrel. Here are the five best and five worst characters in My Hero Academia.
At first glance, All Might seems like a pretty obvious Superman pastiche.
From his Superman-esque powers and helpful personality to the color scheme of his costume,
it's immediately clear that All Might is meant to stand in for the arguably greatest superhero
of all time. All Might even has his version of the Clark Kent identity: All Might's true form
is a spindly, half-starved-looking man named Toshinori Yagi . However,
Horikoshi takes All Might further than just being a standard homage. Due to a
battle with a supervillain years before My Hero Academia begins, Toshinori is limited
in the time he can transform into All Might, giving him a clear and obvious weakness that's
far more easily understood than Kryptonite. All Might's concerns and weaknesses are deeply human.
He's the world's most popular superhero and he knows it. Striving to live up to his own
reputation is a struggle, but it's important and rewarding enough to make up for that.
All Might's also just cool, hands down. He's beloved by the world of My Hero Academia
for a reason. He's strong, he's fast, he faces down supervillains with a big smile
and a booming voice. Rather than seeming godlike and impossible to relate to, All
Might's battles in the anime are some of the most exciting and nerve-wracking in the whole show.
Minoru Mineta has one of the worst quirks in My Hero Academia, but that's not the character's
fault. Horikoshi does a great job showing that even the most seemingly useless and absurd quirks
have their own value. No, what puts Mineta on the Worst list is that he's a horrible little pervert.
Having an openly perverted character is a bit of a trope in anime, but just because it's common
doesn't mean it's fun to watch. Mineta's obsession with his female classmates and adult superheroines
is gross past the point of comedy. As much as the anime tries to showcase a deeper side
of the grape-haired hero by acknowledging his intelligence and tactical mind, his personality is
simply too rotten. Whatever deeper thoughts or emotions dwell within Mineta are irrelevant when
he acts in such a lewd, awful way. It's no wonder that he's done so poorly in the popularity polls.
"Before you become a hero, you should learn how to be a good human."
When Katsuki Bakugo was first introduced, he seemed like a pretty standard antagonist to Izuku
Midoriya's protagonist. He certainly started out as an aggressive bully and later rival to Izuku,
but as the series has continued, it's become clear that there's more to Bakugo
than meets the eye. For starters, there's his hero worship of All Might; like Izuku,
he wants to live up to All Might's example as a great hero, but they differ in important ways.
Izuku admires All Might for his ability to help, while Bakugo admires All Might for his ability
to win. Once it's made clear how important constant success and victory is to Bakugo,
all of his cruel actions make sense. He was a bully to Midoriya because he
felt condescended to in a way that All Might never would be.
Crucially, My Hero Academia has shown Bakugo's steady evolution into a considerate
hero-in-training while never shying away from his past behavior as a cruel bully. It's an
incredibly thoughtful approach to a trope that's been handled with far less care in other anime,
building a genuine rivalry and friendship between two characters who both idolize the same hero.
Through his friendships with Kirishima and Todoroki, Bakugo's revealed a much
more interesting character lurking underneath his loud, explosive facade.
All for One, the arch-nemesis of All Might and seeming "Big Bad" of the series, hasn't
revealed any particularly noteworthy attributes. His Quirk, which allows him to steal and combine
other people's Quirks, is a fairly standard power set for a final anime villain,
and his character design isn't nearly as innovative or engaging as other characters.
There's some intrigue to the idea that he accidentally started the One for All Quirk
succession, but how he feels about creating his eternal nemeses or whether he mourns his brother
haven't really been explored. He might have had a nice-looking fight against All Might in season 3,
but there haven't been enough twists to his character to make him more interesting. In
a show that's consistently surprised viewers, All for One is about as standard as you can get.
While the series is largely about superheroes, there's plenty of screentime for the villains too.
One villain in particular, Twice, has become one of the most interesting characters in the show.
Twice has the power to make a copy of anything if he knows its exact measurements.
Despite the handy Quirk, Twice is also completely insane,
having cloned himself so many times that he's unsure whether he's the original or
just a clone. Twice's mental instability makes him a ticking time bomb for the heroes; if he ever
conquers his fear and really takes advantage of his power, he'd be nearly unstoppable.
Twice also shows the less pleasant side of a world filled with Quirks — not every superpower is going
to be beneficial. Finally, Twice offers a different vibe than most of the League of
Villains, who are usually somber and moody, or over-the-top excited. Twice, minus his Quirk and
mental issues, is a relatively normal, friendly guy. He's just a normal guy who was so horrified
at the existential dread of possibly being a copy of himself that he basically became Deadpool.
"I may be a villain but I'm human too. We all are, man."
Don't be concerned if you don't even remember Mustard, one of the villains who invaded the
training camp in order to kidnap Bakugo. While the other League of Villains members
get moments to showcase their unique skills and personalities, Mustard is pretty handily
defeated by the also-rans of class 1-B. His Quirk allows him to emit sleeping gas over a large area,
but Mustard himself isn't immune to it. That means that he has to wear a gas mask in order
to keep from getting knocked out by his own power. That's a pretty silly weakness to begin with, but
it gets worse. He's so completely punked by the 1-B students that he hasn't been mentioned or
shown onscreen since his defeat. He was only a stepping stone for side characters to show
that they mattered to the story, too. We can't all be winners, but Mustard seems like a born loser.
At first glance, Stain seems like an over-the-top parody of the gritty anti-heroes that filled the
pages of '90s superhero comics. On a second and third glance, that seems to be consistent,
especially when he's enacting brutal vengeance on heroes that he deems unworthy of their status.
However, Stain's existence in the world of My Hero Academia allows for a wider perspective of
the ethicality of superheroism; up to this point in the story, villains were simply criminals who
wanted to do evil. Stain's very specific ethos allows for the consideration that "villainy" in
Academia has more to do with frustrations against the status quo than entirely devious motivations.
Interestingly, his role in the story also works well with his visual parody
of '90s ninjas — he provides a bloodthirsty alternative to both heroism and villainy,
which leads at least two impressionable teens to follow his example simply because
he's cool. That's a hilarious way to reference the violent examples of '90s
superhero comics without actually devolving into full-blown comedy.
Spinner joined the League of Villains after being inspired by Stain, and he considers himself
the embodiment of Stain's legacy. Hilariously, Spinner's Quirk makes him a human lizard, while
his costume is clearly styled after Stain. In a way, Spinner is a visual callback to the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, who were themselves a parody of ninja mutant comics like Daredevil and X-Men.
Having Stain, who's basically a mix of Punisher and Daredevil, inspire Spinner, who's basically a
mix of Stain and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is some pretty funny visual humor. However,
that's all he really is to the story. Even in the villain showcase arc in the manga, Spinner doesn't
get any of the same standout character beats or intriguing power upgrades that his cohorts in the
League of Villains do. He's just not interesting enough to land any higher in the rankings.
Eraserhead has a bit of an edge over most of the other characters in My Hero Academia when
it comes to ranking the best and worst. For starters, he's class 1-A's homeroom teacher,
which means he spends the most amount of time with the most important characters,
giving him plenty of screentime. For another, his Quirk, which allows him to shut off other
Quirk users' powers when he's looking at them, is useful without feeling like a cheat. Finally,
he's got one of the coolest visuals in the series, with his goggles and all-black outfit.
However, there's more to Eraserhead than meets the eye, so to speak. He's aware
of how relatively weak his Quirk is compared to someone like All Might, so he's compensated for
it by training his intellect and body. He's basically the Batman of My Hero Academia,
if instead of constantly brooding and figuring out how to kill Superman,
Batman used that time to train dozens of Robins. Worst: Ojiro's tale is boring
There are a lot of characters in My Hero Academia, but even the more minor characters
have still gotten to shine more than Ojiro Mashirao. Ojiro's a martial arts practitioner
with a Quirk that gives him a prehensile tail. It's not the most exciting Quirk,
but in fairness, Ojiro isn't the most exciting character. His relative plainness has been
played for laughs and has largely been the only character detail that he's gotten.
There's plenty of possibility in a character that just works harder than his more talented
peers, but we haven't really seen that in the anime or the manga.
Even in a world where anyone can be a hero, it seems like some people are still just average.
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