How My Hero Academia Defines Heroes and Villains

Boku no Hero Academia isn’t a story about superheroes, at least not JUST superheroes. Its world is built around a society that was changed by the superpowers known as Quirks, giving rise to the villains who used their newfound powers for their own gain and the individuals who fought against them who eventually became known as heroes. Clad in bright-colored costumes seeking justice, they fought with all their might to bring light to the dark in a seemingly unwinnable battle against the forces of the All For One. This, of course, was changed by the presence of a single light that destroyed the dark once and for all.

The world was changed by the Symbol of Peace; the hero known as All Might.

All Might stands as the thematic center for a majority of MHA’s story because he is the embodiment of what many consider to be a real hero. He’s what everyone aspires to be, what every hero is chasing after and what every villain loathes and fears. It was his light that created a period of peace and prosperity for society because every villain was crushed by his hand. He was the pillar that held up the society of heroes, a single, powerful and seemingly indestructible rock that this world was built upon. But it was only a matter of time before that pillar fell and the dark to come crawling back.

Because All Might is gone and the Symbol of Peace destroyed.

The hole left by All Might’s absence highlights this idea that a superhero isn’t quite the same as a hero because had that been the case, anyone could fill his role. Endeavor, while not being as powerful, was still the number 2; the second strongest hero under All Might himself. But that strength wasn’t enough to quell the darkness and the panic of the citizens. Fear still existed even with Endeavor there. What was it exactly that made the Symbol of Peace so different?

What exactly IS a hero?

Boku no Hero Academia, since the fall of All Might in his fight against All For One, has taken every arc to address this question again and again, each with their own sides to the story. The society that placed heroes on a pedestal had become weak without the pillar that was holding them up, revealing what they really were. Weak, obsessed with image, success, jealous and petty. Being a hero for many was just a job, no matter how much it started as a naive dream. A hero for many wasn’t someone who fought for justice and against the weak, it was a career. Even All Might, the embodiment for many of what a hero was, still fell into the merchandising and all of the publicity. This was highlighted by the words of the Hero Killer Stain. All he saw in this world were hypocrites riding on the coattails of the only one who deserved the title of hero. The only one who deserved the right to be called by that title was All Might in Stain’s eyes and all others were simply pale imitations or leeches that are only tainting that title. This world was filled with nothing but fakes in masks, and he made it his mission to fix that through any means that he could. Even though he was a murderer and branded a villain by the society of heroes, he was right in that simple idea: that the heroes were far from what they were meant to be. And ironically, many looked to him as an inspiration.

The Hero Killer became their hero.

This is where you start to notice that there is far more to being a hero than saving lives and beating bad guys. Even before Deku got his powers, All Might told him that he could be a police officer, because even though he wasn’t getting the glory, he was still fighting crime. He would be doing just as much for society as a hero would, just without the shiny costume. Stain wasn’t robbing banks or killing civilians, he was only going after those he deemed as corrupt heroes that weren’t doing their jobs. Was he right? Partially in words, there was merit, but his actions ultimately still caused people suffering and his judgement too broad and unforgiving. His attack of the hero Ingenium forever broke Iida’s older brother who he idolized…his hero. Endeavor is a hero above many of the others yet in the eyes of someone like Yoarashi, he was nothing but a failure of a hero who didn’t care about anyone, and that’s not even mentioning the hell that he placed his own family through in his attempts to beat All Might at all costs. With the Symbol of Peace as the perfect example of what a hero should be now gone, it highlights one important fact:

The only thing separating a hero and a villain is the suffering that they cause. And nowhere is this more apparent than in Shigaraki Tomura.

Or as he was originally known as: Shimura Tenko.

Tenko wasn’t unlike Deku in that they both admired heroes and was just as kind, yet while Deku had a loving mother who supported his upbringing, Tenko was the victim of abuse. His father despised heroes and refused to let his son have anything to do with them. But this all led to a breaking point. Tenko, who had yet to exhibit a Quirk yet still suffered from the effects of it slowly emerging, accidentally killed his dog when filled with pain and sadness at the hands of his father. And in a fit of rage when his sister sold him out for the picture of his grandmother, Shimura Nana, he destroyed that which caused him great pain…his father who was a villain in his eyes. But that entire time, no one came to save him. No one saved Tenko from his suffering, not his sister, not his relatives and most importantly not those heroes who were supposed to defend the weak. The only one who saved Tenko was the greatest villain of them all: the man who became Shigaraki Tomura’s hero.

Shigaraki is nothing more than a product of the hypocrisy of this world that idolizes the idea of a hero yet rarely puts it into practice. From every single conceivable angle, this should not have happened. But Tenko’s father was simply filled with rage at the heroes who care so much about saving others yet will abandon their families to achieve their goals, unaware of what Shimura Nana did in order to fight against All For One. Had just one hero came to help Tenko, had one person reached out their hand, he would have been saved, but it was only All For One who told Tenko that he had worth, that Shigaraki Tomura was important and could do incredible things. In the eyes of Shiraki Tomura, he was the hero doing what was right and made it his goal to destroy this society upheld by the very symbol of those hypocrites who call themselves heroes.

These heroes who prided themselves on their status and power were only able to save those who were within their grasp and anyone who they couldn’t reach or unfortunately couldn’t even see were seen as unfortunate casualties; things they couldn’t do anything about. The people around them were too preoccupied with their own problems and the idea that everything was someone else’s problem was proof that something was wrong with this system because any one person could suffer and become a victim of neglect just like Shigaraki. This is evidenced nowhere better than in Eri. She had no one to cling to. Her mother was gone, her adoptive father treated her like a science experiment and constantly told her that everyone’s suffering was her fault. Even if no one reached out to her, she already wasn’t able to reach out to anyone else. It’s a cycle of villainy and pain caused by neglectful heroes and a society of people conditioned to believe that these things were someone else’s problem, and if it weren’t for that…maybe there wouldn’t need to be villains.

At any given point, there were so many villains who were rejected by this society that branded them as evil. Toga Himiko had a Quirk that required her to ingest the blood of others and that was seen as wrong, and she had no way of releasing those urges until the League of Villains gave her a place that accepted her. Bubaigawara Jin was a person driven to loneliness and depression by people who took advantage of him and beat him down, and he was forced to use his Quirk to survive and hold himself together until that same League of Villains gave him people that he was able to love and fight alongside with all of his might. The Gentle Criminal was just someone who failed to achieve his dream of becoming a hero, choosing instead to be a villain because he saw it as his only way to leave his mark on the world…to prove that he was alive and mattered. With him was La Brava, who never had worth in herself until she became inspired by the Gentle Criminal that she loved with all of her heart. These people are far from those who were born to be villains. Touga is, in her heart, a kind and compassionate person as seen with her relationship with Twice, who simply suffered from betrayal after betrayal that warped his psyche. Gentle and La Brava only found worth in each other because they turned to a life of villainy. By no means are they bad people, they just turned to the only side that would accept them. In the eyes of Touga and Twice, Stain was their hero. They were each other’s hero because the relationships they had saved them. Twice in particular, who had no one he could trust, found relationships that he was able to open up to, but his scars were rooted so deep that even the slightest betrayal could send him reeling into despair. Gentle was La Brava’s hero and vice versa. They gave worth to the other that had no worth in themselves from a world that didn’t accept them. They fight as they are for the sake of the ones who saved them, and if this society of heroes rejected them, then they would fight against it.

The actions of a hero are more than just fighting the bad guys. It’s more than just pulling people out of a burning building. It was far, far more than that. A hero is someone who truly saves someone. Even though Tenko was raised by the greatest villain, he was still saved by him, something no hero had ever done for him. And that’s possibly this society’s greatest failing, because rather than these heroes wanting to save anyone they can, the society that placed their burdens onto All Might had ironically lost the ability to do what he was capable of, and the collapse of the Symbol exposed just how fake they were.

There needed to be a change.

A new hero that stood in that place to ignite the flame that would fight against the dark.

Endeavor is far from a perfect man, let alone a perfect hero. Despite trying his whole life to surpass All Might, he eventually just gave up, realizing there was nothing he could do. He instead chose to force his will onto Todoroki and ended up destroying his family, his wife’s psyche and his son’s trust in him. But with the Symbol of Peace gone and the title of Number One thrust onto his shoulders, just relying on the future to do his job for him would never cut it. The people didn’t trust him like they did All Might. They feared him, thought of him as imposing and most definitely didn’t feel at ease when he was there. Not only that, in the eyes of people like Yoarashi and especially Todoroki, he was someone to be despised and surpassed in spite of. There was no Symbol and the one he admired and wanted to surpass was gone and his shoes too big to fit, still trapped in this idea that he could never surpass. But by All Might’s own words, he did not have to copy the same Symbol he was aiming for and should look for a way that suits him without rushing.

The one he saw as unbeatable was ultimately a failure. All Might rejected all help around him, refused to let anyone fight by his side and pushed away his sidekick when all he wanted to do was to help him. By taking on the burden of society, he made it weak and ultimately failed it as a result. By not accepting help, All Might left the world defenseless when he was gone. By not relying on others, he unintentionally drove them to believe that they didn’t need to try as hard, or even worse that they simply would never be able to measure up to him. Endeavor was weaker than All Might, but had the potential to do something different than the Symbol of Peace was capable of. If he was to help change this world and give hope to everyone, he should instead stop placing the burden on the future generations and instead give them an example to follow after and fight alongside. He needed to stop running away from his past, his problems, his failings and his weakness and fight it all with a burning passion, but more importantly with others by his side.

It’s arguable that the fall of All Might, while rocking the world of MHA to its core, was ultimately what the world needed to move forward. The days of the Symbol of Peace were free of most crime, but in exchange created even greater suffering. It was only reliant on one man, leaving others to stagnate and for others who didn’t fit its mold to be cast aside. And if the past failed and the present in disarray, then it’s the future that needs to be the first to move forward.

And in Deku we see just exactly what a hero was meant to be.

The question of “why was Deku given One For All” is something brought into question not by just fans and detractors of the series but also by members of the cast themselves. Deku is introverted, plain, nervous, weak and uncharismatic. He’s far from Toshinori Yagi who was a shining light from the very beginning. He’s outshone by everyone around him and wasn’t even really meant to receive One For All at first. But he has one thing that separates him from anyone else, what makes him fit to be a hero beyond any shadow of a doubt.

In the face of danger, fear and the possibility of death, when a person is in need, those all go away as he is commanded by his heart to run.

That madness that drove All Might to save everyone that he could was within Deku, possibly even moreso than the shadow of the once bright Symbol that he meets at the beginning of MHA’s story. Unlike anyone, even Togata Mirio who was originally chosen to succeed All Might, who thought of only being able to save who they could, Deku wanted to save everyone. If his arms were broken, he would run anyway. If fighting in the sports festival and losing also saved a boy who was sunk into darkness and overwhelmed by the burden of his father’s wishes, then he would pull him out. Even if he was stabbed, beaten and bruised, if his hands could grasp someone who needed help, then he would fight as much as he could. But Deku, being as weak as he was, realized that he wasn’t going to get anywhere. All Might, as strong as he was, still failed because he was alone, so Deku instead did something the Symbol of Peace could never do.

He fought alongside others.

Deku fought against Stain, not by himself but together with Todoroki and Iida, relying on them and pushing Iida to do what needed to be done. His failure to save Bakugo because of his insistence to save Kota that caused him to destroy his arms that could have reached out taught him to not just save people but also do what needed to be done. And through that friendship and rivalry with Bakugo, Deku learned to not just save everyone but do what needed to be done to achieve victory. By not just relying on himself and instead working with others, Deku does more than just fight to save who he can: he did what All Might could never do.

In this, we see what a hero is. It’s more than just a person who fights crime and beats the bad guys, because beating those bad guys means rejecting who they are. Deku never simply rejected the people he fought and always sought to do as much as he could. When facing off against Shinso, he realized that he was driven to believe that all he was was someone meant to be a villain and could never be more than that no matter how hard he tried, yet Deku showed him that he could be a hero if he wanted. When fighting Stain, he was instead fighting to save Iida from the darkness that he potentially was facing when he was driven by his thirst for revenge. When fighting Todoroki, Deku only ever saw someone that was crying for help and was rejecting who he was, so Deku pushed him to his limits and forced him to accept all sides of him. When fighting against the Gentle Criminal, Deku didn’t make fun of him or look down on him but instead fought against him with all of his power and accepted Gentle for his talent and skill when no one else would. When facing off against Overhaul, Deku had one goal and one goal only: to save this girl who was trapped in the darkness of fear, self-hate and misery. A hero isn’t someone who punches and drives out darkness: they’re someone who pulls people out and shows them the light.

That is the core of My Hero Academia and what this story means.

In interviews from Horikoshi Kouhei, he laments that when initially making My Hero Academia, he had a clear idea of what a hero was, but as the story evolved he came to realize something important. 

“I have been thinking about how there’s way more viewpoints that correlate with what is a hero. For example, some people might think a hero is someone who “even if they’re a lone wolf, they would still do their best, and that’s what you can call a hero.” There are also others who might think that heroes would be like a pro baseball player, someone who hopes to let everyone enjoy their work. There’s no single word that can pinpoint “Ah, this is a hero” in my opinion.”

For Horikoshi himself, the Overhaul arc in particular was really hard for him to write because of how dark it was, yet in his own words:

“In the story, if I’m writing about a feel good development, then that’s where I recover my own feelings. For example, in the “Internship Arc,” the character Fat Gum really saved me.”

In this story of heroes, we see that the underlying throughline beneath all of these is someone who gives people hope and does more than just inspire, more than just save: it’s someone that pushes another to become more than what they are and gives them hope when they need it. For Fat Gum who was losing his will in the fight against Rappa, it was Kirishima who finally embraced what needed to be done that gave Fat Gum the drive he needed to deliver the finishing blow. Kirishima himself was saved not just by Crimson Riot who said that every person has fear that they need to face, but also Ashido Mina, who was able to fight in the face of that fear when he couldn’t. For Tamaki, who thought of himself incapable of being a hero, it was his best friend Mirio who told him that he was amazing and that he had the power to eat even the sun, pushing him to make use of his potential. Even someone like Jiro who thought that just playing music was frivolous and not at all a heroic skill was told by others that her amazing gift was capable of giving light to people when needed. And even for All Might, who saw that he didn’t have time left, was inspired by that boy with no powers that was able to run when he couldn’t. People who have doubts and darkness inside inspired by others who they run alongside who are capable of driving that darkness out within them. 

And if this idea of a hero is explored anywhere best, it’s in that little girl who, even after being pulled out of Overhaul’s clutches, still was consumed by the dark.

Eri still couldn’t smile because of one simple fact: just pulling someone out of a dark situation isn’t the same as saving them. She still took the blame of all of the suffering that was caused onto herself. But Mirio and Deku didn’t save her out of some job, they had it in their hearts to save that girl who was so obviously suffering alone. Everyone involved in the operation was fighting to do what a hero was meant to do. And because Deku didn’t just fight alone and instead did so alongside others, he was able to grasp that Eri and together fight against the destiny that Nighteye saw, the destiny that Nighteye always feared because he took the burden of that pain, that dread of knowing that someone will die and there might be nothing he could do about it. That same fear that destroyed his relationship with All Might, that same fear that he saw when he looked at Midoriya Izuku, but Deku didn’t fight alone. Even when saving Eri, he didn’t do it like Mirio who stood in front of her but instead side by side with her, defeating Overhaul in the process. And when Deku finally brought her to the School Festival and performed a song for her with all of his classmates that put their all into making something that could give people hope and done so with their combined efforts, Eri was finally free.

My Hero Academia is a story of heroes. Not costumed characters who parade around driving fear into the hearts of bad guys but those who give hope to those who need it. Simply spreading fear is what a villain does, and in the eyes of people like Shigaraki, whose lives were ruined because a hero never saved them, or Overhaul, who saw the suffering that his father was facing because of how that society that crushed them forced them into hiding, that fear was something they needed to combat. But for this world to be saved, they needed to do more. Endeavor, who was forced to stop living in stagnation and keep driving forward even if hope was lost because there needed to be a light. That’s why the current heroes began to form groups. They realized they couldn’t fight alone, and instead chose to combat the darkness together, doing what they Symbol couldn’t. And for the next generation, they have it in them not just the potential to become greater, but also the bonds to do what their predecessors could not. They could truly save people as a hero should, learning lessons that those that came before could not and fighting with all of their hearts to reach out to those in need.

Because a hero’s job doesn’t stop at the rescue. It’s never done until the one they save is able to smile.