Writing great villains is difficult. They are one of the most important elements in a story, particularly a shonen manga since they are the protagonist’s main obstacle and usually their opposite force. Therefore, they need to be executed excellently so the reader or the viewer can get a lot more tension and excitement from the story.
In that regard, My Hero Academia has had a lot of villains and many of them deserve their own analysis, but the focus of this article is going to focus on the two main ones, Tomura Shigaraki and All For One. Both characters had some really good moments in the story but recent events in the manga (411 chapters released thus far, so there is potential to change my stance later) have shown a lot of valid criticism towards these characters.
Shigaraki and All For One were heralded at different times as some of the best new shonen villains but have failed to deliver on their promise. What happened to change that? Well, there are several reasons that explain their respective decline.
Initially Student and Mentor… And Then It Changed
All For One was first introduced as not only a grandmaster of evil but also as Tomura Shigaraki’s mentor, which served as a very interesting parallel to Deku and All Might. Furthermore, All For One stood out when compared to most shonen villains in the sense that he seemed to be a genuine mentor figure to Tomura and wanted him to inherit his will, with the evil overlord even having inner thoughts about it when trapped in Kamino.
Well, as the series progressed and Shigaraki became his own man and the main antagonist of the series, author Kohei Horikoshi decided to have All For One try to usurp the former’s body. While the idea of All For One clinging to his prime and trying to keep the throne as the ultimate evil does make sense, the character wasn’t built to be that way since, as mentioned earlier, he had inner thoughts about giving Shigaraki the keys to the kingdom.
Why all the trouble in teaching Shigaraki how to be a leader if he was going to take his body anyway? Why force him through Dr. Garaki to win over Gigantomachia? Why prepare his body when he was at his strongest, both physically and mentally, instead of when he was vulnerable and easier to manipulate?
It was an unnecessary twist that never fully made sense and made both characters worse: it reduced All For One to a more cliche villain and made Shigaraki lose agency for a good chunk of chapters in the manga.
Villains who are willing to give away their reign to someone else are an extreme rarity in shonen manga and Horikoshi had a really good idea there. Unfortunately, it was thrown away.
Shigaraki’s Lack Of Victories
Villains, much like heroes, need feats. Protagonists and antagonists with grayer moral codes are the same. People are far likelier to connect with a character if he or she manages to progress and achieve her or his goals, even if they are not that great. Progress is the name of the game here.
Tomura Shigaraki went from a struggling antagonist to an evil overlord and that was a very good idea from Horikoshi since it works as a nice contrast to Deku’s own rise. The huge problem with this is that Shigaraki has taken more victories from other villains, such as Overhaul and ReDestro, than against other heroes.
This is very important to point out (and it may change since the manga has not ended) because it makes Shigaraki look ineffective. It would be one thing if he had a very specific goal rather than just killing heroes but his whole motivation is destruction… and yet hasn’t done anything. Some of the biggest casualties on the heroes’ side in this series were either because of other people (Overhaul killing Sir Nighteye and several jobbers killing Midnight) or because of All For One (ending All Might’s hero career in Kamino).
In the final War arc, Shigaraki has taunted time and time again that he is going to destroy everything and kill a lot of people but has not taken a single life. Villains can’t be measured just by how many lives they take (Aizen is one of the greatest villains in shonen and didn’t kill people in Bleach) but Shigaraki is supposed to be an avatar for destruction and has not lived up to the task.
This last part is connected to a point that is going to be mentioned later.
The Mechanics Of The All For One Quirk
I’m going to be straightforward here: the All For One Quirk’s mechanics hurt the story. The huge problem with this Quirk is the lack of specifics and that has hurt both Shigaraki and AFO throughout the majority of the story.
The issue is that this Quirk allows both characters to store other people’s powers and it has been confirmed that All For One has been stealing Quirks for decades now. Therefore, Horikoshi at any point could give these characters any possible ability to withstand any potential threat and he could go “Well, I had this Quirk”.
It. Doesn’t. Work.
Furthermore, Horikoshi has also done the opposite, with both characters being extremely ineffective in battle in this final arc. The more All For One fought, the less variety he had in his uses of Quirks, which is something that plays a huge role in his demise. Despite being a criminal mastermind (in theory), he never used the hundreds of Quirks he must have.
Something similar happens to Shigaraki, mostly relying on his original Decay Quirk instead of the arsenal of abilities at his disposal. In theory, he should have enough powers and techniques to destroy Deku and other heroes quickly but that never happens.
Why? Because the series would be over. Horikoshi gave these two characters an unlimited supply of plot armor and decided to dumb them down because the good guys wouldn’t have any chance of winning if these two actually used their brains.
All For One and The Bakugo Fiasco
To Horikoshi’s credit. he had set up several of the main conflicts in the final arc throughout the series. Dabi vs. the Todoroki family, Toga vs. Uraraka, All Might vs. All For One, and Deku vs. Shigaraki. Regardless of opinions on him as a writer, he had done his homework in setting up this conflict for the final showdown.
Then the Bakugo fiasco happened.
The issue is not just Bakugo defeating All For One but how several events hurt the latter from a narrative perspective. Horikoshi initially had Shigaraki “killing” Katsuki Bakugo, only for the latter to be revived by a drop of sweat falling in his heart (!!!) and getting a massive power-up to compete with the series’ strongest villain.
That was already bad enough but the big issue is that there wasn’t any narrative connection between All For One and Bakugo. The closest thing was the Kamino incident but that isn’t enough of a connection and it shows through their dialogue. Horikoshi himself even points out this by trying to retcon All For One’s past and claim that the second One For All user was the man he hated the most (despite spending the whole series saying it was All Might) and then claiming that Bakugo looks just like him.
No offense to Kohei Horikoshi, who I’m sure is working hard in this series, but that is lazy writing. It was an unnecessary conflict and All Might’s last stand would have been a much more fitting end to the Symbol of Hope and the Symbol of Fear.
Instead, a generational evil overlord, who had been set up with having a final confrontation with the One For All users, was defeated by a teenager with anger issues. Gotta love shonen manga.
Shigaraki Is (Most Likely) Going To Turn Good
Consider this more an extra point than actual criticism since it hasn’t happened yet but I feel that it adds to some overarching issues with Shigaraki’s character. And the big issue is that Horikoshi is afraid of ruining Tomura’s redemption arc.
The more the mangaka showed that panel of a kid Deku approaching a crying Tenko (Shigaraki when he was a child), most people in the fandom knew what the author’s intentions were. It is very likely that Tomura is going to be redeemed or at least be forgiven in the final moments of the series, giving him a happy ending that he probably didn’t deserve.
Shigaraki’s situation is very similar to Dabi, also known as Touya Todoroki: both characters had a rough childhood and had unfortunate things happen to them because of their Quirks. However, a bad childhood doesn’t justify all the things they have done. Shigaraki has not killed any major characters but has still committed a lot of crimes and has done it with glee and zero remorse, making his redemption already hard enough for the reader or viewer to take.
Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that redemption arcs and trying to give the villain a chance is fine but it depends on the actions he or she committed. When Deku showed empathy and care to Gentle Criminal and La Brava, it made sense because they didn’t do anything awful. However, guys like Shigaraki can’t be redeemed.
That is a big reason why Shigaraki doesn’t do much damage in the series since it would make things a lot more difficult for Horikoshi to redeem him. And its a shame because it makes all the work of setting him up as this new Symbol of Fear all the more useless.