Though All For One may be considered the main overarching antagonist of My Hero Academia, the villain that fans get to learn the most about and see more often is Shigaraki. When Shigaraki first makes his appearance known in the U.S.J. arc near the beginning of the story, barely anything is known about the freakish-looking villain, but throughout the series, he’s become much stronger and has influenced countless important events in the story.
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By the end of My Hero Academia, Shigaraki becomes almost untouchable due to his overwhelming power and strength, being able to pull off a lot more than most characters in the series. Needless to say, Shigaraki is a pretty unique individual, especially when taking into account these specific traits and feats that are exclusive to him.
This list will contain spoilers up to the end of Season 7!
1
Use Decay To Instantly Erase People And Places
Shigaraki’s Quirk Makes It Easy For Him To Destroy Entire Landscapes In The Blink Of An Eye
There are plenty of destructive Quirks in My Hero Academia that can deal significant AOE damage, but none are quite as devastating as Decay. After Garaki improves Shigaraki’s body and abilities, the young villain becomes able to use Decay to destroy entire cities in the blink of an eye, as he demonstrates when he obliterates almost all of Jaku in mere seconds.
Shigaraki’s Quirk would become so dangerous that the Pro-Heroes were forced to keep U.A. floating in the air while fighting him in the final war, since a single touch of the ground would blow the whole place apart before anyone could react. Simply put, nobody can inflict chaos, destruction, and suffering quite as quickly as Shigaraki can, and it’s all thanks to Decay.
2
Leading A Group Of Outcast Villains
The League Of Villains Put Their Hope Into Their Leader, Shigaraki
When a person is looked down on by society, leading them down the path of becoming a villain, these sorts of individuals will rarely ever choose to follow a leader. Most of the time, they will act as rogue criminals who simply do as they please, but Shigaraki’s charisma and special abilities in combat allowed the other members of the League of Villains to view him as someone who can be seen as a figurehead of a bigger cause.
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Sure, Overhaul and Re-Destro may both also be leaders in their own right, but the people who follow them tend to be generally from respectable backgrounds, some of whom don’t even see themselves as villains at all. Shigaraki, however, was able to rally together a band of villains who only care about death and destruction, which is no easy task.
3
Utilize All For One’s Power
As AFO’s Latest Protégé, Shigaraki Is The Only One Who Can Share His Abilities
Though Shigaraki may be part of a larger team of villains, All For One pays particular attention to the leader of the League; his newest protege, whom he has been planning ever since Shigaraki was a child. All For One’s Quirk allows him to steal and use other people’s Quirk abilities as part of his evil deeds, and the only person he has ever shared this power with is Shigaraki.
Therefore, Shigaraki is the only character who has ever been able to share All For One’s power with the man himself, and with Decay also up his sleeve, the villain feels more or less unbeatable in the later arcs of the story. Of course, this also resulted in All For One trying to take over his apprentice’s body, which is a pretty nasty side effect.
4
Winning Over Re-Destro
Re-Destro Comes To See Shigaraki’s True Potential During Their Epic Clash
As someone who firmly believes that people should be able to use their Quirks without restrictions being put on them by the heroes, it wouldn’t be long before Re-Destro amassed an army of followers to his cause. Considering how much Re-Destro had read up on the topic of Meta Liberation, it makes sense that he would be at the top of the organization, but one man who was able to steal this spot away from him was Shigaraki.
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During their fiery encounter, Re-Destro comes to realize that Shigaraki is essentially the living embodiment of the Meta Liberation ideology, considering he’s more than happy using his Decay Quirk without anyone holding him back. Since Shigaraki has no end goal or drive, and simply wants to demolish everything in sight, he was the one who managed to win over Re-Destro in the end, eventually becoming the leader of the entire MLA in the process.
5
Kill Star And Stripe
Shigaraki Just So Happened To Have The Right Abilities At The Right Time To Take Down America’s Top Hero
Star and Stripe is undoubtedly one of the strongest characters in the entire series, yet Shigaraki, after a tough fight, was able to kill her. However, he was only able to do this because of some very specific means. For example, Decay allows Shigaraki to literally erase Star from existence without needing to physically damage her; since she’s a powerhouse, pinning her down would have been far from easy.
However, because Shigaraki was also fused with All For One at this point, he was also able to counteract some of her attacks, such as when she gave the command for Shigaraki’s heart to stop beating, only for him to confirm that AFO is now in control, negating the attack. If AFO himself had taken on Star and Stripe, though there’s a possibility he would have killed her, New Order is just so overpowered that it definitely isn’t a guarantee she would fall in battle, but Shigaraki was able to get the job done.
6
Transform Into A Grossly Durable Mutated Form
With So Many Quirks Packed Inside His Body, Shigaraki Can Mutate Into A Freaky Behemoth
While there are several Quirks in My Hero Academia that can allow their users to transform and mutate, Shigaraki’s final form is a little different. During the climactic war between the heroes and villains, Shigaraki’s body starts growing out of control, creating a giant, bulky form full of fingers and hands far bigger than anything seen in the series, which he can use for both offense and defense.
While the exact reasoning for why this mutation occurs can seem a little vague, the villain himself explains that it’s a result of his body trying to find a suitable form now that it was far stronger after the experiments conducted by Garaki, and possessed an arsenal of new Quirks. In other words, it’s Garaki’s Quirk Singularity Theory in the flesh, and because All For One himself never mutates in this way, it seems only Shigaraki has ever been able to show it off in the series.
My Hero Academia
- Release Date
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April 2, 2016
- Network
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TBS, MBS, Nippon TV
- Directors
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Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano
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Daiki Yamashita
Izuku Midoriya (voice)
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Kaito Ishikawa
Manga Fukidashi (voice)