My Hero Academia has got a widespread reception. This may be due to several factors, with good character development being at the top of the list. However, one thing that was criticized by some fans, including me, was the lack of depth in the main antagonist.
Tomura Shigaraki – the main antagonist, the leader of the League of Villains and a successor to All for One – has no concrete ideology or motive for his actions. He’s a villain who’s driven by his deep hatred for All Might.
He had no clear conviction and relied on his master, All for One. His one and only objective was to destroy the society of heroes, specifically All Might. He was perceived as a villain for the sake of it.
However, as the story progressed something unexpected occurred as Tomura Shigaraki Evolved. Learning from his mistakes, he developed as an independent villain and embodied a solid and unwavering conviction.
Several events triggered these changes and lead to his development. The first was his encounter with the main protagonist Izuku Midoriya, during the attack which he instigated on U.A. High School. Although it ended up being a total failure since he couldn’t manage to kill his arch-nemesis All Might.
This event was followed by Tomura’s encounter with Stain a.k.a Hero Killer. Tomura tried to recruit Stain and failed. Later he attacked the city with Nomu and created chaos everywhere.
Despite his efforts, both the media and the public made their focus on Stain because of his sense of principle and strong ideology. This was a remarkable moment because it challenged and forced Tomura to examine his stance.
Then the most profound moment in the anime history happened. The main protagonist Izuku Midoriya made a significant impact on the main antagonist when the two met, and Tomura learned about Izuku’s reason for being a hero.
The final event was his fight to the death against Re-Destro and his Meta Liberation Army where he was forced to face his horrible past and abandonment issues, giving rise to the awakening of the true form of his Decay quirk.
Finally, upon defeating Re-Destro and his Meta Liberation Army, in the process of awakening his quirk, Tomura became the grand commander of the Paranormal Liberation Battlefront.
Tomura Shigaraki has come a long way from wanting to kill All Might because of his hatred, to devising a grand plan to tear down the society that relies too much on these heroes.
In Chapter 246 we see him being unsatisfied with his level of quirk and wanting to undergo treatment by enduring hellish pain for four months, so that his grand scheme of destroying a society that clings to heroes will be a reality.
Tomura Shigaraki now has a strong & unique ideology, a fearsome quirk that will get even more fearsome and an organized league of villains to command making him indisputably the Ultimate Villain.
Due credits for writing this story: Alazare Shiferaw
Image credits: Viz.com/ fandom.com
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Dr. Aparajita Sharma
1227 Posts
Currently, I am pursuing Ph.D (Psychology), and have been teaching the same for past four years. Coming to PiunikaWeb, I know it was a complete switch over, but the idea was appealing enough to put in all the effort it called for. My work primarily involves research. Oh, and yes, some of the photographs you see here are clicked by me. Overall, I am enjoying whatever I am doing, and hoping you’ll also feel the same reading all my articles. You can find me on LinkedIN.
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