The Underrated Heroes of My Hero Academia

Key Takeaways

• Neito Monoma’s Copy quirk is underutilized despite its strategic value and potential for deeper storytelling.
• Tokoyami Fumikage’s Dark Shadow quirk has untapped potential for missions requiring stealth and raw power.
• Tenya Iida’s Engine quirk could bring unique dynamics to rescue missions and high-speed combat if fully utilized.

Anime thrives on its incredible variety of characters, each with their own unique abilities and personalities that bring stories to life. Heroes with diverse quirks are a staple of the superhero genre, showcasing powers that range from spectacular to unconventional. These abilities often make characters memorable, drawing fans into their world.

However, not all heroes gain the screen time they ought to. So many intriguing characters with enormous potential are thrown into the shadows by the main protagonists. My Hero Academia is no different, as several heroes could have made a major impact on the story if My Hero Academia decided to go down that path.

Neito Monoma: A Star Overshadowed

Quirk: Copy

Neito Monoma can copy others’ quirks with physical contact, which is the limit of his power since he cannot access quirks that depend on resources stored within someone, like Fat Gum’s fat absorption. Monoma proved to be one of the most important tactics in the strategy during My Hero Academia Season 7, copying Kurogiri’s Warp Gate to position heroes around and constantly copying Erasure Head’s quirk to neutralize powerful villains. Despite his brilliant execution of such crucial tasks, his role remained in the background.​

Monoma’s strategic value is undeniable. Imagine if he were pushed to the front lines more often, utilizing a variety of quirks to outwit and overpower adversaries. His potential for infiltration, support, and even combat scenarios makes his limited screen time a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling.

Tokoyami Fumikage: The Power of Darkness

Quirk: Dark Shadow

Fumikage’s Dark Shadow is a versatile quirk with offensive and defensive abilities that grow exponentially in the absence of light. His heroic potential was demonstrated in battles like the U.A. Sports Festival and his internship with Hawks, where he used Dark Shadow with precision and creativity. However, his moments of glory were sporadic and often put to the side by more prominent characters.

With his connection to Hawks and the underutilized synergy between his quirk and strategic planning, Fumikage was in a position to contribute more towards missions that required stealth and raw power. The contrast between his quirk’s weaknesses and strengths in different lighting conditions also provides room for nuanced development that remains largely unexplored.

Tenya Iida: The Overlooked Speedster

Quirk: Engine

Tenya Iida’s quirk, Engine, allows him to have engines in his legs, giving him impressive speed and agility. Most of the time, speedsters in any superhero storyline are game-changers and arguably the most broken or overpowered characters, but Iida hardly ever gets the spotlight, despite being a disciplined and capable leader. His standout moments include his fight against Stain and saving civilians in emergency situations, which show that he has the potential both as a strategist and as a fighter.

Remember my name for as long as you live! – Tenya Iida

If utilized to his full potential, Iida could have brought unique dynamics to rescue missions, chases, and high-speed combat. His quirk’s mechanics, including the function of taking off the exhaust pipes to achieve temporary performance boosts, deserved more attention in the plot due to its complexity.

Eri: Rewind with Limitless Potential

Quirk: Rewind

Eri’s quirk, Rewind, enables her to revert an individual or any living object to a previous state, and with that, the possible applications are endless. She had her powers used to take down Overhaul and cure Mirio Togata, but afterward, she did not do much of anything. Since Eri is a character who was so deeply connected to the heroes’ actions to take down villains, her quirk could have changed the course of many fights.

Developing Eri’s understanding and control over her quirk could have added layers to the story. Imagine the moral dilemmas and strategic decisions involving her powers, such as reversing injuries or even incapacitating villains by reverting them to a weaker state. Her exclusion from major battles leaves a gap in the series’ exploration of extraordinary quirks. But it is understandable that she is just a child, and they did not want her to use her quirk after what happened to her.

Hitoshi Shinso: A Mind Control Master in Waiting

Quirk: Brainwashing

Hitoshi Shinso can manipulate people by controlling their actions through his voice. Under the extreme training of Eraser Head, Shinso polished his skills and could get targets to do pretty complex tasks. As helpful as he is in very critical missions, like helping to deceive All for One in Season 7, despite that, Shinso shows up rarely​ for any action, which is unfortunate because, despite undergoing extensive training and consistently showcasing his determination to become a hero whenever he appears on-screen, the show often sidelines him, leaving him absent for entire seasons.

From interrogation to crowd control, the sheer versatility of brainwashing makes Shinso one of the most undervalued characters in My Hero Academia. With his tactical mindset and the ability to render opponents powerless, Shinso could have been a formidable hero on the front lines, blending his unique quirk with intelligence and strategy.

A wide variety of heroes exist in My Hero Academia; so many quirks and complex histories that could have been fully fleshed out to provide much-needed depth and spice up the series. Characters like Neito Monoma, Tokoyami Fumikage, Tenya Iida, Eri, and Hitoshi Shinso symbolize missed opportunities to emphasize great side heroes. Their quirks bring numerous narrative and strategic possibilities that would be able to reshape key fights and arcs.

We can only hope, as fans, that these underrated characters will be given their rightful attention in some future adaptation or spin-off, giving them an opportunity to come out of the background and into the forefront as the heroes they always wanted to be.