Saddest Character Backstories In My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia may seem like a very happy and wholesome anime from the outside, but it has some of the saddest and most tragic backstories in anime. The characters are shaped by their past, making their actions and motivations understandable. These backstories are not tragic for the sake of being sad either; they make logical sense in the world of My Hero Academia.

Since eighty percent of humanity has some sort of special powers, it also gives rise to mutations that don’t fit into the societal norm. Much of the discrimination and isolation in My Hero Academia comes from cases like these. My Hero Academia does a great job of presenting these scenarios realistically.

10

Gentle Criminal

The Villain Who Could’ve Been The Hero

Like many other aspiring heroes, Gentle Criminal was also an inspired young man who wanted to be a pro hero one day. Unfortunately, Gentle Criminal wasn’t the most talented teenager and constantly faced failure.

Despite this, Gentle Criminal tried to save a worker one day. However, he obstructed the other pro-heroes and ultimately made the situation worse. This caused him great trouble, and he was eventually expelled from school. This is another case of the hero society failing an aspiring hero, essentially crushing Gentle Criminal’s dreams.

9

Lady Nagant

A Hero Who Was Forced To Be The Villain

Lady Nagant was one of the most successful heroes of her time. However, she was ordered to kill criminals behind the scenes to maintain balance. This eventually made her despair and give up on the idea of a truly peaceful hero society.

The scene where Lady Nagant reaches out to shake hands with children, only to be haunted by her past and see nothing but blood, captures her character perfectly. It’s the consequence of the illusion that the hero society has struggled to uphold for so long.

8

Shoto Todoroki

A Child Forced To Bear The Burden Of A Broken Man

Shoto Todoroki’s childhood was nothing but an abusive hell. He was born as a result of his father, Endeavor, trying to make his child fulfill his own dream of surpassing All Might. In the process, Endeavor hurt his family and unintentionally drilled a great amount of hatred into Shoto.

For a big part of his childhood, Shoto was isolated from his siblings and forced to endure hard training. He was also separated from his mother because she wasn’t doing well mentally. Thankfully, Shoto managed to reconcile with his past and change for the better. But that doesn’t change the awful things he had to endure because a man was obsessed with power.

7

Twice

A Villain Unsure Of His Identity

Twice has a quirk that allows him to make clones of anyone and anything, including himself. While he’s limited to one copy per person, he can create multiple clones of himself, each clone acting with its own free will. This eventually makes Twice unsure if he is the original or simply another clone.

We eventually find out that Twice was lonely and only making clones to overcome that loneliness. He eventually finds his place in the League of Villains because the hero society would not accept someone like Twice.

6

Mezo Shoji

A Child Who Endured Unparalleled Discrimination

In the world of My Hero Academia, some people with quirks that mutate a person’s physical appearance are called Heteromorphs. These people are generally accepted in the bigger cities, but they often find violent discrimination in more rural areas.

Shoji, being in a rural village, was rejected by the locals because of his appearance. Even after saving a small girl from a flood, he was violently beaten because he wasn’t allowed to touch “normal” humans. Thanks to his kind nature, however, Shoji did not go down a vengeful path.

5

Hawks

A Hero Prodigy Abandoned And Abused By His Father

During his childhood, Hawks was isolated from the outside world and locked away in his house because of his father. Hawks would often face physical abuse for trivial reasons. Eventually, Hawks’ father gets arrested by Endeavour, making Hawks realize that the heroes he saw on TV are indeed real.

Hawks never lost hope and was determined to better himself. He was eventually scouted by the same organization as Lady Nagant, the Hero Public Safety Commission. Even while doing the dirty work for them, Hawks stayed firm, and his essence of being a true hero was never lost.

4

Himiko Toga

A Child Who Was Neglected And Abused For Having An Unusual Quirk

Toga has a quirk that makes her want to drink other people’s blood. As a toddler, she fails to understand why this isn’t normal or why she even wants to drink blood. Instead of trying to understand Toga, her parents label her a monster and completely ignore her feelings.

Because of this rejection, Toga seeks to find a place where she can be comfortable. Of course, the League of Villains welcomes her with open arms. Toga is a clear example of how hero society sees unusual quirks as strange and unnatural.

3

Toya Todoroki

An Ambitious Child Driven To Madness And Forgotten

Toya, better known as Dabi, was Endeavor’s second son who was also forced with the duty to surpass All Might. Unlike Shoto, Toyo was very ambitious and worked hard to follow the path his father wanted him to take. Despite having more firepower than Endeavor, Toya was constantly damaging his body in the process.

This showed Endeavor that Toya would be unable to surpass All Might. As a result, Toya was neglected and eventually forgotten due to an incident that led to his disappearance. Toya then became Dabi, intending to torment Endeavor as much as possible.

2

Eri

A Child Exploited And Tortured For Her Quirk

Eri’s quirk allows her to rewind people until there’s nothing left of them. As a toddler, Eri accidentally rewound her father to nothingness. Soon after, Eri’s mother abandoned her while saying Eri is a curse. Unfortunately for Eri, her suffering truly started when Overhaul picked her up. He ran torturous experiments on her to study Eri’s quirk. He would always fix her wounds and start experimenting again.

This was Eri’s entire life, simply because she was born with an incredibly strong quirk. Thankfully, Mirio and Deku saved her from that hell. Eri’s backstory incorporates the use of quirks, but it’s also a great parallel to real-world greed.

1

Tomura Shigaraki

A Great Evil Created By Hero Society

Like many other characters, Shigaraki had an abusive father who forbade him from talking about heroes due to past trauma. Eventually, Shigaraki’s quirk awakens and Shigaraki accidentally crumbles his entire family. Although Shigaraki crumbling his father wasn’t an accident. Regardless, he was left alone with everything destroyed and no one coming to help him.

All for One took advantage of this and raised Shigaraki in his view. If even a single person stopped to help him or even called for a hero, Shigaraki might have been saved from the path he went down.