My Hero Academia's most interesting quirk: Horikoshi missed the chance to give My Hero Academia's most interesting quirk the spotlight it deserved

Horikoshi missed the chance to give My Hero Academia's most interesting quirk the spotlight it deserved

Modified Aug 20, 2024 09:02 GMT

Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk as seen in My Hero Academia (image via Bones)

Now that Kohei Horikoshi's magnum opus, My Hero Academia, has officially reached its conclusion, fans are looking back on the beloved series to celebrate its generational run and impact on the shonen genre.

While My Hero Academia is about Deku and his friends becoming great heroes, it's also a story about Quirks and their impact on Hero society and humanity. Quirks are unique to each person, with various types and abilities. However, one Quirk that hasn't been fully explored, despite being one of the most interesting, is Fumikage Tokoyami's Dark Shadow, a rare sentient Quirk in the series.

Why Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk deserved its own spotlight in My Hero Academia

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In My Hero Academia, Quirks, otherwise known as unique superhuman abilities, gradually became a societal norm after many years of discrimination. As the world became increasingly populated by superpowered beings, the variety of Quirks expanded over time.

Since approximately 80 percent of the global population possesses Quirks in the current timeline of the series, it only stands to reason that the diversity of powers and abilities would continue to grow.

Kohei Horikoshi, the mangaka of My Hero Academia, has detailed a wide range of Quirks, such as Shoto Todoroki's Half-Hot-Half-Cold, Minoru Mineta's Pop Off, and Momo Yaoyorozu's Creation Quirk, as well as Tomura Shigaraki's Decay and Shoto Aizawa's Erasure Quirk. Since Izuku Midoriya's One For All Quirk is a major focus of the series, other aspects get less attention. Despite this, many fans believe Fumikage Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk deserved more spotlight.

Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk as seen in the anime (image via Bones)

The reason why fans believe that Tokoyami's Quirk deserved more focus, is due to a simple reason - its nature. Dark Shadow is one of the series' rarest Quirks, as it takes the form of a sentient creature that lives inside Tokoyami's body.

Dark Shadow, Fumikage Tokoyami's Quirk, appears as a monster-like being that he can materialize or dematerialize at will. It acts as Tokoyami's personal guardian and follows most of his commands. However, Dark Shadow is sentient and has its own personality, capable of independent thought, speech, and sometimes acting against Tokoyami's wishes. It has its own likes and dislikes, making it essentially its own entity.

However, it obviously isn't a separate person, and is said to be made up of "dark energy", which enables him to interact with the material world and others, but only up to a certain limit.

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As one can see, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk is certainly one of a kind. What separates it from other Quirks, is mainly its sentience and ability to think freely. Another example of a sentient Quirk could be Rody Soul's Soul Quirk from My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission, where his Quirk manifests into a small bird named Pino.

Given that Rody Soul and Fumikage Tokoyami are two of the only people shown to possess sentient Quirks throughout the series, it can be assumed that this particular type of Quirk is a rarity in the world. That said, they are also one of the more interesting Quirk types, since they can be perceived as something other than simply an extension of their user's bodily functions.

They can be seen as a separate entity with a different thought process from their users. They can also be seen in a simlar light as the popular Stand ability from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, which is another reason for fans to be interested in sentient Quirks.

Unfortunately however, Kohei Horikoshi never managed to shed some much-deserved spotlight on sentient Quirks, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow in particular, as it remains one of My Hero Academia's most underdeveloped ideas to this day.