Shigaraki's origins aren't ruined by All For One's return in My Hero Academia

Modified Jan 30, 2025 14:30 GMT

My Hero Academia didn't ruin Shigaraki with his true origin (Image via Bones).

My Hero Academia ended its manga run a few months ago. Since then, there has been a lot of analysis on several aspects of the story, including the controversial true origin of one of the main villains, Tomura Shigaraki. It is revealed at the tail end of the final arc that Shigaraki, as Tenko Shimura in his childhood, was manipulated by All For One and the tragic deaths of his family were the villain's machinations.

A lot of fans have argued that this hurts Shigaraki's character, robbing him of agency and removing the organic element of his tragic origin story, but the truth of the matter is that the My Hero Academia society still failed young Tenko Shimura.

While All For One does have a big role to play in this origin story, it wouldn't have happened without normal civilians and heroes failing the young man during his time of need.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda as a publication.

Explaining why Tomura Shigaraki's origin story wasn't ruined in My Hero Academia

Shigaraki as a kid and adult in the anime (Image via Bones).

It was originally established in the series that Tomura Shigaraki was the grandson of the seventh One For All user, Nana Shimura, known as Tenko Shimura and that his Decay Quirk activating led to the death of his family, with him being saved and groomed by All For One.

While all of this remains by the end of the story, it is revealed in the final arc that the evil overlord planted the Quirk on him and manipulated events for his family's downfall, with this twist being criticized.

A lot of fans felt that this robbed Shigaraki's origin story of a tragic element and agency while making All For One the central focus once again. While there is truth to this, the reality is that the villain's plan was hinging on people not helping Tenko and him growing resentful of society, which ultimately proved to be the case, hence why he succeeded.

If regular civilians and heroes had paid attention to Tenko Shimura's struggles, there is a very good chance that All For One's plan would have failed.

However, that wasn't the case and the young man grew hateful of the world, with his motivation still maintaining that somewhat organic feel that was necessary for his character to work.

The criticism surrounding All For One

All For One as seen in the anime (Image via Bones).

If there is a criticism that My Hero Academia has received during the final third of the story is All For One's massive influence on almost every single plot point. With his status as the ultimate villain of that universe, there is the fact that it reduces people's suspension of disbelief and also irritates some readers because it seems that everything happens due to him.

There is the fact that Shigaraki's origin was manipulated by him, Kurogiri became who he is because he experimented with Shota Aizawa's friend, Toya Todoroki survived and became the villain Dabi thanks to him, and so on.

This is something that has frustrated a lot of fans, even if there are cases such as the aforementioned Shigaraki that can be debated.

Final thoughts

My Hero Academia author Kohei Horikoshi divided a lot of fans with the topic of Tomura Shigaraki's true origin but that doesn't remove agency and tragedy from the villain's story. If he had been given support and acceptance after the death of his family, perhaps things would have been quite different for him.

Related articles:

Edited by Prem Deshpande