The Shimura family's fate in My Hero Academia was unavoidable, and fans saying different are wrong

Modified Dec 18, 2024 08:30 GMT

My Hero Academia made it clear that the Shimura family downfall was inevitable (Image via Bones). — My Hero Academia made it clear that the Shimura family downfall was inevitable (Image via Bones)

My Hero Academia has several tragic backstories, and one of the most popular was Tomura Shigaraki's, focusing on his childhood as Tenko Shimura, the disgraced grandson of the seventh One For All user, Nana Shimura. However, Tenko was manipulated by All For One as a vendetta against Nana and her student, All Might, leading the young boy to turn into the villain known as Shigaraki.

Some fans have argued All Might and Gran Torino could have kept an eye on the Shimura household to keep the family from dying, and saved Tenko from abuse by his father and the road to villainy.

While it makes sense that the My Hero Academia fandom feels that way, the truth is that All For One had total control of the situation and played his cards well, making this tragedy impossible to avoid.

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

Explaining why the downfall of the Shimura family was inevitable in My Hero Academia

Nana Shimura having to abandon her family (Image via Bones)

Nana Shimura was the seventh user of One For Al,l and had to leave her family so they wouldn't be at risk, leading to her son Kotaro hating heroes. This leads to Kotaro's son, Tenko, receiving abuse from him because of his love of heroic people, and leaving an opening for All For One to manipulate the boy's Quirk, leading to the destruction of the family and the birth of the villain Tomura Shigaraki.

Some fans have argued that All Might and Gran Torino, having such connections with Nana, could have kept track of the Shimura family to make sure they were safe and getting by alright. While it is likely that these two characters could have helped to avoid Kotaro's physical abuse to some degree, All For One's influence was impossible to avoid.

The evil overlord had slowly cemented himself into Kotaro's life, and manipulated Tenko's Quirk when he saw an opportunity to reach out to him on the street. There was also the result of the family being killed, with him quickly picking up the boy. It was designed to be a tragedy and, ultimately, was inevitable that these two heroes had to deal with Shigaraki.

Other elements to take into account

Tenko and Nana Shimura as seen in the anime (Image via Bones)

Another element that My Hero Academia made clear in this situation was that Nana had her family change their names so they could be safe, with Kotaro using their real name later on. There is no clear explanation as to why he chose to do this, but is likely to have caused some confusion for All Might and Gran Torino, perhaps leading to them not keeping track of the Shimura family.

It is also fair to assume that the damage was already done to Tenko Shimura from the moment he got Decay and started to cause destruction, especially when considering his reaction as he was killing his father. While All For One's arrival later in his life would be the beginning of the end, it was at the moment that Tenko had become Tomura Shigaraki and had begun his road to villainy in the story.

Final thoughts

Nana Shimura is one of the most important My Hero Academia characters as a former One For All user, her role as All Might's mentor, and how her decisions as a mother led, to some degree, to the creation of Tomura Shigaraki. However, the situation Tenko Shimura went through was impossible to avoid because of the way All For One handled everything.

Edited by Ahana Mukhopadhyay