Who is Nine in My Hero Academia? Explained

Modified Oct 17, 2024 09:30 GMT

Who is Nine in My Hero Academia and his role in the series (Image via Bones).

Who is Nine in My Hero Academia? is a question that fans ask time and time again because the canon role of the movies is often debated. When it comes to Nine, he is the main villain of the Heroes: Rising film and proves to be a challenge to Katsuki Bakugo and Izuku "Deku" Midoriya during the final moments of that particular movie.

He became the test subject of Dr. Daruma Ujiko's experiment and was the only other user of the All For One Quirk in My Hero Academia besides the titular villain and Tomura Shigaraki. While he didn't have the same contributions to the story, he has an interesting role to play in the series and is a very peculiar villain, especially because of the way he was defeated in the 2019 film.

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

Nine's origins and role in My Hero Academia

Tomura Shigaraki and Nine as seen in the anime (Image via Bones).

Nine started as an outcast by society because of his Weather Manipulation Quirk and was one of Dr. Daruma Ujiko's experiments. This led to him getting a variation of the All For One Quirk. It is established in the film that his goal is to tear down society and create a new one where strength is prioritized, which is something that explains a lot about his mindset.

However, Nine deals a lot with pain and deterioration since his cellular tissues have been damaged because of the All For One Quirk, resulting in his trying to find a cure throughout the movie. This leads to him finding Katsuma because this child has the Quirk he needs to survive and get better to achieve his goals, which is the focus of Heroes: Rising.

Ultimately, Nine and his allies end up facing Izuku "Deku" Midoriya and his friends throughout the film. While he was defeated by Deku and Katsuki Bakugo, he was killed by Tomura Shigaraki since the latter didn't want Nine as a challenge to his position as leader of the criminal underworld.

Nine's abilities and powers explained

The villain as seen in the anime (Image via Bones).

The Quirk that Nine was born with was Weather Manipulation, which had him perceived by some as a god. This was also why society ostracized him, and people were scared of him. This cemented his mindset that the strong should rule over the weak.

Once he gains the All For One Quirk because of the experiments, he obtains the ability to steal the powers from other people. Some of the Quirks he showed throughout the movie include Air Wall, Scanning, Bullet Laser, Hydra (attacks with the shape of these creatures), and Cell Activation, which allows him to regenerate.

Is Nine canon? Explained

The character as seen in the movie (Image via Bones).

Nine is actually canon in the series and is sometimes shown in the manga as part of Tomura Shigaraki's memories. It is also worth pointing out that the character never makes a physical appearance, hence the question who is Nine in My Hero Academia?, and only shows up in flashbacks but that doesn't make him any less canon.

Author Kohei Horikoshi has stated that the My Hero Academia films are canon. This sort of makes sense when considering they are standalone stories that don't influence the overarching narrative of the series. However, Nine is one of the few characters from the films who is mentioned in the manga.

Final thoughts

It is understandable that a lot of fans may have the question "Who is Nine in My Hero Academia?" since he only has a prominent role in the 2019 film. However, he is very interesting since he got the All For One Quirk before Tomura Shigaraki, making him a unique character in the series' lore.

Related articles

Edited by Madhur Dave