Since My Hero Academia is a show based around superheroes, it makes sense that a lot of the characters are very upbeat and optimistic individuals who are willing to use their own personal Quirks for the betterment of society. Still, since so much of the population has a Quirk in the My Hero universe, it's inevitable that a few people would still decide to use them for more sinister and evil purposes.
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While a character's dark outlook on the world can come from their own Quirk and how it has affected their life, there are others who simply view the idea of a "hero society" from a different perspective, and will go to extremes to adjust it to their liking. This has led to some extremely violent, malicious, and dark characters appearing in the series, and these are the worst of them all.
8 Dabi
Episode 124: Dabi Reveals His Traumatic Backstory To The World
Dabi is essentially the other side of the coin to Todoroki. While his younger brother decided to become confident in his own abilities after the horrible abuse he faced from his father Endeavor, Dabi instead took a much more cynical outlook on the world and decided to join the League of Villains after experiencing a mental breakdown.
Considering just how much Dabi was neglected by his father, there is at least some reasoning as to why he adopted such a dark mindset, and while he does commit some heinous acts as a villain, the fans do get at least a believable reason as to why. There are some signs that Dabi might have started to let go of his obsession with vengeance throughout the course of the story, but he, unfortunately, can't shake off the trauma he faced as a child.
7 Himiko Toga
Episode 109: Toga Uses Uraraka's Quirk To Kill Curious And Her Squad
In a similar vein to Dabi, Toga has a reason for why she became such a violent and bloodthirsty individual, and while it doesn't excuse what she's done, it does help to give an insight as to why someone would become this twisted. Despite her innocent high-school student design, Toga is a psychotic killer who enjoys nothing more than wiping out anyone who gets in her way. Her Quirk, Transform, allows her to become a body double of someone else after she has drank some of their own blood, and she is even able to use their Quirk later in the story.
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It was eventually revealed that Toga was punished for her blood-reliant Quirk as a child, and while she eventually tried to be "normal", it soon became clear that she was being made into an outcast by not just society, but even by her own parents too. She therefore decided to take on the mantra of killing everything she despises, especially those who don't want to form a friendship with her.
6 Muscular
Episode 40: It's Revealed That Muscular Murdered Kota's parents for fun
Muscular, also known as Goto Imasuji, doesn't have any grand plan to change the world, and he doesn't even seem to believe in Stain's ideology of purging the world of narcissistic heroes either. Instead, he joined the League of Villains simply to have an excuse to let loose his devastating Muscle Augmentation Quirk which allows him to grow immensely powerful.
During combat, he can always be heard talking about blood and how much fun it is to pummel his opponents which really emphasizes just how mercilessly brutal this man really is. The fact that he even admitted to Deku that he only wishes to shed as much blood as possible until the day he dies is another insight into the twisted mind and motivations of Muscular.
5 Stain
Episode 29: It's Revealed That Stain Murdered 17 Pro Heroes
On paper, Stain's belief that those using the status of a "Hero" just for the sake of money, fame, and notoriety are unfit for the job makes total sense, but it's the way he decides to go about solving this issue that makes him such a dark character. Realizing that he can't rely on the government to rectify this ongoing issue, Stain instead takes this into his own hands as he begins prowling the streets, killing any heroes he sees as "unworthy" of the title.
Stain was very particular about this mission though and would always try to ensure that he wasn't killing anyone that truly believed in being a hero for the sake of helping others. Still, since he is the only one who could judge this, it would easily lead to some needless deaths of individuals whom Stain saw as a potential threat to society, even though they may have just been trying to make their way through life.
4 Moonfish
Episode 75: Moonfish Tries To Consume The Flesh Of Class 1-A
Unlike a lot of his League of Villains allies, Moonfish doesn't have an end goal and doesn't even want to shed as much blood as possible similar to Muscular, he is simply obsessed with consuming flesh and will do anything to find a body to eat. While he has been shown to work with others, Moonfish has also made it very clear that he will turn on his so-called "friends" as soon as he starts hearing his stomach growling, such as right after he escapes his Tartarus cell.
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Even though his entire body is restrained by a straight jacket, he can still lengthen his razor-sharp teeth to skewer anyone that gets in his way thanks to his Quirk, which is most definitely one of the most terrifying and violent abilities in the entire series. Moonfish's constant lust for human flesh makes him a truly dark character whose appearance only makes him even more frightening.
3 Tomura Shigaraki
Episode 111: Shigaraki Kills His Entire Family With His Decay Quirk
When Shigaraki first appears in the story during the U.S.J Incident, he already seems like a pretty nasty piece of work, but he only grows more hateful of the world around him as the story goes on. It's not long until it's revealed that Shigaraki's only goal in life is to take down All Might which, in turn, would destroy the pillar holding up society. However, once All Might finally decides to hang up his costume for good, Shigaraki's goal grows even more extreme with his final objective now being to completely destroy society through any means necessary.
Shigaraki's Decay Quirk ended up killing his entire family when he was young, and ever since then, his trauma has spurred him on to try and destroy every being that exists without showing any remorse. To make things even more grim, the hands he uses to cover his body and face are actually taken from the corpses of his family as a haunting reminder of how destructive Quirks can really be.
2 Flect Turn
My Hero: World Heroes' Mission – Flect Preaches About Cleansing The World Of Quirk Users
Flect actually shows up very briefly as a cameo in episode 104 which is essentially a prologue to the World Heroes' Mission movie, but he plays a starring role in the full production where he is the leader of the global cult that goes by the name Humarise. The group's objective is to eliminate all Quirks from the world, and this actually feeds into Flect's own backstory where his Quirk, Reflect, would physically repel anyone who got close, meaning he couldn't form any substantial personal relationships.
While Flak does have a point about those with more troublesome Quirks being ignored and discarded in society, this causes him to have a very cynical outlook on life, and believes in bringing about the Quirk Doomsday Theory to wipe out anyone who has a Quirk to create a more "pure" society. Flect's determination to commit literal genocide makes him a truly frightening character, and an example of how an unfair Quirk and corrupt someone.
1 All For One
Episode 112: All For One Grooms Shigaraki By Using His Trauma Against Him
All Might may be a symbol of justice within the world of My Hero Academia, but All For One is the exact opposite, being a man who literally wants nothing more than to crush the future of humanity, envisioning himself as a "Demon Lord" which is inspired by his childhood comics. To accomplish this goal though, he must get rid of the One For All Quirk which is the only ability capable of defeating him, but this obsession has led All For One to commit some despicable acts along the way.
Not only has he been shown to kill innocent people on a whim without a second thought, but he's also a master manipulator. The biggest example of this is with Shigaraki whom All For One manipulated by using his childhood trauma against him to create a new appreciation who eventually became just as sadistic as he was. Even when Shigaraki stated that he hated everyone in the world, except for his League Of Villains allies, All For One even responded by calling this pathetic and stating that he only sees people as disposable tools, no matter their relationship to him, which is a good indication as to just how dark and evil All For One really is.
My Hero Academia
- Genres
- Action, Superhero
- Seasons
- 6
- Studio
- Bones
- Creator
- Kōhei Horikoshi
- Release Date
- April 3, 2016
- Number of Episodes
- 138
- Japanese Title
- Boku no Hero Academia
