Highlights

  • All-For-One is the ultimate evil and orchestrates major incidents and destruction in My Hero Academia.
  • Shigaraki, his younger twin brother, became a stone-cold killer due to a life of tragedy and consumed their mother’s quirk.
  • Shigaraki’s desire to take over everything led to a fierce battle with the Resistance, including his own brother Yoichi.


All-For-One has always been the mastermind behind most major incidents and destruction that happened in this series. He is the ultimate evil who orchestrated some of the vilest and most vicious tragedies that befall the brave heroes and innocent civilians since before the beginning of My Hero Academia. More than any other villain, he is the one that needs to be defeated at all costs.

Interestingly enough, there’s not much information floating around about him as a person. His life before he became known as the All-For-One is largely a mystery. But that all changed when Shonen Jump published chapter 407th of My Hero Academia manga. Right before the end of the series, Kohei Horikoshi, the original author of this series, finally decided to shed some light on the cruel and dreadful life of the man known as the All-For-One (AFO).

It’s Clear That All For One Was Born Evil

images/news/2023/12/15/my-hero-academia-all-for-one-origin_1.jpg

While there’s no information about All-For-One’s full real name, we know that his last name is Shigaraki. He had a younger twin brother named Yoichi Shigaraki, who later on became the entity known as the One-For-All (OFA). These brothers were born right around the time of the great Meta Abilities Awakening that happened all around the globe. Their mother was an unnamed sex worker who died soon after she gave birth to these two brothers. To survive, these baby brothers consumed the flesh of their own mother before they were finally swept away by a torrent of a flooding river. It’s unclear what happened to them afterward, but the next time we saw these brothers, the older one had become a stone-cold killer.

While they were still in their mother’s womb, Shigaraki stole most of the nutrients provided by their mother, leaving his younger twin brother small and frail. Another thing that he stole during that time was his mother’s quirk, which makes Shigaraki one of the handful of people who was born with a Meta ability during a time when people didn’t even know that there was such a thing called Meta Abilities.

Once the Great Awakening happened, the world was drowned in chaos caused by fear and prejudice towards the new breed of superhumans. That was the time when Shigaraki began to use the quirk that he stole from his mother to commit an indiscriminate killing spree. The boy who never experienced love since the time he was born slowly grew into somebody who felt nothing but contempt for everything and everybody around him. Once he realized that he could steal other people’s quirks, the mindless killing turned into a targeted massacre with the sole purpose of stealing as many Meta Abilities as he could. Before he reached the tender age of ten, Shigaraki had murdered an inconceivable number of people and an untold amount of Meta Abilities.

A Strong Desire to Take Over Everything

images/news/2023/12/15/my-hero-academia-all-for-one-origin_2.jpg

Shigaraki was born with a desire to consume and an unquenchable thirst to take over everything. He was born with nothing, so now he wanted everything for himself. All for one. As he amassed more and more power, his desire grew even greater as well. He wanted the world in the palm of his hand. Despicable as he might be, he managed to gather loyal followers who were willing to rally behind his wicked cause. Some were deranged people who relished the killings and the destruction, but others simply followed him to survive.

Despite his absurd power, his unhinged personality, and his army of loyal criminals, there were still people who dared to stand in his way. There were people with Meta Abilities who used their power to protect innocent people and fought against the tyranny brought by Shigaraki. These people were called the Resistance, and they banded together under the leadership of a fearless man named Kudo.

Shigaraki never thought much about Kudo and the Resistance. To his mind, they were simply an annoying little group who liked to cause trouble from time to time. He could destroy them all in less than a day if he chose to do so. So there’s no need for him to worry about them. However, that all changed when Yoichi decided to flee from Shigaraki’s clutches and join forces with Kudo.

Shigaraki’s relationship with Yoichi had always been rather peculiar. On the one hand, he always considered Yoichi a weak and useless man. On the other hand, Yoichi was the only person whom Shigaraki could truly call his brother. After all, they were twin brothers. That’s why when he found out that Yoichi was leaving him to join Kudo and the resistance, he was filled with anger and disappointment. In Shigaraki’s mind, if he couldn’t have Yoichi as a brother, then nobody could have him. So Shigaraki mercilessly killed his own brother.

The Birth of One-For-All

images/news/2023/12/15/my-hero-academia-all-for-one-origin_3.jpg

Shigaraki’s greatest enemy is the person who held the quirk called One-For-All. Interestingly enough, the one who was responsible for the birth of this quirk was none other than All-For-One himself.

As mentioned earlier, Shigaraki always looked down on his kind yet frail twin brother, Yoichi. After all, unlike Shigaraki who can steal as many Meta Abilities as he wants, Yoichi didn’t even have a Meta Ability to begin with. What he didn’t realize, however, was the fact that Yoichi actually did have an ability called “Bestowal”, which was a quirk that allowed Yoichi to transfer his ability to another person. One day, maybe out of pity or frustration, Shigaraki decided to grant his brother a quirk. A weak and seemingly useless ability that allowed Yoichi to stockpile quirks.

Unbeknownst to anybody at the time, the combination of Yoichi’s Bestowal and the new Stockpiling quirk from his brother resulted in a brand-new quirk. One that allowed its users to stockpile as many quirks as they wanted and granted them to anybody of their choosing. A quirk called One-For-All. Since Yoichi’s Bestowal can only be transferred willingly by its user, One-For-All became the only quirk that All-For-One couldn’t steal.

Just before All-For-One disintegrated his brother’s body, Yoichi immediately transferred his One-For-All to Kudo, the only one who dared to fight against All-For-One. When he found out about the existence of this quirk, All-For-One was fuming. Not only did his brother choose Kudo over his own blood, but Yoichi also granted Kudo the power to defy All-For-One. Since then, All-For-One decided to track down and kill every single user of the One-For-All. An obsession that has lived on to this day.

My Hero Academia is available to stream on Crunchyroll.