A big reason why so many anime fans are drawn to My Hero Academia, aside from the epic battle scenes and captivating story, is the extensive character variety. Everyone in My Hero’s world feels utterly unique, making each individual instantly recognizable and memorable. Of course, this applies to the characters’ Quirks which are all drastically different from one another, but it also goes for their appearances too.
Being set a world full of heroes, it’s inevitable that there would at least be a few characters that are larger than life from a physical perspective, but there are also some who are on the smaller side too. Still, this doesn’t mean that these individuals should be taken lightly, as they can still pack one hell of a punch thanks to their special abilities and techniques. Without further ado, it’s time to take a look at the characters of My Hero Academia who are ranked as being the smallest according to official statistics.
7 Tsuyu Asui
Height: 4′ 11″
Unlike a lot of her classmates who are able to throw out hard hitting attacks and techniques, Tsuyu relies more on her fast reflexes and movements to outmaneuver her enemies. As a result, though she may be one of the shorter members of her class, this ultimately works in Tsuyu’s favor and perfectly compliments her Frog Quirk, which allows her to traverse environments with ease thanks to her tongue and sticky fingers.
Because she plays the role of a support unit rather than a front-line combatant, Tsuyu uses her size and speed to stay out of sight so that she can avoid enemy detection while also keeping an eye on her teammates. She’s a highly valued member of the team who will always do everything she can to save her comrades when they need it, which thankfully, she can do very easily thanks to her weird and unique abilities.
6 Gran Torino
Height: 3′ 11″
When Midoriya is asked to pay a visit to Gran Torino, formerly known as All Might’s mentor, he expects to find a large and menacing hero who would be just as, if not bigger, than his own student. When he arrives at the Torino’s run-down apartment though, he comes to find that he’s actually an old man who’s a lot smaller than he would have expected. Still, as Torino demonstrates just moments later, he’s still incredibly strong and possesses superhuman speed which allows him to dart around his enemies without them ever suspecting a thing.
Back in his heyday of being a top hero, Gran Toriono was a lot taller than he is now, but he seems to have shrunk over the years. The reasoning for this isn’t exactly made clear, though some fans have theorized that his spine started to compress over time, since he does have lighter bones which allow him to fly around by using his Quirk.
5 Chiyo Shuzenji
Height: 3′ 9″
Whenever a student ends up getting a little too banged up in a fight, Chiyo is always the one to patch them back up thanks to her Heal Quirk. Just as the name implies, this Quirk speeds up the natural healing process, with Chiyo being able to direct the life energy to a specific part of the person’s body, depending on where they’ve been injured. She also happens to be one of the smallest workers at the U.A High School, being quite a bit shorter than even the students.
As mentioned previously though, Chiyo doesn’t need to get her hands dirty since she’s more of a healer who can always be found relaxing in her office, so she doesn’t need to worry too much about her size or stature. Nonetheless, she’s an incredibly important character who has saved Midoriya from meeting an untimely end on more than a few occasions.
4 Manami Aiba
Height: 3′ 7″
While Manami initially starts off as an antagonist to Class 1-A during the U.A School Festival Arc, she does eventually switch sides in the Final War after deciding to fight against the Paranormal Liberation Front. This is pretty lucky for Midoriya and his friends as Aiba has a pretty powerful Quirk up her sleeve. By telling a person how much she loves and admires them, Aiba is able to power them up and greatly enhance their strength, making her a vital support unit who can prove to be a huge asset to any team that she’s a part of.
Compared to most villains in the series who are often larger and more threatening, Manami is a lot smaller and far less intimidating upon first glance. This isn’t so suggest that she’s a pushover though, as she can still be a pretty formidable foe thanks to both her quirk, and her hacking abilities, which are said to surpass even those of Skeptic.
3 Eri
Height: 3′ 7″
Those who possess immensely powerful Quirks are often portrayed as being physically imposing in their appearance, such as All Might and One For All, for example. Eri is the exception though, being a young girl not even 4 feet tall who also just so happens to possess one of, if not the strongest Quirk in the entire series; Rewind. Eri is able to reverse a person’s body back to a previous point in time, but while this is often used to heal someone’s wounds or make someone younger, it can also erase a person entirely.
Eri’s Quirk is so strange and powerful that she was even considered to be cursed by her own mother, and she also ended up being experimented on against her will by the malicious Overhaul and his cronies. It’s shocking just how much Eri has gone through at such a young age, and she provides an interesting insight into how society would treat someone so innocent who also possesses such a devastating Quirk.
2 Kota Izumi
Height: 3′ 6″
Fans might remember Kota from the Forest Training Camp arc where he introduces himself to Midoriya by giving him a stern punch to the groin. Similar to Eri, Kota is another young character who has experienced his fair share of hardships, and though he may look small, he can still catch his enemies off guard with his Water Gun Quirk. The truth is though, after the death of his parents, Kota came to develop an underlying hatred for heroes, villains, and Quirks in general, seeing them all as a stain on society that only end up causing pain and suffering when all is said and done.
His attitude does eventually start to change after Midoriya protects Kota from the monstrous villain known as Muscular, who is eventually revealed to be the true killer of Kota’s parents. In fact, it’s even implied that Kota intends to one day become a hero himself after this event, and once he grows bigger and hones his skills, there’s no doubt that he could be a pretty good one as soon as he gets the hang of his Quirk.
1 Minoru Mineta
Height: 3′ 6″
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that the small and perverted student Minoru Mineta has a very recognizable design. The first thing most people’s eyes are drawn to is his dark purple ball-like hair, but what also stands out, especially when compared to his classmates, is his size. Despite being the same age as his allies, Minoru is the smallest of the bunch, and is also one of the shortest characters in the entire series.
Minoru uses this to his advantage though, as rather than running in head-first at the enemy, he prefers to sneak around and catch them by surprise with his Quirk, which allows him to propel small sticky balls at his foes. Truthfully though, it wouldn’t take more than one solid punch to knock out Minoru for good, so he’s not exactly the most dependable member of the class, and his Quirk can be pretty situational.
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