A title like My Hero Academia naturally implies a host of school-aged superheroes. While many of the main character are teenagers, they possess levels of strength and skill far beyond their older counterparts. Identifying each character’s power level is no basic task since individual Quirks are best suited to specific situations.
There is a caveat: As MHA’s characters mature, their powers evolve with them, so a definitive ranking is out of the question. That said, there are a few characters whose abilities are so strong and versatile, they’re leagues above the rest of the cast when it comes to pure power level.
Updated on June 15, 2023: Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia is in its final stages — the manga is currently depicting a massive battle royale with dozens of combatants on either side. That said, the anime still has a season or two left before it reaches its inevitable conclusion. We’ve updated this list of all the strongest My Hero Academia main characters.
This article contains spoilers for the My Hero Academia manga.
15 Eijiro Kirishima
Quirk: Hardening
Eijiro Kirishima’s Hardening Quirk allows him to make his entire body rock hard for a certain duration of time, making him both an unwavering shield and a piercing weapon. He initially believed that his Quirk would never amount to anything until hearing a speech from his favorite hero that lit a fire inside of him.
After enrolling in U.A., Kirishima recognized his Quirk’s capabilities and never stopped working to improve it. Now, he can harden his entire body for a longer period of time to fend off an enemy and protect innocent civilians. Even the sharpest daggers don’t do much damage to Kirishima in his ultimate form.
14 Ochaco Uraraka
Quirk: Zero Gravity
My Hero Academia‘s female characters may not get as much screen time as their male counterparts, but their Quirks shouldn’t be counted out. Ochaco Uraraka’s Zero Gravity is a versatile Quirk that offers both offense and defense. It’s especially suited for rescuing civilians after disaster strikes.
Uraraka used Zero Gravity in several creative ways throughout MHA, from preventing Izuku from falling on his face to making it rain rocks and debris down on Bakugo during the U.A. Sports Festival. If Uraraka continues improving, she may even hit the top ten in the Japanese hero billboard chart.
13 Himiko Toga
Quirk: Transform
Himiko Toga’s Quirk allows her to transform into someone after drinking their blood. Thanks to her Quirk, she has a warped perspective on love that makes her conflate it into the same thing as turning into someone. A classic yandere, Toga’s obsession with blood and creepy personality make her a standout member of the League of Villains.
After shifting into someone else, Toga can copy their clothes and voice and even use their Quirk if she knows enough about them. Toga’s Quirk isn’t the only thing that makes her strong; she’s also a formidable combatant and enjoys cutting people down with her knife. Albeit a villain, Toga is universally considered one of My Hero Academia‘s main characters by fans.
12 Katsuki Bakugo
Quirk: Explosion
Katsuki Bakugo’s skillset largely revolves around offense; he has little interest in defensive or evasion tactics. This stubbornness might be a problem for a weaker Hero, but his Quirk more than makes up for his deficiencies. In addition to propulsion, Bakugo can use Explosion in a complex range of attacks, proving that he does think strategically despite his aggressive recklessness.
What’s particularly impressive is the fact that Bakugo has been shown to overwhelm Deku, but only if the latter doesn’t exceed five percent of One For All. His strength in the manga arcs is considerably greater than before — and there’s no doubt he’s only going to get stronger.
11 Shoto Todoroki
Quirk: Half-Cold Half-Hot
Shoto Todoroki has one of the most unique Quirks in the world, being a product of what’s referred to as a Quirk Marriage — his mother’s ice and his father’s fire combined to form his Half-Cold Half-Hot. While he refuses to manifest his flame aspect in the beginning, Todoroki begins using his fire half in equal measure after Deku helps him understand that the power belongs to him alone.
Interestingly, while every Quirk tends to have limitations, Todoroki can recover much faster than everyone else. He can use heat to counterbalance the negative effects of his ice and vice-versa. Todoroki isn’t at peak power yet, but he’s already defeated professional villains at his current state.
10 Mirio Togata
Quirk: Permeation
Mirio Togata’s Permeation is a painfully difficult Quirk to channel efficiently, especially in combat situations that require rapid mental processing. Regardless, he has evolved to a level surpassing several adult Pro Heroes by dedicating himself to the craft, practicing his moves and adapting to new attacks with shocking ease.
Mirio’s overall capabilities are so impressive that Sir Nighteye hoped for him to inherit One For All, believing that the young student was best suited to becoming the next Symbol of Peace. Mirio lost his Quirk after fighting Overhaul, but has since managed to have his Quirk restored by means of Eri’s Rewind.
9 Shota Aizawa
Quirk: Erasure
Shota Aizawa may not be one of MHA’s strongest fighters, but he’s still a powerful Pro Hero. Aizawa can erase someone else’s Quirk just by looking at them. Unfortunately, this means he’d need a constant flow of water in his eyes to prevent them from drying out. If Aizawa blinks, his Quirk stops working.
Still, Aizawa’s abilities aren’t anything to scoff at. He combines martial arts, acrobatics, and his impressive scarf into his fighting style to hold an advantage over his opponents. Typically a long-range fighter, Aizawa’s Erasure Quirk has helped out his fellow heroes several times.
8 Hawks
Quirk: Fierce Wings
Hawks is the youngest Pro Hero in the entire country, having attained the #3 position in his very early 20s. At first glance, his Quirk doesn’t seem to be anything more than decorative, but how he employs it while fighting is nothing less than extraordinary.
Hawks can split his Fierce Wings into individual feathers, all of which he has complete control over, and direct them to perform different actions simultaneously. Fans finally got a chance to see Hawks show off some of his talents in his fight against Twice and the following fight against Dabi.
7 Dabi
Quirk: Blueflame
Dabi’s Blueflame is one of My Hero Academia‘s most dangerous Quirks. His blue flames have burnt entire forests and taken heroes out of commission. Dabi’s fire is significantly hotter than both Enji’s and Shoto’s, making him a true danger to heroes and one of the League’s most valuable assets.
Unfortunately, Dabi’s brilliant blue flames come with a self-destructive price. Fans recognize Dabi as the patchwork villain, but it’s because his Quirk literally destroys Dabi’s skin every time he uses it. Although Twice’s death saddened him, he couldn’t cry because his tear ducts were burnt. But even this doesn’t prevent Dabi from using his Quirk with reckless abandon.
6 Twice
Quirk: Double
Twice’s Quirk didn’t seem like the strongest initially, but its capabilities were wickedly dangerous. After Twice regained control, he became capable of so much more than he was at his debut.
No longer afraid of losing control and forgetting whether or not he was real, Twice could freely create as many doubles as he wanted of himself without consequence. He even made a massive army of Twices during the League’s first showdown against the Paranormal Liberation Front. His Quirk is technically strong enough to topple entire nations and bring the world to its knees.
5 Endeavor
Quirk: Hellflame
Endeavor wastes half his life trying to surpass All Might, only to be humiliated each time. The good thing is that he’s starting to make reparations for the hell he put his family through for decades. Endeavor’s Hellflame is no mere fire Quirk: it doesn’t generate flame as much as scorching conflagrations that can vaporize nearly every opponent unfortunate enough to face him.
When Endeavor fights Tomura, he manages to keep the villain under check for a significant duration. Endeavor’s most recent fight in the manga takes on spectacular proportions, further cementing his growth and maturation as a person. Endeavor has since become one of the most important My Hero Academia main characters.
4 All Might
Quirk: One For All
Before losing One For All, All Might was without a doubt the most powerful character in My Hero Academia, creating a gulf between himself and Endeavor that could never be crossed. He defeats All For One not once but twice, though he does come close to dying on both occasions.
All Might is physically stronger, more durable, faster, and hits harder than everyone else, making him a true force of nature. In fact, he still remains an important figure in Deku’s life, playing crucial roles in the narrative despite having little to no combat ability left.
3 Deku
Quirks: One For All, Smokescreen, Danger Sense, Fa Jin, Float, Gearshift, And Blackwhip
My Hero Academia‘s narrator is an older version of Deku explaining the events that led to him becoming a Pro Hero. As such, it’s all but established that the protagonist has a bright future ahead of him, but what matters is the path he takes to get there. He starts out as a Quirkless wonder but quickly adapts to the One For All given to him by All Might.
As per the most recent chapters in the manga, Deku has access to One For All and six other Quirks belonging to his predecessors — Smokescreen, Danger Sense, Fa Jin, Float, Gearshift, and Blackwhip. He’s got a pretty decent handle on all of them and even set out on his own for a while in the manga. Deku is currently far beyond Prime All Might, but still weaker than Tomura.
2 Tomura Shigaraki
Quirks: Decay, All For One, And Others
Tomura Shigaraki starts off as a minor antagonist, but his true powers are revealed much later in the manga. He is given a chance to wield All For One’s personal Quirk and has recently mastered his newfound ability. At the same time, Tomura’s personality undergoes a major change after fusing with the AFO consciousness in his body.
Regardless of his medical modifications, Tomura’s Decay is vastly more powerful than Overhaul, even if the former can’t recreate what he destroys. He is currently MHA’s final antagonist, having seemingly escaped from under All For One’s domineering thumb.
1 All For One
Quirk: All For One And Many Others
All For One possesses dozens of stolen Quirks, wielding all of them with astounding efficacy. He is practically unstoppable — his losses to All Might notwithstanding, his genius strategies keep the Pro Heroes on their toes at every turn. All For One’s most dangerous feature is his boundless brutality, taking whatever he wants from innocent people and destroying their lives in the process.
This cold-bloodedness is partly why All For One is such an excellent villain, not to mention the sheer arrogance implicit in his name. He will likely be brought down in the end, but it’ll be a dangerous battle that is likely to have serious consequences for the winner.
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