'My Hero Academia' Explores Shigaraki, All For One's Past

My Hero Academia's manga has taken its first few steps into a mysterious new arc focused on the [...]

By Nick Valdez

My Hero Academia's manga has taken its first few steps into a mysterious new arc focused on the villains. Not only has the series been introduced to a new kind of villain not yet seen in the series, fans have gotten more of a focus on Shigaraki as he is trying to rebuild the League of Villains following the fallout from the last few arcs. Surprisingly, fans have also seen more of his past in the latest chapter.

In Chapter 222 of the series, the series explores more of Shigaraki's past with All For One after he was found by the villainous mastermind following a terrible accident. Their relationship somehow seems even more insidious than fans suspected.

The latest chapter details that Shigaraki has amnesia of his time before he met with All For One. He has a flashback to what fans already previously discovered, that All For One found a young and distraught Shigaraki and raised him to be his successor in order to further send All Might into despair. But the latest chapter digs into Shigaraki's emotions during the moment as he mentions how he felt like an empty shell before meeting his master, and his master gave him purpose.

The series then reveals All For One showing Shigaraki to the room he will be raised in, and soon enough All For One and his mysterious doctor reveal to Shigaraki that he killed his family with his own hands -- leaving only their hands as a remnant of the tragic event. Shigaraki's memories of the attack on his family rushes into him in fragments, and this both disgusts and enrages him.

All For One then decides to breed that rage within him and give purpose to those feelings Shigaraki has. This eventually leads Shigaraki to decide to instead use the League of Villains to destroy the entire world, and perhaps All For One twisted Shigaraki's ideas even further than he realized.

When fans first found out about All For One finding Shigaraki as a youth, he painted it as a twisted kind of savior moment as the heroes seemingly ignored Shigaraki's suffering. It seemed like Shigaraki came into these ideas on his own, but now it's even more clear that he had a push. Though he was supposed to be All For One's successor, Shigaraki could very well be one of the biggest pawns of all.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

My Hero Academia will be returning for its fourth season later this October, and it's one of the most anticipated returns of the year. Season 3 left the series on quite a few cliffhangers, so fans will be there day one to see what comes next. The series will be releasing its second big movie later this year as well.

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