My Hero Academia‘s latest arc has been revealing the true origin of series archvillain Tomura Shigaraki, aka Tenko Shimura. The previous two chapters told the story of Tenko’s abusive childhood, and the horrific night his powers manifested and destroyed his family. However, chapter 237 of the manga reveals the full transformation of Tenko Shimura, intot he killer known as Tomura Shigaraki.
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Along with that story of death, killing, and rebirth, My Hero Academia fans also get to have a longtime question answered: Why does Tomura Shigaraki wear those hands all over his body?
As it turns out, some of the earliest fan theories turn out to be true: Shigaraki wears the hands of his dead family all over his body. Specifically, the hands belong to Tenko’s sister Hana, his grandmother, mother and father, whom he destroyed with his quirk when it first manifested. Later on, All For One would add two more pairs of hands, belonging to the first two thugs that Tenko killed to truly transform into Tomura Shigaraki.
While the source of Shigaraki’s hands may have not been hard to guess, the purpose behind why Shigaraki wears the hands is somewhat more revelatory and interesting. As it turns out, All For One created the hand attachments for Tenko to wear, in order to always remind him of the hunger for killing and destruction that the boy feels (that incessant itch), and therefore always remind him that the bloodlust is what truly makes him “Tomura Shigaraki,” while also keeping that bloodlust balanced by reminding the boy of his personal pain:
“I always want you to keep them close to you,” All For One proclaims in voiceover as we watch Tomura’s first kill. “So that those feelings never fade. His Family’s hand will restrain him… keep him in check… with his memories locked away, it’s only his unstable emotions that float to the surface. And that unease… Look he’s keeping his own quirk in check subconsciously.”
This final piece of Shigaraki’s origin really does make the character’s behavior in the past chapters of My Hero Academia make a lot more sense. That’s especially true of the character’s first appearances in the series initial arcs, when Shigaraki was a lot more neurotic and insecure in his first encounters with Deku. By the end of this latest issue, Tenko’s restored memories finally give him full reign over his Shigaraki persona, which is clearly demonstrates by finally disintegrating his father’s hand from over his face, embracing his own power in full.
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 is gearing up for an even bigger end of 2019 with a new film in theaters later this year too.
