‘My Hero Academia’ Reveals All Might’s Tragic Villain Connection

The latest episode of My Hero Academia was a game changer for All Might and the entire anime series, and it revealed a connection to a major series villain hidden within All Might’s past.

SPOILERS for My Hero Academia “One for All” follows.

Fans already knew about All Might’s connection to All for One, the most powerful villain in the series’ universe. All for One possesses the powerful ability to take and use the quirks of others. The only quirk able to rival All for One’s is One for All, which ironically originated in All for One’s brother and has been passed down from hero to hero. All Might was its eighth wielder and Midoriya is its ninth.

But the episode “One for All” revealed that All Might also has a connection to Shigaraki, All for One’s young apprentice and the leader of the League of Villains. It turns out that Shigaraki is actually the grandson of All Might’s mentor and the seventh hero to wield One for All, Nana Shimura.

In the same way that All Might sees heroic potential in the quirkless young Deku, Nana saw heroic potential in the quirkless young Toshinori Yagi. She passed One for All onto Toshinori, who was set on the path to becoming All Might. Nana and Gran Torino both had a hand in training All Might.

The episode doesn’t reveal what became of Nana, but All for One tells All Might the truth about Shigaraki, saying that he specifically sought out Nana’s grandson just to spite All Might and force him into conflict with a member of his old mentor’s family.

Of course, with the last embers of One for All within All Might having been spent in order for the hero to defeat All for One one last time, it won’t likely be All Might who faces Shigaraki directly. Instead, that will fall to Deku and the rest of the UA students. This battle between good and evil now officially spans generations.

What did you think about this big reveal from My Hero Academia? Let us know in the comments!

New episodes of My Hero Academia go live Saturdays at 5:30 am ET on Funimation NOW.