My Hero Academia Sees Shigaraki Make an All Might Reference

My Hero Academia‘s villainous arc continues in the latest chapter of the manga, and while series creator Kohei Horikoshi teased that Midoriya and Class 1-A will be making their return soon, fans have grown to love the darkest arc of the series to date. With Shigaraki and the League of Villains being challenged by the Meta Liberation Army, they have been pushed harder than ever before. This has resulted in some interesting changes for Shigaraki, especially.

The latest chapter of the series has shown a whole new side of Shigaraki as he has reached new levels of clarity in his mind, and this has resulted in some surprising jabs at his own past as he’s now above the man he used to be. That’s why he can bring up All Might so jokingly despite how much the hero angered him before.

As the fight with Re-Destro of the Meta Liberation Army gets fiercer by the second in Chapter 238, Re-Destro is running out of options as Shigaraki stops fearing him. He soon dons a surprising mecha suit of armor, and Re-Destro claims that with this armor his stress induced power is now at 150% percent. Shigaraki laughs this off, and says “One hundred and fifty percent, huh? Are you going all ‘Plus Ultra’ on me? Is that it?”

This is an obvious reference to All Might’s famous catchphrase, but Shigaraki’s newly clarified state puts another meaning on it. Shigaraki has essentially gone “Plus Ultra” in this fight as the struggle has reminded him of his tragic past, and he has “gone beyond” it in a twisted fashion to bring him to his currently strong power level.

Given how much stress All Might used to bring Shigaraki before his defeat, this is a whole new Shigaraki than seen before. The fact he can utter All Might’s catchphrase without much problem shows just how different of a villain he is now than fans were previously used to. It’s a frightening tease for how the status quo is going to shake up following this arc as Shigaraki is now more powerful and frightening than ever before.

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 both a fourth season of the anime and second big anime film.