My Hero Academia’s Latest Chapter Reignites Major Dabi Theory

One of the more pervasive fan theories currently among My Hero Academia fans is the villain Dabi’s true identity. With the manga approaching 250 chapters with the next release of the series, there has surprisingly been very little revealed about the fiery villain. This was even more shocking considering the recent villain focused arc which gave many of the League of Villains members a greater focus, and fans hoped that meant a greater reveal was coming down the road. But the latest chapter of the series has put the limelight back on the theory that Dabi is actually a member of the Todoroki family.

Fans have been wondering whether or not Dabi was actually the missing Toya Todoroki, and Chapter 249 hints that we’ll be seeing more of what happened to Toya in a future chapter of the series as the manga explores more of Endeavor’s relationships with his family.

Briefly introduced in Chapter 39 of the series, Toya Todoroki was the eldest brother of the family that was raised differently from Shoto. But while the series has explored the other siblings further since, Chapter 249 of the series ends on the cliffhanger in which Endeavor places some food in front of Toya’s mourning shrine. He’s worried about what he can do for his family, and wishes Toya could be there to.

With this cliffhanger, there’s a hope that the series will reveal a flashback in which we’ll see what actually happened to Toya long ago. The series might even go further and outright Dabi as Toya, but also might go in the complete opposite direction. Dabi could just be a random villain causing havoc, and we all might have egg on our face when all is said and done. But with this much build up? Horikoshi certainly has something in mind.

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 also be launching its second big movie, Heroes Rising, in Japan this December.