My Hero Academia Shares Gentle's Surprisingly Heartbreaking Origin Story

From the very first time they made their debut during My Hero Academia's Cultural Festival arc, [...]

By Nick Valdez

From the very first time they made their debut during My Hero Academia's Cultural Festival arc, Gentle Criminal and La Brava have seemed much different than the other villains we have seen in the series' past. Gentle Criminal was far less outwardly violent than the others that had come before, and his goal seemed to be more about being noticed by others than taking on the heroes. He might have had a rivalry with Hero Killer Stain, but it wasn't a clash of ideals rather than Stain taking up all the attention online.

Gentle then made a major mark on the series by revealing his plan to make his way into U.A. Academy during the Cultural Festival, but didn't quite note what he was going to do once he got there. So what was his real goal this entire time? It's still not quite clear as of the latest episode of the series, but it did reveal what brought him to this extreme point by looking at his past.

Episode 85 of the series revealed that Gentle was actually a victim of the hero focused society. Because he failed to eventually get his license, and eventually a forgotten member of the world around him, Gentle decided to become a villain and use it as another route to get his name written in the history books.

As Deku began to clash with Gentle over what his purported dream will cost Deku and his friends, Gentle began to think about his dream. As a young man in his second year enrolled in a hero school, Gentle wanted to be a great enough hero for the history books. But his skills were much worse as he continued to fail and was held back multiple times -- to the point where he was asked to drop out.

Dejected, Gentle tried to use his quirk to help someone but ended up hurting them much worse. This forced him to really drop out of school and he was charged with a crime. This disgraced his parents who soon threw him out of the house, and when one of his former school mates had become a hero -- he failed to recognize Gentle. This threw Gentle into his current path that ended up entangling La Brava into it too. So Gentle's fall started out with big heroic dreams, but ended up getting twisted along the way. But what do you think?

What did you think of Gentle Criminal's origin story? How do you feel about Gentle and La Brava as the villains for the Cultural Festival arc? Then again, is Gentle really the villain this time around? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!

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