My Hero Academia Creator Pitches a Horrifying Change to Shigaraki’s Design

My Hero Academia has done some horrifying things to Shigaraki over the years. The story has seen the villain undergo some hugely traumatic ordeals, and each one has broken his psyche more and more. Of course, manga readers were horrified awhile back when they got an up-close look at Shigaraki’s original’s story and its bloody nature. And thanks to the creator of My Hero Academia, Kohei Horikoshi has shown fans an even more upsetting design he could have used for the villain.

The artwork comes courtesy of My Hero Academia volume 28. The user AtsushiX101 shared a drawing from the new novel that Horikoshi drew. The ‘what if’ sketch was based on a prompt involving Shigaraki’s old dog, and well – you can see how dark the piece gets down below.

As you can see, the sketch asked Horikoshi to imagine what would have happened if Shigaraki’s childhood dog, Mon Chan, had left behind his hands after being killed. The dog died when Shigaraki’s decay powers first appeared as a young boy, and the debut ended up killing his entire family. Shigaraki’s older sister was killed along with his mother and father. Sadly, Mon Chan was the first casualty of the night, but no part of the dog was left behind.

This sketch imagines what might have happened if Shigaraki’s dog had left his paws behind at the very least. After all, that is what happened to the rest of his family. If Mon Chan had been like the others, Horikoshi believes he would have redesigned Shigaraki so that he wore the pup’s paws on his head. You know, just like he did with everyone else’s hands?

Clearly, the pitch is creepy as heck, and My Hero Academia fans are happy Horikoshi did not go with this design in the end. The addition of Mon Chan’s paws is both disarming and alarming. But even with its shock value in mind, Shigaraki’s canon design is still the best once Horikoshi could have chosen.

What do you make of this redesign? Do you prefer it to the original or vice versa? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.