My Hero Academia: Would Mirio Have Been a Better One For All Holder?

Mirio Togata might have had more success with One For All, but only for a very specific period

By Nick Valdez

My Hero Academia followed Izuku Midoriya's journey as he used the power of One For All to take down some of history's biggest villains, but one of the big questions that still remains from the series is whether or not Mirio Togata would have been a better holder of this unique power. Kohei Horikoshi's officially ended My Hero Academia's manga run to an end in the pages of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine after ten years of serialization, and fans saw Deku's journey come to an end after everything he had been through over the course of its duration. 

My Hero Academia saw Deku taking on all sorts of challenges head on to push himself beyond his limits with One For All even when his body had rejected it. There was one period in his journey when his use of the power was unclear, however, and that was when he was first introduced to the top student within U.A. Academy. Mirio was introduced as the best student in the school working under All Might's former sidekick, Sir Nighteye. And during all of this, Deku learned that Mirio was originally meant to inherit the power. 

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(Photo:

Mirio Togata and Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia

- Shueisha)

How Mirio Could Have Ended Up With One For All

During the lead into the Shie Hassaikai arc, one of the big discoveries that Deku had learned while heading into his internship with a pro hero was that Mirio was originally meant to be the young hero that All Might passed down the power of One For All to. All Might had all but decided to pass down his power because Mirio was not only the top student at the school, but seemed to be the closest to All Might himself at that time. Thanks to the fact that his main focus was making people smile, to Deku Mirio seemed like the perfect fit. 

In meeting Mirio too, Deku had begun to doubt whether or not he was the right one to hold One For All's power. It was All Might making a decision on the fly that led to Deku gaining the ability instead, and he had since been fighting an uphill battle to get his body to adjust to the flux of power. While it all eventually worked out in the end because Deku didn't have a quirk of his own to fight back against all of the stored power within One For All, it could have gone much differently. 

What If Mirio Got One For All Instead? 

But suppose things happened differently than they did in My Hero Academia. If All Might had passed down One For All to Mirio instead, it would be a dramatically different story than seen with Deku. Not only would the scope of the fights change as Mirio wouldn't have to work from square one like Deku, but the entire fabric of the story would have played out in dramatically altered fashion. It's sort of like a sliding doors effect as this seemingly small change makes it an alternate universe entirely. 

The characters in the series wouldn't be seen at all as Bakugo, Uraraka and the others would join Class 1-A and move on with their lives while the main focus would be on Mirio's life with the Big 3. There's also the fact that the fights would have gone much differently as well. Shigaraki and All For One wouldn't have targeted Class 1-A with the Nomu without Mirio present, and the Shie Hassaikai arc likely would have gone much differently if Mirio was able to use One For All's boost. But that's only when thinking about the impact on the story too. It'd be different when factoring in One For All's development within Mirio too. 

Would Mirio Have Used One For All Better? 

If Mirio got One For All's power instead, he wouldn't have had to spend so much time adjusting his body to having a quirk within it like Deku did. It would mean getting to train with One For All much faster than Deku did, and likely getting to higher points of control and use of its boosting power much faster. Deku not having a quirk at the time made him a perfect host for the ability, and Mirio would have had the same perfect timing if he lost his power during the Shie Hassaikai arc in the same way as he did in My Hero Academia. But since it's all different, his version of One For All would still work. 

As we discovered later in My Hero Academia's run, each of the past vestiges had smaller quirks that didn't really amount to be the kind of game changing abilities as fans would have thought. All Might was the strongest user to that point thanks to how well he was able to use its overall stockpiled power, but Mirio's version would have taken that to the next level thanks to how it would have impacted his own quirk. Boosting this ability would have made him a much more adept fighter too. 

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The current version of Mirio is able to phase through enemies and strike with the help of others, but he doesn't really have as much impact on his own. One For All would give him that power, and then boost it even further. And when he would eventually unlock the other abilities within it like Deku did, it's highly likely that he would have been able to use these abilities as well. But at the same time, it's great that Deku got One For All instead. 

Mirio would have indeed been the better One For All user overall due to experience alone, but Deku ultimately had more heart. Deku's fight as an underdog ultimately served to inspire everyone he came into contact with. Mirio would have helped them smile, sure, but Deku went deeper into their hearts. It was seeing his struggle that inspired everyone to move, and Mirio just doesn't have that impact. 

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