My Hero Academia Revisits Kirishima’s Origin Story

The most recent episode of the white hot fourth season of My Hero Academia gave fans their first encounter with Red Riot Unbreakable, Eijiro Kirishima‘s most powerful technique. After taking down a drug powered villain with his “ultimate hardening”, Kirishima basked in the adulation of both Fat Gum and the crowd that he had saved during the fight. During this brief scene, hints of Eijiro’s past were shown, with some black and white images flashing for fans to start putting together just why and how Red Riot set out on his path to becoming a professional hero by joining the ranks of Class 1-A at UA Academy.

After defeating the insane, blade wielding villain, Kirishima flashed back to a younger time in his life. Before joining Class 1-A, Eijiro encountered a threat the likes of which he had never seen before. The future Red Riot found himself linked to his classmate, Mina Ashido, the strange looking girl who has a quirk that allows her to dispel acid from her fingers. In said flashback, Mina encountered a giant being while Eijiro looked on, unable to do anything to help.

The large figure was apparently looking for someone specific, with Mina standing up to the insanely imposing villain. Unable to muster the strength to fight against the being or assist Ashido, Eijiro would eventually vow to attempt to become a professional hero so that he would never find himself in such a scenario ever again. From this time, both Ashido and Eijiro have been attempting to find their own paths into becoming professional heroes not for the fame or glory, but to help others and make sure that the world is a safe place to live.

So who was the giant figure that Eijiro and Ashido encountered? Without going into too many spoilers, the villain of Gigantomachia is going to have a big role to play in the franchise moving forward, so you definitely haven’t seen the last of him.

What do you think of Red Riot’s origin story? Is Kirishima your new favorite hero? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and UA Academy!

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.