The time before quirks was a time that hasn’t been explored often in the popular franchise of My Hero Academia. With heroes and villains running around the world, sometimes we can forget that a few generations prior to the likes of Midoriya and Shigaraki, there existed a world very much like our own. As Overhaul was brought before the League of Villains for a “trial run”, the tables were turned but not before we got an explainer that dove into how the Yakuza, and other members of organized crimes, existed before, and during the inception of, heroes arriving on the scene.
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The Yakuza, and the rest of the crime families of the world, seemingly operated much like the ones that exist in our world. Staking their claim in the world, criminals got a good portion of funds from their illegal activities, but with the inception of quirks, along with the heroes born because of them, things changed and they changed fast. Heroes began capturing villains quickly, with the Yakuza and other organized crime families being either immediately captured or needing to retreat underground to scrape together a living.
So far gone were the Yakuza with the arrival of heroes that the once prosperous criminals barely managed to make a living for themselves via their illegal means. When All Might hit the scene, things changed even more as the “Symbol of Peace” eradicated nearly all crime. Overhaul himself is still a member of the Yakuza, attempting to honor the roots of the Japanese crime syndicate while stressing an army of super powered criminals under his employ.
When Overhaul was offered a place on the League of Villains, the villain switched the script, demanding that the League fall under his control in order to rebuild the Yakuza and place him in the position of power that All For One once held. Of course, the League didn’t take this lying down and a battle broke out between the two factions, but we still got a good idea of the “early days” of My Hero Academia because of it.
What did you think of how the crime families operated during the rise of the Quirks? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of 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.
