My Hero Academia Explores The Nefarious Past of Overhaul

My Hero Academia does a fantastic job of not only creating a ton of heroes to follow during the [...]

By Evan Valentine

My Hero Academia does a fantastic job of not only creating a ton of heroes to follow during the franchise's history, but does a great job of fleshing out the villains that challenge the professional heroes, and students of UA Academy, regularly. With the fourth season, the franchise pits our heroes against a complex villain in the form of Overhaul and his gang of Yakuza. Having achieved his goal of perfecting a quirk erasing drug to steal heroes' powers, the most recent installment of the anime ventures into the terrible past of this deconstructing nemesis!

As Overhaul fights Lemillion in the current episode, Mirio tells the head of the Yakuza to surrender by demanding it using the villain's real name, Kai Chisaki. After hearing his real name, Overhaul reacts by stating that his name is one that he has thrown away, instead deciding to go with the villain moniker that we've all come to know during his terrifying reign.

With this flashback, we see a young Overhaul as a child being adopted by the former head of the Yakuza, clearly prepping him to join the criminal organization, not realizing just the kind of man Kai would eventually become. As we drift into the future of Overhaul's life, we see him years later as a younger man, attempting to sell his adoptive father on his plans to create the quirk altering drug.

One of the most important take-aways from this look into the past is that Chisaki's father disagrees with his plan, stating that they need to hold onto their humanity. None of the Yakuza will follow a "demon with no heart", as the old man puts it, attempting to dissuade Overhaul. Of course, this all becomes moot eventually as Chisaki takes over the organization and puts his plan into motion, as we see now during the most recent season of My Hero Academia!

What do you think of Overhaul's past? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and My Hero Academia!

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. Funimation will soon be bringing My Hero Academia's second big movie, Heroes Rising, to North America sometime later this year.

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