‘My Hero Academia’ Reveals Its Most Powerful Hero-In-Training

My Hero Academia isn’t big on numbers, but anime fans are willing to fight over its strongest heroes. Guys like All Might are clearly at the top, but the jury is out on the students of Class 1-A. However, it seems the anime did just single out one hero-in-training, and it may not be who you would expect.

If you are caught up with My Hero Academia, then you will know season 3 is in the meat of its action. In its most recent episode, Izuku Midoriya was placed in an impossible situation that forced him to pick between two friends, and one of those classmates may be the most powerful student in Class 1-A at the moment.

Yes, Izuku may be powerful thanks to One For All, but his inability to wield it functionally cripples his power level. However, Dark Shadow has no such side effect on Tokoyami. The bird-like hero may seem unassuming at first, but the latest episode of My Hero Academia proved how dangerous the hero can be when his Quirk is left unchecked.

The anime followed Izuku and Shoji as the pair were faced with a rampaging Dark Shadow once the League of Villains showed up at their class’ summer camp. After Moonfish cut off one of Shoji’s limbs, Tokoyami was fueled with so much rage that he lost control of Dark Shadow, and their cover under the night sky only made the Quirk more powerful. On several occasions, Izuku and Shoji were nearly killed by Dark Shadow as Tokoyami strove to keep it under control, but none of their evasive maneuvers could outrun the rampaging monster. It was only once Bakugo and Todoroki showed up that Dark Shadow began behaving as their fiery Quirks warded off the monster.

When it comes to raw power, Tokoyami is a league ahead of his classmates, and they clearly agreed after seeing the kind of damage Dark Shadow could do. Even Bakugo was forced to reconsider how deadly his classmate’s Quirk could be after seeing it easily defeat Moonfish, a feared serial killer whose Quirk has killed dozens. Still, its fickle nature handicaps its use in much the same way Izuku’s One For All is, but there is every chance that Tokoyami will get a handle on his power before Kohei Horikoshi wraps the praised series.

For those unfamiliar with My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series 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 super powers but 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 collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

Do you think Dark Shadow is the most powerful Quirk in Class 1-A? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!