My Hero Academia is the king of shonen anime these days, and for plenty of valid reasons, but looking back at the beginning of the series, one contemplates what could have been. For example, what if Deku never inherited a superpower and continues to be headstrong?
In the world of My hero80% of the world’s population has some kind of superpower, big or small, and Izuku Midoriya is part of the minority that doesn’t, which really sucks. However, after showing his heroism, his idol All Might, who is slowly losing his power, decides to pass it on to the young Midoriya. Anyone coming into the series now after five seasons, three feature films, and a slew of promotional material and viral clips probably knows this. But for those who started at the very beginning, when My hero was a fairly unknown franchise among anime fans, the first hook was that Deku had no powers. It’s funny to think how quickly that changed.
The thematic reasons
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My Hero Academia is a series about passing on the torch, which is typical of stories about young people being trained to succeed their elders, but the case of Deku is special. For most of the first three seasons, he hides the secret about the condition of All Might and that the world’s greatest hero is on its last legs.
Deku does not awaken to power or stumble into it, rather is chosen to inherit it based on the strength of his character. The rise of one coincides with the downfall of the other, and it serves a story of responsibility and heroism well. It even coincides with the antagonist.
Tomura Shigaraki, unlike Deku, was born with a quirk, but it was a dangerous one that left him alone and isolated from others, until the intervention of a villain. The hero and villain of the story are both connected by how their bond with their idols has made them stronger.
The arguable flaws
Even when Deku gained his powers, he was unable to use them effectively to risk hurting himself, which he did until Season 3. This was nice because it added some extra thrills to his ascent to hero, with that he needs to use his intelligence more.
However, by the end of season five, Deku has not only deployed One For All in several versatile ways, but also unlocked a new power from the line of heroes before him who inherited the power. While there’s nothing wrong with shonen heroes having a lot of powers, the added set of powers can feel like it detracts from the real progress made for Deku as a character.
What if…?
If Deku had become a hero without inheriting a quirk, that would certainly make rewriting easier, but could it be done effectively? Absolute! And frankly, the show already supports that Deku could be a great hero even without the absurd superpower of One For All.
For starters, Deku’s intelligence already gives them an edge when considering countermeasures against the idiosyncrasies of others. Plus, if he’s still going through the same physical training in this alternate timeline, he’ll have plenty of physical capacity with room to grow. True, natural strength alone is not enough.
Or at least not quite, since characters like Bakugo and Todoroki can take a beating without having technical superpowers. No doubt people with idiosyncrasies are naturally capable of taking the punishment or maybe people in the world evolved to be stronger. But then again, it’s an anime, so maybe it’s just standard procedure.
Even if Deku is physically trained, with the potential for further growth over the five seasons, they need a little more. Fortunately, there is already one character that perfectly shows how Deku can become the world’s greatest hero without a whim.
Mei Hatsume, the prototype
Mei is an infectiously excited Class 1-H student, a scholar in engineering, and who by the end of season has created five different useful gadgets that have helped heroes. She’s the one who constructs Deku’s Air Force gloves and the soles in his shoes that aided in his more acrobatic uses of One For All.
On her own, she isn’t shown to be much of a fighter, but her expertise helps Deku and other characters use their own idiosyncrasies much more efficiently. It goes without saying that her gifts can be used to create technology that benefits people without quirks, rather than just improving those who already have them.
While perhaps not at the same power level, all of Deku’s individual abilities could have been augmented with technology. It wouldn’t be too hard to imagine a variant of its Air Force gloves with built-in air blast capabilities rather than just channeling its existing power.
Not only that, imagine how effective the hands-on training of heroes like Eraser Head and Gran Torino could have been even without One For All. Even without whimsy, Deku could have evolved spatial awareness and close combat capabilities to an almost superhuman level, using technology and his mind to overcome obstacles.
What could have been?
In the end, My Hero Academia is already amazing for how Deku uses his intelligence and technology to better use his abilities to save lives. Deku has always been an inspiring leader for their humble beginnings and what they taught him, comparable to a hero like Captain America.
The fact that Deku isn’t quirky doesn’t break the series, but consider how often shonen protagonists possess an amazing power that puts them higher in the hierarchy. Now imagine if Deku didn’t have all that and how drastic that would be.
To be fair, the use of advanced technology can’t be seen other than being gifted with a superpower. It might be more impressive if Deku made the technology itself, but the difference is simply intelligence. And when you go all out, intelligence is a superpower in its own right.
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