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This Article Contains Spoilers -
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| “ | I don't think so... because I am here! | „ |
| ~ All For One quoting All Might. |
| “ | Yes, I want you to stand by my side in the era of chaos on the horizon. A more perfect demon lord will be born. You will bear witness to the story of how I became the greatest demon lord this world has known. | „ |
| ~ All For One’s most famous quote, stating his desire to become the Symbol of Evil. |
| “ | All For One: It's quite simple, I got the inspiration from comic books. The big bad villain is always feared by people around the world. Why do you think that is? Hawks: Because what they do is evil? All For One: And what counts as evil? In this world with it's endless numbers of cultures and values, what is the one thing that is universally loathed and feared? The death of a dream. Having the future you always visioned snatched away from you. So, that's what I plan to do. Take away the future of everyone in this world. That's all I've ever wished for from the very beginning. |
„ |
| ~ All For One telling Hawks his ultimate goal. |
All For One, reputed as the Symbol of Evil, is the overarching antagonist of the My Hero Academia franchise.
He is the founder and leader of the League of Villains and the master and adopted father of Tomura Shigaraki, who wishes to steal the Quirk One For All in order to destroy modern-day Japan and become the Symbol of Evil, feared and hated by everyone across the world.
Due to his actions and influence, he is the arch-nemesis of the One For All Users (particularly towards his twin brother Yoichi, Kudo, Nana Shimura, All Might, and Izuku Midoriya) and Class 1-A (particularly towards Katsuki Bakugo).
In the Japanese version of the anime, he is voiced by Akio Ōtsuka (whom also voiced Yujiro Hanma from Baki) and Hiroshi Kamiya as his younger self, while he is voiced by John Swasey (who also voices Crocodile in One Piece) in the English dub.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Unlike almost all other villains in the franchise, who are victims of the society they were raised in and a product of the corruption and flawed system of the Hero Society and are usually presented in a sympathetic light, All For One is almost never presented in a sympathetic light, only wanting to be evil to satiate his delusions of wishing to be reviled and known as the "Symbol of Evil," to be despised by everyone, and overall, to be reputed as the most evil man to have ever graced the planet.
- Although his backstory is genuinely tragic, having been born to a prostitute who died during childbirth, living in extreme poverty and in a society where people hunted those with Quirks, his past does not mitigate him because of the fact that his brother lived in the same conditions and was physically weaker, yet he did not become a psychopath like him. He doesn't even seem to be affected by his tragedy, never using it to justify his actions or even mentioning it.
- The series itself also frames his backstory as less of a Freudian Excuse and more to show how he rose to become the pinnacle of evil. It even tries framing it in a way to show that he was always an egomaniac that believed the world belonged to him from the start, and regardless of circumstance, he was going to turn out as evil as he did.
- He has no care or emotional ties for nearly anyone, seeing others as a means to an end and a way for him to get closer to his goals, usually manipulating them using the discrimination they faced in the past to make them join their cause. By his very own admission, All For One's minions and partners are nothing more to him than disposable pawns. Even his personal doctor and friend, Daruma Ujiko, is nothing more than a mere pawn to him, just using his knowledge to create Nomus, and he didn't even lift a finger to free him.
- While initially seeming like a twisted but still affectionate adoptive father to Tomura, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent he only took him in because he is Nana Shimura's grandson, making it the ultimate act of spite by turning him into his successor, and frequently tries to subvert his sense of identity by permanently possessing Tomura's body for the sake of his legacy as the ultimate evil. This proves that he only sees Tomura as a vessel/ tool for him to groom and use.
- It's telling the only person he actually cares about, Yoichi, is a person All For One is still very toxic and possessive over, having abused him as a kid when he objected against his evil actions, imprisoning him for his rebellion, and even murdering him later on.
- While initially seeming like a twisted but still affectionate adoptive father to Tomura, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent he only took him in because he is Nana Shimura's grandson, making it the ultimate act of spite by turning him into his successor, and frequently tries to subvert his sense of identity by permanently possessing Tomura's body for the sake of his legacy as the ultimate evil. This proves that he only sees Tomura as a vessel/ tool for him to groom and use.
- While stating that he does get deterred when he dreams about the souls of the people he killed and stole the Quirks of haunting him, he balks at any true idea of feeling remorse for his actions, as he believes guilt is only a feeling of normal humans that he believes himself to be far superior to, and so he has been burying it for the sake of his god complex.
- He is such a black hole of evil that nearly anyone who associates themselves with All For One ends up becoming corrupted and evil thanks to his influence. Notable examples include Tomura Shigaraki, Number 6, and Daruma Ujiko. Emphasizing this further, in his reveal scene, he strikes fear in Izuku Midoriya, Tenya Ida, Shoto Todoroki, Eijiro Kirishima, and Momo Yaoyorozu just through his presence and malice during their rescue plan to save Katsuki Bakugo, even when the students know he hasn't discovered them yet.
- Although Spinner, who plans to make Stain’s dreams a reality and cares about Tomura, does not see All For One (while possessing Tomura's body) as the one he chose to follow at first, he later reluctantly follows the Symbol of Evil’s plan.
- In general, he is so evil that the usually cheery characters like Deku and All Might, the former of whom often tries his best to appeal to his enemies and redeem them, only view All For One in sheer contempt, as they know he is beyond redemption.
- It has gotten to the point where, after his breakout, instead of trying to capture him, the heroes' plan was to kill All For One for good, as they knew he was too dangerous to be left alive.
- Ultimately, he is someone dedicated to being the evilest person alive, who sought to sever his ties to humanity but ultimately failed. He seeks to reduce the entire planet to dystopian ruins, plunging it into a state of complete anarchy that sees countless lives lost and the economy in shambles, so as to "obstruct humanity's future," as all that survives of humanity are only left with the future of being All For One's subject to a harsh draconian rule, having all of them suffer on the basis of mere whims to earn everyone's disgust and be the pinnacle of evil.
- Even when he had some comedic moments here and there (ex. his reintroduction in the War Saga as hammy and over-the-top with his obsessions with supervillains that Pro Heroes mocked him for), and his absurd traits such as his pettiness, smugness and overconfidence doesn't subvert him being taken fully seriously and always remained a serious threat throughout.
Background[]
- He spent his childhood stealing other people's Quirks and murdering them. When Yoichi tried to stop him, he kicked and abused him.
- While he did help people with unwanted Quirks by removing them and granting Quirks to people who needed them, it was only to build an army for him.
- When his followers killed someone who opposed him, All For One grinned sadistically due to his god complex.
- He is shown to think of himself as the villain in the comic books he read, even dropping his and Yoichi's comics as a child as he always knew the hero would defeat the Demon Lord.
- When an Anti-Meta Taskforce saw the child All For One and decided not to go near him, All For One slaughtered them with the Spearlike Bones Quirk he stole from his mother.
- Jealous over the Luminescent Baby getting more attention for being the "first" Quirk user, All For One murdered them and stole their Quirk, bragging to Yoichi about wishing to keep the world to himself.
- Over the course of generations, he slowly built an empire where he ruled Japan from the shadows, using his power to steal abilities and manipulate others into serving him, which led to countless deaths.
- When Yoichi refused to submit to him, he kept him locked in a vault and gave him a Quirk against his will to force him under his control, resulting in the birth of One For All.
- When Kudo and Bruce rescued Yoichi and fled, All For One brutally murdered Yoichi in front of them, feeling insulted that Yoichi would abandon him after everything he did for him.
- For the past seven generations, he hunted down each user of One For All, brutally killing them to gain their Quirk.
- To make it worse, he proceeded to slaughter their entire family lineage as well, killing their families out of spite against them.
- A very notable instances is with Kudo, the second user, where he fakes anguish over Yoichi's death to confuse and dismay him and lower his guard before he snaps his neck, and then wipes out his entire bloodline and kills any and all women and children close to him.
- This even includes Nana Shimura, in which he brutally murders her and even keeps her severed hand as a souvenir, and frequently uses this to taunt her successor, Toshinori Yagi, AKA All Might.
- A very notable instances is with Kudo, the second user, where he fakes anguish over Yoichi's death to confuse and dismay him and lower his guard before he snaps his neck, and then wipes out his entire bloodline and kills any and all women and children close to him.
- To make it worse, he proceeded to slaughter their entire family lineage as well, killing their families out of spite against them.
- After tracking down Nana's orphaned son, Kotaro, All For One convinced him to have another child, Tenko Shimura, because his daughter, Hana, was too old to be corrupted. Along with encouraging Kotaro’s “strict ways” (being physically and emotionally abusive towards his son due to his adoration for superheroes), he then stole Tenko’s original Quirk and gave him Decay to orchestrate the freak accident that sees Tenko lost control of his quirk and unwillingly kill his entire family.
- Afterwards, he adopts him with the specific intention of grooming him to become his wantonly destructive successor, Tomura Shigaraki, by playing on Tenko's hatred for the world and encourage him to destroy everything as the ultimate act of spite against Nana Shimura and All Might.
- He is the one who sent Dr. Ujiko to cause an explosion to kill Shota Aizawa, and when his friend Oboro Shirakumo took the hit, All For One turned him into a Nomu called Kurogiri.
- He and Ujiko kidnapped other children to serve as potential vessels for himself, including Number 6, whom he took advantage of by using the child's lack of self to groom him into a villain and have him hear All For One's voice in his head to drive him insane and do his bidding, making him into a horrible villain.
- He saved Toya Todoroki, later known as the supervillain Dabi, after being severely burned by his quirk and attempted to turn him into another pawn of his along with the rest of the kidnapped children, gleefully taunting Endeavor about it later on.
- To make things even worse, it is revealed by Dabi that when the kids were no longer useful, All For One had them turned into Nomus to serve as future pawns.
- He ran the Underground Masquerade ring to have people fight illegally and use their Quirks without restraint, to deal Quirk boosting drugs to criminals, and to steal Quirks from promising people that caught his eye.
- He used his Quirk to power up multiple people, turn them into dangerous villains, and have them rampage throughout the city to distract All Might so he could try to have his Nomu Hood steal O'Clock's Quirk and scar his face, causing him to end his hero career and turning him into a depressed alcoholic with a strained relationship with his family.
- In his previous battle with All Might, All For One crippled him so badly. All Might couldn't be a hero for a long time after giving a devastating blow to his abdomen, something he gleefully taunted him about.
- Coerced Yuga Aoyama and his parents into aiding in his plans by forcing the former to act as his mole within U.A. High School, threatening the Aoyama family with death if their son wouldn't cooperate with his plans. He even threatened them by showing them another individual who was killed by him for failing him.
- Despite Gigantomachia being his bodyguard and very loyal to him, All For One abandons him in the mountains due to the fact that he doesn’t really care about his giant loyal servant at all.
Vigilantes[]
- He formed the Villain Factory and had them distribute Trigger drugs to turn Quirk users into Instant Villains to cause widespread chaos, and he even kidnapped specific people to experiment on and turn into Next Level Villains.
- Being the boss of the Villain Factory, he is also responsible for all the crimes Number 6 and Kuin Hachisuka committed, including the terrorist attack on the Sky Egg, which would have killed 50,000 people, Kuin possessing Pop☆Step and framing her by killing civilians, and Number 6's rampage throughout Naruhata in his transformed state, the latter of which All For One showed satisfaction with.
- He regarded Number 6 as the perfect guinea pig, stated he would die, and attempted to make the dying Number 6 try to kill Koichi Haimawari one last time.
My Hero Academia[]
- After making Yuga give Tomura and the League the location of the U.S.J., All for One ordered Tomura to invade U.A. High School to kill as many students of Class 1-A as they could to draw All Might out at the U.S.J.
- With Yuga giving Tomura and the League the location of the Training Camp like he did before with the U.S.J., All For One organized an attempt to kidnap Katsuki Bakugo and Fumikage Tokoyami for the sake of corrupting them to join the League of Villains, having Ragdoll kidnapped as well, but to no avail as the latter two managed to escape from their grasp while the former rejected their offer.
- Steals Ragdoll’s Search Quirk.
- When Best Jeanist fights back, he sends an air cannon into his stomach, which fatally wounds him.
- Launches the infamously destructive Kamino Raid Villain Invasion, seeing him lay waste to the densely populated Kamino Ward that sees the lives of many people endangered and even outright lost.
- The casualty rate of this incident is so outrageously high that it has been used as a benchmark at times to see how bad other villain attacks in the series are.
- Revealed Tomura's true identity as Nana's grandson, breaking All Might's resolve and forcing him to reveal his true identity as Toshinori Yagi, nearly exhausting his final flames of One For All to destroy his reputation as the Symbol of Peace. This ultimately results in All Might forcing himself to an early retirement and burdening his successor, Izuku Midoriya, to protect the public from destructive supervillains, exactly as All For One planned.
- Offers to help Wolfram invade I-Island and steal David Shield's Quirk Amplification Device by giving Wolfram a Muscle Augmentation Quirk and information on All Might because he wanted to twist David Shield, All Might's best friend, to villainy. Wolfram then reveals this to All Might, which puts him in shock, knowing that his archenemy orchestrated the whole incident.
- Has Daruma Ujiko enhance Nine with a limited version of his Quirk in order to help him create a strong superhuman society and cause chaos.
- From stationing the infamously destructive Gigantomachia as well as Daruma Ujiko, All For One leaves various pieces for Tomura Shigaraki to achieve his true potential as the incarnation of destruction and become a heinous villain in his own right.
- This ultimately resulted in the Paranormal Liberation War, which saw countless lives lost as various areas of Japan were engulfed and destroyed by the war.
- Attempts to possess Tomura's body and merge and take control over his soul so he can use Tomura's body as a replacement for his broken original body, feeling that Tomura's capability of having extreme emotions like hate would make him stronger as All for One was such a psychopath, he was unable to feel such things.
- Callously abandons the League of Villains and their associates to be arrested despite Tomura's pleas to save them, as he knows Tomura cares for them. He even abandons his other loyal minions, Gigantomachia and Daruma Ujiko, to be captured, causing the former to be disillusioned to the point of abandoning his loyalty.
- Using Tomura, All For One organizes a huge break-in at Tartarus that sees numerous destructive supervillains unleashed onto Japan, free to destroy and kill as they please.
- Using Muscular, he organizes prison breakouts in numerous other prisons, unleashing countless other destructive supervillains.
- This all culminates in Japan being reduced to dystopian ruins as the entire nation is left in ruins on the basis of infrastructure and economy, as well as countless lives lost as a result of the anarchy as all civilians, with those that manage to survive the constant villain attacks forced to fortify camps, are all trying to attack.
- Hired Lady Nagant with the sole purpose of taking advantage of Izuku's heroic nature. When she started to consider joining the heroes, All For One caused Nagant to explode, severely wounding and nearly killing her.
- Afterwards, he taunted Izuku over this, saying he was his current target. These words would break Izuku's spirit to the point where he tried to distance himself from his loved ones out of concern for their safety.
- Using his influence, he reduced all other nations in the world to the same ruined, desolate state Japan was reduced to through destabilization and bloodshed.
- Coerced Yuga into slipping information about U.A. again for some unspecified reason, leading to his being caught by the rest of the 1-A and his breakdown for betraying his only friends.
- In the Final War Arc, when he feels his rule is threatened, he tries to directly attack his opponents in pointlessly brutal ways just to be sadistic and would've successfully killed them if they weren't saved by someone. All in the same moment, he provokes Endeavor so he recklessly attacks him, giving All For One the opening to incapacitate him, and upon incapacitating Endeavor, he tries to blast Hawks to death with an electricity attack. Then when Hawks is saved by Kyoka Jiro at the last second, he calls her and Fumikage 'side characters who only exist to make him look stronger' just before trying to kill them. Following his taunt, he then uses a head-based Quirk to attack Kyoka with and then uses a giant laser cannon when his attack is thwarted by Hawks. When his attack only manages to tear off Kyoka's ear (and her Quirk along with that), he then proceeds to mock her afterwards for thinking she was capable of taking him down. All of this only leads to Kyoka being willing to take him down for good after proving himself to be irredeemable.
- Upon restoring himself to his prime, he resolved to reunite with Tomura and forcibly control him so that when his original body gets reversed out of existence, All For One can instead live permanently by taking over Tomura's soul and body to continue his goals.
- Knocked out all the heroes and Gunga, planning to steal Fumikage’s Quirk. He also killed Gigantomachia by destroying a large portion of his body.
- Steals Hawks’ Fierce Wings Quirk.
- He tries to sadistically kill All Might to slake his hatred of him and has Stain killed in the process. He then steals the latter's Bloodcurdle Quirk, uses this to foil All Might's heroic sacrifice, and tries to kill him in a live broadcast for the world to see to tear everyone's spirits down.
- Having a hatred for Katsuki for reminding him of Kudo, All For One actives all of his Quirks to create an abomination that destroys everything in his path so that he can kill Katsuki, All Might, and possess Tomura.
- Even when reduced to a baby, he does not give up his evil and tries to kill Katsuki so that he can make a futile attempt to possess Tomura and be the most evil human in history, just before Katsuki finally defeats him by making him cease to exist.
- When Tomura begun to show remorse for his evil deeds, his vestige appeared in order to kill Tomura and Izuku so that he could stop Tomura from ever retaking control.
- Mocked Tomura over the revelation of him giving him Decay, stating he never made a single choice of his own before seemingly destroying his vestige.
- While he was upset that Yoichi's vestige sacrificed himself to stop Tomura, it is not played for sympathy due to All For One wanting Yoichi to witness his rule as the Demon Lord and finally control Yoichi, and with his destruction, All for One can no longer satisfy his obsession. It is then taken to even greater extremes as All For One uses his sense of defeat to empower himself further, declaring that "Tragedies make people stronger".
- He tried to kill Izuku in the real world after he lost both arms, still intending to conquer the world, seeking to push his "Tragedies make people stronger" philosophy to the world.
- He tries to take the last remaining ember of One For All (Yoichi), before he is finally destroyed by Izuku, Tomura and the One For All users.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- While their relationship is very toxic and possessive, he does genuinely love Yoichi. He is visibly shocked when he accidently killed him, and his hunt for One For All isn't just a witch-hunt to satisfy his fraternal urges of control, but rather him genuinely seeking to reunite with him, to the point of being notably depressed when it seemed like Yoichi was gone for good. When he meets Yoichi's vestige, and upon seeing it fade away, he starts panicking and begs his little brother to not leave him again before swallowing his pride and admitting he really does love Yoichi and is nothing without him. It should be noted that this does nothing to downplay his status as the most heinous character in the whole My Hero Academia franchise, but it does give him his only redeeming quality, and in spite of said heinousness, his last moments prove that he truly has some degree of emotional connection with at least one person, that being his brother Yoichi.
- His final moments, consisting of Deku giving him sympathy and him reuniting with Yoichi one last time, are meant to humanize him and show that he isn't the incomprehensible monster he wanted everyone to believe he is, but rather a "lonely man", spending his final moments confronting the humanity he tried so desperately to ignore and sever off.
Trivia[]
- All For One was initially approved as Near Pure Evil, until it was decided that his care for Yoichi wasn't genuine, and was then approved as a Pure Evil villain. This lasted until Chapter 423 revealed that his love for Yoichi was genuine, which, combined with his sympathetic death, allowed him to requalify as Near Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- All For One on the Villains Wiki
- All For One on the My Hero Academia Wiki
- All For One on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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All For One | Daruma Ujiko | Flect Turn | Gigantomachia | Kai Chisaki | Nine | ||