History Manga / MyHeroAcademia

!!''My Hero Academia'' provides examples of:

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* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Technology in this world is a bit more advanced than our own; hologram projectors are small and cheap enough to be handed out with magazines à la CD-ROM demos and in an omake, Mt. Lady mentions 8K television.[[note]]8K [=TVs=] do exist, but are very, ''very'' expensive. The most powerful [=TVs=] affordable for consumers are 4K.[[/note]] This is eventually subverted as culturally, it's played straight, but only because Midoriya notes at one point that when Quirks first appeared, human culture was thrown into such an uproar that culture and technology ''regressed''. He says that if Quirks hadn't appeared, humans would be taking interstellar holidays at that point in history. It's also confirmed to have been at least eight or nine generations since Quirks first developed, which is an unspecified amount of time in the future from the present day.
* AbuseDiscretionShot: While it's made clear early on that Endeavor is physically abusing his family, he is never shown at the moment when he is hitting his children. Instead, we are mostly shown the aftermath of those moments, such as Toya struggling on the floor, or Natsuo and Fuyumi huddled together listening in to the screaming.
* AbusiveParents:
** Endeavor only sees Shoto as a tool to surpass All Might and nothing more, as shown by the way he doesn't even refer to Shoto as a person, but "it". In a flashback, he put Shoto through TrainingFromHell, which caused the child to vomit, and isolated him from his other children. Ironically, Shoto's burn mark didn't come from his father, but from his mother, though Shoto still pins the blame on his father for driving his mother to that level of mental instability. [[spoiler:After All Might retires, however, he starts to realize how badly he has treated his family and is trying to make amends.]] Worse, Shoto may not even be the worst victim of Endeavor's children. He's treated his second son, Natsuo, like a failure, and doesn't seem to care much about his only daughter, Fuyumi. [[spoiler:And then there's his oldest son, Toya, who was his original successor, but it's implied his much stronger Fire Quirk came with his mother's weakness to hot temperatures (her Quirk is Ice) and when forced to learn a DangerousForbiddenTechnique, it's believed Toya died. Later on, however, Dabi reveals he's actually Toya, who then unleashes the details of his past on television to destroy Endeavor's reputation.]]
** Subverted with Rei Todoroki. She was a kind woman who encouraged Shoto to pursue his own dreams but snapped due to a combination of the frustration for being used and the fact her children were beginning to look like Endeavor, which resulted in her dumping boiling water on Shoto's face in a MomentOfWeakness. It's implied that she was physically and/or mentally abused by Endeavor as well, given his intense treatment of Shoto and her fear of her own husband. She gets better later on after being hospitalized and isolated from Endeavor, and Shoto reconciles with her after the Sports Festival when he begins to realize that he wasn't the cause of her mental break.
** Zigzagged with Mitsuki Bakugo. Her response to getting her son, Katsuki, back after he is rescued from villains is to repeatedly hit him in the head and [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming tell him it's his own fault for being too weak]]. However, other than that instance and being rough with him, it's made clear that she's otherwise [[GoodParents a loving parent]]. The combination of his general natural skill (including a powerful Quirk) he got a ton of praise as a kid, leading to a huge ego to go along with a short temper, it's implied she's just strict or, [[ParentsAsPeople trying]] to be strict, to curb his explosive tendencies (which, seeing as he's a reflection of her temper-wise, obviously doesn't work). It's also a bit slapstick, so it's uncertain if it's even physical abuse.
** Overhaul pretends to be Eri's father just for the sake of corralling her more easily. He makes her think she's a weapon being used and born to destroy people. [[spoiler:He drains her blood to use its properties to make Quirk nullifying bullets. When she runs out of blood to give, he uses his Quirk to break her down and reset her back to normal. Given what's seen of people who have been broken down, it cannot have been a nice experience at all, and he confirms later that his broken and reformed victims still feel the pain of being split apart]]. Mirio is completely horrified when he learns about it.
** Eri's mother didn't want anything with her after [[spoiler:Eri's developing Quirk accidentally erased her father from existence. As such, Eri's mother left her in the care of her grandfather, the former Boss of the Shie Hassaikai, after telling Eri that she's cursed.]]
** [[spoiler:Shigaraki]]'s father, Kotaro, would harshly punish him when the former played heroes due to the latter's abandonment issues of his mother, [[spoiler:Nana Shimura]], left him in foster care due to hero work. Kotaro would even lock [[spoiler:Shigaraki]] outside of the house in the backyard. [[spoiler:Shigaraki]]'s mother and maternal grandparents were genuinely kind to him but they were too meek to stand up to Kotaro. When Kotaro discovered that his children had entered his office and saw his picture of his mother and him as a young boy, he angrily confronted them. Hana, who was scared, lied to her father by saying that it was all [[spoiler:Shigaraki]]'s (back then as Tenko's) idea. This caused Kotaro to physically hit [[spoiler:Shigaraki]] in front of the entire family while no one did anything to stop him. After his wife and her parents confronted him, Kotaro began to question himself on his behavior toward his son. [[spoiler:However, when Shigaraki's Quirk finally appeared and accidentally killed his dog, sister, mother, and grandparents, Kotaro tried to defend himself from his son by using a garden tool and hitting the boy. But it was then that Shigaraki had enough of his father's strict and abusive rules, to which Shigaraki responded by killing his father. Shigaraki even said that he enjoyed doing it.]]
* AcademyOfAdventure: U.A., a school that trains those who wish to be superheroes. Not only that, but they have a Hero Support course for {{Gadgeteer Genius}}es, a Hero Management course for those who work behind the scenes managing and advertising heroes, and a General Education course for those who don't make it into the hero course or are expelled from it.
* AccompliceByInaction:
** In the aftermath of the Hideout Raid Arc, Aizawa states that were it not for [[spoiler:All Might's retirement]], he would not just have expelled Midoriya, Kirishima, Ida, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki for their actions during said raid, but ''every single student in Class 1-A'', save those who were LockedOutOfTheLoop, simply for knowing about it and doing nothing to stop it.
** In the same episode, Tsuyu had a lot of regrets when realizing her usual BrutalHonesty about the situation (going so far as to compare the students on the mission to villains) was too harsh, and doing nothing at all hurt even worse. She avoids them until she finds the courage to tearfully apologize and set things straight.
** In the Internship Arc, Midoriya and Mirio, while out on patrol, happen upon Eri, a young girl in bandages, at which point [[ArcVillain Overhaul]], the yakuza boss their hero agency is investigating, comes to retrieve her, saying that she's his daughter. Midoriya realizes that something's up, as does Mirio, but they follow Sir Nighteye's orders not to interfere, albeit reluctantly in Midoriya's case, letting Overhaul leave with Eri. It later turns out that [[spoiler:Overhaul has been submitting Eri to horrific abuse, using her body to create bullets capable of destroying people's Quirks]]. Midoriya and Mirio are both horrified over what they allowed to happen and swear to save Eri.
* ActionGirl: Despite the cast focusing primarily on males, women have as much a chance to not only be born with strong quirks as men but to be action heroines/villainesses as well.
* AdaptationExpansion:
** The anime generally spends more time on fights and occasionally adapts volume extras and omakes from the manga, such as Mt. Lady and Midnight's CatFight.
** In the anime, All Might's fight with Nomu takes a few minutes, consisting of All Might throwing the Nomu up and down and destroying the ground and the ceiling with his punches.
** Due to working with tight deadlines in ''Shonen Jump'', a lot of fights that aren't very noteworthy in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc get little or no attention in the manga, with some being skipped entirely. This is particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} in the case of Yaoyorozu's ill-fated bout with Tokoyami, which actually messes her up a bit emotionally, and Horikoshi chose to reduce it to a flashback. Season 2 of the anime wasn't tied down by such limitations and needed to fill up its allotted time, so all the minimized fights get the attention they truly deserve.
** The Field Training Arc in the manga focuses primarily on Midoriya, Ida, and Todoroki's internships, leaving the others to cameos. The anime, however, devotes an entire episode to the internships of Uraraka, Bakugo, Kirishima, and Tetsutetsu, Yaoyorozu and Kendo, Jiro, and Tsuyu, showing events that were only referenced in manga such as Tsuyu stopping a group of stowaways, and Uraraka's training under Gunhead.
** In the Final Exams Arc, each student vs. teacher match goes one team at a time while the others wait and prepare strategies, unlike in the manga where all ten fights are ongoing at the same time. This gives the earlier matches a bigger disadvantage, but it does allow the anime to focus on each match instead of flipping around like the manga does. Thus, fights that happen offscreen in the manga, such as Ida/Ojiro vs. Power Loader, are shown. As a result, Midoriya doesn't watch the others after his match; instead, he is joined by Uraraka. Also, the anime devotes a bit more time to show how the students prepare for the written exam.
** The Forest Training Camp Arc has a few pages of Todoroki, Ida, Bakugo, and Midoriya fighting against some of Pixie-Bob's rock creatures. The anime adaptation has a four-minute long sequence of the fight, showcasing each member of Class 1-A using their Quirks to fight them.
** Episodes 54 and 55 expand upon the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc by showing what students other than Midoriya and Bakugo are doing while Class 1-A are separated: Todoroki battles a group of ninjas, of which the manga only shows the aftermath, whereas Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Tsuyu, and Shoji get an anime-exclusive sequence where they deal with a coordinated attack by an all-girls school and Yaoyorozu, in particular, gets the chance to shine.
* AdventuresInComaland: In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, [[spoiler:Midoriya is seen comatose and All Might can feel he's talking to his predecessors in a DreamSequence where he still cannot appear completely, half of his body being shrouded in a dark mist.]]
* AfterTheEnd: When Quirks first appeared, it resulted in a Class 1 collapse of society. The flashbacks imply civilization was roughly modern day level before this. This only ended when heroes rose to end the chaos that resulted, and modern day is ''at least'' 100 years after that with society having rebuilt, as All For One is a first generation Quirk user.
* AnAesop:
** The U.A. Sports Festival gives a rather interesting and unconventional one: if you're in a competition, it's important to give it your all even if you have a massive advantage over the rest of the contenders. There are two reasons for this: the first is that if you underestimate your enemies it becomes easier for them to completely sweep you off your feet, as shown by Monoma and Bakugo both suffering humiliating defeats at the hands of others because they disregarded them as a threat. Monoma learns nothing from the experience, but Bakugo learns to judge others by their own merits, and as such secures a win from Uraraka after she lays a pretty devastating trap for him. The second is that if you don't give it your all, you're insulting your competitors and disrespecting their efforts. Todoroki holds back on his devastating potential and half of his Quirk, which results in a lot of people coming to dislike him. Despite having his own reasons to do so, Midoriya eventually reaches out to him and convinces him that the Quirk passed down by his parents (especially his father) is his own.
** Later on in the series, which again relates to Todoroki, there is a much more contentious and realistic one: when an abusive family member decides on their own to become a kinder person (whether the change is genuine or not), the people closest to them ''will'' have their own opinions on how they feel about the change, and it's important to acknowledge the validity of each of them. When Endeavor starts to mellow out and take steps towards being a better husband and father to his wife and children, each member has differing reactions, from ThisIsUnforgivable (Natsuo) to TurnTheOtherCheek (Fuyumi, and Rei to an extent), to ForgivenButNotForgotten (Shoto). All of them are considered valid reactions.
** The final saga of the manga heavily relies on the Aesop that ''everyone'' in society has a responsibility and a role to play in its improvement.
** Chapters 377 and 378 make a case for the rehabilitation and care of criminals. As Naomasa mentions, "a crime is a crime, but it's not always a lost cause". [[spoiler:Being willing to give Gentle, La Brava, and Lady Nagant a second chance turns out to be crucial during the final fight.]]
* TheAlcatraz: Tartarus, the maximum security prison for the worst criminals. It's so heavily defended that the BigBad remarks a frontal assault would be 'quite difficult'.
* AllGenesAreCodominant: Quirk inheritance sort of works this way. A child of parents with Quirks can get a Quirk that's a combination of both (such as Bakugo, whose mother secretes glycerin and whose father secretes nitric acid, thus, [[HavingABlast explosion powers for him]], and Todoroki, whose father had [[PlayingWithFire fire powers]] and whose mother had [[AnIcePerson ice powers]], thus, [[ComboPlatterPowers he gets both]]). Other times, the child can get one [[MuggleBornOfMages or neither]] of the parents' Quirks. There are also [[RandomSpeciesOffspring rare mutations where a child has a completely different Quirk]] from their family.
* AllThereInTheManual: The bonus pages for the manga volumes sometimes reveal interesting details about characters or the setting, especially in the character profile pages. One page also explains how the law against unlicensed Quirk usage is enforced and says that people generally don't get in trouble unless they cause harm to others. For example, Inko Midoriya could use her telekinetic Quirk to retrieve her cell phone without too many people complaining.
* AloneWithThePsycho: This happens with Midoriya just before the training camp kicks off when he encounters Shigaraki at the mall. He's only saved due to the timely arrival of Uraraka.
* AlternateCatchphraseInflection: All Might always heralds his arrival with an uplifting and triumphant "I am here!". When he shows up at USJ to rescue 1-A from the League of Villains, he still says it, but in a low, intimidating tone because he's angry with the League for attacking his students.
* AlternateUniverse: The second popularity poll shows its participants in [[http://msleilei.tumblr.com/post/160490545659/removed-the-text-from-the-2nd-popularity-poll fantasy clothing]], which was later expanded into an RPGMechanicsVerse through merchandise. This scenario is given a better look in the third ED of the anime, which shows all the characters adventuring in that world.
* AlwaysInClassOne: With only two classes of new students in the Hero Department, it was roughly a 50-50 shot. Despite this, everyone important still ended up being placed in Class 1-A. Putting all the strong Quirked kids in the same class makes sense, since their teacher can erase them if they get out of hand, and Class 1-A is being targeted since Midoriya is in it, so everyone in the class ends up being roped into importance. However, this still stands for him, since there's no reason Aizawa's class couldn't have been Class 1-B instead. [[spoiler:This becomes a ''plot point'' in the endgame, as [[BigBad All For One]] was so fixated on 1-A that 1-B slipped under his radar. As such, Monoma is a major part of their plan to trap him, as All For One never bothered to give 1-B much thought and thus [[PowerCopying his Quirk]] wasn't factored into his plan.]]
* AmbiguousTimePeriod: It's hard to tell when exactly the series takes place, other than it being in the future. Though the level of technological advancement shown seems to place the setting TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, it's been stated that most scientific research slowed down in order to focus more on the study of Quirks, meaning that the actual year could be centuries ahead of ours.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Several characters, ranging from major to background ones, are this thanks to the diversity of Quirks. This was {{deconstructed|Trope}} in the past, as the definition of "human" became very loose and humanity in general devolved into chaos, halting progress considerably.
* AngerBornOfWorry: [[spoiler:Upon finding out that Deku is in a coma after the Paranormal Liberation War arc, Bakugo's immediate response is declaring that he'll "Kill him if he dies"]]
* AnimationBump: Basically, if you see Yutaka Nakamura's name listed on an episode ahead of time, you can expect this to happen. Examples included:
** The finale of the fight between Midoriya and Todoroki gets a rather noticeable animation quality hike. It's rather breathtaking.
** Bakugo blasting off [[spoiler:to escape the League of Villains and take Kirishima's hand]] has a large spike in quality – if not for the fact that such movements are impossible, it could be mistaken for {{Rotoscoping}}.
** Midoriya and Bakugo's fight in Season 3 really ramped up the animation to the same level as Midoriya vs. Todoroki.
** Perhaps not Nakamura, but most, if not all, of Mirio's fighting scenes. It's usually in the standard slow-motion illustrated style, but even then the tiniest details are included, to the point that you can see Eri both flinch and widen her eyes in shock when he uses his Quirk to kick through her and she doesn't get hit.
** When Midoriya uses Eri's Quirk to his advantage to go [[SuperMode One For All: Infinite 100%]] against Overhaul. The result is absolutely stunning to watch.
** Endeavor vs. Hood, especially the climax of the fight [[spoiler:where Endeavor heads to the sky to use a Plus Ultra Prominence Burn]].
* {{Animesque}}: {{Inverted|Trope}}. This is an anime that emulates Western superhero tropes.
* AntiHero: Deconstructed. Heroes are supposed to be beacons of hope for society, so even if someone is strong and capable of defeating villains, there will be issues if a huge jerkass becomes a hero. It's understandable that [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Endeavor]] has a large hatedom and only a select few of the characters believe in [[{{Jerkass}} Bakugo]]'s intent to become a hero.
* AntiRegeneration: Endeavor defeats a Nomu with a "Super Regeneration" Quirk by making his flames hot enough to turn blue and carbonize the head off.
* AnyoneCanDie: As shown in the Internship and Paranormal Liberation War Arcs, as rare as it is, even long-standing pro heroes (as well as recurring villains) can't escape death.
* ApatheticTeacher: Even while Midoriya is being attacked by Bakugo and surrounded by a CircleOfShame, his middle school teacher did nothing to try and stop the bullying in the first chapter. This is implied to be specific discrimination and turning a blind eye because he's Quirkless. Later arcs retroactively make them worse than what might have been intended, as Quirk usage would later be depicted as heavily regulated in Japan, to the point of needing to get a specific license. As such, the fact that no staff member at Aldera bothered to punish Bakugo for using his Quirk to essentially intimidate Midoriya comes as bizarre.
* ArcVillain: All For One and Tomura Shigaraki are the most prominent villains in the series, but some story arcs have their own antagonists:
** The Entrance Exam, Quirk Apprehension Test, and Battle Trial Arcs all share [[TheRival Bakugo]] as this, despite not exactly being a villain, while the [[StarterVillain Sludge Villain]] counts only for the first chapter.
** The USJ Arc gives us [[BigBad Tomura Shigaraki]], the leader of the League of Villains, with the USJ Nomu acting as TheHeavy.
** The U.A. Sports Festival Arc has [[TheAce Shoto Todoroki]], but only because of [[AbusiveParents Endeavor]] being present to trigger him.
** The Hero Killer Arc gives us the titular [[HeroKiller Hero Killer: Stain]].
** For the Final Exams Arc, it's technically U.A. and its [[BadassTeacher teacher staff]]. Justified with this being a school setting, although some of them did go a bit too far.
** For the Forest Training Camp Arc, there's the [[VillainTeamUp Vanguard Action Squad]] of the League of Villains, though Muscular in particular due to his story with Kota's parents.
** For the Hideout Raid Arc, it's [[GreaterScopeVillain All For One]], the mastermind behind the League of Villains.
** For the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc, there's [[CreepyGood Gang Orca]], who served as the main obstacle in the actual exam, and [[SinsOfOurFathers Inasa Yoarashi]], the closest thing the arc had to an actual antagonist.
** The Internship Arc gives us [[{{Yakuza}} Overhaul]], leader of the Shie Hassaikai.
** The U.A. Cultural Festival Arc introduces [[AntiVillain Gentle Criminal and La Brava]].
** The Pro Hero Arc has the [[AllYourPowersCombined High-End]] [[ArtificialHuman Nomu]], [[FluffyTheTerrible Hood]].
** The Joint Training Arc has [[SitcomArchnemesis Monoma]], who isn't exactly a villain, but is the only one antagonistic towards Class 1-A.
** The Meta Liberation Army Arc has the titular Meta Liberation Army, led by [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Re-Destro]].
** For the Endeavor Agency Arc there's [[DeathSeeker Ending]] who's plan is to be [[SuicidebyCop killed by Endeavor]].
** For long Paranormal Liberation War Arc there's Paranormal Liberation Front, combination of Meta Liberation Army and League of Villains, though it's Shigaraki who takes the spotlight the most.
** The Dark Hero Arc has [[AntiVillain Lady Nagant]].
** For the Star and Stripe Arc it's [[spoiler:Shigaraki, who's body has been taken over by All For One.]]
** The U.A. Traitor Arc [[spoiler:has a Class 1-A member [[AntiVilain Yuga]] [[RegretfulTraitor Aoyama]]]].
** [[spoiler:The Final War arc has All For One and remains from Paranormal Liberation Front with Shigaraki, Dabi and Toga taking major roles.]]
* ArcWords:
** ''Plus Ultra'', U.A.'s motto.
** "[X]: the Origin", whenever the narrative focuses on a particular U.A. student and their starting point in becoming a true hero. So far, this has been the case for [[TheHero Midoriya]], [[TheAce Todoroki]], and [[TheRival Bakugo]]. Endeavor also eventually gets his own "Starting Line" in Chapter 167. A darker example of this is given to [[spoiler:Shigaraki during the Meta Liberation Army Arc. In fact, he actually gets two "Origin" chapters, one for him as [[UsedToBeASweetKid Tenko Shimura]] where it shows [[TraumaticSuperPowerAwakening the horrific circumstances]] [[AbusiveParents surrounding his childhood]] and subsequent grooming by All For One, and one for him as Tomura Shigaraki where he finally begins to come into his own as the [[DragonAscendant heir to All For One's criminal legacy.]]]]
** "Watch me" becomes a verbal motif for Endeavor, as it's used in scenes where he (or somebody related to him) wants them to witness their performance as a hero. At first it was used in egotistical contexts, but as time goes on Endeavor increasingly uses it to take full responsibility for his actions and become a ''true'' hero.
** "This is the story of how I became the world's greatest hero": Midoriya's opening lines in Chapter 1, and utilized as this for the opening moments throughout the anime. [[spoiler:Chapter 324 creates a MeaningfulEcho to these words, changing this to "This is the story of how we all became the world's greatest heroes." It doubles as a heartwarming moment.]]
* ArmorPiercingResponse: When Ida is consumed by vengeful rage and hunts down Stain for crippling his brother, he vows to exact retribution upon the Hero Killer. Stain's response? He points at the injured hero behind him and says:
--> '''Stain:''' Save that guy first.
* ArrestedForHeroism:
** Due to the highly regulated nature of Quirk usage, it's entirely possible to be arrested for using your Quirk to save someone's life or even to ''defend yourself'' from an attacking villain. Even heroes in training aren't exempt from this rule, since their teachers have to give them express permission to do so lest they face the legal consequences. The only other exception is if the students earn a provisional hero license to act independently, as Class 1-A and 1-B attempt to do after the Hideout Raid Arc. This leads to TheGreatestStoryNeverTold after the Field Training Arc, since the police would legally have to punish Midoriya, Todoroki, and Ida for stopping Stain, even after they ''stopped'' him from ''murdering'' a pro hero. They were safe because there were no witnesses and agreed to let Endeavor take credit. [[spoiler:Then after the Hideout Raid Arc, Aizawa threatens his entire class with expulsion when Midoriya, Ida, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu interfered in an official hero operation to rescue Bakugo from the League of Villains. They were all safe because everyone was focused on All Might's retirement following his battle against All For One (they had to rebuild trust with the faculty, though). It gets to the point that Aizawa knowingly allows Midoriya to participate in a dangerous investigation because otherwise, he thinks Midoriya might go into the unofficial channels to be a Hero and eventually get himself arrested. If he's participating legally, at least he can do the right thing in the right way.]]
** Turns out this happened to [[spoiler:the villain Gentle]]. As a student, he tried to help someone and ended up interfering, since the hero bounced off one of the elastic air barriers Gentle created, and failed to get to the victim before he fell. His parents drowned in lawsuits and he would end up being kicked out after being expelled.
* ArrogantGodVsRagingMonster: All Might is renowned as the most powerful and charismatic hero in Japan, if not the world, to the point that [[HopeBringer everyone is absolutely convinced]] that things will be all right with him around. Even as his power wanes from his injury and giving One For All to Midoriya, virtually nothing can truly stop him aside from his [[HourOfPower time limit]]. The first thing shown in the story to give him a challenge is the mindless Nomu, a monstrous being engineered to fight him through a combination of SuperStrength and SuperSpeed to match him blow-for-blow as well as a HealingFactor and shock absorption to NoSell his attacks. Even then, All Might manages to win a hard-fought brawl that ends with the Nomu being punted out of a massive training facility the size of an amusement park.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Pro Hero Kamui Woods attempts to apprehend a villain for "assault, robbery, and illegal use of powers during rush hour traffic."
* ArtEvolution: Season 1 has rather noticeably thin outlines around characters that leave them looking papery at times. By Season 2, however, the outlines are thicker and more on par with what is seen in the manga.
* ArtisticLicenseEducation: Aizawa's infamous (especially InUniverse) act of expelling an entire class because they weren't taking the Quirk Appreciation Test as seriously as he wanted them to, ''in their first day''. While it's eventually revealed [[spoiler:that he only got them officially expelled for a few days to ScareEmStraight and re-enlisted them right afterward]], the fact still stands that Aizawa performed this action with zero red tape getting in the way and even now by the "current day" of the series, the administration of U.A. has not put any measures in place to prevent him from doing it again. ''Vigilantes'' implies that Aizawa ''sought out specific permission to do this''. [[spoiler:It's because he watched a friend die while on an internship in school and now wants to forcefully remove any student who doesn't seem to understand that they aren't invincible before they get hurt. The fact that he's allowed to do this at all is still pretty strange.]]
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: When [[spoiler:All For One is locked in Tartarus, it is mentioned he wasn't given a trial and will not be getting one in the future and is talked about like it's a good thing.[[note]]Granted, All For One is a CardCarryingVillain who gleefully performs mass murder, human experimentation, and levels cities with a huge smile on his face, it's unlikely that any jury or judge would rule him not guilty anyway.[[/note]]]]
* AsYouKnow:
** The recap at the start of the anime's second season is framed as a letter to Gran Torino but includes details about the mechanics of One For All that are both closely guarded secrets and information Gran Torino is already well aware of.
** The Season 3 premiere has Aizawa and Vlad King recount the Quirks of Class 1-A, although this is information that both of them should already know, or at least be familiar with, given that they're both homeroom teachers. This is justified a bit since Vlad King is reviewing the Quirks for the class he doesn't teach to make sure he's got his info straight, and it's implied Aizawa did the same with Class 1-B beforehand.
* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: Sometimes, characters have distinguishing features that aren't effects of their Quirks. For example, somebody like Ashido having pink skin because of acid pigments counts as a Quirk side effect, so she's not an example of this, but somebody like Todoroki having [[PlayingWithFire red]] and [[AnIcePerson white]] hair which is perfectly split in the middle is pretty much a big coincidence (not forgetting that there was a higher chance of him being born with only one of his parents' Quirks instead of both like he did, furthering the coincidence).
* AuthorAppeal: Horikoshi really likes drawing hands-- a lot of major characters have attention drawn to their hands either through their Quirks (such as Uraraka's hands having pads on their fingertips that are the catalyst for her anti-gravity Quirk, or Tsuyu's hands having odd proportions compared to the rest of her body) or their costumes (Hagakure's costume is literally a pair of hands, and Shigaraki's main defining trait is being covered in desiccated hands). His AuthorAvatar in ''Shonen Jump'' is even a pair of disembodied gloves.
* AwardBaitSong :[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us82yZTkO6g Might+U]] from the 2nd movie, a vocal version of "You Say Run."
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Hero names are intentionally designed to be this way. Their purpose for being "cool" is to give people a sense of hope to cling to and to tell the world they are kept safe by badasses while for villains they're NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast. This is zigzagged when it comes to hero students as you have Ingenium, Red Riot, and [[spoiler:Dynamight]] together with the likes of Grape Juice, Cellophane, and Deku. Regarding Midoriya's, some of his classmates initially expressed concerns with it due to its rather demeaning meaning.
* BadGuyBar: The original base of the League of Villains is one of those, with Kurogiri acting as the bartender.
* TheBadGuyWins: The end of the Forest Training Camp Arc sees the League of Villains get [[spoiler:what they wanted (Bakugo)]] and manage to get away even though a few are beaten and captured, including the villain who [[spoiler:killed Kota's parents]].
* BadPowersBadPeople: The main recurring villain has TouchOfDeath powers and the HeroKiller [[TheParalyzer paralyzes people]] by licking their blood. [[spoiler:And then there's TheManBehindTheMan, who can just downright [[PowerParasite steal Quirks]]]]. That said, there are points in the story where societal ostracization of these "bad" powers helps factor into why these people eventually became villains. [[spoiler:For instance, Toga's Quirk of being able to turn into anyone whose blood she drinks gave her a biological urge to ingest it when she could. As a kid, she clearly had a few screws loose but she wasn't actively murderous at that point, and any psychological assistance she received amounted to telling her to repress her urges for the appearance of normality. This contradiction of her urges being a fundamental part of who she is, and that society would find said behavior wildly inappropriate caused her to eventually snap as she now views killing people and drinking their blood as her own twisted way of showing affection.]]
* BadPowersGoodPeople: A good chunk of the hero population have Quirks that could be easily associated with villainy and have an appearance to match, but are firmly on the side of good:
** Class 1-A has a guy that controls a LivingShadow (Tokoyami) and a girl who can generate HollywoodAcid (Ashido). Neither of them are evil, and this is not even counting the teacher with [[PowerOfTheVoid black hole]] powers who works solely on disaster relief. Even their homeroom teacher, who is fairly antisocial and can erase Quirks by looking at their users, dedicates himself to stopping the more powerfully Quirked villains.
** Hitoshi Shinso has a Quirk, referred to as "Brainwashing," that lets him take total control over anyone who responds to him verbally. Nearly everyone he's ever known remarks how the power is perfect for a villain, but he desires above all else to be a hero.
* BadassAdorable: The art style makes it quite easy for all characters to be seen as cute, and since basically everyone is a badass, a lot of characters can be seen as this. Midoriya, Tsuyu, and Uraraka deserve special mention.
* BadassTeacher: According to Midoriya, all of the teachers at U.A. are active or former pro heroes, including the #1 hero in the world, All Might.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** Chapter 343. [[spoiler:It looks like Aoyama has chickened out and double-crossed the heroes once again... then he turns around and knocks back All For One with his laser, revealing that he was completely on the hero's side the whole time. This twist is so abrupt that it catches All For One completely off guard, as he was unable to detect lying from Aoyama's parents earlier]].
** Chapter 370 [[spoiler:opens with a flashback of a young mutant Quirk user being persecuted by a vicious mob who called him a monster while declaring that no matter how far society progressed, they'd ''never'' accept those with mutant Quirks. At first, we're lead to believe this was Spinner's past, revealing how he ended up becoming a villain. Towards the end of the chapter, however, the flashback is [[OnceMoreWithClarity shown again]], this time revealing that it was actually ''[[MultiArmedAndDangerous Shoji's]]'' past]].
* BaitAndSwitchCredits: If you were to just watch the two ending themes for Season 2 of the anime, you would get a pretty inaccurate picture of what the series is about:
** The first ending simply shows all the girls in Class 1-A hanging out together, making you think it's a slice-of-life story instead of an action-adventure story about superheroes.
** The second ending shows all the characters in a HeroicFantasy setting, fighting monsters with swords and magic. At face value, it has nothing to do with a story about superpowered heroes in a modern-day setting. The designs came from the art for the second popularity poll and the second piece of side art drawing all the characters in fantasy outfits. A story in the School Briefs light novels takes place in that setting.
* {{Bathos}}: {{Invoked|Trope}} by Bakugo in Chapter 98 when he makes Kaminari [[StupidityInducingAttack short-circuit]] himself after the class found out that [[spoiler:because of Midoriya and co.'s actions and the rest of the class knowing about but doing nothing to stop them, all but three of the class would have been expelled if the situation didn't look so dire.]]
* BatmanGambit:
** [[spoiler:The heroes' plan to take down All For One once and for all consists of having [[TheMole Aoyama]] tell him he's got Midoriya in an isolated area away from any help. They then just sit back and wait, counting on All For One being too sadistic, petty, and self-assured to be able to resist appearing himself, revealing the apparent betrayal to [[HopeCrusher emotionally crush Midoriya]], and then go straight to overkill by summoning the rest of the League so they can have Monoma use Kurogiri's Dark Gate to warp ''everyone'' in and start the FinalBattle on ''their'' terms. This works flawlessly and All For One falls for it exactly as predicted.]]
** [[spoiler:The entire planning for the FinalBattle hinges on one factor: allowing All For One to think his plans are going perfectly so they can make a huge plan to defeat the League in one masterstroke. As All For One is so egotistical that he genuinely believes winning is a formality at this point, he falls for it hook, line, and sinker because that's just how it's "natural" for things to go.]]
* BatmanGrabsAGun: While they ''will'' kill if absolutely needed, heroes as a whole will generally only do so as a last resort if there's no other choice and prioritize capturing a villain first. [[spoiler:All For One is such a gigantic threat who's proven BeyondRedemption and impossible to truly keep contained that the heroes' endgame notably jumps straight to having Endeavor and Hawks flat out kill him as a ''first'' resort. Even Midoriya and All Might are entirely on board with this plan.]]
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: While there are exceptions to this throughout the series, most of the female characters and heroines only end up with either scratches or minor injuries, or otherwise unscathed, while the males suffer near-fatal injuries or are outright killed. The Internship Arc is the biggest example of this. While all of the male heroes go up against enemies that leave them bloody and severely injured, the heroines all go up against an enemy that simply drains their energy, and doesn't sustain any serious harm.
* BigBad: Tomura Shigaraki and All For One are the two biggest contenders for the series as a whole, with Dabi as a DragonWithAnAgenda independently serving as the main antagonist of the Todoroki family's story:
** All For One is the founder of the League of Villains and Shigaraki's EvilMentor, giving him resources and molding him into his successor. Even after [[spoiler:All Might defeats and incarcerates him at the end of the "U.A. Beginnings" Saga]], his presence is felt even in arcs he doesn't physically appear in.
** Shigaraki is the [[TheHeavy public leader]] of the League of Villains, who is being molded to take All For One's place as the top villain. After [[spoiler:his mentor is defeated, Shigaraki ascends full-time to the BigBad position, defeating his rival Overhaul and forming the Paranormal Liberation Front. It's eventually revealed that at some point in time All For One passed down his own Quirk to Shigaraki, AFO himself retaining a copy, making Shigaraki even ''more'' powerful. Shigaraki states to the remnants of All For One's consciousness that he doesn't want to ''become'' All For One, he wants to be ''[[SuperiorSuccessor better]]'' than All For One]].
** [[spoiler:At the end of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, once Shigaraki gains the original All For One Quirk, he and the consciousness of All For One start fighting for control over their shared body, each one taking over for the other at some point in the arc. By the time they escape the battlefield, AFO has enough control that Midoriya sees Shigaraki as someone he needs to ''rescue'']].
* BigBadDuumvirate:
** All For One and Shigaraki are in one for the series as a whole, Shigaraki publicly leading the League of Villains while All For One mentors him from the shadows.
** At the end of the Meta Liberation Army Arc, Tomura Shigaraki, leader of the League of Villains, [[spoiler:defeats Re-Destro, the Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army, who [[DemotedToDragon abdicates]] in favor of Shigaraki becoming the new Grand Commander. The merger between the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation army is named the Paranormal Liberation Front, which seeks to declare war against the heroes]].
* BigGood: Deconstructed:
** All Might filled this role to the entire world, citizens felt safe with him, heroes looked up to him and villains feared him. Understandably, [[spoiler:his retirement]] causes a general state of disturbance, insecurity, and a rise in crime rates, even worse because the aforementioned Endeavor became [[spoiler:the top hero]].
** [[spoiler:This is further deconstructed when Midoriya finally takes on the role of leading efforts against All For One after the Paranormal Liberation War. It's simply too much strain for him to take, considering he's only 16 years old and even All Might was growing weary and tired of fulfilling the job. Fortunately, Class 1-A fight tooth and nail to force him to let them help him, which alleviates a fair amount of stress and allows him to give himself breaks when he needs them. Afterward, a far healthier example plays out where Midoriya still fulfills this role but has an established support network of friends and allies who will be elevated to becoming the greatest generation of heroes alongside him.]]
* BilingualBonus:
** The motto of U.A. High School, "Plus Ultra", means "Further Beyond" in Latin. It comes from the phrase "Non Plus Ultra",[[note]]Nothing Further Beyond[[/note]] which is supposedly inscribed on the legendary Pillars of Hercules that marked the western edge of the known world in Europe for centuries. Plus Ultra is also the motto of Spain, especially the Spanish Crown.
** Bakugo's proposed hero name, "King Explosion Murder", just sounds overly violent in English. In Japanese, it's roughly pronounced "baku-satsu-ou", making it ''a pun on his name''.
** Episode 14 of Season 5 becomes way cooler if you have basic knowledge of Chinese/Japanese characters. The screen focuses on a few characters and you will get a more complete understanding of how Hawks managed to send a message to Endeavor.
* BitingTheHandHumor: Chitose Kizuki, a high-ranking member of the villainous Meta Liberation Army, is also shown to be the executive director of [[Magazine/ShonenJump Shueisha, Inc.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The Internship Arc ends with [[spoiler:the Shie Hassaikai defeated and arrested, and Eri successfully rescued. However, many of the heroes suffered injuries during the mission, and while most will recover, Mirio has permanently lost his Quirk, Sir Nighteye dies of his wounds in the hospital, and Snatch is killed when the League of Villains attacks the convoy to steal the Quirk-destroying bullets.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Or very light grey, at least. The villains may be cruel, sadistic individuals thriving on bloodshed and chaos, but the hero community as a whole is not exactly spotless either. Many villains detest heroes because some of them are glory seekers, while some others lash out because they were ignored for being too small or low at the totem pole to be noticed. Twice in particular is a tragic example of this, where society made him an outcast, but the hero's offer for help feels like a condescending oversimplification of Twice's life problems.
* BlackMarket: Although never directly dealt with, the reality of a black market is constantly mentioned in the setting. Giran is mentioned to be an arms dealer for it, Overhaul's plans included going to the black market to sell a new kind of serum to villains and in Chapter 219, it's revealed Detnerat is releasing their support items in the black market, with them being used to collecting data on heroes and villains while also self-destructing when the villains are defeated.
* BlandNameProduct:
** As a child, Midoriya obsessively watched a "[[Website/YouTube YoTube]]" video of All Might's debut as a hero, in which he saved over a hundred people from a bus crash.
** Midoriya's hero notebook is branded "Kukuyo Campos", rather than Kokuyo Campus.
** When Gran Torino's microwave breaks, the replacement he orders arrives in a box from "Omozan," rather than Amazon.
** While some of Class 1-A deliberate what to do for their class's activity in the cultural festival, Todoroki pulls up a video on Yap!Tube, a website that, aside from the spelling and color (blue) of the logo, is formatted exactly like [=YouTube=].
* BloodierAndGorier: The anime adaptation, as a whole, is much more prone to showcase the gruesomeness of injuries and battles than the manga. Whereas the manga often censors the worst and goriest injuries, the anime shows them fully, no matter how bad, and will also show the blood spread by them, which is something that very rarely happens in the manga. Midoriya's injuries are a common cause of this. In the manga, it usually shows his body bruising and darkening. The anime, however, showcases his body being outright ''maimed'' by said injuries.
* BluntNo: In Chapter 162, Midoriya [[spoiler:offers a recently Quirkless Mirio One For All, feeling he deserves it more than him, but Mirio bluntly refuses before Midoriya can finish talking]].
* BoardingSchool: After [[spoiler:Bakugo is kidnapped and rescued]], U.A. becomes this to better keep an eye on its students.
* BodyMotifs: Hands:
** A central imagery of the series is how heroes would extend their hand to offer their help, and how those in need of help would reach out and take that hand. It's explicitly mentioned that One for All would not exist if the heroes did not offer their help to the First Wielder.
** On the villainous side, Shigaraki wears a lot of preserved hands and his power allows him to decay anything he touches. All for One's power is activated through hands, he keeps a lot of minions and pawns in his figurative hand, and he's commonly depicted trying to grasp something with his hand to assert control over it.
* BodyHorror: Some Quirks alter their user in truly bizarre and disturbing ways, though thanks to how ubiquitous Quirks are, this isn't usually a problem for them. This leads to cases of UnusuallyUninterestingSight fairly often. For example, Seiji Shishikura has the ''Meatball'' Quirk, first seen in Chapter 106. [[spoiler:This allows him to control raw human flesh, including his own. His main combat style is to detach his limbs into flying globs of flesh, and the moment they touch his enemy, he's free to warp and compress ''their'' body [[AndIMustScream until they're a sentient globe of misshapen flesh that retains the ability to feel pain]]. Fortunately, dealing enough damage to Seiji will break the Meat Prison]].
* BondVillainStupidity: Inverted, as it's the heroes' side doing it. They apprehended a weakened [[BigBad All For One]] after his devastating final fight with All Might, and [[TailorMadePrison locked him up in Tartarus]], a place for criminals for whom "death is not enough a punishment". Sure, lock up ''the'' S-tier villain, who's both a top-tier PersonOfMassDestruction and TheChessmaster, instead of eliminating his threat for good, just for the sake of inflicting FateWorseThanDeath... WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong [[spoiler:Later, All For One (controlling Tomura's body) breaks open Tartarus ''as well as'' six other prisons in one night, covering his tracks and plunging Japan into chaos.]]
* BookEnds:
** All Might starts off the series by defeating a villain despite suffering from his debilitating injury, subtly staggering from his exhaustion as he raises his fist in victory to reassure the onlookers. [[spoiler:His last act as a hero is to defeat All For One with the last dregs of his strength and force himself into his muscular state to again raise his fist as a symbol of victory, even though he can barely stand up straight by this point.]]
** The first action of the League of Villains is the USJ Incident, where Kurogiri brings in multiple villains, catching the heroes by surprise, before spreading the hero students across the building. [[spoiler:The FinalBattle begins with Monoma copying Kurogiri's Warp to bring in the heroes to the battlefield, before spreading the villains across all of Japan.]]
** Midoriya's first antagonistic opponent during the beginning chapters before the League of Villains was introduced was Bakugo, his childhood friend who constantly bullied him throughout their middle school years over his dream of becoming a hero out of his InferioritySuperiorityComplex, having recognized long ago that Midoriya ''did'' possess the inherent qualities of a true hero, but unwilling to accept that he was "lesser" than a "Quirkless nobody". Midoriya's ultimate opponent towards the manga's conclusion is [[spoiler:All For One, whose overarching goal primarily revolves around successfully stealing One For All from Midoriya by [[BreakTheCutie breaking his]] HeroicWillpower however he can, in order to maximize his chances of success during the inevitable battle of wills that results when he attempts to absorb the Quirk. To this end, he ostracizes Midoriya gradually away from his allies, mocks him constantly as a SketchySuccessor with glee whenever he speaks to him, and does whatever he can to demoralize Midoriya [[DespairEventHorizon past the breaking point]] mentally and physically, coming off as an overgrown bully preying upon his target's weakness for [[{{Sadist}} his own satisfaction]]. Fittingly, what helps snap Midoriya out of his mind games is Bakugo recognizing the similarities with Midoriya's past treatment and lack of inherent self-worth, and sincerely apologizing to him for his past actions as the culmination of his CharacterDevelopment throughout the story, even calling him [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious Izuku]]]].
** During the USJ arc, in Shigaraki's first appearance, he gets shot through the hands by Snipe during his escape with Kurogiri. [[spoiler:He ends up getting shot in the hand again in the Final War arc, only this time he got the entire limb shot off by Lady Nagant (who, for bonus irony, is stated to be Snipe's better when it comes to sniping).]]
* BoringButPractical: For society as a whole, while most people have a Quirk, not all are meant to be a pro hero. Quirks like Zoom, Squirmy Fingers, and Attraction of Small Objects are useless in a fight, but greatly help daily life and less violent professions. Even being Quirkless means having no dangerous powers such as Decay and Rewind.
* BoxingLessonsForSuperman:
** At the end of the U.A. Sports Festival, All Might suggests to Tokoyami to improve his physical conditioning since the latter was defeated by Bakugo when he broke through Dark Shadow and grappled Tokoyami to the ground.
** Quirk Extension training is covered in the Forest Training Camp Arc; essentially, pushing your Quirk to a comfortable limit, and then beyond that. As they are physical abilities, a comparison is made between Quirk Extension and strength training, as muscles have to tear themselves and then repair before they are strengthened.
* BrainsAndBrawn: All Might's relationship with his ex-sidekick, Sir Nighteye. All Might was the brawn while Nighteye, with his intellect, investigative skills, and precognition Quirk, made him effective as the brains. This is all the more impressive given that [[GeniusBruiser All Might is no slouch in the brains department himself]]:
-->'''All Might:''' His physical abilities aren't all that impressive, but that brain of his was just the thing to help me out.
* BreakingTheFourthWall:
** In Chapter 124, Yaoyorozu offers the aside that Mirio succinctly explained the last week and a half of the manga in three panels.
** Present Mic explains to viewers that Gang Orca is actually forcing himself to talk harshly to the supplementary classes students.
** During the U.A. Cultural Festival Arc, Mineta complains that his [[NonStandardCharacterDesign character design]] prevents him from properly holding a guitar since he's drawn with much shorter limbs than anyone else.
** In Chapter 320, Bakugo calls out Midoriya for running himself ragged trying to help everyone, while calling attention to the ArtShift that his character design has taken over the course of the arc:
---> '''Bakugo:''' Looks like you're even drawn differently than the rest of us these days!!
* BreatherEpisode:
** After the intense Hideout Raid Arc, we get a slice-of-life mini-arc beginning in Chapter 98, where the characters move into their dorms and decide to see each room and vote for the best one. This is invoked in-universe, as the characters feel the tension in the air and are trying to disband it.
** The chapters following the end of the Internship Arc such as [[spoiler:Nighteye's death and Mirio's loss of his Quirk]] focus on Bakugo, Todoroki, and Yoarashi as they take supplementary classes, which are quite lighthearted and fun, with Gang Orca playing a comical LargeHam.
* BrickJoke: During Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's match, the viewers remarked how it would be great to have them both as sidekicks. Sure enough, they became sidekicks of the same hero during the internship period.
* BroadStrokes: In the manga, the Final Exams Arc has all of the students facing the teachers at the same time and Recovery Girl situated in a temporary first aid tent. In the anime, the adaptation messes around with the sequence of events to the advantage of its format. The final exams take place in the order of one through ten, with the most climactic fight (with Midoriya and Bakugo vs. All Might) obviously at the end. Recovery Girl is also situated in a more upscale location to monitor the events and perform first aid, and instead of being out on the field, Midoriya and Uraraka are watching the tests to observe, learn, and strategize from what their classmates fail/succeed at doing, and are here together because their training partners won't communicate with them (allowing for some light ShipTease). It's also a lot more like the Battle Trial Arc in this respect. Functionally, the story is still the same, just modified to be more convenient for a different format.
* BurnScarsBurningPowers:
** Shoto Todoroki, who can use fire as part of his Quirk, carries a burn scar across his face thanks to his mother scalding his face with boiling water during a mental break.
** Dabi is also shown to have an even worse scar to the point where [[FacialHorror staples are used to keep his face together]]. [[spoiler:His scars came about due to overexerting his [[{{Hellfire}} Quirk]].]]
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:After the Paranormal Liberation War which destroyed most of the hero society, Izuku suddenly drops out of U.A High to embark on a solo quest.]]
* BystanderSyndrome:
** This is legally enforced. Someone with the perfect Quirk for a situation will be unable to help if they lack a hero license. [[TruthInTelevision This lines up with the fact that Good Samaritan laws do not exist in real-life Japan]], which is where the story takes place.
** [[spoiler:After disintegrating his entire family, Tenko/Tomura runs through the streets of his hometown, and nobody is willing to help him because they're under the assumption a hero will come and help him. All For One appears instead.]]
** In a broader sense, this is the chief issue behind society as a whole. All Might becomes so good at his job that everybody in turn relies on him to keep things safe, even fellow pro heroes. [[spoiler:When he eventually retires thanks to using up the last of his One For All embers in his final battle against All For One, there's nobody to fill the gap. This peaks after the Paranormal Liberation War, where the devastation tips everything over the edge. People's mounting frustrations through the years even before All Might retired makes everybody turn on the heroes that are left, ignoring how their own prejudices and fascination with the material side of the hero industry make them just as complicit in society's failings.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C-E]]
* CagedInsideAMonster: The Sludge Villain trapped both Midoriya and Bakugo before attempting to enter and take control of their bodies, even using Bakugo as a HumanShield when confronted by heroes.
* CallBack: Horikoshi is so fond of these it's too much work to list them all. What is listed are just a few examples:
** Chapter 4 is titled "The Starting Line". Chapter 11 is titled "Bakugo's Starting Line". Similarly, Chapter 1 is titled "[[SuperHeroOrigin Izuku Midoriya: The Origin]]". Chapter 39 is titled "Shoto Todoroki: The Origin". Chapter 62 is titled "Katsuki Bakugo: The Origin".
** An odd callback of sorts. For the results of the second popularity contest, Horikoshi drew the top 10 most popular characters in a fantasy style, with medieval clothes and weapons. Later, he drew other characters in the same style as side art. For the third ending of the anime, all the characters appear in their medieval outfits from before in a medieval setting completely unrelated to the actual story. The fourth popularity poll revisits this theme, with multiple characters updated versions of the costumes (reflecting either the increased mastery of their Quirks or, in All Might's case, his permanent DePower) and characters making the top 10 for the first time getting their own medieval fantasy outfits.
** During the USJ Arc, it's joked that Class 1-A thought the "Unforeseen Simulated Joint" stood for "Universal Studios Japan". In Episode 52, the joke is repeated when Aizawa leads Class 1-A to the school's TDL, the "Training Delicatessen Land", which Midoriya, Uraraka, and Ashido mistake with "Tokyo Disney Land" and [[YouWannaGetSued wonder if a mouse is angry at them]].
** Another callback to the USJ Arc happens [[spoiler:when the heroes lure All For One out into the open, throwing their forces at him and his army using Kurogiri's Warp Gate much like how the League of Villains initially attacked Class 1-A at the beginning.]]
* TheCallPutMeOnHold: This is the basic premise of the manga. Since Midoriya's future self is narrating the story, [[ForegoneConclusion it's known that he becomes the world's greatest hero]]. He just got a Quirk ten years later than everyone else.
* CallingYourAttacks: Most pro heroes and even some villains do this. This is justified since, as pointed it by Mt. Lady in Chapter 241, in a world where heroes are both crime-fighting vigilantes and superstars adored by the population, representation is everything. Ultimate moves are the heroes' calling cards that not only represent their brand but also show the public and their fellow heroes what they are capable of.
* TheCameo: Characters from Horikoshi's other work, ''Manga/OumagadokiDoubutsuen'', can be seen in various chapters. Chapter 36 has Shishido and Toytoy appear in the bleachers. Uwabami appears in Chapter 48 as the heroine Yaoyorozu and Kendo intern with for a week.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: While modern society has done its best to adapt to Quirks, it's done so by becoming strictly rule-bound. While for the most part, things run smoothly, you have occasional hiccups like Midoriya and a few of his classmates getting ''penalized'' for getting into an unlawful fight with a villain.
* {{Capepunk}}: The story takes place in a world TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture where roughly 80% of the world's population has some kind of superpower referred to as a "Quirk". Being a superhero is a legitimate career option that requires a special education course. Hero jobs also vary depending on what area a person decides to specialize in, such as crime-fighting, disaster relief, team support, etc. The entire business is heavily regulated and up and coming heroes typically seek employment at agencies run by senior heroes in an attempt to make a name for themselves. The series focuses heavily on themes such as what it takes to be a superhero, the importance of society having a positive view of them, and why anyone would want to be a hero in the first place. Although (almost) EveryoneIsASuper, most people are not superheroes or supervillains, because most Quirks aren't particularly useful for crime or the fighting thereof; even the SuperpowerLottery winners still require intensive training to reach their full strength. It also takes a hard look at what it would take for someone to be the BigGood in a world of superheroes, the dangers of having a single person be the symbol of hope and heroism, and [[spoiler:just what would happen if that person were suddenly unable to continue to fill that role with no suitable replacement.]] It also looks fairly closely at the consequences of limiting peoples' freedom to maintain social order in the advent of superpowers and the various ways that might cause people to rebel and become either villains or vigilantes, and the social prejudices inherent in people being born with powers that are unsightly, inhuman, or have historically been used for "evil."
* CapeSnag: In the English dub, Aizawa, getting away from a group of reporters, wonders how All Might manage to get anything done with the media "stepping on his cape".
* CaptainFishman: Being the diverse industry that it is, there are plenty of pro heroes who specialize in ocean rescue and crime fighting. The biggest examples displayed are ''Oki Mariner'' Crew, a naval-themed SuperTeam of heroes that [[FrogMen Tsuyu]] joins as part of her internship, led by the [[SelkiesAndWereseals Sea Rescue Hero: Selkie]].
* CastFromCalories:
** Yaoyorozu can create anything by manifesting it from her body fat. As such, she becomes a BigEater to compensate.
** Sato's Quirk, "Sugar Rush", gives him super strength from [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eating sugar]]. However, when he crashes from his sugar rush, he not only de-powers, but his intelligence also temporarily decreases.
* CastOfSnowflakes: Subtle, but every character has their own distinguishable facial features. For example, [[http://imgur.com/v8EWyTW their eyes]].
* CastingGag:
** Japanese version:
*** Creator/KoukiUchiyama voices a villain that is bred practically since birth to be an all-powerful ruler. Are we talking about Shigaraki or [[Manga/HunterXHunter Meruem]]?
*** Creator/JunichiSuwabe, [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight once again]], voices a stern and pragmatic hero that scoffs at idealism and early on outright tells the young protagonist that he's unsuited to be a hero.
*** The A-Rank villain Muscular is sadistic, menacing, and has a missing eye. Muscular's Japanese voice actor, Kosuke Takaguchi, voiced [[VideoGame/StarFox Wolf O'Donnell]] in ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' and ''VideoGame/StarFoxZero'', who fits this description to a T.
** English version:
*** This isn't the first time Creator/JustinBriner was cast as the teenage, GeniusBruiser protagonist of a shonen series meant to be a successor to the original WorldsBestWarrior. That said, his stint as the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' version of Son Gohan was merely a CallForward until the Buu Saga was adapted, which, unfortunately, never panned out due to ''DBZA''[='=]s cancellation in February 2020.
*** [[Creator/ChristopherSabat All Might]] tells Midoriya that One For All was a Quirk that could be [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist "passed down for generations"]].
*** Creator/DavidWald once again voices a character who can [[Manga/FairyTail turn his body into steel and consumes a steady diet of iron]].
*** Hiroshi Tameda, the "can't you see" kid, looks a lot like [[Manga/FairyTail Natsu Dragneel]] in the anime. Funimation evidently noticed this and cast Creator/ToddHaberkorn as his voice.
** Latin American Spanish dub:
*** Orlando Noguera, All Might's Latin American voice actor, already had experience voicing mighty men, as he voiced Superman in ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries''.
* CatFight: In one omake, [[MsFanservice Mt. Lady and Midnight]] get into one on a televised panel after the former snipes at the latter's age.
* CatharticChores:
** After his anticlimactic and unsatisfying win at the Sports Festival, Bakugo brushes his teeth extra vigorously while screaming at the germs in his mouth to die. Then again, it's implied that this isn't out of the ordinary for him.
** When Bakugo and Midoriya are assigned to clean the dorms, Bakugo screams at everyone to give him their trash and is incensed when he discovers that they all have huge bags of it to throw out. Mineta then teases Bakugo for leaving a windowsill dusty, prompting him to scream at Midoriya for not cleaning properly. Bakugo is also pissed because Midoriya went around one day before asking for the others to give him the trash and nobody gave him anything.
* CentralTheme:
** ''Legacy''. Almost every main character, hero and villain alike, is being influenced by the legacy of someone who came before them, which influences their characters. The series is largely about the transition from one generation of heroes and villains to the next, and how the legacy one generation leaves behind influences the generation that follows:
*** Midoriya and Bakugo are both trying to live up to the legacy of All Might, but have different ideas about what that means, leading to their rivalry.
*** Shigaraki is doing the same by trying to become a successor worthy of All For One.
*** Todoroki had his father's legacy unwillingly ''forced upon'' him, and is trying to create an identity of his own.
*** Several members of the League of Villains, like Dabi and Spinner, were inspired to become villains by the legacy Stain left behind.
*** The entire Meta Liberation Army is trying to carry on the Legacy of Destro.
** ''IndividualismVsCollectivism''. The manga explores themes of law and order on the one hand and freedom and license on the other. For example, you have occasions such as hero interns getting punished for getting into unlawful combat with a villain, even in self-defense, and the League of Villains attracting members in no small part with the promise of freedom to do whatever you want. There are even instances where the rules meant to create good heroes have caused certain forms of social stratification (U.A.'s hero exams are heavily geared towards those with Quirks directly capable of violence) and of course the allure of freedom and power and how it sometimes pulls in people who really shouldn't be heroes at all.
** The advantages someone is born with vs. what they earn through hard work, and the danger of confusing the two (and confusing what someone ''can'' be born with and ''can'' earn through hard work).
** Another more subtle one is mental barriers, how they affect people and overcoming them. If you believe something is possible for you, it will be:
*** Midoriya struggled with people telling him all his life that he could never become a hero, causing him to believe so as well until his chance encounter with All Might.
*** Bakugo on the other hand spent his entire early life breezing through school on his way to becoming a great hero, only to realize how far out of their league he is when he saw Todoroki [[CurbStompBattle curb stomp]] his opponents during their first combat training.
*** Both All Might and Midoriya are capable of pushing themselves to what is described as "more than 100%" if needed, which may or may not be the direct influence or a side effect of One For All.
*** Todoroki refused to fight with his father's fire Quirk, putting him essentially at half strength, because of how much he hates being compared to him, and once Midoriya knocked some sense into him during the Sports Festival, he was able to get over his daddy issues and fight at full strength.
* CerebusRollercoaster: The manga operates in this pattern, usually having a lighthearted arc followed by a darker arc. This becomes especially noticeable following the Hideout Raid Arc. This dark arc is followed by the more lighthearted Provisional Hero License Exam Arc, which is then followed by the even darker Internship Arc and the even lighter U.A. Cultural Festival Arc, with the lighter arcs all starting off with {{breather episode}}s.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
** Early chapters paint Todoroki with a rather AntiHero[=/=]AmbiguouslyEvil vibe that never appears again: he is unwilling to kill a villain less out of moral decency and more out of preservation for his reputation, and for that, doesn't even try to save the villain, just tells him to get out of the ice soon or else he would tarnish Todoroki's reputation. Then his DarkAndTroubledPast comes to light which explains why he behaves so grimly, and Midoriya yanks him out of his grudging state. Also, at the beginning, his left half is always encased in ice. Following the USJ Arc, however, he stops doing this, and no one comments on it.
** In early chapters, Yaoyorozu was more outspoken and prone to BrutalHonesty, such as when she chided her classmates for believing that Aizawa would expel them on the first day, or when she criticized everyone besides Iida in the Heroes vs. Villains exercise. In later chapters, she rarely says potentially offensive things unless she's being InnocentlyInsensitive.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Even without explicit strength-enhancing Quirks, there are still plenty of characters with notably insane physical ability gained via hard training, with guys like Mirio Togata blitzing opponents in conjunction with his Intangibility, his mentor Sir Nighteye throwing around "Hyper Density Seals" with enough force to crater the clone of an equally opposing villain into a wall after easily tripping him up, and Stain being capable of either maiming or killing several Pro Heroes when his sole power involves paralysis via blood ingestion being just a few examples.
** Also of note, said clone? It's of Kendo Rappa, a Blood Knight whose quirk simply allows him RapidFireFisticuffs via extreme shoulder rotation. It ''might'' have allowed him to attack at a superhuman velocity, but it still allowed him to severely injure a Pro Hero and his sidekick when both of them had [[StoneWall Quirks geared specifically towards defense.]]
* CheerThemUpWithLaughter: Bakugo, who HatesEveryoneEqually, surprisingly tries to light up the mood after Class 1-A's teacher Aizawa threatens to expel nearly all of them -- both the students who carried out an unauthorized, dangerous mission to rescue [[spoiler: said jerk, Bakugo]], plus the other students who knew of their plan but didn't stop them. [[DoesNotKnowHowToSayThanks So, as a form of gratitude]], Bakugo drags Kaminari behind a bush and fries his brain with his Quirk so Kaminari would start acting like an idiot and make everyone laugh.
* ChekhovsGun: Ragdoll's Search Quirk is [[spoiler:taken by All For One]] between the Forest Training Camp Arc and the Hideout Raid Arc. In Chapter 275, [[spoiler:the Quirk was given to Shigaraki during his enhancement, and he uses it to locate Midoriya and One For All]].
* ChekhovsGunman:
** While the #2 hero Endeavor makes his official debut in Chapter 28, he appears in Chapter 1, where he's shown on a jumbotron/advertisement billboard in the background, as unsuspecting scenery. He makes another cameo in Chapter 3 during All Might's reflection on U.A. High.
** Yaoyorozu got second place in the class representative elections by having two votes: one of her own and the other from someone who's never revealed. At the time, it was irrelevant, but after she goes into HeroicSelfDeprecation and becomes a BrokenAce, finding out that the person to vote for her was Todoroki revitalizes her confidence in herself enough for her to get them to pass on the end of terms test.
** Kirishima shows up several times in Chapter 3, though he's impossible to find unless you've read Chapter 144 and learned what he looked like before getting into U.A.
** In the Final War arc, [[spoiler:a few flying craft are seen upon the reveal that UA High was converted into a FloatingIsland and are circling it, yet they mysteriously vanish partway during the battle against Shigaraki. Chapter 367 reveals that they're actually Star and Stripe's renegade teammates who decided to stay in Japan for a while and help Midoriya get to UA High by acting as tether points for Black Whip to act as a slingshot.]]
* CherryBlossoms: There's an incredible amount of cherry blossom symbolism in this series. When All Might announces that Midoriya can be a hero, cherry blossoms fall to represent the blooming of a new hero. Notice the cherry blossom trees in the background of the first opening between Midoriya and Bakugo representing the blossoming of rivals that will spur each other to greater heights.
* ChoreCharacterExploration: After the disastrous dinner at their house, Fuyumi and Shoto are cleaning up the table while talking seriously about their feelings on [[AbusiveParents Endeavor]]. It's not exactly covert, as everyone else manages to overhear them, but the core of the scene is a serious and raw moment between the siblings.
* ChristmasEpisode: Season 5, Episode 13 (Episode 101 of the series overall), appropriately titled "Have a Merry Christmas!" takes place on Christmas. Oddly enough, the episode aired in June.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: This is quite common. All Might mentions that all the top heroes' stories include some iteration of "My body moved before I could think" when it came to their first acts of heroism. Midoriya doing the same at the beginning of the series is what wins him All Might's respect. Deconstructed a bit, in that the series recognizes how toxic this mindset can become, and actively chastises students for leaping in to help without considering the consequences of what they're doing. With Midoriya in particular, Aizawa stops him, reminding him that if he fails and gets hurt, he becomes one more problem for the pro heroes to worry about and another factor complicating the situation. "If you can't save yourself, you can't save anyone else" is a common theme.
* CircleOfShame: Midoriya is repeatedly subject to this in his backstory, as everyone considered him a loser or weirdo for not being born with a Quirk and laughs in his face whenever his dream of becoming a hero gets brought up.
* ClarkKentOutfit: Many of the cast are curvier or more muscular than their civvies and school uniforms indicate; even some of the hero costumes are baggy enough to disguise what shape the heroes are in.
* ClimaxBoss: Several over the course of the series, often tied in with someone's character arc:
** Midoriya is the Sludge Villain, where he proves that he has the heart of a true hero despite being Quirkless.
** Todoroki is Midoriya, who manages to put him on the road to embracing his fire powers as part of himself and overcoming his father's abuse.
** Ida is Hero Killer Stain, who forces him to face the fact that he has put his selfish desire for revenge over the greater good.
** Bakugo is All Might, forcing him to put his pride, anger, and rivalry with Midoriya aside in order to accomplish his goals.
** All Might is All For One, who [[spoiler:forces him to exhaust all of his remaining reserves of power in order to defeat him and forces him into retirement]].
** Shigaraki's is Re-Destro, whose [[spoiler:destruction of his family hands leads him to remember his lost past and let go of his attachment to it allowing him to embrace joy and rage in order to push his Quirk to never before seen heights.]]
* CloseOnTitle:
** Episode 23, "Shoto Todoroki: Origin", has the title appear at the very end of the episode after Todoroki uses the fire half of his Quirk to defeat Midoriya and beginning his first steps to becoming a hero, and not being defined by his hatred of his father.
** Episode 88, "His Start," has the title card come up after [[spoiler:Endeavor's victory over the High-End Nomu, which truly establishes him as the #1 Hero]], just before the end credits.
** Chapter 285, "[[spoiler:Katsuki Bakugo: Rising]]" appears at the end of the chapter, [[spoiler:which concludes with Bakugo TakingTheBullet for Midoriya]].
** Chapter 300, "[[spoiler:The Hellish Todoroki Family, Part 2]]" appears at the end, when [[spoiler:the rest of Endeavor's family, including Rei, who was unable to face him until now, comes to his room to talk about Toya.]]
** Chapter 306, "The Final Act Begins," appears at the end, when [[spoiler:Midoriya has left U.A. to protect his classmates from the villains that are after One For All.]]
* ClothingConcealedInjury: Five years prior to the main story, All Might suffered an injury that destroyed one of his lungs and most of his stomach, which left behind a scar. His clothing is designed to hide the scar from the public's eyes.
* ColorCodedCharacters: Impressively, the anime's website manages to give a unique associated color to each member of the quite large cast. From the students alone:
** [[SuperStrength Midoriya]]: Mint.
** [[HavingABlast Bakugo]]: Coral.
** [[GravityMaster Uraraka]]: Hot Pink.
** [[SuperSpeed Ida]]: Indigo.
** [[AnIcePerson Todo]][[PlayingWithFire roki]]: Cyan.
** [[LittleBitBeastly Tsuyu]]: Green.
** [[StickySituation Mineta]]: Purple.
** [[InstantArmor Kirishima]]: Red.
** [[ThePowerOfCreation Yaoyorozu]]: Crimson.
** [[CastingAShadow Tokoyami]]: Cool Grey.
** [[ShockAndAwe Kaminari]]: Yellow.
** [[ChestBlaster Aoyama]]: Metallic Gold.
** [[MakeMeWannaShout Jiro]]: Warm Grey.
** [[HollywoodAcid Ashido]]: Pink.
** [[CombatTentacles Shoji]]: Sky Blue.
** [[TailSlap Ojiro]]: Silver.
** [[DuctTapeForEverything Sero]]: Orange.
** [[{{Invisibility}} Hagakure]]: Light Blue.
** [[PowerUpFood Sato]]: Goldenrod.
** [[TheBeastmaster Koda]]: Tan.
** Other notable examples include [[TheCape All Might]] with Gold and [[TheCowl Aizawa]] with Dark Grey.
* ComingOfAgeStory: The manga as a whole plays as this to Midoriya, since he grows from a wimpy, shy kid to the world's greatest hero.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Invoked by the League of Villains during their raid on the USJ; while the majority of villains are rough-and-tumble thugs, they've been saving Nomu specifically for All Might. This is invoked again during the Forest Training Camp Arc when they send in a squad of specialists instead of the army of thugs they tried the first time.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Each arc seesaws the stakes of the storyline based on each antagonist:
** Introduction Arc: Bakugo is a NominalHero in training, with a history with the protagonist and while loving All Might, he likes fighting and destroying his enemies. He's a [[TheBully bully]] who takes pleasure in toying with and hurting Midoriya during their fight and is his most direct {{Foil}}.
** USJ Arc: Shigaraki is a PsychopathicManchild who uses video game metaphors all the time. He's an admitted villain who has big goals and despises All Might, unlike Bakugo. Furthermore, he isn't active in the forefront, as he prefers to let his minions do most of the fighting, and uses an EliteMook made specifically to counter All Might because he is admittedly outmatched. The minions in question are random thugs who are more or less beaten by the students thanks to a lack of foresight. At worst, they are delayed until the pro heroes arrive to stop them.
** U.A. Sports Festival Arc: Todoroki is the main antagonist of the arc. He's a hero in training. Unlike Shigaraki, he's also much more stoic and composed than the previous antagonists. Also unlike them, he is outright shown as someone sad deep down and instantly befriends Midoriya once the arc is over. In contrast, Endeavor is the first hero to showcase how corrupt heroes can be.
** Field Training Arc: Stain is a villainous WellIntentionedExtremist that kills heroes that don't befit his ideals. The difference between him and Shigaraki is spelled out by Midoriya at the end of the arc – unlike Shigaraki, Stain has an ideal and an objective to follow, while Shigaraki simply wants to see the world burn. Or, disintegrate.
** Final Exams Arc: The teachers play the antagonist of the arc. The difference here is that they don't mean any harm to the protagonists and are only trying to test them in hopes of the students overcoming their weaknesses and foils.
** Forest Training Camp Arc: The Vanguard Action Squad is a group of murderous criminals that get together under Shigaraki's command. While instructed to break the protagonists' feeling of security, they are very happy to murder people just for the fun of it and are much more competent than the original formation of many untrained thugs of the League of Villains.
** Hideout Raid Arc: All For One, the actual BigBad of the story, steps out of his hiding spot to take the center stage. Unlike those before him, he has no interest in anyone or anything but All Might and is much OlderAndWiser than the teen/twenty-something villains of the League. He's also immensely more powerful and the fight against him is a WhamEpisode in itself and the end changes the storyline. As an ArchEnemy, All Might, Midoriya, and the previous One For All wielders, all know how much of a legitimate threat this one villain can be.
** Provisional Hero License Exam Arc:
*** Yoarashi is TheAce of another school, with personal beef against Todoroki. Unlike the antagonists before him, [[JerkassToOne he's genuinely nice to everyone else most of the time]] and is a loud and boisterous guy with huge respect for heroes and heroes in training of all kinds. He's also capable of making amends to Todoroki -- and later, Endeavor -- after a while.
*** Gang Orca is a pro hero who poses as a villain in the exam. Like the teachers in the Final Exams Arc, he and his allies are not meant to actually harm the participants but act as walking obstacles in their attempt to rescue citizens.
** Internship Arc: Overhaul is a {{Yakuza}} with intention of taking over All For One's spot as the head of organized crime. He lampoons Shigaraki for not having any plans and ambitions to do the same while showcasing he has an organized and long-term plan to achieve his own goals. [[spoiler:He's also much crueler than prior villains as he happily tortures and mentally abuses a little girl with the intention of creating his anti-Quirk serum. This isn't the part Shigaraki takes issue with.]]
** U.A. Cultural Festival Arc: Gentle and La Brava are a duo of quirky, lovable {{Anti Villain}}s with tragic backstories and broken dreams. They commit non-lethal crimes with the intention of gathering a fanbase and showing the errors of the heroes while having a much nicer relationship with each other than the prior BadBoss or lonely type antagonists before them.
** Remedial Course Arc: The kids of Masegaki Elementary School are a new generation of superhumans with a superiority complex, serving as antagonists for the ones who had previously failed in the provisional hero license exam. The students can't defeat them like normal villains, they can't baby them, and can't allow the brats to beat them. Instead, they use their Quirks to appeal to the kids and inspire them.
** The Pro Hero Arc has a [[EliteMook High-End Nomu]] called Hood, not unlike the Nomu in the USJ Arc. Unlike the one in USJ, Dabi sends Hood for wanton destruction and just happens to run to Endeavor and Hawks. Hood becomes an obstacle for Endeavor to overcome to prove he is worthy of becoming the new #1 pro hero and to confront his past.
** Joint Training Arc: Class 1-B (and Shinso) serve as the "antagonists". Unlike 1-A, their classes and training never got interrupted by villain attacks, save for one occasion, and managed to progress at the intended level. Their battles have no serious consequences, and the fight was all about comparing their growth against fellow schoolmates.
** The Meta Liberation Army Arc: The eponymous army, led by [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Re-Destro]], are a domestic terrorist organization that wants to abolish all government regulations on Quirk usage so that people can use them however they desire. [[spoiler:Interestingly enough, this [[VillainEpisode arc]] doesn't even see them confront ''any'' of the heroes we've seen throughout the series, and instead [[EvilVersusEvil the main conflict is between them and The League of Villains]] since they see the League's growing notoriety as a threat to their plans.]]
* ContrivedCoincidence
** Midoriya and Mirio stumble into Eri and Overhaul during a simple patrol. The brief encounter still allows them to bring enough information for the police and heroes to eventually organize the raid on the Shie Hassaikai mansion. Had they passed in front of that alley a few minutes earlier or later, they'd have not even learned of Eri's existence.
** The Midoriya/Gentle Criminal fight happens because of three events that are plausible individually, but are unlikely to all happen over the course of a few days:
*** Yaoyorozu received an expensive tea in a care package from home.
*** Midoriya accidentally clicked on a link to a Gentle video where he talks about the teas he favors and how he chooses blends based on what kind of job he's planning to pull.
*** Midoriya crosses paths with Gentle while they're both out shopping, and Midoriya notes that he'd just bought the same expensive tea that Yaoyorozu got from home.
* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding:
** Discussed. During the Heroes vs. Villains training exercise, both Bakugo and Midoriya lose standing for firing off massive blasts while indoors. The U.A. kids are taught from the very beginning to avoid property damage whenever possible because this isn't in play, and the series itself often shows civilians in buildings during times of crisis. In the Final Exams Arc, Midoriya and Bakugo even get points added for limiting damage from their actions to the buildings that All Might has already destroyed rather than compromising the buildings that are still standing.
** During the climax of the Internship Arc, [[spoiler:Overhaul goes on a rampage and damages many of the occupied houses around him and Midoriya, with one panel even showing a mother protecting her infant from falling debris. Midoriya uses a 100% kick to get Overhaul into the sky and away from the people.]]
** Zigzags throughout the Paranormal Liberation War Arc. Many citizens are evacuated during the battle, but others aren't so lucky.
* CrapsaccharineWorld:
** Ultimately, the world of ''My Hero Academia'' boils down to this. The world population is 80% Quirk'd, meaning they have superpowers of some sort. These people can go to school to train to be heroes like All Might. As well, many of these heroes are revered for their acts to the point where there's a rating system that places the popularity of these heroes. When you dig deeper, you find the darker side. The remaining 20% of humanity are Quirkless, are looked down on by those with Quirks, and are denied a chance to be heroes because they would never "catch up". Even if you have powers, they may be pathetic or even "bad", meaning you could be looked down on for having undesirable powers. And those with perceived "dangerous" Quirks end up being demeaned as being fit for a villain and/or are forced into suppressing their Quirk, sometimes without proper help in controlling their quirk or having a healthy outlet to indulge their instinct. As well, many of the heroes out there aren't in it to make the world a better place, but for fame and fortune. And the over-reliance on these heroes has led to society becoming generally apathetic towards the suffering of others, as it is expected that a hero will come and fix everyone's problems no matter what. Not to mention that there are deranged people who're more than willing to use their Quirks to hurt people for any slight provocation. [[spoiler:In fact, it's mentioned the present time of the manga is the stable society built ''decades'' after Quirks started appearing. The first few years were complete chaos from utter lawlessness as no one knew how to handle things at the time, allowing criminals to build their empires (one of which was All For One) and fighting in the streets with superpowers was a natural occurrence.]]
** Lady Nagant's backstory shows us the very dark and bloody work it took to uphold the bright hero-led society. At a very young age, she was made an assassin for the Commission. Her job was to kill not just villains, but heroes that threatened to tarnish the public's view on heroes, often for just petty crimes or in some cases people who had just talked about going against the establishment. It took a very heavy toll on her mental state and she ended up killing the Commission's President. It is implied the crime she got sent to jail for was not because she killed heroes, but because she knew too much.
* CreateYourOwnHero: All Might and Midoriya's Quirk "One For All" was created by a villain who could give and take Quirks. The villain gave a Quirk to someone who already had one, which led to One For All's formation. The users of One For All all opposed the villain, and the villain was eventually defeated by All Might.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: The biggest problem of a superhuman society is that many villains are shoved headfirst into becoming criminals because of the overly restrictive laws and societal norms they have to abide under clamping down on how they use their Quirks and their lives in general. Factor in the different forms of Quirk discrimination, government corruption, the destructive nature of Quirks themselves, and completely irredeemable monsters like All For One exploiting the issue and you have millions of oppressed individuals lashing out at the world that created them.
* CripplingOverspecialization: It's acknowledged a few times that the entrance exam to get into U.A.'s Hero Course is overly geared towards combat-oriented Quirks, leading to people like [[CompellingVoice Shinso]] who have powerful Quirks that just happen to be useless in this particular test.
* CrisisCatchAndCarry: Happens on several different occasions during the Forest Training Camp Arc:
** Mustard's gas attack renders many of the students unconscious, leaving their peers to carry them to safety. Of particular note is Todoroki, who spends the entire arc with Tsuburaba on his back, even while fighting against Moonfish.
** Even though he is injured from his fight with Muscular, Midoriya still tells Kota to get on his back, so that he can take him to safety. Then the two of them meet up with Aizawa, and Aizawa carries Kota back to camp.
** After saving Midoriya from Tokoyami, Shoji comments that Midoriya shouldn't be moving around in the state he is in, and spends the rest of the arc carrying him.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Implied. All For One claims that the way Nana Shimura died was "Just pathetic". He gave one of her hands to Shigaraki to replace one of the hands he destroyed, [[spoiler:which was his own father's]].
* CurbStompBattle:
** Todoroki does this at least three times. The first is against Ojiro and Hagakure during the Battle Trial, when he freezes them along with the entire building, enabling him to seize the bomb without any resistance. The second is against a group of villains during the USJ Arc. The third is against Sero during the U.A. Sports Festival tournament, with whom he freezes with one massive attack.
** The match between Denki Kaminari and Ibara Shiozaki ends in a matter of seconds. Shiozaki's vines easily block out Kaminari's electric attack, and then she uses those vines to immobilize him.
** Tokoyami provides one against [[spoiler:Moonfish]] during the Forest Training Camp Arc [[spoiler:after Dark Shadow goes out of control]].
** In Chapter 87, [[spoiler:the combined pro hero and police force utterly decimates the League of Villains and rescues Bakugo without a hitch, completely preempting Midoriya and his friends' plans to rescue him.]]
** In Chapter 88, [[spoiler:All For One returns the favor by kidnapping Bakugo ''again'', ambushing the police force with a fraction of the Nomu army, and taking out several pro heroes who were at the Nomu factory in ''less than a second'' with the No. 4 hero Best Jeanist among them.]]
** Mirio delivers one to the entirety of Class 1-A, taking the whole class (except Todoroki, who declined to participate, and Bakugo, who was still on house arrest) down within the span of few minutes, including beating all of the long-ranged fighters in less than six-seconds.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindows: There are many characters in this series whose hair color is identical to their eye color, especially among Class 1-A.
* DamselInDistress:
** Zigzagged during the entrance exam. Uraraka is trapped beneath heavy rubble when a massive hazard bot suddenly appears in the middle of U.A.'s practical exam. She manages to escape under her own power while Midoriya is busy demolishing the robot and gets to rescue him before he faceplants from fifty stories up.
** Invoked by the HUC (Help Us Company), who are ''professional'' damsels in distress. This is justified as their role is to judge an aspiring hero's ability to handle the situation during crises, and they have terrifying eyes for details in this case.
** During the Internship Arc, Eri is held captive within Overhaul's HQ. She did find a way out on her own but goes back because she feared Overhaul would kill the first people she met outside. Recusing her then becomes a driving force for Midoriya and Mirio.
* DarkestHour
** If Chapter 300 isn't this, it comes damn close. In summary, [[spoiler:the raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front ends in a PyrrhicVictory at best. Though the PLF is effectively eliminated and the League of Villains is left scattered and at its lowest point, Gigantomachia has been stopped only *after* running a path of destruction through several cities, and many pro heroes have been killed or seriously maimed in the fighting. To make things worse, Endeavor's past abuse of his family and Hawks' killing of Twice is broadcast all over the world ruining not only their reputations but the image of heroes in general. Public opinion of heroes falls to rock bottom, with many pro-heroes deciding to quit amid the backlash, and civilians stealing support items and resorting to vigilantism. And ''even worse'' is that All For One takes over Shigaraki's body and masterminds a mass prison break out of Tartarus and several other prisons, freeing not only himself but ''every villain Midoriya and his friends had ever apprehended'', including Stain, Muscular and Overhaul.]]
** Later Midoriya lives his own worst moment. [[spoiler:after Lady Nagant gets blown up in front of him, and All For One taunts him with a DarkReprise of when All Might told him "You Are Next", his mental state slips. Leaving even All Might behind, he spends the next days alone, fighting villains with no rest and saving people who are however afraid of him as his increasingly damaged costume gives him an unsettling appearance. He ends up so weakened physically and mentally that he can barely stand without the help of Blackwhip, and nearly lets a villain send mind-controlled people to lynch him. Luckily [[BigDamnHeroes his classmates come just in time]] and proceed to convince him to return to UA.]]
* DeadlySparring: During the Joint Training Arc, Class 1-A and Class 1-B perform a training exercise in which they split into teams and try to capture as many of their opponents as possible before a time limit runs out. Everything is going fine until Midoriya faces off against Monoma and becomes enraged by his taunts, [[spoiler:suddenly manifesting a new Quirk which creates massive, destructive tendrils that instantly go out of control and attack the other students. Everyone is horrified as Midoriya can only scream at the other students to run and hope he doesn't harm them. Luckily, Uraraka can get Shinso to brainwash Midoriya and end the attack]].
* DeadpanDoorShut: In the aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War, Shoto and his family visit Endeavor at the hospital he's recovering at. When Shoto opens the door to see Endeavor [[spoiler:crying over how his poor parenting resulted in his eldest son Toya becoming the mass murderer Dabi]], Shoto feels awkward due to never seeing his father act like this before and slams the door shut again. His sister Fuyumi has to grab him by the collar to make him enter the room.
* DePower: A chilling threat in a society where nearly everyone is a DifferentlyPoweredIndividual:
** Aizawa has the power to depower others for as long as he avoids blinking.
** All For One can steal Quirks, resulting in this happening to his victims.
** Overhaul and company are working on drugs that stop a person's Quirk factor. They've made [[TrickBullet bullets]] that stop it temporarily, but it's implied they're developing a permanent depowering version. [[spoiler:They succeed, using the first batch to depower Mirio Togata, a student who was said to be the closest to taking the position of #1 hero.]]
* DeconReconSwitch: The story deconstructs several tropes normally used in the action shonen genre, to the point of becoming a DeconstructorFleet at a point, but it overall reconstructs the genre.
* DeconstructorFleet: [[DeconstructorFleet/MyHeroAcademia Has its own page]].
* DegradedBoss:
** The feared 0-point robots in the entrance exam are later reused as obstacles in the Sports Festival race, where several students are easily able to handle them. Discussed by the proctors, who point out that the robots not being treated as hazards to be avoided has a different psychological effect on the kids.
** There is more than one ArtificialHuman Nomu, but the first one is the most refined of them all, as it is made to defeat All Might. Later ones are not as strong and can easily be taken down by the likes of Endeavor and Gran Torino.
* DesignatedGirlFight: Subverted. All the girl-on-girl fights that happen throughout the series are largely incidental and have little to do with the fighters' sex. The U.A. Sports Festival tournament especially subverts this completely.
* {{Determinator}}: The "You can accomplish anything if you try hard enough and never give up, no matter the personal cost" mindset is played as destructive, as the main characters suffer great injury because of it. For example, Ida sustains nerve damage in his arm, whereas Midoriya suffers permanent damage to his arms as a result of going all out against Muscular. [[{{Reconstruction}} On the other hand]], it's played straight depending on the situation - Uraraka goes all out during her fight with Bakugo at the Sports Festival, which impresses the audience and lands her many internship offers, and [[TheAce Bakugo]] considers her a WorthyOpponent, while Mirio devotes his life to mastering his DifficultButAwesome Intangibility Quirk. He ends up as one of the Big Three at U.A. and is considered good enough to be a pro hero already.
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: In Kirishima's backstory, he witnesses Ashido talking down a destructive villain by lying to his face, and the villain leaves peacefully after thanking her. [[spoiler:Later it's revealed that said villain is Gigantomachia, All For One's bodyguard and most powerful lieutenant.]]
* DifferentlyPoweredIndividual: By the time the story takes place, these represent the ''majority'' of the population, with a whopping 80% possessing some type of Quirk. Most simply continue to live ordinary lives, though, with only a small number becoming full-on superheroes or supervillains. This is inverted with Quirkless people, individuals with no superpowers who make up only 20% of the population.
* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:Upon the end of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, with thousands of civilians either dead or homeless from Gigantomachia's rampage, hundreds of heroes retire and quit shutting down their agencies. This is especially notable that not only do they give up, but they quit ''right when people need them now more than ever''. One of them was Yoroi Musha, one of the top 10 heroes, who retires solely to avoid criticism and because he only became a hero for the fame and attention.]]
* DoubleStandard: During Bakugo and Uraraka's fight, many spectators start booing the former for not going easier on a girl. Aizawa immediately calls them out for this; this is the same audience who were fine with the three other male vs. female matches, including a boy who could shoot lasers against a female opponent. The only difference is that Bakugo is [[{{Jerkass}} an unlikable jerk]], therefore the audience assumes everything he does is to bully his opponent. Not only that, but he calls out the crowd for assuming that Uraraka needs going easy on, and reminds everyone that for Bakugo to underestimate her would be a severe mistake and insult.
* DownerBeginning: The story opens with a scene of a four-year-old Midoriya getting the crap kicked out of him by Bakugo before being left, beaten, and bruised while noting that "All men are not created equal." The story then jumps to his last year of middle school, where he's mocked by his entire class, has one of his prized notebooks scorched and thrown out a window, and is nearly murdered by a villain in the span of a few hours. After that, things seem like they'll get better when Midoriya meets his idol, All Might, only to be told that he can't become a hero without a Quirk, grinding all of Midoriya's hopes and dreams into fine powder. Even after he rushes in to help Bakugo (to no avail, mind), Midoriya still gets chewed out by the heroes and is ready to resign himself to a life of mediocrity. After all of this, this is finally subverted when All Might chases him down to apologize and tell him the five words he wanted to hear his entire life: "You can become a hero."
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The Paranormal Liberation War arc. The war results in massive property damage, the loss of many heroes, and countless civilians coming to harm. Shigaraki gets away, now fully under the control of All For One who proceeds to cause a mass evasion of villains from Tartarus and several other prisons; in a matter of days vast areas of Japan are reduced to lawlessness and people are forced to gather in shelters. Dabi's broadcast, combined with the disastrous outcome of the battle, succeeds in shaking the public's faith in heroes to the core, and many other heroes crack under pressure and quit.]]
* {{Dualvertisement}}: In the run-up to the anime's third season, a series of ads were produced to promote the Japanese release of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', where All Might asks the members of Class 1-A which Avenger they admire the most. For the record: Midoriya admires ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, Bakugo admires ComicBook/IronMan,[[note]]Well, he says it's less admiration and more respect[[/note]] Uraraka admires ComicBook/BlackWidow, Ida admires ComicBook/DoctorStrange, Todoroki admires ComicBook/TheMightyThor, and All Might himself admires ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk.
* DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: At the opening of the USJ Arc, All Might powers up to deal with a variety of relatively minor crimes on his commute to U.A. Because of that, he ends up burning through most of his [[HourOfPower daily limit]] before even making it to work. This means that he doesn't have much power left to fight with when the League of Villains makes their debut and he has to fight the impact-absorbing Nomu. Forcing himself past his limits to win the fight accelerates the weakening of his powers considerably.
* EarlyBirdCameo: The second opening and ending of Season 4 both serve as early showcases for several characters way before any of them will show up. In the opening, Hawks, Gentle, and La Brava all show up before being properly introduced. In the ending, this includes a young Mirko playing volleyball in gym class, younger versions of Gentle and La Brava in school, as well as Takeshita side by side with Gentle, a young Hawks being trained by the government, and Natsuo in a picture together with Fuyumi.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: [[CharacterizationMarchesOn The early characterization of several characters is highly different from what becomes of them in later chapters]]:
** Midoriya is shown to be pretty resentful towards Bakugo at the outset of the story because of Bakugo's bullying in the first chapter, albeit not resentful enough that he wouldn't risk his life to save him from the Sludge Villain. This is a stark contrast to the later Midoriya, who still admires him and is optimistic that he can still be friends with him.
** In the first chapter, Bakugo always wears a smug grin on his face. Since then, he's been a PerpetualFrowner whenever he's not in a fight. This is justified, because in the first chapter he is surrounded by his friends and practically revered, and every other chapter after that challenges his ego either directly or indirectly and puts him in a situation where he has to change in order to be accepted by most of the class. Bakugo also seems to be more concerned about his reputation early on, calling out his friends for smoking because doing so could damage his chances of enrolling at U.A. Later on, Bakugo largely doesn't give a crap about the opinions of others and frequently does stuff that would frankly embarrass any educational institution.
** Also in the first chapter, Bakugo's antagonism towards Midoriya is far more extreme than in later chapters, with him going as far as [[SuicideDare telling him to jump off a roof]]. Horikoshi would later regret including this scene, claiming that it makes him sound like a much worse person than he intended, and later chapters ignore this incident.
** A lesser example is Ida. At the U.A. entrance exam, he is rather severe towards Midoriya and has a rather severe expression the entire time. Though he and Midoriya quickly become friends on the first day of school after the former apologizes for how he acted, Midoriya is initially unhappy to learn that they're in the same classroom. His hairstyle is different at first, initially being an undercut style. Shortly after school begins, it has grown into a more generic hairstyle.
** Though it is partially because he is regularly OffModel, Koda looks fairly different early in the manga. Early on, his looks emphasize his RockMonster traits more heavily, but as the story goes on, he begins to look less ugly and more nervous, fitting his personality more.
** Tsuyu and Mineta seem to be part of Midoriya's circle of friends, as they work together at USJ and they are the only ones apart from Uraraka and Ida to visit him while he is hospitalized during the U.A. Sports Festival. After that, they don't spend all that much time with Midoriya compared to his other classmates and are at best acquaintances; Tsuyu spends most of her time with Uraraka and the other girls, whereas Mineta is is usually seen with Kaminari and the other boys. [[spoiler:Although during Midoriya's battle with Class 1-A in Dark Hero Arc, both of them mention that they do consider him as a friend. Mineta in particular admires Deku's bravery a lot and Tsuyu gives him [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre a speech that Class 1-A won't leave him alone]].]]
** Tsuyu seems to get along with Mineta despite his perverted behavior, as she legitimately praises his skills during the USJ Arc, they work together during the Sports Festival, and they visit Midoriya during his aforementioned Sports Festival hospitalization. Now, she, like the rest of the girls in Class 1-A, can't stand Mineta due to his perverted behavior. Although, she still uses "-chan" part for him which means she at least accepts him as a classmate, just like the rest of the class.
** The first time it was seen in action, Recovery Girl's Quirk was shown to be capable of quickly curing horrific injuries with no strings attached, as Midoriya's mangled arm and legs were brought back to how they were in a matter of seconds. Over time, however, it's been stated and shown to have more and more limits and drawbacks (as Midoriya's scars show); otherwise, it'd have lowered the stakes too much.
** Bakugo freely using his Quirk in school comes as this in light of how future arcs would showcase and put a lot of emphasis on public Quirk usage being heavily regulated: only those with a hero license are allowed to use their Quirks in public, and doing so without one is considered a serious offense. Not only does this law play an important part in several arcs, but a whole villain organization exists with the sole purpose of taking down this regulation. Even ignoring Japan's attitude towards bullying, it's weird that no teacher called Bakugo out on using his Quirk so freely at the beginning of the story.
* EasilySwayedPopulation: The populace of Japan. [[spoiler:If the aftermath of the heroes' raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front is any proof, all it took to make them turn against their devoted protectors was one slanderous broadcast from Dabi about Endeavor's past life. This is despite one part of Dabi's broadcast (the claim that Hawks murdered Best Jeanist) being ''immediately'' proven a lie when Jeanist showed up seconds later to fight Dabi and Shigaraki on live TV. Which surely should've left the public at least wondering how many of Dabi's other claims were also lies. They decide to take support items into their own hands, and in doing so, end up causing more harm to the city than good; heroes are scorned and belittled, and some are even shamed into retirement. The most harrowing sign of this is that they vandalized All Might's statue in Kamino with a sign about his neck reading "I AM NOT HERE".]]
* ElaborateUniversityHigh: U.A. has buildings devoted to teaching and classes, dorms after it becomes a BoardingSchool, an Olympics-sized sports stadium, and several city-sized complexes that are used for hero training. This is partially justified by one of U.A.'s teachers literally manipulating cement as much as he wants,[[note]]given the EveryoneIsASuper setting, it stands to reason that construction got a ''lot'' easier[[/note]] but the school's incredibly large property is still highly unrealistic for a Japanese city.
* ElementalFusion: Shoto Torodoki, who can manipulate fire and ice, [[spoiler:develops a special technique he calls "Phosphor" which is a white cold fire that freezes anything. He develops this specifically to douse Dabi's flames, who are significantly hotter than what Shoto (or anyone for that matter) can achieve]].
* ElementalMotifs:
** [[TheHero Midoriya]] and [[BigGood All Might]] possess a light motif as holders of One For All. Each of the lights that appear in their mind while tapping into the Quirk represents a previous wielder. The anime frequently depicts All Might and Midoriya standing in front of a blinding light with their back to the viewer, showing their roles as the current and future HopeBringer. Sometimes they're even shown emitting light from their fists as they're punching someone. The future shown in the BatmanColdOpen of Season 2 has Midoriya's punch coincide with the rising of the Sun, seemingly illuminating the world in the process.
** Conversely, [[DragonAscendant Shigaraki]] and [[BigBad All For One]] are heavily associated with shadows and darkness. Their lair is a dim, secluded bar, they both dress in all black, and both of them are evocative of the unsavory underside of hero society. Even Kurogiri, their personal attendant who [[ThinkingUpPortals can create warp gates]], has them step out of the murky black fog as they're being transported.
* ElementalPersonalities:
** Shoto Todoroki's Quirk lets him produce vast streams of ice and fire. At the start of the story, he exclusively uses his ice powers to spite his father, resulting in him being cold, stoic and fixated on becoming a hero without using his fire powers. But once Midoriya forces Todoroki to realize that his fire powers are his own, Todoroki [[DefrostingIceKing begins to defrost]], showcases far more warmth and empathy while retaining his burning passion to become a hero.
** Denki Kaminari possesses an electricity Quirk and is constantly the life of the party. Goofy, a CasanovaWannabe, and constantly energetic, doesn't always think things through but manages to make fast friends with his classmates because of that same energy.
** Fumikage Tokoyami's Quirk, Dark Shadow, is a LivingShadow with a mind of its own. Tokoyami himself is rather brooding and seems to suffer from {{Chuunibyou}}, to the point that his room is extremely dark and he keeps occult items lying around it.
** Inasa Yoarashi is a Shiketsu student with a powerful air manipulation Quirk. He's extremely lively and gregarious along with being a little airheaded, apologizing for transgressions by bowing his head so low that he bashes it against the pavement. His name is also associated with wind storms, and he showcases a bitter and vengeful side to him regarding his distaste for Todoroki's and Endeavor's attitudes.
** Dabi possesses an extremely powerful and self-destructive fire Quirk with flames even hotter than Todoroki or Endeavor's. Whereas Todoroki's acceptance of his fire powers is reflective of his growing warmth and empathy, Dabi's flames burn him and are illustrative of his obsession with destroying Endeavor and everything he holds dear. Dabi uses them carelessly to torch his enemies and actively tries to cause as much mayhem as he can. [[spoiler:As Todoroki's lost older brother, Toya, his obsession began when he was tossed aside as a failure in his father's eyes, with Toya's ambitions and frustrations resulting in him lashing out against the "perfect" Shoto.]]
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Quirk advantages are a concept that's been there since the first chapter. They're often basic like the [[GreenThumb wood manipulator]] being weak to fire, or the [[CastingAShadow shadow beast]] user being weak to anything that can produce reasonable light. Some are more subtle though, like the [[PowerNullifier Quirk eraser]] having a disadvantage against mutants, whose Quirks tend to be permanent alterations on their bodies (and thus can't be turned off).
* EnemyExchangeProgram: The BigBad's Quirk allows him to steal, store, and transfer Quirks. He employs it to steal both powerful and support-type Quirks from the heroes and his criminal rivals. Then, he either keeps them for himself or gifts them to his underlings as a reward. As of lately, he has taken on reinforcing corpses with all sorts of Quirks to create mindless Nomus. This trope is kind of {{lampshaded}} in the Quirk's name, which also serves as the villain's [[RedBaron alias]]: All for One.
* EnemyMine: The League of Villains is not a fan of Overhaul and the yakuza, and during the Internship Arc, [[spoiler:Toga and Twice openly sabotage the villains, helping the heroes' rescue operation]].
* EntertaininglyWrong:
** Todoroki, having recognized the similarity between Midoriya's powers and All Might's, but not knowing about the fact that All Might's power can be deliberately passed down, asks Midoriya if he's All Might's illegitimate child.
** In an anime-only episode, a group of students has to solve the mock murder of a villain, played by All Might, killed by one of his hostages. When Tsuyu checks All Might, he laughs because the movements tickle him. Tsuyu assumes All Might simply broke character. Everyone realizes too late, only after All Might has disappeared and escaped, that the villain was PlayingPossum all along and All Might's moment of {{Corpsing}} was a deliberate clue they all missed. [[Invoked]]
* EternalVillain: All For One has been the setting's Symbol of Evil and BigBad to every user of One For All, from the first wielder, his younger brother, all the way to Midoriya himself. Over time, much effort has been spent trying to accumulate enough power to take him down for good, and not one has succeeded as of yet and a number of them have died at All For One's hands.
* EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes:
** All Might's strength is only rivaled by his kindness and he rarely uses excessive force in his fights. But his ArchEnemy, All For One, is so utterly vile that All Might tried to cave the villain's face in the duel that crippled both of them.
** Overhaul, the leader of the Shie Hassaikai, is so vile that the chipper Mirio and the compassionate Midoriya want nothing but to beat him to a pulp when they realize he's repeatedly abusing a little girl for his own gain.
* EverybodyIsSingle: The only characters who are confirmed to be in romantic relationships are the parents. Not a single U.A. student has been confirmed to be in a relationship or has ever been in a relationship. With students in the hero course so focused on becoming heroes, the series places way more emphasis on friendships and teamwork than romance. During the rare times romance is brought up, it's usually thought of as a distraction to hero careers. That said, they are all first years at a new school, most of them not knowing each other before entering U.A., so it makes sense they haven't immediately hooked up with each other.
* EveryoneIsASuper: By the time the series begins, 80% of humanity has some kind of Quirk, and it's noted that Quirklessness becomes less common with each generation; it was relatively common when All Might was young, but Midoriya is the only student in his middle school without a Quirk. That said, most humans aren't superheroes. Inverted with animals, with only a rare few obtaining Quirks and fewer have the kind of intelligence it takes to refine them. The principal of U.A. is one such animal.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Many villains don't understand the virtue of self-sacrifice and attack heroes just so they could use their Quirks as they see fit, with no regard for the consequences of their actions.
* EvilIsCool: Stain is seen as this InUniverse, but this is deconstructed. The manga shows how damaging the concept can be to society, especially to young people, since the attention Stain gets from the media encourages already troubled people such as Toga and Dabi to become full-time villains and follow in his wake. This is also troublesome because even if these villains are cool, they are still evil, and his publicity resulted in people buying merchandise of him and Kaminari even praising him ''around Ida'', whose brother Stain permanently crippled.
* EvolutionaryLevels: Apparently, people with Quirks lack a joint in their pinkie toe. It's explained that this joint is vestigial in humans, and therefore anyone without it is part of a new stage in evolution.
* EvolvingCredits:
** In the closing credits of the first three episodes of the anime, Midoriya is seen [[CreditsRunningSequence running in his middle school uniform]]. Once he makes it into U.A., he wears his high school uniform instead.
** Happens a lot in the closing credits of the sixth season of the anime, generally reflecting the some of the characters' arcs:
*** The episode where Hawks is forced to kill Twice replaces the footage of Shigaraki looking at a town that gets demolished with a shot of Toga and Twice hugging, presumably in the {{Yakuza}} headquarters, followed by a shot of Toga sitting alone, now mourning Twice's untimely demise.
*** The episode where Bakugo [[TakingTheBullet takes an attack meant for Midoriya]] from Shigaraki replaces the same shot with a shot of a young Bakugo fallen into a river while a young, worried [[NiceGuy Midoriya]] [[TakeMyHand offers him a hand]], asking him if he's okay, which was a turning point in Bakugo's character, as his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex inferiority complex]] made him lash out at Midoriya. This shot is followed by a shot of a now teenaged Bakugo, in his hero costume ([[MarqueeAlterEgo sans the mask]]) accepting Midoriya's help, signifying [[CharacterDevelopment him actually being concerned for the well being of his childhood friend]], which is a reference to [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmsQ5rPan-Mw8GM3M6mtt1dKn0EqHaflCHMA&usqp=CAU this]].
*** [[spoiler:The episode that reveals Dabi's identity also replaces those two shots: first one with a cheerful [[UsedToBeASweetKid Toya Todoroki]] showing his flame Quirk, second one with the now grown up Dabi gleefully using his Quirk in a similar manner.]]
* ExactWords:
** Important during All Might's fight with Nomu:
--->'''All Might:''' He said your power was shock ''absorption'', not ''nullification''! That means there's a limit to what you can take, right?!
** During Star and Stripe's fight against Shigaraki, [[spoiler:she uses her New Order Quirk to impose a rule upon him: "If Tomura Shigaraki moves at all, his heart will stop." However, this fails, because All For One was in the process of merging his consciousness with Shigaraki, making them into a new person who doesn't count as "Tomura Shigaraki" anymore.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F-J]]
* FakeOutTwist:
** In chapter 191 of the manga/episode 90 of the anime, [[spoiler:Hawks, the number 2 ranked hero in Japan, is shown meeting with Dabi of the League of Villains, revealing Hawks to be TheMole. Once the meeting is finished, the next scene is Hawks recalling how the Heroes Public Safety Commission asked him to spy on the League, meaning he's actually a mole for the good guys.]]
** The end of Chapter 335 sets up [[spoiler:Hagakure as the U.A. traitor by way of an AnswerCut when All For One talks about the "friends" he can use. However, the next chapter reveals the real traitor.]]
* FamedInStory:
** Most pro heroes are famous to varying degrees, with All Might being the most famous of them all (in Japan, at least). In fact, within the system that ranks heroes, public approval ratings are even directly taken into account.
** Because of its large national audience, students of U.A. have the chance of making their name known across the whole nation at the U.A. Sports Festival.
** Even compared to other U.A. students, Midoriya's class became famous after they were able to repel a villain ambush during one of their lessons. It actually caused them to overshadow the other U.A. students at the above-mentioned Sports Festival as the media and audience paid more attention to them.
* FantasticRacism:
** When Quirks first began to emerge, people who developed them were ostracized by society à la ''ComicBook/XMen'', but now that the majority of people in the world have powers, it's the powerless who are at a disadvantage. Even those who have odd appearances as a result of their Quirks aren't notably discriminated against, save for a rare faction that discriminates against "mutant" type individuals.
** Chapter 171 reveals the existence of a villain known as Destro, who is or was the leader of the "Metahuman Liberation Army", suggesting that at some point, those with Quirks fought back against those who ostracized them in the early days of powers coming into existence.
* FantasticalSocialServices: Strict laws against the unsanctioned use of Quirks are in place to mitigate potential havoc. Since most people gain their Quirks by the age of four, parents can take their children to Quirk counselors to help them acclimate to their abilities and use them responsibly.
* FatalFlaw: One For All as many know is an inheritable Quirk, passing down its stockpile of Quirks from person to person. [[spoiler:However, one major problem occurs if passed to a user with an existing Quirk, the strain of One For All takes a toll on the user's body on top of their own and they are fated to die young. As a testament to that, Hikage Shinomori, the fourth user and the second longest user next to All Might, died at 40, but the official statement says he died of old age. All Might, who's had One For All for at least 40 years, realized that One For All is optimal when passing on to a Quirkless user, thus Midoriya was the best choice to inherit One For All. But then this leads to the next flaw concerning One For All, seeing that Quirkless people are already a rarity and dropping more and more, Midoriya may be One For All's final successor.]]
* FatFlex: [[BigGood All Might]] describes his superpower to be similar to this. Just like a normal human can puff their chest to look stronger, he too can redistribute his body's energy output to turn from a skinny bloke to a superhuman form. However, doing so puts a heavy strain on his body, even more so after he got a lung ripped out in battle and so has had his transformational time halved.
* FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence: This is pretty much the mentality of how a lot of the villains operate. They don't like living in a time where you can be arrested for simply using your Quirk or have a much harder time committing all the havoc and villainous acts they want to accomplish. As such, they wish to change the system to suit their own means.
* FelonyMisdemeanor: In the first chapter/episode, Kamui Woods claims that a purse thief is "pure evil". Although the thief did use his Quirk to turn into a giant monster, damaging infrastructure and endangering bystanders, he's still very much on the lighter side of villains compared to some other baddies that are introduced later, especially when you consider that Mt. Lady, a superheroine, causes similar amounts of property damage in the process of apprehending him and is applauded for it.
* FictionalDisability:
** 20 percent of the population is born Quirkless, having no superpowers to call their own. While they can still go about a mundane life without a problem, Quirkless people like Midoriya are magnets for bullying and scorn and are heavily discouraged from trying to become heroes.
** In Chapter 168, it's revealed that some people have Quirks that aren't compatible with their biology. For example, Aoyama's Navel Laser can seriously injure him from overuse, due to a birth defect. This also explains why nobody batted an eye when Midoriya kept severely injuring himself in the earlier story arcs.
* {{Filler}}:
** In the anime, there are moments here and there of AdaptationExpansion, such as getting to see the U.A. Sports Festival fights that are off-panel in the manga, with many confirmed canon such as Yaoyorozu's fight with Tokoyami. However, episode 19 of Season 2 is technically the first true filler episode that delves into some of the post-Sports Festival internships of the U.A. students while Midoriya recovers in the hospital following the fight against Stain. One noteworthy internship that's [[ADayInTheLimelight given the spotlight]] here is the one for Tsuyu, which shows the entirety of the mission she's on dealing with a group of villains on a naval ship. These events, at least in the case of Tsuyu, are a case of adaptation expansion/canon too, as they're all referred to as occurring in the manga, just offscreen. It's still technically filler, though, in that unlike the U.A. Sports Festival, no manga events take place in the episode with it.
** Season 3 opens with a swimming competition between Class 1-A that's never in the manga in a long ShoutOut to ''Anime/{{Free}}'' (funnily enough, not only does Iida look exactly like Rei Ryugazaki, they even have the same [[Creator/JMichaelTatum voice actor]] in the dub). The episode, however, has comparatively less fanservice than what's usually seen in this situation, which is lampshaded when Kaminari and Mineta try to check out the girls in bikinis, only to find out that they're wearing full-body swimsuits; if anything, the fanservice comes from the male characters who only wear shorts. Said episode also serves as a recap for the previous two seasons.
** Also in Season 3, a few segments are added for the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc that isn't in the manga. One showcases Todoroki vs. a class of ninja-themed students. The other pits a team of Yaoyorozu, Tsuyu, Jiro, and Shoji against an all-girl squad led by a hyper-intelligent [[TheStrategist strategist]].
** Probably the straightest filler episode in the entire series thus far occurs in Episode 20 of Season 3 which serves partially as a backdrop to promote ''[[Anime/MyHeroAcademiaTwoHeroes Two Heroes]]'' and partially just to have fun with six of the most significant/popular members of Class 1-A (the main five and Tsuyu) as they try to solve a hostage situation/LockedRoomMystery. The anime lampshades how blatant it is in the prologue when a confused Midoriya points out to All Might that they are supposed to be in the middle of getting their provisional hero licenses while All Might just tells him to ignore it for now and have some fun.
** Season 4 begins with a filler recap episode, this time involving a freelance journalist, Taneo Tokuda, coming to interview Class 1-A about their new dorm life. The recap aspect of the episode is heavily downplayed, however, as it focuses more on Taneo secretly searching for All Might's successor.
** Season 5 opens with another filler recap episode, which, at least in the anime, marks the first time Bakugo ever interacts with one of U.A.'s Big Three, [[ShrinkingViolet Tamaki]]. The episode shows a training exercise where the Class 1-A students must fight the remaining Big Three members while rescuing Mirio, who plays the role of a DistressedDude.
** Season 5 has an episode during the Endeavor Internship Arc that shifts focus to Uraraka and Tsuyu's internship, which serves as a prelude to the third movie.
* FinalBattle: [[spoiler:Officially kicks off in Chapter 343, with Midoriya and Aoyama luring All For One and his new army of villains to an abandoned parking lot. They proceed to spring their trap on them, with Monoma copying Kurogiri's Quirk to launch the heroes' counterattack, employing the initial strategy used against Class 1-A in the series' first battle, USJ, as a CallBack.]]
* FireIceDuo: Invoked by Endeavor, who wanted a child with a strong Quirk, and so sought out a woman with a strong ice Quirk to complement his fire Quirk and trapped her in marriage. She eventually gave birth to Shoto Todoroki, who can generate fire from his left side and ice from his right. However, rather than simply being a case of ComboPlatterPowers, the fire and ice explicitly serve as RequiredSecondaryPowers to each other, allowing Shoto to regulate his body temperature, and thus sidestep the drawbacks of overusing one power or the other.
* FiveManBandConcert: The SchoolFestival Arc couples a variation of this trope with DancingTheme. Izuku, TheLeader and the main character, is not part of the band but is one of the dancers. Instead, it's TheLancer who is part of the band because he turns out to be a talented drummer. The band itself is comprised of Jiro (voice and bass), Momo (keyboard), Bakugo (drums), and Tokoyami and Kaminari (guitars). They all play [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwUenaQqlM "Hero Too"]] as their School Festival class presentation.
* TheFlameOfLife: The remnants of the quirk One For All still within All Might are described by ArchNemesis All For One as dying embers. Visually, they're represented by an image of a dying, sputtering flame which a weakened All Might is huddled over, struggling to keep it lit while he finishes his task of defeating All For One.
* FlashyProtagonistsBlandExtras: Subverted:
** Outside of costume, the majority of major characters are very plain-looking, ordinary people and are no different from civilians. Even characters like Ashido, Shoji, and Hagakure have trouble standing out due to plenty of people having Mutant Quirks or sub-mutations. A lot of extras are also given colorful hair and unique designs that make them look like important characters.
** In-costume, background, and minor heroes and hero students are just as eye-catching as the cast, even more than some such as Jiro, Kaminari, and Koda.
* FlawExploitation: The final exams are redesigned into this after the incidents involving the League of Villains. The teachers pair up students against the teacher who can best force them to deal with their weak areas.
* FloralThemeNaming: In a separate case from the usual {{Meaningful Name}}s of Quirk users, each of the manga-original Quirkless characters have names that reference trees/plants somehow.
* FlyingBrick:
** Surprisingly, for a traditional superhero story, there are very few running around, although this is most likely due to how Quirks work. Although a Quirk can grant more than one power, it's rare for one to grant completely ''unrelated'' powers, meaning flight+strength+speed+durability is a rare sight. Most heroes are lucky to have just one of those qualities and have to rely on teamwork and ingenuity to win more often than brute force. It's one of the reasons All Might, having three out of four of those classic traits (sans flight), became so exceptional.
** A few of the rare straight examples include Captain Celebrity in the ''Vigilantes'' spinoff (whose exact Quirk is considered a national mystery much like All Might) and Nana Shimura, though only through supporting her natural flight Quirk with One For All's strength. Endeavor also somewhat counts since he can propel himself with fire, though he usually doesn't bother flying much since it can quickly drain his firepower or contribute to unnecessary overheating.
* FoodBasedSuperpowers:
** Sato's Quirk, Sugar Rush, revolves around him consuming a lot of sugar and gaining a temporary boost of strength and energy.
** Tamaki Amajiki, hero name Suneater, can transform his body based on any food he has recently eaten. He eats beef, he turns his hands into hooves. He eats squid or octopus, he can transform parts of his body into tentacles. His mentor, Fat Gum, makes a point of giving him swordfish meat just before they take part in a raid of the Shie Hassaikai's stronghold.
* ForegoneConclusion:
** In general, Midoriya's narration says at the very start that this is the story of how he became a great hero. So, assuming he [[UnreliableNarrator isn't lying]], we can assume he succeeds in the end.
** Midoriya's narration in Chapter 46 indicates that something bad will happen to Ida. It does.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** While All Might explains the nature of "One For All" as a Quirk that is to be cultivated and inherited, there are eight balls of light that are interconnected, like a constellation. These hint at the eight previous holders of the Quirk, with Midoriya being the ninth successor.
** All Might explains that One For All cannot be stolen. Though it seems that this statement should be normal given that it is a Quirk that is transferred between people, this becomes an important clue later on when [[spoiler:All For One shows up]].
** The vestiges of One For All show up when Midoriya is battling Shinso, and break his finger to snap him out of Shinso's brainwashing. This not only foreshadows [[spoiler:Midoriya's eventual alliance with them]] but also foreshadows [[spoiler:All For One (from whom One For All was given), being the sole possessor of the Quirk before Shigaraki, eventually strengthening the connection to pull a GrandTheftMe on him.]]
** All Might gives Midoriya a training regime to prepare him for U.A. Midoriya quickly starts going beyond the limits the plan called for, causing him problems with overwork. Not only does Midoriya hurting himself from pushing himself too far become a recurring element of the series, but the differences between his and All Might's personalities seriously hamper their teacher-student relationship.
** Early in the USJ Arc, Kirishima describes his Quirk as not at all "flashy" and thinks it would be easier for him to be a pro hero if he had a flashier moniker. [[spoiler:Come the Work Study Arc, it's revealed that during middle school, around the time Bakugo and Midoriya fought the Sludge Villain, Kirishima was having self-doubts about his chances at being a hero, even giving up on going to U.A. at one point.]]
** In the opening shots of the second opening, Midoriya can clearly be seen. Note the sleeves on his arms, which seem to have been torn off. This is a hint of the permanent damage he'll do to his arms at the end of the arc.
** All Might mentions One For All boosts a person's Quirk greatly. [[spoiler:This comes into play when Deku unlocks the powers of the other users, they're all amplified as All Might said.]]
** During the last thirty-seconds of the third opening, one gets a decent shot at all the major members of the League of Villains, including its real leader, as the shadow behind them heavily resembles All For One.
** During the Remedial Course Arc, an InUniverse theory called the "Quirk Singularity" is introduced. Later on, during the Joint Training Arc, it's revealed that One For All is a perfect example of this theory, having grown strong enough in power over the first eight generations to allow the ninth wielder, Midoriya, to [[spoiler:not just interact with the "ghosts" of his predecessors, but also allow him access to their Quirks.]] Although that means Midoriya will be more powerful than all of his predecessors by far, it also means he'll have an even more difficult time mastering One For All than initially thought.
** In the climax of the first volume of the light novels, when a villain takes Class 1-A's parents hostage, who are visiting for Parents' Day, Inko Midoriya calms down a belligerent Mitsuki Bakugo by telling her, "We're hostages, remember?" This sounds like Inko's trying to remind Mitsuki of the danger they're in, but [[spoiler:it turns out to be a warning not to break character, as the entire thing is just an exercise]].
** All Might explains that One For All is passed down from each generation to the next while accumulating power with each generation adding to it. All Might himself also stated that he instantly mastered One For All while stating why it can be hard for him to teach Midoriya. Later, when Midoriya starts to see the [[spoiler:vestiges of the previous One For All users]], they have a life of their own and aren't just memories or remnants. [[spoiler:This is a major hint that not only does One For All gain power for each successive generation but also gains the Quirks of the holders of One For All. Now that One For All has become strong enough, not only can the vestiges communicate with the current wielder, but they can also lend them their powers. All Might missed the previous Quirk users ''because'' he was an InstantExpert with the Quirk and never bothered much to master it completely, missing the advice the former Quirk Users could have given him.]]
** [[spoiler:Aoyama]] is conspicuously missing when the League of Villains attack the USJ, foreshadowing his role as the [[spoiler:traitor for the villains.]] Similarly, [[spoiler:Aoyama]]'s growing interest in Midoriya when noting the difficulty Midoriya is exerting in trying to control One For All is a hint that [[spoiler:Aoyama himself was also born Quirkless, and similarly has a great difficulty mastering Navel Laser, and he thought Midoriya also got his Quirk from All For One]].
** The cover image for Chapter 306 has [[TheHero Midoriya]] and [[ArchEnemy Shigaraki]] sitting atop a pile of broken [=TVs=], each holding a monitor that displays the other's mentor figure, [[BigBad All For One]] for Midoriya and [[TheParagon All Might]] for Shigaraki. [[spoiler:By the time of the FinalBattle, both characters wind up taking characteristics of their opposing mentor into their fighting style, essentially becoming a good/evil version of them on the opposing side of the fight, with One For All having evolved enough to allow Midoriya to [[ComboPlatterPowers wield the Quirks of the past users in tandem]] with the SuperStrength function like a weaker version of All For One's signature ability, and Shigaraki having grown so powerful after being enhanced by Garaki's research and gaining All For One's Quirk with its accumulated power that the only reason the heroes have a chance is by using [[PowerNullifier Erasure]] to seal his multitude of Quirks, leaving him with only the base strength of his enhanced body to fight with, which Shigaraki regularly compares to All Might in terms to illustrate to the heroes how unstoppable he is even without his Quirks]].
** In Chapter 334, as the [[spoiler:vestige of Star and Stripe fades away, having burned itself out from destroying so many of All For One's stockpiled Quirks, it taunts the shredded and tattered mental amalgamation of Shigaraki and All For One that one day a true hero will put an end to him and his ambitions. Whilst the All For One aspect of the avatar spitefully denies her claims, it's shown that within a hole in the avatar's figure made by Star's assault, a mental version of "Tenko Shimura" resides at the center, responding to Star's words and uttering Midoriya's name. During the FinalBattle, it's revealed that this is all that remains of [[ChildrenAreInnocent Shigaraki's good half]], being brought to the surface in denial of Mirio's claims that Shigaraki suffered from a FriendlessBackground. As All For One only understands negative emotions like anger and hatred, he was able to assimilate the "Shigaraki" aspect of his psyche, whom he specifically groomed since childhood to be as [[ThePowerOfHate hate-filled and misanthropic]] as possible, but was [[EvilCannotComprehendGood completely blind]] to the part of Shigaraki's mind that still embraced the few happy memories he possessed, leaving him mistakenly thinking he'd assumed full control over Shigaraki's mind and body]].
* FormulaWithATwist: The series revitalized the shonen genre in the early 2010s by introducing a rich and interesting new world that the protagonist needed to fit himself into, rather than said world revolving around said protagonist. While Midoriya does possess one of the strongest Quirks imaginable, simply becoming ''powerful'' isn't what he's after. Midoriya's journey is to learn and understand the complex and flawed system of a world where EveryoneIsASuper so that he becomes ATrueHero which truly helps people and makes the world a better place. His struggle to become a better hero, ''in addition'' to improving his powers over time, is what makes the story truly stand out.
* ForWantOfANail: Midoriya feels that if hadn't chosen to fight Muscular, resulting in his arms being injured, he may have been able to stop Bakugo's abduction, which is what led to the Heroes raiding the League of Villains' hideout and All Might's confrontation with All For One, [[ItsAllMyFault and resulted in All Might using up the last of his Quirk and retiring]].
* FourLinesAllWaiting:
** There's the main plot, which is society attempting to raise a new generation of heroes.
** Midoriya is struggling desperately to become All Might's replacement as the Symbol of Peace without dying along the way.
** The League of Villains is trying to remake society in its own image while grooming a new leader to answer the Symbol of Peace.
** CharacterFocus continually jumps around, from Todoroki to Ida to Kirishima, with major characters All Might, Bakugo, and Uraraka flitting in and out along the way. Horikoshi very much wants to give all the characters what focus he can and repeatedly laments all the characters he hasn't yet been able to focus on.
** Minor plot-lines are mentioned or brought up every now and then within the latter parts of the manga, this includes the Traitor Theory, the Quirk-erasing bullets, the Todoroki family drama, [[spoiler:Mirio's lost Quirk and the attempts to retrieve it]] and so on.
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** Some of the poster scenery in Season 2 is directly ripped from the volume covers of the manga.
** The third opening has a shot of Ida looking towards the camera, and the smile of his brother reflected in the lens of his glasses.
* FreezeFrameIntroduction: Starting from halfway through season 2, every episode kintroduces every single character appearing in that episode with a still frame including the character's name, hero/villain description and Quirk. This applies only to the original broadcast (and simulcast) airing: the Blu-ray version of the series (which is also used for the foreign dubs) removes the subtitles, mainly because in a format where the viewer is allowed to watch multiple episodes one after the other reintroducing the exact same characters over and over every 25 or so minutes would feel kinda redundant.
* FridgeLogic: InUniverse. Midoriya belatedly realizes that since he can produce blasts of air at just 20% of One For All's power, then All Might wasn't using 100% of his power all the time while in his muscled form. If he was, he'd create a hurricane every time he moved.
* FriendlyRivalry:
** The most notable pair is Kirishima and Tetsutetsu. They're both at odds about having [[MadeOfIron very similar Quirks]], but soon become friends after they first tie in the Sports Festival's tournament.
** Bakugo starts out as just TheRival, but [[spoiler:after he miserably fails the Provisional Hero License Exam and after figuring out that Midoriya has All Might's Quirk]], he starts to mellow out a little towards Midoriya.
* FrogMen: Tsuyu and her family are all notably frog-like.
* FromBadToWorse: Every chapter after 290 comes off as this, [[spoiler:as we see the collapse of heroes as people become more polarizing towards them, Tartarus becoming a wreck which allows the most dangerous prisoners to escape, citizens unable to defend themselves as crime rate begins to rise, and many heroes are beginning to resign out of frustration and disappointment in their system, and the list goes on and on and on.]]
* FromHeroToMentor: All Might is still the number one hero in the rankings when the story begins, but he knows already that it's only a matter of time before his injuries take him out of the game for good, so he actively seeks out a protégé and finds Midoriya to pass his power on to. He then functionally retires to teach and eventually leaves heroing completely to focus on educating.
* FromZeroToHero: Izuku Midoriya starts off as a [[UnSorcerer Quirkless]] teen who can only dream of becoming a hero in a world full of them. After being recognized by his lifelong idol, All Might, he gains the powerful quirk One For All, giving him a chance at becoming the number one hero. Although he has to keep training his newfound power, he gets plenty of opportunities to fight villains and save others.
* GeodesicCast: Due to its large cast, the series divides the characters depending on their similar roles in the story and as contrasting {{Foil}}s:
** The main guy: Midoriya and Shigaraki.
** TheHeart: Uraraka, Nejire, Mt. Lady, Uwabami, Kaoruko, and the DarkerAndEdgier [[DarkChick Toga]].
** The "mentor" who's there for the main guy (respectively): All Might and All For One.
** The AnimalThemedSuperbeing or at least has AnimalMotifs: Tsuyu, Tokoyami, Spinner, Mirko, Gang Orca, and Shoji.
** The ClassRep: Both Iida and Yaoyorozu for Class 1-A, Kendo for Class 1-B, Nagamasa Mora for his class at Shiketsu High, (and the CanonForeigner Sekigai for her Isamu High in the [[Anime/MyHeroAcademiaTrainingOfTheDead 2nd OVA]]).
** TheAce: Todoroki, Bakugo, Yoarashi, Honenuki, Tokage, Hawks, and Best Jeanist.
** TheKlutz or the BookDumb: Kaminari, Camie, Tetsutetsu, Sero, Aoyama, Kirishima, and Mina.
* GeniusLoci: Played with. During the Work Study Arc, the main characters invade the base of operations of the Haissakai group. When they get to the group's underground base, a man using the name of Mimic uses his Quirk to fuse himself with the underground facility, turning it into a sentient maze and being able to control the place to separate and attack the heroes.
* GenreMashup: A {{Shonen}} story in a {{Superhero}} setting.
* GivenNameReveal:
** Two notable ones, both involving [[spoiler:Tomura Shigaraki]]:
*** The first is that [[spoiler:his real name is Tenko Shimura. As in, Nana Shimura, who was All Might's mentor and Tenko's grandmother]].
*** The second is that [[spoiler:the name Shigaraki actually belongs to [[BigBad All For One]], who gave it to him after taking him under his wing]].
** Another one comes from [[spoiler:Dabi, who turns out to be Toya, the missing Todoroki sibling.]]
* GlassesCuriosity: During the dorm room contest, it's revealed Ida has a shelf full of spare glasses. He considers this to be completely normal, much to [[SpitTake Uraraka's amusement]]. It's not directly addressed, but attentive viewers may notice that for the rest of the competition, both Uraraka and Ashido now each wear a pair of Ida's glasses.
* GoldenSnitch: In the second round of the U.A. Sports Festival, Midoriya is the snitch. His point value of ''ten million'' is greater than the rest of the students' points combined. Unlike most examples, the game didn't ''completely'' devolve into an all-out war for his 10,000,000 point headband, because there were openings for ''four'' teams to make it to the next round, and several teams decided it would be more worthwhile to go after other sources of points with less competition.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: A recurring issue with the heroes is they often fail to understand a person's motivation in becoming a villain:
** Present Mic is outraged at Dr. Ujiko for using his genius to develop technology for the villains and make the world a worse place to be. Dr. Ujiko on his part, is simply, eternally grateful to All for One who believed him, and funded his research after he was ridiculed by the scientific community in the past.
** The biggest, most tragic, however, is [[spoiler:Hawks, who infiltrated the League and befriended Twice while acting as a mole. He promised to spare Twice and would even help him start a new life, not understanding that Twice's motivation for villainy isn't so easily defined. Twice told him to sod off, forcing Hawks to kill him.]]
* GoodScarsEvilScars:
** Scars of heroic characters tend to be out of the way or subtle -- Kirishima and Aizawa have little nicks near their eyes, Nezu has a thin stripe that runs over one of his eyes, and Vlad King has a faint [[XMarksTheHero X-shaped scar]] over his cheek. Eri has faint scars along her arms and legs, but they're rarely seen. Midoriya's arms and hand are CoveredInScars, but they're slashes that are covered most of the time. The exceptions are Todoroki's prominent burn mark, which could qualify as an Evil Scar, but is still far less severe than Dabi's burns, and All Might's horrific scar courtesy of [[spoiler:All For One]], which, though covered most of the time, still wouldn't look out of place on a villain's body.
** Meanwhile, villainous characters often have larger and more grotesque scars -- Dabi's body is nearly covered in horrific, dark burn scars, Muscular's got a giant slash over his missing eye, Twice has a very prominent, vertical, stitched-up scar that runs across his forehead, and All For One's face is ''entirely'' covered in scar tissue.
* GottaPassTheClass:
** Before the summer training camp, Aizawa says that everyone must pass their final exams to come. Cue a HardWorkMontage of the students studying. Although some people eventually failed, Aizawa clarifies that everyone gets to attend the training camp, but the ones who flunked have to attend additional classes during the camp.
** To gain more experience at an internship, the students of Class 1-A and 1-B are required to pass a special exam to earn their provisional hero licenses, which are usually reserved for second and third-year students. By the end, all of the U.A. students pass except for [[spoiler:Bakugo and Todoroki]], who are subsequently forced to go to remedial classes for makeup in the winter and subsequently fall OutOfFocus as a result.
* TheGrappler: Uraraka spends her one-week work study with the hero Gunhead to learn some close combat techniques. She picks it up quickly enough that grappling and disarming maneuvers are now her go-to attack, using them to cuff Thirteen, disarm Toga, and defeat several members of 1-B throughout her various battles.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold:
** In Chapter 56, Midoriya, Todoroki, and Ida have survived Stain's onslaught and even rescued Native, but tales of their heroics can never be told since they committed a violation of performing superheroics without any license; If word got out, they would have to be punished. However, it's downplayed in that at least a few people know the truth, including the chief of police, who personally thanks them for capturing the Hero Killer.
** Much later, Midoriya gets in a fight with Gentle Criminal, a petty villain attempting to break into U.A. to gain attention, because even though he's not that dangerous and doesn't intend to harm anyone inside, the school is on high alert due to the resurgence in villain attacks and if any report of a possible threat was detected, they'd have to shut down the school and end the cultural festival going on at the time. When teachers arrive at the aftermath of the fight between them, Gentle says he just stumbled while Midoriya says they had a bit of a dispute. This is downplayed in that the staff realizes quickly what happened, but they decide to keep quiet so that the cultural festival doesn't have to be shut down.
* GreekChorus:
** During the U.A. Sports Festival, commentary on the matches for the benefit of the audience switches between the official commentators (Present Mic and Aizawa), the other students, and the visiting heroes.
** Bakugo and Midoriya are the second pair to finish their final in the manga; afterward, Midoriya commentates on the rationale and strategies of the remaining matches alongside Recovery Girl. Since the anime changes things so that the pairs go one at a time, Midoriya still watches the matches but is joined by some of his classmates after they finish their finals and before he takes his.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: During the students vs. teacher final exam, All Might swings Midoriya down onto a charging Bakugo like bringing down a hammer on a nail.
* GroupedForYourConvenience: U.A.'s students are grouped based on their field of study. Hero course students are kept in classes A and B, general course students in classes C, D, and E, support classes in F, G, and H, and management classes in I, J, and K. Given the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nature of the story]], Class 1-A tend to get the lion's share of the focus whereas the general, support, and management course students [[HufflepuffHouse tend to fall to the wayside]].
* HairColorDissonance: Several characters who seem to be black-haired (e.g., Midoriya, Ida, Tsuyu) have unnaturally colored highlights (mint, dark blue, teal, respectively), but sometimes they will be drawn with their hair entirely on those colors, making it hard to identify their actual hair color.
* HairContrastDuo:
** Wimpy nice guy protagonist Midoriya has dark, [[HairColorDissonance green-tinged]] MessyHair, whereas his {{Foil}}, the hot-tempered, asocial Bakugo, has light blond ShonenHair.
** The lazy, slovenly, black-haired Aizawa to the upbeat and energetic blond Present Mic, as well as the [[AllAmericanFace heroically blond]] All Might, with whom he forms a TheCowl [=/=] TheCape contrast.
** DeadpanSnarker Jiro has dark hair, whereas her {{Vitriolic Best Bud|s}}, the overall sillier Kaminari, has spiky blond hair.
** Mirio Togata is a cheerful, energetic, and outgoing boy with neat yellow hair while his best friend the quiet, serious, and calm Tamaki with messy Indigo hair.
* HardTruthAesop:
** The manga starts off with one: Not all men are born equal, and inherently, some are born with an advantage or disadvantage over others. The rest of the manga runs along these lines and makes it clear that from birth, some were born with the deck stacked against them and those who were born with the deck in their favor, and sometimes, people have privilege in some things and not in others.
** The harsh truth dealt to Midoriya throughout the first chapter is that sometimes dreams don't come true no matter how much you yearn for them. Without a Quirk, he had practically no hope of becoming a hero, and everyone from his teachers to All Might told him in no uncertain terms to give up on his dream and go find more realistic employment.
** Of the unconventional but real variety, and more of a message than a proper Aesop. When Uraraka mentions feeling shame of her unwholesome reason for being a hero, since she is OnlyInItForTheMoney, Ida, however, mentions that there is nothing wrong with it, since she is just looking for a way to sustain herself and her parents, and it's okay to look for a job just because it pays well. In fact, Midoriya suggests that Uraraka's motives are more grounded in reality than his desire to become a hero.
** The plot-line about Endeavor's relationships with his family ends with one: There is no right answer to whether you should forgive your abuser. Fuyumi decides to forgive her father and attempts to bring her family together. Natsuo blows up at his father and refuses to listen to him. Shoto reserves his judgment, stating that he is not forgiving him, but he is acknowledging that Endeavor is trying to change and that people do change. Even Rei acknowledges that, although she does not want to see him again, that he is making an effort. None of the characters are portrayed as being in the wrong and Endeavor acknowledges that all of them are entitled to the reactions they had. He even tells Natsuo that it's fine not to forgive him, and has a new home built for his wife and children, partly for their safety and partly because he believes they would be better off without him.
* HeadbuttingHeroes: Heroism is a corporate affair, so there's an undercurrent of competition between various heroes and their agencies for the public eye and the business that provides; professional heroine Mt. Lady makes her debut by "kill stealing" from Kamui Woods in the very first chapter, for example.
* HealTheCutie:
** Midoriya, as a CheerfulChild, was an ecstatic fanboy of All Might but was brokenhearted to find that he would probably never get a Quirk, dashing his dreams of becoming a hero. He is regularly mocked and bullied in his class for not having one, and when he meets his idol, he is told again that he should give up. When he acts to rescue his former bully, he is chastised by the public for rushing in without a Quirk and gives up on his dream. However, All Might, moved by his selflessness, decides to [[PassingTheTorch choose him as the next vessel for his Quirk]], and Midoriya's journey to finally realizing his dream begins.
** Eri is introduced as a quiet, traumatized little girl after [[spoiler:accidentally killing her father and being tortured by Overhaul to make anti-Quirk bullets]]. Midoriya and Mirio make it their personal mission to make her smile again, and using friendship, treats, and ThePowerOfRock, finally help her to become the CheerfulChild she was meant to be.
* HeartfeltApology: Showing how much he matured, [[spoiler:Katsuki Bakugo]] offers one to [[spoiler:Izuku Midoriya]] in front of everyone with his head hung low and everything for [[spoiler:all the bullying he put the latter through]]. He even addresses [[spoiler:Midoriya by his given name for the first time. Midoriya]] responds by giving an apology of his own.
* HeelFaceTurn:
** When Skeptic is about to hack into the security system of U.A. during the Final War Arc, he finds only one small roadblock - turns out [[spoiler:former video-uploading villain, La Brava]], has been recruited specifically to stop him. Naturally, [[spoiler:Gentle is not far behind, as he's there to save U.A. from freefalling, having previously restrained all of the convicts from the prison he was locked up in]].
** Also joining forces with the Heroes is [[spoiler:Lady Nagant, who stops Shigaraki from using Decay in the nick of time]].
* HellholePrison: Tartarus is a prison that's reserved for the most dangerous villains. From what has been seen, prisoners are locked in a cell, are extremely monitored, and have gun turrets (at least for All For One) ready to shoot them at any suspicious move without anything to do but stare at a wall.
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic:
** If a main character wears more covering headgear than a DominoMask or goggles, the very first hit said character takes in a fight will blow it off. Always. Special mention to Midoriya himself, who takes over a hundred chapters to wear his mask(a simple cloth hood that covers his face but offers no protection whatsoever) again after it gets blown apart by Bakugo in their first training exercise, even after it's repaired.
** Sero does wear his helmet. However, you can see his face through the glass when his facial expressions need to be seen. Otherwise, it's completely black.
** With Ida it's played with. When in full uniform, he does wear his fully covering helmet, yet during the fight against Stain, which is his biggest battle yet in uniform, the helmet comes off.
** Mirio has to discard his helmet to make use of his Quirk. Normally, when he goes {{intangib|ility}}le, he'll drop right out of his clothes, but his hero costume has his hair woven into it to avert this (his Quirk will treat it as part of his body, since some of it is). But, his helmet isn't made of cloth, so that can't work with it. One wonders why he bothers with the helmet at all since he literally can't use it.
* HeroAcademy: U.A. is a SuperheroSchool for those in the Hero Course, but it's this for those in General Education, Management, and Support, as these courses don't teach kids how to ''be'' heroes but rather other skills that would help them survive in a superhero-filled setting.
* HeroDoesPublicService: Discussed. Most prominently with All Might's WaxOnWaxOff training approach with Midoriya, having him clean up a beach in addition to his physical training, and some other heroes believe that hero work involves more boring, unglamorous work, too (like Fourth Kind making Tetsutetsu and Kirishima pick up trash on patrol).
* HeroInsurance: It's present, but there is a limit, as enough property damage can cause hero offices to go bankrupt, so the destruction of property is discouraged.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Following the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, it's implied that Shinso has been training, in the background, to become a hero in his own right; one appearance has him a fair bit more muscular than he was previously, and it's mentioned that he seems far more intense.
* HeroWithBadPublicity:
** Class 1-A is this to the other classes. Despite all the danger they got into, the fame that they get causes the other classes to look at them with disdain, believing the class to be cocky and to enjoy the fame of surviving against villains. This is especially true regarding their plan for the U.A. Culture Festival, where two general department students disparage their good intentions within earshot of Bakugo.
** The League of Villains wish to invoke this on U.A. by staging attacks to undermine confidence in the school and its most famous graduate, All Might. As Shigaraki remarks, every single media outlet quickly spins their attacks in the most damaging way possible.
* HeroesRUs: Heroes can set up their own professional agencies complete with sidekicks and other assistants to help them in their duties ranging from stopping villains to rescuing civilians to even filing paperwork. On a governmental level, there is the Hero Public Safety Commission which is in charge of managing the interactions between heroes and regular members of society, as well as overseeing the laws and regulations of the Hero industry. They are also in charge of other functions such as administering the Provisional License test for up-and-coming heroes, as well as coordinating heroes and police forces for criminal investigation purposes. [[spoiler:The aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War sees the HPSC as mostly defunct when a double of Re-Destro that Twice made slaughters a majority of their high-ranking staff, and as a result severely hampered the possibility of Japan receiving outside assistance from other nations since they aren't around anymore to file the proper aid requests.]]
* HeroicBuild: Most male heroes, including the teenagers of Class 1-A (except Mineta), are built like brickhouses. Midoriya's initial training is to develop this before applying to U.A.
* HeroicFantasy: Not the manga itself, but two pieces of manga bonus art depict the characters as heroes adventuring in a medieval fantasy setting. This is expanded on in the second anime season's second ending, as well as one chapter in the light novels.
* HeroicRROD: Although Quirks grant a user power, they're not infinite and often can cause harm to the user if either used excessively or not used properly:
** [[SuperStrength Midoriya]] can't control his power output, so his bones break every time he uses One For All. By Chapter 47, he's trying to find a way around this.
** [[GravityMaster Uraraka]] can't overuse her gravity power or she'll get violently nauseous or dizzy, as she has a weight limit.
** [[ShockAndAwe Kaminari's]] charge reserves have a limit and if he uses too much, he'll be in a state of unparalleled stupidity.
** [[StickySituation Mineta]] can't rip out too many sticky balls or his scalp will bleed.
** [[ChestBlaster Aoyama's]] navel laser can't be overused or his stomach will crumple or be crushed.
** [[PowerNullifier Aizawa]] has to maintain unblinking eye contact to nullify other powers or it won't work. He also can't stare for too long because he has dry eyes.
** [[SuperSpeed Ida]] can overclock the engines in his legs for a single burst of incredible speed, after which he can't use his powers again for a while. In addition, his engines seem to be literal mechanical engines, with parts such as temperature regulators which can break.
** [[ElementalPowers Todoroki]] can suffer frostbite from using his ice powers unless he uses his flame powers to regulate his body temperature. The reverse would happen if he overused his flame powers and didn't regulate his temperature with his ice powers; his father [[PlayingWithFire Endeavor]]'s body begins to overheat from continuously using big attacks during a tough fight, and he muses that this is exactly why he strove to create a child with both fire and ice powers.
** [[HavingABlast Bakugo]] needs sweat to generate his explosions. If he can't sweat, he can't make an explosion. He discusses this in Chapter 38, pointing out that every Quirk has some kind of limit. Bakugo designed his costume specifically to help him collect sweat to amplify his explosions. His wrists also aren't immune to the kickback from the explosions he makes, so if he overdoes it, he could also injure himself by straining his wrists.
* HeroicWannabe: Many pro heroes treat their profession as a way to achieve fame and celebrity status, often forgetting the meaning of the word "hero". Midoriya, despite initially being Quirkless, is probably more of a hero than most of them, which is why All Might chooses him as his successor in the first place. This type of person is also the main target of [[HeroKiller Stain's]] attacks.
* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler:Bakugo]], of all people, took music lessons as a kid, and knows how to play the drums so well that it impresses Jiro, who grew up in a house of professional musicians.
* HiddenPurposeTest: The U.A. entrance exam is one. Midoriya assumes he's failed after scoring zero points on the practical exam portion. However, All Might reveals to him in a video that there is an additional scoring system, which the teachers give points based on how much they help others out. He scores sixty points in this system, which is more than enough to pass because the teachers were impressed with how he rushed in to save Uraraka without any regard for his own safety when he saw her foot was pinned down by some debris, despite the robot he defeats being worth zero villain points. All Might tells Midoriya it'd be extremely hypocritical of them if they fail him after the heroism he shows off in the face of danger, something a bonafide hero has to deal with every day on the job.
* HijackedDestiny: Sir Nighteye accuses Midoriya of having done this, as All Might picked him instead of Mirio, a more experienced and powerful candidate whom Nighteye had been grooming to succeed All Might as the Symbol of Peace. [[spoiler:Following Overhaul's defeat and Mirio sacrificing his Quirk to protect Eri, Midoriya is inclined to agree and tries to give One For All to Mirio as Nighteye wanted, but Mirio flatly refuses.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The user of All For One ultimately created his own opposition when he forced a Quirk that could stockpile power upon his brother, the original owner of One For All. This combination of power means that each successor of One For All becomes more powerful than the one prior, with the ultimate goal of defeating All For One.
* HollywoodToneDeaf: {{Exaggerated|Trope}} when Class 1-A is trying out singers for their Culture Festival performance and Mineta's attempt is literally just shrieking.
* {{Homage}}:
** It is a distinctly Japanese take on Western-style superheroes. There are even color pages that resemble superhero comic covers, such as the one seen on this page.
** All Might is one to the {{Flying Brick}}s of the Golden and Silver Ages.
** Stain is very obviously based on the style of darker and edgier antihero that was popular in Western comics in the '90s.
* HotterAndSexier: The anime in general tends to have more fanservice, with more liberal use of both MaleGaze and FemaleGaze.
* HourglassPlot:
** Midoriya grew up being mocked and bullied for dreaming of becoming a hero despite his lack of a Quirk, whereas Bakugo was always showered in praise for his powerful Quirk. When they get into U.A., however, Midoriya quickly earns a lot of friends and respect thanks to him being a nice and friendly guy, whereas the rest of the class can barely stand Bakugo's mean and arrogant personality.
** At the beginning of the Work Study Arc, Shigaraki and the League of Villains are beaten and humiliated by the Shie Hassaikai, a much more organized and ambitious organization, whose leader Overhaul dismisses them as a complete non-threat. In response to this, the League [[TookALevelInBadass steps up their game]], proving themselves to be just as dangerous and capable, whereas the Shie Hassaikai begins to fall apart as their plans are foiled. [[spoiler:Shigaraki and Mr. Compress put the exclamation point on this at the end of the arc, by each [[AnArmAndALeg removing one of Overhaul's arms]], permanently robbing him of the ability to activate his Quirk and getting revenge for his murder of Magne and taking of one of Mr. Compress's arms in the first chapter of the arc.]]
** The longer the Internship Arc goes on, the clearer it becomes that Shigaraki and Overhaul are becoming similar to each other. [[spoiler:Shigaraki shows that he actually can plan ahead, keep a cool head ''and'' be subtle by turning Overhaul's demands of using Twice and Toga into an opportunity to sow chaos. Meanwhile, Overhaul is forced to deviate from his plans by improvising, turns angry when things don't go his way, and ultimately has to rely on pure brute strength to fight Mirio and Midoriya.]]
* HufflepuffHouse:
** Aside from the Heroics department, the main focus of the series, U.A. also offers General Education (i.e., regular high school education), Support (gadget engineering), and Hero Management ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hero managers]]) classes. Shishou is the only prominent Gen Ed student, whereas Mei is the only prominent Support student.
** Class 1-B, the other hero class of U.A., is more or less a glorified HufflepuffHouse, with only three or so prominent characters (Tetsutetsu, Kendo, and Monoma). Or, so it initially seems; the Joint Training Arc is largely dedicated to showing that the 1-B students are just as powerful, skilled, and driven as those in 1-A--they simply happen to be the hero class that [[HeroOfAnotherStory doesn't include any of the main characters]].
* HybridPower:
** Present given that Quirk inheritance is a thing, and sometimes children might inherit a mixture of both of the parents' Quirks.
** Endeavor invoked this directly; he had children with a woman with a strong Quirk in the hopes of siring a SuperiorSuccessor with a powerful combination of both of their Quirks, to negate his own weakness. With the youngest of his four children, he succeeded.
* HybridsAreACrapshoot: [[spoiler:Dabi inherited a much stronger version of his father's fire powers. However, he inherited his mother's resistance to ice. So every time he uses his powers, he risks severely injuring himself, and when we first meet him, much of his flesh is falling off.]]
* HypocriticalHumor: After Kota decides that he doesn't want to hang around the U.A. kids, acting rude and like he's above their "cheesiness", Bakugo, of all people, is the one to comment on his specific brand of trying to act mature.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Midoriya wanted to be a hero badly, but being [[{{Muggles}} Quirkless]], it only made him the butt of jokes for not being able to let go of his dreams. He even suffers a BrokenPedestal moment when his idol, All Might, tells him he can never be a hero without a Quirk. It isn't until he attempts to rescue his former best friend from a creature he caused All Might to lose that All Might has a change of heart and allows him to inherit his Quirk.
* IWorkAlone:
** Some heroes have corporate identities and agencies all for themselves, which can be a problem when there's a limit to how much of the public eye each can have.
** During the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc, Todoroki, Bakugo, and Yoarashi attempt to do this. It results in [[spoiler:all of them failing the exam, with the explanation that their inability to work together is damaging to the generation of heroes focused on unity and teamwork that the faculty are attempting to create to compensate for All Might's retirement. In particular, Yoarashi and Todoroki stopping to deal with their personal issues during the fight against Gang Orca almost gets Shindo [[FriendlyFire killed.]]]]
** The Wild Wild Pussycats have been a team since they graduated over a decade ago, but they are even considered something of an anomaly in-universe because very few hero teams last more than a few years at best.
* IdiotBall:
** Midoriya responding to Shinso during the U.A. Sports Festival despite knowing his Quirk. Everyone realizes how pointless this was. The only reason he wasn't completely screwed was because One For All turns the user into a MindHive, and the previous users decided to bail him out.
** Todoroki's fist fight with Testutetsu; he keeps increasing the heat until neither of them can take it. He doesn't even think about switching to ice, which would have made the steel hard and brittle.
* TheIdolsBlessing: Midoriya has no Quirk of his own until his childhood hero just happens to swing by and bestow his own powers upon the boy.
* ImagineTheAudienceNaked: Tamaki tries to imagine the people he talks to as pieces of food to cope with his crippling social anxiety.
* ImpededCommunication: When they're attacked at USJ, 1-A's attempts to call for backup from U.A. are impeded by the machinations of the League of Villains, forcing 1-A to create an opportunity for Ida to run back to get TheCavalry.
* ImpressedByTheCivilian: The story opens with Midoriya, a {{Muggle|s}} in a world where most people have a superpower, meeting his idol, number one hero All Might. All Might tells Midoriya that without a superpower, he'll never be a hero, only for Midoriya to throw himself into battle anyway to save his friend. All Might is so impressed by this that he not only changes his tune, he makes Midoriya the successor to his own power.
* InappropriatePride: Monoma has a strange obsession with one-upping Class 1-A and will take every chance he gets to mock them. At one point, he manically taunts the other students over how, while multiple people from Class 1-A failed their exams, Class 1-B had only a single failure- Monoma himself. Everyone is confused as to why he's proud of that.
* InformedAttribute: In the physical tests Class 1-A take on their first day of school, all the students can outperform Midoriya due to being able to use their Quirks effectively, whereas he can't. This is despite the fact that he has undergone intensive muscle training in the preceding year and that they are ''physical'' tests, like long jump and softball throwing, which several of his classmates' Quirks wouldn't be helpful with. Though Midoriya doesn't finish in first place in any of the tests (since the one test he uses his Quirk for, throwing a baseball for distance, is the one where Uraraka has already scored ''infinity'' by making her ball weightless and throwing it into outer space), some of his classmates have Quirks that would be useless in all eight of the tests. The manga includes a line trying to justify this (Midoriya muses that he did poorly in the last two tests, especially the endurance run, because he was in so much pain from his broken finger), but that particular scene gets skipped in the anime.
* InherentlyAttractiveProfession: [[LovableSexManiac Mineta]] entered hero school with this mind. He believes that since heroes are cool and popular, girls will flock to him once he becomes a pro. He only learns later on that people don't admire heroes just for being heroes, but for their actions that make them heroes.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: During the Final Exams Arc, Ida and Midoriya give [[BookDumb Kaminari and Ashido]] encouraging words for the written exams, and Todoroki tells them that it's hard to fail if they listen in class. Of course, these three are all in the class's top five, which is just rubbing salt in the wound. Yaoyorozu, who has the best grades in the class, invites them over to her house for a study session, and quickly becomes this for an entirely different reason:
-->"It's like she casually slapped me with the huge difference in how we were born..."
* InsecureProtagonistArrogantAntagonist:
** Midoriya suffers from self-confidence issues due to the pressure of having to succeed All Might and his own lack of experience. By contrast, Shigaraki is overconfident at the start due to having a small army of {{Mooks}} and the Nomu tailor-made to kill All Might at his disposal. Midoriya's confidence grows as he continues to master One For All and learn from his peers, while Shigaraki is humbled by his first defeat at USJ and soon becomes more level-headed and calculating, downplaying this as the story goes on.
** Downplayed with Midoriya and Bakugo. Bakugo has always been TheAce at his school. Gifted with a powerful and rare Quirk, athleticism, and the smarts to easily triumph over every obstacle laid before him, the non-stop stream of praise he received for his talents gives him an enormous ego. By contrast, TheHero, Midoriya, has always been meek and insecure due to lacking a Quirk and being mocked for it by his peers. When they both get into U.A., Bakugo is furious at Midoriya for "hiding" his Quirk and goes out of his way to try to defeat and humiliate him during the Battle Trial Arc. Fittingly enough, Bakugo is placed on the Villain team, becoming the ArcVillain. However, as the series goes on, Bakugo becomes more of TheRival than an actual antagonist.
* {{Intangibility}}: Deconstructed. As shown by Mirio, this power, which is often a StoryBreakerPower, is one of the hardest powers to use. Becoming intangible, Mirio becomes unable to breathe, hear, or see, since he is intangible to air, sound, and light. He even falls through the floor if his feet become intangible. Aside from the clear emotional scarring and how fatally dangerous this can be, this power is only useful because Mirio dedicated his life to training with it.
* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Activating one's Quirk in public is considered a serious offense if it's not to protect oneself or other people. On the other hand, it's often treated as a very minor crime and offenders are usually just given a warning or long lecture if they happen to get caught. That said, should someone be arrested for it, that person is named a villain. In the ''Vigilantes'' spin-off, a police officer mentions she will have to write a letter of apology for using her Quirk to free hostages. When Class 1-A are under attack from the League of Villains, Aizawa has to give them express permission to use their Quirks to enter combat, or else they'll face legal ramifications. Even using Quirks for non-combat purposes requires a license to be legal. There is also a fair bit of inequality here, as someone with a relatively harmless Quirk, or one not easily noticed might never have to worry about using their quirk in public, while someone with a flashy quirk could face serious consequences just using it once.
* JerkassHasAPoint: [[JerkassHasAPoint/MyHeroAcademia Has its own page]].
* JerkassRealization: After All Might cedes his place as #1 hero, Endeavor understands a bit too late that not only was everything he did was AllForNothing but, after [[spoiler:fighting the advanced Nomu called "High End", which leaves his face with a huge scar on the same side as Shoto, he realizes that he's indeed not as good as All Might and can't be as effective as his rival, despite his best efforts.]] He keeps on reflecting on his life and understands that his pursuit of "winning at all costs" was empty and one-sided and only got him to completely screw up his family. Afterward, he tries his best to make amends for what he did, knowing full well that it's probably already too late for his family to forgive him.
* JoblessParentDrama: Downplayed. Uraraka's parents run a construction company, but work has grown scarce and money-tight in the current environment. This is what motivates Uraraka to become a hero so she can support the both of them with [[OnlyInItForTheMoney the fat paycheck]] that comes with success in the industry. However, both of her parents remain cheerful and supportive despite their financial situation, encouraging her to become a hero for her own sake rather than thinking about them.
* JumpCut: An InUniverse example where Bakugo's whole appearance in his and Todoroki's hero interview gets edited out or can barely be seen because of his vulgar language and inappropriate attitude on camera. So, after Todoroki finishes answering a question, the clip instantly jumps to another cut of Todoroki suddenly closer to the camera, clearly indicating this is where Bakugo's part was supposed to be.
* JumpedAtTheCall: Upon being offered All Might's powerful Quirk, One For All, and a chance to become a Hero, Midoriya didn't hesitate to say "yes" with a determined look on his face.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:K-O]]
* KeepingTheHandicap: Ida receives a scar and residual damage to his arm after his fight with Stain. Although he could have had it removed with surgery, he decides to keep it as a reminder of his past mistakes until he feels he has learned his lesson.
* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Played straight when the sludge villain attempts to hijack Bakugo's body, but since Bakugo had already spent the entire chapter up to that point being an unlikable {{Jerkass}}, it's more satisfying than horrifying.
** PlayedForLaughs when Kota shoves resident pervert Mineta off the hot spring wall when he wanted to peek on the naked girls.
** Played gruesomely straight when Shigaraki subjects [[spoiler:Overhaul]] to a FateWorseThanDeath where he [[spoiler:severs his arms and strips him of his Quirk]].
** Invoked in Chapter 290, [[spoiler:Dabi publicly exposes Endeavor's history of domestic abuse for the sake of creating the ultimate Hero]]. [[spoiler:While there is a dosage of LaserGuidedKarma to this, it's painted in a more tragic light than usual, because Endeavor saw the error of his ways and was actively trying to make amends for them during the last couple of arcs.]].
* KidHero: Midoriya and his classmates are all aged 15-16, yet they get a lot more chances to be heroic than U.A. expected from first-years.
* KidnappedFromBehind: During the Forest Training Camp Arc, Midoriya learns that the villains are attempting to kidnap Bakugo. He and several other students respond by forming a group with Bakugo at the center and remaining on high alert as they walk back to the lodge. Despite this, the villains manage to kidnap both Bakugo and Tokoyami without anyone noticing.
* KidsAreCruel: Midoriya was relentlessly bullied by all of his classmates through middle school for being Quirkless and wanting to be a hero. He was made the laughingstock of his entire class no matter what he did and [[ApatheticTeacher his teachers]] did nothing to stop them.
* KnightOfCerebus: Many of the major {{Arc Villain}}s are this:
** [[HeroKiller Stain]]: Not only is he ''literally'' the first villain that Midoriya and co. face in the "real world" outside the safety net of school, he is also the blood-stained wake-up call that forces the young heroes to confront the gray realities of hate, justice, and vengeance that simply cannot be quantified and defined by classical notions of "black and white" morality.
** [[BigBad Tomura Shigaraki]]: While his first appearance doesn't suggest him being more than an emotionally brittle two-time villain, he changes significantly after the incidents with the aforementioned Stain. After his encounter with Midoriya at a shopping center, he's treated far more seriously as an antagonist, undergoing CharacterDevelopment in becoming more cunning, perceptive, and even more dangerous as a fighter. [[spoiler:His qualifications for the trope skyrocket during the Paranormal Liberation War arc, where he's been physically augmented to have frightening amounts of brute strength, to use his Decay Quirk to devastating effect, and to be a suitable vessel for the most horrible power imaginable - All For One.]]
** [[GreaterScopeVillain All For One]]: The mastermind behind the League of Villains, mentoring the leader of said group, and the personal enemy of All Might. When he finally steps in to fight, he takes out several heroes in mere seconds. His actions continue to haunt the heroes of the world even in the present day. Though Stain makes the story much darker upon his entrance, All For One's arrival is the point where the series really goes from a somewhat light-hearted (but not without danger) AcademyOfAdventure series to constant life-or-death situations against people hell-bent on destroying society as we know it.
** [[{{Yakuza}} Overhaul]]: [[spoiler:He is the first villain to actually murder major characters in the series up front. He also nearly kills several others, and introduces the prospect of CharacterDeath to the story and how sometimes a hero can pay the ultimate sacrifice.]]
** [[WakeUpCallBoss High-End]]: Before High-End shows up, Nomus are generally mindless muscle. [[spoiler:Then ''this'' one brutally injures the new number one pro hero and rips apart a whole side of his face and an eye.]]
** [[VillainousLegacy Re-Destro]]: [[BewareTheNiceOnes Brutally demonstrates]] from his first appearance not only how [[DevilInPlainSight dangerous]] a villain can become [[VillainWithGoodPublicity when properly operating below radar]] but also just how far they are willing to go in pursuit of a higher goal.
* KungFuSonicBoom: The clash between All Might and Nomu results in a gale-force wind that prevents anyone from getting within several meters of the fight.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Upon learning about Todoroki's DarkAndTroubledPast, Midoriya says to himself:
--> '''Midoriya:''' If this were a comic, he'd be the main character. This is the kind of backstory he had.
* LegacyCharacter: Three variants of this are present in the series:
** The first is the passing down of a "title" from one person to another even if the characters are unrelated. Most noticeably, Midoriya becomes the ninth user of "One For All" after All Might, the eighth user, passes it on to him. In this case, however, it's the passing down of a specific superpower as well, much like the example of ComicBook/AntMan.
** The second is a heroic legacy in a family, most prominently displayed in the Ida family. Tenya Ida's brother Tensei, in particular, is the much-beloved engine hero Ingenium, and Tenya inherits the name when Tensei is forced into retirement after being paralyzed by Stain, though Tenya has some issues getting to the point where he feels he can actually accept it.
** The third is similar to comic book legacy titles. Kirishima wishes to become a hero like the similarly powered Crimson Riot, and so has his hero name modeled after him. He even gets a couple of spotlight chapters showing how he came to understand Crimson Riot's mentality, and near the end of them, a pro hero accepts him as worthy of the name after the courage and tenacity Kirishima has displayed.
* LegionOfDoom: The League of Villains, a group of villains who team up to kill All Might.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Starting in Season 2, the anime starts to give out themes to certain characters:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97rea-g1KXA "Bombing King"]], Bakugo's theme.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKBevxvmKcw "Ingenium"]], Iida's theme.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpbkiaScRuM "Kimi no Chikara"]] ("Your Power"), Todoroki's theme.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYkYuei_n_0 "Hero-goroshi"]] ("Hero Killer"), Stain's theme.
** Additionally, [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZIUtDAFIw&feature=youtu.be "You Say Run"]], which is considered by many to be Midoriya's theme (though it should be noted that is it used in [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8TFAGAyLzcg battles that do not feature Midoriya]]), has its ending notes commonly featured in many battle scenes [[https://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x5zw0f since even the first episode]], in particular gaining [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GP6eLe-Uzak a lyricised version]] that was used for both the fourth season and second movie. It is by far the most common leitmotif in the anime, with its use cases ranging from [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TDCEu0AOV8c regular battle scenes]] to [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wpOhT35YtWg major developmental plot points]].
* LethalChef: According to the light novels, Yaoyorozu's mother. She means well, but she doesn't think about whether or not ingredients go together before adding them to the mix, resulting in food that is, in Yaoyorozu's own words, "unfit for human consumption". Fortunately, she can afford to pay other people to cook for her and has the sense to do this most of the time.
* LifeOrLimbDecision: On at least one occasion a character has performed a self-amputation to save their own life from the spread of the Decay Quirk.
* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: Nobody ever remarks nor seems to mind the fact mentioned here below, that is that some mutants look like FunnyAnimals.
* LittleBitBeastly: Most female characters with animal-themed Quirks are this. Male characters with animal-themed Quirks tend to look like full-on anthropomorphic animals, or at least have a NonHumanHead.
* LivingOutAChildhoodDream:
** By the end of the first chapter, protagonist Izuku Midoriya has all but given up on his childhood dream of becoming a superhero after his idol, All Might, points out the folly in trying to be one as an UnSorcerer in a world where EveryoneIsASuper. He's moved to tears when All Might comes to apologize and offers to give Midoriya his own Quirk to give him a chance to live out his dreams.
** In the spinoff, ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'', Koichi Haimawari is a struggling college student and All Might fanboy who lost his chance to attend hero school after showing up late to his entrance exams due to helping a child who'd fallen into a river. But he meets Knuckleduster, a Quirkless vigilante who invites him to become a "real hero" even without a license or training. Despite his initial apprehension, Koichi joins Knuckleduster in his attempts to track down the distributor of a PsychoSerum known as "Trigger", becoming known as the vigilante, "the Crawler". [[spoiler:And by the end of the story, he's recruited as a sidekick to American pro hero Captain Celebrity as "the Skycrawler", albeit with a boatload of issues attached like crippling debt and bad press.]]
** All For One is a villainous example. He's dreamed of being a CardCarryingVillain like the MaouTheDemonKing of comic books and video games ever since he was a child. After developing his PowerParasite Quirk, the first thing he does is go on a rampage, stealing Quirks from others to consolidate power and manipulate others into serving him. His PsychopathicManchild personality has remained completely intact more than a century after he began, ruining countless lives and performing acts of mass destruction for no reason other than ForTheEvulz.
* LookalikeLovers: Some of the parents both have the same sort of Quirk/appearance as their child, like Tsuyu's frog-like parents shown in the Bonus Chapter 1 and Hagakure's {{invisib|ility}}le parents shown in ''My Heroine Academia''.
* LostInTranslation: Although they do align, for the most part, various translations have diverging interpretations of several key lines. The most egregious examples include:
** When he first meets All Might, Midoriya asks if it was the villain Venomous Chainsaw who crippled him. All Might's response in the fan translation is, "Yeah, he wounded me but I wouldn't let that stop me." When Viz translated it, it came out as, "That lowlife? He could never do this to me."
** Viz refers to the NumberTwo of the League of Villains by his original Japanese name, "Kurogiri", whereas fans have been translating his name literally as "Black Mist".
** Uraraka's recognition of her feelings for Midoriya is handled differently. In the fan translations, she apparently resolves to push her feelings aside entirely, whereas, in the official translation, she wants to merely get them under control.
** HeroKiller Stain has different motivations depending on the translator. According to the fan translators, it's "The word 'hero' must be restored!" or "If heroes aren't restored...!". However, when Viz translated it, it was "If I don't reclaim my hero status...!"
** While discussing why All Might no longer works with Sir Nighteye, fan translations had All Might explain it as, "We broke up, so it's kind of awkward", whereas the Viz translation is, "For certain reasons, it's awkward."
** Regarding Endeavor's use of ''niisanra''; both Viz and the scanlators made the mistake of assuming that he meant Todoroki had "older brothers" when in reality Endeavor was simply saying the latter had "older siblings."[[note]]In Japanese, it's typical to group people together under one category/majority regardless of gender.[[/note]] A clue-in to this a few chapters later is during a flashback wherein Todoroki watches children playing outside, assumed to be his siblings, and one of them is wearing a skirt. Several chapters later, that sibling turns out to be Fuyumi, his sister.
** In the dub for the anime and fan and official translations of the manga, both meanings of Deku are lost, since they both involve readings of Japanese characters, which they presumably couldn't explain for non-Japanese viewers in the timeframe given. The dub fixes this by having Bakugo call Midoriya "Deku" as a shorthand for "Defenseless Izuku" while making Uraraka like the name "Deku" just because it sounds heroic and cute.
** Bakugo's two prospective hero names, King Explosion Murder and Lord Explosion Murder, are actually examples of StevenUlyssesPerhero (being Bakusatsuou and Bakusatsuga, respectively, in the sub). Since the puns were untranslatable, the names were just literally translated.
** The official localization of the manga has to explain why "Naito" comes immediately before a couple of names that start with "T" on the provisional exam results, as well as the point of the panel- [[spoiler:Todoroki didn't pass the exam]].
** The English dub uses "Quirk genes" instead of "Quirk factor." In the episode the term is introduced, this isn't a big deal, but it later becomes apparent that the term refers to the physical factors that make Quirks work (such as Bakugo's sweat glands) rather than any genetic cause.
* LoveIsAWeakness:
** Gran Torino points out that Midoriya's idolization of All Might has warped his expectations of his hero and the power of One For All, hindering his combat ability by making him think of his Quirk as merely a Special or even a Finishing Move.
** Uraraka's feelings for Midoriya start developing in earnest after the first internship, but the topic terribly flusters her and even affects her field performance, so, not long after U.A. becomes a boarding school, she resolves to get a handle on them.
* LovedByAll:
** All Might is beloved by everyone as he is the Symbol of Peace. He, of course, is a very upstanding person himself who very often inspires everyone around him to do better. [[spoiler:So when he is forced to retire after his battle with All For One, the public is understandably devastated and can't for the life of them consider ''Endeavor'' to be a fitting replacement since he is the complete opposite of All Might's public image. He is trying to make amends for his horrible reputation, though.]]
** Then right next to Best Jeanist is Hawks, and it isn't hard to see how people adore him for his easygoing nature and charismatic attitude. He is most likely to get [[JustForPun crowded]] on the street and spend the time taking selfies and giving out autographs.
* MagicPants: Zigzagged. Quirks involving transformation don't generally affect the character's clothes, as seen with Mt. Lady's supersizing power, or All Might's hero costume, which seems to magically appear and disappear as appropriate. This is justified in some cases because of Support Companies, which create high-tech hero costumes that can handle their users' Quirks. [[{{Fanservice}} Though, for some reason]], this is subverted for other characters, such as Yaoyorozu, whose "generate objects out of her body" Quirk frequently leads to ClothingDamage and/or partial undressing, and Mirio, whose phasing ability frequently causes his gym uniform, but not his hero costume[[note]]which was specifically engineered to become permeable with him[[/note]], to [[FullFrontalAssault fall off]].
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: There is a trend of the male characters being drawn with more defined muscles, sharp lines, and squares (e.g., Ida, All Might) and the female characters being drawn with rounder features and curves (e.g., Uraraka, Midnight). However, this is not ubiquitous; there are male characters who fall somewhere in the middle (e.g., Midoriya, who has round features but a muscular body) or avert it outright (e.g., Mineta, whose most notable physical feature is the round growths on his head), as well as female characters who have more jagged, angular designs (e.g., Jiro).
* MassOhCrap: This is Midoriya, Ida, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Kirishima's reaction when [[spoiler:they see All For One for the first time]].
* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: There was such an event in the series' history, causing most of humanity to develop "Quirks" as a result. At the time of the story proper, about four out of every five people have a Quirk, and the percentage of people with Quirks is increasing with each generation. It's also possible for non-human animals to have Quirks, but this is seemingly much rarer. However, it's also a SuperpowerLottery in that many Quirks aren't particularly useful, such as the ability to stretch one's eyes out of one's head really far. Most of the time, a person's Quirk is either [[SuperpowerfulGenetics a variation on one of their parents' Quirks or both of them mixed together in some way]]. Also, a person can only ever get one Quirk, so whatever you get, you're stuck with it. [[spoiler:Except for two Quirks that break this rule: TheHero's Quirk One For All can be voluntarily transferred to others, and the BigBad's Quirk All For One can involuntarily take away other people's Quirks and either keep them for himself or transfer them to his minions.]] What the actual event is that caused this empowering remains a mystery; as far as anybody knows [[http://bokunoheroacademia.wikia.com/wiki/Luminescent_Baby a baby just happened to be born with a Quirk over a century ago in the backstory,]] followed by more and more other people being born with them.
* MasterApprenticeChain: Between Nana Shimura, All Might, and Midoriya, who are respectively the seventh, eighth, and ninth users of One For All.
* MathematiciansAnswer: When Todoroki is asked how he somehow managed to transform his entire modern dorm room into a more traditional Japanese-style bedroom ''in less than a day'', he replies, "I worked hard."
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler:Quirks themselves. Or rather, how each records the will and memories of their user, explained as similar to the pseudo-science theory that organ transplants give recipients the memories of their prior owners. This is a secret known to very few, as most Quirks die with their users unless stolen by All For One or, rarer still, absorbed into One For All. Yet the vestiges inside All For One and One For All seem very much alive and more than just memories. Do Quirks capture the very soul of a person and keep them until they're destroyed? Or are they just very convincing doubles? Is there truly a difference? The answer is never made clear, likely to afford Quirks some degree of mysticism.]]
* MeaningfulEcho:
** During the Sports Festival, Midoriya tells Endeavor "I'm not All Might... and Todoroki isn't you". In this case, he's calling the Hero out for using his son as a tool to outscore All Might. Midoriya repeats the phrase much later on, but to ''encourage'' Endeavor instead--in this case [[spoiler:defending Endeavor's will to atone for his past errors and to condemn Dabi for projecting his malice onto his father.]]
** When Midoriya saves Bakugo from the Sludge Villain, Midoriya claims his legs moved on their own. Much later, when Bakugo saves Midoriya from [[spoiler:Shigaraki, by TakingTheBullet]], Bakugo thinks, "My body... just moved on its own."
* MeaningfulName:
** U.A. can be written as Yuuei, a reversal of the Japanese "Eiyuu" meaning hero.
** Exaggerated since ''every'' character's name reflects their Quirk, appearance, and personality. [[spoiler:Those whose names aren't directly tied to their powers or have a much more vague relation to it also hint that it might not be theirs. Like Izuku Midoriya, whose first name can be partially translated as "nine" while his surname means "green". Fitting for being the ninth user of One For All and having a green aura but not exactly related to its power.]]
* MedalOfDishonor: A rare example that's PlayedForLaughs; Bakugo's ''furious'' that he's won the U.A. Sports Festival because Todoroki didn't give his all in the final fight. He's ''so'' enraged that he has to be bound and muzzled to make him stay on the podium during the award ceremony. When All Might tries to ''put'' the medal around his neck, however, Bakugo resists by budging his nose against it and then ''biting into'' the medal ribbon so it won't go around his neck.
* MeetCute: Midoriya and Uraraka's first encounter in front of U.A. She greets him warmly after stopping him from falling using her Quirk, and he's [[CannotTalkToWomen left speechless]]. They quickly get to know each other from there.
* MemeticMutation: The kid who shouts at the reporter during the live news coverage of High End's attack to stop broadcasting despair and asks if they can't see that [[spoiler:Endeavor is struggling to protect the civilians]] becomes an InUniverse instant meme after the incident. He earns the nickname "Can't ya see-kid" in reference to what he said, that particular scene starts trending on social media, and merchandise of him like printed mugs and T-shirts starts going around.
* MenActWomenAre: While the girls [[ActionGirl do have moments of taking part in the action thanks to their careers as heroes]], it should be noted that most of them barely have an impact on the major events of the storyline. A lot of their personalities fall under the [[GenkiGirl bubbly, friendly nice girl]] trope or the "Strong Female Character" stereotype while their male colleagues are given deeper, more complex characterizations and are actively involved in the story. It also doesn't help that the girls are significantly outnumbered in the student, Pro-Hero, and villain groups.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Zigzagged all through the series thus far. Numerically, more male characters are being killed compared to female ones (though there are also far more male characters than female ones, both heroes and villains). On the other hand, female characters who enter a battle will be fought as equals, especially in later chapters, and thus will not receive special treatment regarding physical violence.
* MentorOccupationalHazard:
** All Might's mentor, [[spoiler:Nana Shimura, died fighting All For One]].
** After the raid on the Shie Hassaikai's hideout, [[spoiler:Sir Nighteye, Mirio's mentor, dies from wounds he suffered fighting Overhaul.]]
** All Might, himself, zigzags this. In the earlier chapters, Midoriya continuously sees him deteriorate as he is able to use his HourOfPower for less and less time, so when he goes up against All For One, [[spoiler:the clash is played as All Might's final battle -- because he uses up his last bit of power defeating the villain, not because he dies.]] But then in the Work Study Arc, it turns out that Sir Nighteye, whose prophecies have, to date, never been wrong, foresaw that [[spoiler:All Might's days are numbered anyway... but the end of the arc proves that Nighteye's clairvoyance isn't as infallible as he believed]].
* MetaphoricallyTrue: Chapter 257 ominously ends with the narrator announcing that on that day, heroes vanished from the city. At the time, it initially seems as though it's because the heroes [[spoiler:are preparing to raid the Paranormal Liberation Front]], but just under 50 chapters later, in Chapter 306, the narrator reveals the meaning of that phrase. [[spoiler:If one defines heroes as those the people look up to, then because the public lost their faith in heroes]], heroes did indeed vanish.
* MetaTwist: The brief arc centered around Star and Stripe is all about this. [[spoiler:She is the most powerful U.S. hero with a borderline StoryBreakingPower, yet she fights the villain right before his fated battle with the hero. Story conventions in both shonen manga and superhero comics dictate that she will suffer from TheWorfEffect to establish the power of Shigaraki's fully powered form and put the hero in TheDarkestHours. This is seemingly confirmed when Shigaraki manages to NoSell her strongest attacks and put his hand on her face. Then the twist happens revealing that through her HeroicSacrifice, she destroyed a good number of Shigaraki's Quirks, severely damage his body, and buys the heroes both the time and intelligence necessary to defeat the villains.]]
* MeteorSummoningAttack: During the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, Uraraka is battling against the incredibly powerful Bakugo. His explosions created broken chunks of the Earth, which she then used as a trap, floating them up and then dropping them down at once in order to try and win the match.
* MiddleSchoolIsMiserable: While Midoriya's [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer childhood wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows]] on account of being [[UnSorcerer Quirklesss]] [[EveryoneIsASuper in a world where 80% of the populace have superpowers]], by middle school just vocalizing his desire to become a hero gets every other kid in class and the teacher to laugh in his face and mock him for it. By contrast, his general opinion of [[AcademyOfAdventure U.A.]] is that HighSchoolRocks, despite the immense challenges he has to go through such as [[HowDoIShotWeb his struggles to control]] his new Quirk, [[SuperEmpowering One For All]].
* MistakenForRelated: Todoroki notices the similarities between Midoriya's Quirk and All Might's, asking if Midoriya is All Might's secret love child. Midoriya denies this, of course, but this confrontation over Midoriya's alleged secret father is what leads Midoriya to learn about Todoroki's troubled home life.
* MistakenForUndead: In the second OVA, a Zombie Gas Quirk is released that turns most of the class into zombies. All Might rushes over to the scene, only to run out of time and return to his emaciated form. The girls who haven't been turned yet confuse him for a zombie and run away. When the real zombies pass by, one pats him on his shoulder reassuringly, having confused him for one of them as well.
* ModernStasis: The setting seems only slightly more futuristic than the present day despite being at least a good four or five generations ahead ([[AmbiguousTimePeriod maybe]]). What advancements do exist seem to be linked to the training and equipping of heroes. InUniverse it's theorized that the societal upheaval caused by the sudden appearance of Quirks delayed the development of new technologies for a while until things settled down. Some believe that, had Quirks not appeared, humanity would already be in space.
* MoralityKitchenSink: While the series has touched upon moral ambiguity in the past, the story has increasingly become this; touching on morally complex themes of [[ThePenance penance]], CreateYourOwnVillain, and ToBeLawfulOrGood among other things.
* MostCommonSuperPower: Many of the heroines are well-endowed.
* MostWritersAreHuman: Aside from superpowers, many Quirks can also give people all sorts of mutations, such as weird skin color, abnormal body proportions, multiple limbs, animal characteristics, and more. Yet the main character, his love interest and female lead, his best friend, his two rivals, his mentor, the BigBad, and the GreaterScopeVillain are all baseline humans, with unusual hair color being the weirdest part about them. [[spoiler:It's somewhat subverted during the FinalBattle. Tomura demonstrates his new ability to grow [[BodyHorror massive fleshy growths of hands and fingers]] from his humanoid body to the size of a {{Kaiju}}, even under the effect of [[PowerNulifier Erasure]]. He states that it's because his altered body has begun moving past the [[WrongContextMagic Quirk Singularity]], wherein his body is mutating and adapting into a suitable form to contain the immense power of the quirks inside him, and eventually, this will be the norm for all of humanity as quirks inevitably become stronger and more powerful down the generations, further transforming the next wave of humanity into forms unrecognizable to what came before them. This implies that like [[{{Unsorcerer}} Quirkless people]], the human body as the 'normal' template will eventually become a thing of the past]].
* MrFanservice: A lot of the male characters appear with their shirts off revealing very fit bodies. They often undergo ClothingDamage in combat. Mirio Togata is frequently seen naked, as using his Quirk causes his clothes to fall off, sans his specially made hero costume, revealing his very muscular physique.
* MsFanservice: A lot of the heroines wear either skintight bodysuits or skimpy, revealing outfits. Though these aren't exactly the most practical outfits for heroism, in a lot of cases, this is actually justified by the fact that several heroines, most notably Mt. Lady, are {{Punch Clock Hero}}es constantly competing with each other for media attention and sponsorships to make money, and several of the heroines actively use their sex appeal to achieve this. Plus, when the main characters get their first costumes, Uraraka discovers to her embarrassment that female hero costumes are by default made skintight unless the customer specifies otherwise...which she didn't.
* MundaneFantastic: Quirks are ubiquitous to the point where something like a newscaster [[HornedHumanoid with horns on his head]] isn't considered anything unusual.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Sir Nighteye's Clairvoyance Quirk can only do so much in combat, and has a once-per-day limit. So, he fights his opponents with "hyper mass seals". They look like regular office stamps, but they weigh five kilograms each. That's about the weight of a large cat, and he throws them around like they're shuriken.
* MundaneUtility: For a story swarming with superhumans, the use of Quirks for everyday purposes usually tends to be for straightforward things--like Present Mic using his MakeMeWannaShout ability as a loudspeaker at the U.A. Sports Festival, Todoroki using his flame powers to light a stove, or Kaminari using his electricity powers to charge a phone. They rarely tend towards the humorously dull.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** Midoriya shares this remorseful reaction with Mirio over their inability to rescue Eri from her horrible situation under the Hassaikai's control.
** Mrs.Todoroki had this reaction right after she poured boiling water on Shoto's face.
* NeutralInNameOnly: During the Joint Training Arc, the students of Class 1-A and 1-B are supervised by their teachers Aizawa and Vlad King while facing off against each other in a training exercise. However, despite the teachers being presumably neutral, when Vlad King takes it upon himself to commentate on the matches, he blatantly favors his own class. This prompts the Class 1-A students to start protesting for fair commentary and eventually get their wish when another teacher, Midnight, steps in.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: All For One on two occasions:
** He foisted the power stockpiling Quirk onto his seemingly Quirkless younger brother, which led to the creation of One For All, the one Quirk that threatens his power.
** [[spoiler:The past users of One For All had difficulty in communicating with Izuku. All For One's failed attempt to steal One For All from Midoriya removed all barriers, allowing the users and Midoriya to easily communicate with each other whenever they wish.]]
* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Whereas Japan's 47 prefectures appear to be the same as they are in the real world, the same is not true for the municipalities therein. Among the most glaring examples, "Esuha City" stands in for Osaka (despite still being in Osaka Prefecture), and there is a "Kamino Ward" in Kanagawa Prefecture (with no mention of Yokohama, Kawasaki, or Sagamihara, which would logically contain such a ward if it existed). Tokyo is a borderline case, with more general areas mentioned in passing but specific locations being entirely fictional.
* NoHuggingNoKissing: Downplayed. The manga is not, strictly speaking, ''averse'' to romance, but it has so many characters and [[FourLinesAllWaiting plot threads]] that overt and consistent ShipTease is practically non-existent, with only a handful of relationships getting anything close to it. Midoriya/Uraraka is [[EveryoneCanSeeIt teased far more than any other potential couple]], but even that pairing only asserts itself through [[CrushBlush blushing]] and {{Bishie Sparkle}}s or LoveBubbles, never escalating to flirting or physical contact (it helps that [[TwiceShy they're both too shy to initiate such things]]).
* NoPeekingRequest: During the Battle Trial Arc, Hagakure starts to take off her clothes to become an InvisibleStreaker to confront her opponents. Despite the fact she's completely invisible, her partner Ojiro becomes visibly {{distracted|ByTheSexy}} at the idea a girl is stripping naked next to him. Noticing his awkwardness causes Hagakure to suddenly become shy and tell him not to look at her while she strips.
* NothingIsScarier: When confronted by [[spoiler:a human wall of doctors and nurses who have banded together to stop the mob of heteromorphs]], the now monstrous and insane [[spoiler:Spinner]] does ''something'' in his complete lack of hesitation to get through them. It's not shown at all, just his screaming face, the shocked face of one of his followers, and a stunned crowd to make it clear that something awful has just happened to a lot of people.
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The series has undergone two massive game-changers so far:
** The aftermath of the Kamino Incident ends with All Might defeating All For One. [[spoiler:Despite his weak form being exposed, many people watching the news slowly regain their faith in the #1 pro hero and cheer him on. He finally takes down his enemy using the last of his power. He is then seen standing triumphantly and uttering the words "You're next" on national television. While many see this as a warning to all villains, Midoriya understands that All Might's time is over and, now that he's facing retirement, it's ''his'' turn to carry One For All and become the next Symbol of Peace. However, even with a new #1 (Endeavor) beginning to make a name for himself, All Might's absence has led to a crime rate spike no one has ever seen before. Japan needs more heroes than ever to take on the rising threat, which leads to U.A. and other schools to have even starting classes participate in the provisional hero license exams in hopes of passing and filling the massive hole All Might left behind. All For One's arrest also creates a power vacuum for various villain groups as well.]]
** The aftermath of the Paranormal Liberation War sees society completely upended in every possible way. [[spoiler:Entire cities are reduced to rubble as a result of Shigaraki's powers and Gigantomachia's rampage, with thousands of innocent civilians left heavily injured or dead, and even more left homeless and destitute leading to the peoples' faith in heroes being broken. Numerous important characters such as Twice, Midnight, and Crust, along with dozens of other pro heroes were killed during the battle and others were left critically injured to the point of being unable to continue being heroes. Dabi, who is revealed to be Endeavor's son Toya Todoroki, broadcasts a shocking video of him recounting Endeavor's abuse of his family and Hawks' murder of Twice to the whole nation, further tarnishing his reputation and destroying the public's faith in heroes even more. Heroes begin resigning en masse due to the trauma they've witnessed and the scorn they're facing from the public, and what's more All For One leads a mass breakout of Tartarus that releases some of the most dangerous criminals that Japan had locked away, further driving the people into a panic. Soon ordinary citizens are taking it upon themselves to fight villains due to this distrust, despite having neither the training nor equipment to do so. And eventually getting to the point where they start attacking anyone who even remotely looks suspicious in their eyes.]]
* NotRareOverThere: The "School Festival" arc has a special blend of tea called "Gold Tips Imperial" as a minor plot point. According to Momo Yaoyoruzu's mother who sends Class 1-A some as a gift, it's an exceptionally rare tea blend. However, there's a tiny unmarked cafe down the road next to a hardware store which serves this tea blend very frequently, so much so that the villain Gentle Criminal is a frequent customer there, and winds up setting the arc's main conflict because Midoriya needed to go to the hardware store next door and both accidentally figure out each other's intentions.
* NotSoSimilar: It becomes a plot point that despite their similarities, All Might and Midoriya are pretty different. The latter starts to really make headway in his training when he stops just trying to copy All Might instead of doing what he's good at.
* NumericalThemeNaming: Each of the successors to One For All so far have this motif in their names (Yo'''ichi''' Shigaraki = 1st, Hikage '''Shi'''nomori = 4th, Dai'''go'''ro Banjo = 5th, '''Nana''' Shimura = 7th, Toshinori '''Yagi''' [kanji containing the word "eight"] = 8th, Izu'''ku''' Midoriya = 9th).
* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: During the fight against the Sludge Villain at the start of the series, a bystander wonders why All Might hasn't arrived yet to subdue the villain. Unbeknownst to him, All Might is standing right behind him, cursing his weakness that is preventing him from helping. Shortly after, Midoriya throws himself in harm's way to save Bakugo from the villain because he couldn't just stand there and watch him die. This statement hits All Might like a sledgehammer as that's what he's been doing and he immediately rushes in, powering through the pain of his injury to save both boys.
* OddNameOut: Concerning the series installments. The manga and the anime usually feature the title of the installment at the start, but in situations where some really heavy or intense events transpire, the title will appear at the ''end'' of the installment, usually for added dramatic impact and in situations where knowing the title early spoils something important.[[note]]In the manga only, as the anime gives a preview of every following episode and takes note that some viewers already know the source material.[[/note]]
* OfferingAHand: A scene of Midoriya and Bakugo as children features them and their friends marching across a log when Bakugo slips and falls several feet into the river below. He's fine, but when he sees that Midoriya came to offer him a helping hand, he takes it as a display of condescension. This particular moment soured their relationship for years afterward, with Bakugo becoming more of a bully toward his old friend.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome:
** A lot of the fights in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc amount to this in the manga [[FightUnscene because they're over very quickly]]. However, all examples of such are completely undone in the anime, where all of the fights happen onscreen.[[note]]Likely not included in the former medium due to time constraints; a manga may be pruned down to meet the demanding release schedule, but an anime has more time to work with and the removed content can help fill out the season's runtime.[[/note]]
** Ida and Ojiro's fight against Power Loader in the Final Exams Arc. All we see of the fight is the very end, right after Ojiro makes it past the gate. The same goes for Shoji and Hagakure against Snipe.
* OnTheNext: In the Japanese release of the manga volumes, there would be a short little blurb and picture from whoever narrated on the back of the book (ex. All Might for Vol. 1, Midoriya for Vol. 2, Bakugo for Vol. 3, Uraraka for Vol. 4, Tsuyu for Vol. 6, etc.) detailing something that'd happen in the next volume.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:
** In the first chapter, Bakugo gets attacked by the Sludge Villain and held hostage before being rescued by All Might. Most of the other students at U.A. know better than to [[HairTriggerTemper anger him]] by bringing it up, but civil servants and upper authorities with the academy and Hero Association still refer to him as "That kid from the sludge incident." Someone brings it up at some point during the Sports Festival, when [[spoiler:Bakugo gets kidnapped by the League of Villains]], and during the provisional hero license exam.
** Sero is subject to a CurbStompBattle courtesy of [[TheAce Todoroki]] at the Sports Festival. Given the overwhelming difference in raw power, everyone in the audience tells him, "Don't worry about it!" He moans about this later, as people continued to tell him this even after the Sports Festival ended. His classmates sympathize with him before telling him, "Don't worry about it!"
* OnePersonOnePower: Most people in the setting have only one Quirk; the exceptions are All For One, who can steal them, and any of the previous bearers of One For All who had their own natural Quirk as well. Most of the Nomus have multiple Quirks granted by the All For One bearer, but they're all mindless mutant clones, implying that it's dangerous or impossible to force several Quirks onto a normal human. Then there are the High-End Nomus which can hold more Quirks and retain some intelligence. Some associates of All For One can also wield multiple Quirks without being Nomus, which include [[spoiler:Wolfram, Gigantomachia, Nine, Lady Nagant, and Tomura Shigaraki. Midoriya possesses seven Quirks without undergoing body modification, but he is on the side of heroes.]]
* OneSteveLimit: Played with. Although there are occasional characters with similarly pronounced names, they all have different spellings:
** There are a villain and a police chief who both have names pronounced "Kenji", but the first uses the kanji for "health" and "magnet", whereas the second's name is written from the kanji for "dog" and "heir".
** The series has Shota (Aizawa) and Shoto (Todoroki) and two distinct characters called Koda and Kota.
** There are two "Kens" in the series: Takagi (Rock Lock) and Ishiyama (Cementoss). Both are coincidentally pro-heroes.
** There are two "Ryukos", Tatsuma (Ryukyu) and Tsuchikawa (Pixie-Bob). Again, both are pro-heroes.
** Izuku's father "Hisashi" and U.A.'s own Present Mic, whose given name is "Hizashi".
** There are two "Rikiyas", the first being the Shie Hassaikai's giant bruiser (Katsukame) and the second being the Meta Liberation Army's leader (Yotsubashi), both villains.
** There are two "Toyas" in the series, the first being one of the Eight Bullets (Setsuno) and the second being Shoto's eldest brother (Todoroki).
* OnlyInItForTheMoney:
** Uraraka seeks to be a heroine just because it's a well-paying job. Although this would usually be portrayed as selfish and/or unethical, and she, herself, acknowledges how unwholesome this mindset is, she only wants the money to support her family; Ida reconstructs this by mentioning that there isn't anything wrong in looking for a well-paying job to sustain herself and her parents.
** This is one of the many examples of "corruption" HeroKiller Stain wants to excise from the world of heroics, leaving only those who want to be heroes for the sake of saving people. [[SelectiveObliviousness Ironically enough, Stain's idol, All Might, freely merchandises his own image]], as shown by the vast assortment of merchandise in Midoriya's room.
* OpenSecret: [[spoiler:Following the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, the existence of One For All has been leaked to the public due to Shigaraki mentioning it. This leads to Endeavor, Best Jeanist, and Hawks interrogating All Might about the true nature of One For All. Realizing he can't avoid the secret getting out for much longer, he tells them the truth. During a press conference, Endeavor feigns not knowing what One For All is for the sake of keeping society stable. Afterward, when Midoriya recovers, he sends letters to his class telling them the secret of One For All as well. Later on, Chapter 317 reveals that the aforementioned group widened the circle to include other top heroes such as Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and Edgeshot to help with the ongoing hunt for All For One and the League, with many grimly noting that as much as they ''want'' to keep One For All a secret for Midoriya's sake, the constant leaks mean that exposure may very well be inevitable]].
* OrganicTechnology: Several Quirks give their bearer technological components that clearly should not naturally be on humans, but are seemingly organic. For instance:
** Tenya's (and presumably the rest of the Ida family) Engine Quirk possesses radiators, mufflers, and exhaust pipes is fueled by orange juice and clogged by sugar, and requires regular maintenance. Also, at least some parts of this engine, such as mufflers, can be removed and regrown.
** Jiro and her mother somehow have organic earphone jacks growing from their ears, which can be hardened for better sound quality but are already capable of penetrating solid concrete by the time the series begins.
** Pretty much ''anything'' created by Yaoyorozu qualifies as this-- she's capable of creating everything from cannons to ropes to sound systems from her lipids.
** Several Quirks allow for the manifestation or growth of metal on or from one's body -- Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu's Steel, Moonfish's Bladetooth, and an unnamed criminal who injects himself with Trigger can generate metallic blades from his body.
** A Quirk simply called "Rivet", which causes Rivets to grow on one's skin, is possessed by All For One.
** A preschooler in the Remedial Course Arc has a Quirk called "Tongue Tank", which lets him grow a cannon from his mouth.
** Togaru Kamakiri of Class 1-B can protrude large razor blades from any part of his body.
** Lady Nagant's Quirk, Rifle enables her to manifest a sniper rifle protruding from her right elbow, and to shape her hair strands like epoxy putty to make bullets.
* OriginsEpisode: Chapter 59 explains the origin of One For All. Chapter 193 revisits the same story and fleshes it out.
* OurHumansAreDifferent: Before the beginning of the series, humanity began to develop "Quirks", natural superpowers that range from glowing to shooting fire to growing wings. Quite a few Quirks result in people having monstrous forms or [[LittleBitBeastly animalistic traits]]. This radically changed the definition of what it meant to be "human", leading to a period of unrest and strife as people struggled to figure out what to do about Quirks. By the present day, [[EveryoneIsaSuper 80% of humanity]] have a Quirk, whereas 20%, like Midoriya, are born [[UnSorcerer Quirkless]].
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:The heroes manage to do this to ''All For One'' in the lead-up to the final battle. He thinks [[TheMole his mole inside UA]] combined with his [[TheChessmaster plans within plans]] means victory is assured...so the heroes [[BatmanGambit allow him to believe that]] while they meticulously lay a plan to turn the tables, taking advantage of [[EvilCannotComprehendGood his inability to understand bonds and selflessness]] as well as his [[SmugSuper gigantic ego]] and [[{{Sadist}} sadism]]. As a result, when All For One thinks he's about to call checkmate on the heroes, he's caught completely off guard and falls into their trap.]]
* OverlyLongHug: Endeavor pulls Bakugou and Natsuo into a long hug after rescuing the latter from a villain who wanted to be killed by the Flame Hero. Natsuo is stunned into silence by the gesture, while Bakugou is so annoyed that he wriggles his way out so he can start surveying the damage caused during the chase.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Shinso criticizes the entrance exam to the Hero courses at U.A. for being biased towards combat-oriented Quirks, making it difficult for WeakButSkilled students like him to be recognized compared to the likes of Class 1-A, who get tons of attention. This is acknowledged by several characters, with Aizawa agreeing that the test is unfair, and some Pros seeing the potential in Shinso and his Quirk.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-T]]
* PapaWolf:
** Do not try to harm the students of U.A., because that will earn you the wrath of [[TheAce All]] [[WorldsStrongestMan Might]].
** Aizawa is no slouch in this department, taking on pretty much the entire League of Villains by himself to protect Class 1-A until Shigaraki unleashes Nomu on him.
* PassingTheTorch: Deconstructed:
** Midoriya inherits One For All from All Might, but it's an incredibly destructive power, All Might is a miserable teacher, and Midoriya doesn't have the natural aptitude for it, so the poor kid spends lengthy amounts of time in the hospital and almost completely ruins his arms.
** Todoroki is a heroic LaserGuidedTykebomb meant to surpass All Might as the #1 hero because his father, the #2 hero Endeavor, never could. The efforts involved in breeding Todoroki have left misery in their wake, with Todoroki heavily scarred over one eye and his mother in a mental hospital.
** Ida is asked to carry on the Ingenium name from his brother, but the circumstances of the original Ingenium's retirement are so traumatic that Ida nearly gets himself killed in a failed revenge attempt.
** [[spoiler:Once All For One is locked away and All Might loses what's left of One For All, both pass on the torch to their juniors, Shigaraki and Midoriya, respectively.]]
* PastLifeMemories: Of a sort. Starting in Chapter 192, [[spoiler:Midoriya has a dream about the previous users of One For All, including Nana Shimura, and the first-ever user confronting his brother, All For One.]]
* PatchworkKids: The Quirks in Todoroki Shoto's family seem to be tied to hair color. His mother is AnIcePerson with white hair. His father is a literal FieryRedhead. Shoto can produce each power from opposite sides of his body and has multicolored hair: white on his ice-making right side, and red on his fire-making left side. Two of his siblings have white hair flecked with bits of red, implying that they got more ice than fire.
* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest:
** The final hurdle in the U.A. Sports Festival obstacle race is a minefield, which means whoever is in first place is at a disadvantage -- they have the maximum chance of encountering one of the mines.
** The festival then punishes the winner of the obstacle race by declaring a cavalry battle; every team is assigned the total number of points earned by its members in the race, and the first place position is awarded a whopping ''ten million'' points,[[note]]Second place earns a measly 205 points, by comparison[[/note]] making it the biggest target of all. Midoriya, who holds this position, very briefly experiences the combined enmity of everyone in the competition, which All Might was hoping for as a taste of what being the #1 hero is like.
** U.A. is acknowledged as being one of the top hero schools in the country. As a result, it's a tradition during the provisional hero license exam that other schools will gang up to try to take down its examinees. In addition, the fact that the U.A. Sports Festival is nationally televised months ''before'' the exam means that the other schools will know far more about the U.A. students' abilities than the U.A. students will know about those other students. Of course, [[SinkOrSwimMentor Aizawa doesn't tell his class this]].
* PersonalityPowers: Characters will frequently have personalities and interests that perfectly mirror their Quirks. For instance, Jiro's Quirk gives her a pair of earphone jacks on her ears that she can plug into speakers to project deafening amounts of noise, reflecting her parents' background as musicians.
* PerspectiveFlip: In Chapters 88 to 90, it makes it appear that [[spoiler:Sensei is a hero for the villains, stopping an all-powerful foe (All Might) so he could save his beloved pupil.]]
* PlotArchaeology: During the Forest Training Camp Arc, it's revealed there is a traitor within U.A. acting as a mole to aid All For One. This plot point was then ignored for several, real-time years. It's not until Chapter 336 that it's finally revealed the traitor is [[spoiler:Aoyama, who was forced to work for AFO and quickly sides with the heroes upon discovery, feeling crushing guilt for all he's done]].
* PlotTailoredToTheParty:
** Invoked by the faculty during the Final Exams Arc; the students vs. teachers matchups are explicitly designed to address some of the students' weaknesses and help them grow as heroes:
*** Midoriya and Bakugo vs. All Might is to see whether they can set aside their differences in the face of overwhelming adversity.
*** Todoroki and Yaoyorozu vs. Aizawa is for Yaoyorozu to improve her split-second thinking and action (and by extension her self-confidence) and to challenge Todoroki's tendency to use brute force by having them go against the PowerNullifier close-combat fighter Aizawa.
*** Jiro and Koda vs. Present Mic is because although all their Quirks revolve around sound, Present Mic is powerful enough to cancel out direct usage of Jiro and Koda's Quirks. Thus, the students have to find creative ways to use theirs.
*** Tsuyu and Tokoyami vs. Ectoplasm is to challenge [[LongRangeFighter Tokoyami]]'s tendency to rely on Dark Shadow to do the fighting for him, since Ectoplasm's clones can get close with no problem, and to see how well [[NervesOfSteel Tsuyu]] can emotionally and physically support her partner.
*** Ashido and Kaminari vs. Nezu is because these students tend to [[LeeroyJenkins act first and think later]]; this is challenged when they go up against an intelligent villain who can effectively take advantage of this and outsmart them.
*** Sato and Kirishima vs. Cementoss is meant to test how the students will react to a battle of attrition, pitting their powerful yet time-limited Quirks against a villain able to produce an endless number of defenses.
*** Ida and Ojiro vs. Power Loader pits two heroes who rely on firm footing (for movement and combat) against a villain who can disrupt the terrain. In light of Ida's confrontation with Stain, it's also a test of his judgment as to whether to fight or flee, considering the parameters of the scenario, and whether he can achieve his objective with minimal loss or sacrifice.
** Also deliberately invoked in [[spoiler:the raid against the Paranormal Liberation Front. Since the main characters are all technically still just students, the heroes are only willing to bring ones with a specific purpose to the front lines, and immediately pull them back when that purpose is fulfilled. Kaminari is there to counter a villain with an electrical Quirk, Tokoyami destroys a hidden passage out of the mansion, and Komori and Honenuki neutralize the crowds of lower-level mooks.]]
* PoliceAreUseless: Subverted. Heroes act as a rapid response to disasters and criminals with powerful Quirks whereas the regular police continue to have jurisdiction over day-to-day matters and the investigative side of crime fighting. Also, in Chapter 95, [[spoiler:after All Might finally loses One For All for good]], and with the League of Villains becoming stronger, the police chiefs realize they need to institute serious reforms to adapt to the emerging supervillain threat.
* {{Portmanteau}}: U.A.'s name is one, being a portmanteau between the words "'''Yuu'''sha" and "'''Ei'''yuu". [[MeaningfulName In Japanese, both words can be used to refer to a hero.]]
* PostInjuryDeskJob:
** Ragdoll goes from an active hero to someone who supports her team with desk work [[spoiler:after she loses her Quirk to All For One]].
** All Might also takes to teaching permanently after [[spoiler:using up the last embers of One For All to take down All For One at Kamino.]]
* PosterGalleryBedroom: We see several of these after the U.A. students are moved into on-campus dorms. [[HeroWorshipper Midoriya's]] is filled with All Might memorabilia as befits his fanboy nature, Kaminari's has games and fun stuff, and [[TheGenericGuy Ojiro's]] is very plain.
* PowerIncontinence:
** Chapter 168 reveals that Aoyama suffers from this; much like [[ComicBook/XMen Cyclops]], his Navel Laser can leak out if there's not a lens to keep it under control. In addition, his body is ill-suited to his Quirk, and when his stomach is crushed by the laser... the "incontinence" part of this becomes quite literal.
** [[spoiler:Daruma Ujiko reveals that this isn't an isolated case. As more and more Quirks mix together they become more complex and more powerful. However, the human body isn't evolving quickly enough to handle it, and the younger, up-and-coming generation of superhumans is already showing that control is becoming more and more difficult. This would eventually lead to a phenomenon known as the Quirk Singularity Point, the point where the human body can't handle Quirks, which will cause widespread problems. [[HorrifyingTheHorror Even]] ''[[BigBad All For One]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards doesn't want this to happen.]]]]
* PowerNullifier:
** Aizawa's "Erasure" Quirk, which temporarily disables the Quirks of people he looks at.
** Eri's unnamed Quirk, which "rewinds" humans in some unclear capacity, including the ability to completely destroy the Quirk Factor of any person her tissue comes into contact with by reverting their genetic evolution to a point before humans had Quirks. [[spoiler:Tamaki gets hit by a bullet infused with her DNA which makes him lose his Quirk for about a day, whereas poor Mirio gets hit head-on by a perfected bullet meant for Eri, completely destroying his ability to use his Quirk.]]
* ThePowerOfGlass: Starservant, a minor villain during the Endeavor Internship Arc, can manipulate glass. He can also change its consistency from solid to liquid. He hatches a plot to "destroy the darkness" he sees plaguing society by creating a giant glass orb, but Endeavor handles him fairly easily.
* ThePowerOfLust: Mineta's realization that he wants to be a hero so he can feel up a woman is what spurs him to beat Midnight and pass his final exam.
* PowerUpFood: Tamaki's "Manifest" Quirk makes ''any'' food he eats into this, as he can make aspects of that food (such as octopus tentacles from eating takoyaki, bird talons from poultry, and an entire swordfish) manifest on his body.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Overhaul's Quirk canceling drug operation is powered by [[spoiler:Eri's blood/tissue, and that he harvests the material until she ''dies''. Then he uses his Quirk to bring her back to life and start the process all over again.]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: The Meta Liberation Army Arc is shifted to be after the Endeavor Intern Arc in Season 5 of the anime, intending to act as a climactic closer for the season.
* {{Prequel}}: The ''Vigilantes'' series takes place several years before the start of the main series. In Chapter 6.5, it's revealed that the series takes place before Midnight and Aizawa become teachers; Midnight mentions she will be working at U.A. next year.
* PretentiousLatinMotto: U.A. is one of the top educational institutions in Japan, and its motto is "Plus Ultra", Latin for "Further Beyond."
* PsychoSerum: The "Trigger" drug, first seen in ''Vigilantes'' and later ported over to the main series, massively enhances the power and potency of weak Quirks; in ''Vigilantes'', it turns a man with a Quirk that gives him a lizard-like appearance into a Pterodactyl-like humanoid, and in the Internship Arc, it's capable of giving someone with a minor matter manipulation Quirk the ability to mold ''an entire building'' like it's putty. The "Psycho" part is downplayed in the main series, but in ''Vigilantes'', it seems to drive people who have taken the drug berserk.
* PunnyName: Many of the characters have a name that hints at the Quirk they have or their personality.
* PyrrhicVictory:
** The first Heroes vs. Villains training exercise (Midoriya/Uraraka vs. Ida/Bakugo) ends up as this for Midoriya and Uraraka. Although they won by the conditions of the exercise, Ida and Bakugo were practically uninjured, whereas Uraraka ended up [[HeroicRROD heavily nauseous]] and Midoriya was straight-up hospitalized. This is acknowledged in-universe.
** [[spoiler:All Might's final battle against All For One. Even though All For One is defeated and put into prison, All Might permanently loses One For All and his true form is revealed to the public. The age of All Might is over.]] Lampshaded when one police officer says that given that [[spoiler:All For One was defeated but the League of Villains escaped]], the battle is basically a draw, but a colleague says even that is too optimistic considering [[spoiler:the loss of All Might]].
** [[spoiler:After All Might's retirement, Endeavor gains the #1 hero status. He is unhappy with it because he did not earn it. He never bested All Might, who went out in a blaze of glory, more popular than ever after defeating All For One, and their ultimate match will now never happen. Plus, he realizes that all he did to his family to surpass All Might is now completely pointless.]]
* QualityOverQuantity:
** During the Forest Training Camp Arc, to show how much the League of Villains have become a more serious threat than they were in the attack on USJ, they send a team of 10 skilled and experienced villains instead of the mobs of random thugs that were used previously.
** During the provisional hero license exam, over a thousand entrants are whittled down to about one hundred in the space of the first round alone. This is invoked by the proctors, who are trying to bolster the number of effective heroes against the recently surging League of Villains.
* RaisedByRival: After he murdered [[spoiler:the seventh wielder of One For All, All For One found her grandson and raised the boy to be his successor, knowing that the next wielder of One For All would be offended and hurt by the fate of the grandson of his beloved mentor]].
* TheRealHeroes: Downplayed. Although he doesn't deny that the heroes are the ones who make the biggest difference, after initially telling Midoriya that he can't become a hero without a Quirk, All Might says there's still plenty he can do if he wants to dedicate his life to saving people. He advises Midoriya to join the police force, saying that it's a fine profession that doesn't get the credit it deserves due to heroes overshadowing them. He also describes his costume designer as his hero, for constantly supporting his heroics.
* {{Reconstruction}}: The series basically is one of battle shōnen. Where the titles in that genre tended to get darker and/or weirder in the last two decades, ''My Hero Academia'' goes back to the basics of the formula, with simple but well-defined characters and stakes, and a healthy dose of brightness and optimism, while still addressing the issues of the characters and the world it's set in in a fairly nuanced manner.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Zigzagged all around. Several heroic figures possess red eyes, and some of them are perfectly nice people, like Kirishima. Some, however, are depicted as being quite dangerous and scary despite their heroic status, either due to their appearance (Gang Orca), their attitudes (Bakugo and Mirko), or due to their Quirk's power (Tokoyami and Eri). Then, of course, there's Shigaraki, the series' BigBad, who also possesses red eyes and longs to destroy everything he can.
* RedHerring: Chapter 88 reveals that Shigaraki's real name is [[spoiler:Tenko Shimura]], which carries the implication that he's a relative of [[spoiler:All Might's mentor, the previous One For All user]]. Given Shigaraki's obsession with the hand that he calls "Father", that means that Shigaraki's father was [[spoiler:All Might's mentor]], right? [[spoiler:Not quite. Chapter 91 reveals that the name of All Might's mentor was Nana Shimura, and the following chapter clarifies that she was Shigaraki's grandmother]].
* ReferenceOverdosed: Horikoshi is a big fan of superheroes and Western movies, especially ''Franchise/StarWars'' and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, which causes the story to be filled with {{Shout Out}}s to these movies. Although much rarer, there are also quite a few shout-outs to video games.
* ReforgedIntoAMinion: The Nomu is implied to be a species of LaserGuidedTykebomb created by giving individuals Quirks too powerful for their bodies, then inflicting BodyHorror and WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity on them.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Deconstructed, Reconstructed, and everything in-between. Some quirks have this built-in, while others [[PowerIncontinence lack it]] [[DifficultButAwesome entirely]]. A large part of a person mastering their quirk comes from learning how to exploit this or account for its absence.
** Quirks don't work without the "Quirk Factor", which is the physical mechanism through which the Quirk functions; this can be anything from nerves being able to move a tail, to Bakugo's Nitro Sweat letting him spark explosions, to the pads on Uraraka's fingertips being the mechanism for her canceling gravity. Aizawa's Erasure Quirk functions by temporarily disabling the Quirk Factor of the person he's looking at. [[spoiler:Eri's Quirk, meanwhile, seems to be that her blood and other tissue actively attacks the Quirk Factor of other Quirk bearers, with the possibility of destroying it completely if her blood is administered in high enough doses.]]
** Invoked in the case of One For All; Midoriya has immense power, but not the immense toughness required to properly handle it, so heavy blasts rip him apart like firecrackers going off inside his limbs.
** Some Quirks require the body to be able to handle them, and if the body can't it often causes PowerIncontinence for the user and needing special gear just to handle it. [[spoiler:The Doctor speculates this is because Quirks are actually "software" whereas the human body is "hardware", and the hardware isn't evolving enough to keep up with the software.]]
* RestrictedRescueOperation: Because only licensed heroes are allowed to use Quirks to take down criminals, Class 1-A struggle with rescue missions for the very real fear that they'll be expelled or arrested, and so will never become pro heroes. This severely limits the mission to rescue Bakugo, as a majority of the class doesn't even want to go, two of the ones with useful abilities are incapacitated, and the ones who go have to do whatever it takes to stay within the law.
* {{Retool}}: The series is based on a one-shot manga Horikoshi drew titled ''Manga/{{My Hero|2008}}''. The main character of the one-shot is named ''Jack'' Midoriya, and he's a salaryman selling gadgets to superheroes. The hero Snipe is from the one-shot.
* RetroactiveIdiotBall: When Midoriya first receives One For All from All Might, his body naturally has a lot of difficulties adjusting to suddenly having a powerful Quirk, leading to him repeatedly breaking his bones while attempting to use it properly. It's eventually revealed that like Midoriya, All Might used to be Quirkless as well, and secretly used a variety of support equipment while his body was getting accustomed to it. Naturally, this begs the question of why All Might never considered looking into any support equipment for his successor until ''after'' Midoriya sustained injuries serious enough to risk permanently rendering his arms unusable. This pretty much piles on the fact that All Might may not be the best teacher for Midoriya if he forgot an important detail like that.
* RevengeIsNotJustice: Ida became a hero after he became his brother's successor when he was attacked by Stain and forced to retire. When Ida finally met Stain face to face, he ignored an injured hero and tried to attack him. During their fight, Stain chews Ida out for his need for vengeance and then drives in the nail further by stating that Iida's actions are the furthest thing from being a hero. In an inversion of this, when Ida admits to these criticisms, Stain seemed unable to accept that he had gotten through to him.
* TheReveal:
** [[spoiler:All For One reveals that Shigaraki is the grandchild of All Might's mentor, the previous holder of One For All.]]
** [[spoiler:Midoriya can use ''six'' Quirks due to One For All.]]
** [[spoiler:Dabi's true name is Toya Todoroki, the supposedly deceased eldest son of Endeavor.]]
** [[spoiler:Aoyama is the U.A. traitor.]]
* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The first two seasons are mostly constant action and focus on the criticism of a world where superheroes are a common profession. The next couple of seasons have a lot more lighthearted school life scenes, which include showing off everyone's dorms and preparing for a school festival.
* RightForTheWrongReasons:
** When Bakugo and Uraraka are paired up to do battle in a tournament, Bakugo keeps a heavy hit in reserve in case Uraraka, whom he knows is friends with the ever-wily Midoriya, has some sneaky trick up her sleeve. He's right about the sneaky trick, though Uraraka actually ''declines'' Midoriya's help before the match and the idea is wholly her own. Midoriya sets him straight in the next chapter.
** Todoroki observes that there's a connection between All Might and Midoriya, and correctly deduces that their Quirks are the same. He then concludes that Midoriya is All Might's illegitimate son.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Gentle, a villain introduced in Chapter 170, commits crimes solely for online viewership and hits, acting as a commentary on outlandish [=YouTube=] behavior.
* RocketJump: During the U.A. Sports Festival's first event, Midoriya launches himself into first place by stockpiling land mines and then detonating them all at once, using a fragment of robot armor as a blast shield and platform. He then does it a second time.
* RoguesGallery: As a series about superpowered humans who can undergo official training to become superheroes, the series naturally has a list of recurring villains, most of whom are members or allies of the League of Villains. This list includes All For One, Kurogiri, Hero Killer: Stain, Shigaraki, Giran, Dabi, Toga, Mr. Compress, Magne, Spinner, and Twice.
* RotatingProtagonist:
** Played with. Though Midoriya is always the protagonist, the group with him seems to vary. The rest of the main cast, Ida, Uraraka, and Todoroki, are prone to fall in and OutOfFocus depending on the situation, such as Ida being out of focus in the USJ and Forest Training Camp Arcs, while receiving the spotlight during the Field Training Arc, or Uraraka being out of focus during the Field Training and Hideout Raid Arcs. Bakugo is the [[{{Deuteragonist}} only other character who is consistently prominent]]. The {{Tritagonist}} is All Might, who acts as Midoriya's mentor and plays a major role as a legacy character.
** Secondary characters sometimes get to receive some focus, such as Tsuyu and Mineta (besides others such as Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Kaminari) in the USJ Arc, Tokoyami and Hatsume during the U.A. Sports Festival Arc, Tsuyu, Mineta, Jiro and Koda in the Final Exams Arc, Shoji and Tokoyami in the Forest Training Camp Arc, and so on. Kirishima receives a lot of attention, such as in the USJ, Forest Training Camp, Hideout Raid, and Internship Arcs, bordering on being an AscendedExtra.
** Even [[spoiler:''Shigaraki'' gets this, becoming the VillainProtagonist of the Meta Liberation Army Arc, as it focuses on his goals and aspirations, but most importantly, what was the 'one bad day' which made Tenko Shimura into Tomura Shigaraki.]]
* RunningGag:
** Kirishima and Tetsutetsu being way too similar to each other:
*** They have very similar Quirks. The narrator even uses the exact same wording when describing their Quirks.
*** They get matched together in the tournament, which ends with a DoubleKnockout.
*** They became sidekicks under the same hero during the internship period.
*** They even share the same birthday.
** Midoriya getting excited while watching and analyzing fights and constantly muttering to himself without realizing it, much to the annoyance of those around him.
** Ida shoehorning an Aesop into everything U.A. makes the students do.
** In the anime, every "Next Episode" segment will feature one character trying to give the preview with Midoriya, and usually they'll freak him out in the process. A scene from the next episode will be mentioned where someone/a group will have something happen to them, and then the episode will close with both Midoriya and the character doing the recap giving a rousing cry, "Go beyond! Plus Ultra!" However, if the episode is of serious nature, it will feature a more traditional recap that defies this format.
* SaveTheJerk: Deconstructed. Bakugo and Midoriya's relationship has always been defined by these moments, in which Bakugo gets himself into danger and Midoriya rushes to help him. Bakugo, meanwhile, is a {{jerkass}} to Midoriya throughout the series, remaining an arrogant hothead even after he mellows out and gets some CharacterDevelopment. That said, Midoriya's insistence on saving Bakugo not only puts himself (or his friends) in unnecessary danger, but it also offends Bakugo; he perceives the help not as a selfless act of charity, but as a show of ''superiority''. In fact, Bakugo started bullying Midoriya in part because Midoriya tried to help him once.
* ScarfOfAsskicking:
** Aizawa uses an [[ImprobableWeaponUser otherwise impractically long scarf made of]] [[TechnoBabble steel wire alloy woven with carbon nanofibers]] to kick ass.
** Hitoshi Shinso undergoes training in this technique from Aizawa to help him [[spoiler:(successfully)]] [[HeroicWannabe try to transfer into the Hero course]], which results in him fitting this trope just like Aizawa does.
* ScoobyStack: Season 3's [[{{Filler}} "special episode"]] has Ida, Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Midoriya stacked up like this while looking around a corner at a mock crime scene. Unusually, there's also a shot of the stack from behind, showing how it's possible--Ida, who's much taller than the others, is on top, with Midoriya crouching at the bottom, and the other two squeezed in between them.
* ScrewDestiny: Played with. Throughout the Work Study Arc, Nighteye predicts the deaths of [[spoiler:All Might, Midoriya, and even himself]]. When Nighteye gets wounded during his battle with Overhaul, there's a HopeSpot that Midoriya [[spoiler:prevented his death, but Nighteye later dies from his wounds in the hospital]]. However, Midoriya [[spoiler:successfully changes the future predicted by Nighteye wherein Midoriya dies and Overhaul escapes with Eri.]]
* SdrawkcabName:
** A variation. The "U.A." in U.A. High School can be pronounced "Yuuei", which is an anagram of ''Eiyuu'', the Japanese word for "hero".
** Detnerat is "Talented" backward and [[JapaneseRanguage spelled with an "r" instead of an "l".]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter:
** Downplayed with the U.A. entrance exam. The stated purpose is for the applicants to show off their abilities by fighting giant robots. Though the examiners are indeed looking for those who have great strength or ability, they are also looking for those who put others before themselves. Midoriya passes despite having gotten no points in the combat portion of the exam for this reason, because he saves Uraraka from a rampaging robot that, while massive and threatening, is not worth any points.
** Ida seeing these everywhere even when there might be none is a RunningGag.
*** The catalyst for this might have been the entrance exam - Iida believes that Midoriya saved Uraraka because he saw through the test (he didn't), and as Iida considers Midoriya a rival, he might be attempting to get ahead on any other secret tests.
*** After another of these from Ida, Aizawa once thought to himself "[he]'s so useful", indicating that there really isn't an ulterior teaching motive in most cases, and Iida's just paranoid.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: One possible weakness of Sir Nighteye's power is his pessimistic attitude clouding his foresight and making him see a BadFuture every time he uses it. [[spoiler:It's only after Midoriya's {{Determinator}} attitude brings him around that he realizes that [[ScrewDestiny the future isn't set in stone]]. Unfortunately, he dies shortly afterward.]]
* SemiaquaticSpeciesSailor: The pro hero Selkie's Quirk gives him the powers and appearance of a humanoid spotted seal. He and his team patrol the ocean, performing search and rescue operations and fighting modern-day pirates.
* SeriousBusiness: Thanks to it serving as a staging ground for up-and-coming heroes to showcase their talents and attract sponsors, the U.A. Sports Festival has grown to have a larger national audience than the Olympics.
* TheSevenMysteries: Before inheriting One for All, Midoriya mentions that All Might's Quirk is one of the seven great mysteries of the world. What the other six are is yet unknown.
* ShamingTheMob: In Chapter 323, a band of hostile citizens demands Midoriya leave the U.A. campus, fearing that Shigaraki will pursue him despite Best Jeanist trying to tell them they don't have much of a choice. Uraraka points out that while she understands their fears, Midoriya has been trying his hardest to stop the villains' threat ''so'' they can feel safe, that his power is vital in stopping All For One, and asks the citizens to take a good look at him at his current ragged form to prove her point.
* ShamelessFanserviceGirl:
** Midnight's current costume is an extremely thin, extremely tight bodysuit with a dominatrix outfit on top of it. Her previous outfit was a braless corset-leotard with a weapon harness that doubled as a string bikini top, which caused a law to be passed regulating how much skin a costume can expose. She still argues against this law, citing the fact that certain Quirks work better with skin exposed.
** Hagakure has no qualms about running around naked, with her hero costume being two gloves and shoes (and no actual clothing). This makes sense, as she is [[InvisibleStreaker permanently invisible]]. Amusingly, she does get embarrassed when seen "undressing" (taking her gloves off) but has no qualms about cheerleading without panties on or attending physical ed events topless.
* SharedSignatureMove:
** Most everyone in the Iida family share the same Engine Quirk, and they're also a prestigious hero family. As a result, they also share a similar fighting style and Special Move, known as "Recipro Turbo". Tenya's older brother is even the one who explains how he can make the move stronger and faster, once he decided he was old enough to know.
** Midoriya, having inherited his Quirk from his mentor All Might, emulates several moves from his predecessor. These moves are rarely used because of the heavy blowback on Midoriya's relatively weak body, but should the situation call for it, he can channel attacks every bit as powerful as his idol.
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/MyHeroAcademia Has its own page]].
* ShutUpHannibal:
** Ida gives one to Stain when it looks like the latter is about to kill him. He doesn't care what Stain thinks of him or the heroes he's attacked. Stain is still just a criminal who hurt his brother. This is immediately followed by Midoriya [[DynamicEntry rushing in]] and Smashing the Hero Killer in the face.
** All Might gives a seething one to [[spoiler:All For One's lengthy, disingenuous tirade about how All Might ruined everything he was trying to cultivate and took down his comrades (whom he saw as only means to his end, by the way)]].
---> "Shut up! That's what you do. You toy with people's very lives! You break them! You steal from them! You take advantage and manipulate them! You sneer at them, when they're just trying to live everyday lives! And for that, '''I can't forgive you!!!'''"
* SidekickGraduationsStick: Becoming a sidekick is supposed to be a stepping stone towards eventually running one's own hero office.
* SignificantNameShift: [[spoiler:Midoriya's childhood bully, Bakugo, refers to him with the insult "Deku" throughout the series, meaning "useless" - until Bakugo's character arc leads him to the long-awaited apology; at this moment and ever since he refers to Midoriya by his real name.]]
* SimpleSolutionWontWork: During the battle against All For One, Monoma copies Warp Gate to separate the villains by teleporting them vast distances apart. Unfortunately, Midoriya is yanked through the wrong portal by Toga, stranding him miles from U.A., where he's supposed to fight Shigaraki. Midoriya requests a portal to just send him to the correct battlefield, only to learn it can't be done because Monoma, who can't use multiple powers at once, is busy using Erasure to prevent Shigaraki from using his Quirks, and [[spoiler:the villain has suddenly grown numerous fingers. So if he stops to create a portal, Decay will activate and kill everyone there]].
* SinglePowerSuperheroes: Most people only have one Quirk, so someone with [[ComboPlatterPowers more than one power]] like Todoroki is considered unusual.
* SituationalHandSwitch: Midoriya had a habit of breaking the bones in his limbs because of the volatile nature of One For All in the early parts of the story. He's forced to eat and write with his other hand while the bones in one arm heal (with a lot of thanks given to Recovery Girl's HealingHands).
* SkewedPriorities: Aizawa accuses the upper management of U.A. of having this, as the test for acceptance into the hero department favors people with battle-oriented Quirks. This means that people with incredibly useful Quirks but who don't have any way to battle robots will fall through the cracks and at best only be accepted into the General Studies course. That said, it is possible that if someone shows themselves to be useful, a General Studies student can get a transfer over to the heroics course. [[spoiler:This is likely why Aizawa takes in the most recently noted victim of the test, Hitoshi Shinso, and trains him in his own fighting style to help with the attempt to get into the hero course.]]
* SkywardScream: Midoriya lets out a couple of epic, war-like ones at the end of his ten months of TrainingFromHell, standing atop the pile of rubbish after having it all cleaned from the Dagoba beach.
* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: Some people have animal-like attributes which may not be directly related to the nature of their Quirk. They may be a LittleBitBeastly, have a grafted-on animal part such as Tokoyami's [[NonHumanHead bird head]], or resemble a [[UpliftedAnimal natural animal with human intelligence]], such as U.A.'s principal Nezu or various members of the police force.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Besides the series having pretty dark moments and tackling some serious issues, ''My Hero Academia'' is heavily idealistic, albeit not without acknowledging that the heroes ''does'' have flaws.
* SmartJerkAndNiceMoron: Bakugo and Kirishima have this dynamic. Bakugo is the irritable GeniusBruiser who constantly pushes others away with his desire to be the best at everything, whereas Kirishima is a BookDumb NiceGuy who is one of the few people able to tolerate Bakugo's attitude. [[spoiler:This becomes a plot point when Kirishima is the only one Bakugo will willingly accept help from when Midoriya and the others are trying to rescue Bakugo.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** The school's name is frequently translated as Yuuei, but the students are often seen wearing school uniforms with the letters U and A on them (which works as a sort of acronym for "Yuuei"). The Viz manga also uses "U.A." when naming the school.
** There's some confusion as to whether the name of All Might's former sidekick is "Sir Nighteye" or "Sir '''K'''nighteye".
* SpiderManSendUp: Naturally has a few influences:
** In terms of backstory and personality, Deku has several similarities to Peter: both were scrawny nerds who became {{Action Hero}}es thanks to a [[ItBeganWithATwistOfFate twist of fate]]. They [[ComesGreatResponsibility feel that it's their responsibility]] to use their powers to save others, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished even at severe cost to themselves]]. They're also both extremely close to their mother figures and suffer from being BornUnlucky. Horikoshi has stated that Spider-Man is his favorite comic book hero and one of his primary inspirations for ''My Hero Academia'' as a whole, particularly Midoriya's philosophy that a hero is someone who saves others and reassures them in times of crisis. In Chapter 210, [[spoiler:he gains the Quirk "Blackwhip" which fires black tendrils that mimic the black Spider-Suit and ComicBook/{{Venom}}. The fact that the tendrils appear to be created out of dark electricity brings to mind ComicBook/MilesMorales' ability to fire electric "venom". After Deku works on getting the Quirk under control, he can use the tendrils to grab objects and swing around much like the wall-crawler with his webs. Later, during the war with the Paranormal Liberation Front, he realizes that he developed a SpiderSense from the quirk of One for All's fourth user.]]
** Tsuyu Asui, a.k.a. Froppy, whose Quirk allows her to "do whatever a frog can" and who, indeed, can stick to surfaces and crawl along with them like a spider, and Hanta Sero, a.k.a. Cellophane, who uses his tape power to swing around and stick people to things.
** In the spin-off, ''My Hero Academia: Vigilantes'', the main character, Kouichi Haimawari, a.k.a. "The Crawler", takes this even further. His Quirk, Sliding, has him have to go on all fours and slide along the ground like a water bug [[spoiler:and later in the series he finds out he can stick to objects as well]]. What's more, he's a college student, lives in a shanty-like dwelling where his partners freeload constantly, and usually is a ButtMonkey as much as Peter Parker is.
* SpinOff:
** ''[[Manga/MyHeroAcademiaSmash My Hero Academia Smash!!]]'' is a {{Yonkoma}} parody of the main series.
** ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' is about a trio of unlicensed do-gooders trying to end the trade of a PsychoSerum drug while operating outside the law, and takes place [[{{Prequel}} a few years before]] the main series.
** ''My Heroine Academia'',[[note]]''Watashi no Hero Academia'', with "Watashi" being a feminine pronoun vs. "Boku"[[/note]] which focuses on Class 1-A's female students.
** ''Team-Up Mission'' is a series of episodic side-stories where the hero students get to team up with one pro hero agency for a mission to help them gain more experience in the field in addition to their internships.
* SpiritualSuccessor:
** To ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. Horikoshi himself stated that he was inspired by ''Naruto'', which explains the similarities of certain aspects of this series. Although ''My Hero Academia'' was already very popular when ''Naruto'' was still in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', this series' popularity increased even further after the latter ended. One fan even submitted Naruto's name in a popularity poll, in an obvious nod at this.
** It can be seen as one for ''Anime/TigerAndBunny''. Both cover similar themes, like the commercialization of superheroes and rankings, and both Wild Tiger and All Might [[spoiler:gradually lose their powers over the course of the series]].
* StarstruckSpeechless: Midoriya is starstruck when he meets his lifelong idol, [[TheParagon All Might]], for the first time. He's only able to gape and {{Squee}} until All Might reveals that he signed Midoriya's notebook, snapping Midoriya out of his stupor as he repeatedly bows and thanks him for it.
* StealthPun: Despite the lack of Quirks, the fantasy universe seen in the popularity poll and [=ED3=] still shows the cast as ''heroes''.
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Played with, but not exactly straight. Characters are named after the powers they have, but because SuperpowerfulGenetics is in play, it ends up being more of a case of FamilyThemeNaming on the part of the parents, although it's worth noting that a child has the chance of inheriting only one of the parents' powers, meaning there's a 40% or so chance of this being the case and another 40% of it being a subversion. The remaining 20% is when the child inherits both powers, [[ZigZaggingTrope so the name can be varying degrees of meaningful]]. This is without considering Quirkless people. That said, there are two legitimate examples in Izuku Midoriya and Toshinori Yagi (All Might), whose names follow a NumericalThemeNaming that coincides with their One For All (a power that they earn instead of being born with) successor numbers.
* TheStinger: After the end credits for Episode 88, the last episode of the fourth season, Midoriya [[spoiler:has a dream in which he sees the previous users of One For All. He sees All For One forcibly giving his brother the Quirk, hears someone say "So you're the ninth," then accidentally destroys part of his room with one of his six hidden Quirks]]. It's followed by a title card reading, "to be continued 5th season."
* SuicideDare: In the first chapter, a particularly cruel Bakugo suggests that Midoriya should kill himself and hope to be reborn with a Quirk. Midoriya is rather upset, wondering what would have happened to Bakugo if he had taken him seriously. This action never ends up being mentioned again, and Horikoshi has said that Bakugo wasn't intended to be ''that'' terrible of a person.
* SummonBiggerFish: While trying to tame Gigantomachia with a month of very little progress, Shigaraki learns that [[spoiler:the Meta Liberation Army took Giran hostage and threatens the League of Villains to come retrieve him or they'll tip off the top-ranking pro heroes of their whereabouts. If they try to stage a rescue, they'll have to fight the MLA's large factions. Since Gigantomachia is still hell-bent on killing Shigaraki and [[ScarilyCompetentTracker knows exactly where he is at all times]], he plans to show up to rescue Giran as agreed, but wait until Gigantomachia arrives at the location as well and let him fight the MLA first until he's weakened.]]
* SuperBreedingProgram: In Chapter 31, Todoroki explains the idea of Quirk marriages, marriages planned with the express purpose of maximizing a Quirk via the children of the couple. There is no guarantee that a child born this way will have the desired Quirk mixture, however; Todoroki himself is the product of such a marriage and has three elder siblings who didn't inherit the equal mixture of fire and ice Quirks that he has.
* SuperEmpowering: The Quirk All For One, in addition to stealing Quirks, can also give these Quirks to other people, though it doesn't always end well for the recipient.
* SuperHeroOrigin:
** The concept is referenced in Chapter 1, which is titled "Izuku Midoriya: The Origin". The title evokes American superhero comics, such as ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne''.
** Interestingly, Chapter 39 is titled "Shoto Todoroki: The Origin". The character's history is shown in previous chapters, which suggests that the events of Chapter 39 cause the character to start becoming a true superhero. It occurs again in Chapter 62, titled "Katsuki Bakugo: The Origin".
** More than 150 chapters later, Shigaraki gets his own ''villainous'' origin story in "Tomura Shigaraki: Distortion".
* SuperheroTeamUniform:
** Wild Wild Pussycats all wear matching cat-themed outfits in different colors as part of their team's theme. Notably, this is in spite of the fact that none of them have cat-related Quirks, such as Tiger's [[RubberMan Pliabody]], Mandalay's [[{{Telepathy}} Telepath]], or Pixie-Bob's [[DishingOutDirt Earth-flow]].
** Kota Izumi's parents, known collectively as the superhero team Water Hose, wore identical outfits consisting of a red vest, white shoulder pads, and a visor with a snorkel.
* SuperRegistrationAct: A fully functional type D, with the government funding the heroes.
* SuperheroPrevalenceStages: Since EveryoneIsASuper in the series, besides the rare Quirkless individual, this is a Late Stage by default.
* SuperheroSchool: U.A. is the most prestigious of these, but there are others out there.
* SuperheroSobriquets: Most of the heroes shown, in addition to their name, have a title in the form of "x Hero", such as "Flame Hero" for Endeavor or "Erasing Hero" for Eraser Head. Though All Might doesn't have one, he is also known as the "Symbol of Peace". When choosing their names, most of Class 1-A get in on this as well.
* SuperheroSpeciation: The major characters all have unique Quirks. The only exceptions among the main cast are Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, who are ''so'' alike in terms of powerset, personality, and other traits that it's a RunningGag.
* SuperiorSuccessor:
** There's an InUniverse popular theory about the concept of this that is mentioned during the Remedial Course Arc, called the "Quirk Singularity". The idea is that Quirks will continue to mix together and deepen, gradually growing in complexity and strength with every successive generation, until they reach a point where nobody will be able to control them anymore. There are actually several examples of this in the series already, such as Todoroki's "Half-Cold Half-Hot", Bakugo's "Explosion", and, of course, "One For All".
** The theory is mentioned ''by name'' in Midoriya's dream at the start of the Joint Training Arc, and by [[spoiler:the First User]] no less, who states that "[they're] far past the Singularity now." Towards the end of the arc, the meaning of this statement is revealed: Midoriya's predecessors have stockpiled enough power to [[spoiler:allow him to access and use ''their Quirks'', all of which One For All has been stockpiling with each generation]]. While this implies that mastering One For All will be far more difficult than originally thought, and will have far-reaching consequences if he fails to do so if he ''does'', he'll be more powerful than all his predecessors, All Might included, could have ever hoped to be.
* SuperpowerLottery: A natural consequence of the diverse nature of Quirks, as they can range from having an extra limb to possessing a reality-warping power:
** The biggest winner is All For One, who can ''[[PowerParasite steal]]'' Quirks, which [[SuperEmpowering can then be granted to others]] or be [[AllYourPowersCombined combined]] to perform devastatingly powerful attacks which are impossible to perform with only one Quirk.
** One For All, which ironically is derived from the aforementioned lottery winner, is your standard LightningBruiser powerset at first glance. But considering it was capable of defeating said lottery winner, albeit with a hefty dose of HeroicWillpower, it's a strong contender for the top spot. Additionally, it can [[spoiler:stockpile other Quirks of previous wielders and significantly augment them. Midoriya is the first user to inherit all six Quirks.]]
** Todoroki effectively has two Quirks in one, with a Quirk that lets him control [[AnIcePerson ice]] ''and'' [[PlayingWithFire fire]]. It's also deconstructed in that his father forced his mother to bear children specifically to breed lottery winners.
** Aizawa's [[NoSell Erasure]] can be this. So long as Aizawa doesn't blink, an individual within his gaze has their Quirk(s) suppressed, temporarily turning even someone whose Quirk renders them nigh unstoppable into a Quirkless individual. This means that even [[SuperpowerLottery characters like AFO]] are essentially not immune to it unless the target has a very specific Quirk that could counter or prevent the effect (it doesn't work on passive mutation Quirks, for example). Aizawa's power can be crucial in surviving otherwise hopeless battles. For example, during the Paranormal Liberation War, it is Aizawa's Erasure that suppresses [[spoiler:Shigaraki's boosted Decay]] from literally killing ''everyone'' in seconds.
** Kurogiri/Blackmist's Warp Gate Quirk is simply MassTeleportation. But it's so rare and too damn useful to find anything else, and simply having this Quirk secured him a VetinariJobSecurity in the League of Villains. [[spoiler:Turns out it was much easier to ''make'' this Quirk by mixing a bunch of different ones together like a Nomu, one of which being the late Oboro Shirakumo's body and Cloud Quirk as a base.]]
** Twice's [[MesACrowd Double]] allows him to clone any subject (living or not) of which he knows the exact measurements. The Quirk has several limits in that he can only manage two clones at a time and each subsequent clone is [[CloneDegeneration weaker than the original or the previous clone]]. Cloning himself, however, bypasses both of these limits due to the clones possessing the same Quirk. This creates an endless loop of clones creating more clones, potentially resulting in [[CloneArmy an entire army of them]]. Giran notes that Twice's Quirk could easily allow him to take down an entire country by himself. This is subverted, however, in that [[spoiler:clones are not necessarily obedient and possess the same sense of individuality as the original. Attempting to clone an army of himself at some point resulted in a massacre that left Twice mentally broken and unsure of whether he was the original Jin Bubaigawara.]]
** Overhaul's power is TouchOfDeath and HealingHands in one package. He can simply touch his target and [[OneHitKill blow them up]], or touch his underling and [[HealingFactor heal them in an instant]]. It also works on nonliving matter, allowing him to fight à la [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Edward Elric]]. To top it off, [[spoiler:he can even deconstruct both his underling and his own body, then [[FusionDance become a fusion of the two]]. However, he needs his hands to be able to do this, which the League of Villains realize [[AnArmAndALeg and teach him the very hard way]].]]
** Hitoshi Shinso plays with this. On paper, his [[MindControl Brainwash]] Quirk would be a StoryBreakerPower in other stories. In practice, its non-combat nature made him fail the entrance exam and get stuck in General Education.
** Star and Stripe's power is [[spoiler:New Order, which allows her to reject rules of reality and impose her own.]] Quite possibly ''the'' single most powerful Quirk in the whole series, and the very definition of a lottery winner.
** Subverted with Dabi. His [[PlayingWithFire Cremation]] is noted to be even stronger than Endeavor's, making him the most powerful fire user in the series so far. Unfortunately, he lacks the RequiredSecondaryPower to properly wield it, making it just as much a danger for himself.
** Animal-themed Quirks in general fall into this. While on the surface seeming underwhelming compared to others, a person with an animal-themed Quirk effectively has multiple powers rather than just ''one'' like most people. To note, two of the top ten heroes in Japan have animal-themed Quirks, and are extremely effective.
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Children of superpowered individuals will inherit the Quirk of either of the parents. Sometimes, the child may even inherit both the father's and mother's Quirks. There is also the possibility of the child not inheriting anything and ending up Quirkless.
* SurpriseParty: In the LightNovel side story, ''School Briefs'', Class 1-A throws a surprise party for Ida. He's so dutiful and uptight that he completely forgets that it is his birthday and fails to see through his classmates' obvious attempts at hiding the party from him, believing that he instead must have done something wrong to get them all to avoid him all day.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In episode 39, the class all use the school's swimming pool together. The more obvious perverts fantasize about the girls wearing bikinis. When the female students arrive, they're in their school-provided swimsuits like the boys, with it being pointed out that since it's the school's pool, they have to wear uniforms of some kind, much to the dismay of some of the boys.
* SystematicVillainTakedown:
** The League of Villains starts slowly taking this route since instead of a single arc, they lose members rarely, but every few arcs. In the introduction of the modern incarnation of the league, Muscular, Mustard and Moonfish are arrested, and after that [[spoiler:in the Internship Arc, Magne is killed by Overhaul, and in the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, Hawks kills Twice.]]
** For a StoryArc example, the 8 Bullets of the Shie Haissakai. The 8 are members of a Yakuza group that are specifically described as being expendable, and their job is to delay the heroes just enough for their boss to flee. Unlike most examples, instead of the 8 members being taken down one by one, they're actually dealt with in small groups since they seem to organize themselves in units. Tamaki takes out three that work as a unit called Garbage Trio, Fatgum and Kirishima work together to take down the Shield and Spear duo, Rappa and Tengai, Mirio takes out a duo of Deidoro and Nemoto. Rikiya is the only one to work alone. The other three members of the Shie Haissakai, which are the leaders Mimic, Chronostasis, and Overhaul are also taken down separately in order of their importance to the group.
* TakingTheBullet: In Chapter 285, [[spoiler:Bakugo knocks Midoriya out of the way of Shigaraki's attack, getting impales in the process]].
* TakingUpTheMantle: The premise of the series is Midoriya's mastering the Quirk "One For All", and thus becoming the new Symbol of Peace like All Might.
* {{Tanuki}}: A flashback to Kirishima's middle school days features a student who resembles a tanuki and has a Quirk that can temporarily turn leaves into money, referencing various folktales where tanuki turn leaves into money to trick people. Some bullies try to force him to turn leaves into money for them until Ashido steps in to defend him.
* TeaIsClassy:
** Yaoyorozu is TheOjou, a well-mannered and sweet young lady from a very rich family. Fittingly, she is an avid tea drinker. When she first offers her mansion for a study session, she asks her classmates what type of tea they like and mentions that her family prefers luxury tea brands Harrods and Wedgwood. After the school converts to dormitories, she is seen preparing and serving tea for her classmates when they are all together.
** Saiko Intelli, a student at rival hero school Seiai Academy, has a quirk called IQ which allows her to boost her intelligence by drinking tea. Most of her screen time sees her sitting in her team's fancy HQ sitting primly in a chair as she drinks tea from a delicate china cup.
** The ArcVillain of the School Festival Arc, Gentle Criminal. While not wealthy himself, he is a well-groomed man who fancies himself a Gentleman Thief. He also has a fondness for tea and favors the same exclusive tea brand Yaoyorozu had previously served the class.
* ThemeNaming: Horikoshi loves to give his locations the names of planets from ''Franchise/StarWars''.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill:
** During Todoroki and Sero's fight in the Sports Festival, Todoroki wins the match by freezing Sero in a gigantic mountain of ice half as big as the stadium they're fighting in.
** During Star and Stripe's fight against Shigaraki, she manipulates the air into a figure of herself, but 1000 times bigger, to stun him with a gigantic fist and ShockwaveClap, then manipulates the fighters' laser fire into a laser spear that keeps Shigaraki pinned down... [[spoiler:which still isn't enough to kill him due to All For One giving him a ridiculous HealingFactor, so she calls in ''an intercontinental missile barrage'' to reduce him to atoms.]]
* ThinkingTheSameThought: All of Class 1-A have similar responses to the proposed hero names, such as thinking that Ashido's proposal of "Alien Queen" sounds lame.[[note]]In the English dub, they're all shocked Midnight rejected it right after accepting Aoyama's "I Cannot Stop Twinkling" with a minor tweak.[[/note]]
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: ''Inverted'' early on. All of the first pro heroes shown off are rendered utterly unable to help in the second battle against the Sludge Villain because the situation is a perfect storm of conditions that render all of the otherwise well-rounded heroes completely useless or otherwise too occupied to fight, forcing them to wait until All Might arrives. This allows Midoriya to demonstrate he has the heart of a hero.
* ThreeAmigos: Midoriya makes fast friends with Ida and Uraraka when he enters U.A., and they remain his close friends even as his circle expands.
* TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential:
** This is what happens to Midoriya in the Field Training Arc, with the retired hero Gran Torino as his mentor. From this point forward, Midoriya is actively tracking [[LampshadeHanging an exact percentage of how much true potential he has currently unlocked]].
** All students from Class 1-A are later trained to develop new techniques and special moves.
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: A major source of conflict in the story is the fact that only pro-heroes are officially sanctioned to handle Quirk-related threats. As a result, people, even heroes in training, can be charged and severely punished for trying to save others or simply defending themselves using their Quirks without a proper license, as it would be legally described as vigilantism. This comes up on multiple occasions in the story, such as the USJ Arc where Aizawa has to give his class express permission to defend themselves to avoid the legal ramifications of fighting villains without a license.
* TournamentArc: The U.A. Sports Festival, where classes compete to be noticed by sponsors. It even transitions into one-on-one battles for the top sixteen participants from the Human Cavalry event.
* TrackingDevice: During the Forest Training Camp Arc, Yaoyorozu manages to create one and have it implanted onto the Nomu that was chasing her and a schoolmate. This winds up crucial to the police's plans.
* TrainingFromHell:
** Deconstructed in Todoroki, who was subjected to this at least since he was five years old, and it was shown to be a horrible experience for him that broke him mentally. It turned out even worse for Toya, one of his elder brothers (his only sibling whom his father considered worth training at all), so much he was presumed dead [[spoiler:but actually became Dabi who plans revenge on Endeavor.]]
** Played straight with the class's summer training camp, which was intended as this. One of the very first parts of it is using their Quirks near-constantly to increase how far they can go before their respective {{Heroic RROD}}s kick in.
* {{Transplant}}: A few characters from ''Oumagadoki Doubutsuen'', Horikoshi's first work, show up as pro heroes (Uwabami, Sakamata) or make cameos in the series.
* {{Troperrific}}: Deconstructed. Plenty of superhero tropes are used and always showcase the realities that come with them. Self-proclaimed heroes are a staple in comic books, but here they're seen on the same levels as criminals due to the unlicensed use of their powers. Superpowers aren't just godly abilities, they're physical traits that must be trained, and '''will''' have an equally powerful repercussion. Being a hero includes gaining popularity, people will capitalize on it, and having an eye-catching costume now has practical use in marketing. A KidHero is normally treated on the same level as an adult one, while here the students are treated as children and only get more involved once they're in their late high school years. The list goes on.
* ATrueHero: This is the CentralTheme of the entire series, centering around Midoriya, who idolizes [[TheCape All Might]] and is chosen to be his eventual successor. In their world, EveryoneIsASuper who has a sort of superpower and this has led to a social system where the most skilled and powerful of those people become known as "heroes". However, most of these heroes are only in it for wealth, fame, or glory and are not all that interested in helping others or saving people. All Might and Midoriya are both held up as shining exceptions to this, and many people, [[VillainRespect even some villains]], consider them to be the only "true" heroes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U-Z]]
* {{Understatement}}: Sero's statement, "A little much, don't you think...?" to Todoroki who basically froze him with enough excess ice to be visibly seen from outside the stadium, as in covering roughly one-half of the stadium's open roof, in Chapter 34. Not surprisingly, many of the spectators were shocked and none of them could blame Sero for losing to Todoroki's [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill attack]].
* UnexpectedKindness:
** Downplayed with Bakugo, who's almost perpetually HotBlooded and [[HairTriggerTemper hot tempered]]. His moments of kindness always shock the other characters even if he does them with an attitude, such as when he chose to win his round of the [[TournamentArc Joint Training Battle]] not through his power alone, but by protecting his teammates. When he saves Jiro from Kamakiri's attack, she's startled by the act, despite that he did it by ''kicking her out of the way.''
** Gunhead is a muscular, combat-oriented hero with a mask and gloves that look like gun muzzles. When Uraraka interned with him, she expected him to be tough and mean. Instead, he was quite warm to her when teaching her self-defense and patrolling techniques, earning a surprised reaction from her.
* UniversalGroupReaction: In one of the ''School Briefs'' light novels, the boys from Class 1-A and 1-B participate in a pillow fight to decide what they will have for dinner tomorrow. One of the rules is Quirks are not permitted, but Bakugo quickly finds a loophole- Quirks can't be used ''on purpose'' but there's no penalty if they're activated unintentionally. This results in everyone using their powers with diminishing subtlety and justifying them as mistakes. When questioned as to what they're doing, the boys shout "it was an accident" in unison.
* UnsuspectinglySoused: Sakaki Deidoro, one of Overhaul's henchmen, can induce this in people with his Quirk "Dead Drunk", causing a feeling of intense dizziness and disorientation akin to having consumed a large amount of alcohol. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for them, Mirio's Permeation Quirk means that he's constantly experiencing vertigo, allowing him to NoSell the effects of this Quirk.]]
* VerbalSaltInTheWound: Todoroki makes a sardonic remark to remind [[AbusiveParents his father]] that he will now have a permanent scar similar to his:
-->'''Todoroki:''' That's a bad scar. ''[loudly slurps soba while staring at him]''
* VersusCharacterSplash: Used multiple times during the training exercises between Class 1-A and Class 1-B.
* VersusTitle: Several chapters/episodes focusing on specific battles are named using this.
* ViewersAreGoldfish: Starting with the second half of Season 2, a BossSubtitles appears when a character with a Quirk appears onscreen for the first time in an episode.
* VigilanteInjustice
** After his brother Tensei was crippled by the "HeroKiller" Stain, Iida takes matters into his own hands and resolves to strike down Stain even if it means going outside of the law forbidding the use of Quirks to subdue villains without a license. But [[WhatTheHellHero Stain himself calls out Iida]] for this, pointing out that Iida is so fixated on the idea of revenge against him that he completely ignored the injured and helpless hero Stain was busy attacking. In addition, Iida's actions forced Midoriya and Todoroki to come to his aid to save his life, making them break the law and nearly getting all three of them expelled from U.A. for engaging in vigilantism.
** Vigilante mobs spring up following [[spoiler:the disastrous results of the heroes' attempts to foil the Paranormal Liberation Front's attempts to uproot all of Japanese society]] that lead to a severe drop in public opinion of heroes. These mobs believe that only they can protect themselves, but soon begin attacking anyone they believe is remotely threatening looking, including innocent mutants, and are fleeing the chaos themselves. These mobs also cause enormous property damage due to their reckless Quirk use while also being wholly unequipped to handle more hardened villains and shunning the heroes who do come to help.
** The spinoff, ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' takes a softer stance on this. The protagonist, Koichi, primarily does public service as like picking up trash and giving people directions [[GoodFeelsGood because he enjoys doing it]]. But using his Quirk to do so is technically breaking the law against public, unsanctioned Quirk use, but his actions are so harmless that he usually gets a slap on the wrist and a scolding at worst. But he begins increasingly running afoul of the law as he gets into much more dangerous situations with Knuckleduster and Pop Step, with others pointing out that he's not trained to handle dangerous situations and risks making himself a casualty with his actions. While Koichi's actions ultimately help more than harm, he becomes the target of several villains and needs to be bailed out repeatedly by trained heroes.
* VillainForgotToLevelGrind:
** One of the most dangerous things about the League of Villains is how much they [[DefiedTrope actively defy this]]. They are constantly growing stronger and more deadly as the story goes on, often in a way that darkly mirrors Midoriya and the other students developing into better heroes. Despite the fact they have been consistently losing members due to the efforts of heroes and other villains trying to subvert them, the various trials by fire they have been forced to undergo pretty much force them to get stronger and learn lessons just so they even have a chance at survival, with the [[VillainEpisode Meta Liberation Army Arc]] in particular focusing on them developing new skills and techniques as well as overcoming mental barriers they were facing in their development.
** [[spoiler:Muscular has always been an incredibly dangerous foe who only got defeated when Midoriya pushed himself to his limits. However, being freed from prison to do what he wants for a few weeks only lets him get back to his initial strength. When he challenges Midoriya again, who has gotten even more capable both physically and tactically, [[CurbStompBattle he doesn't last very long.]]]]
* VillainRespect: Many villains, most prominently Stain and those who share his ideals, admire All Might for being a hero for the right reasons while despising many other heroes they feel have sold out. Stain goes on to acknowledge Midoriya for the same reason.
* VillainousLegacy: The relationship between [[spoiler:All For One]] and Shigaraki.
* VillainousRescue: In Chapter 55, Stain rescues Midoriya from a Nomu that tries to fly off with him.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: In the setting, villains are proactive troublemakers whereas heroes react to keep them in check. Several arcs are kicked off through the actions of a villain.
** One exception, though, is the Paranormal Liberation War arc, in which the heroes attack the villains before they can put their plans into action.
** Discussed in Chapter 336. Bakugo notes that the villains can evade capture and have the opportunity to make the first move in the next battle, so the heroes will have to do everything in their power to prepare. Ultimately, [[spoiler:the heroes lure All For One into a trap with the help of the U.A. traitor.]]
* WarriorTherapist: PlayedWith:
** One good pep talk while battling will hardly solve years of internalized issues, such as what happens between Midoriya and Todoroki. Although the former does help the latter overcome some issues with his AbusiveParents, he still has a long way to go to fully recover, he is still dealing with trauma, and comparing him to his father is still his BerserkButton. On the other hand, Todoroki grows to respect Midoriya deeply for what he tried to do, treating him as his first friend and a close ally to be called upon, which pays off during the Internship Arc when Midoriya calls him in for backup against Hero Killer: Stain.
** Midoriya attempts to help Bakugo by getting into a pointless brawl with him to [[spoiler:let him vent his frustrations and sorrow over being indirectly responsible for All Might's retirement]]. Although it ultimately helps, the two are still having an unsanctioned fight on campus and Aizawa would technically have to expel them for it. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished Instead he places them under house arrest, making them fall behind in class as punishment]].
* WeWillNotHaveAppendixesInTheFuture: People with Quirks apparently don't have an extra toe joint. Those who do, like Midoriya, are born Quirkless.
* WeakBossStrongUnderlings: Nezu is an indeterminate small animal whose Quirk is SuperIntelligence. As such, his value mostly resides in being TheStrategist rather than a frontline combatant. Nezu is the principal of Japan's best hero school, so his employees and students often possess Quirks with more obvious offensive potential. One of the teachers is the current number one hero and BigGood, All Might.
* WhamEpisode:
** Chapter 13, which starts as a regular lesson-of-the-day chapter, turns into a life-and-death situation at the end when the League of Villains reveal themselves to the students.
** Chapter 88: [[spoiler:[[TheDreaded All For One]] finally makes his move.]]
** Chapter 92: [[spoiler:All Might's true form is revealed to the world and Shigaraki is revealed to be the grandson of All Might's deceased mentor Nana.]]
** Chapter 161: [[spoiler:Although the mission is successful, it ends on two bittersweet notes. Eri is quarantined due to her out-of-control Quirk and fever, so she won't be better or have full control of her Quirk soon. Sir Nighteye, whom Midoriya and Mirio went to for work-study, dies from his injuries but not before seeing them changing their future and seeing All Might again one last time.]]
** Chapter 193: [[spoiler:Midoriya has a dream where he witnesses the pasts of All For One and his brother, the first user of One For All. After he's seen getting his Quirk, the first user turns to Midoriya and acknowledges him, telling him that he'll learn more when he breaks his limits, revealing there's far more to One For All than All Might let on.]]
** Chapter 213 is by far the biggest plot twist: [[spoiler:Midoriya will eventually manifest six extra Quirks that originally belonged to previous One For All users.]]
** Chapter 270: [[spoiler:It's revealed that All For One had the Doctor duplicate his Quirk and already gave the original to Shigaraki, ''[[OhCrap who's just woken up]]''! And Midoriya can somehow sense this happening.]]
** Chapter 290: [[spoiler:Dabi is revealed to be Toya Todoroki and Endeavor's crimes toward his family are exposed to the world.]]
** Chapter 296: [[spoiler:Essentially TheBadGuyWins. Sure the heroes manage to waylay the villains, including capturing the Paranormal Liberation Front. But Shigariki, Toga, Dabi, and Spinner have escaped thanks to Compress's efforts. The aftermath reveals multiple deaths of both civilians and heroes, including Midnight. Some surviving heroes start to become disillusioned and people begin to doubt the heroes efforts due to this incident and Endeavor's secrets coming out. All For One, pleased at the outcome and now having Shigaraki's body under his control, plots to have his main body broken out of prison.]]
** Chapter 297: [[spoiler:All For One succeeds in breaking out his body from Tartarus, releasing not only him but former criminals like Overhaul, Muscular, Moonfish, and more notably, ''Stain''. As well as other dangerous criminal Quirk users as well.]]
** Chapter 304. [[spoiler:One for All has an unintended side-effect in that it causes RapidAging in its bearer unless they are Quirkless. Given the expected disappearance of Quirklessness within a generation, Izuku might be the last chance Heroes have of stopping All For One once and for all.]]
** Chapter 306. [[spoiler:Midoriya leaves behind letters to all his friends telling them about One For All, then leaves U.A. to protect them from Shigaraki and All For One.]]
** Chapter 336. [[spoiler:Aoyama is revealed as the traitor inside Class 1-A.]]
* WhamLine:
** In Chapter 117:[[note]]For context, although many people notice that Midoriya's Quirk is very similar to All Might's since Midoriya keeps the circumstances of his Quirk a secret, Bakugo is the first to figure out how Midoriya got it[[/note]]
--->'''Katsuki Bakugo:''' [to Midoriya] [[spoiler:You got your Quirk from All Might.]]
** In Chapter 161:
--->'''Recovery Girl:''' [regarding [[spoiler:Sir Nighteye]]] [[spoiler:Sadly, he won't make it to see tomorrow.]]
** Chapter 209, not so much for what is being said but for ''who's'' saying it, and the implications it has:
--->[[spoiler:'''All For One:''' I can hear my little brother's voice.]]
** Chapter 213 has one that manages to turn the entire story on its head:
--->[[spoiler:Do you get it, kid? Now you have six Quirks to discover.]]
** Chapter 239 manages to shake the status quo for all future conflicts:
--->'''Re-Destro:''' [to Shigaraki] [[spoiler:The Meta Liberation Army is now yours to command.]]
** Chapter 270 gives us ''two'' of them from the doctor:
--->[[spoiler:You're Kurogiri's friend, aren't you? Back then...I really wanted to get my hands on ''Erasure'' instead.]]\\
[[spoiler:He (All For One) took a duplicate of his Quirk for himself, and gave the original to Tomura Shigaraki.]]
** Chapter 290 drops a bombshell that would come back to haunt the top hero and stain hero society as a whole.
--->'''Dabi:''' [to Shoto and Endeavor] [[spoiler:I have a great name. [[AntagonisticOffspring Call me Toya]].]]
** Chapter 304 gives a sense of urgency to the story as a whole:
--->Get it now, kiddo? You might be [[spoiler:the last wielder of One for All.]]
* WhamShot:
** In Chapter 210: [[spoiler:Midoriya is about to launch an attack using his Delaware Smash finger flick, only for his arm to suddenly explode with black lightning, similar to the energy given off by All For One.]]
** In Chapter 336, [[spoiler:Hagakure]] overhears a conversation between unseen individuals who are up to no good. A two-page spread reveals that [[spoiler:her classmate Aoyama]] is part of the conversation, [[spoiler:proving that he is the U.A. traitor]].
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway:
** Not every Quirk is suited for heroic purposes. Even though most of the population have Quirks, heroes tend to be winners of the SuperpowerLottery.
** The legendary One For All itself used to be a spectacular case. When it first appeared, being able to be passed to someone else was its ''only'' effect; it didn't actually do anything, and its wielder was thought to be Quirkless.
** Mei Hatsume's Zoom Quirk only allows her telescopic sight, so it's useless in the fighting round. Instead, she uses it to help with her gadgets. As such, she can only go so far in the fighting phase of the Festival. All she can really do is show off her gear to any company interested in hiring her later. Once she is satisfied, she forfeits the match, giving Iida a win despite humiliating him.
** Inverted in Shinso's case. His Quirk is MindControl, which would have been a StoryBreakerPower in other stories, but given its lack of direct applicability to combat, he failed the entrance exam and got stuck in General Education, a fact that others have commented upon.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** In Chapter 38, Midoriya tears into Todoroki when he realizes the latter is shivering because of his own ice and is still refusing to use his flame powers to defy his father, Endeavor. Midoriya points out that all of the other students are trying their best and giving everything they've got to win; Todoroki deliberately holding back like that is an insult. The chapter ends with Midoriya challenging Todoroki to unleash his full power.
** Ida gets one from Stain for being more concerned with avenging his brother than with saving the pro hero Stain was about to kill. As a result, Ida is forced to come to terms with his own selfish and unheroic behavior.
** Chapter 112 is called "What the Hell Are You Doing", and the title is quoted verbatim by Midoriya when [[spoiler:Todoroki and Yoarashi can't stop arguing long enough to defeat Gang Orca during the provisional exam, and have managed to put another examinee in danger.]] They snap out of it.
* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer:
** All Might's fighting ability essentially amounts to punching things really, really hard. Even when the villains create the first Nomu with the abilities of shock-absorption and regeneration as a hard counter to his physical strength, All Might eventually figures that since Nomu's power is to ''absorb'' shocks, not ''nullify'' them, all he has to do is keep [[SpamAttack spamming punches]], harder and harder, until he [[ArcWords goes beyond]] the limits of Nomu's ability. Once he does, he promptly punts Nomu into the stratosphere.
** Midoriya also suffers from this for a while, partly because he's still working out how to use his power after inheriting it from All Might, and partly because he's hung up on imitating All Might, whom he idolizes. For the first two-and-a-half series, his fighting style consists entirely of full-power punches and [[FingerPokeOfDoom Finger Pokes of Doom]] that [[CastFromHitPoints break his bones from recoil]]. By the time he develops a fighting style of his own that makes better use of his legs, it's practically out of necessity, because his arms are already heavily scarred and any further breaks could cripple him for life.
** This is a recurring theme in the series. Students with powerful, combat-oriented powers tend to develop very narrow combat strategies, which characters like Stain and Aizawa take advantage of by getting in close/nullifying their powers and taking them down with regular martial arts. It's for this reason that U.A. High School's teachers emphasize creativity with powers and taking BoxingLessonsForSuperman.
* TheWholeWorldIsWatching: Thanks to news crews, the fight between All Might and All For One during the Hideout Raid Arc is televised to the entire world. While this means everyone gets to see All Might defeat one of the world's most evil villains, it also lets everybody learn about All Might's PowerIncontinence, and ultimately witness his final loss of his powers. It marks the definitive point in the series where his successor Midoriya must take up the mantle as the Symbol of Peace.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: A {{Zigzagged}} example. Towards the story's conclusion, it's revealed that a large portion of All For One's plan hinges around successfully stealing and subjugating [[ForbiddenFruit One For All]] at last, both for its immense power and as a symbolic victory over his younger brother. To that end, despite being a NoNonsenseNemesis, he absolutely ''refuses'' to kill the current holders and lose it forever, instead devoting his efforts towards working out a way to overcome its resistance to him, even as the holders get stronger over the years and more of a threat to him and his plans. However, he has no problems with killing said holders if he's verified that they'd passed the quirk on, in this way contributing to One For All's MasterApprenticeChain throughout the generations. [[spoiler:When the FinalBattle kicks off, Tomura instantly tries to destroy the assembled heroes arrayed against them with his [[MakeThemRot decay]], only to be thwarted by the All For One vestige within him because Izuku was in the line of fire, and he didn't want the quirk's 'container' to be destroyed until after he'd successfully stolen it]].
* WorkoutFanservice:
** At the end of Midoriya's training to condition himself enough to handle One For All, there's a long shot of him sweaty and shirtless with his new lean musculature as evidence of his efforts to get into U.A.
** Particularly in the anime, during Season 2 Episode 2, shows several of the characters working out, with Todoroki's being a particularly fanservicey one, since he wears only a muscle shirt to train.
** Bakugo in the Season 2 opening has been considered this.
* WorldLimitedToThePlot: The story is set solely in the scope of Japan (extending to any villainous plot to TakeOverTheWorld, or vaguely similar plots translating to "Take Over/Destroy Japan"), the outside world is only very rarely alluded to (almost entirely in backstories at that), it's never indicated how the rest of the world manages Quirks, and how the events of the story exist on a global scale is never mentioned at all. Excluding non-canonical material, everything outside of Japan only seems to exist tangentially, and otherwise is ignored for the purpose of the general story. [[spoiler:This gets somewhat {{subverted|Trope}} in the lead-up to the climactic showdown with the league and All For One. Despite their best efforts, the fallout of the Paranormal Liberation War sees society across the country undergoing a breakdown as civilians lose faith in heroes, and a large number of those not killed in the fighting end up quitting from the mounting pressure and relentless public criticism, which combines nastily with the rise in villains alongside the mass breakup of several of the country's prisons that All For One orchestrated. Such a chaotic situation causes other countries to start mobilizing to prepare to send international aid to resolve the crisis, and even America's one #1 hero, who considers herself All Might's disciple, cuts through the red tape and just takes off for Japan without authorization... only to be intercepted by the All For One--[[SplitPersonalityMerge possessed]] Shigaraki in the skies before she can reach the shores. ''Precisely'' to Avert AmericaSavesTheDay, All For One has been having his contacts and allies in the various countries of the world stir up trouble and causing internal disputes to prevent aid being sent to Japan during this stage of his plans, and whilst it [[PyrrhicVictory costs him]], he successfully kills Star and Stripe in the ensuing battle, convincing the rest of the world's leaders to avoid sending their own heroes out during their own internal crises and isolating Japan from further aid]].
* WorldOfHam: The world of ''My Hero Academia'' is ridiculously intense in general:
** All Might very rarely acts ''not'' hammy, even when in his true form and vomiting blood all over the place.
** At least 80% of Bakugo's dialogue consists of angry screaming, Ida sometimes vibrates himself like a cellphone out of pure eagerness, and Aoyama manages to be so over-the-top flamboyant that even the class's girls can correctly guess how gaudy his room is.
** The Wild Wild Pussycats always employ an AssKickingPose and InTheNameOfTheMoon motto whenever they introduce themselves.
** Even the normally cool and rational Aizawa tends to start class by slamming open the classroom door.
** Uraraka's parents greet her by running towards her like ferocious beasts, literally scaring her eyeballs out.
** Midoriya and his mother tend to [[OcularGushers cry literal rivers]].
** Ashido can stop bullying with the power of breakdancing.
** When asked about suggestions for what to do for the upcoming cultural festival, Class 1-A replies with literally explosive enthusiasm.
* WritersCannotDoMath:
** Being Quirkless is treated as rare enough that it has to be explained to people. As it's repeatedly stated that 80% of humanity now has some form of Quirk, however, the actual ratio of Quirkless individuals should be about one out of every five people - a minority, but hardly as rare as the series would otherwise seem to indicate. Justified a little bit by the fact that Quirklessness is getting rarer every generation, and the 80% statistic includes the whole population, so it's unusual for someone Midoriya's age would be Quirkless. It's implied he's the only one in his whole school who is, so it's fair that people would be confused and need to get a little more explanation or take a few seconds to process it. Even All Might mentions that his own Quirklessness wasn't nearly as big of a social issue as Midoriya's, just because it was way more common in his generation than it is in the new one.
** According to the teacher roster All Might reads at the end of Chapter 5, Aizawa is said to have expelled 154 students in his time as a U.A. teacher. According to ''Vigilantes'', Aizawa has not been a teacher for more than four or five years, so with 40 students per year in the Hero Course, leading to about a total of 160-200, he probably would have expelled the vast majority of his students. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that this is only "[[ExactWords technically]]" true. Chapter 254 reveals that although Aizawa ''did'' expel his students, it was only on paper as they later re-enrolled. At least one of his former students is even thankful to him because it helped them grow.]]
* WrongContextMagic: One For All is unique among Quirks in the setting. Right from the start, it's the only Quirk known to be passed down to a chosen successor rather than inherited from a parent. It also grows stronger with each successive generation, which does not happen with normally inherited Quirks. It was created artificially when [[spoiler:the villain All For One gave his brother a Quirk that stockpiles power and it combined with that brother's then-unknown ability to pass on his Quirk]]. One For All is the only Quirk immune to All For One's power. Midoriya is able to unlock secret abilities of One For All that are completely exclusive to him such as [[spoiler:interacting with spirits of past wielders, accessing their memories as well as being able to use their Quirks which are drastically stronger than they originally were.]]
* XanatosGambit:
** Stain and Shigaraki's "competition" turns out to have been this, set up by the real BigBad. No matter what happened, Stain would be seen as being part of the League of Villains. This would connect his actions to theirs and give them a kind of publicity and legitimacy.
** The confrontation between All Might and All For One. If All For One kills All Might, that's fantastic, but even when [[spoiler:he gets defeated and put in prison, All For One feels that he came out ahead because he knows that [[InspirationalMartyr it will motivate Shigaraki to grow stronger and more capable as a villain]]. Even more so, since All Might used up the last of One For All to defeat him, and the Symbol of Peace was forced to retire]].
* YankTheDogsChain: After a pitched battle between Endeavor and the strongest Nomu yet, Endeavor finally manages to defeat it at a horrific cost to himself: [[spoiler:his left eye is nearly torn out, he's ''very'' badly injured, and his stamina has been completely burnt out through torching the Nomu with [[FinishingMove Prominence Burn]]]]. Yet, he wins. [[spoiler:And then Dabi shows up.]]
* {{Yonkoma}}: ''[[Manga/MyHeroAcademiaSmash My Hero Academia Smash!!]]'', written and drawn by Neda Hirofumi, takes this format.
* YouWatchTooMuchX: In the dub of Episode 107, after Gran Torino has Aizawa come to Tartarus to [[spoiler:appeal to the part of his old friend Shirakumo that lives on inside Kurogiri]], Aizawa asks, "Do you think our connection will lead to a miracle? You've been watching too many movies."
* ZombieApocalypse: Parodied in the anime OVA ''[[Anime/MyHeroAcademiaTrainingOfTheDead Training of the Dead]]'' where Fujimi has a zombie virus Quirk and unleashes it on both his own teammates and a good portion of Class 1-A, causing all those who are infected to become mindless zombies. They all get better.
[[/folder]]

** The U.A. Cultural Festival Arc has [[AntiVillain Gentle Criminal and La Brava]].

** Tsuyu and Mineta seem to be part of Midoriya's circle of friends, as they work together at USJ and they are the only ones apart from Uraraka and Ida to visit him while he is hospitalized during the U.A. Sports Festival. After that, they don't spend all that much time with Midoriya compared to his other classmates and are at best acquaintances; Tsuyu spends most of her time with Uraraka and the other girls, whereas Mineta is is usually seen with Kaminari and the other boys. [[spoiler:Although during Midoriya's battle with Class 1-A in Dark Hero Arc, both of them mention that they do consider him as a friend.]]
** Tsuyu seems to get along with Mineta despite his perverted behavior, as she legitimately praises his skills during the USJ Arc, they work together during the Sports Festival, and they visit Midoriya during his aforementioned Sports Festival hospitalization. Now, she, like the rest of the girls in Class 1-A, can't stand Mineta due to his perverted behavior.

** Tsuyu and Mineta seem to be part of Midoriya's circle of friends, as they work together at USJ and they are the only ones apart from Uraraka and Ida to visit him while he is hospitalized during the U.A. Sports Festival. After that, they don't spend all that much time with Midoriya compared to his other classmates and are at best acquaintances; Tsuyu spends most of her time with Uraraka and the other girls, whereas Mineta is TheFriendNobodyLikes.

** TheChick: Uraraka, Nejire, Mt. Lady, Uwabami, Kaoruko, and the DarkerAndEdgier [[DarkChick Toga]].

'''''My Hero Academia''''' (僕のヒーローアカデミア ''Boku no Hero Academia'') is a manga series written and illustrated by Creator/KoheiHorikoshi, which began serialization in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Weekly Shōnen Jump]]'' on July 7, 2014. It was reworked from a [[Manga/MyHero2008 one-off story]] for ''Akamaru Jump'' before being expanded into its own series.

''My Hero Academia'' (僕のヒーローアカデミア ''Boku no Hero Academia'') is a manga series written and illustrated by Creator/KoheiHorikoshi, which began serialization in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Weekly Shōnen Jump]]'' on July 7, 2014. It was reworked from a [[Manga/MyHero2008 one-off story]] for ''Akamaru Jump'' before being expanded into its own series.

* HeelFaceTurn: When Skeptic is about to hack into the security system of U.A. during the Final War Arc, he finds only one small roadblock - turns out [[spoiler:former video-uploading villain, La Brava]], has been recruited specifically to stop him.

* FromHeroToMentor: All Might is still the number one hero in the rankings when the story begins, but he knows already that it's only a matter of time before his injuries take him out of the game for good, so he actively seeks out a protege and finds Izuku to pass his power on to. He then functionally retires to teach and eventually leaves hero-ing completely to focus on educating.

* IndividualismVsCollectivism: One of the {{central theme}}s of the series, with the dichotomy not only playing a key role in the conflict between [[BigBad Shigaraki's]] organization and the heroes (respectively) but also on an individual by individual basis - with the series frequently acknowledging the benefits and flaws of each extreme.

* InherentlyAttractiveProfession: [[LovableSexManiac Mineta]] entered hero school with this mind. He believes that since heroes are cool and popular, girls will flock to him once he becomes a pro. He only learns later on that people don't admire heroes just for being heroes, but for their actions that make them heroes.

* ImpressedByTheCivilian: The story opens with Izuku Midoriya, a {{Muggle|s}} in a world where most people have a superpower, meeting his idol, number one hero All Might. All Might tells Izuku that without a superpower, he'll never be a hero, only for Izuku to throw himself into battle anyway to save his friend. All Might is so impressed by this that he not only changes his tune, he makes Izuku the successor to his own power.
* InappropriatePride: Monoma has a strange obsession with one-upping Class A and will take every chance he gets to mock them. At one point, he manically taunts the other students over how, while multiple people from Class A failed their exams, Class B had only a single failure- Monoma himself. Everyone is confused as to why he's proud of that.

* HeelFaceTurn: When Skeptic is about to hack into the security system of U.A. during the Final War arc, he finds only one small roadblock - turns out [[spoiler:former video-uploading villain, La Brava]], has been recruited specifically to stop him.

* AnyoneCanDie: As shown in the Internship and Paranormal Liberation War Arcs, as rare as it is, even long-standing pro heroes (as well as recurring villains) and can't escape death.

* AnyoneCanDie: As shown in the Internship and Liberation War Arcs, as rare as it is, even long-standing pro heroes (as well as recurring villains) and can't escape death.

* AnyoneCanDie: As shown in the Internship and Liberation War Arcs, as rare as it is, even long-standing pro heroes can't escape death.

** Being Quirkless is treated as rare enough that it has to be explained to people. As its repeatedly stated that 80% of humanity now has some form of Quirk, however, the actual ratio of Quirkless individuals should be about one out of every five people - a minority, but hardly as rare as the series would otherwise seem to indicate. Justified a little bit by the fact that Quirklessness is getting rarer every generation, and the 80% statistic includes the whole population, so it's unusual for someone Midoriya's age would be Quirkless. It's implied he's the only one in his whole school who is, so it's fair that people would be confused and need to get a little more explanation or take a few seconds to process it. Even All Might mentions that his own Quirklessness wasn't nearly as big of a social issue as Midoriya's, just because it was way more common in his generation than it is in the new one.

** Happens a lot in the closing credits of the sixth season of the anime, generally reflecting the some of the characters' arcs. The episode where Hawks is forced to kill Twice replaces the footage of Shigaraki looking at a town that gets demolished with a shot of Himiko Toga and Twice hugging (presumably in the {{Yakuza}} headquarters), followed by a shot of Toga sitting alone, now mourning Twice's untimely demise. And the episode where Bakugo [[TakingTheBullet takes an attack meant for Midoriya]] from Shigaraki replaces the same shot with a shot of a young Bakugo fallen into a river while a young, worried [[NiceGuy Midoriya]] [[TakeMyHand offers him a hand]], asking him if he's okay, which was a turning point in Bakugo's character, as his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex inferiority complex]] made him lash out at Midoriya. This shot is followed by a shot of a now teenaged Bakugo, in his hero costume ([[MarqueeAlterEgo sans the mask]]) accepting Midoriya's help, signifying [[CharacterDevelopment him actually being concerned for the well being of his childhood friend]] (which is a reference to [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmsQ5rPan-Mw8GM3M6mtt1dKn0EqHaflCHMA&usqp=CAU this]]). [[spoiler:The episode that reveals Dabi's identity also replaces those two shots: first one with a cheerful [[UsedToBeASweetKid Toya Todoroki]] showing his flame quirk, second one with the now grown up Dabi gleefully using his Blueflame quirk in a similar manner]].

** The end of Chapter 335 sets up [[spoiler:Toru Hagakure as the U.A. traitor by way of an AnswerCut when All For One talks about the "friends" he can use. However, the next chapter reveals the real traitor.]]

** Happens a lot in the closing credits of the sixth season of the anime, generally reflecting the some of the characters' arcs. The episode where Hawks is forced to kill Twice replaces the footage of Shigaraki looking at a town that gets demolished with a shot of Himiko Toga and Twice hugging (presumably in the {{Yakuza}} headquarters), followed by a shot of Toga sitting alone, now mourning Twice's untimely demise. And the episode where Bakugo [[TakingTheBullet takes an attack meant for Midoriya]] from Shigaraki replaces the same shot with a shot of a young Bakugo fallen into a river while a young, worried [[NiceGuy Midoriya]] [[TakeMyHand offers him a hand]], asking him if he's okay, which was a turning point in Bakugo's character, as his [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex inferiority complex]] made him lash out at Midoriya. This shot is followed by a shot of a now teenaged Bakugo, in his hero costume ([[MarqueeAlterEgo sans the mask]]) accepting Midoriya's help, signifying [[CharacterDevelopment him actually being concerned for the well being of his childhood friend]] (which is a reference to [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmsQ5rPan-Mw8GM3M6mtt1dKn0EqHaflCHMA&usqp=CAU this]]).

An anime adaptation by Creator/StudioBONES began airing in April 2016 as part of the spring 2016 anime season. Creator/{{Funimation}} gained the license to the series and produces the English dub. Interestingly, the episodes of Funimation's [=SimulDub=] were being made ''a week'' after the initial episodes aired. Season 2 premiered in April 2017 as part of the {{Spring 2017 Anime}} season. This time around, the first fourteen episodes of Funimation's [=SimulDub=] premiered ''simultaneously'' with the Japanese release. A third season was soon announced after Season 2 ended, and began in April 2018, with Funimation once again airing their dub on the same day. Season 4 began airing in October 2019. When that ended in April 2020, Season 5 was likewise announced, which eventually aired in April 2021. Season 6 premiered in October 2022.

An anime adaptation by Creator/StudioBONES began airing in April 2016 as part of the {{Spring 2016 Anime}} season. Creator/{{Funimation}} gained the license to the series and produces the English dub. Interestingly, the episodes of Funimation's [=SimulDub=] were being made ''a week'' after the initial episodes aired. Season 2 premiered in April 2017 as part of the {{Spring 2017 Anime}} season. This time around, the first fourteen episodes of Funimation's [=SimulDub=] premiered ''simultaneously'' with the Japanese release. A third season was soon announced after Season 2 ended, and began in April 2018, with Funimation once again airing their dub on the same day. Season 4 began airing in October 2019. When that ended in April 2020, Season 5 was likewise announced, which eventually aired in April 2021. Season 6 premiered in October 2022.

* AbuseDiscretionShot: While it's made clear early on that Endeavor is physically abusing his family, he is never shown at the moment when he is hitting his children. Instead, we are mostly shown the aftermath of those moments, such as Touya struggling on the floor, or Natsuo and Fuyumi huddled together listening in to the screaming.