Characters / My Hero Academia - Shota Aizawa

My Hero Academia Main Character Index
U.A. High School Students: Class 1-A (1-10, 11-20, Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, Shoto Todoroki, Ochaco Uraraka) | Class 1-B | Students From Other Classes
Pro Heroes: School Faculty and Staff (Shota Aizawa | All Might) | Other Heroes (Endeavor) | One For All and Its Torch Bearers
Villains: Known Villains [Stain] (League of Villains [All For One, Tomura Shigaraki, Dabi, Himiko Toga, Vanguard Action Squad, Artificial Humans], Shie Hassaikai [Overhaul], Meta Liberation Army, Paranormal Liberation Front, Villain Army)
Others: Police and Government Workers | Civilians (Main Characters' Families) | Other High Schools
Characters From Other My Hero Academia Media: Video Game Characters | Movie Characters
Vigilantes: Main Characters | Villain Factory | Supporting Characters
Team Up Mission

---

Shota Aizawa — Eraser Head

Erasing Hero

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Alex Organ (English, Season 1), Christopher Wehkamp (English, Season 2 onward), Ernesto Rumbaut (Latin American Spanish/TV series), José Arenas (Latin American Spanish/Movies)

Debut: Chapter 5 (Manga), Episode 5 (Anime)

Playable in: My Hero One's Justice, My Hero One's Justice 2

Quirk: Erasure

"I'm sorry to tell you... that for the next three years... U.A. will run you through the wringer. That's "Plus Ultra". Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it."

Class 1-A's homeroom teacher. He's a bit of a Lazy Bum, but looks out for his students and pushes them to improve.

Aizawa is also the pro hero Eraser Head. His Quirk, "Erasure", allows him to nullify others' control over their Quirks just by looking at them. Blinking dispels the effect of his Quirk and using it gives him very dry eyes.

---

A-K

• 24-Hour Armor: Downplayed. Aizawa often skulks around off-duty in his hero costume, minus his goggles, which he uses whenever he's in combat, and is rarely seen wearing anything else. When he's turned in for the night, though, he wears pajamas like any other normal person would.
• Amputation Stops Spread: After being shot by a Quirk-erasing bullet, he has to cut off his right leg in order to save his Quirk from being destroyed.
• Airplane Arms: He runs like this while fighting.
• An Arm and a Leg: He cuts off his right leg in Chapter 282, after it's hit by a Quirk-Eraser.
• Anti-Magic: His Quirk effectively nullifies one other person's Quirk, as long as it's an emitter or transformation Quirk.
• Apathetic Teacher: Played with. He appears to be one at first. However, it's shown that he has very high standards for his students when it comes to heroism, seriously pushes them in that regard, and is willing to stick his neck out for them when there's trouble. That said, he's still a Lazy Bum who falls into complete apathy when it comes to subjects he considers irrelevant, and on off days, he would rather curl up in a sleeping bag than put up with the Wacky Homeroom.
• Artificial Limbs: After hacking off his right leg to avoid the spread of a Quirk-erasing bullet, Aizawa received a mechanical replacement with digits and joints.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed. While he's a main supporting character in the main series, he's a full-on main character in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, having multiple chapters focused on him and his past.
• Badass in Distress:
  • During the battle at USJ, Aizawa is beaten to the ground by Nomu, having both of his arms broken and his face smashed into the ground, making him essentially a hostage. This still doesn't stop him from using his Quirk to erase Shigaraki's power when the villain tries to hurt on of his students though.
  • During the raid on the Hassaikai's headquarters, Aizawa is hit by Chronostasis' Quirk leaving him barely able to move for the duration of an hour. Afterwards, the yakuza keeps Aizawa blindfolded to prevent him from using his Quirk. He's saved by Tamaki Amajiki, a.k.a, Suneater, who immobilizes Chronostasis.
• Badass Teacher: Although his teaching methods can be rather questionable, Aizawa is a very competent pro hero who is protective of his students.
• Bandage Mummy: After his grievous injuries in the USJ Arc, Aizawa spends the U.A. Sports Festival with his entire face and both arms wrapped in bandages as he recovers.
• Batman Parody: A Downplayed Trope, mostly seen in contrast to All Might's Superman Substitute. He uses skill and tactics over brute force and power, is a Perpetual Frowner and The Stoic along with being The Comically Serious, and overall deals with threats in a more brutal nature akin to The Cowl. The main difference is that unlike Batman, he has powers, though they are of limited use.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • A downplayed example. When Midoriya is about to be killed by Eri's uncontrollable Quirk, Aizawa uses his own Quirk to deactivate it, saving Midoriya and Eri.
  • He does it again when Shigaraki grabs Ryukyu to turn her to dust, appearing in a nick of time to disable Shigaraki's Decay.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Has this routine going on whenever he crosses paths with Ms. Joke, much to his annoyance. Even though he never hits her, he continuously corrects her with cold exasperation and telling her to shut up.
• Brutal Honesty: Aizawa never pulls his punches with the truth, especially when it comes to pointing out flaws or naivete. He never does this out of malice, because his main goal is to ensure that the students learn quickly they're entering a profession with some very harsh realities and need to take things seriously.
  • However, he tells Deku and Mirio to purposefully avoid this after Overhaul is defeated — Eri was already blaming herself for the entire incident, so it would just be too cruel to tell her what happened to Nighteye.
  • Unsurprisingly, he's also brutally honest with Aoyama regarding his being the traitor at U.A., saying that his sins will stay with him forever, and he may not be able to return to U.A. once all is said and done. However, he also says he intends to protect Aoyama, and has no intention of letting him die alone, burdened by guilt.
  Aizawa: Those friends of yours like to sugarcoat things, but I'll tell it to you straight.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Often teaches while still inside a sleeping bag. He is also willing to expel entire classes if he feels that they don't meet his very high standards. This is all overlooked thanks to U.A.'s own policy of academic freedom.
• Caltrops: During the Final Exams Arc, he uses these after capturing and suspending Todoroki in the air and preventing him from escaping and landing safely.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: In one School Briefs story, he claims that he can't recall ever getting drunk. Later in the same chapter, it's revealed that this is because he goes from sober to blackout wasted while skipping all intermediate steps, so yes, he doesn't remember being drunk.
• Career-Ending Injury: He loses both an eye and a leg in battle with the enhanced Shigaraki in the Liberation War. While he does get a prosthetic replacement for his leg, his missing eye damages his ability to use his Quirk too much for him to take part in the final battle, which is why it's the Monoma who uses Erasure in the fight against Shigaraki.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Dislikes the attention of the media, believing that it gets in the way of his job as a hero. This results in him being very obscure to the general population. Even a hero fanboy like Midoriya took some time to recognize him during their first meeting.
• Character Development: It's very subtle, but it's implied that because 1-A are cut from a different cloth, he begins to lower his walls and start treating students less aloofly. This starts with Izuku proving him wrong during the Quirk Apprehension test at the beginning, and even through his many threats to do so, he never actually expels any 1-A student despite being proven to have done so multiple times before. Even when Aoyama is revealed to be the traitor feeding information to All For One, he reassures him that he still has no intention of expelling him, showing he has well and truly accepted the class as his own and lightened up on his strict teaching methods.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Not prominent, but he would have to have this to take on villains that can smash through walls and even level buildings with their Quirks as well as handle the exceptionally powerful and strong members of Class 1-A. He also survived a beating from Nomu, a monster that could go toe-to-toe with All Might, albeit with lasting consequences.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Occasionally flashes a mischievous, creepy-cute, toothy grin during his Troll or "logical ruse" moments.
• Childhood Friends:
  • Aizawa and Present Mic have been best friends since at least their freshman year of high school. A volume extra flashback shows that Mic is the one who named him Eraser Head.
  • During his time at U.A., Aizawa formed a young team of three with Yamada and Shirakumo, which was eventually broken through the latter's death in their second year. The reveal that Kurogiri is a Nomu-fied Shirakumo hits both of them extremely hard.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Despite his apathetic traits, Shota genuinely cares about his students and will go to great lengths to protect them, best shown when he saved Tsuyu from being touched by Shigaraki, in spite of his grievous injuries by Nomu. Not just students but civillians in danger as well as showcased in Vigilantes.
• Cloth Fu: His scarf isn’t just a fashion statement, it’s a support item he uses to tie opponents up, or to set up traps.
• Combat Commentator: During the U.A. Sports Festival, he sits in the announcers booth with Present Mic, although he lets Mic do most of the commentating and only chimes in when necessary.
• Combat Pragmatist: Since Aizawa's Quirk only impacts other Quirk users while offering him no direct physical advantages and operates under a strict time limit, he long ago figured out that fighting superpowered opponents "fairly" would only get him or others killed. So he instead uses whatever tools or tactics he can come up with to end fights as efficiently as possible. While he is a capable fighter, he tries to avoid direct combat if possible, preferring to ambush opponents when possible and timing his Quirk usage for maximum effect in fights. This is best shown during the USJ Arc when he purposely waits to use it in order to give himself an advantage and disorient his opponents. He encourages this mindset with his students as well, teaching them to treat their fights as matters of life and death because villains will not share their sense of honor.
• The Comically Serious: Will take things like Nezu climbing out of his scarf with the straightest of faces.
• Cool Shades: Wears a pair while working as a hero, with the intent to keep his opponents from knowing who he's looking at. Particularly useful against a crowd.
• Cool Teacher: He's a pretty badass underground hero and teacher overall, but this especially applies to his relationship with Shinso, who admits to idolizing Eraser Head and officially becomes his apprentice after the Sports Festival. Present Mic even comments on how similar they are in personality and mannerisms.
• The Cowl: His general design is based on this, being an underground hero that avoids media attention and works as a Foil to All Might.
• Creepy Good: He looks like a villain, sometimes acts like one, but is second only to All Might and Deku in the Chronic Hero Syndrome department, as mentioned above.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Aizawa's teaching philosophy is that it's better to not pull punches about the harsh realities of hero work and enforce high expectations of performance on the students while they're in a safe environment than to treat them with kid gloves and leave them unprepared for an unforgiving career. He's seen firsthand many ways an unprepared would-be hero can meet a terrible fate, so he's more than willing to destroy a student's dream of being a hero if he finds they don't have the potential to take it. He considers expecting students to survive a brutal, uncaring world with heads full naive ideals and false hope to be the true cruelty.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The death of his best friend and battle partner during a mission is what finally drove Aizawa to drop all plans of joining a hero agency and aim for a solo career. The only reason he is back at UA as a teacher is because he was incessantly nagged into it by Present Mic and Midnight, who thought he would benefit from it mentally.
• Deadpan Snarker: Aizawa occasionally drops dry quips in order to shrug off things he finds foolish or otherwise grating, most notably Mic's antics. After Midoriya and Bakugo's big fight, he is obviously pissed, but he doesn't raise his voice at all. Instead, he sarcastically congratulates the two for having enough energy left to go all out against each other, despite having just finished with the preliminary hero licensing exam, while restraining them with his scarf, which is not a comfortable situation.
• Death Glare: He does this when he's angry. Due to the nature of his Quirk, this will also render whoever he's looking at Quirkless.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: He slowly warms up to the children of Class 1-A over the course of the show. From observing them with professional detachment in the first couple of seasons, he eventually, and hypocrytically, follows in All Might's footsteps and begins treating them as if they were his own children. It has probably a lot do with the fact that the current Class 1-A is implied to be the first to take his lessons to heart and eventually come to appreciate Aizawa and his strict teachings.
• Dented Iron: Following his extreme injuries after the attack of the USJ, his Quirk becomes unstable, meaning he can't keep it active as long and has to take brief breaks between uses.
• Determinator: Shows up in the USJ Arc, even after pushing his Quirk to the limit and taking a severe beating by Nomu, including having his head repeatedly slammed into concrete, he still manages to stare at Shigaraki, preventing him from using his Quirk to kill Tsuyu.
  • In the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, he goes so far as to cut off his own leg as to not lose his Quirk and keep nullifying Shigaraki.
• Deus Exit Machina: During the Internship Arc. While not really the most powerful man in the room, Aizawa is absent or held captive by Chronostasis during Overhaul's fights with Mirio and Midoriya, as Aizawa knocking out Overhaul's Quirk would end the battles too quickly.
• Disappointed in You:
  • Towards Class 1-A after the hideout raid: Out of the 20 students in the class, five of them decided to break all possible rules and save Bakugo by themselves, while 12 other students knew, none of them reported them (although Tsuyu believed she had talked them out of it). He said that he was more than willing to throw away all of them, but will not due to the circumstances, and says it will take a long time until he is able to trust them again.
  • He gives an even harsher verbal tongue lashing to Midoriya and Bakugo when they get in an unsanctioned brawl. Aizawa still hasn't let Midoriya off the hook for this incident and warns him that his maverick tendencies will be punished formally if he does something like this again. As for Bakugo, falling behind the rest of the class with extracurricular hero training is punishment enough.
• Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: His default eye expression, very rarely changed.
• The Eeyore: He's a massive buzzkill who dresses in shambles and constantly likes to remind everyone that life sucks. It's so bad that when high energy Present Mic pops in to teach his soul-sucked class, there's no hope in trying to bring them back to life after he's reduced them to practically zombies. On his worst days, he even whips out a sleeping bag and curls up in a cocoon, too unmotivated to even teach.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Mic has given him a ton of these, including "Prince of Slumberland" (P.O.S. for short) and "Snooze Master". Aizawa's usual response is to place him in a choke hold until he shuts up.
• Everyone Has Standards: He has a tendency to throw his students into the deep end when training but during the rescue exam when it's revealed that the students have to save people and fight off attacking villains at the same time (something he notes would difficult even for a seasoned pro), even he thinks it's a bit much.
• Eyepatch of Power: Inverted. He gains an eyepatch over his right eye when Tomura succeeds in giving him a partial Eye Scream during the Paranormal Liberation war, which instead serves as an example of how weakened his quirk has become by the physical damage his body has endured.
• Eye Scream: Aizawa lost his right eye against Shigaraki during the Paranormal Liberation War and now wears an eyepatch, which has obviously handicapped his Quirk.
• Fights Like a Normal: Although he has a powerful Quirk it doesn't make him naturally tougher or stronger than a baseline human, and has a notable weakness. This means he needs to rely on weaponry, and martial arts, and good tactics.
• Fragile Speedster: Aizawa is immensely fast and agile, boasting one of the highest speed rankings of most pro heroes, his battle outfit allows him to ensnare and trap opponents from escaping, has strong martial arts abilities and can shut down other people's Quirks with his own. However, Aizawa has dry eye, his evasive fighting style can leave him open to attacks when he isn't careful, and with his limited stamina, juggernauts such as the Nomu can defeat him in a few moves.
• Freudian Excuse: Vigilantes implies that the death of Shirakumo, his classmate and partner in internship, during a villain attack inspired a lot of his behavior towards his students, such as his hard line and the need to teach them early about the horrors and difficulties of being a hero.
• Friend to All Children: When he was younger, he thought kids hate him, which obviously wasn't true, and Aizawa himself was in crisis during that time, doubting in his abilities. Now, while he wouldn't admit it, he gets along with teenagers well with his "strict, but fair" attitude.
• Game-Breaking Injury: The damage inflicted onto him by the original Nomu in the USJ Arc permanently damages him in such a way that weakens his Quirk for the series, largely by causing his time he can use it to shorten. While he recovers and returns to fighting a few arcs later, in several situations its a major handicap and almost gets him killed once or twice.
  • Happens again during the Parahuman Liberation War where he loses both a leg and eye, crippling his martial skills and further weakening his Quirk. This prevents him from entering the final battle between the Heroes and All For One and likely ends his career as an active pro-hero entirely.
• Generation Xerox: Yamada comments that Shinso is turning out to be almost identical to Aizawa, right down to the easily underestimated mental Quirk, tired eyes, slouched posture, capture scarf, and love of cats.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. They seem like mere accessories to the outside viewer, but they make it difficult for others to tell who he's glaring at and thus using his Quirk on. They also keep stuff out of his eyes that could force him to blink like smoke. Illegals shows that this wasn't always part of his costume and he started wearing goggles at the suggestion of his friend, Shirakumo.
• Hair-Contrast Duo: The lazy, cynical, and slovenly black-haired Aizawa to his old friend, the upbeat, energetic, and outgoing blond Present Mic.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Tends to have this dynamic with both All Might and Present Mic. While the latter two are very loud and bombastic, Aizawa is surlier, quieter, and more sarcastic.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: When he has to appear before the media, he actually bathes, neatens his hair, and wears a suit.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffered a major one in his school days that he is evidently still healing from, given his reaction to Kurogiri being revealed as a nomu-fied Shirakumo. The experience was so traumatic to him that for a very long time he wanted nothing to do with UA and would lash out at Present Mic or Midnight for suggesting that he work with them.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In his school days, he thought his Quirk was weak and mediocre and frequently struggled in exercises and in the field. His confidence took a hit because of this and he frequently berates himself for failing.
• Hidden Depths: After his backstory arc in Vigilantes a lot of his behavior points towards Aizawa suffering some form of PTSD and / or depressive disorder. Most notably, Aizawa has suffered severe self-confidence issues since at least his high school days, which were exacerbated by his friend Shirakumo's death and has translated to avoidant and abrasive behavior in his adult years. He, in particular, has a persistent habit of avoiding any and all situations that risk reminding him of Shirakumo or making him feel responsible for someone else's wellbeing, to the point where he initially refuses to have anything to do with UA, can't do so much as look at cats, and decides to start his hero business as a self-employed vigilante; even pushing away Mic and Midnight for years before the latters convince him to becom a teacher. As a teacher he's furthermore at first insistent on putting a wall up between himself and his students, throws himself recklessly into battle to defend them with little concern for his own life (despite preaching to them not to do the same), and keeps himself busy to the point that he passes out between classes. When Mic tries to discuss the topic of death or grief with him he is also quick to cut the conversation short and jump to other topics. Notably, when facing the fact that Shirakumo has been turned into a Nomu Aizawa breaks apart and is for the first time forced to stay home from teaching, something not even breaking his arms and crushing his skull could keep him from. All in all, most if not all of Aizawa's behavior towards his students and colleagues can be attributed to fear and a massive Guilt Complex.
  • It's also worth keeping in mind that as an underground hero he has seen first hand a lot of the more gritty crimes and violence that the Hero Commission tries to keep from the public. He hated All Might because a part of him blames All Might for motivating young heroes to kill themselves in the name of justice, and he dislikes the Hero Commission because it underprepares students for what being a hero is actually like in Aizawa's experience. He furthermore also shows a preference towards hero students with non-combat oriented quirks or low self confidence, as he has experienced the discrimination they've faced first hand and is living proof of their combat potential should someone show them patience and a little faith.
  • AFO later notices this fragility within Aizawa and aptly decides that the quickest way to deal with him is by the way of Break Them by Talking.
• Hypocritical Humor: He tends to tell people to cheer up after he eviscerated their jovial moods. And if other people are already mopey without his doing when he enters a room, he thinks they need to stop moping.
• I Lied:
  • Proclaims that the one who ranks last in his exercises on the first day will be kicked out of the school. Then he says he was lying just to get more effort out of them. All Might calls him out on this, pointing out that in a previous year, he had expelled his entire class. Aizawa admits that he would have followed through if the one ranking last showed zero potential to be a hero. Since the one who did rank last, Midoriya, did show some potential in his eyes, he decided to pretend he had been lying.
  • He takes great pleasure in telling the students that they will be subjected to "remedial hell" if they fail the end of license exams. Turns out he only meant the written portion of the exams. Those who failed the combat portion of the tests actually need the summer camp the most.
• Informed Attribute: We're told that Aizawa is definitely known for expelling students frequently. Not only has he not expelled anyone in his current class, he has also not hinted at making any attempt to judge who should be expelled beyond the first class, other than the occasional joke "normally I would expel almost the entire class for this, but..." It turns out that his "expulsions" of the students who fail his Quirk test don't actually stick.
• Instant Knots: Can manipulate his capture tape so that it instantly wraps around an opponent.
• Introverted Cat Person: Implied — Aizawa isn't one for social interaction. Vigilantes shows him with a shopping bag full of cat food and cat care books, implying he's fond of them. The anime eyecatches also list "cats" as his interest.
• Irony: He balks at both the idea of fairness and the (in his opinion) antiquated sentiment that all Quirks are equal when his own power has the potential to level the playing field.
• I've Come Too Far: In Chapter 298, Aizawa is clearly trying his hardest not to look heartbroken at Midnight's death. However, he knows he can't give up and dwell in sorrow, so he needs to move on and try to protect his students as best as he can in order to not let them die too.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may be stern and standoffish teacher, but he cares about his students and prioritizes their safety whenever villains enter the picture:
  • During the final exam against Yaoyorozu and Todoroki, he allows Yaoyorozu to claim victory for the team instead of capitalizing on her mistake and defeating them, in order to allow her to build up her destroyed confidence again:
    Recovery Girl: When all's said and done, that man's a softie.
  • During the Joint Training Arc, it's confirmed that Aizawa started training Shinso after the U.A. Sports Festival because he believed Shinso had the potential to become a hero like he'd always dreamed. And after an accident occurs during the clash between Shinso's team and Midoriya's, Aizawa is the one who asks that they keep the match going once things settle down, because both of his students still have the desire to win.
  • When he learns of the identity of the traitor in his class and meets with said individual, he's both brutally honest and compassionate, and continues to consider said traitor one of his students.
  • In My Hero One's Justice 2, Mr. Aizawa is the most broken in the matchup system, as he will gain a boost from being with almost all of his playable classmates (except Mineta).
• The Killjoy: Aizawa has made it his mission to prepare his students for the rigors and cruel realities of hero work, even if it means crushing their dreams with scathing criticism, threatening them with expulsion for bending the rules, and literally dragging them off to remedial classes. There are times when his coworker, Present Mic, walks into Class 1-A to find the class reduced to lifeless zombies because of the sheer negativity Aizawa exudes. This is also deconstructed, as his Sink or Swim Mentor and Stern Teacher tendencies backfire at several points in the story, and he admits that his counterpart in Class 1-B, Vlad King, is a better teacher than he is.

L-W

• Laser-Guided Karma: After spending the entire series disciplining his students and doing his best to protect them from villains, Midoriya and Bakugo tackle Shigaraki just as the latter is about to kill him. Both boys declare that this time, it's their turn to save him.
• Lazy Bum: Introduced sleeping on a floor in front of his classroom in a sleeping bag. He also often teaches while in said sleeping bag.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: After being hit by a Quirk erasing bullet from Tomura, Aizawa is forced to immediately amputate his right leg below the knee to protect his Quirk.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He is not one of the select few who knows the secret of All Might and Midoriya's Quirk. He has come to realize there is a connection between the two, but he doesn't know exactly what it is. And he is pretty suspicious when All Might volunteers to go break up the fight between Midoriya and Bakugo.
• Logical Weakness: Aizawa's Quirk is powerful, but he must keep his eyes open for the effect to persist. Blinding or binding up his eyes makes it impossible for him to use it, and depriving him of sleep or forcing him to stare at a single person for an extended period of time will make his eyes tired and thus reduce the effectiveness of his Quirk. Even normal use puts wear and tear on his eyes, so he constantly carries eye drops.
  • His Quirk works on Emitter and Transformation Quirks, but not Mutation since they mutate the body's physical structure and thus are permanently active.
  • His power is obviously useless against a well trained fighter who doesn't rely on a Quirk. All he can do then is rely on good tactics, equipment, and his own impressive martial arts skills and hope it's enough.
  • Enemies that that have superhuman abilities that don't qualify as Quirks or with particularly powerful technology are his natural counter. Aizawa is highly trained and can punch above his weight, but he's still a fairly normal man at the end of the day. Training and tactics can only take you so far in a world of superpowered monsters. His "battle" with the USJ Nomu proved that all too well.
  • If somebody sees who he's looking at, they can anticipate the use of Aizawa's Erasure. This is why Aizawa uses his one-way goggles to shield his line of sight from view as a workaround.
  • Aizawa's hair stands on end when his Quirk is active, which allows for opponents to know when he's using it even if they can't see who he's using it on at the moment.
  • He needs to actually see the person. As such, clothing that fully covers the body, like heavy hooded cloaks, will protect one from his Quirk.
  • While Aizawa can stop his targets from activating their Quirks, he cannot undo any effect that they had on the environment or objects summoned before then. Yayorozu exploited that weakness to capture him in their test battle.
  • Finally, his Quirk working on only one person at a time is a problem when dealing with multiple opponents. He gets around this to an extent with impressive hand-to-hand abilities, while switching his Quirk target for maximum effect, but like any other martial artist, he can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers or simply an opponent naturally much stronger or faster than him.
• Magical Eye: It's by looking at someone that he can erase Quirks. It is for this reason he is asked to look after Eri, a little girl with a dangerous uncontrollable Quirk, since he can quickly nullify it before it causes damage.
• Meaningful Name: His given name has a character that means "erase", while his last name contains a character that can mean "councillor". The first syllable of his last name, "Ai", is also a homophone for "eye", the source of his Quirk.
• Mentor Archetype: Deconstructed because he is not an endlessly wise and patient teacher figure, but someone who fails at guidance at times, and has a personality and life that exists outside of his job as a teacher.
  • He's an extremely strict Sink or Swim Mentor, though that's primarily a result of him not being an experienced teacher. The only reason he even became one in the first place is because Midnight talked him into it in Vigilantes. On some days he's too unmotivated to even stand up in front of the class, instead leaving them to their own devices while he naps in the corner.
  • His stern demeanor makes it hard for his students to determine whether or not he is being sincere in his methods, so when he tries to be a Trickster Mentor with his "rational falsehoods", they mistake him for being serious and understandably get scared. The fact that he has expelled many students in the past makes it harder to tell when he's bluffing.
  • While he tries to take care to observe whether or not his students are in despair, he doesn't always notice, and his actions don't always make things better when he does:
    • He notices that Iida specifically chose to intern under Manual in Hosu, even though Iida could have chosen higher-ranked heroes, and finds it odd that Manual was Iida's only choice, but fails to pick up on the connection between Hosu and Stain's last known whereabouts.
    • He notices the tension between Midoriya and Bakugo when assigning teams for the final exams and understandably thinks pitting them against All Might will force them to pull an Enemy Mine, if not become Fire-Forged Friends. However, doing this almost cripples both of them thanks to All Might's inability to hold back, and their issues don't even come close to getting better.
    • He doesn't pick up on Bakugo's issues following his kidnapping, nor the issues with putting him through the provisional hero license exam where one of the tests is a recreation of Kamino Ward, the location of the event that took place as a result of his kidnapping. As such, this leads to the fight between Midoriya and Bakugo later on.
  • This is acknowledged in-story during the Joint Training arc, as he calls Kan, his counterpart in Class 1-B, a flat out better teacher than him.
• Mentor in Sour Armor: His usual attitude towards his students is getting them familiar with the high-stakes harshness of fighting villians, responding to deadly disasters, etc. so they can prepare for it. Those that can't handle it are better off dropping out now before they die.
• Messy Hair: His long disheveled hair adds to the Lazy Bum image.
• Motivational Lie: He passes off his lie of threatening to expel the student in last place as this when he changes his mind.
• Mundane Utility: His hair stands on end when he uses his Quirk, which he'll use to keep his hair from tangling in his scarf.
• Nerves of Steel: Even when he's fighting for his life and the lives of his students, he retains a stoic composure. Very little seems to faze him, not even the huge explosion from the Todoroki vs. Midoriya fight at the U.A. Sports Festival.
• Ninja: From his fighting style (slow down his opponents with Status Effects, then snag them to either restrain them or beat them into submission as quick as possible, similar to Bujinkan Ninjutsu and Chikari no Jutsu), to his preferences in staying anonymous to prevent people predicting his moves, the use of caltrops to deter a restrained Todoroki during his final exam, even the fact that he sleeps on his left side in his sleeping bag^note a self-preservation tactic used by ninjas is when they would sleep on their left sides with their arms over their hearts as a means of protecting them from being killed instantly as they slept and his affinity for cats^note Ninjas would dress up cats similar to them to make other people believe that they could transform, and some would even keep a cat with them to use the way they dilated their eyes to tell time, though it is debatable whether or not this is true all point to Aizawa essentially being a ninja hero.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Not exactly, but he does end up almost fulfilling the literal description. His skills, fighting style and affinity for cats basically make him a ninja hero, and after the liberation war he loses an eye to Shigaraki, replacing it with an Eyepatch of Power that combines with his usual disheveled appearance to make hm resemble a pirate. He's also forced to amputate his right foot and replace it with a robotic prosthetic. Just about the only thing missing is him being a revived zombie and his ex-friend Shirakumo—also known as Kurogiri— would technically fulfil that aspect as well.
• No Badass to His Valet: His past history with Ms. Joke makes it so that she leisurely screws with his nerves without fear of consequence.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Seems like an offbeat fellow but can get just as serious when the time comes.
• Odd Friendship: He and Mic are good friends despite their clashing personalities; they actually have been friends ever since they were classmates at U.A.
• One-Man Army: Surrounded by villains with a few that can't be stopped by his eraser power. Doesn't stop him in the slightest as he reveals he excels at hand-to-hand even without his Quirk. That said, he admits that he isn't really equipped to handle large groups in open combat for long and did eventually get overwhelmed.
• Only Sane Man: Aizawa consistently tackles problems that are not glamorous enough to get the attention of the other faculty. He notices that the entrance exam discriminates unfairly against Quirks that aren't battle-oriented, and strives to prepare his students for harsh realities that All Might and co. tend to gloss over.
• Origins Episode: He has an origins arc in Vigilantes, showing his time during second year of U.A. and getting into an internship with Midnight and Shirakumo, as well as how he grew into his current mindset. The death of his classmate during a villain attack influenced all of it.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Much like with All Might, attacking his students is a good way to end up in the hospital. During the USJ attack, despite being badly wounded by a huge and muscular Nomu, he was able to muster the Heroic Willpower to save Tsuyu from being disintegrated by Shigaraki. He was also angered by the crowd during the fight between Uraraka and Bakugo, telling those that booed Bakugo for supposedly bullying Uraraka that they shouldn't be heroes anymore, because not only did they not notice Bakugo was playing it safe, but because none of them had noticed Uraraka had been setting up a big attack.
  • When staring down Shigaraki, Aizawa is not doing it out of a sense of duty as a hero, but to remove an obstacle that is threatening the futures of his students.
  • After being shot in the leg with a Quirk destroying bullet, knowing that his Quirk is the only reason why he's allowed to care for Eri instead of her being forced to live in isolation because of her Quirk, he chooses to cut off his own leg to prevent the bullet's contents from spreading enough to erase his Quirk.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: He's virtually unrecognizable to the public and to even hardcore hero fans like Midoriya without his distinctive goggles. This is justified in that he's an underground hero who primarily operates at night. Due to his black ensemble along with his rapid movements, the only real discernible features on him would be his capture device, and his goggles. In the daytime, however, he simply looks like a scraggly insomniac wearing a thick scarf and sweats.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Downplayed. U.A assigns him with the main responsibility of looking after little Eri because his Quirk is the only reliable way to stabilize her should she ever lose control over her Quirk. As a result, he acts as something of a guardian figure, bringing her to class events and looking out for her general well-being.
  • To Shinso Hitoshi. After noticing his potential during the Sports Festival, Aizawa decides to train Shinso one-on-one as his apprentice and help him transfer into the Hero Course. Not only does he teach Shinso how to best utilize his mental Quirk with close combat fighting, but he also trains him in how to use his trademark — and notoriously difficult — capture weapon. By the Joint Training Arc, Shinso looks and acts like a younger version of Aizawa, right down to the tired eyes, slouched posture, and capture scarf.
• Perma-Stubble: Aizawa has five-o-clock shadow going nonstop. When he is seen clean shaven after the summer training camp incident, it's a clear sign things have gotten bad.
• Pet the Dog: After Midoriya feels bad about not being able to save Eri, Aizawa offers him some reassurance that they can still save her, they just need more time and preparation to do it.
• Power Incontinence: How his Anti-Magic works. It doesn't actually nullify the power itself; rather it nullifies the control over said power. Thus it works on Emitter and Transformation, but fails on Mutation Quirks.
• The Quiet One: He tends to be much quieter and more socially withdrawn than his friends and coworkers. This is especially evident with Present Mic and All Might, who frequently annoy Aizawa with their loudness and bombastic personalities.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Stern as he is, he isn't unfair. His past habit of expelling students was because he felt that it would be far more cruel to keep someone with no potential in the hero program when the end result for them would either be failure or death at the hands of a villain. In Vigilantes, which takes place before he started teaching at U.A., he runs into Koichi as "The Crawler" during a villain attack. Though he's obligated by the law to treat him as a villain for using his Quirk to fight without a license, he ultimately lets it slide because Koichi helped him out.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes glow red when he's using his Quirk. Personality-wise, he's one of the sternest teachers at U.A. and is fully willing to expel his entire homeroom class should they step out of line or fail to meet his expectations.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The cool-headed blue to Present Mic's hot-blooded red. Because of his personality, he winds up being the Blue Oni to most people he's with. Lampshaded by himself:
  Aizawa: (about Ms. Joke) Why am I always surrounded by these annoying types...
• Renowned Selective Mentor: All Might mentions that he once expelled an entire class of students that didn't meet his standards. Midoriya was spared the same fate only after he managed to impress him at the last moment.
• Scare 'Em Straight: Chapter 254 reveals that he not only has free reign to expel students, but also to re-enroll them, and he temporarily expels students in order to scare them into behaving and applying themselves properly. He says he believes students should experience this thing, and the 2-A students, apparently composed of a number of students he expelled and brought back, believe it helped them grow.
• Scarf of Asskicking: A multi-layered one around his neck which he uses to bind his opponents.
• Scars Are Forever: Of all the wounds he received during the battle at USJ, the one that has stuck around was a horizontal scar under his eye. Though he always wears long sleeves so we don't know what his arms look like after all that happened to them.
  • although it does make sense in this case as it hasn't even been a year since the battle that gave him the scars.
• Seriously Scruffy: Aizawa looks incredibly disheveled and miserable for the most part. However, if forced to go before the press, he will attempt some degree of maintenance with his looks... then go right back to his old self as soon as he doesn't need to look good for the cameras anymore.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: Will expel entire classes if they're not up to his standards, and is not above showing tough love to the students that do meet them. For example, he doesn't warn Class 1-A in advance that other hero schools will be out to get them during the license exams, or that the competition knows about their Quirks for their own self-development. Real enemies won't give them warnings, so neither will he. Somewhat deconstructed in that Aizawa eventually realizes his methods are a little too harsh after observing Vlad King's teaching style, and starts to relax to a degree after the 1-A vs 1-B joint training exercise.
• Sleepyhead: He has a habit of dozing off anywhere and anytime, dragging his sleeping bag around for this reason. Sometimes he can't even bring himself to teach, swaddling himself up and letting Iida and Yaoyorozu take over. For this reason, Present Mic gives him nicknames like "Prince of Slumberland" and "Snooze Master". Possibly justified in that the majority of his Hero work tends to be done at night, so between Hero work and his teaching position he probably doesn't get many opportunities to get a normal amount of sleep.
• So Proud of You:
  • When Yaoyorozu gets her confidence back and resolves to defeat him during her final exam. He doesn't say anything, but his smile says it all.
  • When his entire class passes the first round of the provisional hero license exam, his response is basically "took them long enough", which Ms. Joke teasingly translates as "I knew all of you could do it".
  • The little smile on Aizawa's face when seeing Shinso and his team doing well during the Joint Training Arc shows just how incredibly proud he is of the formerly weak and inexperienced boy that he's taken under his wing.
  • He makes another little smile, when he sees the broadcast of his students trying to comfort protesting civillians who don't want Izuku back to U.A. at the end of Tartarus Escapes Arc.
• Spell My Name With An S: His first name can be spelled "Shōta", "Shota", or "Shouta".
• The Spock: His actions and thoughts are governed by logic, paying little heed to social or emotional factors. The light novels even refer to him as someone who tries to live as rationally as possible, putting in as little effort as necessary and napping when there's nothing to do.
• Stern Teacher: At first, he seems to be an Apathetic Teacher, but it eventually comes to light that he just has high standards and very low opinions of those who don't meet them.
• The Stoic: Downplayed. He doesn't usually gets much emotional, at best showing his anger, irratation or a sorf of grinny, but proud smile.
  • Tends to be subverted into Not So Stoic like when he faces Kurogiri in prison with Yamada trying to remind him of who he was in the past, bursting into tears.
• Story-Breaker Power: Almost all of the really powerful and dangerous Quirks are not mutation Quirks (Quirks that alter people's bodies as a default not a transformation) which also happens to be the type of Quirks Aizawa's ability works on. If he had been present with the other heroes when All For One showed up while the good guys were trying to rescue Bakugo, then the fight would have lasted for all of 5 seconds. His Quirk robs you of the ability to access and control your Quirk (which is why it doesn't work on Quirks that permanently mutate people as it isn't something that they can control) which means that none of the big bads would have a chance against him one on one. If he didn't have any Logical Weakness built into his ability and the way it functions, then the big time villains would never have a chance of beating the heroes. When he proves to be vital to the fight with Shigaraki during the Meta Liberation raid, the newly-enhanced villain notices how dependent the heroes are on him and decides to get rid of him directly instead of wasting more time bothering with the frontline fighters. Aizawa was rescued, but he lost a leg and an eye in the process. This removed him from not just that fight, but all following fights in the final stretch of the series.
• The Tell: His hair inadvertently reveals what his Quirk's weakness is during the USJ Arc.
• Tough Love: His teaching style in a nutshell. He calls out failures, expects high performance, crushes naivete, and rarely gives praise. On the other hand, hard work is acknowledged, advice is given, eccentricity is accepted (to a point), emotional problems are understood, unfair outside critics will be silenced, and he will go to the bat to protect his students from danger. He can be harsh, but he does it only to help the students become strong enough to handle the unforgiving world of pro heroes as quickly as possible.
• Tragic Bromance: With Oboro Shirakumo, a close friend and classmate of his and Yamada's who died during their second year at U.A. Aizawa became much more socially isolated, combat-oriented, and cynical of other heroes and the hero industry as a whole after Shirakumo's death, effectively shaping him into the brutally efficient underground hero he is in the present day.
• Tragic Keepsake: His goggles. They are a design suggestion from his deceased classmate Shirakumo, and they were supposed to use them together to symbolize their partnership.
• Tsundere: He's a Type A to his entire class, being grouchy and stern all the time while concealing how much he believes in them and worries about them. Ms. Joke teases him about it.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As shown in Vigilantes, Aizawa was still dour in his school days, but he was timid and lacked confidence while trying his best to be a good hero despite repeated failures. He looked to others like Shirakumo and Yamada for support and was a dorky, sweet guy overall. In the present, his experiences have hardened him to be gruff and no-nonsense on the job to the point of being The Eeyore.
• Villain Respect: Due to his status as a One-Man Army and Determinator, Aizawa seems to be the one hero that Shigaraki actually respects.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The light novels reveal him to be this with Mic. Mic constantly annoys Aizawa by giving him Embarrassing Nicknames, singing and rapping in Aizawa's ears while he's trying to nap, and dragging him into conversations he wants no part in. Aizawa responds to this by placing Mic in choke holds until he shuts up (which usually fails in the long-term anyways). Despite this, they're the other's closest confidants and the two hang out together more often than not.
• Weak, but Skilled: Since his Quirk doesn't boost his abilities in any way, Aizawa combines it with hand-to-hand combat and restraining support gear to even the playing field with villains. It makes him lethally effective since he is extremely smart on when to use it. Fittingly enough, this contributes to his Foil nature with All Might. It also applies to his fighting style. He has to rely on his impressive speed and agility, preferring stealthy ambushes to straight up brawls, due to his slender build.
• Weaksauce Weakness: His Quirk would be even more useful if he didn't suffer from dry eye.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • He gets one from All Might, who points out that Aizawa was lying when he claimed that his threat of expelling the lowest-ranked student was only a bluff. Aizawa explains himself, but while All Might isn't convinced, he decides to Agree to Disagree with Aizawa.
  • In the aftermath of the Hideout Raid Arc, he states that were it not for All Might's retirement, he would not just have expelled Midoriya, Kirishima, Iida, Yaoyorozu, and Todoroki for making an unsanctioned attack on the League of Villains, but every single student in Class 1-A save Hagakure, Jiro, and Bakugo simply for knowing about the plan and doing nothing to stop it.
• When He Smiles: Disheveled, aloof to the near point of apathy, and perpetually melancholic, Aizawa rarely shows how much he cares about his students and their development into heroes. But when they show flashes of reaching their potentials and his high expectations, expect to see a mischievous smile appear on his face.
  • He does smile sometimes when he's with Oboro in Vigilantes.