Characters / Thieves Can Be Heroes! - Antagonists

Thieves Can Be Heroes! Main Character Index
The Phantom Thieves | Antagonists | Confidants | U.A. High School | Vigilantes | Other Characters

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Major Antagonists

Suguru Kamoshida

Suguru Kamoshida

Quirk: Overly-Long Tongue

^{Click here to see Shadow} 

^{Click here to see Asmodeus} 

Shujin Academy's P.E. teacher and a former Olympic athlete. He thoroughly abuses the students under his care, making them go through Training from Hell just to increase his standing and for his own amusement.

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• Achilles' Heel: Kamoshida's Shadow is so attached to his crown that removing it takes a huge chunk of his power, leaving him vulnerable.
• Adaptational Badass: His Shadow's Boss Battle is a Warm-Up Boss in the original games, but here he comes dangerously close to wiping out the Thieves, to the point that Izuku was heavily considering pulling a Heroic Sacrifice just to buy time for the others to run.
• A God Am I: He's an outright megalomaniac within his own Palace.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His Shadow grows large enough to almost reach the ceiling of his Palace while sitting down just before battling the Thieves.
• Attention Whore: He demands attention and respect. He's arguably worse than his game version in regards to this because he was denied much of the fame and prestige he had because of the prominence of U.A.'s Sports Festival.
• Cruel Mercy: After he offers to commit suicide, Ann tells him that he needs to live to atone for his crimes. She later cites this as part of her reason for sparing Kamoshida's Shadow, as she believes that forcing him to live with the crippling guilt of his many atrocities is a Fate Worse than Death.
• Dirty Old Man: Despite his athleticism, he's definitely past his prime and is constantly making passes at Ann, to her disgust. He later sexually abuses Shiho to the point that she tries to commit suicide.
• Driven to Suicide: He offers to kill himself as part of his atonement for his past actions, horrifying Izuku. Thankfully, Ann manages to snap Kamoshida out of this, telling him that he'd just be running away from his problems if he were to commit suicide.
• Freudian Excuse: He's given a slightly stronger one than in canon. He feels obsolete due to the popularity of Quirks and U.A.'s Sports Festival devaluing his Olympic gold medal, fueling his reprehensible behavior towards his students.
• Green-Eyed Monster: As if the Thieves didn't have enough reasons to hate him. He resents U.A. and the rise of Quirks because the prominence of the Sports Festival devalued his achievement as an Olympic gold medalist and rendered him obsolete. Because he can't act on this resentment, unlike his perverse fantasies, said envy is locked deep away in his psyche. The Thieves exploit this to make him lose his cool, allowing Morgana to knock off Kamoshida's crown and leaving him open to Izuku's Virginia Smash.
• Hot for Student: He's infamous for making unwanted advances on the girls in his PE classes, paying special attention to Ann, much to her disgust and revulsion.
• I Know Madden Kombat: His Shadow frequently asks its "slaves" to launch salvos of volleyballs at the Thieves. His Gold Medal Shot is even more powerful, with Kamoshida's massive Shadow spiking the ball himself.
• Malicious Slander: He loves spreading rumors about students he doesn't like, using his authority to pressure the other students into perpetuating these rumors in hopes of ruining the lives of those who would stand up to him. He does this to be Ryuji and Izuku, which only strengthens their resolve to get back at him.
• Oh, Crap!: After his crown is knocked off his head, he can only look on in horror as Izuku and Carter run towards him with a Virginia Smash with his name on it.
• Orgasmically Delicious: His Shadow is a little... too satisfied with the wine he drinks and the bodies he eats from his giant trophy. It helps that it basically works as a free Diarahan, restoring him to full strength even after the Thieves throw their strongest attacks up to that point at him.
• Overly-Long Tongue: Kamoshida's Quirk is is this, which is reflected on his Shadow's even more absurdly long tongue which is as long as his Shadow's giant body as Asmodeus. His Shadow uses it as a Combat Tentacle while battling the Thieves.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Everyone knew he was an asshole before, but when Shiho attempts suicide because she was sexually exploited by Kamoshida, Izuku, Ryuji, Ann, and Morgana resolve themselves to make him pay dearly for what he's done.
• Sadist Teacher: Puts his students through Training from Hell even when he knows it's more than likely to just give them a Career-Ending Injury rather than actually make them better. The students dread hearing his voice on the school's loudspeakers because it usually means that he's calling someone to his office to vent his frustrations on. He also attempts to sexually exploit Ann and exploits Shiho after Ann refuses his demands.
• Seven Deadly Sins: He represents the Sin of Lust, Luxuria, for physically and sexually abusing his students. This is reflected by his Shadow's transformation into Asmodeus, the demon of lust in multiple religious texts.
• Shoot the Medic First: The Thieves have to destroy his trophy cup to prevent him from using it to heal himself in order to finally start to wear him down.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To those aren't in the know, Kamoshida is a personable, talented, and responsible teacher. Everyone under his thumb knows otherwise, but are too busy being shunned or worked half-to-death to protest.

Ichiryuusai Madarame

Ichiryuusai Madarame

Quirk: Eyes Do Not Belong There

^{Click here to see Shadow} 

^{Click here to see Azazel} 

A famous Japanese painter who adopted Yusuke Kitagawa when Yusuke's parents died. He has been claiming both Yusuke's and his other disciples' work as his own, propping up his own fame at the cost of his students'. His unwillingness to create his own work and his desire for fame create a Palace inside the collective unconscious where he fancies himself as a shogun presiding a gaudy golden museum of his ego.

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• Abusive Parent: Downplayed. Despite having adopted Yusuke, he exploits the hell out of him, barely furnishing him while leeching off his talent. However, he treats Yusuke with enough kindness to earn his deep respect until the full extent of his corruption is revealed.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When his Shadow is defeated, it feebly begs the Thieves not to kill him.
• Art Attacker: His Shadow can spit ink from its mouth that drains the energy of those it covers and renders them vulnerable to every kind of damage. Shadow Madarame is not immune to this and is defeated when the Thieves turn it against him.
• Bad Liar: Ann points out several contradictions when he tries to cover up his multiple copies of Sayuri. When Madarame claims the original was stolen and he had to sell copies to make a living, Ann points out that he couldn't have made copies if the original was stolen. Madarame then claims he got a high-quality photograph from an art book, but Ann shoots that down too when she points out Madarame himself said his clients have a keen eye for fine art; they'd know if he was selling them a copy of a copy. Then, when Ann, Makoto, and Yusuke uncover the real Sayuri moments later, Madarame claims it was a counterfeit that he bought. Ann points out that this excuse is "pushing it," since an artist wouldn't knowingly buy a fake of his own work.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Unlike Kamoshida, who is openly hostile to Izuku and friends right away, since Kamoshida trusts his influence to protect him, Madarame at least pretends to be nice and personable on the outside. He has several "logical" excuses prepared to cover his tracks if exposed and it's only when the party keeps pressing the issue and forcing their way past his facade that he finally drops it. This is part of why Yusuke has such a hard time understanding the truth and takes it so badly.
• Body Horror: His Quirk allows him to sprout eyes on other parts of his body.
• Elemental Powers: Shadow Madarame has access to every type of element, producing fire, ice, lightning, and wind attacks by breathing in and out of its nose.
• Evil Old Folks: He's an old man who’s friendly facade hides an extremely greedy and loathsome human being.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: His Quirk allows him to sprout eyes all over his body (although they disable his natural eyes when he does so).
• Foil: Can be seen as one to All Might and his relationship to Canon!Izuku. While All Might took Izuku under his wing to groom him into becoming the successor of One For All, Madarame took Yusuke under his wing simply to leech off of the young boy’s artistic talent. All Might intends to eventually end his reign as the Symbol of Peace with Izuku taking over while Madarame seemingly has no intention of passing the reins to any of his students. All Might is extremely careful with choosing his disciple while Madarame takes in several and kicks out the rest when their usefulness has passed. All Might looks heroic and strong in his muscled form while his weakened form is skeletal and frail, yet he still retains a good heart. Madarame looks like a friendly and kind old man while his Shadow has the appearance of a cruel, decadent shogun, yet both hold the same greedy and manipulative heart.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: His Palace and a lot of the things inside are gold or painted gold. Shadow Madarame wears robes like his real self entirely of gold. All of the gold is considered a gaudy eyesore by the Phantom Thieves.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Like Kamoshida, he resents Quirks. Madarame is jealous of how Quirks are considered to be the epitome of beauty, especially given his own Quirk.
• Healing Factor: Like the myriad of counterfeit paintings he produced, Shadow Madarame can regenerate any missing parts of itself so long as the other parts still exist. It has to be taken down all at once to be defeated.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Discussed by Izuku, who muses that he might have been able to utilize his Quirk in espionage or to prevent himself from getting blindsided in combat if he so desired.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His Shadow is defeated when Izuku binds the parts of it with Mei's capture gun long enough for Makoto to shower it in its own black paint, leaving it vulnerable to the combined attacks of all the Thieves.
• Hypocrite: Practically everything about his initial characterization is a facade. He acts like a humble, self-deprecating artist and in fact, explicitly claims that the key to his success is his detachment from worldly desires such as fame and fortune. His Palace ends up revealing that fame and fortune have been all he's cared about for a while, and only convinces his students not to profit from their art, so he can instead.
• Man Bites Man: He chomps on Izuku's Persona after the latter's physical attacks against it failed.
• No-Sell: Shadow Madarame's eyes are immune to every elemental attack the Thieves can muster up to that point aside from Makoto's Nuclear spells while the mouth can completely nullify Izuku's physical attacks. Worse still, it's able to heal itself using the energy from those attacks.
• Only in It for the Money: His Shadow claims that there's no purpose for art except as a brand or as a way to make money.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: He steals the credit for his students' work.
• Properly Paranoid: In spite of his friendly demeanor toward the protagonists, and that he has no real reason to consider them a threat, his Palace's security already considers them enemies the first time they enter, resulting in them immediately changing into their thief costumes. His suspicions are correct since they did come to steal his heart.
• Self-Deprecation: He's willing to pretend to do this in order to further his facade. When Yusuke gets angry as the party reveals their suspicions to him, Madarame tries to get him to calm down, saying that it's natural that not everyone would like him. When Ann and Makoto break into his private room, causing Yusuke to discover Madarame's counterfeiting racket, he makes up another lie on the spot about how having his painting stolen, as well as his own financial irresponsibility, landed him in a tough position and pushed him into doing this kind of shady work.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Vanity. He holds himself in such high regard that his Palace is a high scale museum completely dedicated to him and his "greatness" with crowds waiting to see the exhibits. He also represents Envy, as he envies his students' talents and potential for success, and steals their work for his own.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Madarame feels entitled to profit from the works of his pupils and they should feel gratitude towards him despite the abuse he puts them through.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Nakanohara and eventually Yusuke realizes that Madarame's modus operandi involves disposing of his apprentices once he no longer needs their talents.

Kai Chisaki — Overhaul

Kai Chisaki — Overhaul

Quirk: Overhaul

The leader of the Yakuza group known as the Shie Hassaikai. Despite his young age, Chisaki can command fear and respect from members much older than him. Completely ruthless and abhorring anything that might endanger the family, Chisaki seeks to have the Yakuza thrive in the shadows within a world of Heroes. Chisaki's Palace is the Yakuza hideout, which takes the form of a laboratory where he and his followers develop the "cure" society desperately needs.

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• Adaptational Early Appearance: He and his Quirk Erasing Bullets appear much earlier than they did in the manga.
• Abusive Parents: He's not actually Eri's father, but he pretends to be so as to control her more easily. Eri's frightened reaction to him tells Izuku and Sojiro that he's definitely not a nice person to her by any means.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: While his Shadow puts up a brave front at first, claiming he'd rather die than repent, he's left a sobbing wreck desperately begging to do anything, even confess and atone, when the Phantom Thieves threaten to cut off his hands.
• Ambition Is Evil: In Chapter 39, after seeing the massive quantity of Quirk-erasing bullets in his Palace, Izuku and Makoto theorize that Chisaki may intend on waging war with hero society itself since the bullets and Trigger would let him have a monopoly over Quirks.
• Animal Motifs: Crows. His mask and the fur lining of his hood gives off the impression of being one. His Shadow's fused form with the Eight Bullets is also a gigantic crow-like monstrosity, complete with a bone-like beak and multiple black-feathered arms.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's the de-facto leader of the family and the head honcho of the Shie Hassakai. He's also someone you do not want to mess with, given the bloody results of his Quirk.
• Bad Boss: Because Kaneshiro’s actions endanger the family, Chisaki kills him then orders Kaneshiro’s men to help him clean up the mess.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Chisaki's Quirk allows him to disassemble and reassmble anything he touches, regardless of the object is organic or otherwise. When used on a human like Kaneshiro and Koga, the results are rather bloody. He's also the acting leader of a Yakuza group and intends on using Trigger and Quirk-erasing Bullets to flip the battle of heroes and villains on its head.
• Bait-and-Switch: When he arrives at Kaneshiro's club, he lambasts him for starting a drug operation without his say so, stating that no matter how careful he is, the cops and heroes would crack down on it sooner or later. He then goes on to say that Kaneshiro's loyalty to the family and ambition are admirable qualities, which surprises and elates Kaneshiro...until he realizes Chisaki's ungloved hand is on his shoulder and Chisaki tells him such ambitions will likely have Kaneshiro backstab him. He promptly kills Kaneshiro so as to prevent his drug operations from hurting the family.
• Cool Mask: He wears a Plague Doctor medicine mask.
• The Don: He is the current acting leader of the Shie Hassakai and the family after the matriarch fell ill.
• Determinator: Even after the Thieves pummel his Shadow into the dirt, he still refuses to fully give up. It takes them bluffing that they're going to cut off his Shadow's hands for him to surrender.
• The Dreaded: Due to his ruthlessness, the mere mention of his name or the idea that he’s going to visit is enough to send Kaneshiro into a panic. It isn't just Kaneshiro, either; Iwai is downright terrified of him and tells Izuku to never get involved with anyone wearing medicine masks, refusing to say anything more. Sojiro also knows of him from his time in the government, and pales when he sees Chisaki himself.
• Establishing Character Moment: Kaneshiro's fearful reaction to learning he's coming to his club personally, and his casual murder of Kaneshiro because his drug operations risk endangering the family shows he's a Bad Boss and many of his underlings are deathly afraid of him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his twisted mentality, Chisaki still cares about his boss more than anything, planning to wake him from his coma after his plans succeeded. His love for his boss proves to be the final push to get his Shadow to have a change of heart, as the Phantom Thieves threaten to cut off his hands and thus prevent him from curing the damage he did to his boss.
• Foil: To Tomura and Akechi. Tomura wants to kill the Symbol of Peace and create mass panic in the process, ending the so-called Golden Age of heroics whereas the latter uses the Metaverse for the sake of revenge. Chisaki wants to upset the balance of heroes and villains by holding a monopoly over Quirks via the Quirk-enhancing drug Trigger and his Quirk-erasing bullets.
• Fusion Dance: His Shadow merges with the cognitions of his Eight Bullets, which results in a crow-like monstrosity that looks far, far worse than the one in MHA canon.
• Hidden Depths: Although he sees his men as expendable in the grand scheme of things, the cognitions of the Eight Bullets are incredibly accurate to the actual members, down to their Undying Loyalty and Rappa's Blood Knight tendencies (as well as his begrudging respect to Chisaki).
• Knight of Cerebus: Chisaki shows that he’s more than some adult harassing or ruining the lives of those beneath him and that he’s a straight-up Villain by killing Kaneshiro with the use of his Quirk.
• The Leader: He leads the Shie Hassakai while the family matriarch is ill. Under his leadership, they went from being a yakuza clan on the verge of being wiped out to one of the most feared organizations in Japan.
• Neat Freak: Chisaki hates uncleanliness, as shown by the fact he always wears surgical gloves and getting dirty makes him break out in hives. He can control it to a degree, as shown by the fact he can stand being in an unclean room with Kaneshiro, but he takes steps to avoid sitting in a place Kaneshiro once sat in.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While there were other factors involved, if Chisaki hadn't shown up to take back Eri, who happened to run into Izuku and Sojiro, chances are Izuku and the Phantom Thieves wouldn't have found him as quickly as they did.
• Pragmatic Villainy: His reason for killing Kaneshiro. As productive as his drug operations are, they've almost always been busted by the cops and heroes, regardless of how well-trained Kaneshiro's lackies are, which would threaten the family and Chisaki's own operations. Chisaki also recognizes that, while ambition is admirable, it's also likely to make Kaneshiro betray him.
• Touch of Death: His Quirk requires him to touch things much to his chagrin, and if used on a human, his powers can result in showers of blood.
• Villainous Breakdown: Twofold in Chapter 40. He flies into an angry rage when he receives a calling card that blatantly calls him out, and said calling card is widespread throughout all of Asakusa. His Shadow also starts growing unhinged when the Thieves somehow manage to push him back, all but breaking down into a feral mess when Izuku swipes Eri's Shadow right from under him and screams at him to give her back.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Chisaki kills Kaneshiro as his drug operation could eventually endanger the family.

Mementos Targets

Natsuhiko Nakanohara

Natsuhiko Nakanohara

Shadow: Obariyon

A government worker who stalked his ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him. He's the Thieves' first target in Mementos.

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• Achilles' Heel: Electrical attacks like Captain Kidd's quickly put his Shadow on the ropes, allowing the team to finish him with an All-Out Attack.
• Alliterative Name: Natsuhiko Nakanohara.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was tossed away and abandoned by his teacher, Madarame, who proceeded to ruin his life, giving Nakanohara deep-seated abandonment issues.
• Foreshadowing: He begs Izuku to go after someone named Madarame for ruining his life.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He repents for his actions after the Thieves defeat him in Mementos, acknowledging that he was in the wrong for stalking his girlfriend due to his deep-seated abandonment issues.
• Starter Villain: He's the first Mementos target and he has his heart stolen rather easily, but his Shadow's parting words convince the Thieves to begin looking into Madarame.
• Super-Toughness: His Shadow is an Obariyon, rendering him resistant enough to physical damage to brush off Izuku's Quantico Smash.

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