My Hero Academia: The Strongest Villains, Ranked

Summary

• Villains in My Hero Academia are powerful due to their Quirks, not just physical strength.
• Characters like Twice, Toga, Lady Nagant showcase unique and dangerous Quirk abilities.
• Antagonists like Hood, Gigantomachia, and All For One pose significant challenges to heroes.

In order for the stakes of any series to feel high and exciting, the villains always need to be powerful enough to keep the heroes on the backfoot, and it’s fair to say there are more than a few antagonists in My Hero Academia who fit that description. However, strength can take many forms in this series. On the one hand, being able to physically overcome a hero is important, but what makes a lot of villains so dangerous and powerful is their Quirks.

Quirks come in all kinds of forms, but when a person decides to dedicate their powers to committing crimes and inflicting pain and suffering, it can make them extremely difficult for the heroes to deal with. As the story has progressed, many villains, some of whom initially didn’t seem all that intimidating, have gradually evolved into absurdly powerful monsters who even the top Pro-Heroes have a hard time taking down. With that being said, it’s time to take a closer look at the abilities and feats of these My Hero Academia antagonists to see how they compare when looking purely at overall strength. Before jumping in, this list contains major spoilers for all of My Hero Academia and will only focus on villains from the mainline series, so those seen in the movies and Vigilantes won’t be counted.

This list contains spoilers!

11

Twice

Twice’s Quirk Allows Him To Always Outnumber His Opponents With Clones

• First Appearance: Episode 43

Twice doesn’t exactly get along with his Quirk all that well, considering it essentially caused him to lose his mind due to creating so many clones of himself and not being able to recognize whether he was the original user or not. Despite that, though, he eventually comes to understand its true potential, leading him to unleash one of the most devastating attacks in the entire series: Sad Man’s Parade.

When Twice uses this ability, he spawns an infinite number of clones who, during the Meta Liberation War, were able to swarm an entire city in a matter of seconds. This attack would be so dangerous that the heroes were forced to send Hawks to personally assassinate Twice, just to ensure he wouldn’t become a big problem for them to deal with in the future.

10

Toga

Being Able To Steal Other People’s Quirks Makes Toga A Dangerous And Very Unpredictable Villain To Deal With

• First Appearance: Episode 31

Toga became an outcast of society due to her obsession with consuming blood, but while she was made to feel ashamed of this power, the young and sadistic villain would make effective use of it while committing her many crimes with the League. After consuming the blood of Uraraka, for example, Toga was able to temporarily transform into the student and use her Gravity Quirk to send Curious plummeting to her death.

She would also use it during the final war to turn into the late Twice, allowing her to unleash Sad Man’s Parade to flood the battlefield full of clones. While much of her power is owed to her Quirk, Toga is also no slouch when it comes to physical confrontations, as shown when she almost kills Uraraka with a knife during their fateful duel at the end of the story.

9

Lady Nagant

Japan’s Top Marksman Can Make Quick Work Of An Enemy, No Matter The Range

• First Appearance: Episode 133

Though Lady Nagant was once a hero, she eventually became disillusioned with hero society after being used as little more than a pawn, which eventually led her to All For One. Nagant isn’t just any random criminal, though; she’s a villain who is capable of killing her targets from an incredible range, thanks to her sharpshooting skills and Rifle Quirk.

Her bullets even have the ability to curve around buildings, meaning if a hero is a little on the slower side, they can easily get caught out by one of her shots. Midoriya would be forced to use multiple of his Quirks to avoid Nagant’s firepower, though the average hero would struggle a lot more when tasked with taking her down.

8

Muscular

The Muscle Augmentation Quirk Provides Goto With Freakish Strength And Durability

• First Appearance: Episode 39

It’s honestly quite surprising that Muscular appears so early on in the series, considering how powerful this guy is. As a mass murderer who is obsessed with inflicting as much pain and suffering as possible, Muscular is a truly dangerous individual who uses his Muscle Augmentation Quirk to pulverize any heroes who try to slow him down.

He is most infamous for killing the Pro-Hero duo known as Water Hose, and though his carnage was eventually stopped by Midoriya, this was only once the young student decided to go 100% with One For All, tearing his own body apart in the process. Muscular would be much more easily apprehended by Midoriya later in the story, but this was only because the latter was able to utilize multiple of the Vestige’s Quirks at once by that point.

7

U.S.J. Nomu

Even All Might Had A Hard Time Getting Past This Nomu’s Shock Absorption

• First Appearance: Episode 8

Admittedly, the ferocious Nomu that shows up out of nowhere in the U.S.J arc was specifically designed to counteract All Might, so it makes sense why this freaky villain is so incredibly strong. The U.S.J. Nomu was more than happy to crush any puny heroes who tried to step up to him with his giant fists and explosive attacks, but what really makes him such a formidable fighter is his durability.

With the Shock Absorption Quirk running through its body, this Nomu was able to survive a barrage of punches from All Might, and considering one would usually be enough to put a villain away, it just goes to show how formidable this beast truly is. The U.S.J. Nomu could still be restrained when using the right tool or Quirk, but anyone who doesn’t possess One For All will have a pretty miserable time facing it one-on-one.

6

Overhaul

Overhaul Can Use His Quirk In Plenty of Creative Ways To Take Down A Hero

• First Appearance: Episode 65

Overhaul comes across as more of a tactician rather than a fighter, but when he is forced to engage in combat, he can become incredibly tricky to take down. In his battle with Mirio, Overhaul uses his Quirk to manipulate the surrounding environment until, eventually, he is forced to fuse himself with his close ally, Shin.

When Overhaul entered his monstrous form, Midoriya needed to use multiple attacks at 100% to break through the Yakuza member’s defenses, and if Eri hadn’t been there to support him, it’s highly unlikely Overhaul would have been stopped at all. Overhaul is a master strategist with a deadly Quirk, which he can use in plenty of creative ways to outplay his opponents.

5

Dabi

Dabi Has Caused An Immeasurable Amount Of Damage With His Powerful Blueflame Quirk

• First Appearance: Episode 31

Hellfire, the Quirk owned by Endeavor, is already recognized as being one of the strongest hero Quirks in the series, but Dabi’s flames are on a whole different level. Though Dabi’s blue flames deal significant damage to his own body, he has become so numb to the feeling that he is capable of throwing out plenty of highly dangerous attacks without needing to worry about the drawbacks.

For example, Dabi’s flames were hot enough to scorch Hawk’s wings, putting the number 2 hero out of action for quite a while and severely weakening the heroes’ overall strength. As shown during the final war, when Dabi goes into overdrive, his Quirk can become so powerful that it can wipe out an entire city, making it easy to understand why he became such a major worry for the heroes toward the end of the series.

4

Hood

Hood Shows The Frightening Potential Of The High-End Nomus

• First Appearance: Episode 87

As the perfect High-End Nomu, Hood is a prime example of how absurdly overpowered these hideous creations can be when they are given the time to grow and mature. Hood was so powerful that he was able to go toe-to-toe with the two best heroes, Endeavor and Hawks, at the same time, and could only be defeated by the former using his almighty Prominence Burn blast.

Not only that, but Hood is also shown to be much smarter than the other Nomu, allowing him to use his arsenal of powerful abilities more strategically as opposed to just mindlessly charging toward the target. Hood only shows up for a single arc, but in that limited screentime, he proves himself to be one of the strongest foes the heroes have ever had to face.

3

Gigantomachia

An Incredibly Durable Monster Capable Of Flattening Entire Cities To The Ground

• First Appearance: Episode 31

Despite initially seeming like little more than a big, mindless brute, Gigantomachia makes a massive impact on the story. This intimidating behemoth was created by All For One to be an unstoppable killing machine who would only respond to his master’s voice, making him an invaluable tool for the villain to utilize at his will. Gigantomachia would put his excessive strength and durability on full display when going against the League of Villains, where he held out for weeks on end without breaking a sweat.

While there have been some heroes who have managed to restrain Gigantomachia, such as Jeanist and Shinso, actually being able to topple him in combat is no easy feat. Only Mt. Lady was able to hold Gigantomachia off with physical strength, but even she, despite being a giant, was eventually thrown aside by All For One’s mighty creation.

2

All For One

All For One Has A Wide Selection Of Quirks At His Disposal To Use In A Fight

• First Appearance: Episode 33

Most of the time, All For One will be influencing the story from behind the scenes, acting as a mentor to Shigaraki and the rest of the League of Villains. This shouldn’t imply that he can’t hold his own in a fight, though, as All For One’s wide array of Quirks means he can dish out an incredible amount of damage while keeping himself protected. In his fight against All Might during the Hideout Raid Arc, he would push the top hero to his absolute limit and would utilize Quirks like Impact Recoil to defend against All Might’s hard-hitting attacks.

In the final war, he goes a step further by using the Rewind Quirk to become a younger and stronger version of himself whose underlying abilities make it easy for him to annihilate entire groups of heroes at a moment’s notice. He may not possess Shigaraki’s overpowered Decay Quirk, but this doesn’t take much away from All For One’s strength as a fighter.

1

Tomura Shigaraki

Inheriting All For One And Awakening His Decay Quirk Turned Shigaraki Into An Unstoppable Villain

• First Appearance: Episode 8

Shigaraki was already strong enough when he was only in possession of the Decay Quirk, but after he was gifted All For One by Dr Garaki and awakened Decay’s true potential, his power was boosted to a whole different level. Shigaraki’s regenerative Quirks would allow him to tank numerous hits from the top hero of America, Star and Stripe, and even survive a nuclear explosion before killing the Pro-Hero for good.

During the final war, the heroes are so terrified of Shigaraki’s power that they are forced to fight him in a floating fortress since if he touched the floor even a single time, the entire area and everyone in it would be obliterated. Even an entire army of heroes could barely land a scratch on Shigaraki, and in the end, he could only be brought down by Midoriya, literally forcing One For All into Shigaraki, sacrificing his own Quirk to defeat the villain once and for all.