WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 5 of My Hero Academia, now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
Every one of its sizeable cast has undergone some amount of growth over the course of the My Hero Academia anime. None more so than the series’ leading man, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya. Starting from the humblest of beginnings, Deku has continually defied expectations and critics by rising to increasingly higher heights in his journey towards mastering his inherited Quirk, One For All.
His goal from the beginning has been becoming the world's greatest hero, and while he’s not quite there yet, he’s well on his way to realizing it. In honor of MHA reaching its 100th episode milestone, let's take a look at how far Deku has come so far.
Although Deku admired heroes and wanted to be one since infancy, one crucial fact stood in his way. He was born without a Quirk. With more and more powerful villains popping up each day, the idea of a hero without a Quirk seemed ludicrous at the time, but he never gave up. He studied his idols in hope that that knowledge would pay off in the future.
Deku’s favorite hero was All Might and he wanted to be a hero just like him -- one who always saved everyone no matter what danger they were in. All Might happened to be on the scene when Deku exemplified this very virtue early on in MHA, and that made him decide to pass on his Quirk to Deku. But it wasn’t easy. One For All was too powerful for Deku’s unprepared body to inherit right away. He needed to get stronger before receiving it and found himself fighting against the clock to do so.
Deku wanted to attend All Might’s alma mater, U.A. High School. With the entrance exam only 10 months away, he needed to inherit One For All within that time limit. Working together with All Might, the two formed a rigorous training regimen, which Deku barely made it through -- inheriting One For All the morning of the exam. He also passed the exam by the skin of his teeth but interestingly, it wasn’t his power that made U.A. acknowledge him: It was his selfless nature and genuine desire to save others.
This was just the beginning of Deku's journey. His inexperience with his recently acquired Quirk put him miles behind his classmates who’d been practicing with theirs all their lives. It was at this point that his hero fanboy knowledge began to pay off, though. Adapting the moves of the Pro Heroes he’d studied during training allowed him to just about keep up with his classmates. He couldn’t rely on One For All too much at that point either as it was too dangerous. He had yet to learn how to control it.
Anytime Deku activated One For All, the power would rush out at 100 percent. He had built his body up so he could contain the Quirk but it wasn’t yet strong enough to be maintained at max power. Fro Deku, using One For All meant completely wrecking whichever part of his body he channeled it through, often incapacitating him. So, Deku limited himself to fighting with only his fingers. This new strategy wasn’t very sustainable, though. At best, it meant a close victory if he had backup and at worst, all it did was delay an inevitable defeat.
It wasn’t until his internship with Gran Torino that Deku made some progress with One For All. A conversation about undercooked taiyaki gave him the idea of continually activating One For All throughout his body, rather than just when he needed to strike. He also limited himself to using just five percent of his full power. Even that made a dramatic difference. Every one of his physical abilities was boosted past regular human capabilities. After a couple of training sessions with Gran Torino, he was able to keep it activated indefinitely. Deku dubbed this new power-up move “Full Cowling.”
Full Cowling put Deku on a more equal footing with his classmates. Just five percent of his power was enough to make him one of Class 1-A’s powerhouses, but he couldn’t remain static. Deku had managed to control One For All, to an extent, but against overwhelmingly powerful opponents, he tended to fall back into bad habits. The occasional broken arm didn’t seem like much of an issue initially... until the injuries began piling up.
After a particularly gruesome battle, during which Deku pushed himself farther than he ever had before, he received some bad news from his doctor. The physician told Deku that he would eventually lose the use of his arms if he continued destroying them in that fashion. The thought of this terrified Deku, but that wasn’t the only reason he abandoned his self-sacrificing fight style.
Deku had sacrificed his arms to beat Muscular but the villain’s teammates still carried out their plan. The League captured Katsuki Bakugo and, with his arms out of commission, Deku could only watch as they whisked his friend away; his earlier sacrifice coming back to bite him. Being unable to save Bakugo because of his recklessness was so at odds with the idea of the hero he was trying to be that Deku vowed never to hurt himself to win a battle again.
Until then, Deku had depended on a single shot of One For All at 100 percent as a trump card against any opponent. The realization that he might be unable to save others by solely focusing on winning a fight made him discard this strategy. The inspiration he needed to switch up his fighting style came from none other than All Might. He told Deku to stop imitating him so much and truly make One For All his own Quirk. That advice, and some help from Mei Hatsume from the Support Course, helped Deku invent the “Shoot Style.”
With Shoot Style, Deku stopped favoring punches like All Might did and instead focused on his legs. Armed with his newly minted steel-toed boots and some tips from 1-A’s speedster, Tenya Lida, he was able to use Shoot Style to a great extent during his Provisional Hero license exam, which he passed. Apart from preserving his arms, Shoot Style also gave him more versatility in battle.
Shoot Style was great for close-quarters fights and clearing obstacles but Deku still was vulnerable in long-range battles. Working together with All Might, he combined his newfound regulation of One For All with his very first strategy -- fighting with his fingers. Raising his limit to 20 percent right at the moment of impact allowed Deku to release high-pressure jets of air from them. A new glove support item allowed him to further focus this new attack, and "Air Force" was born.
Since he first created Full Cowling, Deku’s body had grown strong enough to handle up to eight percent of One For All’s full power. 20 percent was a dramatic leap forward but after a lot of practice, he was able to use Air Force with minimal drawbacks. Constantly pushing his limits with One For All was bound to have more repercussions, but nothing could have prepared Deku for what the Quirk had in store for him.
During the fifth Joint Training match with Class 1-B, a strange new power spilled out of Deku. Powerful black tendrils spiraled from his body and out of control, wreaking havoc around the arena and dragging him along for the ride. Its rampage was quickly stopped by Shinso’s Brainwashing but that also gave Deku a vision of a previous One For All holder.
The former One For All inheritor promised Deku that apart from Blackwhip (originally his Quirk which had just manifested in Deku), Deku would go on to unlock six more Quirks that would aid him in his journey. He also told Deku that the secret to controlling Blackwhip, One For All and everything that came with it was controlling his heart. Armed with this new information, Deku successfully reigned in Blackwhip but decided it was unlikely he'd use this new Quirk often.
Since receiving One For All, Deku has done a great job of adapting it to his current limitations in MHA. He’s adept enough with the Quirk now to call it his own but he’s only just scratched its surface. His journey towards becoming the greatest hero is still only just beginning.
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