The Critique Of "I Like This Quirk But Not How Is Used" Can Apply To A Lot Of Them.

You know? The amount or plot holes and inconsistencies originated from the reveal of Shigaraki being Tenko Shimura almost makes me think Horikoshi didn't originally conceived Tomura as related to Nana, but it actually was a late idea added without any proper context.

Notice how also unlike Dabi's reveal as Touya Todoroki, there's zero hints of the real identity of Shigaraki prior Kamino and even after it really doesn't change anything story wise. The reveal is just there to make AFO a more pety and sick bastard for taking the grandson of Nana, but Shigaraki could have been the grandson of anyone else it would change nothing. Does it change his relationship with Deku for example? Not really, Deku would have the same reaction for any kid.

Not even A.M gets an interesting reaction out of this beyond the inital shock.

One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.

Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.

We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.

So Nine...

Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)

But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?

Maybe, maybe not.

Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.

The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?

Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.

Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.

Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.

Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:

No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.

Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?

...

Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.

We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".

And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.

In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.

He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.

It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.

It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.

I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.

I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.

And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.

While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.

P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.

I kinda get what point you're trying to make here, but this is more about Kai character arc that the Hassaikai arc itself.

For Kai as a character I do agree on him not being as fleshed out as he could be (but disagree on the love part, I love him anyway so...).

The Overhaul arc as a storyline feels pretty consistent overall outside of thay specific part.

Besides you have to put this in the context of how it was published in the manga. Because by that point the Overhaul arc was at the time the longest arc of the series and go on for over a year which was a huge difference compared to everything else the manga had previously.

Besides is a known fact that Horikoshi wasn't emotionally okay during that time, and writing the arc with a very dark tone was not doing very good to his mental health as he said on interviews.

With that in mind it's totally possible that Horikoshi just wanted to be done with an arc that was going on forever and pass to something lighter in tone (main reason of why the school festival is almost cartoonish in comparison). That was at the cost of not expand on Chisaki as a character sadly.

As for the rest of your questions, it sounds like you don't finished the stoey of the manga so it might be spoiler so I couldn't talk about them without spoil some things.

ok so tell me if I'm wrong or overthinking this, but....

Does anyone else think Overhaul's ark was rushed and kinda half-finished? Why does every character have a fully explained back story that makes you love them no matter what, but we still don't know anything about Overhaul? Where did he come from? who are his parents? why does Pops' daughter not want anything to do with him? Is it just me? I feel like Pops neglected Kai as a kid. He's obviously mentally ill, and he had no care for that. where did he get his quirk theory from? When he said it, it sounded drilled into his head like he had heard it somewhere else. how is he connected to any of the AFO ark? he seems to be the adult version of Eri if she was never saved right? why did Pops find him wandering the streets? WHY?

His hair is majestic 🤍

I love his long hair☺️

There are many things I wonder about this guy...🥰

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A detail people tend to overlook (cause the anime fucked up the timeline) is that Geten and Cider were introduced in the same chapter in the manga.

And Re-Destro speech juxtaposed with Cider presentation.

So we have this two boys of a similar age, both have water/ice based quirks, both have white/blue-ish hair, both have the same blue eyes, and we didn't know their real identity at first (and in Geten's case is debatable if that's his real name).

What a big coincide huh?

My theory of C.H leader being a lost Himura gets more and more crazy everytime I think about it.

I love the idea of Geten and Cider, who I call Mizunami Himura, being lost siblings. And by extensions the lost cousings of the Todorokis.

@mikeellee @kite2013

As you both notice, it's kind of funny how the interactions of Dr Garaki with both Nine and Shigaraki are such different in the way the scientist treats them (despite both are just lab rats in the end).

Because see how Garaki openly insults, disrespects and laughs of Shigaraki ideas in front of his supposed friends.

Garaki probably felt almost insulted for having to keep the game going just because AFO wants Shigaraki to have this illusion of free choice, when in reality he's just a kid which they still have in the palm of their hand.

Even after MVA when Garaki shows a bit more of tolerancy to Shigaraki for mantain the illusion, in the inside he still makes fun of him because obviously he's the only person to really know Shigaraki is just a vessel playing to be the super villain.

But then we have his interview with Nine...

Notice how the aptitude and demeanor of the doctor is completely the opposite of what we saw with Shigaraki.

Despite obviously he's offering Nine be part of a shady experiment, he acts strangely polite and even shows a bit of curiosity when Nine expose his motives to be part in the experiment.

But also, Garaki thinks Nine is a dangerous individual despite in theory he should be the one in control of the situation and unlike in Shigaraki's case, Nine is alone in front of the doctor.

The biggest difference on how Garaki view Nine and Shigaraki, is that in the first case he sees a real man with strong convictions and an indomitable will who could actually change the curse of the world if he's given the chance.

This is my headcanon, but I think Garaki saw in Nine's eyes the closet to AFO in spirit and convictions (and it's interesting how both of them have the same white/silver eyes, coincidende?).

But for Shigaraki?

He only sees a dumb kid who doesn't even understand the situation he's in. A more obvious puppet who can be used the way he likes.

Shigaraki never had any chance with Garaki.

Oh I forgot to mention, but it's also funny as hell how the doctor shows more respect to Dabi in their private conversations than he does with Shigaraki in the same situation.

This happens because just like Nine, Dabi was a dangerous person who can't be controled so easily by him. So at least it gives him a bit more of respect by the crazy doctor.

BIGGEST HEAR ME OUTTT

All For One.

AFO users under dramatic lighting 🤍

Lowkey is like from top to bottom they go from less deranged to most deranged.

Shigaraki is way too boring and passive to have any believable rivalry with anyone in canon. Most of his interactions with anyone end up being flat and predictable because no matter what the other character has to say, we know Shigaraki will only focus on his "haha destruction" bs and the narrative will favor him over such character which is usually more interesting.

Nine and Overhaul on the other hand are proactive villains with real goals and methods to archive such goals.

They would be perfect rivals because they're so different yet similar at the same time.

I like your comparison with L and Kira because that's exactly the kind of rivalry with chemistry you could get if got these characters sharing same space. The moments could write themselves I swear.

P.S: There's some fanworks of Nine saving Eri and rising her.

Idk how feel about Nine beint a paternal figure, but he can't escape from his heroic heart as much he wants.

If nine and his gang were the ones who met Overhaul, how different would've things happened? Would they have created a successful partnership? Would nine care about eri when he discovers she's the centerpiece, especially since she has a quirk as crazy as his?

Now you're asking the real questions here.

But think about this: how good a meeting between a group who believes in quirk supremacy with another group who want to erase quirks from the world can possibly go?

Obviously if Nine and Chisaki meet each other and they both found about their real ideals and motivations it can make A.M and AFO look like best friends in comparison.

Yet at the same time I can help but think Overhaul and Nine would be the perfect rivals.

Not just because of their ideologies and the contrast in the way they treat their followers, but their personalities could make for interesting non hostile interactions between them.

I can see for example Nine actually being interested on learn shogi and play the game with Chisaki, both of them exchanging ideas and despite obviously hate each other they would enjoy try to surpass each other. A sort of enemies chemistry and that I love being used as a trope between bad guys.

Kai may also found nice the way Nine dresses up with good looking suits and keeps a mask almost all the time, ironically he might feel somewhat comfortable around Nine because of his manners which would add a fun twist to their rivalry.

And Nine will probably interested to learn to learn why Kai have such a complex with quirks and why he having a such godlike ability like Overhaul can't appreciate the "blessing" of born with that perfect quirk, at least on his eyes.

There's millions of possibilities with these two characters so different to each other interacting.

As for what Nine would think about Eri if he meets her? I guess he probably will try to free her from Chisaki and raise her into his own beliefs, since Nine would see Eri as a divine being who shouldn't be controled by anyone.

At least Nine would be more nice to Eri, but that's a very low bar lol.

A friend of my said I was overthinking the scene, but please the whole thing is very sus for a character like Kai and considering Chrono's blind devotion... well that's enough for raise a few eyebrowns.

This is such a fun scene when you think about the context, cause is supposed to be from Chrono's perspective.

Chrono really think he can fool us and make us think Chisaki, a person with severe misophonia, would voluntarily enter in a cage fight shirtless AND without gloves?

Especially considering we have another the flashback of the same or a similar situation from Rappa's perspective and we clearly see Chisaki doesn't take off his clothes for "fight".

Is Chrono so thirsty for Kai that he unconsciously imagines him shirtless?

Well I can't blame you at all Hari... I do the same thing all the time.

This scene lives rent free in my head 🫣

Also I wonder why Nine is nude inside that tank but Shigaraki was using a swimsuit in the same situation:

Ujiko is such a naughty bastard lol.