I Will Freak Out If This Turns Out To Be True - Blog Posts

SHIGARAKI IS BACK 🙏 BNHA 425 THEORY

spoilers below

Okay, so with the latest chapter leaks I know I’m not the only one hoping that our lord and saviour the King of Destruction has risen. We have all been in denial about this glorious hate-filled man’s death, and I know many will put this latest slew of ‘he’s back’ posts down to delulu coping.

However, I believe we are not being delulu. I firmly believe that shigaraki IS back. And that is all down to the evidence in Horikoshi’s visuals in these latest leaks.

Exhibit A: Hand Placement

Shigaraki is a character renowned for his hands - and hand symbolism in general. Is it any wonder then that one of the key things we see of this ‘random villain’ in the new leaks is a hand dragging against a wall?

Furthermore this panel where the random villain drags his hand reminds me of another panel much earlier in the story.

This page is from the My Villain Academia intro much earlier in the manga, and though it’s not identical or anything, the way both this random villain in the new chapter and shigaraki drag their hands is similar.

But if you’re not convinced by that circumstantial evidence, than listen further gentle reader…

Exhibit B: Destroying That House

As we also see in the new leaks, our random villain is emerging from the ruins of a destroyed house. This is explicit symbolism and parallelism in the story to shigaraki, whose entire arc and character centre around his desire to destroy the house and society that oppressed him. To see this random villain emerging from it now, seemingly born anew in the society which has been forever changed by shigaraki’s actions, is proof enough that this villain is shigaraki. Why else include the image of a house?

But if that doesn’t convince you, then move onto Exhibit C, the most damning evidence of all.

Exhibit C: Those Damn Grippers

We all know what shigaraki’s feet look like by now; the man will not put those dogs away. The random villain’s feet in these leaks and the tattered pants look exactly like Shigaraki’s did during the re-destro fight.

Therefore: despite his narrative shortcomings, Horikoshi is an incredible visual artist and one of the best mangakas currently in shonen. His panelling, details, and visual foreshadowing/parallels/storytelling are incredible. I do not believe in coincidence where Horikoshi’s visuals are concerned, and particularly within these leaks, where we are in the story’s epilogue and the wake of what is clearly a dissatisfied ending for shigaraki’s character (both for deku and the narrative). Shigaraki has risen, he had returned.

My fellow Shigaraki fans, at long last, we are about to get Tenko Shimura: Rising.