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It has been five years since My Hero Academia first started airing, bringing a world full of superheroes and supervillains to its audience. After eventual end of Naruto Shippuden, and Bleach not going forward with animating its final arc then, fans of the shonen genre were left with an empty hole to deal with. Luckily My Hero Academia arrived just in time to give shonen fans the thrill and excitement they were missing. My Hero Academia is a show about a quirkless boy, Izuku Midoriya, who more than anything wanted to be a hero. His ideal was a hero named All Might, who was known to be the number one hero in Japan.
Throughout the series there have been many powerful heroes and unique quirks that have made the show as fun as it is. However, in order to justify Midoriya's role as the protagonist, many characters have had to either be sidelined or nerfed. This choice has not always resonated well with fans as they wanted to see more from other characters as well. Here are some characters who were nerfed either for serving the plot or just because the writers forgot how to handle them.
5 Denki Kaminari
Denki Kaminari has one of the most interesting quirks in class 1-A, that being Electrification. He can generate electricity and release it over a wide are. He can also act as a lightning rod and attract electricity towards him. Given his abilities, his quirk should make him an excellent fighter, but due to certain restrictions he ends being quite nerfed.
First Kaminari cannot control where his released electricity hits, making it a wild card. But the thing that truly breaks this character is the fact that when he uses his quirk beyond his wattage limit his brain gets fried, and he becomes a vulnerable idiot for about an hour.
4 Fumikage Tokoyami
Another top contender form class 1-A, Fumikage Tokoyami is the wielder of the quirk known as Dark Shadow. This is one of the most powerful quirks seen among the students. Dark Shadow is more than just a quirk, it is a separate being that coexists with Fumikage. Dark Shadow has amazing agility and strength and can even talk. Fumikage can even use it to form wings, allowing him to fly.
Dark Shadow is one of the most versatile quirk in the series, however its biggest weakness is that Dark Sahdow becomes weaker, the brighter his surrounding gets. Thus, at daytime or in bright places Fumikage's quirk gets heavily nerfed making him quite prone to being defeated. This weakness has been exploited many times in the show. Conversely, when there is too much darkness, Fumikage ends up losing control over his quirk, making him a danger to his own team.
3 Shoto Todoroki
Shoto Todoroki is one of the strongest heroes to emerge from class 1-A. He is the son of the Pro hero Endeavour, and wields not one but two powerful quirks (Half-Cold and Half Hot), both meant to compliment each other. Shoto has incredible abilities and a quick mind that makes him win over his opponents often. By the end of season 2, fans were able to see how strong Shoto really was in his battle against Midoriya in the Sports Festival.
Given his potential, Shoto should already be at par with many Pro heroes, but he has been constantly nerfed for plot convenience ever since the end of season 2. Either he gets paired with opponents who can endure both his quirks or has to deal with his internal baggage that ends up hindering his abilities.
2 All Might
Toshinori Yagi is the man behind the hero name All Might, who was the eighth holder of the quirk One for All. All Might's existence served as a beacon of hope to his entire nation, and he was often regarded as the Symbol of Peace. Moreover, He remained the number one Pro Hero for over three decades; keeping the country safe and supervillains at bay. However, By the time the events of My Hero Academia unfold, All Might had already been significantly nerfed due to an off-screen battle against the ferocious villain All for One.
As a result of that fight, All Might was gravely injured which initiated the slow decline of his powers. It was due to his worsening condition that All Might started looking for a successor and eventually passed on the torch to Izuku Midoriya. It is understandable why All Might had to be nerfed, as it served as a key factor in developing Midoriya's character. However, Fans still have not seen what All Might's power looked like in his prime. Despite being nerfed All Might remained the strongest Hero up until his last stand against One for All in season 3.
1 Mirio Togata
Mirio Togata, also known as Lemellion was a student of class 3-B at U. A. High School. He was one of the top three students at U.A. and was chosen to be the best candidate for inheriting All Might's quirk before All Might met Midoriya. Mirio's quirk, Permeation, was not one of the best initially, but the way he refined and utilized it made him near impossible to defeat. His quirk aside, Mirio had exceptional intellect and a strong will to help others.
Fans were amazed to see Mirio take on the whole class of 1-A, which showed exactly how powerful he was. After setting him up so perfectly, the writer then decided that Mirio's existence was a potential hurdle to the narrative and thus had him lose his powers in the fight against the villain Overhaul. Even after losing his quirk however, Mirio fought exceptionally and held his own against the evil sociopath showing just how worthy of a hero he really is.
My Hero Academia is available on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Funimation