Monoma, not Deku, was All For One's natural enemy in My Hero Academia

Modified Nov 25, 2024 08:30 GMT

My Hero Academia could have had an interesting confrontation between Monoma and AFO (Image via Bones).

My Hero Academia has a cast with a lot of different and dynamic abilities, with the character of Neito Monoma from Class 1B being one of the most underrated. That is because his Quirk is all about copying another person's powers after physical contact, thus leading to an interesting confrontation with the main villain of the series, All For One.

When considering some of the limitations Monoma's Quirk has, it is still feasible within My Hero Academia canon that he could copy All For One's abilities for five minutes. This means that he has the ability to take and send Quirks, which could have ended the story a lot earlier and that is the most probable reason why author Kohei Horikoshi didn't go in that direction.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda as a publication.

Monoma could have been an interesting counter against All For One in My Hero Academia

Prime All For One as seen in the anime (Image via Bones).

Neito Monoma's Quirk allows him to copy another's ability through physical contact for five minutes, storing multiple Quirks but using only one at a time. While he couldn't copy the Quirks All For One had collected, he could potentially copy the power to steal and transfer Quirks. This might have allowed Monoma to strip All For One of his abilities, making him vulnerable and possibly ending the story sooner—a direction likely avoided by author Kohei Horikoshi for narrative reasons.

The most obvious reason is that this direction would be a lot less exciting and Monoma doesn't hold any meaningful connection to All For One as a foil. The entirety of the story constructed Deku's use of One For All as the path to defeat the villain, which is why it was a better way to go.

More details of this situation

Monoma as seen in the anime (Image via Bones).

There is also the fact that Neito Monoma has shown in My Hero Academia that he is a very capable user of Quirks, evidenced by the times he copied Deku's One For All. He realized from the get-go that he couldn't produce as much power as the protagonist, so this means that the 1B student can quickly get a good grasp of the nature of the Quirks he copies.

It was also stated in the series that he can only store up to three Quirks and can bypass his five-minute limit if he maintains physical contact, as evidenced when he kept a hold of Shota Aizawa to use his Erasure powers. All For One wouldn't allow that constant physical contact but he could transfer the Quirk quickly to someone who doesn't have powers to store it, which could be All Might at the end of the series, thus giving an ironic ending to the villain.

Final thoughts

Neito Monoma proved to be a good asset in the final war arc to neutralize Tomura Shigaraki to a degree in My Hero Academia. However, when considering this context, he could have been key to defeat All For One but would have removed a lot of tension from the plot.

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Edited by Divya Singh