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The fandom of the author and illustrator, Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia manga series is known for its varied opinions and spirited debates. From power scaling to the literary techniques used by Horikoshi, the series’ fanbase always seems to have different opinions.
One such topic which the My Hero Academia fanbase seems to be eternally divided on is whether or not Shoto Todoroki can truly be considered a tritagonist. While this may seem like an easy topic to find an answer to, there are a plethora of arguments that can be made in support of either side.
The tritagonist is a character who comes third in the line of importance after the protagonist and deuteragonist.
Lack of relevance and importance to overall story of My Hero Academia and more arguments against Shoto as tritagonist
What is typically a clear-cut decision for most other series becomes a muddied mess of debates and opinions for the My Hero Academia fanbase. It seems as if the split is directly down the middle, with one half believing that Shoto Todoroki can be called the series’ tritagonist, and the other half arguing that he can’t be.
Even worse is that each side has a rather legitimate argument. While his overall presence in and relevance to the overarching series kneecaps the argument for him being a tritagonist, a few specific moments of relevance keep its head above water. One example of the latter is his fighting protagonist Izuku Midoriya in the U.A. Sports Festival arc, where their growths were briefly intertwined.
A similar moment comes in the Vs. Hero Killer arc, which sees Shoto rush to Midoriya’s side when the latter first confronts the Hero Killer, Stain. The two also have their growths intertwined here, with each learning a valuable lesson about being a hero from this experience. There are other similar moments in My Hero Academia, including one which substitutes deuteragonist Katsuki Bakugo for Midoriya.
There’s also his having an overarching storyline throughout the series in the form of the Todoroki family drama. The focus on this storyline also gives him a complete backstory, highlighting the Todoroki family’s history as it relates to Shoto’s character. However, this can be argued both for and against him being considered a tritagonist.
The argument against him being a tritagonist, which stems from this is that the Todoroki family drama in My Hero Academia from here on doesn’t primarily focus on Shoto. Instead, it highlights the relationship Endeavor (Enji Todoroki) and his son Dabi (Toya Todoroki) have with one another, with Shoto being somewhat pushed to the side.
That’s not to say he’s completely removed from the storyline, as he’s still given the role of being the one who can fight Toya since Enji can’t bring himself to do so. However, as the latest issues of the manga have shown, he isn’t really given the opportunity to do this either, with Toya recently escaping Shoto’s clutches and making his way to Enji.
There’s also the fact that his perspective is very rarely if ever, used in My Hero Academia. While even Bakugo is given some introspective moments which play into the larger story, Shoto’s moments of this nature mainly focus on the Todoroki family drama. Even in this narrow frame, his introspective moments are very few.
Similarly, he’s very often sidelined and counted in with the rest of Class 1-A, rather than being part of the focus group alongside Bakugo and Midoriya. In fact, the biggest spotlight he gets is in the non-canon World Heroes’ Mission movie, which is not part of the mainline series.
Having one of his brightest spotlights be considered non-canon is a major kneecap to the argument for him being a tritagonist.
In summation
Resultantly, it becomes clear that, in a classic literary definition, Shoto Todoroki cannot be called the tritagonist of My Hero Academia. However, he is one of the most important, significant, and relevant supporting characters in the series, just shy of crossing the line into tritagonist territory.
Follow along for more My Hero Academia anime, manga, and live-action news, as well as general anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2023 progresses.
