Why does Shigaraki wear hands on his body in My Hero Academia?

New My Hero Academia fans might wonder why Shigaraki wears some hands on his head and body. After all, such an outfit is certainly outlandish. However, there is an actual reason why he has all of these hands as a core part of his design, and it has been explained in the series.

What you see on Shigaraki aren't random hands. In fact, they are all hands of his family members that he's killed. Kyudai Garaki embalmed the hands, so they wouldn't fade to nothingness. Hence, My Hero Academia fans don't see any natural decay associated with dead bodies on those hands.

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Shigaraki wears the hands of his dead family members on himself in My Hero Academia

Another look at his design (Image via Bones)

A character's design usually serves a purpose of some kind. Such a statement is especially true for the main antagonist, more so when it comes to a bizarre outfit like the one Tomura Shigaraki wears. Most villains do not have random body parts as a core aspect of their design.

In his case, each hand comes from a different person. The vast majority of the hands that we see on him actually come from his family.

This visualizes whose hands are on him (Image via Weekly Shōnen Jump)

Chapter 270 of the My Hero Academia manga even makes it explicit who the original owners of each hand are. Here is a summary of each location:

• Face: Koto Shimura (his father)
• Back of head: Nana Shimura (his paternal grandmother)
• Neck: Nao Shimura (his mother)
• Upper arms: Chizuo (his maternal grandfather)
• Elbows: Mako (his maternal grandmother)
• Wrists: Hana Shimura (his sister)

It is worth mentioning that some of the other hands on Shigaraki are from random people he killed. The aforementioned ones are the most important ones, and it makes sense from a somewhat twisted perspective why he would never forget them.

The above video shows how Tomura Shigaraki destroyed his entire family. Everything happened very quickly, yet it was long enough to establish Shigaraki's mindset and the personalities of his victims. Most of their bodies ended up decaying, but their hands remained.

It's an emotional backstory that most My Hero Academia fans can remember, although it is something newer fans might not have seen yet. After all, Shigaraki's backstory isn't explained right away, and any new anime fan who just started watching the show, might, quite understandably, have questions.

His design changes quite a bit as the series progresses (Image via Weekly Shōnen Jump)

It is worth noting that he doesn't always wear these hands. His match with Re-Destro reveals All For One giving him these limbs, only for them to be destroyed as the battle progresses. The main hand that he used to wear on his body, the one on his face, was his father's.

What was once a core part of Tomura's design became a distant memory in his past, which is part of the reason he was capable of overcoming Re-Destro in My Hero Academia.

His design would change a bit from that point on, with the above image coming from the Final War Arc, which happened long after his bout with Re-Destro.