The 15 Best My Hero Academia Characters, Ranked (2023)

My Hero Academia has become a popular superhero anime filled with a roster of heroes performing extraordinary feats with their unique powers — or Quirks, as they’re called. As much as we love all the students at UA High School’s Class 1-A and the Pro Heroes that train them, we had to pick 15 heroes and rank them based on their popularity and the effectiveness of their Quirks.

Below are our picks for the 15 best characters from My Hero Academia. You can also check out our guide to the best anime characters of all time for more.

15. Endeavor

Quirk: Hellflame

Endeavor is able to generate and manipulate powerful flames at will, and cover his whole body in flames, which he does most of the time to keep up his imposing appearance. His flames give him a wide range of combat abilities, like large-scale flamethrowers, heat rays, and fists of fire.

The amount of damage Endeavor’s flames dole out depends on the temperature he sets them at and what he’s doing. Low-temperature flames are used to incapacitate weaker targets and minimize the strain on his body, while high-temperature flames finish off even the strongest opponents. This proves risky because dangerous levels of high heat take a toll on Endeavor, who relies on other people to hose him down.

14. Midnight

Quirk: Somnambulist

Somnambulist sounds like the name of a perfume by Mugler, but this Quirk allows Midnight to emit a sleep-inducing aroma that puts her targets to sleep if they breathe in a certain amount, making it difficult for them to fight her in close range. It works better on males than it does on females.

Midnight’s fragrance is only effective when she’s wearing clothes thin enough for her to tear off in order to release it and when her targets are not holding their breath, as Mineta (Grape Juice) had done by covering his mouth with Sero’s (Cellophane) tape during the First Term Final Exam.

13. Mina Ashido (Pinky)

Quirk: Acid

Ashido can produce acid from her skin, and her skin builds resistance to the acid in turn — although it has given her skin a pinkish appearance, hence her Hero name, Pinky. She can produce and manipulate high quantities of acid from any part of her skin. Her acid is highly corrosive; it can melt metal objects, giving her a leg up over opponents who rely on weapons and equipment that can be destroyed very easily.

Unfortunately, there’s a limit to how much acid Ashido can produce, as it can reduce her skin’s natural resistance to corrosion and dehydrate her to the point of death if she pushes her limits. To minimize the risk, she constantly produced acid to make her skin more durable against its corrosive properties during her training.

12. Tenya Ida (Ingenium)

Quirk: Engine

Any Hero who has this Quirk can manifest engine-like protrusions on any of their limbs that allow them to move at speeds higher than the average human being. In Tenya’s case, he has engines on his calves (whereas his brother Tensei has engines on his elbows).

Engine allows Tenya to travel long distances within a short period of time, which is useful when placed on missions that require reaching a faraway destination in the shortest time possible, chasing a high-speed object, or escaping an overwhelming threat. If he removes his mufflers, a new one regenerates in its place, increasing the power and efficiency of his Quirk. Fuel him up with orange juice and he’s ready to go.

11. Eijiro Kirishima (Red Riot)

Quirk: Hardening

As the name heavily suggests, Hardening allows Kirishima to make his body as hard and solid as a rock, protecting him from dangers that would otherwise be fatal to others. This Quirk, once activated, makes him so invincible that not even a bullet can make a scratch on him.

The more damage Kirishima takes in his hardened state, the more his Hardening improves, as shown when Mashirao Ojiro repeatedly attacked him with his Tail, inadvertently increasing his strength and durability. The caveats are that Kirishima can only take so much damage in battle that too much of it can cause his Quirk to slowly dissipate, and struggling to keep it active will cause him to lose stamina. However, even if it breaks down completely, he’ll follow it up with another Hardening and increase its durability and duration.

10. Hawks

Quirk: Fierce Wings

Hawks gets his name from the Quirk that gives him a pair of red wings with feathers that can be manipulated telepathically. While he’s able to fly at extraordinary speeds, his feathers can be detached at will to perform individual tasks, such as carrying people around or cutting opponents, and then reattach to his wings as long as they’re intact. The feathers also act as sensors as they feel the vibrations produced by the people and objects in their vicinity.

If too many feathers are detached or they get burned off, Hawks won’t be able to fly. Don’t worry, they grow back in two days.

9. Kyoko Jiro (Earphone Jack)

Quirk: Earphone Jack

Because of Earphone Jack, Jiro’s earlobes are shaped like headphone jacks that can be plugged into a variety of objects, even thick concrete walls. They can deal internal damage to the objects they’re plugged into when they channel the vibrations of her own heartbeat.

Jiro mostly uses her Quirk for scouting work, detecting sounds within a 12-meter radius. But if she has to fight enemies up close and personal, the jacks can act as whips that can stretch up to 6 meters and shock them with vibrations.

8. All Might

Quirk: One For All (formerly)

One For All is a transferable Quirk that can be passed down from one generation to the next with just a sample of the owner’s DNA, and allows the user to stockpile an enormous amount of raw power. This Quirk manifests itself in different ways internally and externally. In All Might’s case, it enlarged his muscles and overall body mass to give him the appearance of a cartoonishly strong superhero, putting his Quirk to good use and cementing his status and legacy as the Symbol of Peace.

All Might was the eighth holder of One For All, who received it from his mentor Nana Shimura when he was a teenager because he, like Deku, was Quirkless to begin with. After suffering severe injuries to his lungs and stomach from his first battle with All For One (whose Quirk of the same name allows him to steal other people’s Quirks), he would only use One For All and maintain his Superman-esque appearance for three hours a day, and revert back to his true skinny form (Toshinori Yagi) the rest of the time. He passed One For All down to Deku by feeding him a strand of his hair, and became Quirkless again after exhausting the remainder of his Quirk during his last battle with All For One.

7. Fumikage Tokoyami (Tsukuyomi)

Quirk: Dark Shadow

Tokoyami is able to manifest a sentient shadow monster from his body that he can materialize and contact freely. It basically acts as his guardian and living appendage that can carry out his every command.

When exposed to bright light, Dark Shadow is smaller and weaker but still displays incredible strength and defense. In total darkness, it grows bigger, stronger, and harder for Tokoyami to control, especially when he’s experiencing negative emotions, causing it to go on a rampage. Tokoyami managed to keep Dark Shadow in check by training in a dark cave, making sure it remains the same size as it was during the day when activated.

6. Momo Yaoyorozu (Creati)

Quirk: Creation

Yaoyorozu has the ability to create any object she wants, like weapons and tools, from any part of her exposed body in certain situations by transforming the molecular structure of her fat cells. In order to do that more efficiently, her costume had to be designed so that her skin is exposed from the neck down, and eat enormous amounts of food so that she has more material to work with.

This Quirk also allows Yaoyorozu to conjure up objects bigger than the surface area of her skin and even herself provided that she has enough lipids; however, they can take more time to conjure up than smaller objects. She can also create objects outside of her body as long as part of the creation is touching her body.

5. Tsuyu Asui (Froppy)

Quirk: Frog

Tsu exhibits the abilities and behaviors of a frog, including frog-like anatomy, lower-body strength in her legs, wall-clinging, a powerful extending tongue that can reach far distances, camouflaging, fast-swimming, and secreting mucus with different effects like paralysis and hiding scent —all of which she can use limitlessly and in combination with each other. Because of her frog-like anatomy, she hops instead of running but walks like a normal person, and says “Ribbit".

Her Quirk allows her to thrive in missions that take place in an aquatic environment, swimming freely underwater without losing strength or agility, making her more proficient in fighting and rescuing people underwater, whether it’s freshwater or saltwater (despite most frogs being freshwater creatures).

4. Katsuki Bakugo

Quirk: Explosion

Bakugo creates explosions of various sizes by excreting nitroglycerin-like sweat from his palms and igniting them at will, creating destructive shockwaves that often burn or shatter whatever they hit. Excess sweat makes his explosions more powerful, prolonging his battles since prolonged physical activity makes him naturally release sweat.

Bakugo also uses Explosion to propel himself through the air, blind his opponents, and release long-range blasts. However, his explosions take longer to detonate in cold weather compared to warm weather.

3. Ochaco Uraraka (Uravity)

Quirk: Zero Gravity

Uraraka removes the effects of gravity from solid objects or people by touching them with her fingertips, rendering them weightless and floating in mid-air as long as they weigh no more than 3 tons. When she closes her fingers together, the effects of her Quirk are canceled.

She uses her Quirk directly on her opponents by getting close enough to make contact with them through her fingers. Her abilities prove extremely useful during rescue missions in disaster zones where she can levitate wreckage when an opponent isn’t looking and release the debris on them as a long-range projectile attack or holding onto them to use as a melee weapon.

2. Izuku Midoriya (Deku)

Quirk: One For All

Deku is the ninth and current holder of One For All, having inherited it from All Might after eating a strand of his hair. Upon gaining One For All, Deku’s body wasn’t used to its extreme power, putting his body at risk of blowing apart, so he had to train with All Might to keep it under control for 10 months in preparation for UA High School’s entrance exam. Even after that, using One For All resulted in him breaking his limbs.

Deku managed to break the habit of hurting himself after learning to channel One For All evenly throughout his body and honing the Quirk as his own, using a certain percentage of it at a time. The Quirk causes Deku’s body to generate green lightning bolts when he activates One For All: Full Cowl, which mostly involves the use of his legs. Because One For All has been passed down for generations, other abilities have manifested within Deku, such as Blackwhip, inherited from the fifth user, Daigoro Banjo.

1. Shoto Todoroki (Shoto)

Quirk: Half Cold, Half Hot

Todoroki has the ability to generate ice, frost, and cold from the right side of his body, and fire, flames, and heat from his left. He developed Half-Cold Half-Hot thanks to a fusion of his father Endeavor’s Hellflame and his mother Rei’s Frost through a Quirk Marriage, a type of marriage arranged for the sole purpose of choosing and/or enhancing a specific Quirk to be passed down the bloodline — a practice that is considered unethical in the eyes of society.

Due to his hatred of his fire abilities that resulted from his father’s abuse during his childhood, Todoroki preferred using the right side of his body, molding ice and frost for offense and defense, freezing anything he touches, and creating protective barriers, stairs for elevation, or a wave of ice to surf through. He can also stack ice shards behind his back to propel himself forward, freezing the ground to skate on it. He initially used fire abilities to thaw out victims of his freezing attacks, but began to embrace them after fighting Deku at the UA Sports Festival and use both ice and fire attacks in equal balance.

Looking for more anime? Take a look at our guide to the best anime of all time and the best anime on Netflix for our top suggestions.