Shigaraki isn’t actually the biggest killer in My Hero Academia

Shigaraki and All For One may be My Hero Academia’s central baddies, but there’s one accomplishment they miss out on across the manga and anime.

My Hero Academia Chapter 430 brings the entire story to a close. We see Deku and his fellow Class 1-A students for the last time in a touching epilogue from creator Kohei Horikoshi.

The My Hero Academia ending has fans picking out particular details from throughout the narrative, and one that’s gotten traction is a slightly odd stat involving the baddies. Only one of them actually kills a main character, and it’s not Shigaraki.

Overhaul has that particular blood on their hands, from taking out Nighteye, All Might’s former sidekick. Nighteye is killed in Chapter 161, during the Shie Hassaikai Arc (or Season 4, Episode 14 of the superhero anime).

That’s the most prolific death on the side of the heroes – on-screen at least, as Midnight died off-screen. Shigaraki’s biggest kills are Gigantomachia and Stain, a pair of antagonists.

“My Hero Academia is not really that big on killing off characters,” one Reddit comment states. “Grand Torino had an arm-sized hole punched through his torso. He somehow lived despite not serving the story in any way another character couldn’t have,” says another, pointing out the plot armor Kohei gives characters.

If you look through the best My Hero Academia fights, you’ll find some heinous injuries, but almost no executions. Sure, Star and Stripe meets her end, but she was a one-off bit part.

“Didn’t even last 10 chapters, had a (maybe) major impact but not even a major character in the slightest, everyone calls her a plot device,” a Redditor says of Star and Stripe, really placing her existence in context.

Ultimately, Kohei’s work exists in league with the MCU. Villains die left and right, but meaningful deaths on the good side are few and far between.

If you’d like to go deeper on the franchise, check out our guides to Deku’s father, Deku and Ochako, and the most powerful Quirks.