My Hero Academia: All For Contrasts

Don't make a character without planning his opposites.

Preface!

There’s no reason you need to know this, but My Hero Academia is the defacto favorite in my household because my wife is Midoriya’s biggest fan. Although she calls him Roy, just because.

So trust me when I say that she has been asking me, oh so many times, when I was going to write something about Roy. Also, I’m going to refer to Midoriya as Roy this entire piece, so just deal with it.

I tried to find something to write about. I went out of my way looking. I really do like My Hero Academia, I love the sheer amount of characters, I love the sense of humor and the superhero dynamic. But for the most part, everything felt simple and approachable, nothing that leaped out as “wow, look what they did here.”

The problem with my search for subject matter, however, was that I was looking too hard.

Preface over.

I’ve been getting into the weeds with Manga theory, and one stop that has been particularly meaningful is Manga in Theory and Practice, by Hirohiko Araki, renowned mangaka of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures. There is so much in this wonderful craft book for creators in any medium, but it’s primarily there for creators with a connection to manga.

One of the clearest, simplest and—in my opinion—most unanimously agreeable notions that Araki argues is that a hero and a villain should be opposites of each other. Foils is the fancy term for it, if you care. When characters are foils, they make a pretty dynamic pairing, no matter what form that pairing takes — friends, lovers, enemies, etc. There are so many wonderful foils in literature and beyond—Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Velma and Daphne, Jekyll and Hyde, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter, the list goes on and on.

How the story uses these foils is what makes them really stand out. Holmes and Watson are crime-solving partners, same as Velma and Daphne (and the gang). Jekyll and Hyde are the same person (spoiler?), Draco and Harry are rivals. So on and so forth. Foils can and should be used in any number of ways.

My Hero Academia uses the power of foils like no other. I kept wondering why I never found Roy as unbearable as I find most perfect protagonists, but it wasn’t until reading Manga in Theory and Practice that I put it all together. It’s not the protagonist, it’s the characters he contrasts with.

More on that in a second. First, let’s set the table with the big foil showdown at the heart of My Hero Academia. The main villain has a power called All For One and the main hero has one called One For All. It’s right there, this almost yin and yang notion that they are directly responding to each other. All For One is selfish and egomaniacal, he wants everyone’s powers for himself so that he can rule the world. One For All is a single superpower, exceptionally strong, dedicated to ensuring that everyone is safe from All For One.

That right there sounds like a pretty simple, easy foil. But My Hero Academia doesn’t make that the story, they take a single splinter named Roy and wedge him into that foil formula. He steps in to take the place of one-half of the foil and has to learn how to uphold that responsibility, all while the nefarious All For One is still making things happen, along with his legion of villains.

As Roy finds out, he can’t do it alone. And as heroes come and go to protect him and ensure he can grow into this power, he feels the need to isolate himself to protect them, and goes off on his own, before realizing he can’t do this on his own. It’s heartwarming, honestly, I’m not being facetious.

You know what story that sounds just like? Lord of the Rings. Frodo is tasked with saving the world, he can’t do it alone, and as the fellowship protects him and tries to ensure he can destroy the ring, Frodo feels the need to isolate himself to protect them and goes off on his own, before realizing he can’t do this on his own.

Lord of the Rings is one big foil. Sauron is huge and powerful and evil, Frodo is small and weak and good. Frodo requires a hell of a lot more help than Sauron does, just like how Roy requires a lot more help than All For One. But that’s what makes the story, right? Seeds of good overcome mountains of evil. We, the reader, hope that the seeds will grow strong enough to overtake the mountains. Well, we know they will, honestly, but we don’t know who might be chopped down along the way.

Still, in my search for why I’m not annoyed by Roy’s perfection or by the obvious battle lines of My Hero Academia, that wasn’t the answer. Sure, it has the same structure as Lord of the Rings, but that’s just the heroes journey.

Rather, the answer I found was not in the grandiose, but in returning to the idea of foils. All For One and One For All are complete foils of each other, but that’s not the hook of My Hero Academia. Not really. The hook is the other foils. And there are just so many.

One of the reasons I find myself gravitating towards Roy so much is that he has so many foils around him who make for dynamic relationships of all shapes and moralities. I often compare Roy with Tanjiro, from Demon Slayer, but Tanjiro doesn’t really have a similar set-up. He is in a foil triangle with Zenitsu and Inosuke, but there’s no villain or rival that foils him the same way that Midoriya—sorry honey, Roy—gets foiled.

Roy is foiled by Bakugo. Where Roy is calm, quiet and kind, Bakugo is intense, loud and rude. Personality-wise, they are foils of each other, and that creates a fantastic frenemies relationship that leads to many fist-in-face feuds and the occasional meaningful moment.

Roy is foiled by Stain. Where Roy is team heroes through and through and will always fight for heroes, Stain is vehemently against heroes and wants to kill them all. Ambition-wise, they are foils of each other, but the interesting splinter in their foil dynamic is that they both look up to All-Might.

Roy is foiled by Shigaraki. Where Roy loves his friends and family, trusts the world’s goodness and seeks to protect it, Shigaraki hates pretty much everyone and everything, killed his own family and wants to destroy the world.

Roy is even foiled by All-Might. Roy is young and emerging, the future of One For All, All-Might is old and fading, the past of One For All.

So many foils, so many interesting contrasts.

And without those contrasts, My Hero Academia would not work nearly as well as it does. For all intents and purposes, Roy is perfect, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way. Another point Araki makes in Manga in Theory and Practice is that a protagonist that is 100% virtuous can feel fake and boring.

Despite being 100% virtuous, Roy doesn’t feel fake or boring, at least not to me. And not to my wife either. That’s because, while he may be perfect, his relationships, both positive and negative, are not. They all have their flaws, they all have dynamic contrasts. They each affect him in a unique way and force him to think, to grow, to face the world a different way.

Now let’s look at Harry Potter, because the foil-work over at Hogwarts is comparable as well. Harry has foils in Ron, Draco and Snape, as well as Voldemort by default. All working together. And I would argue that the most compelling characters are Draco, Snape and Ron.

And there are foils down to smaller relationships too. Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange? Lucius Malfoy and Dobby? James Potter and Snape? The reason we root so hard for the good is because of how wholly they reflect the bad. The contrasts make for more intense conflict, a bigger gap in morality. Yin and yang, push and pull.

Similarly, there are extensions of foils upon foils in My Hero Academia as well—Endeavor and Todoroki? Endeavor and All-Might? Tenya and Stain? Bakugo and Todoroki? The list goes on. I’m not going to foil all of these, but trust me when I tell you—I can. And if you ask nicely, I will. With relationships that so wholly contrast with each other, it makes readers so much more invested in the dynamics of the relationship.

Roy’s list of foils makes every interaction more compelling as it allows him to reflect and contrast, making him easier and easier to root for. Roy’s 100% virtuousness is constantly under fire, doubts are cast—namely his own doubts—imagery turns darker when he goes rogue, but through it all, his virtue perseveres. But not solely because of him, but because of the fantastic character work around him.

Hey creative writers, take two characters in something you’ve written—how do they fit together? Do they foil each other? If not, how can you contrast their traits, ambitions or values to bring out their growth potential more?

Hey, fans of My Hero Academia, genuine question—do you like Roy? Do you find him as annoying as other 100% virtuous protagonists?