Side Character Spiral: Dabi

Always with the patch-faces.

I must have something for patch-faced baddies, because Mahito and Dabi both count themselves as villains who got my attention the moment they touched the page. Dabi, who literally does not have a single redeemable quality for the bulk of My Hero Academia, who I had already taken a shine to before they revealed his backstory. Somehow an obsession.

Why I find this odd, even with my particular taste in characters, is because there’s really nothing, aside from his appearance, that’s standout. His powers are pretty humdrum—fire. Lots of people have fire quirks in some capacity. Endeavor, obviously. Shoto.

Dabi wasn’t even the main baddy of his crew. He answered to Shigaraki. And after having seen Stain and Shigaraki and their dense and compelling backstories and viewpoints, you’d think those two would capture my attention more than Dabi.

Humdrum Dabi, I’ll call him, solely to be facetious.

When the grand revelation came that Dabi was in fact the supposedly dead son of Endeavor and the brother of Shoto, I was blown away. I never saw it coming, and in a sense, it really vindicated the way I felt about the dude. The way I had been addicted to my belief that there was more to him than there seemed to be.

I think of him as similar to Aza, from Hell’s Paradise. I love that dude, I don’t know why, and I’m convinced that the story is just taking its time to vindicate him.

So back to Dabi—why? Why, before this grand revelation of his lineage, was he living in my head?

I have two theories. One! Merchandise. I’m always poking around stores that carry figures and merch and Dabi was everywhere. I hadn’t read all of My Hero Academia yet, so I assumed some bombshell was coming.

Even still, I don’t think that theory holds water, because I see boxed fellas all the time and couldn’t care less.

Theory number two! It’s a given in manga that sooner or later, villains are going to have revelations or justification arcs. I mentioned Shigaraki and Stain, but Toga and Twice broke my heart with their friendship too. In that sense, it was odd that Dabi had yet to reveal any sort of redemption arc or hidden depth. Was he really another Spinner (a very humdrum villain)?

With so many characters, heroes and villains, it’s really hard to develop them all. But the key is to keep them all authentic and true to themselves. The more real they can feel, the more readers will fall in line and better be able to pick favorites. Ideally, the more favorites the better.

The fact that Dabi was so unremarkable in such a remarkable cast was, in and of itself, quite remarkable. He was under the radar (I also love dark horses, underdogs, and the like), but not so under the radar that it was obvious he had something else going on, some great secret yet to be revealed. He was still a certified bad guy, but he didn’t stand out from the pack. In a sense, I’d even go so far as to say he’s perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment of a remarkable manga. How do you hide such a strong character arc?

It’s so strong, that as a storyteller myself, I can’t help but wonder how long this was the intention. Was Dabi always going to be the character he was, or did it work out that way, like a happy accident? Because if this was always the plan, the ability to conceal his arc stands in its own league of storytelling accomplishments. And if it was something that came about later on, a happy coincidence, that’s just as impressive, to recognize the potential for something truly special.

Either way, what turned out was phenomenal, and it was 100% unique to My Hero Academia. I say that because this would never have worked in a smaller cast manga. Even stories like Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, they don’t have the capacity to nonchalantly bury such a major character with such a big part to play. Everyone has to earn their place. Since My Hero Academia has so many personalities on so many different sides of the morality spectrum, slipping in a monumental someone is a very real possibility, and I tip every cap I have to Kohei Horikoshi, because even though it was always a possibility, it still requires some serious storytelling chops for that sleight of hand.

Okay, I’m going on another tangent, because the more thought I give this, the more I love it. Part of the early drama of the story is Shoto’s (Dabi’s little brother, Midoriya’s friend and classmate, Endeavor’s youngest son) conflicted relationship with his father, the soon-to-be No. 1 hero Endeavor. It’s very clear that Endeavor is not a good father whatsoever and a big reason why is because he, himself, is scarred.

By what, you ask? By Dabi, also known as Toya, Endeavor’s oldest son, who supposedly died because he was too overpowered with his fire quirk. Which creates this beautiful little knot of compulsive character dynamics between three major characters and none of it is even part of the main story arc. It’s all happening on the side, with the occasional intersection with the main arc.

Hey, that wasn’t so hard. See, this is why I love my side character spirals. I go in thinking about why I always love patch-face villains, blaming merchandizing and I come away feeling like I really understand why these characters stick. Huzzah!