Himiko Toga is one of the most tragic villains in My Hero Academy, but she has an amazing reason as to why she never chose a villain, wanting to separate herself from every other Quirk user. While a convincing explanation in itself, scenes from Toga’s past add meaning and nuance to her reasoning, further enhancing her compelling personality.
In My Hero Academia chapter #393, during a flashback when members of the current Crime Alliance try to convince Himiko to come up with a villainous name like the others, she ends up saying that she wanted to live with the name Himiko Toga. Her reasoning comes after Tomura Shigaraki was able to defend her point of view by revealing the theory of why hero and villain names came into being. At the beginning of Quirk society, there was no distinction between heroes and villains, so people started using simple codenames to identify their enemies. Toga says she rejects those imposed rules, and just wants to be herself.
Himiko Toga transforms into someone else to escape herself
Notable is Himiko’s explanation regarding how and why Toga chose to use his Transfiguration Quirk. When Himiko later learns of herself, she doesn’t just show her love or admiration for the object of her desire by sucking their blood. She does it because she desperately wants to be them. And the stronger the affection she has for her victim, the more her desire to be a victim increases and the more she can take on more of that person or thing. This is what happened when she drank the blood of Ochako Uraraka for the first time. Before Ochako, Himiko only stole the victim’s appearance. But with Ochako, someone she felt particularly fond of, she also had her Quirk.
The desire to be someone else is profound because it implies trying to escape from oneself, and that is understandable for Toga, who has always been discriminated against because of his Quirk. But the fact that Himiko is able to transform more completely into someone she especially likes adds depth as it means that Toga would rather be someone she likes than hates, creating the impression that she wants to like herself. It’s clear from the first time My Hero Academia presents her flashback that Himiko just wants to be “normal” and that by escaping her body and transforming into someone else, she may be trying become normal.
Himiko Toga Just Wants To Be Normal
With a bleak image of self-loathing stemming from an unhealthy self-image, it’s encouraging that Toga decided to keep her real name and not choose a villain, to break away from the norm. of Quirk society. All of this comes into full play in chapter #395 when Toga gives Ochako her blood to save her life. After “taking” others for so long, guided by a longing to find herself, Toga finally realizes that only by giving can she get what she’s always wanted: to be accepted. his real person. Toga HimikoThe story proved to be one of the most tragic of all My Hero Academybut her ending also shows that her character is one of the most deeply developed and best developed in the entire series.
All chapters of My Hero Academy available from Viz Media.