In My Hero Academia, almost everyone in the world has a superpower known as a Quirk. Quirks can range from the ability to manipulate small objects with your mind to creating massive walls of ice out of thin air. While those might sound like run-of-the-mill superpowers, there are many other Quirks in My Hero Academia that are far, far stranger.
Due to the series’ limitless creativity and large ensemble cast of side characters, it’s no surprise that some of the superpowered abilities featured in the blockbuster anime and manga pushes creative limits. While they may be strange, many of the heroes (and villains) throughout My Hero Academia boast unique, non-traditional powers.
10 Big Hand – Itsuka Kendo
Kendo’s Quirk is simple, but that doesn’t make it any less weird. A student from Class 1-B, Kendo’s Quirk allows her to make her hands enormous, and only her hands. Her arms, on the other hand, barely change, giving her a comical appearance any time she activates it. Despite this seemingly ridiculous Quirk, Kendo has stood out among her classmates, providing some essential help during the Forest Training Camp arc by using her hands to create a barrier that kept poisonous gas away from those she was carrying.
9 Navel Laser – Yuga Aoyama
A student of Class 1-A, Yuga Aoyama possesses the odd Quirk known as Navel Laser, which lets him fire a beam of destructive force from his belly button. The beam doesn’t seem particularly strong on its own, so Aoyama uses a belt with a lens to help focus the power. Aoyama’s Quirk comes with a fairly big downside, in that if he uses it too much, it can cause him severe stomach pain. Still, Aoyama has found some success with it, particularly when working alongside Invisible Girl, who can refract light with her body, including his laser beam.
8 Telescopic – Tatami Nakagame
Tatami Nakagame is a student at Ketsubutsu Academy who most prominently appeared in the Provisional Licensing Exam arc. Her Quirk, Telescopic, allows her to “telescope” her body, causing it to fold in on itself and reduce her size. She can use it to hide within her body a bit like a turtle, which inspired her hero name, Turtle Neck. Using her Quirk can lead to some very bizarre sights, and it’s not really clear how helpful this would actually be for hero work. Still, it does offer some capacity for dodging enemy attacks, so it’s not entirely useless.
7 Extend-o-Hair – Nagamasa Mora
Nagamasa Mora is also from a different school than U.A., this time their rival school Shiketsu. Mora’s Quirk allows him to grow and control his hair at will, leaving him with the odd appearance of being completely covered in long hair. The hair is surprisingly durable, able to withstand attacks from other Quirks, and therefore functions as a sort of protective armor for him. It’s also useful for restraining opponents, and the sheer amount of hair means he can use it on many enemies at once. While fans don’t get to see too much of Mora and his Quirk, it’s definitely one of the weirder ones that’s still actually useful.
6 Foldabody – Edgeshot
The number 4 pro hero in all of Japan, Edgeshot is highly competent with his Quirk, no matter how strange it might be. His Quirk is known as Foldabody, and it allows him to twist and contort himself as thin as a thread and needle, making it possible for him to pierce right through an enemy’s lungs and instantly debilitate them. Edgeshot used this Quirk to great effect during the Hideout Raid arc, where he took out Kurogiri with a single attack. Though the idea of turning one’s self into a thin, thread-like form may seem rather unpleasant, Edgeshot has proven this Quirk has some serious utility.
5 Blade-Tooth – Moonfish
Blade-Tooth is the Quirk belonging to the villain known as Moonfish, and it allows him to transform his teeth into blades of varying size and shape. These blades are strong enough to support his body weight, and can be adjusted to branch out into any direction. These blades are his teeth, though, which means it’s nearly impossible for him to talk when using his Quirk. When Moonfish is first introduced, he’s wearing a straightjacket and a mask, covering his entire body except for his mouth, which is held open by hooks in a horrifying manner. Presumably, he did this to protect the rest of his body from the Quirk as much as possible, but the whole look only serves to make him even creepier than his Quirk already does.
4 Comic – Manga Fukidashi
Manga Fukidashi is a student from UA’s Class 1-B whose Quirk, Comic, has a number of bizarre consequences. The first is that Manga’s head is shaped like a comic book speech bubble, and can change shape or size depending on his mood. The Quirk’s real power, though, is that it can cause sound effects to manifest as physical words, which then causes the event associated with the sound effect to happen. It’s a bit difficult to explain, which is part of what makes the ability strange.
It’s certainly not a bad Quirk, despite what it’s done to his head; Manga put his Quirk to great use in Season 5’s joint training arc, where he was able to play a support role alongside a few of his comrades from 1-B. Manga’s Quirk does have a weakness, though, and it’s that speaking these sound effects too often can cause him to lose his voice for a while.
3 Zombie Virus – Romero Fujimi
Romero Fujimi, who takes his name from horror icon George Romero, possesses a very appropriate Quirk known as Zombie Virus. Romero was a student from another hero school who appeared in an OVA episode entitled “Training of the Dead”. In the episode, Romero uses his Quirk to release a gas that can transform all who inhale it into zombies, who can then spread the virus further through conventional zombie ways like biting. Unfortunately for Romero, he isn’t immune to the effects of his own Quirk, and gets turned into a Zombie as well, causing the problem to escalate to an actual crisis. It’s odd that Romero would even be allowed to train as a hero with a Quirk this dangerous, as it seems like the perfect example of a Quirk that shouldn’t be utilized in hero society.
Throughout the ordeal, a number of major characters, including Bakugo and a majority of Class 1-A, are turned into zombies. Fortunately, the Quirk did wear off after a certain amount of time, but it’s still one of the strangest (and possibly most dangerous) Quirks in the series.
2 Centipede – Centipeder
Centipeder was a character designed by a fan for a contest, a winning entry alongside the far more normal Bubble Girl, both of whom appeared as Sir Nighteye’s assistants during the Shie Hassaikai/Overhaul arc. Centipeder’s Quirk is, fittingly, Centipede, but rather than looking like a centipede, various parts of his body are centipedes instead.
Centipeder is almost always shown with his “neck” – aka a full centipede body – curled around itself to resemble a scarf, which when extended would make him over 8 feet tall. It’s not just his head, though; Centipeder’s arms and legs are also centipede bodies, each with hundreds of little legs of their own, making him one of the most bizarre looking characters in the entire series. Despite his appearance, Centipeder is indeed a pro Hero, and is always portrayed as polite and kind.
1 Meatball – Seiji Shishikura
This Quirk, belonging to Shiketsu High School’s Seiji Shishikura, allows the user to manipulate living flesh in whatever way he wants, a horrific ability if ever there was one. When used during the Provisional Hero License Exam, Seiji turned multiple opponents of his into disgusting globs of skin and meat, horribly disfiguring them in the process, including Kirishima.
However, his ability doesn’t just work on others; he’s also able to bud off bits of his own body, which can then be used as projectiles or simply float around him to obscure enemy line of sight and protect him. The Quirk’s main weakness is that it seems to require some level of concentration from Seiji in order to work, and so it can begin to fail should he take enough damage, allowing victims to return to their ordinary state.
Getting a Quirk can be a real lottery of good and bad powers, but the characters on this list go to show that just because you have a weird Quirk doesn’t necessarily mean you have a bad one. Many of these Quirks are actually quite powerful, as proven when these characters stood up against opponents and unleashed their true power. While some of these My Hero Academia characters may occasionally find themselves wishing they had other powers, their true dedication to their dream means that they’ll achieve their goals, no matter what strange Quirk they have.
