Quick Links
The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia.
ThroughoutMy Hero Academia, we are actually given surprisingly little backstory for All Might, considering his importance to the narrative. This may be due to the main story having so many characters to introduce and develop that there just wasn’t time to dive into the #1 hero’s past fully.Given that All Might was wielding One For Allfor over 40 years as a pro hero, there are many ordeals he must have gone through that we don’t know about.
Luckily, towards the end of the main story and in spin-off media, we are givena more substantial picture of All Mightin his earlier days. In the spin-off seriesVigilantes, we also get to see a younger All Might in action and are given glimpses of the exalted power he once had in his prime.
The Early Years
All Might’s Origin
Not a lot is known about Toshinori Yagi, aka All Might’s younger years. He grew up in a more difficult time, being orphaned when villains killed his parents when he was very young. Most of what we know about All Might’s past is told to us through the form of flashbacks, though some things are more implied than outright stated inMy Hero Academia.The first glimpses we see of a younger All Might occur when Deku asks Gran Torino what he was like under his tutelage. We see a flashback of Gran Torino punching All Might, shown to be much skinnier than his iconic muscular form. Although not directly stated,it appears that All Might was much thinnerwhen he first inherited One For All, meaning that the muscles he acquired don’t come from his Quirk, but from the hard work he puts in to become a hero.
Deku: Wow, All Might as a student, huh? What was he like back then?
Gran Torino: Hm? Huh…It was all combat training for him.
-Deku and Gran Torino in Episode 27.
As is common when getting All Might’s backstory, we don’t often get too many details, just enough to serve the current progression of the story. We eventually learn during flashbackswhen All Might fights All For One at Kaminothat he was an idealistic young man, obsessed with creating a symbol of peace to save the world.
His predecessor, Nana Shimura, described his ideas as crazy, but admitted that the symbol of peace plan could work and chose him to be the one to inherit One For All despite Toshinori’s quirklessness. Except for a few more flashbacks between Nana and Toshinori, we don’t get too many more details in the main story inMy Hero Academia. It isn’t until looking at spin-off media like theAll Might RisingOVA that we get a fuller picture of his younger years. In this short OVA, which is unfortunately only a few minutes long, we learn that he inherited One For All at a very young age, similar to Deku. After she trained Toshinori, Nana was killed when he was only 18 years old. After further development by Gran Torino,All Might graduated from the UAand went abroad to the United States to further strengthen his power for an eventual clash with All For One. While there, he saved Kathleen Bate, the future hero Star and Stripe, and developed his iconic hairstyle and smile.
All Might’s Ascendant Power
Becoming the Symbol of Peace
It’s unknown exactly how long All Might stayed in America to grow his strength, but based on a flashback inMy Hero Academia: Two Heroes,it was a considerable amount because he had already developed his signature muscular form and had been naming his attacks for some time. However, we know that at the latest, he returned to Japan around six or seven years before he met Deku in the main story. This is because we see All Might inVigilantesoperating as the established top hero, and the timeline for this part of the story happens after his injury. InVigilantes, we are treated to a flashback of a pre-injury All Might, who can dispatch over 100 enhanced villains in the span of a few seconds. This impressive feat was done after nearly 72 hours of straight crime fighting, meaning a Prime All Might was even stronger than this.
It’s unclear exactly at what point during his over 40-year career wielding One For All that he officially achieved the goal of becoming the Symbol of Peace. The most likely point might have been around the time of the train incident, where he saved countless people. In the video that Deku repeatedly watches, shown in Episode 1, he describes it as All Might’s “debut.” In this debut, All Might is extremely muscular with shadowed eyes, meaning he is much older than what we see during flashbacks of his younger years, where his eyes are clearer. This suggests that this event may have been All Might’s debut in Japan, since he was already known in America in his earlier years, and his implied age means that he only achieved becoming Japan’s Symbol of Peace in the latter half of his career.
This timeline makes sense based on what we know about All Might so far, but that may change with future adaptations. Hopefully, as the main series anime comes to a close, there will be plenty of enthusiasm among fans to explore All Might’s past and what challenges he ran up against as the longest continuous holder of One For All.
My Hero Academia
Cast
In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the “One-For-All” quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.
