Tomura's Quirks In My Hero Academia Season 6 Explained

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 6 of "My Hero Academia" and the "Paranormal Liberation War" arc of the "My Hero Academia" manga.

Fans of "My Hero Academia" already know that the show's principal antagonist Tomura Shigaraki is a force to be reckoned with. The villain with a deeply tragic backstory and the dangerous ability to make everything he touches decay has continuously risen in power over the course of the show. Season 5 saw him overpower the secondary antagonist Re-Destro and assert his rule over the Meta Liberation Army, but things aren't likely to stop there. The upcoming sixth season of the show will likely see Shigaraki cross yet another milestone in his journey and it all stems from where Season 5 left off for the character.

The last time fans of the anime saw Shigaraki, he was writhing and screaming in agony in a lab containment cell with tubes and wires poking out of his body, as Dr. Kyudai Garaki watched on in anticipation. While this process has put the villain out of commission for the time being, the payoff of the experiment is going to prove extremely dangerous for the heroes and lead to their greatest battle yet.

Provided that Season 6 adapts the "Paranormal Liberation War" manga arc faithfully, the show will see Shigaraki turn yet another corner in terms of raw power. As it goes in the manga, while the heroes successfully sniff out Garaki and interrupt Shigaraki's power-up process at roughly 75 percent completion, it's too little, too late. Though he is an incomplete vessel, Shigaraki emerges with immense power and a host of new quirks to boot.

Shigaraki's original decay quirk gets a major power-up, as the villain can now cause the rapid decay of everything surrounding him in a multi-mile radius, rather than just things he directly touches. On that same note, Shigaraki also gains mastery over choosing when this quirk activates, meaning he can now handle objects without accidentally decaying them.

But perhaps even more important is the other power he gains: the original All For One quirk. As is revealed, All For One forfeits the power-stealing quirk for a replica and allows Shigaraki to inherit the original version, giving the villain the ultimate ability to steal the quirks of others.

Through inheriting All For One, Shigaraki immediately gains access to all of the quirks stored in the power at the time of its transfer. Though the full range of quirks he possesses by this point is unknown, his upcoming battle against the heroes during the show's sixth season is set to put many powerful quirks on display.

The season should see Shigaraki making use of a Super Regeneration quirk to withstand powerful attacks that would otherwise likely kill him: the Search quirk that All For One stole from Ragdoll in Season 3 which allows the user super-sight, an Air Cannon quirk that allows him to fire projectiles of compressed air from his hands, a Radio Waves quirk that gives him the power to control and interrupt communication over radio waves, and a Rivet Stab quirk that grants him the ability to fire tendrils of dark energy to pierce the bodies of victims.

In essence, Shigaraki is set to emerge in Season 6 as an absolute powerhouse with an entire array of quirks at his disposal. But while the odds of defeating the villain might seem insurmountable at this rate, all is not exactly as it seems. As it turns out, there is a hidden cost to Shigaraki's newfound power that soon makes itself apparent.

As will likely be revealed in the climactic battle of Season 6, Shigaraki's acquisition of the original All For One quirk is far from a no-strings-attached sort of deal. Just as Deku is able to interact with vestiges of the previous wielders of the One For All quirk, so too does Shigaraki become able to interact with a vestige of the villain All For One inside of his new quirk. The only difference is that All For One is far more ... proactive in what he decides to do with this new set-up. With his consciousness having entered the vessel of Shigaraki through the transference of his quirk, All For One wrestles for control of his protege's body and reveals that he plans to permanently take over this new form to become even more powerful.

It's a particularly tragic twist of irony for Shigaraki, for though the villain finally realizes his true power and amasses a huge amount of different quirks, he loses control of the most important thing: his individual freedom. Anime-only fans of "My Hero Academia" will likely see these events come to pass for the first time and learn what happens to Shigaraki afterward when the show returns for Season 6 in Fall 2022.