Shonen anime like My Hero Academia will always feature some cool villain designs, who have more to offer than their superpowers in battle. Coolness comes from a variety of factors. A character’s aesthetic and outfit, their personality or worldview, their sharp dialogue, and their unique and memorable powers can all contribute to how they’re perceived. Even the most despicable or unsympathetic villains in anime, like My Hero Academia, can be cool, even if they are not likable.
The coolest My Hero Academia villains rank among the anime’s best because they have thematic depth and vivid personalities that make them more than mere criminals for the pro heroes to beat up. These cool designs actually say something about the villains and the Quirk-filled world they live in, and those ultra-cool villains will actually have a short speech on the topic, making them that much more engaging. In other cases, the villains’ coolness speaks for itself.
10
Kendo is a Refreshingly Straightforward Fistfighter
Debut Episode: “GO!!”
Kendo Rappa ranks last among My Hero Academia‘s coolest villains because he lacks a flashy Quirk. He doesn’t have great character depth, and had only a brief appearance in the anime. Still, pound for pound, the boxer villain Kendo is cooler than goofy or gimmicky villains like Gentle Criminal and Mr. Compress, partly because tough-guy brawler types like Kendo never go out of style.
Even if Kendo’s style isn’t fancy, it’s still cool because there is no substitute for brawny warriors who keep things grounded with their fists and kicks as opposed to Quirks. That made Kendo a standout among the Eight Bullets in the Shie Hasaikai arc, using his Strongarm Quirk to seriously threaten Fat Gum until Fat Gum and Eijiro Kirishima went Plus Ultra to beat Kendo the brawer at his own game.
9
Twice Can Flood the Battlefield With Sad Man’s Parade
Debut Episode: “Drive it Home, Iron Fist!!!”
The villain Twice was both funny and cool from the start, thanks to his stylish, menacing costume and his Deadpool-like personality. He was a masked fighter who could be both ruthless and silly. Twice only got cooler when he awakened his Quirk to create not just a squad, but an entire army of himself, giving that move the ultra-stylish name Sad Man’s Parade to reflect his bitter feelings.
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Twice became a cool, sympathetic, and memorable villain with his blend of a painful backstory and his kindness toward fellow villains like Himiko Toga. Twice was usually either silly or sad, but when he got serious, Twice could be truly menacing with his general aura and his overwhelming numbers via Sad Man’s Parade.
8
Kurogiri’s Backstory and Gentlemanly Behavior Sets Him Apart from Other MHA Villains
Debut Episode: “Bakugo’s Start Line”
Despite having no real offensive firepower of his own, the villain Kurogiri is a cool and fun character to watch in My Hero Academia. For a time, Kurogiri also had the benefit of being totally mysterious, since villains are cool if their design piques fans’ curiosity without providing the answers up front. Fans weren’t sure what Kurogiri looked like beyond that black mist, but eventually, the shocking truth came to light.
Like several other cool My Hero Academia villains, Kurogiri is interesting because he is polite and aloof, two qualities that anime fans adore in heroes and villains alike. That sets Kurogiri and his peers apart from bratty or obnoxious characters who talk too much or try too hard to prove how cool or dangerous they are. Kurogiri is a well-dressed gentleman who lets nothing scare him, which is a surefire way to feel cool in fans’ eyes.
7
Tomura’s Quirk and Character Design Make Him MHA’s Most Terrifying Villain
Debut Episode: “Bakugo’s Start Line”
The powerful villain, Tomura Shigaraki, may not be the absolute coolest villain in My Hero Academia, but he still earned a place among the coolest villains, and he is certainly one of the strongest of them all. Tomura’s first appearance was a shocking and fascinating one, with him being a young man in dark clothes with a variety of deathly severed hands attached to his body. Nothing like that has been seen before or since in the anime.
Tomura was an eerie menace during the USJ battle, even hiding his face behind one of those hands, with only his intense eyes peeking from between the fingers. More recently, Tomura’s aesthetic has lost a bit of its coolness, but Tomura made up for that with his chilling resolve to destroy hero society and slaughter all the heroes, and he has the strength to do it, too. Even Shigaraki’s Quirk is cool for a villain, turning people and items to dust with the power of Decay.
6
Nine Had Ambitious Goals to Become The Next All For One
Debut Movie: My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising
Most of the villains seen in the My Hero Academia villains are fun yet forgettable, with the antagonist Nine being an exception. Nine appeared in the second MHA movie as a villain desperately seeking a Quirk to heal his body, and in the meantime, he also got his hands on a copy of All For One to use several Quirks at once, which inspired his name.
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Nine is outwardly cool with his high-tech outfit with its dark colors and sinister attachments, not to mention his cold and aloof personality, the right personality to make almost any anime character feel cool. Nine’s coolness reached its peak when he fought almost all of Class 1-A by himself on Nabu Island, putting on a stunning display as he showered the battlefield with his devastating Quirks.
5
All For One Has an Iconic Helmet and an Armada of Quirks
Debut Episode: “Listen Up!! A Tale From the Past”
The supervillain All For One himself ranks in middle place among the coolest My Hero Academia villains because he is one of several antagonists with the cold, aloof personality fans love in the best villains. All For One is a classic antagonist by design, being a cold-blooded manipulator and mastermind who treats the battle of heroes vs villains as a chess game to be won.
All For One is scary and cool with his intimidating and grandiose dialogue, and he backs it up with both his appearance and Quirks in person. The ultra-cool All For One wears an eerie helmet reminiscent of Darth Vader to make him unreadable and feel less human, complemented by his gentleman’s suit to reinforce his image as a mastermind criminal. All For One is also visually stunning when he uses his immense collection of Quirks in battle against foes like All Might, Endeavor, and Hawks.
4
Overhaul’s Quirk is a Visual Treat for MHA Fans
Debut Episode: “A Season For Encounters”
My Hero Academia fans might agree that even if Overhaul is a despicable monster who can’t be forgiven, his sheer coolness means he should have appeared more often in the anime. Overhaul is one of the most stylish and engaging villains, partly because of his memorable aesthetic, and mostly because of his fascinating Quirk of the same name.
Overhaul wears the lower half of a plague doctor mask on his face, with plague doctors often being cool and eerie in pop culture, and that’s not all. Overhaul’s Quirk is a blast to watch in the anime, a devastating Quirk that can reshape matter with a mere touch. Repeatedly, Overhaul used that Quirk in deadly and fun ways, from creating spikes on the battlefield to merging with other villains to become a massive being that only One For All at 100% could possibly take down.
3
Lady Nagant Threatened Dark Deku as a Solemn Sniper
Debut Episode: “Tartarus”
No matter her limited screen time and lack of stunning victories in battle, the villain Lady Nagant is still one of My Hero Academia‘s coolest antagonists of all. Most of Lady Nagant’s coolness derives from the inherent coolness of snipers in fiction, with snipers being glamorized as deadly, elite killers who never miss a shot, as untouchable ranged combatants. Sure enough, Lady Nagant can form her entire right arm into a sniper rifle with her Quirk, making her one of the best ranged fighters.
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Another cool aspect of Lady Nagant’s design is her switch from hero to villain and back to hero again. Years ago, Lady Nagant grew disillusioned with heroes and went rogue. She was sent to go after Deku during the short-lived Dark Deku arc. She was almost successful, though when it mattered most, she showed her good side and rejoined the heroes.
2
Dabi Tried to Destroy His Family & the World of Heroes With a Blazing Vengeance
Debut Episode: “The Aftermath of Hero Killer: Stain”
The dark-haired villain Dabi recently outed himself as Toya Todoroki, who was once thought dead. Dabi’s backstory is one of the most tragic and vivid among all the villains, with him paying a steep price for his father’s ambitions, and that reshaped him into the ultra-cool villain fans know today. Dabi is a dark reflection of his youngest brother Shoto, showing what happens when Endeavor takes things too far.
Outwardly, Dabi was cool right from the start as an emo villain with a stylish dark outfit and eerie staples on his mismatched face, making fans curious about how he came to look that way. Dabi only got cooler from there as he showed his chilly, detached persona as an unflappable villain, not to mention the brutal blue fire he inherited from his Pro-Hero father.
1
Fan-Favorite Stain the Hero Killer is the Coolest MHA Villain
Debut Episode: “Fight On, Ida”
The hero killer, Stain, is My Hero Academia‘s coolest villain for several reasons, starting with the fact that fans always think ninjas are cool, and Stain certainly has the tactics and weaponry of a deadly ninja. Amusingly, Stain has some elements of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but that made his character cooler rather than sillier, a testament to how well-designed the cool villain Stain really is.
Stain is also cool with his worldview and fighting style, being an assassin villain who uses his blood-based paralysis Quirk to render heroes helpless before stabbing them to death. While Stain’s actions can’t be justified, My Hero Academia fans can at least see where he’s coming from, with Stain taking it upon himself to weed out the vain, attention-seeking heroes who forgot that being a pro hero is about helping others, not glamorizing oneself.
