The world of My Hero Academia has a wide range of characters that all have different quirks. Besides the main characters, there are a lot of other people on the show who had big roles. However, there are those who end up only being not as important as the main characters. Some of them either aren’t as useful when it comes to the story or their quirk doesn’t serve a purpose. There are a couple of these characters that appear for no apparent reason. We take a look at some of the characters who aren’t as useful on the show as one might think.
10 Hitoshi Shinso
Introduced in the Joint Training Arc, Hitoshi Shinso was a student of U.A. high school with the ability of brainwashing, where he can force someone to obey his every command by his voice. During the storyline, he and Deku faced one another in the first round. We see how powerful he is in the field against our main character despite his loss, but that was the only time we see him. He had a great backstory where most of his peers would fear him because of his quirk, giving him the reason to become a hero to prove his worth and change the public’s perspective of him. However, we only got to see his story carry out in a couple of episodes and never heard from him again.
9 Neito Monoma
In the same arc, we meet Neito Monoma, an intelligent student hailing from Class 1-B with the ability to copy anyone’s quirk and use it against them. Despite being a smart combatant, he comes off as a foil to our main characters in 1-A. We don’t get much of a back story with him and he’s never mentioned after the U.A. Sports Festival. He came across as a good opponent against Izuku Midoriya/Deku and Katsuki Bakugo with his keen intellect and unique ability. Despite his powerful quick, he has his limits of using one ability at a time. We never managed to get more information on his background unlike the other students, which make it weird that we never hear from him again since they all go to the same school.
8 Sen Kaibara
Like Monoma, Sen Kaibara comes from the same class with the ability of gyrate, where he can turn any part of his body into a drill. He took part in the Joint Training Battle where he fought against one of Deku’s classmates, Mashirao Ojiro. The character showed some enthusiasm during his fight with Ojiro but he didn’t really serve a purpose during the arc. We did see him share some exchanges with Bakugo before their respective fights. However, we never see what else he’s capable of as we saw how great of a fight he is on the field. We never spent that much time with him until later on during the Endeavor Agency Arc in the manga. There seems to be more than meets the eye with Kaibara than the anime or manga is letting on.
7 Mashirao Ojiro
Speaking of Ojiro, we see this student in probably almost every episode of the series so far, but he doesn’t seem to contribute so much to the show. His quirk is self-explanatory with his tail. He has a strong tail that can adapt to his surroundings. The tail gives him a boost in combat, especially since he is known to be a martial artist. He comes off as one of the most normal characters in the show, and that may seem to be a problem since he is more of the straight man. That would work well if the story would revolve around someone from the outside giving us a glimpse into the hero society, but we already have that with Deku. Having a second character with that quality may seem to be redundant for the story.
6 Minoru Mineta
One of My Hero Academia’s memorable but probably annoying characters has to be Minoru Mineta. Known to be a short and simplistic guy, he’s portrayed as comedic relief in most of the anime due to his perverted nature. His quirk is Pop Off, where he can produce ball-shaped objects from his head and stick it on any surface. He is extremely unlikeable to the girls and some of the boys because of his lewd personality, making him a least favorite character to most viewers. Sometimes he can be useful in a fight, but his personality and reason for being a hero isn’t something that would have someone invest in him as a character.
5 Kota Izumi
As the son of deceased superhero team Water Hose, Kota Izumi had a lot to live up to in order to become a hero just like them. However, he wasn’t interested in being one since their death. His perspective of heroes changed when Deku came in the picture and saved his life during the Forest Training Camp Arc. He was cold towards him during their first meeting but grew fond of him later on due to his stride towards becoming a hero to protect others. We never hear from him again as his arc only lasted two episodes and didn’t make an impact on the story. Without him, we would’ve got a tighter story around the League of Villains in this chapter.
4 Yuga Aoyama
With a feminine face and an unusual quirk, Yuga Aoyama hasn’t really come off as a big character in the series. As a part of Class 1-A, we don’t really know much about him, but his personality says it all as he comes off as flamboyant and fancy in appearance. His quirk comes out of his navel, which is weird enough as he has to use a belt in order to control his power. He always strikes a pose whenever he appears and loves to grab attention to anyone who’s around him. He seems to show some sympathy towards Deku since they both have uncontrollable quirks. Kind of like Mineta, he does come off as a bit of a nuisance throughout the series, but he also does show some struggle with his character in some of the arcs.
3 Kosei Tsuburaba
Very competitive and enthusiastic, Kosei Tsuburaba upholds himself as a high-rank individual in order to rise above his rivals like Bakugo. He made his appearance during the Sports Festival as well as the Forest Training Camp Arc, mocking Class 1-A. Tsuburaba’s quirk is Solid Air, where he can solidify any air that he breathes out, allowing him to create walls or platforms around him. Just like his classmate Monoma, he simply served as a rival to the students of Class 1-A since we never hear from him again. It’s possible that both classes might have gotten along, but it didn’t seem like we got enough out of characters like Tsuburaba to show what he’s all about.
2 Koji Koda
Despite his big and inhuman stature, Koji comes off as a very shy and often quiet person. We rarely see him speak on the show and happens to hate violence. It’s a character like that where he feels unnecessary in a world full of heroes and villains. His quirk of Anivoice can be useful when he uses the command of his voice to call out the animal kingdom for help. For a man who reaches out to animals, he just so happens to have a phobia for bugs. We did get to see him overcome his fear during the Joint Training Arc when taking down Jurota Shishida. His quirk is a gamble since he can only use the animals that are around the area. His only usefulness would mostly be to track an enemy and get another set of eyes.
1 Shuichi Iguchi
Known as his villain name Spinner, Shuichi Iguchi has been affiliated with the League of Villains since their introduction in the series. With his reptile-like appearance, he can use his quirk Gecko to have the same abilities as a lizard and uses a sword to attack his enemies. Most of the time we see him was as one of the League’s members who attacked the U.A. during the Forest Training Camp Arc and was the getaway driver for the team. Nothing much has been done with his character since he hasn’t been well fleshed out as the rest of the villains. Other than reminding us that he looks like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he isn’t much of a threat as far as we’re concerned.