My Hero Academia stands out as a popular manga/anime franchise among a vastly oversaturated market of superhero media. Perhaps what makes it so successful is its upbeat can-do feel-good attitude about giving it your all and working hard toward achieving your goals while being the best you can be, or maybe it is because there is a unique sense of diversity with the characters occupying each episode.
Regardless of what formula being used makes the show work, it’s very clear that there are very powerful heroes in MHA. From All Might and his unfathomable strength to Shoto Todoroki and his Hot|Cold elemental control; these guys stand among the best of them and contain abilities that any superhero fan would only dream of having.
But the show also balances things out by having other abilities that are so abstract, so unusual, that you probably wouldn’t find much application or practical use for them, let alone dream of having them. So let’s take a look at the more less-than-desired Quirks within the world of My Hero Academia.
no.10 Invisible Girl
Toru Hagakure | Quirk: Invisibility
Invisible Girl is one of those characters with an ability that we expect you would be surprised to find on this list. I mean, who doesn’t want invisibility? Well, Toru Hagakure, for starters. Sure, it is a neat ability that has some very obvious use. But something to consider about this Quirk is that Hagakure can’t turn it off. She is permanently stuck in invisibility mode which I would be remiss not to remind you that requires her to be completely naked to use.
If the ability could be turned off, it would be up there with some of the best powers of all time, if it weren’t for the fact that you would have to be completely nude in order to use it. Instead, Hagakure would have to rely on other physical attributes like martial arts, to offset the clumsiness of her Quirk.
Invisibility would be awesome if it contained the same laws and properties as Susan Storm, but since it doesn’t, this Quirk is not really ideal for most situations. This includes social gatherings and romantic relations.
no.9 Vantablack
Vantablack‘s ability allows him to merge, travel through, and sort of manipulating objects that are black. This would be a really beneficial ability in the dark, making you pretty much unstoppable… but only in a cartoon. While the details of his powers aren’t explained to the level required of our real-life reality, this power would be far more useless than you think. If this Quirk allowed the user to interact through and with objects that are only black, that would mean the object would have to be made entirely of #000000, which next to no objects are. In fact, most “black” objects would not meet this specification, unlike a cartoon where the artist would simply choose to make something pure black for the sake of making this Quirk useful.
Since shadows and asphalt are a deep dark gray, they would be made up entirely of various other shades deviating away from that black-specific hex code and be more closely resembling #0a0a0a, which is not black. It is a deep, near-black, dark, dark gray color. Which, if the power requires black, would not be something that would be useful to someone with this Quirk. And if you did happen to find a shadow that was pure black, that means that Kuroiro would probably end up beaten by someone’s iPhone flashlight. Not exactly ideal.
no.8 Can’t Stop Twinkling
Yuga Aoyama | Quirk: Navel Laser
The only thing more ridiculous than his superhero name is Aoyama’s Navel Laser. Sure, the idea of shooting a laser from one’s body is pretty rad. Cyclops had it made with his concussion beams from his eyes, and countless other heroes could shoot beams from their hands, mouth, and other useful appendages. However, the thought of shooting from your belly button is pretty out there in the ‘no thanks‘ column, as far as practical abilities go.
Ignoring the fact that the pose one would need to take to shoot the laser is an awkward pelvic thrust toward the enemy, the usefulness of this ability would be hard to get a good grip on. Without being able to use your hands or eyes to keep the beam at a level that makes it easier to account for accuracy, aiming with your belly button seems damn near impossible. And even if that wasn’t the case, the fact remains that you run the risk of making yourself sick if you are blasting that thing on a full or empty stomach. All I am saying is, of all the heroes you want coming to the rescue, Can’t Stop Twinkling is probably not one of them.
no.7 Mustard
At first, Mustard‘s ability seems super useful. The guy can create a massive gas cloud that can knock people unconscious and he can connect with the gas to tell exactly where someone is within it. The applications here are limited, but make sense in their use cases. The big issue here though is that Mustard is not immune to the gas he produces. This means you have to carry around extra equipment not to enhance or accompany the Quirk, but more so to avoid succumbing to its effects yourself. This would be like having the ability to shoot fire from your hands, but you burn yourself every time you use it. Carrying oxygen tanks and a vision-impeding gas mask just so you can use your quirk seems more like a handicap rather than a useful ability.
Mustard’s gas Quirk is useful in certain situations, sure, but considering that many heroes and villains that could oppose him by using the sheer force of their own Quirks to blow the gas away with a gust of wind, Mustard turns out to be nothing more than a common thug with a gun and a bad case of gas.
no.6 Tailman
Ojiro is easily among the most unfortunate students in Class 1-A. Of all the amazing students with their amazing abilities, his stands out as the most underwhelming. Not so much useless, just boring. I get the impression that his tail power was jotted on a napkin that was later crumpled and tossed into a waste bin when the writers realized they needed one more ability to fill the class. Looking over to the trash can for inspiration, seeing the napkin exposed just enough to see ‘Tail’ written on it, Ojiro’s ability ended up making the cut out of sheer numbers necessity.
Tailman‘s ability, yeah, a tail, can be useful. It’s just that it is also just sort of… stupid. Basically, this gross appendage grabs onto things and allows you to hang upside down. That’s all. Standing next to Bakugo, you look like an idiot. Actually, standing by yourself, you also look like an idiot. And it’s hard to look at a character like Ojiro whose greatest weakness is being in a field or a room with no overhead beams or objects to hang from.
Part of the reason why Ojiro made the list, is because his martial arts abilities are featured just as much, if not more than his tail. This is because Ojiro would be useless in an open battle arena where there is nothing to hang off of. The other part of why he made the list, is because it would be hard to imagine being born into a world of superheroes and introducing yourself as Tailman, the guy with the tail. Not really super at all, just sort of furry-like.
no.5 Mudman
Juzo Honenuki | Quirk: Softening
The thing about Juzo that caught my attention initially, was his grotesque face. It got me curious as to the nature of his ability, and since he was forgettable I had to look it up. Turns out, there is a reason I remembered his face but not his power.
Mudman‘s Quirk is about softening things. Yep, it is called Softening and that is all it does. Now, before you make jokes (pervert), understand first that his power is limited to non-organic objects. So, if it is alive then he can’t… make you… soft…
His Quirk can be useful if say, he needed to make a road turn to liquid so that an oncoming vehicle were to get trapped in it, or if he needed to turn some dirt into a mud bath or some quicksand. The most practical use would be trapping enemies or softening locked doors or vaults, stealing the contents, and then making them hard again before making an escape. But since he is a hero, his usefulness is rather narrow. Although, there could be some good applications for trying to save civilians from burning buildings or being trapped in something. But the general rule of thumb here is that if you have to think about what usefulness this power could have, the chances are it is rather useless. Plus, if this power makes you look like a creepy ghoul, it is really likely to not be the power you want.
no.4 Cellophane
I will admit that Sero’s ability has some real use. If anything, I would argue that his ability is probably the most useful of everyone on this list. However, Cellophane‘s Tape ability still manages to make the list for a variety of reasons.
First of all, Sero’s power is… disgusting. He shoots a large sticky substance from his elbows to ensnare enemies or stick to surfaces. This is just gross.
Second, Cellophane’s ability is designed to tape things together. Despite appearing like discount Spider-Man webbing, Sero doesn’t possess any other abilities to enhance the usability of his Quirk. He just shoots tape. Again, like Ojiro, the thought behind this Quirk seems very half-assed, despite being useful in more than one situation. Wrapping up bad guys with tape is all well and good, but if a hero can be defeated by using a mere boxcutter, then they aren’t that super at all. Perhaps Hanta Sero can find work at an Amazon warehouse in the shipping department. They would save a fortune.
no.3 Shemage
Kinoko Komori | Quirk: Mushroom
As we climb towards the top of this list, the abilities and Quirks seem more and more useless. However, Shemage was really close to becoming number one. In fact, I may regret leaving her at number three. But before I change my mind, let’s move on with why she is useless.
Komori’s ability, a Quirk called ‘Mushroom’ allows her to grow, yep, you guessed it, mushrooms. That is it. That is her whole ability. She can grow them on different surfaces including her own limbs. Yep, that’s pretty much it.
Shemage can use the Mushroom Quirk to obscure her opponent’s vision or overwhelm them with covering them in mushrooms, but that isn’t exactly the coolest or helpful power. Maybe if someone is falling off a building, she can quickly make a bed of mushrooms or she can end world hunger by feeding everyone- you get the idea. Shemage is lame and I seriously doubt there is anyone on the planet that would choose Shemage’s powers for their own personal favorite.
no.2 Grape Juice
Minoru Mineta | Quirk: Pop Off
Mineta explaining his power to Tsuyu and Izuku was easily one of the funniest things that happened that season. I laugh out loud every time I see it, mainly because of the vacant looks on their faces as Mineta tries to explain the usefulness of his ability. When he realizes how stupid it sounds, he breaks down and cries. Comedic gold.
Granted, Mineta has a lot of shortcomings in his personality such as being a perv and often times a selfish coward (although he does pull through from time to time). However, this article is about the usability (or lack thereof) of their Quirk and not the personality of the character.
Grape Juice‘s ability allows him to take little ball-like gummies off of his head and throwing them on things that they stick to, but not himself. He and his ability almost made number one due to the sheer absurdity of this Quirk. The only reason it didn’t make the top spot was because it has a decent climbing property where his “sticky balls” would help Mineta scale literally any wall or surface that he would need to climb. However, we really value hairstyles and considering you would have no hair but a bunch of sticky balls on your head for the rest of your life is truly a humiliating ability to have.
When trying to figure out who would make the top spot, there were a lot of considerations. Mineta stood out to us a shoo-in, but then we came across another U.A. High student with such an unusual ability that they ended up beating out Mineta by a hair.
There are a lot of characters that could have made this list. Some powers were destructive, others were obscure, but if there were a lot of applications to their Quirks or abilities, they didn’t make the cut. The fact is, we tried to separate the Quirk from the user as the personality could weigh a lot in terms of how the ability is being used or could be used.
Cellophane, for example, could use his Tape ability for travel, like swinging through the city like Spider-Man. However, shooting tape from your elbows is not ideal and is rather clumsy, so he had to make the list.
One thing that we wanted to point out about this list is that there were not a lot of villains. Mustard made it, for reasons we feel were clearly justified, but the majority of villains that appear in the main story have useful powers that make them extremely dangerous. Granted, anyone on this list could use their power for evil and thus become dangerous, but there were not a lot of villains that we felt were useless. Unlike Mustard, who just uses his stinky gas to knock people out.
As you get to our reveal below, we ask that you keep in mind that while everyone on this list is useful in some way, most of them are more useless in most ways. And this is where Comicman comes in.
no.1 Comicman
Manga Fukidashi | Quirk: Comic
Holy cow, where to start. Manga Fukidashi is easily the most useless hero we could find in nearly all of MHA. Fukidashi is quite possibly the most useless hero we have ever seen in the entire genre.
Manga’s Quirk, ‘Comic’ allows him to ‘manifest onomatopoeia into reality’. Onomatopoeia are words that sound like their meaning. For example, moo, crash, or woof. I can’ think of many beneficial use cases here aside from trying to lure enemies from their guard post by saying ‘Crash’ to trigger their curiosity to go investigate. Or maybe the enemy is afraid of dogs so you make realistic barking noises.
In addition to having an extremely limited usability, Comicman‘s Quirk has some major drawbacks. For instance, if he uses his “ability” too much, he can get a sore throat. But we would be remiss not to remind you of the most unusual aspect of Comicman- his head.
Manga Fukidashi’s Quirk is not only laughably bad, but it also works against him in that his head is a literal speech bubble, meaning, his thoughts and words manifest into visible written words that occupy his headspace. This may be great for communicating with deaf civilians or getting someone to understand you while you are trying to talk in the front row of a Cardi B concert, but it also means that everyone can see what you are saying and thinking all the time.
This means your thoughts aren’t private, and you can never get away with muttering some clever insult under your breath without being caught. Your thoughts can never be your own and you run the risk of exposing your deep dark thoughts or insults any time you think about them. Not to mention that his lack of a face means that he is completely expressionless, save for his visible thought words and onomatopoeia.
Comicman, you deserve the no.1 spot on this list without a shed of a doubt.
I feel I should add that each of these characters does have their usefulness. Each quirk can be used in a variety of unique and interesting ways. But still, of all the quirks we have seen, these are among the least desirable.