Summary
Though most people in the world ofMy Hero Academiaare born with a Quirk, being able to master it to the point of awakening its underlying potential is extremely hard to achieve. When a character finds themselves in an intense fight where they are forced to exceed their physical and mental limits, they can end up unleashing a devastating attack as part of their Quirk Awakening, with some being seen as some of the strongest abilities in the entire story.
Considering how rare Quirk Awakenings are in the series, being able to see one in action is always a big and exciting occasion, but when it comes to strength and reliability, which stands as the best of them all? Here are the most powerful Quirk Awakenings that have been revealed over the course ofMy Hero Academia’s story when taking into account how they’ve been used in battle within the series.
7Navel Laser - Aoyama
Aoyama Receives A Significant Damage Boost Late In The Story
After Aoyama is revealed to have been a traitor who was secretly working forAll For One, he struggles to figure out how, and whether, he would ever be able to make up for his mistakes. Thankfully, Aoyama was able to prove his worth in the final war, specifically in his fight against Kunieda, where his Naval Laser gained a significant damage boost, letting him fire a hole through anyone who dares to stand up to him.
Naval Laser is a tricky Quirk to use effectively, especially since Aoyama wasn’t born with the ability and was instead given it at a young age, so being able to activate its Awakening is no small feat, despite its upgraded version only appearing a single time very late in the story.
6Ice Ply - Geten
Geten Is Granted Even More Control Over His Ice Manipulation To Use It In Creative Ways
Geten is a character who’s only introduced a little late in the story with the debut of theMeta Liberation Army, but despite that, he ends up being one of the most memorable newcomers from this section of the story, primarily because of his Quirk. Ice Ply allows the user to control any ice that surrounds them, but because Geten is so obsessed with becoming the “strongest”, it means he has learned how to Awaken his Quirk so that he can adjust the exact temperature of his ice attacks.
This came in very handy during his bout with Dabi, whose Blueflame he was able to defend against by freezing enough water around him to use as a temporary shield, before then throwing out spiked icicles to catch Dabi off guard when he least expected it. It may not be the most exciting or flashy Awakening, but considering how many elemental Quirks are featured in the series, it’s very versatile and effective in combat.
5Transform - Toga
Toga Is Able To Steal A Person’s Ability, Making Her An Unpredictable Villain To Face In Battle
Toga’s Quirk, Transform, initially only allows her to assume the appearance of someone else, so long as she’s able to consume a bit of their blood. As shown when she sneaks into the Provisional License Exam disguised as Cammie, this Quirk starts off as a great tool for infiltration missions, but by the time she encounters the devious report known as Curious, Toga begins to understand just how far she can truly push her abilities.
Out of nowhere, Toga transforms into Uraraka, and finds out that she’s even able to use the student’s Quirk, which she then activates tokill Curiousby crushing her into the ground. It’s in the final war that it’s made clear just how absurdly powerful this Awakening can be after Toga swarms the entire battlefield with an army of Twice clones to overwhelm the heroes. The blood requirement is a pretty big downside, but it’s still hard to ignore how much carnage Toga can cause with her unique Awakening ability.
4Zero Gravity - Uraraka
Uraraka Can Decimate An Entire Group Of Villains With Her Deadly Awakening Attack
Zero Gravity has always been a strong Quirk, but the biggest drawback was that Uraraka had to make physical contact with a person or object for it to start floating in the air. Late in the story, though, during the epic final war, Uraraka finally learns to awaken her Quirk in her fight against Toga, where she was able to elevate an entire army of her Twice Clones before slamming them to the floor to take them out for good.
Though this was shown totake a pretty heavy toll on Urarakaafter she uses it, the sheer range of this attack makes it highly effective against a large group or army of villains. Zero Gravity is already pretty powerful normally, but its Awakening takes its overall power potential to a whole different level.
3Explosion - Bakugo
Bakugo Was Able To Overwhelm Both All For One And Shigaraki With His Awakened Abilities
During the final war, many of the heroes assumed that only Midoriya would be strong enough to take downShigaraki and All For One, but one character who also managed to hold his own and deal some significant damage to the duo was Bakugo. Bakugo is forced to awaken his Quirk when he goes on the offensive against Shigaraki, letting him unleash his brand-new Cluster attacks. These are smaller and more concentrated explosions that Bakugo can wield with much greater accuracy than before, but he can also use them in a ton of different ways.
Whether he wants to shoot through the skies to reach a destination or to shower an opponent with a barrage of explosions, Bakugo has plenty of methods to utilize his newfound ability. His explosions are also now far stronger, and can even be created without the use of his hands. In fact, Bakugo’s Quirk would become so destructive that it was even able to surprise All For One, dealing enough damage to revert his body back to being a child, ultimately killing him.
2One For All - Midoriya
Inheriting All The Previous Users' Quirks Has Made Midoriya An Incredibly Strong Hero
When Midoriya receives One For All from All Might in the very first episode, he struggles to use its full power without breaking his bones in the process. However, just as Midoriya is starting to get the hang of the legendary Quirk, during the Joint Training Arc, something strange happens as he begins to sprout black whips from his hand. Soon after, Banjo, a previous holder of One For All, tells Midoriya that he can expectall of the previous users' abilitiesto eventually be passed down to him.
This kind of “Awakening” among the Vestiges had never happened before, but finally, they were all able to come together to ensure Midoriya would be strong enough to defeat All For One, which they had all failed to do previously. Being able to use seven Quirks at once, including a smokescreen, danger sense, and air elevation, alongside the tremendous power boost which is inherently baked into One For All, makes Midoriya one of the strongest characters by the end of the series once he’s mastered being able to use the abilities simultaneously in battle.
1Decay - Shigaraki
The Heroes Became Utterly Terrified Of Shigaraki Once He Started Pushing Decay To Its Full Potential
Shigaraki’s Decay Quirk has always been insanely strong, but his repressed and distorted memories often made it difficult for him to unleash its full potential, especially since it was the cause ofhis whole family being tragically killed. During his battle with Re-Destro, though, everything started flooding back to the villain, his memories, his suffering, and most importantly, the destructive properties of Decay.
After it’s been Awakened, Decay is capable of obliterating entire landscapes in the blink of an eye, including objects and people who aren’t even physically touched by Shigaraki himself. So long as they are connected to something that’s being decayed, they’ll also be forced out of existence along with it. This would become such a threat in the final war that multiple Pro-Heroes needed to throw everything they had at Shigaraki just to stop him from touching the floor a single time, emphasizing just how deadly this ability truly is.
