In My Hero Academia, being a professional hero is an occupation many look up to or aspire to be. As the majority of the population have powers, known as Quirks, select people learn how to do hero work and train their Quirks effectively to benefit society.
While there are many professional heroes who live up to their hype, some heroes either need to choose a new line of work or improve their skills to make them better. Because they lack certain qualities, their popularity, and hero status are confusing. Despite their high ranks in the MHA universe, these underwhelming heroes consistently disappoint fans.
This article contains spoilers for the MHA manga.
Updated by Alexandra Locke on June 19, 2023: My Hero Academia has many incredible heroes who are compassionate and powerful. Yet, there are still several who left fans wanting. These disappointing anime heroes had so much potential, but never quite lived up to it. This article has been updated to include even more disappointing My Hero Academia heroes.
15 Gang Orca
Gang Orca is one of the more terrifying Pro Heroes in My Hero Academia. His Orcinus Quirk gives him an intimidating appearance as well as the abilities of the sea creature. With his army of sidekicks, and mobster persona, viewers were curious about how he would handle villains.
Sadly, it does not seem like Gang Orca will be featured again any time soon. Although he was instrumental in the Provisional Licensing Exam arc, audiences were disappointed to not see him in a real fight. His villainous act was so impressive during the exam that fans were hoping to see him unleash the same wrath on his real enemies.
14 Endeavor
Currently sitting as the number one hero of Japan, Enji Todoroki, aka Endeavor, is a man of ambition so great, he pushed his children to try and surpass his rival, All Might. Not only did his ambition lead to abuse in his family, but also lead to him having a cold personality toward others as well.
While he still has fans, Endeavor would always act like he did not care about them and would even glare at them. His personality also leads an aspiring hero, Inasa Yoarashi, to hate him and his family. Endeavors misdeeds also drove his eldest son, Toya, to become a villain.
13 Mt. Lady
Yu Takeyama, aka Mt. Lady, is a pro-hero more well known for the amount of destruction she causes during her battles and her rivalry with fellow hero Kamui Woods. As one of the first heroes viewers see in action in the show, it is to be expected that she would have some sensibility and responsibility with her work.
Unfortunately, Mt. Lady is anything but sensible in hero work as she is lazy outside the physical aspects of the job. Even though heroism is basically a step above police work, she sees it more as an overall popularity contest.
12 Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm is another teacher and Pro Hero who works at U.A. High. Much like Twice, Ectoplasm can use his Clones Quirk to make copies of himself to confuse his enemies. With such impressive power, fans were anxious to see it in action (not just practice with his students).
Unfortunately, Ectoplasm seems to be relegated to the confines of U.A. He has yet to appear in any battles, which many fans find to be a waste. A unique character like Ectoplasm could not only have helped in many of the battles so far, but would have been a nice change of pace from seeing the same Pro Heroes in action repeatedly.
11 Ms. Joke
Ms. Joke is a teacher and a Pro Hero with the Outburst Quirk. With her power, she can make anyone laugh uncontrollably. Viewers expected to see this in action, however, other than annoying Shota Aizawa and demonstrating her power on a few students, Ms. Joke has been left on the sidelines.
Ms. Joke’s power does not only seem useful but is incredibly unique. Ms. Joke’s unusual Quirk would be fun to explore in a fight scene. Sadly, it does not seem like fans will get to see Ms. Joke or her power anytime soon.
10 Present Mic
From the beginning, Present Mic has been portrayed as an energetic character. Because of his boisterous attitude, fans expected to see the same energy on the battlefield. Recently, however, he is mostly seen panicking, rather than rising to the challenges before him.
Until Season 6, Present Mic never seemed like someone who would let fear take hold of him. Understandably, the Paranormal Liberation Front is terrifying, but fans hoped they would see Present Mic in the middle of the action. Instead, he remains on the outskirts of the battle while his colleagues are in the fray.
9 Kamui Woods
Kamui Woods showed a lot of promise as a hero to follow in the first episode of My Hero Academia. He was a newer Pro on the rise, and his abilities piqued audiences’ interest. However, after the first season, Kamui Woods is hardly seen at all.
Although he helps out in major fights, Kamui Woods never has the spotlight on him. Rather, fans capture glimpses of him in the fray. Kamui Woods is a disappointing character because fans expected to see great things from him. Unfortunately, they never happened.
8 All Might
As the former number one hero of Japan and the worldwide Symbol of Peace, All Might is a hero who does not understand subtlety, both in hero work and as a teacher at U.A. High. Because All Might overworks himself and chose to go it alone for most of his career, he sets hero expectations too high. As a result, it becomes difficult for even him to meet them before he loses One For All.
Unfortunately, as All Might set the expectations, he expects that others should be able to match them as he did, especially his successor, Izuku. This leads him to be admired while others are not quite good enough despite being in the same occupation with different abilities.
7 Vlad King
As a teacher at U.A. High, Vlad King (civilian name Sekijiro Kan) is expected to not only be strong but smart as well. However, as he is only seen fighting during the joint training camp at the start of the series, it is hard to tell what he is like as a hero as well as a teacher.
While it is apparent that he cares about his students, Vlad King only seems to react as a hero when they are in danger. He is not as present on the streets or in battles even though his Quirk, Blood Control, can make him a formidable opponent and asset.
6 Sir Nighteye
In the early years if his carrer, Mirai Sasaki aka Sir Nighteye, was a former sidekick to All Might and was even considered the brains behind his deeds. However, even with his Foresight Quirk, which allows him to see the future, Nighteye never considered that things would change beyond what he saw.
Sir Nighteye even tried to change a future he saw for All Might by trying to find him a perfect successor and could not even fathom that Izuku was qualified enough to do so. He never considered that things would change if different actions were made and was even surprised that Izuku changed his predetermined fate.
5 Laundry Hero: Wash
Ranking number eight on the hero ranking, Wash considers himself to be a child-friendly hero that primarily does support. However, while he is good at support, Wash is one to head straight to danger even though his Quirk is not best for combat situations.
While Wash can be seen as admirable for going to battle, he can also make things difficult for other heroes as they need to defend him or work around the bubbles he creates to entrap villains. Also while his bubbles can be considered strong, it is unknown if they can withstand a sharp instrument that various villains will have in conjunction with their Quirks.
4 Uwabami
Being more of a celebrity than a hero, Uwabami sees hero work only as a side job. While she has students intern with her, she chooses to let them intern because she finds them cute and proceeds to take them to events unrelated to hero work as they were more than likely hoping for.
Uwabami seems to be more for her fans rather than her job, despite being able to use her Quirk for rescue-related missions. She should be able to use her Quirk quite like how Kyoka Jiro uses her headphone jacks in an offensive fighting style but decides to stay behind.
3 Pixie-Bob
Pixie-Bob (civilian name Ryuko Tsuchikawa) is a hero in the team Wild, Wild Pussycats. While her Quirk is greatly suited for the team's mountain rescue specialization, her hyperactive personality and search for romantic love make situations with other heroes, and undoubtedly civilians, strained.
Pixie-Bob tends to let the excitement of her current interests get in the way of social situations, which is a large part of being a hero. Upon first introduction, she even displays her fondness for younger heroes, especially the stronger members of class 1-A.
2 Star & Stripe
As the former number one hero of America, Cathleen Bate, aka Star and Stripe, had the powerful Quirk called New Order. Her Quirk allowed her to impose rules on her surroundings and opponents, with the only limit being she could only have two rules at a time.
During her fight with Shigaraki, however, she could have instead made him Quirkless or made it so he could be free of All For One's mental control. Unfortunately, since she did not try to aid Shigaraki's mental state or completely consider how to fight Shigaraki, she died before she could give much aid to Japan and Shigaraki escaped.
1 Death Arms
Death Arms was one of the first few heroes of the franchise, shown in the first chapter of the manga. While it is unknown how long he was a hero, Death Arms is one of the heroes to retire after the Paranormal Liberation War.
Death Arms had some type of strength Quirk and he had the potential to not only be another good mentor for Izuku, but also someone who could aid in the final war. Sadly, while he had support to stay, his reasoning for retirement was that he could not take the hatred against heroes because he was still human with feelings.