My hero academia is a shounen action anime that draws a lot of inspiration from western superheroes. Like most series in these genres, it has unique power system which it calls “quirks”. These are basically superhuman abilities that people are either born with or develop by the age of four. There are three types of quirks in the series; emitter, mutant and transformation each with their own characteristics.

Amongst these quirks there are quite afew of them which could be considered powerful in certain circumstances. However, this list doesn’t just rank them based on strength but also based on other factors such as versatility, potental for growth as well as the defined level of mastery of their current user.

*WARNING!!! This article contains spoilers for the main plot *

BRAINWASHING

Let’s start off the list with this ability, which is used by Shinso Hitoshi. His quirk gives its wielder the ability to control anybody that replies to them. Now while this would seem like the perfect power for a villain, it is quite fortunate for us that the weilder chose the path of heroism, as the versatility in application of this quirk is incredibly vast; It could be used for gathering info as well as for changing the flow of battle when need be.

I mean, what’s the point in fighting if you could just command enemies to fight each other and tire themselves out? The only downside to this quirk would be that it can’t be used through elctronics like phones or speakers but honestly if it was that broken I don’t think the Shinso we’d have gotten would be the same as the one we know now.

ERASURE

What could possibly be better than having an OP quirk? How about the ability to make all your opponents powerless? Yes, this is the abiity possessed by class1A’s homeroom teacher Aizawa a.k.a “Eraserhead”. As stated, his quirk is an emitter type with the ability to disable the “quirk factor” of anybody in his field of vision. This means he is shutting down the mechanism that allows individuals use thir quirks, which is very useful in combat as most people rely on their quirks for battle.

It should also be noted that his quirk isn’t quite as effective on people with mutant-type quirks but is still able to hinder use of any extra apendages that are a result of such quirks. This is because even though such appendages or organs don’t necessarily require a ‘power up’ of sorts, they are still connected to the individuals quirk factor, which results in them being temporarily nullified in some cases.

BLACK HOLE

This is an emitter type quirk possessed by the Pro Hero Thirteen. It allows her to create black holes from her fingers, which disintegrate matter at the atomic level as well as being able to suck up certain energies, light included. It is maily used by thirteen for cleanup jobs at disaster sites and for grouping up enemies.

While this quirk is incredibly powerful, because of Thirteen’s passive nature and the fact that she is a rescue type it is hardly used for combat as it is very deadly when used against people. Despite this, we saw the quirk in action during the USJ incident in season 1 when she uses it to stop Kurogiri from warping. Thirteen has proven that this powerful quirk can be used passively as a support tool with her technique and mastery over it, now just imagine what a battle-type hero could do with this insane quirk.

DECAY

The iconic quirk possessed by the leader of the league of villains, Shigaraki Tomura. As the name suggest this emitter-type quirk gives him the ability to destroy anything he touches with all five fingers of his hand wether he is concios of it or not. A good fit for him and his destructuve persona in my honest opinion.

As if it wasn’t already good enough, after the events of the “My Villain Academia” arc, it has evolved to be able to allow its wielder control wether or not everything gets destroyed as well as the degree of destruction as ithe quirks overall abilities were significantly enhanced and it can now bring about a lot more destruction at a faster pace than before. This was seen when Shigaraki managed to destroy half a city by just touching the ground.

PERMEATION

This quirk possessed by Mirio “Lemillion” Togata might initially seem as a weird addittion tto thus list. Though upon closer inspecion it was a hidden gem sitting right under our noses the iintire time. As you’d have guessed from its name, its a transformation -type quirk that allows it user to become intangible and phase through objects.

While this may sound cool and easy it is actually an incredibly hard quirk to train and control. Though after putting himself through some rigorous training Mirio mangaed to atane a high level of mastery with his quirk and discovered some unconventional ways to apply and increase its oversll Value.

Firstly, this quirk makes it basically impossible for its weilder to be harmed as attacks will pass through them. This is perfect for bot defence and offence as it allows its weilder to land surprise attacks through objects in ways that would normally not be possible. It can also be used to ‘warp’ short distances in battle if the weilder has aa good level of mastery over it.

ONE FOR ALL

You were expecting this one weren’t you? Well, expectations asid this list wouldn’t be complete without the quirk of the former number one hero, All Might. Surprisingly, despite the fact that its a quirk for stockpiling powerit is considered an emitter-type ability. I think its probably because of the nature in which it is passed down.

Now on the surface, this seems like your average body-enhancing superpower that comes with the usual effects of increasing the weilder’s speed and power significantly but as the story unfolds we lesarn a lot more about this power.

Firstly, is the fact it gets stronger each time it is passed down. It also was recently revealed that because of the constatnt mutation of the quirk, that Deku now has access to 6 more quirks which will be individually unlocked over the course of the story.

Now that I think about it; this quirk basically just turns you into Anime superman(with some extra powers )

HALF-COLD HALF-HOT

The quirk possessed by Endeavour’s son, Todoroki. It is an emitter-type quirk that let’s him control both fire and ice with his left and right side of his body. Its a good quirk that’s versatile and can be used in multiple ways on the battlefield, including support.

The fact that Todoroki, the weilder of this ability is widely accepted as the strongest student in class 1a is also adds some credibiliy to the fact of jutst how insanely strong his quirk truly is. Let’s also not forget that he got i through recommendations which is considered to be a lot harder than apllying for the school exams which goes to show just how much his abilities are valued.

HELLFLAME

This quirk is an emiteer-type quirk that enables its user to generate and control a large amount of flames. Endeavour, hate him or not, really did a good job of reflecting his personality into both his fighting style and quirk name. I mean HELFLAME, c’mon man? The fact of the matter is that while it possesses a peculliar name but iis very powerful. It is mainly used by endeavour to float during patrols and fight villains when possible.

Due to the nature of this quirk, it can’t be used effectively for roles other than fighting and thankfly, it does indeed “Pack a punch”.

Ah yes, another destruction quirk. Similar to that of Shigaraki mentioned above, overhaul can take apart anything he touches at will. The only difference between their abilities is the fact that Overhaul can reassemble whatever he has take apart whilst Shigaraki cannot. This quirk is basically a revamped bersion of Shigaraki’s ability with some advantages.

The applications of this quirk however are more in number making it a more valuable and versatile in practice. It is noted that the weilder of this quirk could also cure people’s illnesses by touching then and recomposing their cells. If that’s not broken then I don’t know what is.

ALL FOR ONE

The finak boss. This quirk is basically the embodimenttt of the demon king that all for one wnats to become. It allows him to steal quirks from others for himself, or gift them to others people. A really scary ability for a normal person ti think about? The fact that he can also combine the quirks he already to increase rheir effect was a good enough sign to tell me you don’t sometimes wish you could have this ability. As powerful and dangerous as this quirk is I know that a vast majority of my hero fanbase would take it as their preferred choice regardless of the price they need to pay. It’s just that good of a quirk. But I mean, one can dream right?