Toshinori Yagi

Toshinori is born Quirkless during a period when violent crime and villain activity remain major threats to Japanese society. Even without an ability of his own, he develops an unusually ambitious conception of heroism. He believes society needs more than strong individual heroes; it needs a person whose presence alone convinces ordinary people that they are safe.

As a student, Toshinori meets Nana Shimura, the seventh holder of One For All. Nana recognizes his determination and ultimately chooses him to inherit the Quirk. Because Toshinori is naturally Quirkless, his body does not suffer the same conflict between an existing Quirk factor and One For All that affected several earlier inheritors, allowing him to carry the accumulated power for an exceptionally long period.

Nana places Toshinori under the care and training of Gran Torino, who subjects him to physically demanding instruction. Toshinori eventually leaves Japan and spends time in the United States, where he continues developing his abilities and forms a friendship with David Shield. His American experiences later influence the names of many of his signature attacks.

After returning to Japan, All Might becomes the country's dominant Pro Hero. His extraordinary strength is only part of his strategy. Toshinori deliberately smiles while saving people, hides his fear and injuries, and presents every victory as inevitable. Crime decreases under the psychological pressure created by the belief that All Might will always arrive.

His career is defined by repeated conflict with All For One, the villain responsible for generations of violence surrounding One For All. Several years before the beginning of the main story, All Might defeats All For One in a catastrophic battle but suffers devastating internal injuries. Much of his stomach is removed and his respiratory system is badly damaged, permanently reducing the amount of time he can remain in his muscular hero form.

Toshinori continues operating despite those injuries because the public does not know how vulnerable the Symbol of Peace has become. By the time he meets Izuku, maintaining his hero form for extended periods is increasingly difficult, forcing him to begin looking seriously for a successor.

Toshinori's public identity as All Might is deliberately theatrical. He speaks loudly, poses dramatically, smiles regardless of danger and tries to make every rescue appear completely under control. The behavior is not simply vanity; he believes fear spreads quickly during disasters, so a hero's visible confidence can prevent panic before physical rescue even begins.

His ordinary personality is much quieter. Outside the muscular form, Toshinori can be nervous, self-critical and awkward, particularly when dealing with emotional questions he cannot solve through strength. The contrast makes clear how much effort goes into maintaining the reassuring figure the public knows.

He is strongly idealistic about heroism. Toshinori believes that a true hero moves instinctively when another person needs help, which is why Izuku's attempt to save Katsuki despite being Quirkless changes his initial judgment of him. Physical ability can be trained; the impulse to risk oneself for another person is harder to teach.

That principle can also make Toshinori dangerously self-sacrificing. He spends years ignoring his own physical limits because he believes society depends upon All Might continuing to exist. Even after choosing a successor, he struggles to accept that protecting people may require trusting someone else rather than personally entering every battle.

As a teacher, he is less naturally competent than he is as a hero. Toshinori sometimes relies too heavily on his own experience and initially has difficulty explaining techniques that came intuitively to him. His relationship with Izuku therefore requires Toshinori to learn how to mentor someone whose body and approach to One For All differ dramatically from his own.

In his hero form, Toshinori stands 220 cm tall, with an enormous muscular build, broad shoulders and distinctive blond hair swept upward into two long tufts. His deep-set blue eyes are often obscured by shadow, giving his smiling face a stylized appearance associated closely with the public image of All Might. The official anime profile lists his height as 220 cm and birthday as June 10.

His traditional hero costume uses red, blue, white and yellow, visually reinforcing the American-comics influence present throughout his design and attack names. Several costume variations appear over his career, but the broad color scheme and exaggerated muscular silhouette remain consistent.

Toshinori's weakened civilian form is radically different. He becomes extremely thin, with sunken cheeks, sharp facial features and a body that appears almost skeletal compared with the muscular All Might. His hair retains the recognizable twin tufts but hangs more loosely around his face.

The change is caused by the severe damage his body sustained during his battle with All For One rather than by One For All itself. He can initially inflate his body into the familiar muscular appearance for several hours, but the duration becomes progressively shorter as his remaining power declines.

He frequently coughs blood when physically strained or startled, a recurring sign of the internal injuries hidden behind his heroic image. His civilian clothing is comparatively loose and ordinary, emphasizing the contrast between Toshinori Yagi and the enormous figure recognized by the public.

Toshinori was born Quirkless but inherits One For All from Nana Shimura. The Quirk stores physical power across generations and can be transferred voluntarily to another person. Toshinori becomes its eighth holder and, according to established series material, possesses it for approximately forty years—longer than any preceding user.

Under Toshinori, One For All reaches an unprecedented level of raw physical power. He can generate tremendous force through punches, leaps and rapid movement, with the pressure from individual strikes capable of affecting weather conditions or producing massive shock waves.

His speed is similarly extreme. All Might can cross large distances quickly enough to appear almost instantaneously to ordinary observers, intercept villains before they can complete attacks and move through collapsing structures while rescuing multiple people.

He possesses exceptional durability and endurance even beyond the straightforward strength granted by One For All. Toshinori repeatedly continues fighting after sustaining injuries that would incapacitate ordinary people, partly because decades of hero work have trained him to operate under severe physical stress.

Unlike Izuku, Toshinori never consciously manifests the stored Quirks of earlier One For All holders. His use of the power focuses almost entirely on the enormous stockpiled physical strength that has accumulated through successive generations.

Toshinori also has extensive combat experience independent of raw power. He reads opponents quickly, controls the direction of his shock waves and can adjust his strength to avoid harming civilians. His decades as the No. 1 hero make him highly effective at prioritizing rescue targets while simultaneously fighting.

After transferring One For All to Izuku, Toshinori continues temporarily using the residual embers left inside his body. Each transformation consumes more of those remnants until his battle at Kamino exhausts them completely, ending his ability to use One For All.

Detroit Smash is a powerful punch that generates a concentrated impact and shock wave. The technique later becomes one of Izuku's most recognizable inherited attacks.

Texas Smash uses a heavy punch to create a blast of compressed air capable of striking or clearing targets without requiring direct physical contact.

Missouri Smash is a high-speed chopping strike aimed at an opponent's head or upper body, relying on All Might's speed as much as raw strength.

Carolina Smash crosses both arms before striking outward with a powerful chopping motion.

Nebraska Smash rotates the arm before releasing a powerful strike, creating a twisting air current around the attack.

New Hampshire Smash uses air pressure and physical force to propel All Might backward into a target, effectively turning his entire body into a high-speed impact weapon.

Oklahoma Smash involves spinning rapidly to create powerful rotational force, generating enough wind and momentum to throw away surrounding opponents.

United States of Smash is All Might's strongest named attack. He concentrates the remaining force of One For All into a final punch powerful enough to create an enormous shock wave. He uses it against All For One at Kamino, exhausting the last active embers of One For All in his body.

Izuku Midoriya becomes Toshinori's successor, student and one of the people most important to him. Toshinori initially tells Izuku Midoriya that becoming a hero without a Quirk is unrealistic, but reverses that judgment after seeing him run toward danger to save Katsuki. He chooses Izuku to inherit One For All and personally supervises the ten-month training program necessary to prepare his body. Their relationship gradually becomes closer to that of parent and child than an ordinary teacher-student partnership, with Toshinori learning to worry about Izuku as a person rather than merely as the next One For All holder.

Nana Shimura is Toshinori's mentor and the seventh wielder of One For All. Nana Shimura entrusts him with the Quirk after recognizing his ambition to become a symbol capable of reassuring society. Toshinori retains enormous respect for her and continues repeating lessons learned from her decades later. Her death in battle with All For One becomes one of the defining losses of his youth and strengthens his determination to defeat the villain permanently.

Gran Torino trains Toshinori after Nana places him under his supervision. Gran Torino's harsh instruction helps turn the inexperienced young successor into an effective One For All user. Toshinori remains intimidated by him even as an adult, an unusual reversal considering All Might's reputation as the strongest hero in Japan.

All For One is Toshinori's greatest enemy. Their conflict extends the generational struggle between One For All and All For One's Quirk. Toshinori succeeds where earlier bearers could not by defeating the villain once before the main story, although the fight permanently damages his body. Their rematch at Kamino ends with All Might defeating him publicly using United States of Smash, but the victory consumes the last usable embers of One For All and ends Toshinori's active hero career.

Katsuki Bakugou idolizes All Might from childhood, but focuses particularly on his ability to win every battle. Toshinori eventually realizes that Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku inherited different parts of his heroic image: Katsuki admires victory while Izuku admires rescue. After Kamino, he tells Katsuki the truth about One For All and becomes an important mediator in the rivalry between the two boys.

Sir Nighteye serves as All Might's sidekick for several years. Sir Nighteye admires him deeply but becomes increasingly concerned about the damage Toshinori is inflicting upon himself by continuing hero work after his injury. Their partnership ends after Nighteye predicts All Might's death and urges him to retire, while Toshinori refuses to accept that future as inevitable.

David Shield is an old friend from Toshinori's period in the United States and one of the principal designers of his support equipment. David Shield knows the person beneath All Might's heroic image and worries about the physical decline caused by his injuries.

Melissa Shield, David's daughter, knows Toshinori through her father's friendship with him. Melissa Shield is herself Quirkless, giving Toshinori's eventual choice of another Quirkless person as his successor an additional resonance within their shared circle.

Inko Midoriya initially trusts U.A. with her son despite severe anxiety over his injuries. When Inko Midoriya considers withdrawing Izuku from U.A., Toshinori kneels before her and promises to devote himself to raising and protecting her son. The moment makes explicit how personally he has come to view his responsibility toward Izuku.

Shota Aizawa works alongside Toshinori at U.A. and offers a very different approach to teaching. Shota Aizawa is practical and unsentimental where Toshinori is inspirational and inexperienced, but both ultimately prioritize the students' survival and development.

Endeavor spends years attempting to surpass All Might in the Pro Hero rankings. Endeavor's obsession becomes so intense that it shapes his marriage and children, while Toshinori himself does not initially understand the extent of the damage caused by that rivalry. After All Might's retirement, Endeavor inherits the No. 1 position without achieving the victory he had wanted.

Naomasa Tsukauchi is one of Toshinori's closest non-hero associates and a trusted police contact. Naomasa Tsukauchi coordinates investigations involving villains and is among the relatively small number of people familiar with All Might's weakened condition.

Nezu employs Toshinori at U.A. and understands the strategic importance of training the next One For All user. Nezu gives him considerable freedom as a teacher while also compensating for Toshinori's limited experience in education.

[Hercules is the advanced support vehicle that assists Toshinori during the final war. Its equipment allows the Quirkless former hero to fight again through powered armor modeled on the abilities of Class 1-A.](#spoiler)

All Might enters the story as the hero Izuku has admired for most of his life. Their first meeting dismantles the perfect image almost immediately: Izuku discovers the emaciated Toshinori behind the muscular Symbol of Peace and learns that the world's greatest hero has been hiding catastrophic injuries.

The Sludge Villain incident establishes their relationship. Toshinori initially discourages Izuku from hero work, then watches the Quirkless boy run toward Katsuki when armed heroes hesitate. The action convinces him that Izuku already possesses the instinctive quality of a hero and leads to his offer of One For All.

Preparing Izuku for the transfer makes Toshinori a mentor rather than merely an idol. He develops a ten-month conditioning program, has Izuku clear Dagobah Municipal Beach Park and finally transfers One For All shortly before the U.A. entrance examination.

Toshinori joins U.A.'s teaching staff partly so he can remain near his successor. His early lessons reveal his shortcomings as an educator, but his presence also gives Class 1-A direct access to the hero whose career shaped their generation.

The USJ attack demonstrates that his physical limitations are becoming dangerous. Toshinori arrives after villains have already attacked the students and defeats the Nomu despite its abilities being specifically designed to withstand his strength. Doing so, however, pushes his injured body far beyond the amount of hero-form activity he can safely maintain.

His decline becomes public at Kamino. After Katsuki is rescued, All Might fights All For One while television cameras broadcast the battle across Japan. He exhausts the final embers of One For All defeating his enemy, points toward the camera and tells Izuku through the gesture that the responsibility has now passed to him.

Retirement changes Toshinori's function in the story. He can no longer solve crises through overwhelming strength, forcing him to remain involved as a teacher, researcher and source of knowledge about One For All. The official anime profile describes him after retirement as training and guiding Izuku at U.A.

During the final war, Toshinori refuses to accept complete helplessness. Using the armored Hercules support system, he confronts a younger All For One despite possessing no Quirk, deliberately placing himself between the villain and the students fighting elsewhere.

Toshinori begins as a man who has successfully made himself indispensable. The Symbol of Peace works precisely because people believe that no matter how dangerous a crisis becomes, All Might will handle it. The problem is that Toshinori himself comes to believe that society cannot function safely without him.

His injuries expose the weakness in that model. He continues hero work even as each transformation damages him further because admitting vulnerability feels incompatible with the role he created. Choosing Izuku is therefore not merely succession planning; it requires accepting that another person must eventually carry responsibilities he has treated as exclusively his own.

Teaching Izuku also forces him to rethink One For All. Toshinori could control the Quirk almost naturally once his body was prepared, while Izuku repeatedly destroys his limbs. The difference teaches Toshinori that his own experience cannot simply be copied and that a mentor must adapt to the student.

The Kamino battle resolves his identity as the active Symbol of Peace but creates a personal crisis afterward. Toshinori has spent most of his adulthood understanding his value through what he can physically do. Without One For All, he must discover whether Toshinori Yagi can still help people when All Might can no longer defeat villains.

His relationship with Izuku gradually provides that answer. Rather than disappearing once the inheritance is complete, Toshinori studies the history of One For All, helps interpret the emergence of the previous users' Quirks and continues advising the students. He becomes increasingly willing to contribute through knowledge rather than strength.

His final-war confrontation with All For One completes this transition in another way. Toshinori deliberately fights without a Quirk, using technology and tactics based on the students he taught. The man who once stood alone as society's singular pillar now fights using abilities symbolically derived from a generation of heroes working together.

After the war, Toshinori remains closely involved in Izuku's life. Years later, he helps deliver the advanced hero suit funded by Class 1-A's graduates, allowing the Quirkless Izuku to return to field work. The relationship therefore ends with Toshinori once again telling him that he can be a hero, this time without needing to give him One For All.

Toshinori's name is written 八木 俊典. His surname Yagi (八木) combines the characters for "eight" and "tree." The number eight is particularly appropriate for the eighth holder of One For All, fitting Kohei Horikoshi's frequent use of names that reference characters' powers or roles.

His given name Toshinori is written 俊典. 俊 can convey excellence, talent or brilliance, while 典 can refer to a code, rule, standard or classical text. The manga does not provide a specific in-universe explanation for the combination.

The hero name All Might communicates both overwhelming power and the broad reassurance Toshinori wants his identity to produce. The English construction fits Horikoshi's deliberate influence from American superhero naming. Horikoshi has said that he wanted many hero names to sound catchy and intuitively suit their characters, with American comics providing surface-level inspiration.

His attack names follow the same American influence. Detroit, Texas, Missouri, Carolina, Oklahoma, Nebraska and New Hampshire all refer to locations in the United States, culminating in the deliberately encompassing name United States of Smash.

• Toshinori's official anime profile lists his birthday as June 10, height as 220 cm, Quirk as One For All and Kenta Miyake as his Japanese voice actor.

• He is naturally Quirkless and becomes powerful only after Nana Shimura transfers One For All to him.

• Toshinori is the eighth holder of One For All and carries the Quirk for approximately forty years, longer than any previous user.

• His hero attacks are predominantly named after American states and cities, reflecting the United States' importance during his early hero development.

• All Might placed seventh in VIZ's 2018 English-language My Hero Academia popularity poll and tenth in the corresponding Japanese ranking. The VIZ poll drew more than 100,000 voters.

• Kenta Miyake voices Toshinori in Japanese, while Christopher Sabat performs him in the principal English anime dub.

• His weakened body is not his original natural physique; the extreme emaciation results largely from the internal injuries inflicted during his first major battle with All For One.

• Toshinori can still momentarily assume a muscular appearance after losing One For All, but these brief displays are physical flexing rather than restoration of his former power.

Toshinori is a principal character throughout the television anime adaptation of My Hero Academia, produced by Bones. Kenta Miyake voices him in Japanese, and the official anime profile identifies All Might as the eighth One For All holder who retires after exhausting his power against All For One and continues guiding Izuku as a U.A. teacher.

The anime frequently emphasizes the contrast between his hero and civilian bodies through changes in voice, posture and animation. His muscular form fills the frame with broad poses and exaggerated movement, while weakened Toshinori is drawn with narrow shoulders, sharp angles and sudden coughing fits.

The 2024 recap special My Hero Academia Memories: Toshinori Yagi: Embers focuses specifically on his history and motivation before the final conflict. The official synopsis frames the episode around the feelings that drove the Symbol of Peace and his continuing ability to inspire heroes even when he cannot stand on the front line.

All Might has an especially important role in My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, which explores his American past and friendship with David Shield. The film shows portions of the younger All Might's career and makes his declining physical condition central to the plot.

He appears in My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising primarily as a teacher and mentor rather than the fighter capable of resolving the students' crisis. This reflects the post-Kamino status quo, in which Class 1-A must increasingly handle dangers without expecting All Might to arrive.

My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission again uses Toshinori principally as part of the hero network coordinating the students' international activity. His era as the universally dominant combatant has ended, but his authority within the professional community remains substantial.

In My Hero Academia: You're Next, the villain Dark Might deliberately imitates All Might's image after misunderstanding the meaning of his final public declaration. The premise turns Toshinori's Symbol of Peace persona into something another person attempts to reproduce through appearance and power alone.

All Might is playable in My Hero One's Justice, My Hero One's Justice 2, My Hero Ultra Rumble and other franchise games, generally emphasizing immense close-range power and his iconic Smash techniques.

He also appears in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, which takes place before the main series and depicts portions of his career while he is still publicly active as the Symbol of Peace.

All Might became one of the franchise's most recognizable characters from its earliest serialization, with his exaggerated superhero proportions and American-comics-inspired design distinguishing him from the students around him. His visual identity—blond twin hair tufts, broad smile and red-blue-white costume—became closely associated with My Hero Academia's initial marketing.

He has also remained competitive in character popularity polling despite being an adult mentor in a series dominated by teenage protagonists. VIZ's 2018 poll placed him seventh among more than 100,000 English-language votes, while the corresponding Japanese ranking placed him tenth.

Reception often distinguishes between the bombastic All Might persona and Toshinori's weakened private self. The reveal that the seemingly invincible hero spends much of his day in a frail body changes the character from an uncomplicated symbol of strength into someone consciously performing reassurance for society.

His relationship with Izuku has become one of the franchise's central mentor-student dynamics. Rather than merely teaching combat, Toshinori gives Izuku the ability that changes his life, then gradually discovers that succession requires remaining present after the transfer rather than disappearing once the student's journey begins.

The Kamino battle became one of the character's defining anime moments. United States of Smash, his victory over All For One and the silent message passing responsibility to Izuku together close All Might's career as the active Symbol of Peace while keeping Toshinori central to the story afterward.

Horikoshi's later discussion of heroism also aligns closely with the direction of Toshinori's development. In a 2024 interview, he said his own idea of a hero had shifted toward people nearby who offer support and encouragement, rather than only exceptional figures standing on another level. Toshinori's post-retirement role follows that same movement: the strongest hero loses the power that made him famous but remains important through teaching, preparation and his willingness to support the people who inherited the future from him.