My Hero Academia: What In the World Happened to Izuku’s Dad?

My Hero Academia is a global phenomenon, with both the original manga and anime adaptation earning the series a sensational reputation and millions of adoring fans from around the globe. While the anime is still ongoing, the manga finally closed out Izuku Midoriya’s rise to becoming the world’s most beloved hero in August 2024. While Horikoshi did a good job of tying up any loose ends and exploring the cast’s futures in the series’ grand finale, there is still a pretty big mystery that was never resolved in the manga.

Namely, what happened to Deku’s dad? During SDCC 2018, Horikoshi was asked about the hero’s father, and the mangaka responded by stating he planned to reveal Hisashi Midoriya’s true identity in future chapters of the manga. Of course, this moment never came, and fans of the series are still scratching their heads over who the mystery man could be.

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There Are Plenty Of Theories About Deku’s Parentage

While the true identity of Izuku’s father has never been made canon aside from his name, there are plenty of fan theories floating around that have tried to uncover who the mystery man could be. One of the most popular, if unlikely, is that All For One could have secretly been Deku’s real father. Though it may seem unlikely at a glance, Kohei Horikoshi is a massive fan of Star Wars, and many fans think its likely that All For One could be a Darth Vader type. Unfortunately for fans of the theory, in their final battle, Izuku and AFO never have a dramatic “I am your father” moment, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Izuku does have a father figure in All Might, his childhood hero-turned-mentor that gives him his Quirk early on in the series. Similar to other shonen mentors, All Might offers Izuku all the fatherly guidance he could ever need, which could also be part of the reason why Horikoshi ultimately decided to leave Hisashi Midoriya’s identity a mystery. While it’s never been confirmed, it’s more than likely that as the story progressed, and stakes got higher, Horikoshi simply decided to omit a proper arc introducing Izuku’s dad to focus on the many disastrous events happening in My Hero Academia.

Did My Hero Academia Lose Anything By Not Including Izuku’s Dad In the Story?

While it certainly seemed like Horikoshi, at some point in time, had ideas for the reunion between Izuku and his father – especially considering “Hisashi” derives from a phrase that means “it’s been a while,” or “long time ago”, his absence didn’t leave any real plot holes in My Hero Academia‘s narrative. Outside of scattered, brief mentions, Deku has never mentioned a longing to know more about his father, or for him to take an interest in his hero career. Plus, Todoroki’s family has enough dad-associated baggage that the topic didn’t need to be explored through the main protagonist. Ultimately, it seems like with or without fans ever getting a glimpse at Hisashi in action, Izuku and Inko are doing just fine on their own.