This list contains spoilers for Shigaraki's backstory in My Hero Academia

While many of the heroes seen in My Hero Academia will have bright and vibrant designs that help to present them as inspirational figures within society, the same certainly can't be said for the villains. Of course, it wouldn't make sense for people that are considered criminals to be wearing bright costumes, considering many of them have very dark mindsets and views on the world as a whole, and a prime example of this is Tomua Shigaraki, the main villain of the entire series.

Though Shigaraki's appearance has changed numerous times throughout the story to reflect his current power level, many people associate him with his early look in the series, when he was known for having a multitude of eerie hands attached to his body and face. This design is arguably the creepiest anyone has ever looked in My Hero Academia, but Kohei Horikoshi, the author of the series, revealed how he came up with such a sick and twisted design during a rare interview, and it's honestly quite surprising how he landed on this look in the first place.

Horikoshi Had Shigaraki In Mind From The Beginning

And He Wanted To Give Him A Striking Design To Help Him Stand Out As A Villain

Horikoshi focused on Shigaraki before the other villains
He wanted him to look 'weird' and 'uncomfortable'

During an interview with a Japanese news show in 2015, a year before the My Hero Academia anime even started airing, Horikoshi was asked a plethora of questions regarding his inspirations, his work ethic, and his opinions on where the series could be headed in the future. At roughly the midpoint of the conversation, the interviewer asks which characters Horikoshi had planned from the very beginning of the story, since it's very common for most manga authors to create characters as they go in order to guide the plot in a certain direction.

While Horikoshi was quick to admit that he had every member of Class 1-A fully established before the series officially began, he also added in another name who isn't even a hero at all, that being Shigaraki. Though it would be easy to assume that the League of Villains as a whole would have been created in one go, considering they are the main villainous group in the series, it's clear Shigaraki was initially the main focus for Horikoshi when he was creating his first few rough drafts, with the interviewer then going on to ask him about Shigaraki's bizarre but terrifying design.

"In my opinion, enemies should look strong and scary, so I designed something weird and uncomfortable for him" - Horikoshi on Shigaraki

When the interviewer stated that Shigaraki's unorthodox appearance is one of the strangest he has ever seen in manga, Horikoshi seemed happy that the villain's design had such a profound impact on him. The author goes on to say that, in his opinion, a villain should always look both strong and scary, and so he wanted to give Shigaraki a design that looked "weird" and "uncomfortable" to catch people off guard. However, there is another reason why Shigaraki looked like such an oddball at the beginning of the series, and it all has to do with Horikoshi's love for hands.

The Author's Hand Obsession Inspired Shigaraki's Design

Shigaraki Provided The Perfect Opportunity For Horikoshi To Flex His Hand-Drawing Skills

Horikoshi's fascination with hands explains Shigaraki's appearance
The author still managed to create a believable reason why Shigaraki looked this way

Just as the interviewer was about to move on to the next question, Horikoshi quickly admitted that another reason he drew Shigaraki this way was simply because he loves hands. When he was encouraged to speak about this a little more, the talented author explained that there's something about the structure of a human's hand that utterly fascinates him, as he goes on to explain how he is mesmerized by the movement of muscles and the bumps of bones that make up these specific body parts.

In fact, he even goes on to jokingly claim that it's become somewhat of a fetish, something no one could have ever expected him to blurt out in the middle of an interview. Just like most manga authors, Horikoshi also has his own avatar that is featured in every volume of My Hero Academia, but rather than being a human or animal, it's actually a small image of two hands being fused together, which further feeds into his bizarre fascination.

Hands are infamous for being one of the hardest parts of the human body to draw, but after learning how to illustrate them, Horikoshi simply decided to run wild by packing in as many hands as possible onto his main villain. Not only did this allow him to convey how weird and unusual hands actually are in practice through his drawings, but it was also the perfect way to make Shigaraki look truly scary, giving him an appearance that no fan of the series will ever be able to get out of their mind.

Why Does Shigaraki Have So Many Hands On His Body?

There's A Dark Story Behind Why He Is Covered In Them

Despite Horikoshi making it no secret that he loves to draw his characters' hands, he did still manage to create a believable reason why Shigaraki would have so many of them covering his body. To say Shigaraki had a tragic upbringing would be putting it mildly, as though he loved much of his family, he had a burning hatred for his abusive father, who would often take his anger out on the young boy any time he expressed an interest in being a hero.

After Shigaraki randomly activated his Decay Quirk, he unintentionally killed his entire family in mere seconds. Soon after, once he encountered All For One, who decided to take Shigaraki under his wing, the boy would collect the hands of his deceased relatives as a dark and gruesome reminder of what had transpired in his childhood, with the villain admitting that they help him feel both "sick" and "calm" at the same time.

"You heroes...pretend to be society's guardians" - Shigaraki

Therefore, while the hands might look like something Horikoshi conjured up on as part of a Halloween costume, there's actually a much darker reason why Shigaraki kept them around for so long. Slowly but surely, the hands started being removed, and once Shigaraki received a drastic upgrade from Dr. Garaki, the hands were nowhere to be seen, but this doesn't mean that his memories of what happened that tragic day have been completely forgotten.

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Release Date: 2016 - 2025-00-00
Network: TBS, MBS, Nippon TV
Directors: Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano