My Hero Academia: Horikoshi Revealed How He Came Up With Shigaraki’s Terrifying Design

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

Most heroes in *My Hero Academia* have colorful designs meant to inspire, but the villains are quite different. It wouldn’t fit for criminals to wear bright costumes, especially considering their often dark and twisted perspectives. Tomura Shigaraki, the series’ main villain, is a perfect example of this design philosophy.

Shigaraki Tomura’s appearance has evolved as his power has grown, but many fans remember him best from his early design: a disturbing look featuring numerous hands covering his body and face. This initial design is considered by many to be the most unsettling in *My Hero Academia*. Surprisingly, series creator Kohei Horikoshi recently shared the story behind this creepy look, revealing how he originally conceived it.

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’

In a 2015 interview with a Japanese news program – before the *My Hero Academia* anime premiered – Kohei Horikoshi discussed his inspirations, work habits, and future plans for the series. About halfway through the interview, the host asked which characters Horikoshi had originally envisioned, noting that many manga creators develop characters organically as the story progresses to influence the plot.

Horikoshi revealed he had fully developed all the students in Class 1-A before starting the series, but he also planned out Shigaraki very early on, even though Shigaraki isn’t a hero. Although the League of Villains is the primary villain group, Horikoshi initially focused on Shigaraki when creating early drafts. The interviewer then asked him about the strange and frightening design of Shigaraki.

Horikoshi, the creator of the series, wanted Shigaraki to appear intimidating, so he intentionally made his design unsettling and strange.

The interviewer was struck by how unusual Shigaraki’s design was, calling it one of the strangest he’d seen in manga, which pleased Horikoshi. The author explained that he intentionally wanted Shigaraki to look both powerful and frightening, opting for a “weird” and “uncomfortable” design to surprise readers. However, Horikoshi’s fondness for hands also played a significant role in the villain’s initial, peculiar appearance.

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 change topics, Horikoshi jokingly confessed that he designed the character Shigaraki partly because he has a fondness for hands. He then elaborated, explaining that he finds the structure of hands incredibly fascinating – specifically, the way muscles move and bones create their form.

He even playfully suggested it’s become a bit of an obsession – a surprisingly candid remark during the interview. Like many manga creators, Horikoshi includes a personal symbol in each volume of *My Hero Academia*. However, instead of a typical character, his symbol is a small image of two hands merging, which seems to highlight his unusual interest in the concept.

Drawing hands is notoriously difficult, but once Horikoshi mastered it, he playfully overloaded his main villain with them. This choice highlighted the strange and unsettling nature of hands themselves, and perfectly contributed to Shigaraki’s terrifying design, creating a truly unforgettable look for fans of the series.

Why Does Shigaraki Have So Many Hands On His Body?

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

Horikoshi, the creator, openly enjoys drawing hands, and he cleverly incorporated this into the design of the character Shigaraki, explaining why he has so many covering his body. Shigaraki’s childhood was deeply tragic; while he loved his family, he intensely disliked his abusive father, who would punish him whenever he showed an interest in becoming a hero.

Shigaraki’s Decay Quirk activated unexpectedly, tragically killing his family almost instantly. Later, when he met All For One, the villain took Shigaraki as a protégé. Shigaraki began collecting the hands of his family members as a disturbing memento of his past, and All For One revealed that possessing them gave the boy a strangely mixed feeling of revulsion and peace.

“You heroes…pretend to be society’s guardians” – Shigaraki

Although the hands on Shigaraki initially seemed like a spooky design choice, there was a deeper, more unsettling reason he kept them for so long. As Shigaraki grew stronger with Dr. Garaki’s help, the hands disappeared, but the painful memories connected to the tragic events of that day haven’t vanished completely.

2025-09-17 18:34