Toshinori Yagi (八や木ぎ俊とし典のり Yagi Toshinori), more commonly known by his hero name, All Might (オールマイト Ōru Maito), is the tritagonist of My Hero Academia. All Might is the former No. 1 Hero who bore the title of the world’s Symbol of Peace (平和の象徴 Heiwa no Shōchō). He teaches Foundational Hero Studies at U.A. High School.
All Might was the eighth holder of the One For All Quirk after receiving it from Nana Shimura. He has since passed the torch to Izuku Midoriya, whom he is grooming to be his successor. After using up all the embers of One for All to defeat All For One, All Might retired and ended his era as the world’s greatest hero.
Appearance
In his empowered form, Toshinori is a very large man with an equally muscular and well-defined physique, his design resembling a typical western comic book superhero. He has short blond hair, swept backwards, with two distinct tufts that stick up above his head, leaning slightly to each side, which often casts a dark shadow over his face, hiding everything but his bright blue eyes.
Toshinori’s Golden Age hero costume consisted of a skin-tight blue bodysuit decorated with a red symbol that somewhat resembles a “Y”, designed with a white diamond at its center, with white lines connected to it that trace from his chest to his back shoulders, the lines trimmed with the aforementioned red symbol. The symbol appeared to have wings on the side that ran from the atop his torso before ending around his back, over which was a similar red and white design absent of the white diamond. Large white patches lined with red covered each side of his hips before ending at his lower thighs, and he wore a gold belt that had a silver buckle with red eyes. His forearm sleeves were colored in gold that each had white lines covered in blue accents over his wrists, and had spiked fins on the sides of his arms, his feet were covered in shin-length gold boots trimmed with white and red accents.
In his “true form”, after sustaining permanent damage from All for One, Toshinori’s declining health reduced him to a very skinny man with sharp, angular features and long limbs, his neck long and his eyebrows absent. He possesses a large scar that covers most of the left side of his chest, and it is not uncommon for him to spout blood from his mouth when excited or surprised. He typically wears baggy clothing to accommodate the change in body mass between forms, but after the end of Toshinori’s tenure as a hero, he starts wearing clothes that fit him in his true form, as he no longer needs big clothes that fit his muscle form.
In his early career, Toshinori was a lean but fit young man. In his empowered form, his facial features were noticeably softer. In both his normal and empowered form, he did not have shadowed eyes on his face, completely showing his white sclerae while retaining the deep blue irises of his eyes, possibly showing how he was not a shell of his former self.
Personality
All Might’s hero persona appears to be derived from comic book superhero stereotypes: colorful and filled with dramatic flair. Always sporting a giant smile, All Might shows a bright, borderline obnoxious, can-do attitude that is said to inspire others as well as help them feel safe and hopeful. He is extremely friendly and amicable due to his popularity and years in the spotlight, always taking his time to interact with fans.
Once All Might reverts to his true form, however, he becomes less energetic and more serious, generally taking a milder stance so as to not attract much attention to himself, in direct contrast to the grandiosity of his hero identity. In this form, he frequently vomits blood as an indicator of his fragile health, although it might happen if he gets surprised or amused enough too. Two personality traits that seem to be always present on him, regardless of which form All Might is currently taking, are his optimism and oafishness.
Since his young days, All Might had always carried a single, yet burdensome goal in his mind: to become a pillar of hope that people could always rely upon during harsh times. Indeed, after obtaining One For All from his master, Nana Shimura, as well as inheriting her habit of smiling at all times, All Might rose to become not only a hero, but a legend, no thanks to his seemingly endless competency and charisma. No matter who or what he faced, All Might would stand up triumphantly in the end every time, inspiring the world and sending fear to the hearts of villains everywhere.
Unfortunately for All Might, injuries inflicted on his body were starting to take a toll on him. Despite the concern and warnings from some of his close associates, All Might’s determination to preserve society from evil prevented him from relinquishing his role as the Symbol of Peace. His smile, once a gesture that served to calm others, started becoming more of a way for All Might to hide his fears and insecurities from the general population. As time passed, All Might began to forget some of the basic principles of heroism, until Izuku Midoriya, in a brave attempt to save a classmate from a villain attack despite his lack of power, rekindled his heroic spirit and taught him that something can always be done to fight injustice.
Izuku has compared All Might’s personality to their mentor Gran Torino, since both of them apparently play dumb often. All Might is actually more intelligent and perceptive than his campy image would suggest, even though he is still outsmarted by his students sometimes. He struggles both as a teacher for Class 1-A and mentor to Izuku due to his lack of teaching experience, requiring scripts in order to convey his lessons. All Might’s fellow teacher, Shota Aizawa, calls him an idiot on occasion because of this while Gran Torino believes that all his strength and fame has not translated well into instructing or training others, especially as he never struggled to learn about One For All in the first place.
All Might always prioritizes the lives of others over his own, considering them his responsibility be them civilians or other heroes. Still, All Might is deeply aware that saving everybody in the world is an impossible task, but he always does his best or even beyond that to minimize as many casualties as possible. While All Might is seen smiling, laughing, and being cheerful most of the time, he is extremely protective of his students, showing a very rare instance of rage if they’re in danger. He is willing to go above his limits for their safety, making sure to alleviate their worries through his trademark smile.
All Might has a fatherly attitude towards his students (his successor Izuku, in particular) and takes pride in helping their development as future heroes, being quick to give encouraging advice and celebrate their accomplishments, but he’s also not afraid of pushing them further, even if he ends up going a bit too far. All Might has the habit of adding “young” (少年 Shonen?) to the surname of his students whenever he is speaking out loud or thinking to himself (ex. “Young Midoriya”).
Abilities
Overall Abilities: All Might was recognized as the strongest hero in the world. He was the “Symbol of Peace” and such deterrent against crime that villains were largely discouraged by his presence in society.
ndomitable Spirit: All Might’s will is clear in almost all of his actions as a Hero. He is known for saving people with a smile and his catchphrase “I am here”, two facets of him being the Symbol of Peace. During the pinnacle of his battle against the U.S.J. Nomu, All Might remembered his resolve of being being the Symbol of Peace, and his resolution allowed him to push beyond 100% of his power in order to finally defeat the artificial human. Another prominent spectacle featuring All Might’s willpower was during his final showdown with All For One. One of All For One’s primary strategies in their fight was to wear down All Might psychologically, such as taunting All Might by mentioning the latter’s former mentor and predecessor, Nana Shimura, as well as revealing that Tomura Shigaraki is her grandson. The first taunt enraged All Might, while Tomura’s kinship to Nana made him despair greatly.
Former Quirk
One For All (ワン・フォー・オール Wan Fō Ōru): Inherited from Nana Shimura, All Might’s Quirk allowed him to stockpile an enormous amount of raw power, allowing him to significantly enhance all of his physical abilities to a superhuman level. This results in unbelievable levels of strength, speed, agility, and durability.
All Might was so proficient with One For All that he was widely known as the world’s most powerful person.
- Immense Strength: All Might’s most distinguishable trait was his boundless levels of super strength. A single punch from All Might could not only defeat a villain but completely change the weather subsequently. It also has the power to completely destroy several city blocks from the wind pressure it creates. Despite becoming severely weakened since first meeting Izuku, All Might’s pure overwhelming strength is still comparable to that of a nuclear device. He quite literally beat the Shock Absorption out of Nomu, forced Deku and Bakugo to flee rather than continue fighting him head-on, and clashed with All For One’s attacks and cancel out their highly destructive power with brute strength alone. After defeating Nomu, All Might himself admitted that, compared to his prime in which he could’ve defeated Nomu with 5 hits, it took over 300 blows to defeat the bio-engineered creature. This is another testament of All Might’s weakened state.
- Immense Speed: In conjunction with his immense level of physical strength, All Might possesses an equally impressive amount of speed. When he arrived at the U.S.J, All Might moved a remarkable distance from the gate and simultaneously incapacitated villains in the blink of an eye. Tomura even says that he was completely unable to track his movements despite the latter being slower than he once was. All Might was also able travel 5 kilometers from the League of Villains Bar, towards All For One’s location at the Nomu Factory 30 seconds after the Nomu were sent by All for One. However, according to All For One, this was actually much slower than what All Might was able to accomplish in his prime.
- Immense Durability: All Might had extreme durability, almost to the point of being completely invulnerable to attacks. He sustained no life-threatening damage from his battle with Nomu and took point blank, unrestrained explosions from Katsuki without so much as slowing down at all. All Might was even able to survive All For One’s blast wave attack, a move that can cause city-wide catastrophic damage, and emerged unharmed with only some minor scratches.
- Immense Stamina: In his prime years, it was noticed that All Might has never been shown to be tired even when fighting against multiple villains. The only time that All Might was shown to be panting and out of breath was against All For One and Nomu, and that was only due to the injury he got from the former 6 years prior that also limited All Might from using the maximum output of One For All.
Super Moves
California Smash
Carolina Smash
Detroit Smash
Double Detroit Smash
Missouri Smash
Nebraska Smash
New Hampshire Smash
Oklahoma Smash
Texas Smash
United States of Smash
