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You’ll learn. In order to save strangers they don’t even know. Heroes hurt those who love them!!
~ Kotaro's twisted belief about heroes.
Stop it, Tenko!
~ Kotaro's last words.

Kotaro Shimura is a minor antagonist in My Hero Academia. He was the son of Pro Hero Nana Shimura and the father of the villain Tomura Shigaraki.

Fueled by his bitterness towards heroes because of his mother giving him up, he abused his children harshly for even mentioning them, which was one of the factors that led to his son becoming the villain now known as Tomura Shigaraki.

He is voiced by Yuya Tajima in the Japanese version in the anime and Aaron Campbell in the English dub.

Personality[]

Nana has to leave Kotaro

Kotaro being given up by Nana Shimura.

Kotaro used to be a happy and normal child until his mother Nana Shimura gave him up to live with foster parents. This led him to resent heroes, believing them to be weak and pathetic individuals who are not fit to live in this world. He became a cruel, ruthless and tyrannical parent towards his entire family, punishing them for mentioning heroes by forcing them to sit outside the house until they apologized. Kotaro is also resentful towards his mother for abandoning him in the first place as seeing a photo of her enraged him and caused him to snap at his family while expressing his cynicism towards heroes.

Kotaro made his view on heroes clear to his family and forbade any talk or mention of them in his household, which subsequently led to his abuse of Tenko Shimura. He claimed that aspiring to be a hero would lead to nothing but suffering and said that his cruel punishments were to prevent Tenko from going down that path. It could be assumed that Kotaro didn't want his children to become heroes and leave him or even possibly meet the same fate as his mother. On the other hand, his manga volume profile and his wife Nao said that Kotaro had wanted a happy family, suggesting that he wasn't always such a cruel father towards his children. However, Kotaro's cruel behavior which devolved into outright abuse made it seem more like he was taking his anger and misery out on them. Ironically and hypocritically, Kotaro claimed that heroes do nothing but harm their own families when he himself did exactly that.

Despite this, he does feel remorse for his actions after reading his mother's letter and recalling the happy childhood he had with her, admitting that he went too far with punishing Tenko and asking how his children were, showing some signs of sadness and guilt. However, when he sees Tenko panicking after killing his loved ones with his uncontrollable Quirk, rather than help him, Kotaro panicked and attacked Tenko to get him to stop. Not only does this rash decision ultimately lead to him being killed by his vengeful son, but his abuse towards Tenko would later serve as further fuel for Tomura's motivation to destroy everything.

Biography[]

Tenko being abused by his father

Kotaro taking out his hatred on his family.

When Kotaro was young, he was very close to his mother Nana Shimura who did nothing but shower him with affection. Tragically, his father was killed and his grieving mother gave him up to pursue her career of heroism and protect him from All For One. In their last meeting, Kotaro cried before he and his mother were separated.

Over time, his sadness turned to resentment, which drove him into hating heroes. Although he was successful enough in his job to build a home, his hatred never faded even after having his children Hana and Tenko Shimura where he would verbally abuse his family to the point that all of them were scared of him. Tenko had a fascination with heroes, but this caused Kotaro to punish him routinely. However, he still had the support of his mother Nao and his older sister Hana who showed him a picture of their grandmother Nana.

When Kotaro found out, he snapped at Tenko and voiced his hatred of heroes (by extension his mother) while the rest of the family only watched in horror before forcing his son to sit out in the dark. That night, he stared at the picture of him and his mother before reading the letter she gave him, telling him that she still loved him. Kotaro was then confronted by his wife and in-laws on his actions with Nao saying that they were done following his rules if he'd hurt their children. Kotaro admits that he went too far and inquires about his children while his wife asks what happened to him wanting a happy family.

Later on, Tenko broke into tears for all the abuse that Kotaro put him through along with his family's inability to help and finds comfort with his dog, Mon, until he accidentally kills it when his Quirk, Decay, manifests for the first time. Later, Hana tries to apologize to him for framing him (as she was also afraid of what her father would do to her), but flees in terror when she sees the crumbled remains of their family pet.

Kotaro Shimura Horrified

Kotaro seeing what Tenko has done.

After the horrified Tenko accidentally kills his sister, grandparents and mother with his Quirk, Kotaro is alerted of the noise and finds his decayed family. Tenko begs his stunned father for help as he unintentionally destroys the area and runs to Kotaro for aid. Fearful, Kotaro attacks him with a weed clipper in response and ordered him to stop, but he sees that his act led to Tenko losing all of his sanity. With full intent to kill, Tenko charged at and deliberately decays his father after touching his face, telling him to die in revenge for all his painful actions. Kotaro was decayed along with the house he built. This act also satisfied Tenko at ending all his painful abuse.

The only part of Kotaro that remained was one of his hands, which the newly-christened Tomura Shigaraki wore on his face as his new villain costume. Tomura repressed his memories of his family until his fight with Re-Destro, in which he remembered back when he was an innocent child with a caring family. However, he also remembers his father, the person who was cruel to him throughout his life, which causes Shigaraki to nullify all of his guilt towards his family and become more determined to destroy everything. As further liberation, he destroys his father's hand in celebration.

In the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, Tomura's memories of his father would instead strengthen his will to be the most powerful villain. After being left in a death-like state from getting his surgery interrupted, Tomura was trapped in his own memories. He remembered his other family members and temporarily regained his humanity until seeing a giant Kotaro yelling at him, causing Tomura to revert back to a villain and disintegrate the projection of his father. Later, Tomura sees All For One beckoning him to join him and all of his family members trying to stop him by grabbing him with the same positions their hands were on his earliest villain costume with Kotaro grabbing his face, but Tomura decays them all to join his master. Moments later after Tomura wakes up and clashes with Endeavor, the Flame Hero tells him that without ideals, his hollow destruction will never bring them down. Tomura tells the heroes that they hurt their families just to help complete strangers, quoting Kotaro's philosophy, which motivates him to fight on as a villain.

When Gran Torino confronts Tomura, he recognizes his face as a Shimura, which brings him to the memory of when Nana gave Kotaro away while both made a tearful exchange. After this, she told Torino that she tinkered with the family records to remove Kotaro, because if All For One found out about their connection, he would exploit their connection. She claims that she no longer has a son and breaks down in tears while Torino comforts her. In the present, Gran Torino realizes that because of the choice they made, Kotaro grew up to influence his son into becoming the embodiment of his own hatred of heroes.

After the battle, Izuku Midoriya has a meeting with his One For All predecessors. During the meeting, Kotaro's mother, Nana discusses the matter with Izuku and admits to him that abandoning her son was the greatest mistake she ever made.

Quotes[]

"Playing hero again?"
*Kotaro drags a crying Tenko Shimura outside*
Nao: "Kotaro! That's enough, you're hurting him!"
"If he doesn't like it then he should obey me."
Nao: "He's just a child!"
~ Kotaro punishes his son for playing hero by forcing him to sit outside.
Nao: "It's already time for dinner, and his allergies and the scratching are getting worse."
"He knows what the rules are, he can come back inside when he apologizes."
Mako: "Don't you think you've been too strict lately?"
"Five years old and no Quirk yet. He needs to learn his place in this society or it will break him. Aspiring to be a hero will cause suffering for him and his family. Everyone understands that right?"
~ Kotaro defending his cruel attitude towards Tenko.
"TENKO! YOU WENT INTO MY STUDY?! ... What did you see??"
Hana: "(crying) Tenko said that- that he had a secret to show me I didn't know!"
"That's not your grandmother, she abandoned her family when she left!"
~ Kotaro after discovering that Tenko had seen the picture of him and Nana.
"It would've been better if you never loved me..."
~ Kotaro after reading his mother's letter.
Nao: "No more of this."
"I went too far... how are they?"
Nao: "We're through with your rules, don't you dare raise your hand to him. Our family deserves to be happy."
"It wasn't supposed to be like this..."
~ Kotaro pretending to show remorse when his wife and parents-in-law confront him.

Trivia[]

  • It isn’t specified whether Kotaro abused his daughter Hana the same way he did with Tenko Shimura, although given that she broke down into tears of fear and hysterically blamed her brother for having rooted through his office, it can be assumed that he had cruelly punished her before as well.
  • The circumstances that led to Tomura becoming a villain (being abandoned by his family and rejected by bystanders) are exactly like Kotaro's past, leading to Tomura ironically becoming just like his father, only to a greater extent. Both of them took out their rage and disillusionment towards heroes and society out on others, but Tomura goes far enough to outright destroy them. If he had not abused and corrupted his son for his belief in heroism, Tomura wouldn't have become a villain.
  • In some respects, Kotaro is the dark reflection of Endeavor. Both had abused their respective families and even responsible for their son's descent into villainy. Yet whereas Endeavor was motivated to groom a successor who would surpass All-Might at the expense of his family's well-being, Kotaro was motivated by his sheer hatred toward heroes to the point of turned violent toward his family whenever they bring up the very topic he despised (heroes). Their reaction upon being confronted by the monster their respective son had become contrasted greatly; whereas Endeavor attempted to try to reason with Dabi in their next confrontation, Kotaro stoop even lower by attacking Tomura outright leading the latter to kill the former in revenge, if not just self-defense (to be fair, Kotaro was too horror-struck to think straight due to the sight of Tomura's out-of-control quirk which killed their family).

Navigation[]

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All For One | Tomura Shigaraki | Kurogiri | Daruma Ujiko | Gigantomachia
Vanguard Action Squad: Dabi | Himiko Toga | Spinner | Twice | Mr. Compress | Muscular | Moonfish | Mustard | Magne | Chainsaw Nomu
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Grand Commander: Re-Destro
Leaders: Curious | Trumpet | Skeptic
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Grand Commander: Tomura Shigaraki
Lieutenants: Dabi | Himiko Toga | Twice | Mr. Compress | Spinner | Re-Destro | Trumpet | Skeptic | Geten
Warriors: Gigantomachia | Slidin' Go | Sanctum
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Movies
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