dani ⚜

Interests: mha, succession, akotsk, bsd. Currently watching suits, dark, killing eve, tvd and lovely complex. Haven't finished playing death stranding but I'm loving it, I played re4r and fell in love with leon kennedy.

Love reading, I don't do it as much as I used to but I'm getting back to it. As for music, I like mitski, muse, depeche mode, cigarettes after sex, babasonicos, soda stereo, arg rock in general. My username is from the song knights of cydonia by muse ;)

Please ask me anything! I'm a little socially anxious but I'd love to talk and make friends here, my dms are always open. Specific tags you can search for are headcanon, analysis, comms and fanfic.

DNI: not comfortable with pro/darkship or underage. No other dni I just block freely.

For context, this was inspired by an idea I disagree with and that I’ve seen a lot in fan work, which is that Shinsou, both pre and post-time skip, is essentially a mini version of Aizawa and therefore everything from his pro hero work to the way he looks – in terms of physique – is naturally going to reflect that. The latter is what I jokingly like to call the “bear-on-steroids” Shinsou. Although there are various similarities between them, specially in terms of, yk, vibes, I don't think they are as important and influential to his character as many would believe.

Note: none of the following is meant against those who do like the parallels and similarities between him and Eraser and show that through their works, or who simply like to portray Shinsou the way I previously joked. I just heavily disagree #twunktoshicanon 

I will be referring to the capture weapon also as “binding cloth” and “CW”, to close combat as “melee” and “CC”, and support combat as “SC”. I was also not entirely unbiased when writing and added some of my personal opinions and interpretations.

Fighting style

Besides how it's said he was trained in Aizawa's fighting style involving the capture weapon, upon looking at both their stats, it's also specified how Hitoshi exclusively specializes on support combat (the binding cloth) while Aizawa is both a support and a close combat fighter. In Vigilantes' flashbacks, we see the reason for Aizawa's choice is that his quirk allows him to even the playing field, in turn being left with inevitable close encounters. This isn't Shinsou’s case, as I mentioned here. He’s at a disadvantage the closer he gets to an opponent.

I just finished re reading MHA (I’m basically manga only since the 4th season) and from what I recall, with the exception of the sports festival – with that lame ass punch– he really does seem to rely only on the CW when it comes to close encounters – at least with Gigantomachia and the JTA – but still generally avoids those. There’s a limit to how many images I can put on a post, but we see in the JTA how he actively tries to get away when brainwashing doesn’t work and make it so instead of a 1vs1, there’s a brawl where he can sneak through and use the quirk.

There are many types of support combat, which from my understanding means “non-lethal subduing, mobility, and enabling primary attackers instead of using brute force to act on the front lines”, so I did consider he could in fact do some sort of CC. There’s this scene where Aizawa mentions how people like them need to be able to rely on themselves or else they’re done for, followed by how he doesn’t waste time on hopeless causes. I thought perhaps this slight threat meant there was some focus on the melee aspect of Aizawa’s own skills that he’s sharing, but in the training flashbacks Hitoshi only practices the use of the CW, and that’s also his primary concern regarding how far he’s gotten with his training.

I couldn’t find it but there’s the brief panel where it’s pointed out how he got “bigger” so I guess that’s where the confusion comes from and why so many people think he’s a super buff and good fighter, but I came to the conclusion that this was purely for exposition purposes and to show he’s not as scrawny as he was during the sports festival, considering how after the aforementioned panel he’s back to being pretty lean and how both the manga and the anime are very inconsistent – and unrealistic– in terms of how the characters look. If that wasn’t the case, then melee would’ve been added, as it was for Uraraka with Gunhead Martial Arts, Aizawa with the CW, or others such as Monoma, Kaminari, Ashido, Shoji, Koda, Hagakure, etc. who do have SC + CC on their stats.

Instead, on the first stats from the Ultra Archive book, his fighting style is stated as just "mind control," and it specifically mentions not fighting. And for Ultra Analysis, as I said, it wasn’t updated to include CC, only SC and the use of support items.

So, to recap, I believe his fighting style relies almost entirely on his quirk, the use of his support items – the capture weapon and persona chords – and on his own cleverness to navigate situations accordingly, using those together to win while avoiding physical confrontations.

Note: this isn't to say Shinsou doesn't know how to fight at all, that'd be stupid, just that there's a much more interesting outcome besides the fighting villains in a dark alley.

Hero work

Now, about his work. What exactly does he do? What kind of hero is he, when we know he doesn't fight like Aizawa? In my procrastination induced research, I stumbled across this post by @quirkwizard on how types of heroes could be classified in MHA. It was posted in 2018, but I find it highly accurate on how the series turned out, so I'm using it as reference. In this, Shinsou is listed as an Off-Field and Social Hero type, which is described as follows:

"Off Field Heroes are heroes who don't usually fight villains directly. Instead they are the ones who assist On Field Heroes or fight villains through ways other than direct combat."

"Social Heroes: This category is for heroes with quirks that aren't as suited for battle instead use their power to investigate, interrogate, or capture known villains without causing a scene. This kind of Hero is for those who are very good with people or Quirks that help them win without seriously fighting. Examples: Midnight, Shinsou, Ms. Joke"

Note: according to Ultra Analysis, Midnight was also exclusively specialized on SC.

Note 2: not relevant to this analysis, but the post also mentions a Generalist category for those heroes who are too versatile to be put in just one, like Monoma or All Might, which I is very interesting. Please do check the account, it's not active anymore but it has amazing quirk analysis and even older posts hold well today.

At the end of the series, we find out Hitoshi is indeed an underground hero, and Horikoshi's comment included how despite being unknown in Japan, he's "trusted worldwide". Now, I do think this is a hyperbole and only means he's trusted by governments who have knowledge of his quirk, because there's no way he allowed the international public and potential villains to know about it, thus having to rely on his almost nonexistent fighting skills to do his job.

We also get a tad bit of information about this on the anime: a short mention on how he is “engaged in an organized crime deep-cover operation” as well as being called a “mystery man, lurking in the darkness.”

Many people, including me, were a bit disappointed that his whole character winds up being an almost carbon copy of Eraser, what with his hair (which I love more than his first version ok but the point stands) and all, but there is a stark difference between the two and it's this very thing I've been rambling about: their quirks and personalities led them to different paths. Aizawa combines his quirk with the capture weapon and melee skills to stop street-level crimes + occasional investigative stealth work with the police (like what he did with the trigger drug). But as I said before, this is because of his quirk allowing him to directly fight villains, practically demanding him to do so. He chose a very specific path. I don’t want to call it “low level” because what he does was important and needed. But Shinsou did not choose to follow that same path.

What Shinsou chose (from what we can deduct from the anime and his ultra-analysis profile) was to leave the violence and the combat to heroes who are better equipped for that and instead focus on his own skills, his own talents, to do what his heart longed for, what he can do to make the world better. I mentioned Aizawa’s stealth investigative work, and that’s what I believe Hitoshi does, but on a much bigger scale. I'm talking something like, say, deescalation of dangerous or sensitive situations – such as hostages –, a lot more investigative work with the police, complex stake out missions, interrogation, infiltration, capturing or recovering targets, recon, aid on intel gathering, even espionage (or something akin to it). Overall, work that doesn't require direct combat, or at least not nearly as much as other heroes, but that is still of high importance and does require certain skills and techniques.

Although I’m only using the manganime and official books written by Horikoshi himself as canon sources, I would like to mention that in the spin-off manga “Team Up Missions” there’s a chapter focused on how Shinsou helped capture a villain with only his deductive skills and his ability to read lips. Isn’t that so cool? To me, that’s a perfect example of him using his own talents for hero work. I also just love the thought of him being able to lip-read. What other tricks might he have under his sleeve?

Character conclusion + opinions

May be a bit redundant, but my conclusion is that despite their similarities and how the ending of MHA attempts to make Hitoshi a carbon copy of Aizawa – frankly, a lazy and predictable outcome – there’s a lot more to his character than that. The hair and his horrible new costume which I already complained about could be seen merely as Hitoshi’s homage to the hero who helped make his dreams possible, much like Bakugou with Edgeshot and All Might (the braid and hero name), Izuku with All Might, Kirishima with Crimson Riot, etc. Because, at the end of the day, Hitoshi forged his own path towards being a hero.

On another note, I remember this person on twitter who said that him being underground "ruined" his character because all the effort he put into being a hero was wasted if he couldn't share that with others like him and "prove" everyone wrong, but that's completely wrong imo. We already have characters in the spotlight who fill that role (Shoji tours rural areas to teach about heteromorphic quirks and recieved a prize for this, Uraraka is known for quirk counseling, etc.) and besides, he's obviously still an amazing hero without needlessly exposing his quirk. Plus, it totally fits his personality!

Lastly, this may be a controversial opinion, but I personally think that portraying him as a big and beefy fighter does lowkey ruin his character. It’s not just unrealistic and counterproductive for him to have such a muscle-y physique (the man needs flexibility, agility and to blend in above all), but it erases what differentiates him from other heroes, from Aizawa, what makes him a unique an interesting character. There are so many interesting things that could be explored about him that don't work when all this is erased. It also ignores canon and common sense.

And that's it! I hope my musings weren't too boring, and again, I apologize for any biases that might've slipped into my writing or if I sounded rude in any way.