#kamayan

Introducing our antagonist of this arc! ReDestro/Yotsubashi Rikiya/Detnerat CEO/Grand Commander of the Meta Liberation Army/President Baldy!

Essentially here he’s talking about accessibility and accommodations for individuals different from the ‘norm’ who exist in a world that hasn’t been completely built with them in mind - and/or also, I think, quirks that interferes with one’s well-being and daily life.

I’ve once read somewhere that the metaphor of superpowers/x-men type abilities works better as an analogy for disability than for, say, race. I mostly agree, though with a big side note on how it also depends on how the author would conceptualize the world and how they write that situation; but here, for the HeroAca world, it’s real fitting.

Let’s see…

The first ever inkling we see of the world adapting to heteromorphic-type quirks is in Chapter 6, where Deku comments on a giant classroom door, that it’s probably for ‘accessibility’.

Chapter 14 is when I think we first get the word ‘heteromorph’ (異形 - igyou) - more on this word later during the Chapter 220 read - when one of the USJ invading Villains asks if Eraserhead can erase his body-altering quirk. (Eraserhead admits he can’t.)

Chapter 68 gives us the UA kids going to the mall, and we’re shown that stores cater to not just differences in age, style, etc. but also for people with six arms (Shoji) or ‘big, swollen’ calves (Iida).

Chapter 168 gives us a different case than heteromorphic-quirks: Aoyama!

Whose Navel Laser quirk is not suited for his body - his quirk can ‘leak’ out, and so he has worn a support belt since he was little to prevent that. It also seems that his quirk can wreck up his stomach/insides and gives him bowel trouble.

HeroAca side materials also tackle this issue, like an character - nicknamed Kamayan - with a quirk that basically makes him a literal giant praying mantis, from Vigilantes, who rightfully complains about how societal infrastructures for people like him are lacking: dude can’t go anywhere in town or even do basic hygiene because the existing environment can’t accommodate his size. (Chapter 37)

(One character replies that he can apply for public housing, to which Kamayan shows dismay at having to live somewhere different and specific because of his size.)

Even the joke comic Smash! has Mount Lady thinking back about how schools denied her entrance due to her quirk that allows her to turn into a giant - even though she can retain a ‘normal size’ most of the time - making it so that she has to go to an agricultural school in Hokkaido. (Chapter 4)