Being the number 1 hero means being a master of all: strength, speed, technique, and more. When it comes to the quirk with the greatest strength, class 1-A has a few notable contenders. My Hero Academia taught anime fans that everyone has their own talent and many different ways to utilize it for the better good.
Cooperativeness is a great asset but when it comes to school assessments as working together isn't always an option. Sometimes these heroes have no one but themselves to rely on to push forward. Strength doesn't mean everything all the time, but in this case, it does. Here are My Hero Academia's top ten strongest members of U.A.'s class 1-A.
Updated March 24, 2023 by Christine Mendoza: Times have changed since the debut of My Hero Academia all the way back in 2016, and while fans' love for the series has remained the same, the students at U.A. High haven't. Deku and his classmates have all gone through their fair share of adversity and in the end, came out as stronger fighters. The poor students of U.A. High have been pitted up against some of the most vicious villains the world of My Hero Academia has to offer but of course, they had the heart to persevere. Of course, all the talented students of U.A. are powerful in their own right, and over the course of six seasons, it's only natural that the tier list of who is the absolute strongest would change slightly. A few new entries have been added to keep fans up to date with the latest season of My Hero Academia.
12 Tsuyu Asui – Froppy
Stats:
- Quirk: Frog
- Special Moves: Camouflage, Meteor Fafrotskies
- Equipment: Camouflage Costume, Froggy Neck Ring
- Strengths: Versatility on land and water, cooperativeness, great range of combat, high stamina
- Weaknesses: She excels more as a support for another classmate/hero and isn't as effective on solo missions, while she has agility and intelligence she does not harness much raw power
Everyone's favorite half-frog-half-girl, Froppy, isn't just a cute face. She can pack a punch too! Her frog-like abilities granted to her via her quirk allow her access to a much more unique, and less predictable, combat style. Her agility is difficult to keep up with, allowing her to focus on landing a good hit on a disoriented enemy.
Froppy's power mainly resides in her kicks as her leg strength makes her a formidable opponent. Aside from her hands and legs, her tongue also has incredible dexterity, allowing her to subdue her enemies without lifting a finger.
11 Mashirao Ojiro – Tailman
Stats:
- Quirk: Tail
- Special Moves: Tornado Tail Dance, Swamp Smack Spin
- Equipment: Traditional Gi
- Strengths: Well rounded, his tail not only gives him an advantage in dexterity but also mobility and defense
- Weaknesses: His fighting style is often regarded as plain, low mobility, limited range
Often scrutinized for being "too plain", Ojiro actually has a lot to offer. He's no-nonsense and straight to the point with his martial arts skills and excels in hand-to-hand combat.
He uses his tail to attack and also to allow himself to maneuver freely with other attacks as well. Not only is Ojiro strong physically, but his ability to assess and understand a situation before engaging also makes him a mentally strong and formidable opponent as well. Take it from Ojiro: being plain doesn't mean being weak.
10 Rikido Sato – Sugarman
Stats:
- Quirk: Sugar Rush
- Special Moves: Raw Power, Gastronomic Talents
- Equipment: Utility Belt
- Strengths: His quirk allows him to increase his strength to give times his natural strength, therefore allowing him to indefinitely continue to hone and develop his maximum strength levels
- Weaknesses: Low stamina and can only maintain enhanced strength levels for three minutes at a time, low mobility, limited range
Sato may not be always front and center, but he's definitely got what it takes to fight alongside the rest of his 1-A classmates. Sato's ability to essentially convert sugar into muscle power may not sound as flashy as others, but it ranks rather high when it comes down to raw strength.
Sato's "Sugar Rush" quirk allows him to temporarily increase his natural strength, simply by ingesting some sugar. The only reason he's not ranked any higher is due to the fact that this is a fleeting quirk. After a few minutes, his strength dissipates, leaving him drowsy and tired.
9 Mezo Shoji – Tentacole
Stats:
- Quirk: Dupli-Arms
- Special Moves: Octoblow, Unnamed Duplication Combo
- Equipment: Face Covering, Sleeveless Costume
- Strengths: Enhanced senses and reflexes, ability to scout, good at close and far-range battle
- Weaknesses: Extrasensory body parts on limbs/tentacles are easy to hit weak points
Shoji, the master of multitasking, holds incredible levels of strength in a handful of different ways. First off, his quirk of having "Dupli-Arms" allows him to have all sides covered at once, not only having superior levels of dexterity when fighting but also having heightened senses. His extra limbs also have different sensory functions, such as extra mouths to speak and extra eyes to see.
Not only is he capable of enhanced levels of strength via his "Dupli-Arms", but he can use the webbing-like portion of them to shield himself or his comrades on the battlefield, making for a strong offense and defense.
8 Momo Yaoyorozu – Creati
Stats:
- Quirk: Create
- Special Moves: Yaoyorozu's Lucky Bag
- Equipment: Yaoyoleotard, Yaoyoro-Belt, Yaoyorictionary
- Strengths: Bukijitsu, genius intellect, teaching ability, musical talent
- Weaknesses: Lots of fuel (food) is needed in order to successfully create larger objects, quirk is easy to deplete or exhaust
When it comes to pure, raw strength, Momo Yaoyorozu isn't at the top of her class, but it is her quirk that brings her power. Momo's amazing Create quirk helps give her all the powerful tools she needs in order to take any enemy down; no matter how big they are. This quirk allows Momo to create any non-living material or object through her exposed skin. Create uses her fat cells to transform them into useful items in battle, helping in both close-range and far-range combat.
Although Momo's quirk is incredibly versatile and powerful, allowing her to spawn any weapon or equipment that can give her the upper hand, it has its downsides. Momo's true weakness is her limited ability to create items. Her quirk is directly tied to the number of calories she intakes before battle, leaving Momo faint and possibly anemic when her quirk is overused.
7 Tenya Iida – Ingenium
Stats:
- Quirk: Engine
- Special Moves: Engine Boost, Recipro Burst, Recipro Extend, Recipro Turbo
- Equipment: Ingenium Boots, Ingenium Helmet, Ingenium Muffler
- Strengths: Greater leadership skills, keen intellect, incredible speed, and mobility
- Weaknesses: Speed and mobility are very short-lived and difficult to maintain
Mr. Class President himself, of course, needed to make an appearance when talking up class 1-A's strongest students. Iida's quirk "Engine" helps him achieve amazing speeds via the engines within his calves.
His quirk is powered by ingesting orange juice. He converts it into fuel for his legs, which allows him to run at superhuman speeds. With his superhuman speed comes enhanced power. Iida uses the boosters in his calves to power his kick attacks. Imagine a dropkick from Iida. That would be quite the task for Recovery Girl.
6 Denki Kaminari – Chargebolt
Stats:
- Quirk: Electrokinesis
- Special Moves: Indiscriminate Shock 1.3 Million Volts, Indiscriminate 2 Million Volts, Target Electro
- Equipment: Communication Earpiece, Sharpshooting Gear, Pointers, Optical Visor
- Strengths: Tactical Intellect
- Weaknesses: Can easily short-circuit his brain, leaving him incapacitated for approximately an hour after electricity overusage
Denki Kaminari is one of the U.A. students that has a rather powerful quirk but lacks the ability to control it properly. Denki's Electrokinesis allows him the ability to generate, emit/shoot, and cover his body in electricity. In addition to using his quirk to attack enemies, he can also absorb and neutralize other electricity-based attacks, rendering any electrical threats or similar quirks/attacks useless. However, his biggest weakness lies in his own self-discipline. Like many of the other students at U.A., Denki must learn to properly control and master his quirk before being able to focus on fortifying it to become stronger.
While he can shock his opponents, over usage of his quirk over a certain voltage incapacitated Denki, short-circuiting his brain and leaving him with his "dumb face" for the next hour. Denki may have tactical prowess (despite his less-than-stellar intelligence and book smarts) but can't top his classmates without learning how to attack without hurting himself in the process.
5 Fumikage Tokoyami – Tsukuyomi
Stats:
- Quirk: Dark Shadow
- Special Moves: Black Abyss, Black Fallen Angel, Ragnarok, Womb
- Equipment: Cloak, Claws
- Strengths: Dark Shadow ensures enhanced durability, ability to scout, can easily subdue enemies without resorting to fatally wounding them
- Weaknesses: Tokoyami cannot fully control Dark Shadow in all environments and can cause immense damage to surroundings and severely wound allies
Tokoyami is already strong enough on his own, but with the help of his quirk, "Dark Shadow", he's one of the strongest members of Class 1-A. During the day, Tokoyami has an incredible advantage. When in the sun, he has great control over Dark Shadow and can command the creature to attack at his will. One of his most notable moves involves him wearing Dark Shadow as a type of armor over himself, allowing his attacks to be stronger and also to defend himself much easier.
Tokoyami once again honed his abilities after fellow winged hero, Hawks, then provided him with valuable mentoring. However, as strong as Tokoyami and his buddy Dark Shadow are, Tokoyami's biggest weakness is keeping control. The darker the night, the bigger Dark Shadow grows. However, this immense strength comes with the difficult task of keeping Dark Shadow from running rampant.
4 Eijiro Kirishima – Red Riot
Stats:
- Quirk: Hardening
- Special Moves: Red Counter, Red Riot Unbreakable, Red Gauntlet
- Equipment: Shoulder supports
- Strengths: Incredible durability, great attack power, and defense as well
- Weaknesses: Low mobility and range, limited to close-range hand-to-hand combat
Kirishima is the number one example of how being hard-headed can pay off in the long run. When Kirishima is in his "Unbreakable" mode, the hardest of attacks can't penetrate. His quirk, "Hardening", allows him to turn his body into rock-hard armor, creating a nearly perfect wall of defense.
However, his quirk isn't just good for defending himself from hits. One punch from Kirishima's fully hardened fist is enough to finish off the deadliest villain. Not to mention the fact that if a fist isn't enough, Kirishima has the ability to sharpen his limbs as well, allowing him to cause blunt force trauma and also use razor-sharp piercing attacks as well.
3 Katsuki Bakugo – Great Explosion Murder God?
Stats:
- Quirk: Explosion
- Special Moves: Explosive Speed, Howitzer Impact, AP Shot, Explode-A-Pult, Land Mine Blast, Cluster
- Equipment: Grenadier Bracers, Improvised Grenades, Knee Pads
- Strengths: Versatile quirk, good mobility, and power
- Weaknesses: Still struggles with cooperating with team occasionally, overly ambitious at times, relies on equipment
Bakugo, a.k.a. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, is very much sure of who he is and how much power he truly holds. His "Explosion" quirk allows him to secrete a highly explosive nitroglycerin-type substance via his sweat glands, which he can then ignite to create deadly explosions.
The giant grenades Bakugo wears on his wrists aren't all for show either. They're specifically designed to help him direct his explosive attacks to increase accuracy. Not only does Bakugo have his explosive quirk, but his natural strength is also above average. Deku noted that trying to use Bakugo's grenade equipment is incredibly difficult, even for him.
2 Shouto Todoroki – Shouto
Stats:
- Quirk: Half-Cold Half-Hot
- Special Moves: Heaven-Piercing Ice Wall, Wall Of Flames, Flashfreeze Heatwave, Flashfire Fist, Flashfire Fist-Jet Kindling
- Equipment: Temperature Resistant Jacket, Combat Vest, Utility Belt, Snow Boots, "Surge Arm" Gauntlets
- Strengths: Can use elemental damage in cases where physical damage is not an option, keen intellect, good at both close-range and long-range combat
- Weaknesses: Can sometimes struggle with cooperating with teammates
Endeavor's trophy son, Shouto, had the unfavorable task of carrying his father's legacy. He inherited the "Half-Cold, Half-Hot" quirk, a perfect marriage (no pun intended) of both of his parents' quirks. Looking past Todoroki's traumatic childhood, the student has displayed the true power of his quirk on many occasions in the anime. In season 5 of the anime, Todoroki approaches his estranged father and thus adds Flashfire Fist to his arsenal of super moves; finally fully accepting the flames of his quirk as his own.
Not only does his quirk allow him mobility (sliding on ice), range, and amazing damage, his control over his quirk has progressed immensely throughout the series. His versatility and handle on his quirk make Todoroki one of the clear winners for one of the strongest in his class, as he has plenty of options when it comes to damage dealing.
1 Izuku Midoriya – Deku
Stats:
- Quirk: One For All, Blackwhip, Float, Danger Sense, Smokescreen, Fa Jin.
- Special Moves: Detroit Smash, Delaware Smash, One For All: Full Cowl, One For All: Full Cowl-Shoot Style, Froppy Style, Full Blast, Pinpoint Focus, Faux 100 Percent
- Equipment: Costume Gamma, Iron Soles, Air Force Gloves, Mid-Gauntlet, Full Gauntlet
- Strengths: Great ability to adapt and learn, immense perseverance, great leadership skills, keen intellect
- Weaknesses: Tendency to need recovery after intensive quirk usage, constantly pushing his body to its limits, very reckless, difficulty controlling quirks
Perhaps this isn't the number 1 fans may have wanted, or perhaps it's a bit cliche, but Deku is truly worthy of the top spot as the protagonist. The series is a retelling of Deku's story in which he already states that he ends up being the number 1 hero in the world. It's impossible to ignore, considering his potential, when talking about strength. Moreover, Deku's quirk, "One For All", inherited from All Might himself, naturally secures his spot as the strongest in his class.
Fans have seen Deku go from quirkless dreamer to an incredible force in a few seasons. He's worked hard to get to where he is. And now as the series progresses, Deku is growing even more powerful. By season 5, Deku fully develops a new quirk called Blackwhip, thanks to One For All's fifth user. It has been revealed that Deku will eventually stockpile all individual quirks that were held by previous One For All users.
After countless reimaginings of his quirk and how to properly utilize it, it's clear that the "One For All" flame is still going strong within Deku. And with Deku now on the road to being a hero with multiple quirks at his disposal, it's clear that his raw power levels are unmatched within his class.
By season 6, Deku quickly unlocks many other quirks from previous OFA users, bringing him closer to the formal Number 1 Hero title. Enemies that Deku once struggled to defeat can now be taken out with a single punch of his, giving audiences a glimpse into Deku's bright future as a hardened hero.