My Hero Academia has not yet played with time travel, but it is plausible that it will be possible in the future. Could Eri be the key to this Shonen staple?
Warning: the following contains spoilers for the My Hero Academia Manga up to chapter 310.
My Hero Academia is set in a world where super-powered people can do almost anything. Some can make explosions with their hands, talk to animals, or even make their bodies paper thin. Even so, creator Kohei Horikoshi has avoided one so far common Shonen theme: time travel.
Theories about time travel began to circulate in the MHA fandom when the previous owners of One For All (OFA) published. Most of them were fully designed, but two were shrouded in shadow. With nothing more to do besides their silhouettes, fans began to theorize that the second OFA owner was Katsuki Bakugo, due to the character’s similar hairstyle and outfit. The theory was that he was traveling back in time to make sure Izuku Midoriya got OFA or to prevent a disaster like that Dragon ball‘s Future Trunks.
However, the recent manga chapters have revealed the faces of the last OFA owners – and Bakugo is not one of them. Some fans have given up the time travel theory entirely, however YouTube creator AnimeUproar has a different idea. In his video, he reminds viewers that My Hero Academia has other characters whose quirks are related to time, like Sir Nighteye’s ability to see the future or Chronostasis, which slows down the movements of his opponents. Additionally, there is one character he believes might develop a time travel quark: Eri.
Your quirk, Rewind, already affects time in some way. It is able to restore a person to a previous physical state, as if it were bringing a person’s body back before an injury occurred. Their quirk, however, has been used more often by overhaul to make others quirky. Their ability can move a human body back in time before the quirk mutation ever occurred and reverse evolution. Eri now has enough control of her power to give Mirios Macke back, but is it possible that her own overwhelmed Macke could do more?
Horikoshi has now proven multiple times that quirks are able to evolve with the development of their user or in an emotional situation. The quirks of Toga, Twice, and other characters have grown stronger since their inception. Meanwhile, during a stressful childhood moment, Shigaraki, who was considered quirky as a kid, suddenly manifested his own, and it has only grown stronger. Eri has the same potential and could use time travel in the future.
However, this depends on how exactly Eris Macke works. Even if quirks bring new extremes, the basics stay the same. Toga still has to consume blood to transform and Shigaraki still has to touch what he wants to destroy. Eri has trained her quirk by growing lost limbs in lizards and beetles so that it works in living beings as well as humans. It also seems to be activated by touch. However, time is an intangible term. Even if she can eventually apply Rewind to inanimate objects, that doesn’t mean she can manipulate time.
Even if Eri isn’t the key to time travel, the Quirk Singularity Theory suggests that one day such a quirk might very well show up. This theory in the universe, first addressed in the Remedial Training Mini-Arc from My Hero Academia, says that as quirks develop and mingle across generations, there will be a day when humans will be unable will be dealing with the power they have. The third film in the franchise, World Heroes MissionShe has a villain who subscribes to the Doomsday Theory and many fans believe it Eri’s very existence is evidence to support it. Her quirk is already so powerful that it obliterated her father and made her a viable weapon for overhaul.
That theory is wild, but My Hero Academia can do almost anything it wants due to its premise. All Horikoshi would have to do is fit such a quirk into the rules he has already made in his world.
About the author
Gina DiGiovancarlo
(11 articles published)
Gina is an anime feature writer for CBR. She has been an avid anime fan for a decade and has a lot to say about her consumption. She started writing anime content on her own WordPress blog a year ago and hopes to improve her craft with CBR. If you want a Twitter account to run like a Tumblr blog, you can follow her @ProseAnime.
