It was always really creepy to me how All might and Gran Torino too never seemed to take an interest in how Tomura ended up in Afo’s hands. Or to what happened to Koutaro. I don’t think I remember them doing any research on the Shimuras, which… is horrifying. They just found out the son of their dead mentor/friend was horribly killed, and then they never mention it again? Besides, they thought Afo was dead for five whole years, and neither of them thought about checking on Koutaro before? Really?
Then they find out that his child was likely kidnapped and turned into a Villain by the guy they were trying to protect the Shimuras from and still nothing? Not even some sense of guilt?
Instead we get Gran stating that it’s basically all Tomura’s fault.
What’s even more ridiculous is that his mentors researching what happened would have been the perfect link for Deku to grow some interest earlier on Shigaraki. And also to finally realize Heroes are fallible.
A child with a heroic heritage, becoming a villain. All of his old kindergarten teachers and neighbours state that he used to be a perfectly normal, even kind child. What could’ve possibly happened?
They don’t care because already back then BNHA revealed its stance about Villains.
In the hospital All Might thinks at Tomura and is troubled by how ‘his master’s own kin lost himself so much in evil’ aka he doesn’t think he could have been a poor kid that got manipulated by an expert manipulator, no, he can’t accept someone related to his master isn’t on a righteous path.
He still wants to find the boy but then it’s clear he’s unsure about what he’ll do after. Gran Torino tells him he must not search for him because if he sees him as anything less than a Villain no good will come from it because no matter who his parents are, he’s a dangerous Villain.
In short neither of the two is seeing Tomura as a manipulated kid, they’re seeing him as ‘Shimura’s grandson’ and as a ‘Villain’. They don’t care about how or why Tomura has became a Villain, they don’t care how All for One had clearly lead him to that path, they only care he’s a Villain now.
All for One tells him Tomura hates him and that he has engineered Tomura and All Might’s meetings. It’s clear All for One has manipulated the situation and very likely has manipulated Tenko but they don’t care. It’s the same thing that Horikoshi has Shouto saying ‘dad was a madman! Our family was screwed up” but when you burned all those people to death… that was your choice.’
Basically for them Tomura chose to become a Villain, all that All for One could have done to encourage/manipulate him into this direction is irrelevant.
Gran Torino searches for Tomura with the express intention to murder him.
He tells him he has to ‘quit trampling all over Shimura’s memory and that his very existence hurt Toshinori so much and made everyone suffer’ (Chap 277). Later, with Midoriya, he’ll lament it should have been him the one who made the kill and that killing can be another way to save someone so Midoriya shouldn’t forget that (and therefore should kill Tomura). (Chap 309)
Gran Torino only has a brief moment in which he realizes he and Shimura made a mistake with Kotarou, because it’s Kotarou who implanted his own hate for Heroes in Tomura but that’s it (Chap. 281).
In the end even Nana will encourage Midoriya to kill Tomura and note that if her original plan was to have him arrested, well, at that point that would always lead to Tomura’s death as Tomura killed people and so he would be sentenced to death.
Long story short, there was never the intention to let Tomura live, there was only a minor discussion if Gran Torino should do the kill, justice should do the kill or Midoriya. And All might conveniently washes his hands clean of all this and let others deal with it. Not even his vestige will help Tomura, it’ll be only Nana’s vestige who’ll do so and, in the end, only to use his soul against AFO because Tomura was going to die anyway.
As for them believing AFO was dead… In Chap 57 Gran Torino speaks of him being back like of an obvious fact and while All Might complains he can’t understand how he survived with such wounds, he doesn’t really argue much. He doesn’t tell him ‘hey, but we checked his vitals and he was dead!’ to the point it was possible to assume they never retrieved his body, hence they couldn’t really check his status and possibly this was the original plan and only afterward Horikoshi decided to show that they indeed retrieved his body and could tell he was dead but it’s not the first time the story makes poor decisions about its continuity.
Anyway yes, they washed their hands clear with Kotarou, they feel they did the right thing by respecting Shimura’s decision and, as said before, this part already showed BNHA stance toward Villains. It’s all their fault if they became Villains, there are no extenuating circumstances and society and Heroes are definitely not responsible for such things.
It didn’t matter what happened to Tomura, if he was manipulated, blackmailed, threatened or whatever, he shouldn’t have given up to evil, he should have chosen to die. After all we see it also with Aoyama. Tsukauchi says he feels sympathy for him but hey, the boy turned his back to decent society when AFO told him if he weren’t to obey he would kill him and his parents! He should have totally left himself and his parents killed and stick up for society! It’s all Aoyama’s fault! (by the way the FAQ said Aoyama still turned himself in to the judicial system, which is why he had to leave U.A. high. Basically even though he risked his life he still did some juvenile detention)… and Himiko couldn’t survive without going to jail because otherwise she won’t take responsibility so much better to kill her off.
BNHA isn’t a story that has compassion. If you’re a Villain, you’re a Villain. Tomura was right in his speech, the system rejected them and the Heroes don’t understand what this means, don’t understand how could this push him into becoming a Villain (Chap 281). The scene in which Midoriya tells him he can’t forgive him and Tomura tells him he can’t forgive them is emblematic of this…. But then Horikoshi sided with the Heroes and just wanted Tomura to be wrong and so we got the ending we got.
So yeah, it’s sad and it’s horrible no one cared for Tenko or Kotarou but that’s basically the logic behind the story. At the end society is a little more caring because it has understood a little better the concept of collective responsibility but that’s it. There’s nothing done for who’s a Villain, there’s just prevention so that less Villains will be created but society DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the harm it has done, there isn’t a single reform in this direction, not even in the jail system which was declared by the manga to violate human rights. But hey, it was the party connected to Villains who claimed this so let’s ignore it.
I personally hate all this but I guess there’s no helping. This is the world Horikoshi created, one that didn’t really care about helping/reforming his Villains and where if someone does so much as be willing to hear them out (before they’re sentenced to death) it’s viewed as a GIANT SIZE deal.
Thank you so much for asking this. Yes, it all makes sense, and I think a lot of it! Because I've thought of this myself, and now I have a chance to show off how much silly thought I've put into actually this “Masanori raised by [Good Ending] Shigaraki and Spinner” AU. It's ridiculous, but.
One can indeed fantasize.
First, to respond to your questions:
Shigaraki would be a really permissive dad: ✅
[Someone else] is doing most of the care: ✅
At war meetings, kid is climbing on the great commander’s face and he is completely unperturbed by it: ✅
Shigaraki would train his kid by letting him jump him and try to attack him on the most random of situations: ✅
Shigaraki would let his kid yell at him, insult him, be a sarcastic little shit: ✅
Shigaraki would let his kid go and lead a normal life: ✅
Hell, I think Shigaraki would let the kid betray him: ✅
"Didn't know you could make eggs": 🥚 ✅
How is he supposed to be something like a father? ✅
He knows he’ll do anything to try to do better, despite him and Spinner having already horribly messed up by having him in this situation, with the both of them wanted and in the middle of a war: ✅
Letting Masanori completely free, and trying to not let his own agenda weight on his kid’s shoulders: ✅❤️🥲
Won't raise a hand to the kid: ✅
Shigaraki and Spinner are not particularly affectionate: ✅
They have no idea of what they are doing: ✅
Does this situation put a strain on Spinner's relationship with Shigaraki? ✅
Does Spinner have a complex about passing a kid the looks that got him to live a miserable life? ✅🥲
Does any of this make sense? ✅✅✅
One can fantasize: ✅👍🏼❤️
What do you think? ❤️❤️❤️
Then to answer in great depth:
NAME
First of all, Masanori would not be named “Masanori”. That was the name a mayor gave this poor orphan.
Abandoned, unnamed babies in Japan are named by the city/town's mayor. Masanori was named with the kanji "white-direction correct-law" in hopes that he would become a law-abiding citizen (unlike his unknown parents). The Mayor is an asshole.
No, it would be up to Spinner and Shigaraki to name this kid, and they would pick a terrible name. A kirakira name.
I'm thinking 繋, meaning “connection”, read as “Tsuna” (standard kun'yomi reading) or “Zuna”, (based on tsuna but non-standard, highly unconventional).
This character/word, because it references the kid’s quirk - Adhesion:
Decay's spreading effect + Gecko's sticking trait. Any object Masanori touches and remains in contact with will adhere with anything the object is also touching. If he touches a sidewalk, everyone on it will be stuck and trapped, unable to move their feet.
But also the kanji itself can have its parts connected to Shigaraki and Spinner’s own names:
Shigaraki’s the one who picked the kanji (and if the poor kid is named ‘Zuna’, Spinner’s the one who gave the kanji the unusual “cool” reading.) (Leaning slightly towards Zuna. Sorry)
(Or maybe they’ll go with ‘Kei’ or ‘Kakeru’. idk!)
THE HOW
(Somewhat NSFW)
Kid came about because Shigaraki and Spinner had sex. A lot of sex. To be more specific…
Spinner, blessed with quirk/heteromorph biology that I completely made up, has a cloaca that houses both hemipenes and—unknown to him—organs that can produce eggs and carry/lay them. He was born AMAB, raised as a man in a rural area that did not care to know anything about heteromorph medicine, identifies as a man, and so did not ever know getting pregnant was possible for him.
Shigaraki fucked his slit/cloaca without a condom, and that's how Zuna came into being. Total surprise, no chance to get an abortion because no one knew anything until one day Spinner got severe abdominal pain and popped out an egg.
I summarized this very nonchalantly but it was terrifying for Spinner.
In the Masanori timeline, Shigaraki was away for the AFO surgery and Spinner dealt with this with the League and a few selected MLA/PLF members. In the Zuna timeline, Shigaraki postponed the surgery to spend time with his new boyfriend Spinner, and so was there for Spinner; and so—
THE POSTPARTUM
The MLA heteromorph doctors saw to Spinner. The egg was put into incubation.
Mr. Compress said, Well, Shigaraki, you'll have to take responsibility, as the father. …The other father, in this case.
And Shigaraki said, Yeah.
I even sketched out a comic for this. Here’s the first three panels:
Never polished up the rest, but my draft went like this:
Spinner: An egg... a kid, of all things… What am I going to do?
Shigaraki, watching the incubator: …We. It’s my kid too.
Spinner, clutching at his head even harder: ...Shigaraki. I'm sorr—
Shigaraki: Stop. I already said I'll take responsibility.
Spinner, finally lifting his head a bit, glancing over at Shigaraki: …
Spinner, sighing, dropping his arms, looking up at the incubator: …I hate this. I don't want this.
Spinner, shoulders hunching tighter, staring hollowly at the egg: I don't know anything about kids. I never wanted one, in case they ever turned out looking like…
Shigaraki, turning to look at Spinner, waiting for him to continue: ...
Spinner: I don't know how to be a dad, or parent, or whatever. I don't know anything at all.
Spinner: ...…But...
Spinner, hands shaking slightly: I don't want them to ever grow up feeling like a hollow shell.
Shigaraki, watching Spinner for a few more moments, before looking back at the egg; and then, voice low and soft: We'll make sure of that.
•
No idea how this magical AU timeline works. When does the AFO surgery happen? Does it happen? When do the PLF launch their attack? How does the plot move forward??? I don't know!
I think Hawks gets killed though, after being discovered as a spy. Twice lives, Heroes raid is postponed, and eventually, the egg hatches.
THE KID
Toga: He’s cute!
Twice: Yeah! Surprising since he came from you two!
Spinner: Doesn't really look like either of us.
Shigaraki: …He's got my family's black hair.
Zuna is a noisy child, crying at every little thing. But he seems to like being held by Shigaraki more - quiets down when he’s bundled up in Shigaraki’s arms.
All the kid does is sleep, cries, eats, shits. Babies are boring yet a handful. ReDestro provides nannies, but Spinner and Shigaraki end up sticking with the kid most of the time.
They considered giving the kid away. ReDestro offers to anonymously find a very good home - one completely unassociated with the MLA or Villains, overseas even, so he can grow up completely normal, never knowing anything. A clean and permanent severance. Logically, it was clearly the right thing to do, and yet… That felt like abandonment, and it faded as a choice.
If they were still homeless, still aimless, keeping the kid would be a terrible choice. But now they have money, they have an army. They've got space and resources and options and support. Funny how that can change everything.
Post Deika, Shigaraki feels free, clear-headed, ready to take on the world. I think he would take the ‘having a kid’ thing better than expected; at least feels like he has a handle on it, able to take it step by step. There are of course darker emotions that swirl up inside of him, but he always makes the decision to destroy them before they surface. That does manifest in being rather aloof and detached towards the kid; and sure, like in canon he might still have his own crying kid repressed inside of him; but also like in canon, his care and protectiveness of the League overwhelms that - and so it would be the same for Zuna. Still…
Thinking of Zuna as his son - feels wrong. Shigaraki doesn't care for having a son, wanting a son. (He doesn't think much of fathers, either - people caught up in a delusion of being a Father, deciding everything based on what they think is best for everyone, feeling entitled to the family’s hearts and lives, justifying that it's all done out of some selfless shared dream)
“His kid.” Somewhat better, but still strange. Shouldn't have a kid. “The kid” - how he’s been thinking of Zuna so far. “A kid he recklessly made” - much more truthful. Feels more fitting. But unfair to the kid.
—“Spinner's kid.” Suddenly that framing makes Shigaraki feel more protective. Spinner’s kid. Their kid.
“Our kid” - Born into this rotten world. Born to two villains, two messed up criminals who want to destroy everything. Ready to fight to destroy.
(To become free. To be able to live as they see fit.)
Shigaraki thinks, brat’s gonna need all the protection he can get.
(A hero of his own.)
I think Shigaraki knows he's likely not going to be a good parent, but he’s determined not to be a shitty one. He refuses.
As for Spinner, he’s def doing worse than Shigaraki. 😢 He’s terrified, he’s in a mess he can't fix, he thinks he’s ruined Shigaraki’s life, he knows he’s ruined the kid’s life. He promised himself he wouldn't have kids, he swore long ago that he wasn't going to bring someone into this shit world. But he did so anyway…
He has a kid. He has a child. He has a son…
He can't do this. There’s no way things will go well for a kid with him as a father. A kid with him and Shigaraki Tomura as parents—
Shigaraki’s kid. Shigaraki’s son.
Spinner thinks, if I can think of you like that...
He's probably still gonna mess Shigaraki’s kid up somehow, but he won't, he refuses, he’ll protect Zuna with everything he's got.
Spinner and Shigaraki should probably sit down together and talk about this lmao
(If the ‘thinking of the kid as the other’s kid’ seems a bit iffy, it is! But they'll start to think of Zuna as his own person soon enough, and want to care for him on that basis.)
THE SPINARAKI
Spinner and Shigaraki do eventually sit down together and talk about everything. Have to, at some point, especially given the PLF’s plans; and just from having people in their lives now that have strong connections to them, and therefore to Zuna as well. Contingency plans, guardians in the event of death, who to hand off the kid to for the afternoon, who to force to change diapers.
I think Zuna would put a strain on their relationship at first - mostly Spinner thinking he should leave Shigaraki alone, he's caused enough trouble. Meanwhile Shigaraki wonders if he can use the kid as an excuse to skip meetings and most other human interactions to spend more time alone with Spinner. But like I said - they will end up having an honest talk and navigate to the next step, whatever that is.
Also both learned a big lesson about safe sex.
AS PARENTS
I've played around with this concept a few times before - In Eri, Awry, where the League takes in Eri; and in this draft of another Spinaraki kid (Aoi) they adopt years post-war (AU where the ending doesn't suck). Haven't actually written/shown it. 😋
I think Shigaraki would be pretty permissive in a way that makes other people raise eyebrows, but a lot of it is that he would know and trust his kid a great deal, he encourages them to be independent and learn from their mistakes, and he's got no interest in dictating their life, because after all it's their life. Certainly there’ll be the choices he wouldn't have made himself, and there will be dumb fiascos that his kid should've known better than to make or get involved in; but the parent he is is not have them fly his path/the path he thinks they should take, but to teach the kid how to fly the way they want, how to fall right, and how to get back up. And he’ll always be there at rock bottom - and every other step - to help them if/when they need it.
From my notes about Aoi:
Being an innately perceptive kid, he was on his best behavior for Spinner and Shigaraki, at least until Shigaraki pulled him aside and told him he's free to be a brat.
Aoi, a kid with a 'villainous' quirk and some mischievous tendencies, gets in trouble, gets put into community service, which is a framing device for the ways Hero Society has changed for the better in how they respond the crimes and treat at-risk individuals, and at the end of it he is inspired to apply to UA to become a Hero/Special Responder himself
Aoi: I’m applying to UA.
Shigaraki, Spinner: …Is this your version of teenage rebellion?
Aoi: Kinda, yeah, I guess. But I really do want to go. I wanna be a Hero.
Shigaraki, Spinner: Of course you do. But fine. Do whatever you want.
Which is to say, yeah. Shigaraki has no expectations that Zuna would be his successor. If Zuna wants to be - huh, but okay. If not - great, yeah. (If this ever comes up in the PLF, Shigaraki would be looking at ReDestro from the corner of his vision and saying, no, none of that legacy shit. 🥲)
As for training… Yes, has to happen, because kid needs to learn how to protect himself, needs to learn how to handle and control his quirk. No need for Zuna to become Strongest if he doesn't want to be, though; but if Zuna wants to fight or ambush him or even just play pranks, Shigaraki would indulge him (but Shigaraki won't hold back in his defense or offense).
Re: War meetings… would begin with Shigaraki handing the (toddler) kid his phone to play with; then end up playing the phone game with his kid when the meeting drags on too long. Really, the true harsh training Shigaraki (and Spinner) instills in Zuna is how to be a gamer.
They would not be above this:
•
As a parent, Spinner would worry a lot more. I don't think he would be strict, exactly, but he would be a bit judgy and fussy; ultimately, though, like Shigaraki, he does think one should make their own path in life, whatever it may be. For his kid, after he develops the fierce love for them that he would have, he badly wants for them to be safe, to have everything be right; but when confronted with the strength of their conviction or will (because after all they have Spinner and Shigaraki as parents), whether he approves or not, he will help them however he can and let them go. Just make sure they come back.
All that said. Shigaraki and Spinner would toe the line of being slightly neglectful. If the kid wants to only eat cup ramen, fine, just make sure to add some veggies to it. Junk food? Don't be dumb about it and eat too much and end up throwing up. R-rated scary movie at age 12? Don't say we didn't warn you. I can see, like, sometimes Spinner and Shigaraki might be gone for a whole day or two or three because crime, trusting the kid to handle things at home; and more than a few times, they've just given the kid money to go to the arcade/mall/whatever so they can have alone time.
They're def not the most open and affectionate of people, nor the best at knowing when to apply the brakes, whether it's for themselves or for the kid. Ideally, the kid is more sensible than the both of them, cuz someone has to be - which is, of course, not the kid's job. If not (more sensible)—well, at least the three of them are in it together.
THE AUs
All the stuff I wrote above is from the magical timeline in which I guess the destruction of Japan is delayed a year or two so Zuna can be not a tiny baby when all the fighting starts. Easier to wage a war if the kid has been weaned from the bottle? idk anything about child rearing 👍🏼.
Unsure what things would look like if the PLF succeeds, though! Things in general + how Zuna’s upbringing would look like in such a world.
In the timeline where the Villains are defeated - but they live - I want the world to look like @stillness-in-green’s New Ouman fanfics. The world truly changed for the better, where most of the Villains survived (and escaped custody), eking out a new existence in the shades. Here Spinner and Shigaraki (and the League/PLF) would steal Zuna/Masanori back, and though their resources have drastically been reduced, it'll be fine. They're healing; they’ve got each other; the tomorrows will keep coming and this time the light is not so glaring and the shadows not so dark.
(Unlike Aoi, though, I think… Zuna/Masanori would still not want to be a Hero/Special Responder. Would be more of a creative type.)
•
Thanks for the ask!!!!!!!!!!! Really, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you think Afo was really that influential of Koutaro’s abusive behavior?
Honestly, Afo or not Afo, the Shimura household seems still pretty dysfunctional to me.
The supposedly “well nurtured” Hana already knew at her young age not to show her true colors to her parents, because clearly in that house you’re accepted only if you’re good at making up for father’s delusions. And the other THREE adults in the house seem to just expect literal children to be understanding of their father’s harmful behavior. Just looking at Hana, it looks like Koutaro’s advertisememt like family dream was being imposed on his children even before Tenko and the whole hero thing.
Because it was never about heroes, really. It was about Koutaro who didn’t have a normal family growing up. Afo stirring up his hatred for heroes just added to problems already existing.
But what do you think?
It's complicate.
Let's start with a premise.
Many western readers often don't know that in a traditional Japanese family the father is the one who's higher in hierarchy, the one who sets the rules and the one the family should humor and obey at.
Things are changing, in the sense that husbands/fathers are getting ‘soft’ and don’t demand anymore what is still considered their social right and a wife/child obligation.
So Kotarou or Enji setting the rules of the house and wanting to force their ideas/ambitions on their children is technically considered their right, the family should just adapt. The fact that they impose their own rules and the wives (and in Kotarou’s case the in-law as well) don’t oppose but tell the children they should just play along is not due to some psychological disorder Enji and Kotarou have and due to a particularly weak/submissive will that their wives/in-laws have, it’s a cultural problem that gives them power over the rest of the family and that tell the wives (and the in-laws) they should obey.
Things like Sanjū Shitoku (三従四徳 “The three obediences and four virtues”), a set of moral principles and social code of behavior for maidens and married women in East Asian Confucianism where, in specific, the three obediences instruct that a woman is obligated not to act on her own initiative and, at home, she must submissively obey or follow her father’s orders before getting married, her husband’s after getting married, and her sons’ after her husband’s death and Oyakoko (親孝行 “filial piety”), an important Buddhist virtue of respecting and caring for one’s parents and that therefore requires the children ‘to be good’ to their parents, often through acts of great respect, kindness and support which might sound nice but, although things are changing currently, in the past this meant doing what the parents wanted, including marrying who they were to pick up for you, provide them with grandchildren who would continue the family line, pursuing the career path they wanted (usually continuing the family business), fulfilling their ambitions, carry on their grudges or even avenging them, plus taking care of them when they’re old, handling their funeral and taking care of them through Butsudan in which they would be enshrined are influencing those families and the family dynamics.
This part is not the Shimuras or the Todorokis being dysfunctional families, this part is the whole family following those traditions, cultural beliefs, religious principles.
The real problem of those two households though is that the family heads are both psychologically unhealthy people who have too much power over the other family members.
Make a psychologically unhealthy person as your emperor and you might end up with a horse as a senator.
In Kotarou’s specific case he lost first his father, who got killed and then his mother, who abandoned him in what’s likely an institution, apparently also erasing him from the family Koseki so that not only she doesn’t have a son anymore but Kotarou doesn’t have a family anymore. This resulted likely in a mix of PTSD and abandonment issues, which the institution to which he was entrusted likely never properly addressed so that he was never helped to heal. Also it seems AFO found Kotarou after Hana was already born and has already manifested her Quirk, so he couldn’t take it away like he did with Tenko and give her Decay or she would have been his first choice. This means he couldn’t be Kotarou’s ‘shoulder devil’ for most of Kotarou’s life and could only directly affect him for more than 5 years.
Now, what can abandonment cause in a child once he grows up (mind you, all this is not mandatory)?
Many things as it impacts on the development of the brain, among which attachment issues, fear of abandonment, need to control others, hypersensitivity to criticism, increased mistrust, poor impulse control, and poor emotional regulation which are factors that could end up creating violent responses… in short they can generate a propensity for abusive behavior.
To put it simply, even before meeting AFO, Kotarou was more predisposed for violent/abusive behavior than your everyday guy.
So is AFO’s ‘innocent’?
Well, no because AFO is the one who created the reasons due to which Kotarou ended up losing his father, being abandoned by his mother and growing up in an institution, which ended up causing in Kotarou psychological consequences. Even if he and Kotarou had never met in their whole life, he still stamped his mark on Kotarou’s psyche in form of giving him the traumas that damaged his brain and, consequently, his psyche.
We don’t know if just this would have been enough to make Kotarou abusive, if he would have abused Tenko even if he had never met AFO.
It’s possible he wouldn’t have been abusive, it’s actually likely since, despite AFO’s influence, it’s implied until that fateful day he wasn’t violent with Tenko (Nao and her parents claim they won’t support him if he beats Tenko so before he should have stopped himself before striking him), he just left him in the garden. Which no, it’s still not a good thing, psychologically he’s kicking Tenko out of the house, which is harmful for Tenko’s psyche, but Kotarou might not realize this.
Without AFO’s influence it’s also possible he could have managed to control himself much better and, while I doubt he would have been the best parent, he might not have been so bad.
In short, before meeting AFO he was probably ‘better adjusted’ than we saw him being after more than 5 years of having to deal with AFO doing his best to poke at Kotarou’s psychological wounds and encouraging him to act at his worst. He was likely the equivalent of bringing full open bottles of while to an Alcoholics Anonymous reunion, tempting Kotarou to stop resisting to his worst impulses, giving him good, logical reasons to do so (hell, it seems it's him who suggested Kotarou to have Tenko so that Hana would have a sibling that would support her because Heroes never show up when you need them).
We saw how he was with Tenko.
Picture him having similar conversations with Kotarou.
“Tenko makes me so very angry when he insists talking about Heroes, even though I told him I don’t want to hear his speak of such topics. To control myself I’ve to leave the room or I fear I might lose it.”
“Shimura-san, you’re approaching this in the wrong manner. Not only Tenko is in the wrong because he’s disobeying you and challenging your authority… but what if he were to put his faith in a Hero and end up horribly betrayed as you were? Or worse, what if he were to become a Hero and then abandon his family? No, Shimura-san, you can’t escape this, you can’t act weak willed toward this, as the family head you’ve to face this and correct Tenko’s behavior, quickly and firmly.”
“But I don’t want to hurt Tenko, he’s young and…”
“Shimura-san, you rightfully set the rule in your house people must not talk about Heroes because you want to protect your family from the pain you felt due to your irresponsible mother, because you don’t want anyone of your children to follow in her footsteps and end up horribly killed. If your son doesn’t feel like respecting the rules that exist in his own house for his own safety and protection, he can try spending some time out of it, in the garden. Some corner time never killed anyone.”
And then, when the same thing comes up again AFO is there, encouraging Kotarou to be even strict, and when Kotarou gives in and punish Tenko and this solves nothing AFO encourages him to be even stricter, that it solved nothing because Kotarou was being still too soft, Tenko needs a firm hand if Kotarou wants to avoid the worst, he’s doing it for Tenko, for his family, he surely doesn’t want them to hurt as he does, do he?
And so on and on and on.
Hana is a little older than Tenko, I wouldn’t say much, maybe a couple of years (but being a couple of year older than a child of five makes a big difference), possibly less driven to be a Hero, and, when AFO start to press on the issue and things start to worsen, she catches up fast. She’s not well nurtured, she’s just more prone to adapt to her father’s behavior. Dad doesn’t want to hear such thing, he’ll gets really mad if he does and repercussions are nasty so we don’t let him hear such things and act behind his back (which is a signal Hana too is starting to show the strain of living in such household and might eventually develop psychological problems).
Tenko is younger, very driven (AFO even encouraged such drive behind Kotarou’s back!), less good at controlling himself but at the same time he psychologically resents even more of Kotarou’s behavior because it makes his house an unsafe place to express himself, something a child of his age desperately needs, hence his ‘allergy’ which is just a psychosomatic sign of distress.
The family swallows Kotarou’s excuses, which he learnt straight from AFO. They probably make sense and anyway they know they’ve to indulge in his whims because he’s the family head and hey, Kotarou knew a Hero up close and it was horrible for him, poor Kotarou, no, we don’t want either Tenko to end up suffering the same or becoming such a person, do we want Tenko to die like Nana? No, of course not, Kotarou must be right, he knows better but… well, Tenko is small and so sad, Kotarou might not be wrong but a gentler hand wouldn’t hurt, but well… Kotarou is the family head and it’s not like he’s physically harming Tenko, Tenko has to understand his father is right and obey so…
And so the family don’t really fight Kotarou directly, they don’t sit him down and give him a talk because they believe he’s right and he’s in the right to do what he does.
We hear it from Kotarou ‘He hasn’t manifested a Quirk to his age yet… if we don’t make him understand, then Tenko is the one who’ll suffer. Aspiring to be a Hero will only cause suffering.’
We hear it from Nao ‘your father doesn’t hate you, he just know how hard it is for Heroes’.
The family buys Kotarou’s excuse that it’s for Tenko, they try to suppress that sense of unease that tells them that no, this is not right, Kotarou is going overboard.
Remember. Kotarou is the family head, they and Kotarou’s children should obey to him and humor him. They’re actually shown strong determination and love for Tenko, when they say they refuse to support Kotarou if he beats Tenko. Socially it’s a big step for them.
So yes, AFO really had a big part in how Kotarou turned out, first because he made him a man who received psychological damage bad enough to be more prone to be abusive, second because he ‘cultivated’ said damage so that Kotarou would go overboard with Tenko in an attempt to force Tenko to repress his own wishes and dreams and feelings until, due to the stress caused by the activation of decay, they would go overboard and Tenko would lose control.
In other cultures though, cultures that think parents are of equal value, that children and their own dreams and wishes needs to be nurtured, what happened to Tenko could not happen equally as easily because, assuming Nao and her parents were psychologically well adjusted people, Kotarou would have less decisional power and they would have more instruments to judge what he’s doing to his son is psychologically wrong. They would be more prone to ask for psychological counseling (where in Japan the idea of receive psychological help has a strong stigma) for Tenko and for Kotarou, which would give AFO less ground to influence Kotarou, actually it might even expose him as a negative influence.
Of course it could still happen, abusive parents are all around the world, Japan isn’t the sole country who has them, but it would be harder.
That’s why you might find fans who paints the Shimura even worse than what they are, because they adapt them to a different social context. Nao and her parents become either more passive or less caring or even scared of Kotarou, because otherwise it becomes harder to explain why, if they’re at the same level as him, they would let him dictate the rules of the house, they would ignore well known theories about child rearing and clear signs of psychological problems, Kotarou becomes even more psychologically unstable because otherwise he wouldn’t feel so free to go that far and his family wouldn’t feel so hesitant to stop him.
So you’re not wrong, this is also about Koutaro who didn’t have a normal family growing up, but this situation was caused by AFO, who also further influenced him, and this is also about Kotarou having a role that gives him too much power for which he’s not suited due to his psychological damage, and in this there’s society to blame and AFO, who knows how society works, likely took advantage of this too to create a very fertile soil for his own purposes.
Long story short, while it’s possible Kotarou would have ground up to be an abusive father even if AFO had never contacted him, even if AFO had never killed his father and lead to his mother’s abandonment, the chances in this case are much lower. AFO indirectly and directly, ruined Kotarou and used the ruined Kotarou to ruin Tenko as well. His chances of failure still existed… but were really low, he made it so the odds were all in his favor.
You might say in another country AFO wouldn’t have the advantage of terrain, and blaming AFO doesn’t mean Kotarou, or the Shimura in general, are completely innocent but really, the odds weren’t in their favor. AFO is the main culprit, they’re more like unwilling accomplices. They’re to blame but they didn’t have the intention to harm, they weren’t even fully aware they were causing harm, so I wish Tomura had got the chance to punch AFO much more than he did. He deserved it.
At least… that’s what I think. Others can, as usual, disagree. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASK!
As usual you put things in a cultural perspective that gave me lots of food for thought, so thank you a lot for being so thorough!
However, I forgot to clarify that I meant Afo being influential to Koutaro’s parenting as someone who’s posing as a friend.
Of course Afo the villain was the main culprit of Koutaro’s psychological issues!
My perplexity comes from the fact that Koutaro let someone outside of the family, even though he thought it was a friend, talk him into harmful behavior. His abandonmemt as a child might be a factor here, since he probably doesn’t really know what to expect of a parent not having had any.
My interpretation of Koutaro’s problems dealing with his family having started not from heroes, but from not being able to fulfill his dream to have a happy family due to unrealistic expectations, came from the fact that Afo’s modus operandi has always been shown to be using tools that are already there. But, it’s true that that’s just a guess not supported by text. There is little to no material to understand how much Koutaro’s attitute changed when Afo entered the picture as an advisor.
I’m trying to give a characterization to Koutaro for a project of mine and how much his “friend’s” advice was relevant in how he acted with the family is complicating things a lot! 😵💫
(Ps, we all definitely agree that Tomura should have gotten the chance to punch Afo a lot more for what he did :)
I wish I could always be fast but sadly work decided to get in the way. Still I'm glad I was of some use with my reply!
As for your current ask there isn't really a canon answer but I can offer two theories.
The first is that AFO is, supposedly, really good at manipulation. This means he can easily trick someone into doing what he says, even when that thing is wrong, if that person's guard is low or he's psychologically vulnerable.
Kotarou is psychologically vulnerable due to his psychological wounds. I can see AFO trying to pose as a father figure and Kotarou ending up thinking that he's not talking to just someone he knows, or to a friend, but to his father.
Also in a would that worship Heroes, AFO instead is against them, supporting Kotarou's view and Kotarou probably felt he needed such support.
The second is that... did Kotarou even realize it was harmful behavior?
In Japan parents were banned from physically punishing their children solely in June 2019 (after children died due to corporal punishment) but the act came into force on 1 April 2020. What this means?
This to give you an idea of how, when that chapter came out (July 2019) the Japanese government has just accepted hitting children was harmful behavior but the law isn't yet in force.
Japan isn't strongly against physical punishment, compared to it corner time in the Shimura's private garden should have seemed a tame option to Kotarou, not harmful at all.
It's also worth remembering children of third-year elementary school age and below can be left unsupervised. A 2023 attempt at changing it due to unsupervised children dying was met with severe criticism nationwide so that in the end nothing was done. This to say that if parents can think it's okay to leave children outside the house to play and not be concerned, leaving Tenko in a private garden shouldn't have felt that bad.
It's all a matter of cultural perspective.
Plus Kotarou seems to be an anaffective man (which can be something that happens when a kid is abandoned). We never see him smiling or being tender with his family. We only see him being cold with them, strict and firm. Kotarou wants a home full of joy, he wants a happy family but he's unable to create it.
While everyone else feels bad for Tenko, he remains cold, unaffected. When Tenko's Quirk will be triggered, Nao will run to him even if she understands it's dangerous, Kotarou will hit him to keep him away from himself, giving him a longlasting scar.
It's not that he doesn't know how a parent should act, Kotarou is a psychologically scarred man who never healed and, as a result, his responses aren't what we would call 'the norm', which makes easier for him to act in such a way.
That's also why he gets so angry after his kids see his mother's photo. It wasn't such a big crime and yet he couldn't control himself. He knew he should have but he couldn't.
As sad as it is, Kotarou is not a man who should have a family because he is unable to take care of it, beyond providing for it economically.
I think he would have liked to do more, I think he really wanted a joy-filled family, but he wasn't capable to act in the necessary empathic and understanding way with it, plagued as he was by his own unhealed psychological wounds, that give him a warped perspection of the world.
But all those are my speculations. Maybe he had good days with his family and Horikoshi just chose not to show them. We'll never know.
Thank you for your ask and good luck with your project!
