My Hero Academia is one of the most popular recent anime series, chapters of the manga it is based off have been getting publishing in Shōnen Jump since 2014 and the anime adaption has been airing seasons since 2016.
This superhero-focused manga is written by the talented Kōhei Horikoshi that has managed to maintain its popularity both in Japan as well as globally being one of the most successful anime series of the last decade.
The series is popular for its great balancing of interesting characters with understandable personalities and motivations, as well as an engaging overarching storyline.
The superpowers present in the series are referred to as quirks, and a lot of the main characters have these quirks, and they are used to help engage the audience with a unique setting and enable flashy and strategic combat.
Like any good superhero story, the heroes are only as interesting as the villains they face, and luckily My Hero Academia achieves this wholeheartedly with a plethora of engaging villains followed throughout the narrative.
Each story arc included in My Hero Academia tends to introduce at least one new villain for the heroes to clash with, with some standing out much more than others.
One of the most popular villains to be introduced is Dabi who was first seen by the audience near the end of the show’s second season but does not get much attention until the third season.
Dabi is one of the most threatening and layered villains present in the series so in this article we will be looking through all elements of his design, quirk, and history, as well as assess his power level, so you can know all you need to know about Dabi!
Who Actually Is Dabi From My Hero Academia?
We first see Dabi introduced during the Aftermath of Hero Killer: Stain story arc, but he does not get much attention until the Final Exams Arc, where we see Dabi get recruited by antagonist Garan to join the main group of antagonists within the My Hero Academia universe being the League Of Villains.
This is where we learn that the name he is most commonly referred to in universe, as well as by the fan base is Dabi, but is also occasionally called Blueflame in reference to the appearance of his quirk.
But later on, we learn his actual name is revealed to be Toya Todoroki, the same Todoroki as Shoto Todoroki, and his father Endeavor.
This is revealed while the Paranormal Liberation War Arc takes place, where Dabi is revealed to be the oldest son in the Todoroki family.
We will not go into too much detail here on the strained and painful relationship between Dabi and Endeavor that led to the former deciding to lead a life of villainy, but this development is discussed in detail throughout this story arc.
Dabi, while a member of the League Of Villains does not actually care too much for the group, and in the style of a typical villain, is just part of the group as a means to an end to help enact his own vengeful goals.
However, he still follows the ideology of Stain which is what the League follows, and uses this to materialize his goals.
Some key points in Dabi’s part as a member of the League Of Villains is his role in leading the Vanguard Action Squad to attack Beast’s Forest with the goal of attacking the UA students who were training there.
With other important characters like Geten, he also fulfills the role as the commander of the Vanguard Action Guerilla Warfare Regiment: Violet.
What Is The Quirk Of Dabi From My Hero Academia?
Dabi’s quirk manifests in a multitude of different ways through a variety of different attacks and attributes of his character.
Let’s look through some of the main ways this is displayed throughout the episodes and chapters he shows off his quirk!
One thing to keep in mind when looking at the abilities Dabi displays with his flames is his unfortunate genetic disposition.
When being born, Dabi, while inheriting his fathers’ ability to control flames, did not inherit his father’s ability to withstand the pain they can cause.
Instead, he inherited his mother’s ability to resist freezing temperatures, which while useful in some circumstances, is not the most useful ability for a flame user.
This means that while Dabi is powerful and very destructive, his physical body is quite frail, and he is not able to fight for too long at once.
Dabi’s Quirk – Cremation (Bluefame)
This aspect of Dabi’s quirk is what gave him his namesake ‘blueflame’. This ability shows Dabi emitting extremely powerful and incredibly destructive blue flames.
An extension of this – Cremation – shows Dabi being able to burn massive amounts of people until they turn to ashes.
He uses this ability to get an environmental advantage during fights, a good example being when he uses it to set the Beast’s Forest aflame.
He can spread these flames quite far from himself making his abilities powerful at giving him a good ranged ability.
Dabi’s flames are also completely under the control of his manipulation with him being able to control them to do actions like maneuvering himself through the air similar to flying which is a massive advantage over his enemies who are land bound.
Dabi’s Quirk – Flashfire Fist
This element of Dabi’s quirk was passed down from his father Endeavor before they became estranged and is part of his signature technique.
This ability makes Dabi raise the temperature of his blue fire to as high as it can go and uses this to raise his power.
This makes Dabi’s subsequent attack significantly more powerful and makes his movement too fast for most of his enemies to be able to keep up with.
Dabi’s Quirk – Flashfire Fist (Jet Burn)
Jet burn shows Dabi shooting out a projectile of fire aiming onto a target. This attack has been displayed to be incredibly debilitating being shown to knock out his brother Shoto during the Paranormal Liberation Front arc.
Endeavor has a similar technique to this, but he does not shoot the flames instead making direct contact.
While Dabi does not pull off the technique this way often, he is shown to do this against Shoto in a later fight between the two.
Dabi’s Quirk – Prominence Burn
This is one of Dabi’s most powerful techniques and shows him concentrating his flames into an incredibly destructive beam that he released from his entire body with the aim of vaporizing his target.
This attack was used by Dabi in a fight on Endeavor but he was unfortunately interrupted before we could see its full potential.
Dabi’s Quirk – Hell Spider
This is another of Endeavor’s original abilities which Dabi has appropriated in which he shoots out smaller more concentrated points of fire from his fingertips to scorch his enemies.
The main difference between how Dabi executes this skill in comparison to his father is he performs it with less care and accuracy.
Dabi’s Keen Intellect
While not an aspect of Dabi’s quirk, his incredible level of intelligence is another aspect of his character that makes him a formidable opponent.
He has been shown to use his intelligence to manipulate situations to his advantage on multiple occasions, using his abilities to psychologically manipulate his enemies to make them doubt themselves during combat.
He also needs to be able to use his intellect to manipulate combat to compensate for his weakness being that his flames hurt him during combat, so he is not best during extended fights.
Furthermore, he has been shown to take full advantage of enemies weaknesses to exploit them as well as environmental factors to make sure that he is never without the upper hand.
His villainy is also exposed through his brain with him being willing to sacrifice his companions if it means achieving a goal, and using his intellect to manipulate public opinions on heroes as well as enact revenge on his abusive father.
What Is Dabi’s Power Level Throughout My Hero Academia?
Dabi was trained from an incredibly early age by Endeavor to make sure he would become as powerful from as young an age as possible, and unfortunately for Endeavor he has displayed this repeatedly by being among the most powerful advisories the protagonists face.
While Dabi has low physical strength especially compared to some of the heroes who use their close combat skills often, he more than makes up for this with the overwhelming destructive power of his blue flames.
The extent of this power is displayed in how easily he was able to overpower a strong character like Hawks with very little effort.
Dabi also has quite high speed ability making him a hard foe to hit and incredibly agile. He displayed this through him being able to keep up with characters like Tokoyami and Hawks.
And in spite of having a relatively weak body due to all the damage his flames cause, he has repeatedly displayed an ability to endure heavy injuries, perhaps due to how used he is to dealing with the pain from his flames.
This is displayed within his combat against Vlad King as well as Gran Torino where he manages to exemplify incredible durability.
Finally, Dabi’s flames actually possess more potential firepower compared to his father’s and on top of this the flames become more powerful the stronger Dabi’s emotions are.
However, as previously mentioned his biggest weakness in comparison to Endeavor and his brother Shoto is his complete lack of personal resistance to the pain his flames cause.
This lack of resistance is what holds him back from being one of the strongest characters and is what leads to the scarring which makes his appearance so distinctive.
Conclusion
If this intriguing character has convinced you that My Hero Academia is worth your time to watch then you are lucky that this manga and anime are very accessible and easy to find.
The manga and all its spin-offs are distributed by VIZ media and the anime is on Funimation, Crunchyroll, and occasionally Netflix!
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