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To those unfamiliar with My Hero Academia, the manga by creator Kohei Horikoshi’s manga was released in July 2014. Bones Studio adapted the series to animation in 2016, and the series quickly became a phenomenon.
My Hero Academia is one of the most popular shonen action series and attracts fans of all ages with its unique concept. The series is often praised for its dynamic, multi-layered character cast and incredibly well-planned storyline, and Kohei Horikoshi escalates with the introduction of a new horrifying villain.
What made this anime a less typical Shonen Jump series is that the storyline has a slice of life to it. I also find it quite similar to “X-men,” where the characters have a mutant-like ability that they call in this series a “quirk”. Most of the people in the MHA universe can have quirks and superpowers when they are born.
The most popular character, Tsuyu Asui, has the ability of a frog that also looks like a frog but is a cuter version. She can stick to walls and hop long distances. On the other hand, Mina Ashido, the pink alien-like character, can produce acid out of her body; Then there’s one of my personal favorites, Eri.
Eri first appeared in season 4, episode 8, which was entitled “Suneater of the Big Three”. If you haven’t reached this season or episode yet, I’ll give you a little heads up because I’ll be spoiling a lot. Stay on this blog if you want answers to your questions or if you want to clear all of your confusion about Eri. Everything you need to know about Eri will be tackled here.
Bottom Line Up Front
Eri is by far one of My Hero Academia’s most heartbreaking and strongest characters. After she was disowned by her mother when she accidentally used her Rewind quirk on her father and reversed him until he no longer existed, she was taken to her maternal grandfather. Her grandfather is the head of the criminal Yakuza Shie Hassaikai.
Shie Hassaikai often leaves her to his protege, Kai Chisaki’s care to check her and discover her quirk and sympathize together along with her, considering they are regarded to have comparable quirks. Kai Chisaki, also known as Overhaul, took over the organization after Eri’s grandfather fell ill and turned it into a villain league.
The Overhaul also started experimenting with her, which later on found out that her blood and tissues can restore the human body to its previous evolutionary state and suppress or eliminate Quirks. Chisaki collected her blood, injected it into a bullet called the Quirk Destroying Drug, and sold it to the villains of the Underworld. Eri has been suffering from Kai’s inhumane experiments on her body for years.
Kai has also been manipulating her by making her feel guilty in believing that her presence and quirk are only intended to hurt others. This leaves her with no choice but to willingly follow Kai’s orders to protect other people. Being secluded from everybody and being examined continuously like a lab rat, Eri had come to just accept her destiny as a prisoner.
Eri: Appearance, Personality, Abilities, and Quotes
Appearance
Eri is a girl with bluish cream hair, hanging loosely, parting in the middle of her forehead, almost reaching her waist. She has very large, innocent-looking eyes, and her color is bright red. A small brown horn sticks out from the right side of her forehead and grows when quirk is activated.
In her first appearance, she wears a dirty tan simple short-sleeved dress. Her bandage is wrapped around her arms and legs, ending at her wrists and her ankles, with numerous wounds underneath due to Overhaul’s experiment in which he disassembles and reassembles her. She has a small horn on the upper right of her head, which seems to grow with her rewinding quirk.
After she’s taken in through U.A., Eri’s outfit is modified to a white get dressed blouse with a frilled collar and a simple pink pinafore with huge, golden buttons on both aspects of her chest. Under this, she wears grey tights and a huge set of tan boots, a small darkish pink messenger bag with the strap sitting over her proper shoulder, and a bit floral sample readorning one on all its sides. Her hair additionally appears to be higher cared for, performing straighter and neater than it was before during her time with the Shie Hassaikai.
Personality
Unlike other children of her age, Eri is cloistered and shy. Eri has grown into an anxious child who completely has no idea about any kind of kindness. Due to her experience with Overhaul, when someone tries to harm her, she does not scream or cry but just keeps on being silent, knowing that she has no choice but to accept what is happening to her.
Given all that Eri has experienced, it would be perfectly understandable if she shut down emotionally. After all, it will be a kneeling way to protect herself. Even after she was rescued, Eri remained psychologically unstable from all the trauma she had been through with Overhaul. Eri still feels guilty about the destruction her quirk has caused, thinking that she is in better condition without her quirk.
However, Izuku motivated her that their quirk had helped them, and they were all safe and defeated Kai because of it. Izuku Midoriya also explains the power of use compared to a knife that looks dangerous at first, but with proper use, you can cook all kinds of dishes. Eli keeps in mind her words of encouragement from Iku and applies them to her outlook on life.
At first, she couldn’t even smile because she didn’t know and did not have any experience with the feeling of being happy. Thanks to Izuku Midoriya’s help and Izuku and Mirio’s encouragement, Eri has slowly become more optimistic and determined. She no longer sees her quirk as a cause of harm or misery. She has been training to control her quirk to help Mirio bring back his quirk permeation.
You can see Eri’s first big smile during the School Festival. She felt an overwhelming joy while witnessing the performance and somehow escaped from the past with a smile.
Abilities
Quirk: Rewind
It’s a little confusing when it was first introduced, but it turns out that the little girl Eri suffers from one of the most powerful and, therefore, most confusing quirks ever shown in the series. What is interesting about the Rewind is the connection with the spiral horn that protrudes from the upper right of her temple. The size of her horn is equivalent to the strength of her quirk.
Her quirk rewind allows her to rewind a living individual’s body to a previous state, reverting their physical younger body or healing injuries. She has even shown the ability when she uses her quirk accidentally on his father. She used to rewind to his body when he was out of existence. However, her quirk does not apply to any form without a life, such as an inanimate body or object.
There are two ways to activate Eri’s Quirk. One is that she hadn’t learned to control yet (proven by the time she helped Deku), and the other one is through her blood. Unfortunately, It was badly abused by Overhaul. Overhaul analyzes Eli’s blood to produce very special projectiles that can effectively and permanently destroy the quirk of others.
Midoriya was able to use One For All: Full Cowl 100 % because of her rewind ability. She used her power to heal Midoriya’s injury by reverting his body. Although she cannot restore quirks yet, who knows what extent her power can bring.
Her quirk is not also from her bloodline but is an extremely rare genetic mutation.
Quotes
Eri doesn’t talk much in My Hero Academia because of her personality of being shy and timid, but when she starts speaking, her words will surely make an impact. Here are some of my favorite lines from Eri that speaks volume.
- It’s because of me that you lost your powers…
- I was thinking about you guys and how you saved me. You two and everyone else… I wanna be your friend.
- I want to get to know them more! Lemillion and everyone else.
- How do you smile again?
- At first, I was scared because it was so loud.
Although simple and short, these lines hold deeper meaning and made My Hero Academia a lot more emotional than other seasons. It also highlights Eri’s personality. As a young girl who had uncontrollable powers, she was always afraid of herself and what she could do to others. That’s why she had extreme reservations about how she interacts and speaks with her peers.
Relationships
Family
Eri had a rough childhood since she accidentally erased her father using her quirk. Because of this, her mother hated and disowned her out of fear of her quirk. She was left under the care of her maternal grandfather, Shie Hassaikai.
Shie is the head of an organized crime syndicate who only wishes to use Eri’s power to lobby her dark desires. While growing up, Eri was as confused as anyone about her power. That’s why Shie tasked one of his subordinates, Kai Chisaki (Overhaul), to uncover the truth behind Eri’s powers.
Later on, Kai discovered that Eri is capable of Rewind. He intends to use Eri for his plan to develop a quirk-destroying drug in hopes of restoring Yakuza’s former glory. However, Shie isn’t on board with his plans. This led to his demise as Kai put him in a comatose state.
U.A. High School
Eri meets the main characters of the show in U.A. high school. Here, she gained true friends who cared for her welfare and attended to her every need while in recovery. It’s truly heartwarming to see that such an adorable and meek character developed a strong bond with the U.A. students.
Izuku Midoriya (Deku)
Deku is the very first person who was extremely kind to Eri. He was sensitive to Eri’s past, even telling her that her quirk was not a curse. Eri even cried her heart out upon hearing these kind words. It’s definitely heartwarming to see how Deku genuinely cares for Eri after the rescue. Both Eri and Deku became extremely comfortable with each other and developed a brotherly love.
Mirio Togata (Lemillion)
Like Deku, Mirio was also kind and thoughtful to Eri. However, he felt really guilty about his inaction toward her situation; his inaction led him to be determined to save Eri from the hands of Overhaul. After she was rescued, Mirio gave her hope that she could live a normal life away from Kai and Shie’s control.
To cheer Eri up, Mirio invited her to join the school festival, where she had fun with the other U.A. students.
Ochaco Uraraka (Uravity) and Tsuyu Asui (Froppy)
Tsu and Ochaco were nothing but kind to Eri. They treated her like a younger sibling and cared for her. Both Tsu and Ochaco love spending time with Eri, sharing different tales about their battles and adventure. When Eri visited the Class 1-A during Christmas, Ochaco was extremely delighted to see her wearing an adorable Santa costume.
Neito Monoma (Phantom Thief)
Neito and Eri’s relationship was unlike the other U.A. student; this might be because of how Mirio exaggeratedly described Neito as the “dark side” of U.A. On their very first meeting, Eri cowered in fear at the sight of Neito copying her horn and attempting her quirk. Yet all these were followed with a couple of banters as Neito admits that he cannot copy Eri’s Rewind quirk.
In the recent events, Neito and Eri had developed a brotherly bond; Eri is more comfortable being around him.
Mirai Sasaki (Sir Nighteye)
Sir Nighteye and Eri didn’t have any meaningful interactions. However, Eri remembers her as one of the heroes who saved her in the raid. When she was healing at the hospital, Eri recollects her limited interaction with Sir Nighteye. Unfortunately, he was killed by Overhaul in the raid.
Because of her fragile status, she was made unaware of Sir Nighteye’s death. Shota decided that they would inform her soon, ensuring that she would fully recover and heal from her trauma.
Kai Chisaki (Overhaul)
Overhaul is the main villain of My Hero Academia; it’s no surprise that many fear his presence, including Eri. He is quite manipulative and only uses Eri for her quirk. During Eri’s early years, she became Overhaul’s lab rat.
She was mentally and physically abused through the rigorous experiments she underwent under Overhaul’s wing. Overhaul’s verbal tirades ultimately gaslighted her; this has greatly affected her disposition. Because she believed that her existence only caused more harm than good, she grew up sad and resentful. She also lost her ability to be happy and smile.
Interesting and Fun Trivia Facts about Eri
Eraser Head is now her instructor
Shota Aiza, famously known as his superhero name Eraser Head has a quirk that can nullify another person’s quirk by looking at the user. Eraser is the most suitable instructor for Eri with his quirk since they are still studying and monitoring her and the possibility and extent of her quirk. So when anything gets out of hand during their training, Eraser can easily nullify her quirk, stopping it before it gets out of hand.
Eri is currently living in the U.A. High School dormitory and is under its protection
Eri lives in the U.A. High School dormitory. From here, Aizawa and other professional heroes staff can closely monitor her. She also regularly interacts with the U.A. students she meets, especially Deku and the Big Three.
Eri loves celebrating Christmas
The gang decided to hold a Christmas party to take a break from their tight schedule, to which Eli was invited. She arrives in a lovely Santa suit that has been trimmed to her size and turned into a skirt. Being unaccustomed to how festivals work, She mixes Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Eri presents the Prime Sugar Egg as a gift and announces her entry at the Trick or Treat. This only made everyone happier than ever.
Her horn determines the maximum potential of her quirk
While Rewind is an extremely powerful quirk, Eri cannot simply use and abuse this at her will. In fact, the spiral horn on the right side of the temple plays a significant role in exuding her power’s maximum effect. The size of her horn controls and regulates her Rewind quirk. This means that the nature of her powers is significantly influenced by how massive her horn is.
Interestingly, it is also an accumulation-type of ability. The quirk cannot be used instantaneously and needs to build up over time to become stable and usable.
The English voice actress for Eri is Emily Marie Neves
Eri’s voice actress is a multi-hyphenated artist; Emily Marie Neves is an ADR director, and scriptwriter renowned for her English adaptation of Japanese animated shows and films. She also rendered her voice to some of the most famous characters, including Yuko Kanoe in Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, Chelsea in Akame ga Kill!, and Kotomi Ichinose in Clannad.
FAQs
Question: How old is Eri?
Answer: The timeline isn’t clear when Eri remained under Overhaul’s abusive guardianship. Her early life wasn’t thoroughly revealed; manga creator Kohei Horikoshi did not also confirm the number of years she spent with Overhaul. However, based on Eri’s character profile, you can deduce that she is just six years old.
Question: What is Eri’s quirk weakness?
Answer: It’s obvious that Eri is not accustomed to using her quirk. While she is still young, Eri’s lack of training and inexperience is her major weakness. Most of the characters also don’t have a clearer idea or information about Rewind.
This is why she is unable to control and use her quirk to its full potential. Just to recall, she did not know how to control her power leading to accidentally erasing her father. Training Eri would also be difficult since her powers only affect living beings.
Question: Who is the Japanese voice actor for Eri?
Answer: The original voice actress of Eri is Seiran Kobayashi. She is a famous child star who was a cast of big-name movies, like Japanese’ movie adaptation of the “Murder on Orient Express”. Aside from being the voice behind Eri, Seiran also made a name for voicing Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (2015), Okko’s Inn (2018), and Tae Kwon Do Damashii: Rebirth (2014).
Question: Why does Eri have a horn?
Answer: Eri has one of the most well-thought-of designs. You might be curious why his horn differs in size throughout the series. Eri has a horn that shrinks and grows depending on her accumulative power. The bigger the horn, the more powerful Eri’s Rewind powers are. When Eri’s horn is smaller than usual, she needs to build it up and regain it before using her quirk once more.
Eri MHA Guide: Final Thoughts
One of the reasons why I love watching and rewatching Hero Academia is because of its beautiful hand-drawn animation.
If there’s one thing shonen fans tend to complain about, it is the animation. Yet the anime My Hero Academia has managed to avoid such rants because the animation does not disappoint. The anime is visually stunning, and its rich colors surprise fans around the world. Aside from that, It is truly interesting to witness how Eri’s quirks develop and unfold.
Since Eri was released from Overhaul, she has changed in many ways, thanks to her newfound friends. One thing I’m vying about Eri is her character development. I hope she will get more screentime and eventually resolve the mysteries about her quirk.
It would be cool to watch her grow from a helpless little girl to becoming a student and learn to master her quirk from a young age. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Eri’s character arc would unfold. More than anything, I am excited to see how she can finally control her quirk.