Nana Shimura Guide

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Cody is a writer who was shaped by manga and anime at a young age. From discovering series like Dragon Ball and Gundam, he fell in love with this medium. Though he walked away for a time in his teenage years, he came back in his adulthood to fall back in love with manga and anime. Nowadays, he can be found reading the latest manga series and catching up on all of the new seasonal anime. And, of course, writing about them at the same time.

Bottom Line Up Front

Nana Shimura is one of the most fascinating and locked-up tight characters in My Hero Academia. She is already dead at the start of the series, but her legacy remains. She is the seventh wielder of the One for All power that All Might and later Deku receive.

She was killed in battle by the infamous enemy of One for All, All for One. She left behind her knowledge and power to All Might, and a single son survived her. That son would go on to have his child, who would be the grandson of Shimura and become Tomura Shigaraki, the successor to All for One.

Who Is Nana Shimura?

Nana Shimura is one of the less glamorous characters in My Hero Academia. Since she is already dead at the very beginning of the series, there is little that is known about her at first. We can gather information as time goes on, but there is still so much about her that we currently do not know.

Even though Nana Shimura is not a living character in My Hero Academia, and there are so many unknowns surrounding her, there is no doubting the importance of her legacy. The bulk of her story involved the results of her actions when she was alive.

She affected everyone literally, not just in Japan but the entire planet as a whole. Because of her actions, ripples are still being felt many years after her passing. She affected a significant number of characters on a personal level, too, including her student All Might, friend Gran Torino, the protagonist Deku, and the villain Tomura Shigaraki.

With the mystery surrounding her, there is almost no other character that I would like to find out more about. I think that a spin-off manga or anime series that dives into her character would be fantastic and, honestly, a little bit needed once the main series concludes soon. A chance to see how the seventh One for All user handles the unique power would be interesting, so, hopefully, this is something that we get in the future.

Appearance

Nana Shimura’s appearance doesn’t change in the manga and anime for My Hero Academia, since she’s only featured briefly. She’s shown when she was in her prime in either her 20s or 30s when she first encountered All Might and became his teacher.

Her hero uniform is pretty simple. She wears full-body black tights. Her outfit is sleeveless, which is interesting, but there isn’t much else to it. She wears white boots that are thick and almost reach her knees.

She has nothing protecting her arms, which is an exciting choice, but this may have to do with her quirk ability. Instead, she wears thick yellow gloves that at least protect her hands and add a bit of necessary color. She wears a long, flowing white cape on her back and a red and yellow belt around her waist.

Lastly, her hairstyle is long but put up in the back. She has long, parted bangs and a kind smile. Overall, I think that the appearance of Nana Shimura is rather simplistic and almost retro for a superhero. This was likely intentional as she is not the main character, so there was no need to give her the sort of dedicated attention that the central cast needs.

Personality

The personality of Nana Shimura is one of the parts that I struggle to know the most about. All we can gather is from what All Might says about her and the few flashback sequences that she appears in. But I think that it is clear that she is the epitome of the selfless hero type of character.

She loves being a hero and likely has the classic heroic kind of personality. She smiles in the face of danger and will do whatever it takes to help someone in need. I think that it is likely that much of the persona that All Might gives off is because of her.

Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to her character. I think that she potentially cares about her hero work so much that she neglects the other important aspects of her life, as we can see in her life.

Key Moments

Here are some key moments that I would like to point out about the life and history of Nana Shimura. While she is not present in most of the My Hero Academia story, the parts that she does play are crucial to the underlying story.

With that in mind, beware of some major spoilers for characters. Her life involves the backstory of certain key players in My Hero, so consider this your fair warning.

Carrying One for All

Nana Shimura One for All Successor — Image from Wiki Fandom

We know about Nana Shimura’s life because she was previously a pro hero before gaining the One for All quirk. In fact, unlike Deku and potentially All Might, she had a quirk of her own that existed before obtaining that ability.

The quirk that she initially had was Float. With that, she was able to become a hero and save people. Along the way, she encountered many people and made friends. We do know that one such friend is Gran Torino, a mentor for All Might and Deku alike who is alive in the events of the series.

They likely fought together and helped one another on the battlefield. I could even see a case where the two perhaps even had a romantic connection at one point but chose not to pursue that. That is, of course, all speculation on my part, but I could certainly see them choose their jobs over personal relationships.

When it comes to her actual romance, though, she does get married to an unknown man and has a son with him. Unfortunately, her husband died under strange circumstances, but it is possible that it was due to her line of work. I could see a situation where he was killed to deal a blow directly to Shimura.

The most notable part about her life as a hero is that she becomes the seventh wielder of the One for All quirk. This happens during her life when she encounters the previous user, En. Prior to his murder by All for One, En passed along the quirk to Shimura.

Leaving a Complicated Legacy

Nana Shimura Legacy — Image from Wiki Fandom

Nana Shimura left a complicated legacy and one that is troublesome for everyone who came after her. I think that she did her best, but the decisions that she made created a problematic situation for those around her and even people like Deku, who would never meet her while she was alive.

It started with one of the best things that she did, which was meeting the young Toshinori Yagi. From the flashback that we see, it seems that she met him roughly around the same age that Deku met him in the present day. She becomes fascinated by the young and appearance-wise feeble boy.

Despite being seemingly insignificant, Yagi had a dream inside of him to become the Symbol of Peace for the world so that everyone had someone to stand behind. This resonated with Shimura, and she chose him to be the eighth recipient of the One for All quirk.

She trained All Might and spent a lot of time devoted to the man who would later become the world’s number one hero. However, in the process, she neglected her family. With the passing of her husband, she abandoned her son, who would go to live with another family.

Her son looked up to his mom and appreciated the fantastic things that she did but truly felt abandoned by her, and for a good reason. His resentment turned to anger and abuse as he took it out on his family and later children. This hatred of heroes and his abusive manners would directly affect the young Tenko Shimura, who would later murder his entire family and become Tomura Shigaraki.

If it wasn’t for the poor mistakes that Nana Shimura made, no matter how many good intentions were involved, she definitely paved the way to hell with the people she abandoned and hurt in the end. Had she chosen to raise her child and love him as he deserved, perhaps the League of Villains would not even exist, and All for One would be on his way out.

Special Abilities

Nana Shimura Abilities — Image from Wiki Fandom

There are two quirks that Nana Shimura has. I should note that one of them is obvious (One for All), but the other is spoilers for a number of reasons. I highly recommend skipping that section if you are not caught up with the manga. There are some parts that have not even shown up yet in the anime at this time.

One for All

One for All is the quirk that Shimura is given later in life by En, the sixth wielder. As far as we know, the version of the quirk that she had is virtually the same as what All Might and Deku use. It does match the person a little bit, so there are some minor unique properties between users, but we can assume that it is roughly the same.

The general idea of One for All is that it is able to enhance the physical properties of a person to several degrees. I believe that One for All was likely used by Shimura for combat purposes since her original quirk is not necessarily helpful in that regard.

Personally, I think she likely used her quirk to punch and increase the strength of her hits, similar to what All Might does, due to her gloves. However, I could also see her specializing in kicking like Deku does at the same time and given her relationship with Gran Torino.

Float

As mentioned, this part is spoilers for the manga and anime, especially since the latter has not yet adopted this part of the story at the time of making this guide. It may seem weird that the quirk of a dead person is spoilers but trust me on this one. Still here?

The quirk that Nana Shimura was initially born with was the Float quirk. It is unknown if she was just born with this unique ability or if she inherited it from her family. However, given that neither Tomura Shigaraki nor his father seems to exhibit this ability, it is possible that it was simply unique to her alone.

The name, Float, on its own already likely gives you an idea of what its purpose was. The general idea is that it allows the person to defy gravity and float in the air. It is presumed that she used it for flying purposes to maneuver around the battlefield and save people with ease.

The reason that this is a major spoiler is that it is pretty late in the manga when the quirk that she had is revealed. She passes this quirk on to Deku during the Paranormal Liberation Army Arc. It is the second quirk that he receives from a previous user, and it allows him to fly around anywhere at super-fast speeds. He currently uses it as his primary mode of transportation in the manga.

Key Relationships

Nana Shimura Relationships — Image from Wiki Fandom

There are several key relationships that I think are integral to the character of Nana Shimura. First among them is her relationship with All Might. Without this relationship, the world would be pretty different. Their friendship is that of teacher and apprentice, with Shimura guiding him as a hero.

She chooses him as the inheritor of One for All and sees a lot of good in him. Because of Shimura, he became the world’s number one hero in the first place. Alongside All Might was her friendship with Gran Torino, who was likely around the same age as her at the time of their primes.

If my guess is correct, they were friends, rivals, and possibly even lovers. They fed off of one another, and their quirks were quite similar, allowing them to work well as a team. Together, they also trained All Might to be the hero we now know him to be.

Then there is Nana Shimura’s family, which is the most complicated relationship for her. She had an unnamed husband and a son known as Kotaro Shimura. Her relationship may have been loving and amazing at one point, but the ending of it was horrible and wrong. She neglected her family and abandoned her son, which set him and her grandson on the wrong path.

She has somewhat of a relationship post mortem with her grandson, Tomura Shigaraki, though they never met one another. He carries her hand on his face. The same can be said for Deku. Though the two never met when she was alive, they have spoken in flashbacks and in his mind. She has imparted some wisdom to the protagonist, and Izuku Midoriya inherited her Float quirk.

Voice Actor

In Japanese, the voice actor for Nana Shimura in the few scenes that she has is Mie Sonozaki. Some of her roles in the past that are noteworthy include Urushy in Kiznaiver, several of the Digimon, Zelda in Princess Principal (an underrated show), and Lusamine in the Pokemon anime. I think she does a great job as the older motherly figure, but she has the capability for some interesting younger roles.

In the English dub, the voice of Shimura is Stephanie Young. She has a ton of brilliant dubbing roles in the past, such as Nico Robin in One Piece, the Dominator voice in Psycho-Pass, and Nu Wa in Smite.

Fun Facts About Nana Shimura

Nana Shimura Facts — Image from Wiki Fandom

Here are some fun facts about Nana Shimura that you may not have known about before:

Nana Shimura is the seventh holder of the One for All quirk, passing it along to All Might before her death.
Though One for All is the quirk that Shimura was gifted, this was not her only quirk. She also had the Float ability from birth.
Her given name, Nana, directly references the fact that she is the seventh wielder of One for All. This is because nana is the number seven in Japanese.
Tomura Shigaraki, the grandson of Nana Shimura, currently wears her hand on his face.
Nana Shimura is the second One for All wielder that we find out about her quirk.
She is also the only woman to have wielded One for All that we know of and the only one to get married and have children.
Unless she married and had her son before receiving One for All, it seems that the quirk cannot be passed down genetically to children.

FAQs

Question: Is Nana Shimura Deku’s grandmother?

Answer: No, she is not Deku’s grandmother (that we know of). She is the grandmother of Tomura Shigaraki, the main villain in My Hero Academia and successor to All for One. That said, I could definitely see why someone would say that, as she does look a whole lot like Deku and his mom. And I guess she is the grandmother of Deku in One for All terms.

Question: Who was Nana Shimura’s husband?

Answer: His name and other details like quirk are unknown. There is almost nothing known about his character other than he died at some point after the birth of his son, Kotaro Shimura. I have the theory, personally, that he was murdered by a villain to get at Nana Shimura, perhaps even by All for One himself.

Question: What did All for One do to Nana Shimura?

Answer: He murdered her in cold blood. The specifics of how he killed her are unknown, but we do know that All for One refers to her death as “pathetic.” This likely means that she did not fight back, or it was too easy for him to do. I would not be surprised if he held a hostage or something to force her to let him kill her.

Conclusion

I may have a lot of problems with the choices that Nana Shimura made in her lifetime, but, after all, hindsight is 20-20. I think that she was likely the best pro hero that she felt she could be, and that is admirable enough. It is just unfortunate that she did not seemingly care enough about those around her who should have had her full attention.

One such person was the father of Tomura Shigaraki. Her poor decisions with Tomura’s father caused the downfall of the young Tenko Shimura, who would become Shigaraki and the successor to All for One. Perhaps if she had been more careful and loving towards her family, Deku and the gang would not even have the League of Villains to worry about.