What Happened to Deku at the End of My Hero Academia? Explained

The long-awaited final chapter of My Hero Academia has arrived and widely divided the public’s opinion on how the story went for Izuku Midoriya (best known as Deku) in the end. Here’s what happened to the young boy who once sought to be the greatest of heroes.

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the ending of the My Hero Academia manga, starting from Chapter 423 onward.

My Hero Academia Final Chapters Explained

My Hero Academia has its story concluded in Chapter 430, giving us a final goodbye to the main cast of the story, while also giving us more info on parallel stories that kept going throughout the manga. It shows how Deku became the greatest hero, just like he claimed he would be in the first chapter, but not in the way we expected.

In Chapter 423 of My Hero Academia, Izuku finally defeats Shigaraki once and for all after giving up all of his quirks (including One For All) in order to weaken his enemy. As a result, he’s left with only a few remaining embers of the quirk, much like All Might following his final round with All For One. He survives without any lasting injuries aside from a few extra scars. Doctors had to cut off some of his hair to tend to some of his head injuries, though.

The following chapters show an epilogue of how society was effectively changed following the incidents and how the main cast deals with the various consequences. Fortunately, all of Deku’s classmates are fine, but Katsuki is particularly affected after learning of his childhood friend’s condition.

Despite that, they all seem to be fine, enough to be able to participate in the Third Years’ graduation ceremony a few weeks later and celebrate their earned peaceful times. We also get to see some of the side stories, such as Spinner’s never-ending admiration for Shigaraki’s ideals and a final Todoroki family reunion.

Related: My Hero Academia Manga Ending, Explained

What Happens to Deku at the End of My Hero Academia?

In the final chapter, we get an eight-year time skip, which serves as the epilogue for the story. During these years, the final embers of One For All have finally left Izuku, and he has returned to being a regular, quirkless person. As he cannot be a hero anymore, he chooses to become a teacher at UA, allowing him to make a difference even if he’s not fighting crime. One of his students is Kota Izumi, the boy he saved from Muscular years ago.

Deku’s friends, on the other hand, have all grown to become heroes in different areas. For example, Shouto and Katsuki are now the two top heroes in Japan, while Ochaco, Tenya, Momo, and Tsuyu are visiting various schools around the country, offering counseling to the students. They’re all trying to do their best to avoid any societal crisis in the future.

Due to the conflicting schedules, Izuku mentions how hard it is to meet his friends these days. But despite his quirkless status, Deku is still regarded as one of the greatest heroes in history who helped save Japan. This leads him to become a role model to other kids who also aspire to be a hero, just like All Might once was to him. He mirrors his own moment with All Might by saying the “You can be a hero” quote to a boy with a weaker quirk who admires him and wants to be just like him in the future.

Related: My Hero Academia: Do Deku and Uraraka Get Together? Explained

After the “final” panel, All Might crashes the “The End” sign to give Izuku a final gift. With a joint financial effort of all of his old classmates (especially Bakugo), they created a new power-enhancing suit just like the one All Might used against All For One in the final arc, which would allow Deku to go back to being a Hero. Despite hesitating at first, he takes on the suit and returns to heroism.

As Deku first jumps back into action, Katsuki extends his hand to him. Izuku sees a flashing image of Shigaraki observing him. The manga ends with an updated version of the iconic Class 1-A panel from the beginning of the series, now depicting all of its members as their grown-up versions.

So in the end, Deku is still able to fight crime traditionally in My Hero Academia, but we could see that he was able to be a hero in his own way even if he hadn’t been given a suit. His new special suit greatly resembles All Might’s visuals but with a small touch of his own old suit (which was, ironically, already inspired by All Might’s), and we can assume that it works as an upgraded version of the tech suit All Might used against All For One, essentially giving him all of the quirks back.

While it was a satisfying end by itself, it still leaves us with baffling questions regarding minor plot points throughout the story, and it’s easy to see why many people were still dissatisfied with it. But it’s nice to see a happy end to an almost decade-long story, especially as it ultimately delivered what it promised: a tale of how Izuku Midoriya became the greatest hero.

My Hero Academia is available to read on the Viz website.