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Dabi (in Japanese: 荼毘, translated as Cremation), also known as Blueflame (in Japanese:蒼炎 Sōen), is the secondary antagonist of the My Hero Academia franchise. He is the archenemy of Shoto Todoroki and Endeavor.

He is a member of the League of Villains and leader of its sub-group, the Vanguard Action Squad. Dabi - like fellow League members Himiko Toga and Spinner - was inspired by Stain and his ideology, and joined the League under the belief it harbors the Hero Killer's cause. Following the conflict with the Meta Liberation Army, he became one of the lieutenants of the Paranormal Liberation Front, serving as the co-commander of the Violet Regiment.

It is later revealed that Dabi is actually Toya Todoroki (in Japanese 轟 燈矢), the eldest child of the Todoroki family who was thought to have died in a forest fire years ago. Dabi wants to take revenge on his father, Enji Todoroki - the Number 2 Hero "Endeavor" - for being abused and neglected in his childhood, and kill the rest of his family due to believing they forgot about him after his presumed demise.

After All For One's demise, Dabi was captured and imprisoned in a life support containment, keeping hospitalized onto the remnants of his remaining life. He would continue to spend the rest of his time being visited by his family, everyday.

He is voiced by Hiro Shimono in Japanese version, and by Jason Liebrecht in English, who is best known for voicing Zeke Yeager in Attack on Titan and Rob Lucci in One Piece. As a child, he was voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi in Japanese and Sara Ragsdale in English.

Appearance[]

Dabi is a tall and slender 24-year-old man with spiky black hair and blue eyes. His most noticeable features include a set of burnt, purple, scarred skin that are present underneath both his eyes (which cannot cry due to his tear ducts being burned up), on his ears and below his jawline all the way down to his collarbone, as well on his torso and all the way down both of his arms, and on his legs as well. These scars are attached to the remainders of his skin with metallic staple piercings. His burnt complexion stems from his Quirk spiraling out of control when he was a child.

His outfits seem to vary from time to time. In his initial debut, he had more of a rough and baggy appearance, wearing a loose belt, a torn jacket and pants that barely reach to his ankles. In later appearances, he seems to wear a slightly different jacket that appears to be stitched together with coattails and rolled up sleeves. He also wears boots now and baggier pants. In the final battle with the heroes, Dabi ditches his original dark outfit in favor of a white variant, likely to go along with his white hair.

When he was his younger self as Toya, he possessed red hair that gradually turned white during his childhood, and it was wavier than it was spiked. Due to his premature birth, he was shorter than his younger siblings Natsuo and Fuyumi, but roughly the same height as Shoto. However, because of his training and growth spurt, he became around the same height as them. Dabi later reverts back to his white hair color by removing the black dye from it with a bottle of water after revealing his identity.

Personality[]

Dabi is a rude and argumentative person who has no sense of respect. He introduced himself to Tomura informally, and refused to give out his real name. Nevertheless, he is a calm-minded person, who is always focused and determined to complete his given tasks. However beneath this facade lies a broken, bloodthirsty, deranged, vengeful, unhinged and cruel man hellbent on a path of vengeance.

Like Toga, Dabi admires Stain and his ideology. He views himself as the one who is destined to fulfill Stain's view of the world, hence his reasoning for joining the League of Villains. However, even though he does not display any altruistic intentions, it appears that he is still just as deluded as Toga as he seems to be unaware of what Stain was actually trying to accomplish. While Stain was trying to bring back the meaning of being a hero, Dabi is simply interested in destroying the current society of humanity as a whole. Despite this, Dabi believes himself to be the true manifestation of Stain's will, believing that "real heroes" are not a thing. It is clear from his actions that he is only using Stain's ideology as an excuse for his actions and that he despises heroes entirely because of how he was raised among them.

Dabi commonly shows sadistic tendencies, as he takes pleasure in taunting Pro Heroes and those that seek to be heroes, while attempting to murder them at the same time. He's also observant and ruthless, willing to endanger the lives of others, including U.A. students and even his own allies, while also commonly exploiting a hero's tendency to save people from danger. Despite this, it appears that he can relate to families that have suffered from the society of heroes and villains due to his own pain from Endeavor's actions, as shown by him crying blood while remembering Snatch’s final words, hinting that he may be capable of feeling remorse.

Dabi can also come across being very derisive and contemptuous towards his teammates, who he finds crazy as he proclaimed Himiko insane, called Tomura freaky and insulted Spinner's driving skills, even calling the latter “lizard” against his wishes, not even caring to respect his feelings as a heteromorph. While he acknowledges the League's capabilities, he ultimately does not care about any of them, and only values them for their capacity to bring his goals into fruition. Despite this, Dabi ensured that Twice would make it out alive and claims that his death saddened him, though it seems that he valued Twice's abilities to help his goals over any bond the two villains had. Rather than showing any sadness, Dabi expressed a crazed expression of gleeful sadism saying that he hasn't cried since his tear ducts got burned up. Later on, he burns down Himiko's abusive home and gives her Twice's blood so she can transform into him due to her attachment towards him, though when she commends him on his kindness he denies having altruistic intentions and claims that he only burned her home down to mock Endeavor, and likely retrieved Twice's blood due to him finding his Double Quirk useful.

It is later revealed that Dabi's main goal is to ruin his father's career as revenge for the pain and agony he endured as a child. He relishes in the fact that Endeavor's past is exposed to the world while gleefully dancing, telling his father to dance with him in Hell. In spite of his relationship with his father, Dabi was very close with his two younger siblings, as well as with his mother when he was still Toya, as his supposed death only added more emotional pain to his mother's mental health, as well as grief for Natsuo who was very close to him, as Toya would always come to him in tears after dealing with their father's abuse, seeking for comfort. Fuyumi also wanted him to stop overusing his Quirk because of the burns he got from it. However he showed no remorse when learning that Ending, the villain he sent nearly killed Natsuo and only remarked that if he died then Endeavor would have really suffered.

His relationship with his youngest sibling, Shoto, is more ambiguous since the two were kept separated from each other for a long period of time. This stemmed from an unstable Toya attempting to harm an infant Shoto. Years later, Dabi claims that he views Shoto as nothing more than their father's "little puppet" and that he planned to kill him during his hero career, but this was only because this was part of his plan of ruining his father's legacy until his father became the No. 1 Pro Hero. The fact that Dabi ended up abandoning this plan seems to suggest that he doesn't truly hate Shoto, but he thinks very little of him. Dabi later makes it clear to Shoto that he's lost any feeling for not just him and his family, but for anything in general, as everything he's done to this point is to ensure their father suffers for it. Despite that, he was willing to reveal how he survived to Shoto, since they were brothers.

In his youth, Toya was originally a very energetic and positive boy who enjoyed spending time with his father and was very eager to learn Endeavor's strongest technique. However, his father's shift of focus towards Shoto and subsequent abandonment of Toya as his successor caused him to spiral into a state of sadness and depression, experiencing an existential crisis and wondering about his purpose in life. As a result, his determination on achieving his father's goal became an unhealthy obsession that made him act more hostile and dangerous, as well as putting his own life at risk for the sake of being acknowledged.

Despite this, Toya did get along with his two younger siblings, Fuyumi and Natsuo. He was especially close with Natsuo, despite the latter having been born in an attempt to dissuade Toya from his ambitions. He also came to regret attacking a baby Shoto and admitted that he was wrong. It is later confirmed that while he could not see through his obsession, Toya still loved and cared for his family, and had remorse for how he treated them prior to his fall into villainy.

It was also clear that Toya’s dedication to impress his father was absolutely genuine, to the point where he refused to be taught by anyone else, as seen when he had woken up at a daycare managed by Dr. Garaki and overseen by All For One (to raise other children as suitable vessels for All For One in case anything happened to Tomura) and refused their offer to be taught back to full strength. Toya even went back home to try and see his father again, and to make amends with his mother and siblings. However, upon seeing that things had not changed; that his family had moved on from him and that Endeavor was still obsessed with training Shoto to become his successor. Toya completely broke, to the point where he abandoned his past self and became Dabi, a maniacal villain that not even All For One could bring under his command, obsessed with taking down Endeavor, and willing to sacrifice anything to do so, including his own life. Even Daruma Ujiko, a psychopathic scientist who casually insulted Shigaraki himself, was utterly terrified by Dabi’s insanity, cowering when the latter glared at him and warning the policeman Gori to be careful, because they have no idea what an “unstable fiend” like Dabi is capable of.

In another interesting note, Dabi resumed taking on his original discarded name, Toya, after his battle with his father and brother. This is likely due to him having no need to hide his true identity anymore, as well as to cement his status as the villain Endeavor created.

Dabi's depravity got to the point where he attempted to nuke himself as a final effort to kill Endeavor, intentionally spawning near the civilians and evacuation shelters. This would've killed not only his entire family and multiple kids but also his own teammate Toga. This ultimately proves that Dabi only cares about his desire on revenge against Endeavor more than anything. Not even after Shoto stopping his suicide attack and his entire family apologizing to him caused him to show an ounce of remorse for his many heinous crimes, with him cursing his family and telling them all to die, showing how consumed he is by hate. However, upon his hospitalization, Toyo has considerably mellowed down, as while he still doesn’t forgive Endeavor or the rest of his family, sarcastically offering his condolences to Endeavor and mocking the family for seeing him as a "tourist attraction", the hate that had kept him alive for so long has mostly faded and he now faces the guilt of the crimes he has committed, to which he ends up crying as he apologizes to Shoto, appreciating his little brother for his genuine attempts to reach out to him.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

• Blueflame: Blueflame allows Dabi to control and manipulate extremely hot blue flames, which are able to set forests ablaze and can burn large groups of people to a crisp. He can also use his flames to propel himself upwards and hover in the air. Dabi's Quirk is said to allow him to produce flames even stronger than Endeavor's. His flames were initially red but when he trained on his own, they changed to blue and he discovered it was connected to his emotions. His Quirk would later unlock a new ability upon being on the verge of death, in which the ice from Rei's Quirk, Frost, would fully manifest within him.

Abilities[]

• Keen Intellect: Dabi is very observant to everything around him. With just a glance, he easily identified Tomura's instability and effortlessly saw through Aizawa's stoic nature, even knowing that Hawks was a traitor from the moment he met him. Had it not been for Twice stopping him, he would have found and killed Aoyama. Later he identified Snatch’s quirk, and understood it’s limits. Dabi is also known for psychologically engaging enemies, questioning their motives and morality during combat. This is an entirely tactical maneuver for buying time since it compliments Dabi's weakness of his flames hurting his body over time. Dabi's most impactful form of guerilla warfare was when he had his pre-recorded backstory uploaded by Skeptic to be globally broadcasted while simultaneously revealing his true identity as Toya Todoroki to Endeavor and Shoto - with the video even including D.N.A. results that confirmed he is of Endeavor's blood. Other than explaining his abusive childhood, kinship to Endeavor, and Endeavor's ambitions, Dabi also confessed to orchestrating his father's encounters with Hood, Starservant, and Ending in his attempts to discredit his father, a fact that sent Shoto into a tearful rage. Another nail in the coffin was Dabi divulging a part of Hawks' history regarding the Wing Hero being both the son of a serial criminal, Takami, who Endeavor previously apprehended, and the one responsible for the deaths of Twice and Best Jeanist, as murder is an act that heroes don't commonly perform. These revelations were implemented to instill despair into Endeavor and strip people of their faith in heroes, both of which were successful.

Overall, Dabi is one of the more powerful members among the league. His quirk has shown to have a destructive nature and he is skilled enough with it to hold his own against Pro Heroes. Shota Aizawa, a powerful Pro Hero, struggled against a clone of Dabi for a considerable amount of time (which did not have the same power as the original). Later, in conjunction with Mr. Compress, they managed to both seal and kill Snatch, a strong Pro Hero. On top of this, he managed to fight evenly against and later pin down the extremely skilled No. 2 Pro Hero, Hawks, while overpowering the latter with the brute force of his flames.

Weaknesses[]

Despite his Quirk's power, Dabi's flames begin to eat away at him and burn his body should he use them for too long, which prevents him from fighting prolonged battles, his flames are also tied with his emotions meaning the angrier and more mess up his emotions gets. The more his flames burns him up, as this was the reason he was burnt up in Sekoto Peak in the first place. To counter this, Dabi tends to rattle his opponents and engage in psychological warfare in order to buy himself time to cool down. He is also capable of saving firepower for more devastating attacks.

Appearances[]

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

• Before the release of Chapter 290, it was heavily foreshadowed that Dabi was a relative of the Todoroki family. One indication was the fact that he uses a flame-based quirk which are very uncommon to come across, something that Dabi later pointed out himself. His flames were also shown to be blue, in which Endeavor is also capable of producing blue flames, though this is something that was only shown in the anime. Other reasons included his similar eye color to Endeavor and Shoto, as well as his strong familiarity with them, knowing their full names outright.
  • With more recent chapters hinting towards this, Dabi was generally speculated to be Toya Todoroki, the oldest son of the Todoroki family, who was revealed to have an unnamed fire Quirk and implied to have went through harsh training with Endeavor regarding his Quirk and appeared to have a strong resemblance to him. In the end, this was eventually proven true when Dabi revealed his true identity and what drove him to become a villain.
• Dabi and Shoto shared the same abuse and harsh treatment from their father's strict teachings. However, unlike Dabi, Shoto started to let go of his grudge towards him while Dabi is consumed by his hatred to the point he became a villain to destroy his father's reputation.
  • In a way, the two contrast one another, as Chapter 301 revealed. Despite being molded by his father to surpass him, Shoto admired All Might's acts of heroism and wanted to become a hero with similar ideals, whereas Dabi was obsessed with surpassing him and making his dad proud. While Shoto had no choice but to endure Endeavor's vigorous and harsh trainings, Toya was enthusiastic about furthering his abilities and was frustrated when his dad didn't make time for him. And while Shoto was forced to perfect his abilities at his father's commands to become the number one hero, Enji tried to get Toya to stop using his quirk altogether and give up on his dreams.
    • In an almost bitter twist of irony, Shoto's choice to become a hero was partially due to Endeavor's cruel treatment and prioritizing his own dream over his son's happiness, whereas Toya's decent into villainy ultimately resulted from the fact Enji actually cared more about his safety and well-being than turning him into a hero.
  • As such, Dabi serves as Shoto's dark reflection of what he would have become if he let his hatred consume him and didn't meet Izuku. Shoto himself noted this similarity, which is why he believed that it was his responsibility to handle Toya.
• Dabi also serves as a dark reflection of Endeavor, being the embodiment of Endeavor’s worst traits; willingness to sacrifice anything and harm absolutely anyone to achieve his goal.
• All For One notes that he and Dabi share many similarities. In retrospect, both he and Dabi are disfigured villains who go by an alias rather than their real name, are primarily motivated around their family members and are willing to manipulate people, even their own allies, to achieve their goals.

External Links[]

• Dabi on the My Hero Academia Wiki

Navigation[]

Villains

League of Villains All For One | Tomura Shigaraki | Kurogiri | Daruma Ujiko | Gigantomachia Vanguard Action Squad: Dabi | Himiko Toga | Spinner | Twice | Mr. Compress | Muscular | Moonfish | Mustard | Magne | Chainsaw Nomu Nomu: Kurogiri | USJ Nomu | Chainsaw Nomu | Hood | Woman | Eleph | Robot | Chubs | Ribby Associates: Giran Shie Hassaikai Leaders: Overhaul | Chronostasis | Mimic Eight Bullets: Rikiya Katsukame | Shin Nemoto | Kendo Rappa | Toya Setsuno | Yu Hojo | Soramitsu Tabe | Deidoro Sakaki | Hekiji Tengai Meta Liberation Army Grand Commander: Re-Destro Leaders: Curious | Trumpet | Skeptic Warriors: Geten | Slidin' Go Original Members: Destro Paranormal Liberation Front Grand Commander: Tomura Shigaraki Lieutenants: Dabi | Himiko Toga | Twice | Mr. Compress | Spinner | Re-Destro | Trumpet | Skeptic | Geten Warriors: Gigantomachia | Slidin' Go | Sanctum Associates: All For One | Cider House | Daruma Ujiko | Dictator | Ending | Gashly Eijiju | Giran | Kai Chisaki | Kunieda | Kurogiri | Lady Nagant | Muscular | Moonfish | Starservant | Sludge Villain Villain Factory Mario Kugutsu | Kuin Hachisuka | Number 6 Movies Two Heroes: Wolfram | David Shield | Swordkil | Daigo | Nobu | L.A. Villains Heroes Rising: Nine | Slice | Mummy | Chimera World Heroes' Mission: Humarise (Flect Turn | Beros | Sidero | Serpenters | Leviathan | Rogone | Otheon Police Commander) You're Next: Gollini Crime Family (Dark Might | Deborah Gollini | Bruno Gollini | Ugo and Gil Gollini | Kamile Gollini | Paulo Gollini | Simon Gollini) | Ginji Kurau Others Akira Iwako | Creature Rejection Clan | Endeavor | Gentle Criminal | Hero Public Safety Commission | Hotta brothers | Innsmouth | Kotaro Shimura | Soga Kugisaki | Rapt Tokage | La Brava | Peerless Thief | Reservoir Dogs | Stain