The manga is almost over, but we still haven’t seen Deku's father.
Summary:
- We still don’t know much about Izuku’s father in MHA.
- Horikoshi said he’s going to appear in the story.
- We don’t even see Deku interacting with his mother, and this makes the theme of parental influence less believable.
In long stories, plot points introduced earlier often become relevant way later — and in completely unexpected ways. Sometimes they become disregarded completely — especially when the nature of the story shifts throughout the time.
It’s rare, though, for plot points to be clearly relevant yet completely unexplained at the same time. Rare, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen — and one of these examples is My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia). The plot point in question is regarding Deku’s father — we somehow still don’t know who he is.
We Know Things About Deku’s Father… But They Aren’t Even in the Story
From how sparsely MHA mentions Deku’s father, it’s very easy to assume he’s dead. He’s not in the picture, and we don’t get any information why he’s missing and who exactly he is. Only, that’s not the case — he’s alive, the mangaka stated that he’ll be revealed at some point, and he’s still (presumably) married to Izuku’s mother, Inko. However, that’s it, really.
We know that he has a Quirk that allows him to breathe fire — that was mentioned in a flashback in the first chapter. Most people don’t remember that, though. Literally everything else — his name (Hisashi) and the fact that he’s working overseas — was mentioned in Inko’s data profile, not in the series itself.
Not Seeing Him Feels Like a Contradiction to MHA’s Themes
By now, the manga is almost over, and we still don’t know anything else about Izuku’s father. Some fans believe Horikoshi just forgot about him, or that he’s only going to be introduced in the epilogue and not matter for the actual story.
Others feel that Deku’s father is more important. After all, there’s a reason why Horikoshi said he’s going to reveal him at some point, right? Besides, My Hero Academia often shows how much parental influence matters for children. It’d be weird if it was the opposite for Deku, who never even thinks about his father outside of introductory chapters.
To be fair, it’s not even just his father. We don’t really see how relevant his mother is to the story, and in a world where parents’ mistakes come to haunt children (just look at Endeavor’s family), Deku seems to be strangely disconnected.
His mother is a good person, yes, but we don’t see how she influenced him — even positively. If we saw Deku interacting with his mother more — not even talking about his father — perhaps it’d be easier to buy into these themes.