While most of the protagonists in My Hero Academia are either teachers or students at U.A. High Institution, it is not the only school in Japan that offers hero training. The United States of America is frequently praised as the best, yet most characters who declare this are understandably biased.
In both the manga and the anime, there are various different schools. The other hero schools haven’t gotten as much attention, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less important. They’re scattered across the country and occasionally have slightly different objectives than U.A. This is how each of these schools compares.
Isami Academy
While visiting and touring U.A. High School, Isami Academy students appeared in an OVA (Original Video Animation, or “Direct-to-DVD” anime special). Another hero school is known to exist, albeit its location within Japan is unknown. Tsuyu Asui had known one of the pupils, Habuko Mongoose, since they were in middle school. Habuko appears in an Asui-themed bonus chapter in the manga, implying that Isami Academy is canon in both the anime and manga versions of My Hero Academia. Habuko, like a fabled basilisk, has a snake-like head and a paralyzing stare quirk. Dadan Tadan, who, like Bakugo, has a sweat-based quirk, Romero Fujimi, whose quirk can convert individuals into zombies, and Kashiko Sekigai, who has a quirk that can map out the surrounding area in incredible detail, are among the pupils featured in the OVA.
Ketsubutsu Academy
The next big school, Ketsubutsu Academy (named after a Japanese phrase that means “heroic figure”), has a rivalry with U.A. However, the competition between U.A. and Shiketsu appears to be considerably more one-sided. Ms. Joke, an acquaintance of Aizawa’s whose quirk can generate excessive laughter, led Ketsubutsu’s second-year class during the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam. Students from Ketsubutsu have made it a practice to eliminate U.A.’s temporary license candidates during the exam, taking use of U.A.’s televised Sports Festival to acquire intel on U.A. students’ eccentricities ahead of time.
Yo Shindo and Tatami Nakagame, two of Ketsubutsu Academy’s most famous pupils, appeared in manga chapters following the Paranormal Liberation War arc. They collaborated with two other students throughout the exam: Shikkui Makabe, who has blue skin and an object hardening quirk, and Itejiro Toteki, who has a Boomerang quirk that allows him to control the course of objects moving through air or underground. Shindo’s seismic quirk was responsible for damaging much of the test location during the first phase, separating students from their peers and making things much more difficult. All four of these kids were second-years at the time, and as a result, they had a lot more experience, so it’s no surprise that they all passed the exam.
Since the exam, Shindo and Nakagame have made a couple more appearances. They were observed working together on their hero project and appear to have started dating at some point. Most recently, the two were sent to assist in the rounding up of civilians and transporting them to the fortified Ketsubutsu Academy as an evacuation shelter, which resulted in a battle with escaped villain Muscular. Makabe and Toteki are also briefly seen doing the same thing elsewhere, implying that they were issued provisional licenses as well.
Seiai Academy
Only in the anime does Seiai Academy appear, which expanded the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam to include schools other than Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu. Seiai Academy had all female students on screen, hinting that Seiai is a female-only hero school. Saiko Intelli, the leader of Seiai’s team, had an IQ quirk that increased her intelligence and planning skills after drinking tea. Many of the other students included had more support-based oddities than U.A.’s Class 1-A, which had more combat-oriented peculiarities. They devised a cunning scheme to entrap and incapacitate several University of Arizona students, but Momo, Jiro, Asui, and Shoji were able to escape the trap and complete the first step. Only two of the ten Seiai students could have escaped being eliminated, given that the four U.A. students had passed. Nonetheless, Seiai’s students showed some of the best collaboration throughout the exam, so dismissing them would be a mistake.
Seijin High School
Another anime-exclusive, Seijin High School, is the least well-known of the schools mentioned by name. Seijin’s students were all dressed in ninja costume, implying that the school’s purpose is to teach students classic ninja methods. As a result, neither their faces nor their names were revealed. Todoroki was cornered by Seijin’s students in the industrial sector of the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam’s arena, but their attack was poorly organized, and he was able to beat six of them alone. It’s unclear whether any other pupils from the school were there, and if so, whether they passed. While their dismal performance against Todoroki does not reflect well on Seijin, the students did appear to have a strong awareness of their peculiarities and were prepared to exploit their opponents’ weaknesses by employing tools that Todoroki couldn’t melt.
Shiketsu High School
Shiketsu High School, following U.A., is believed to have the best reputation among hero training institutions. Its name is derived from a Japanese term that means “Hero” in reversed kanji letters. The two schools, which are located on opposite sides of Japan, appear to have a rivalry similar to that of collegiate sports in the United States. Following U.A., Shiketsu has received the greatest attention, with popular characters like as Camie Utsushimi, Todoroki’s nemesis Inasa Yoarashi, and Seiji Shishikura wielding the infamously unpleasant “meatball” quirk. Shiketsu, like most of the schools, originally appeared in the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam arc, in which students from several schools competed for provisional licenses. Only two of the five Shiketsu students earned provisional licenses, owing in part to Himiko Toga’s impersonation of Camie, which caused her to totally skip the exam. Nagamasa Mora, the class rep for second-year students with a hair-related peculiarity, was one of these two.
Later, Inasa and Camie joined Todoroki and Bakugo in the remedial classes, where they dealt with some out-of-control children with outrageously powerful peculiarities. Seiji accompanied an anonymous teacher to the remedial course as an observer. Despite having to attend a remedial course, Shiketsu’s students appear to be well-trained and capable of exploiting their peculiarities deftly. Shiketsu students are not allowed to establish personal relationships with other students, which makes the institution extremely stringent in comparison to U.A.
