The popular anime and manga series My Hero Academia is filled to the brim with fun characters. Many have only gotten a few moments to shine, but instantly, people started to craft entire backstories around them. Nowhere is that more prominent than with Rumi Usagiyama, a.k.a. Rabbit Hero: Mirko.
For those who are unaware, in the world of My Hero Academia, 80% of the world’s population has abilities known as Quirks. Because of these abilities, the “hero” profession has developed to help protect regular civilians from villains who have powerful quirks that they use for evil. And those heroes are ranked in a ranking system. For a long time, the Number One hero was All Might, and he recently retired, passing on the mantle to his longtime rival, Endeavor. Mirko is the Number Five hero in Japan and the top female one.
As someone who got into the My Hero Academia fanbase later, I had seen fan art about Mirko before I’d ever watched the show. I was already really intrigued by this character who is dark-skinned, has white hair, and has this whole bunny motif working for her. She reminded me a lot of Yoruichi from Bleach, as another darker anime character who people will argue about her ethnicity online. With that amount of popularity, I assumed that she was someone that was part of the main cast early on.
Nope. In true anime fashion, this character doesn’t show up until episode 87 (I watched anime, didn’t read the manga), and even then, she’s just there, and we are introduced to the fact that she is the number five hero.
Her quirk is “Rabbit,” which means she can do everything a rabbit can do but better. So in superhero terms, instead of having a massive heart attack every couple of seconds out of being frightened, she has super powerful legs, allowing her to jump and run very quickly, and has a certain sense that alerts her to danger. Her ears also give her excellent hearing. Think Chun-Li, but rabbit.
The last few episodes of this most recent season of MHA have heavily highlighted the character, showing her thighs doing so much work. And honestly, in a Shonen anime where female characters often get relegated to the background and do very little but be sexy lamps with some abilities, it is nice to see Mirko be a badass hero. Also, despite her sexy design, she is not limited by that and even loses her arm but still keeps on fighting. On top of it, she is cocky, hot tempered, and just cool—the living embodiment of thick thighs saving lives. I am also loving that she is a darker skinned woman being so cool. Despite the debates, they can’t take that away.
(featured image: Crunchyroll)
