Endeavor

Apologize to his his eldest son Toya for neglecting him in the past and to bring him back. (all ongoing)

### Why Do Some People Hate The Character?

His familial abuse was so despicable that his detractors believe he doesn't deserve redemption or forgiveness.

### Why Do Some People Love The Character?

His awesome design, powers and fighting scenes.
Feeling remorse towards his crimes and working hard to atone for them.

### Type of Base Breaking Character

Atoning Abuser

**Enji Todoroki**, known professionally as the Flame Hero: Endeavor or simply Endeavor, is a major character in the 2014 Japanese superhero manga series *My Hero Academia* and its 2016 anime television series adaptation of the same name. He acts as the anti-heroic main antagonist of the U.A. Sports Festival Arc and the main protagonist of the Pro Hero Arc. He also appears as a minor anti-heroic character in the 2016 spin-off prequel manga series *My Hero Academia: Vigilantes*. Additionally, he is a minor character in the 2019 anime film *My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising*.

Enji was the No. 2 Pro Hero of Japan, with the highest tally of resolved cases in history. His Quirk, Hellflame, allows him to produce and manipulate incredibly intense flames at will. He was also a rival of All Might who resolved to surpass the Symbol of Peace no matter the cost. To this end, he sired children with a woman named Rei, who possessed a powerful ice quirk.

Enji and Rei's fourth child, Shoto, was born with a desirable quirk that Enji believed would allow him to one day one-up the No. 1 Pro Hero. Endeavor mercilessly trained Shoto to master his quirk from a young age. He abused his wife and children in this pursuit, eventually putting Rei in a mental hospital when she snapped from the abuse and ended up harming Shoto.

All Might retired before Shoto could surpass him, making Endeavor the new No. 1 Pro Hero of Japan. With his dream taken away from him, Enji began to reflect on all of his past wrongdoings as a hero and a family man. Eventually, he resolved to atone for his sins and become a hero his family could be proud of.

Unfortunately, after the war against Shigaraki and the Paranormal Liberation Front, both his pride and hero career gets completely destroyed and ruined by Dabi, who (in fact) reveals that he was his son Toya Todoroki and Dabi broadcast the entire nation of Japan about his terrible past with him. Enji is then confronted by Natsuo, Fuyumi, Shoto and Rei, who tells him that he isn't suffering mostly and that they're gonna help him overcome it.

## What Makes Him a Base Breaking Character?

#### What Do People Like About Him?

* He has a very cool and intimidating design.
* He is a very competent and hard-working Pro Hero, taking roles of leadership and always remaining brave even when facing death.
* He has many awesome fights throughout the series, such as against Hood, the High-End Nomus in the Jaku General Hospital, All For One while possessing Tomura Shigaraki's body, and his son Dabi.
* He is a flawed and three-dimensional character that acknowledges his faults and tries to develop into a better person, like when he realized that his dream to surpass All Might came true in the worst way possible and felt conflicted about it.
* He felt genuine remorse for abusing his family and tried to become a better hero to atone for his past, working hard to earn their forgiveness and accept the consequences of his actions. Upon finding out that his abuse led his eldest son Toya to become the supervillain Dabi, he breaks down in tears ashamed of what he had done.
* He has positive reception among East Asian audiences, who are more accepting of his atonement knowing that he was genuinely sorry to the cruel and inhumane abuse towards his children and development, which even resulted in him receiving higher votes than All Might himself in the fourth popularity poll.

### What Do People Dislike About Him?

* The main reason why Endeavor is hated is that he was given a redemption arc despite the traumatic and dehumanizing ways he abused his family, such as abusing his wife Rei to the point where she was traumatized by his face, giving up on Toya due to considering his constitution weak, conceiving Fuyumi and Natsuo only to shove them aside after considering them failures, and grooming his "successful" child Shoto into becoming a perfect hero through very harsh training while neglecting and abusing his other three children, which led to Toya having an existential crisis. Many believe that his actions are too despicable to be forgiven and that the story was essentially forgiving and excusing a domestic abuser.
	+ It should be noted that most of the hate towards Endeavor comes from audiences outside Japan, whom are less condoning of abuse.
* After the revelation that his son Toya became Dabi (who himself is a Base-Breaking Character) many sympathize with Dabi after Endeavor was essentially responsible for his nihilistic outlook of life due to being thrown away by his own father, and root for Dabi to get revenge on his father.
* While not a Karma Houndi to the extent of Bakugo (as his abuse victims do treat him more realistically compared to how Midoryia treats Bakugo), many dislike how few people in-universe call him out for his abuse and fee he should be in prison for his actions. Midoryia drops all anger towards him by the time of the Endeavor Agency arc and the civilians aren’t mad at him for abusing his family but rather failing to stop Shigaraki and the other villains from escaping. Not even his abuse being made public makes a single hero legitimately call him out or show disgust towards him (with Burnin even saying since he’s good at his job at work, she doesn’t care how horrible of a father he was).

## Trivia

* The negative reception caused by Endeavor's redemption arc caused several detractors on Tumblr to make death threats to the series' creator Kohei Horikoshi.

## Navigation

Kotaro Shimura

## External Links

* Endeavor on the Heroes Wiki
* Endeavor on the Villains Wiki
* Endeavor on the Villainous Benchmark Wiki
* Enji Todoroki on the *My Hero Academia* Wiki