This article contains spoilers for My Hero Academia chapter 365.
Mangaka Kohei Horikoshi just debunked the possibility that Tomura Shigaraki was a villain all along even before All For One brainwashed him in My Hero Academia.
Like most members of the original League of Villains, Shigaraki ostensibly shared a tragic origin story that portrayed him more as a victim of horrific circumstances than as a villain of choice. His Decay quirk had just awakened in him at the worst possible moment, causing him to kill his entire family accidentally. The act of Shigaraki reaching out to touch every family member and consequently murdering them in the process was just him seeking help and wanting comfort for the horrors he just witnessed. But when readers first witness Shigaraki's past, they are forced to hear present-day Shigaraki narrating the events. And as an individual who has become quite warped since then, Shigaraki's twisted ideals taint the innocence of that memory when he realizes that his younger self must have known what he was doing.
But Shigaraki throws that possibility away during a moment of weakness in chapter 365 of My Hero Academia by Horikoshi. During his ongoing battle against the hero Mirko, My Hero Academia's villainous Shigaraki thinks back to when he first destroyed "them" and how he wasn't broken at the time. He then seems to justify something when he says that no one reached a helping hand to him and that no one would even look at him.
It's clear by the images of Shigaraki's deceased family members that later appear in the chapter that the "them" he's referring to are his sister, parents, and grandparents. By saying he wasn't broken, it can be easily assumed that Shigaraki means that he wasn't evil when he killed them by coming into contact with them or that he knew that if he touched them they would decay. Even though it's obvious that Shigaraki felt pleasure after he murdered his father, he never tried to kill his family on purpose when he went to touch them. He was literally reaching out for help. The fact that he says that no one reached out to him means that he had no choice but to do so himself. He wanted help, and since they wouldn't give it to him, he tried to get that help from them himself.
By also saying that no one was looking at him during the event in question, Shigaraki is further justifying his actions because he obviously felt alone, which made him that much more inclined to seek help by touching them. Readers are more disposed to believe Shigaraki's memory now as he's recalling these moments in distress, so his thoughts are likely purer and therefore not influenced by how he wants to feel. Before, when readers first learned of his past, Shigaraki was calm and therefore had the patience to theorize of how he might have felt. And it's clear that since he despises everyone in his family in the present day, not just his abusive father, he wishes that he always felt that way.
Of course, this latest revelation in My Hero Academia doesn't magically clear Tomura Shigaraki of all wrongdoing. Even though something did tragic happen to him, Shigaraki still had the choice to reject the evil that All For One later forced onto him. In fact, there are many heroes who have also experienced traumatic childhoods like Hawks who still embraced goodness, so experiencing something traumatic doesn't justify someone becoming evil. That said, this confession does put Shigaraki in a better light. It's clear that My Hero Academia's Tomura Shigaraki wasn't born a monster, he was just molded into one.
Read the latest chapter of My Hero Academia now on Viz Media!