The strict yet noble master is a long beloved trope in Shonen anime. Son Goku had Master Roshi, Naruto Uzumaki had Kakashi Hatake, and Monkey D. Luffy had Silvers Rayleigh. This is no different for Shonen Jump's new crop of screamy do-gooders with My Hero Academia's Deku having one of the most eccentric teachers seen in years, Shota Aizawa.
Aizawa, aka Eraser Head, is one of the strictest, most infamous teachers at U.A. and currently presides over Class 1-A, as their homeroom teacher. He had an incredible history as an investigator and crime fighter on the field and currently spreads that same fear to his students. As great as he is, Aizawa isn't without faults. This list will be looking over a few traits about the Pro Hero that make no sense.
Erasing People's Quirks
The huge gimmick behind Aizawa is his Quirk, Erasure. With it, he's able to cancel out the Quirks of anyone that he can lay his eyes onto. While the exact process behind this remains unknown, fans at least know that the Quirk is limited to every Quirk but mutations, so people like Shoji and Fourth Kind should be immune.
Though this is a reasonable limitation to an otherwise overpowered Quirk, it does spark a few questions. Shouldn't all Quirks be mutations? What's the difference between Bakugou having different sweat glands and Tsuyu having a long tongue? The actual cut off here is ill-explained and presents new questions about how Quirks work.
Keeping His Eyes Open
In addition to having strange limitations in who it can affect, Erasure's range is kind of weird, too. As stated earlier, it requires Aizawa to actually look at his opponents continuously to work, and it shuts off as soon as he closes his eyes, even if it's a blink. Though this hearkens to the optical based powers of other anime, Aizawa's power is ill-explained.
Why does he need to look at his opponents for his Quirk to work? How does he shut it off when he's regularly staring? What's exactly shooting out of his eyes to cancel out Quirks? Other magic systems rely on some dispersal of chakra or nen, but Aizawa is seemingly just staring with mutant DNA.
Being Named After A David Lynch Film
While being named after pop culture isn't a new thing in anime, names typically correlate with the actual themes of a song or movie. Aizawa's hero name is based on the David Lynch film, Eraserhead. To an extent, this perfectly encapsulates Aizawa's abilities. His Quirk is Erasure, and it radiates from his head.
However, those qualities are simply based on the title of the film. The film itself is a surreal and horrifying allegory for the challenges of marriage and parenthood. Aizawa isn't exactly shooting weird metaphors out of his head, so why is he named after this film?
Being A Teacher
Shota Aizawa is definitely a talented and tenacious Pro Hero. And while his skills and experiences have made him a force to be reckoned with in the streets, it's a little strange that he became a teacher. He doesn't seem to have the people skills required to be a welcoming teacher, and he shows no signs of even liking kids in the first place.
He was even responsible for failing an entire classroom of students once. On one end, this exemplifies how strict of a teacher he is. On the other, shouldn't an entire class of failures look worse for the teacher than the actual students?
His Capturing Weapon
In a world filled with hulks, giants, and people disintegrating cities with their bare hands, Aizawa by comparison is just an average joe. He needs to not only supplement his hero work with martial arts training, but also some handy tools, the most iconic being his Capturing Weapon.
The Capturing Weapon is a steel and carbon woven scarf that can both defend Aizawa as well as apprehend most villains. While there's plenty of potential in its design, one has to wonder how Aizawa actually throws the thing. Scarves can't exactly be tossed accurately like knives, and he seemingly controls the thing with his eyes which doesn't really track.
His Yellow Goggles
In addition to his Capturing Weapon, Aizawa is also well-known for his distinct yellow goggles. These things help hide his gaze, so that villains doesn't know whose Quirks he's currently canceling. It's a smart device to have in hand, but the design of it leaves a lot to be admired.
While the shuttled visor has become pretty famous since Kanye West owned the look, what really hurts the design is its yellow color. As a stealth based hero, it's baffling that a key part of his costume utilizes one of the most noticeable colors in the spectrum. Not only that, it brings direct attention to his eyes, the one thing on his body that he should want less attention on.
Being Friends With Present Mic
On the note of being a stealth based hero, it's also strange that he has such a close relationship with Present Mic. If anything, this has a neat, buddy comedy kind of appearance in which Aizawa is friends with his total opposite. As quirky as that is, it doesn't seem very appropriate for his character.
Aizawa not only appears averted to strong and noticeable personalities, but he seems like he actively hates them such as his distaste for heroes like All Might. While they're exact hero history has yet to be known, one has to wonder if the two could actually work together given that one makes sneaking up on the enemy inherently harder.
Bringing A Sleeping Bag Everywhere
In addition to being a callback to edgy, stoic heroes like Batman, Aizawa has developed a fan following for his overall tired and irritated demeanor. This is best encapsulated with his famous sleeping bag. When he first entered the scene, he just fell into Class 1-A in his wormy, sleeping bag pose.
As funny as this was, one has to wonder what this says about the person. Aizawa typically spews lines about heroes needing to be better and more professional, yet he drags a sleeping bag around everywhere. Not only is this unprofessional, it also places people at risk if he were to ever get stuck in the thing when trouble appears.
Being Alive
The U.S.J. Arc was the first, big arc of the series. It signaled that action could appear at any time and introduced the series' leading villain group, the League of Villains. During this time, Aizawa managed to handle himself well against large groups of commonplace villains. However, he really dug himself into the ground when he went up against one of the monsters known as Nomu.
The first Nomu in the series was not only too powerful for Aizawa, but it also practically broke his skull against the ground. Despite this, Aizawa still survived and barely shows any scarring in the current story. He kind of just shook off the injury like an exploding cigar. Shouldn't the guy have been benched for a lot longer or, at least, horribly disfigured?
Picking On Izuku
As stated above, Aizawa isn't necessarily the nicest teacher. This was evident in his infamous stint with failing an entire class, as well as his relatively harsh treatment of one Midoriya Izuku. The latter is mainly due to Deku's inherently dangerous Quirk and the sense of nepotism that comes with being All Might's successor.
While some of this treatment is arguably called for, it doesn't seem to be equally given to some of the other members of the class. Momo, Todoroki, and Iida all come from prominent families, yet he never cornered them on their gifts. Kids like Kaminari and Mineta have Quirks that are either impractical or self-harming, yet they're rarely given the business for working harder. At some point, this guy kind of just hates Deku.