My Hero Academia: Izuku Midoriya (INFP)

Fi:

“I’m sorry, Kacchon, but this is just who I am!”

“You were my toughest opponent because you were someone I can understand.”

“That’s right. Don’t worry about what other people think! Hold your head up high and plunge forward!”

“Sometimes I do feel like I’m a failure. Like there’s no hope for me. But even so, I’m not gonna give up. Ever!”

“But I didn’t want to just copy All Might so I tried to customize my moves so they feel unique to me while also being true to homages of him.”

While we are aware that many people type Midoriya as an INFJ, all the evidence that we have observed seems to suggest that Midoriya is an Fi dominant. He is highly idealistic, and determines to follow his dreams no matter what, even when it appears hopeless. Having no quirk, most people would have given up on the idea and moved on, but Midoriya refuses to, in spite of all the negative feedback that he is receiving from those around him. He is guided solely by his personal ideals and values, allowing them to dictate his actions. He is also quick to proclaim his ideals to those around him, which early on results in him being bullied frequently. However, he continues to proclaim his dreams in spite of the detrimental results, because he simply can’t stop himself from standing out, which points away from being a high Fe user. Down the road, his tenacity ends up inspiring others.

Midoriya is incredibly hard on himself when he fails to live up to his high personal standards. Midoriya also idealizes his heroes to a fault, which is an Fi tendency. He is warned over and over again throughout the show that his weakness is seeing All Might as a god. However, it takes him a while to understand why that is a bad thing. Midoriya is also very dramatic and frequently is shown crying whenever the moment is the slightest bit emotional. All Might mocks him for this to some degree. Midoriya is also driven to help others and is spurred into action when other people are in danger. His focus in general is on people and helping others, which is a common trait for all types of feelers.

Lastly, while he strives to emulate All Might to some degree, he also feels the need to make himself and his moves unique from All Might’s, which speaks to the individualistic nature of high Fi. He explains this is an interview that he participates in. See the last quote at the top of this section.

Ne:

“Dreams can become reality.”

“Sometimes it’s easier to organize your thoughts out loud.”

Midoriya tends to be a fairly scattered individual. His head is frequently in the clouds, and he is often caught staring off into space. He overthinks everything, frequently bouncing from one possibility to the next and considers all the ‘what-if’ scenarios that he can possibly invent when analyzing a situation and forming a strategy. His good use of Ne allows him to always come up with at least one strategy or idea, if not multiple potentials. When Stain’s blood paralysis wears off much more rapidly on him than the others, he quickly produces three guesses as to why. He doesn’t instantly try to narrow down which one it is, but rather explains all three. He is also shown analyzing the past, considering what might have happened if something else had happened differently.

One of the biggest indicators that Midoriya is not an INFJ like some places suggest is the amount of rambling he does. Midoriya usually says way more than he intends to and monologues, at times. He is quick to explain why he thinks everything that he thinks, and what he is thinking. The show makes a point of emphasizing how much and how obvious it is when he does it. He does it with friends, and even strangers. He even makes a comment about finding it easier to organize thoughts out loud, which is counter to Ni use, since Ni users tend to struggle to verbalize their thoughts prior to giving them a lot of thought.

A good example can be seen when he is being interviewed. He initially starts out extremely rigid and robotic (pointing to his inferior Te), but when the interviewer stumbles across something he has analyzed, Midoriya goes off on a rambling tangent. He does so with little awareness to the fact that the timing is inappropriate, and he continues on clueless for much longer than he should have. This not only displays his high Ne but also points away from any high Fe awareness.

Si:

Midoriya is a detail-focused person, which is indicative of Si. He is constantly gathering information, and when he writes down, his notes are comprised of specific details rather than generalities. This is specifically seen in the way he catalogs information about other heroes and his classmates in his many notebooks. His memory is very detailed and often, in his mutterings, he is spewing a bunch of information about whatever he is puzzling over. You don’t typically see Midoriya reacting off of instinct, but rather very specific information that he can recall from his past or his notes.

The most obvious example that demonstrates Midoriya’s Si is the contrast shown between him and All Might. When trying to discuss One-for-all and how to control it, All Might struggles to produce words to describe how to control the power or even how to describe the feeling of how he controlled the power. Midoriya, on the other hand, needs to provide some sort of detailed descriptors to his sensation which is what led him to use the analogy about the egg in the microwave. All Might found this example to be bizarre, due to this mind not working that way, but he encourages Midoriya to go with it, if it will help him with visualizing and controlling his power.

Midoriya is also a dreamer who refuses to let go of his dream to become a hero even when it appears impossible. This mindset at the beginning of the show is indicative of weak Si because he has essentially detached his subjective visualization of how his world should be from reality.

Te:

Midoriya’s Te shows up in several different ways throughout the show. In spite of it being his inferior function, he frequently feels the need to have a plan. While he is not always taking the lead on creating the plan, he will bring up the need for one and offer ideas. Like a true low Te user, Midoriya can’t seem to leave well enough alone. When All Might provides him with a training regime, he can’t help but tweak it and adjust it, thinking that he is making it more effective and efficient. Unfortunately, he has far too much faith in his own abilities to plan; and his poor foresight leads him to over-training, which in the end caused him more harm than good.

While he desires things to change and improve for himself, Midoriya has a hard time taking the next step and overcoming obstacles without the help of others which is an indication of inferior Te. He, without outside help, would probably remain in his same state, letting things remain as they always were. His relationship with Bakugo is a good example of this. Their relationship remains unchanged all through their early life until outside circumstances start to force things to change.