Minoru Mineta

Minoru Mineta is a character from the My Hero Academia anime and manga.

A short and incredibly perverted boy whose Quirk, "Pop Off", allows him to quickly pull highly adhesive balls from his head, although pulling too many will rip off his scalp and cause bleeding. Despite getting into U.A., he doesn't feel like he'll be able to become a hero due to his odd Quirk.

In the AWA fics, Minoru is a student at the AWA Academy and is part of Class 6.

Appearance
Minoru is a very small young man with a large, round head, and rather large cheeks. His nose is small and stubby, and it sticks slightly upwards, and he has an unusually distinguishable philtrum, oval-shaped eyes with large, black pupils, and notably thin eyebrows. He has four large purple and black balls in something resembling a mohawk where his hair should be.

His hero costume is very simplistic, consisting only a purple shirt and mask with a yellow cape, boots and gloves. His pants are white with a lighter purple trim, and they stick out quite a lot around his waist. During the winter months, a stem-like detail is propped up on his hair, contributing to the grape theme of his costume.

Personality
Minoru is timid, but perverted to the point of infamy, which makes him unpopular with the girls and even some of the boys, who consider his interests and mannerisms depraved. His mind frequently trails off to lewd thoughts, even in situations involving completely unrelated matters. When an opportunity to peep at the girls arises, Minoru becomes very determined to take it, although this often leads to painful results. Minoru's interest in women is one of his motivations to become a hero, alongside general popularity. He is quite unashamed of those traits, openly admitting them out loud.

Minoru can be very hypocritical, criticizing others for perceived perverted behavior, even if they turn out to be nothing more than misunderstandings. Minoru is also one who always speaks his mind, even when it comes off as harsh and insulting due to his comments being more on the cynical side.

Minoru easily freaks out in moments of great stress or fear, acting in an impulsive way, crying when the situation does not look favorable and abusing his Quirk recklessly, to the point of hurting himself in the process. Minoru is not a very confident fighter and may attempt to flee in highly disadvantageous situations.

Minoru is shown to be surprisingly intelligent, able to score very high on tests, and being in the top half of Class 1-A's grades, despite being considered a slacker by the majority of the class. Additionally, he is quite capable of coming up with creative and competent strategies in order to achieve victory, pushing through his own flaws when the need arises.

Abilities
Keen Intellect: Despite his lewd personality, Minoru is quite intelligent, scoring 9th place in the midterms, displaying his skill in academics. Even in battle, he can use unorthodox strategies, even ones befitting his perverted nature. At the U.A. Sports Festival, knowing how physically conditioned Momo Yaoyorozu is, Minoru used the pop-off balls from his Quirk to latch onto her back so he can pass the obstacle course.

During the Cavalry Battle, he teamed up with Mezo Shoji and Tsuyu Asui, and devised an effective strategy that involved the two smaller students latching onto Mezo's back while shrouded by the latter's Dupli-Arms, and in tandem, Minoru traps his opponents with his Pop Off balls, while Tsuyu uses her Tongue to take the other contestants points. Minoru's ingenuity was also showcased when he and Hanta Serowere paired together against Midnight for the Final Exams. Minoru is knowledgeable of heroes with their own perverted nature, and knew of Midnight's sadistic side that arises when her opponent runs away from her. Taking advantage of this trait, Minoru pretended to flee and lured her into a trap using his Super Move "Grape Rush" to bind the Rated "R" Hero, and secure victory for both him and Hanta.

Quirk
Pop Off (Mogimogi): Minoru's Quirk allows him to produce and pluck ball-shaped objects from his head; the balls grow back just as fast as they're plucked. The balls are incredibly sticky and will stick to any surface; the sole exception being Minoru himself, he just bounces off. The duration of their adhesive quality is determined by his overall health. He can pull a large amount of these objects from his head; however, if he overuses it, it can cause bleeding from his head.

Super Moves

 * Grape Rush (Gurēpu Rasshu): Minoru rushes towards the enemy and throws many of his sticky objects at the enemy while running toward them, sticking the enemy in place and allowing Minoru to rush past them.


 * Grape Buckler (Gurēpu Bakkurā): Minoru attaches a number of Pop Off Spheres to a shield, which he can use for defense while simultaneously trapping whatever hits the shield. He first used this technique to block projectiles launched by Twin Impact during the fifth round of the Joint Training Battle.


 * Grape-Pinky Combo Mineta-Bounce (Gurēpu Pinkī Konbo - Hane Mineta): After Mina uses Acid Layback to spin on the spot and Minoru lays down a number of Pop Off Spheres on the ground and walls, Mina throws Minoru with great force so that he bounces from sphere to sphere. As he is flying through the air and bouncing off of each sphere, he can throw more Pop Off Spheres from his head onto his opponents while making it difficult to be hit back. They first displayed this technique during the fifth match of the Joint Training Battle.

Trivia

 * Minoru's preliminary design had him as slightly taller and wearing a more unique pair of shoes, resembling those that Izuku Midoriyausually wears. His costume also had additional details like a stem on the upper part of his mask, further referencing his grape theme.
 * According to Minoru's Volume 2 profile:
 * Minoru's favorite things are girls.
 * Minoru's character concept was conceived early.
 * Kohei Horikoshi has trouble balancing Minoru's likeability with his perversion.
 * Horikoshi enjoys drawing Minoru, viewing a bit of himself on him.
 * Horikoshi details how Minoru was able to pass the U.A. High School, noting that binding the Villain Bots to walls or blocking their cannons with Pop Off were both viable strategies.
 * Minoru's surname contains the kanji for "summit" (mine) and "rice field" (ta), and his first name contains "to bear fruit, great fertility, berry" (minoru).
 * Minoru's known U.A data is as follows:
 * Student No. 19 in Class 1-A.
 * Ranked 19th during Shota Aizawa's Quirk Apprehension Test.
 * Ranked 9th in Class 1-A's mid-term grades.
 * Ranked in the Top 42 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
 * Minoru's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
 * Minoru ranked 18th in the First Popularity Poll.
 * Minoru ranked 31st in the Second Popularity Poll.
 * Minoru ranked 45th in the Third Popularity Poll.[4]
 * Not counting children, Minoru is the shortest human character in the series, at a measly 108 cm (or 3' 6½"). It's possible that Minoru suffers from an extreme case of dwarfism.
 * Minoru, Momo Yaoyorozu, Mina Ashido and Tsuyu Asui all share the same Costume designer.
 * Minoru shares his birthday with Chimera.