Mezo Shoji

Mezo Shoji, also known as the Tentacle Hero: Tentacole (触手ヒーロー テンタコル), is a student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School, training to become a Pro Hero.

Appearance
Mezo is a tall, muscular young man with pale gray hair swept forwards, covering most of his face, and bent downwards at almost a right angle over his eye. He has six arms attached by a web of skin; the arms are very physically strong, and while his Quirk is not in use, only the front two arms have hands, the rest ending in thin stumps.

While less pronounced in the anime, he has a slightly elongated face; his eyes set more towards the sides, the majority of which, due to his scars, he has always kept hidden by a blue mask, which covers him from just below his eyes to the base of his neck. He is rarely seen without it, as he doesn't appear when the other students are bathing in the hot springs, and he wears it with every outfit. To speak and eat, he grows a mouth on the end of one of his tentacles, although once, in the Quirk Training Camp, when his arm was injured, he was seen speaking with his actual mouth. Although he has no discernible ears, he doesn't have to use his Quirk to hear.

During school hours, he wears the regular male U.A. uniform, the only notable difference between his and the other students' being that he is sleeveless to make room for his six tentacles, and he wears a waistcoat rather than a blazer. He also doesn't wear the usual brown dress shoes, replacing them with thick-soled black espadrilles.

His hero costume consists of a tight blue tank top, six white markings resembling eyes, connected at the top to a darker, more indigo-colored mask, its design the same as the one he usually wears. He has a belt with another, larger eye shape embedded into its center, this time yellow, below which he wears slightly baggy trousers to match his shirt, two darker lines running down the sides of his legs, and indigo boots.

After his mask was torn during his fight with Spinner, alongside many rioting civilians during the Final War, he is revealed to have an elongated face without a nose, as well as an extended mouth with large teeth and prominent scars around his lips, one running from the back, downwards towards his neck.

Personality
Despite his frightening appearance, Mezo is friendly and gentle and will work nicely with anyone. He is not the type to hold grudges, showing no ill will towards those that harm him unwillingly.

Mezo is entirely selfless and willing to risk his life for anyone. He can be empathetic and understanding but still shows a sense of maturity and responsibility that prevents him from acting under emotional impulses, even if he feels regretful. He is very protective of his classmates, especially if they are hurt or injured. The Ultra Archive book states that his feelings for his friends are stronger than anyone else and doesn't mind sacrificing himself.

Mezo claims to hold no desire for material needs, being okay with having few possessions of his own, and this is a trait he has been carrying since childhood.

Mezo is also quite thick-skinned, as he said he was used to being feared and seemed unfazed when Pony Tsunotori called him an octopus and said she didn't like to look at him.

In Mezo's hometown, there is still prejudice against those whose bodies are altered outwardly by their Quirks, and people are often frightened of him. He started wearing his signature mask because his face made a young girl cry, and he didn't want to cause any sadness. He also states that his facial scars and the fact that he is a heteromorph can make people assume that he became a hero to enact vengeance on the people who scarred him, which is not true. Part of his motivation to be a hero is to tear down the societal walls that have stood in the way of heteromorphs like himself for over a century. However, he also knows that he can't do so in a single generation, and as such, he has a marked distaste for shortsightedness regarding the use of force and violence to head such a change in society.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Mezo has proven to be highly capable, as his skills allowed him to earn 6th place in the Quirk Apprehension Test. He also has a good handle on his Quirk, Dupli-Arms, which he can use for combat and sensory purposes. Dupli-Arms makes Mezo excellent for spying and stake-out missions since his tentacle-created sensorial parts have heightened functions. While Mezo is strong enough to carry more than one person on his back with minimal effort, he can shield or hide them from danger thanks to his Dupli-Arms' webbed structure. Mezo also possesses good camaraderie, using his Quirk to detect nearby enemies and using his tentacles to cause a distraction so that his comrades can take their opponents by surprise.

Utilizing physical prowess and Quirk handling, Mezo has repeatedly displayed the capacity to swiftly fend off dangerous villains such as Kurogiri and Himiko Toga, effectively providing cover for his comrades and emerging unscathed. During the third match of the Joint Training Battle, he faced off against Pony Tsunotori, one of the fastest students in Class 1-B, effectively countering her barrage of horn attacks, including the surprise attack she attempted to use, until Mashirao Ojiro intervened to restrain Pony. Afterward, Pony admitted that, even with her abilities, she couldn't defeat Mezo overall. On Nabu Island, Mezo had enough mettle to take on Chimera but was quickly subdued by the latter before he could fully act. The next day, while getting Mahoro and Katsuma Shimano to safety, Mezo was confronted by Nine, who used his Bullet Laser Quirk to attack the masked hero. Mezo was soon assisted by Mashirao and Kyoka, and all three of them were able to surprise the villain and pin him down, forcing Nine into using the full power of his Air Wall Quirk to defeat the trio of students. His abilities eventually garnered the attention of Gang Orca, allowing Mezo to intern under the No. 12 (formerly No. 10) Pro Hero and improve on his search techniques. Come the Final War, Mezo briefly routed a mastodonic Spinner before being overpowered by the lizard man activating his third Quirk, Scalemail. However, Mezo quickly recovered and was soon able to fight on par with Spinner, forcing the villain to retreat to Central Hospital.
 * Enhanced Strength: Mezo possesses a high degree of physical strength, as he could exert as much as 540 kilograms (1,188 pounds) of force during the Quirk Apprehension Test. The brawn displayed during this test indicates he has enough strength to crush a human skull with just one of his many hands. Mezo's Quirk multiplies his already great physical brawn for combat by replicating his arms, giving him force equivalent to at least half a ton when using just one set of his tentacle arms. He was able to carry both Tsuyu Asui and Minoru Mineta on his back without any difficulty, as well as send Himiko Toga flying several meters away with a mere slap. Mezo's facet of bone-crushing was shown when he broke Pony Tsunotori's horn projectiles. Additionally, he could damage the colossal Spinner even with the latter's Scalemail Quirk active.
 * Enhanced Speed: Despite his size and muscular physique, Mezo possesses impressive speed. He pulled several of his classmates out of the way before Kurogiri had the time to warp them to different locations. He was also able to run away from a full-power Dark Shadow to reach Katsuki and Shoto, all while injured and carrying Izuku. Soon after, he was able to intercept Himiko Toga, a swift villain with whom Shota Aizawa and Izuku had trouble keeping up before she could further harm an injured Izuku.
 * Enhanced Stamina: Mezo also has an incredible supply of endurance. After a long day of rigorously training his Quirk at the forest training camp, he continuously evaded a full-power Dark Shadow while carrying Izuku for a substantial amount of time. He also sprinted at full speed after Pony, one of Class 1-B's fastest students, for 15 minutes without letting up. He endured Nine's Bullet Laser assault, and despite the severe injuries, Mezo had enough strength to tackle him to the ground before being defeated by the villain.
 * Enhanced Durability: Mezo has been shown to withstand significant damage. During the Vanguard Action Squad Invasion, he had one arm dismembered, three others burned by Dabi's flames, and his legs withstood a significant fall after being thrown high into the air by Ochaco and Tsuyu. Afterward, Mezo continued to battle and saved Izuku from Himiko, showing no signs of a hindered performance. In addition, during Nine's second attack on Nabu island, Mezo was the only member of Class 1-A capable of using his body to protect Mahoro and Katsuma from falling debris caused by Nine's assault. Soon after, he endured being shot by Nine's Bullet Laser Quirk and was only moderately injured. Furthermore, he withstood a giant Spinner's sword assault, staving off the permanent damage with duplicated limbs bearing the brunt.
 * Enhanced Reflexes: Mezo has extremely good reflexes. He could simultaneously dodge Dark Shadow and save Izuku in The Beast's Forest, while during the Joint Training Battle's third round, counter Pony's high-speed horn attacks she fired at him. The latter feat was remarkable, as her horns were too fast for even Shoto Todoroki to react to them.

Keen Intellect: Mezo is known to be quite intelligent, scoring 10th place in the midterms, displaying his skill in academics. He is also very analytical, as he was able to effectively discern that the reason Fumikage lost control of Dark Shadow, which the Jet-Black Hero had trained to keep under control in the darkness, was due to Fumikage's negative emotions influencing Dark Shadow, making the Quirk even more powerful and unruly in darkness. Mezo also deduced the mechanics behind the Quirk of Mr. Compress from seeing the after-effect of the latter’s power once.

Quirk
Dupli-Arms: Mezo's Quirk grants him a set of tentacles alongside his arms. He can transform the tips of these tentacles to replicate other parts of his body (ex: mouth, ears, eyes). The duplicated body parts are more efficient than the originals; as a result, Mezo is able to hear better, see-through more angles at a time, and they grant him much higher degrees of strength.

His detection ability from his Quirk is so powerful that he is able to hear the movements of Toru Hagakure in the USJ attack despite a sizable distance between them and the capabilities of her Invisibility Quirk, along with confirming that all the other members of 1-A were still in the USJ. This feat renders sneak attacks ineffective against Mezo.

He also uses these arms to talk most of the time through duplicate mouths, rather than his actual mouth.

Mezo is also able to extend his tentacles, and, with an arm at the end, can use them like grappling hooks to scale walls, grab onto pipes to quickly evade attacks, or get to a vantage point.

As part of his training, Mezo was tasked with producing duplicated body parts faster and maintaining greater control over the large quantity of body parts. Horikoshi comments that Mezo's training sounds especially tough in comparison to the other students in Class 1-A.

In the Obstacle Race, Dupli-Arms can be seen acting like a pair of wings, which enables Shoji to glide in the air for a short time, thus able to jump from a stone pillar to another without needing to touch the ropes.

Ultimate Moves

 * Octoblow (オクトブロー): Mezo manifests several arms at once, allowing him to unleash a barrage of blows.
 * Octospansion (オクトスパンション): Mezo morphs his arm into a giant fist and punches his opponent with it.
 * Octosearcher (オクトサーチャー): Mezo manifests several eyes and ears at once, allowing him to perform reconnaissance.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Trivia

 * A piece of concept art showcased Mezo's true face prior to its official unveiling in the manga, featuring a wide mouth with a set of jagged teeth. The same concept artwork also implies that Mezo is capable of using his Quirk to replicate miniature versions of his head.
 * According to Mezo's Volume 3 profile:
 * His favorite foods are takoyaki and squid ink pasta.
 * To keep himself warm during winter, Mezo wears a poncho.
 * Kohei Horikoshi considers Mezo fun to draw due to his less human-like features.
 * Mezo's known U.A. academic data is as follows:
 * Student No. 11 in Class 1-A.
 * Ranked 6th during the Quirk Apprehension Test.
 * Mezo's Grip Strength record is 540 kilograms. His previous record was 46 kilograms in middle school.
 * Ranked 10th in Class 1-A's mid-term grades.
 * Ranked in the Top 42 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
 * Mezo's surname contains the kanji for "to harm" (障) and "child, character" (子), and his first name contains "eyeball" (目) and "storehouse" (蔵).
 * Mezo's surname is also a type of Japanese sliding door (障子).
 * Mezo's name comes from an old saying: "walls have ears, doors have eyes" ("壁に耳あり障子に目あり") which is derived from a Chinese text, Guanzi.
 * Measuring at 187 centimeters, Mezo is the tallest student in his class.
 * He is also, ironically enough, the youngest of the class, with his birthday taking place in late February. He is younger than Tsuyu by three days who is the second youngest student in Class 1-A.
 * Mezo's Japanese voice actor, Masakazu Nishida, also voices Ectoplasm, Sen Kaibara, and Kosei Tsuburaba.
 * Horikoshi considers either Mezo or Jurota Shishida to be the physically strongest first-year students without using their Quirks.
 * Mezo chose Tentacole as his hero name because "tako" is Japanese for octopus, a nod to the octopus-like appearance of his Quirk. He chooses to wear his mutation as a badge of honor in spite of the discrimination and injury inflicted on him as a child.

Quotes

 * (To Izuku Midoriya) "Saving someone always comes with risks. Heroes aren't called heroes for nothing."
 * (To his classmates, regarding Katsuki Bakugo's kidnapping) "I get it. Kirishima's pain over not being able to do anything... and Todoroki's regrets over having Bakugo snatched away before his eyes. I regret it all too. Still... this is no time to let our emotions get the better of us."
 * (To Pony Tsunotori) "I'm no stranger to being feared."

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