Minoru Mineta

Minoru Mineta, also known as the Fresh-Picked Hero: Grape Juice (モギタテヒーロー グレープジュース), is a student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School, training to become a Pro Hero.

Appearance
Minoru is a very short teenage boy with a large, round head, and rather puffy cheeks. His nose is small, stubby and points slightly upwards, and he has an unusually distinguishable philtrum, oval-shaped eyes with large, black pupils, and notably thin eyebrows. He has a head of very short dark purple hair with four large ball-shaped clumps resembling a mohawk.

His hero costume is very simplistic, consisting only of 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. Prior to the Joint Training Battle, he added a stem-like detail that 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 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. He also has a more teasing and goading side, even when he's not being perverted, and has a habit of jeering at others for the fun of it. He is not a bully however, and does express fear and concern for when others have been hurt or are in danger.

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 whenever the opportunity presents itself.

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. At the same time though, he also displays a very smug and complacent side whenever his aptitude is noticed and his confidence often proves to be quite unbalanced: either strongly doubting himself or feeling highly overconfident. Additionally, Minoru 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. This was best seen when he outsmarted Midnight and was able to pass the Practical Exam.

Another one of Minoru's ambitions is to be popular, trying everything in his power to be loved by everyone, oblivious of his perverted behavior being the reason for him being not. His attempts usually fail, as everything he does gets him nowhere in popularity, only being good friends with Denki Kaminari and Izuku Midoriya and having an on and off friendship with Tsuyu Asui, while the rest of the class doesn't talk to him often. This shows Minoru just wants to be cool or popular, but due to his personality, he is frowned upon by many girls and even some boys.

Despite his bad qualities and nervousness, Minoru does prove that he can rise to the occasion when need be. He is able to showcase his fierce courage and aptitude when it truly matters, and can usually be reinforced with some words of encouragement. He shows this most of all during times such as the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam, as well as when he helps his classmates face incredibly powerful and dangerous opponents such as All Might (who was masquerading as a villain), Nine and Gigantomachia.

Abilities
Overall Abilities: Minoru may not be the direct-combat type, but he does have a very good handle on his Quirk, Pop Off. Minoru primarily uses his spheres as projectiles, binding opponents and their weapons to objects, or even themselves. Minoru can take advantage of the fact that his spheres bounce off his body to use them as small trampolines, allowing him to bypass obstacles found on the ground. He also has impressive camaraderie, using his Pop Off spheres to bind opponents, enabling his allies to successfully defeat them, and vice versa. Shortly before the Provisional Hero License Exam, Minoru was able to come up with a makeshift bead weapon composed of his Pop Off spheres, which aids him in defending against projectile attacks. His abilities eventually garnered the attention of The Lurkers (consisting of Edgeshot, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady), giving Minoru the opportunity to intern under the trio of powerful heroes, and improve on close and efficient team maneuvers.

Keen Intellect: Despite his lewd personality, Minoru is quite intelligent, scoring 9th place in the midterms, displaying his skill in academics, something made more impressive by the fact he is never seen studying. Minoru is also very clever in battle, such as using his Pop Off Quirk to create effective traps, something for which his spheres are very suitable. Pop Off tends to be a fairly underestimated ability, which allows Minoru to surprise those that let their guard down. He can also employ unorthodox strategies, even ones befitting his perverted nature. At the U.A. Sports Festival, knowing how physically conditioned Momo Yaoyorozu is, Minoru used his Pop Off balls to latch onto her back so he can pass the Obstacle Course portion of the festival.

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 Sero were paired together against Midnight for the First Term Final Exam. Minoru is knowledgeable of heroes with their own lascivious personalities 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 "Grape Rush" Ultimate Move to bind the R-Rated Hero and secure victory for both him and Hanta.

Quirk
Pop Off (もぎもぎ): 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, as he just bounces off them. 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 plucks too many, it will cause him to start bleeding from his scalp.

As part of his training, Minoru continuously pulled off the balls on his head, to increase their adhesiveness, strengthen his scalp, and reduce the risk of bleeding from his head, despite suffering from the said injury during his training.

Ultimate Moves

 * Grape Rush (グレープラッシュ): 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.
 * Super Grape Rush (スーパーグレープラッシュ): From an elevated position, Minoru launches a large number of his sticky spheres to trap the enemy between objects.
 * Grape Buckler (グレープバックラー): 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 (グレープピンキーコンボ): After Mina Ashido uses Acid Layback to spin on the spot and Minoru lays down multiple 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 round of the Joint Training Battle.
 * Pop Off: Vineyard (モギモギグレープ畑作戦): Minoru performs this move by creating a vineyard with his Pop Off Spheres which acts as a snare. He first used this technique to immobilize Team 5-B during Round 5 before being interrupted by Reiko Yanagi's Poltergeist.

Equipment
Hero Costume: Minoru's hero costume was made with the purpose of letting him use his Quirk without his grapes sticking to it.
 * The Grape Face Mask (グレープフェイスマスク): This equipment is a simple face mask that covers almost all of Minoru's face and leaves the top of his head exposed so that he can grab his grape-like hairs.
 * The Gloves that Pluck (モギモギグローブ): This equipment was made using the special substance that exudes from Minoru's scalp, this was to prevent his grapes from sticking to them. However, this is only for the palms of the gloves.
 * The Grape Pants (グレープパンツ): This equipment was designed to have nubs that look like a pattern that were modeled after his grape-like hair and have almost the same stickiness as them. This was so that he could hold small objects on his person.
 * The Minoru Mantle (ミノルマント): This equipment was originally desired to flutter in the wind. However, the designers decided to make it shorter so that it wouldn't get stuck on his hair.
 * In addition to his costume, he also wears what appears to be a grape stem on his head. While it has not been formally addressed, it is presumably some kind of support item.

Chapter Appearances

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Anime Appearances

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Trivia

 * Minoru's preliminary design had him as slightly taller and wearing a more unique pair of shoes, resembling those that Izuku Midoriya usually wears. His costume also had additional details like a stem on the upper part of his mask, further referencing his grape theme.
 * He would later implement this stem detail some time before the Joint Training Battle.
 * 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 in him.
 * Horikoshi details how Minoru was able to pass the U.A. Entrance Exam, 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" (峰) and "rice field" (田), and his first name contains "to bear fruit, great fertility, berry" (実). The kanji "峰 mine" is included in the word for "giant grapes", "巨峰 kyohō".
 * 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.
 * Not counting children, Minoru is the shortest human character in the series, at 108 cm (or 3' 6½").
 * Minoru shares his birthday with Atsuhiro Sako.
 * Minoru, Momo Yaoyorozu, Mina Ashido, and Tsuyu Asui all share the same costume designer.
 * In the English dub of the anime, Minoru speaks with a notable lisp, which his voice actor implemented in an effort to make him sound cuter and to tone down his perverted character.

Quotes

 * (To himself) "I was wrong. Ever since coming here... and practically dying... I finally get it! Being a hero doesn't make you cool... they're heroes because they're cool!"
 * (To Izuku and Tsuyu) "I took a really clean dump this morning, so they should be stuck together all day."
 * (To Hanta) "Why? The rear guard's job is just to catch any bad guys who slip past the front line. So getting all pumped up is actually kinda insulting to the Pros, right?"

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