| “ | So you're just gonna ignore me? Talk about rude! I heard Class A is doing a concert or something for us, that's so cute!! But to put it bluntly Class B's stellar performance is gonna make you wish you hadn't even shown up!!! You should make sure you come prepared, bring a hanky to wipe the tears from your eyes when you realize HOW SUPERIOR WE ARE!! AAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAEH- (knocked out by a bat) | „ |
| ~ Monoma boasting and mocking Midoriya and some members of Class 1-A, and then going unstable during his tirade before Awase whacked him on the head with a bat during the U.A. School Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Jiro): Man she's good. (Monoma): Guess he was right! That match really was over in just two seconds!! I wonder if his real Quirk is the ability to tell the future! Hey wasn't Class 1-A supposed to be SO much better than us? *Begins cackling* (Kendo): (groans, chops Neito's neck and Neito passes out while Kendo grabs his shoulder) Sorry about him. (Class 1-A): I hate that guy. |
„ |
| ~ Monoma taunting Class 1-A for Kaminari's defeat against Shiozaki, right before getting chopped on the neck by Kendo during the tournament in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
Neito Monoma, also known as Phantom Thief, is a supporting character in the My Hero Academia franchise. He is a student of Class 1-B at U.A. High School and is extremely dedicated to it.
He is shown to be generally arrogant and has a huge rivalry towards Class 1-A and finds many ways to topple Class 1-A and making his own class come off as superior at any opportunity because of his superiority complex, often insulting them before being knocked out by one of his classmates, mostly by Itsuka Kendo.
He is voiced by Kōhei Amasaki in the Japanese version of the anime, and by Austin Tindle in the English version.
Appearance
Neito Monoma is a young man of average height with slick blond hair, which gets shorter the further down his head, styled so that it's parted to the right, his bangs left hanging over his right eye. His irises are a periwinkle blue, his pupils white, and his eyes are shaped so that they're slanting downwards towards the far sides of his face, usually left half-closed; this, along with his signature smirk and head tilt, gives him a rather contemptuous look. There were girls admit in the light novels that Neito has a handsome face.
His hero costume is a black, double-breasted tuxedo with two long tails almost reaching to the back of his ankles. Three clocks hang on one of two belts around his waist, presumably to help him keep track of his Quirk's time limit, and he leaves his shirt collar upturned, a blue and black dotted tie done up around his neck. A left breast pocket can be found on his tuxedo, a small blue handkerchief sticking out. Neito's tailcoat and pants are plain black, except for the cuffs of his sleeves and the inner-facing sides of his tails, and his shoes are white with a simple design.
Personality
| “ | (Monoma): Hey did you hear? The license exam has a 50% pass rate, that means your entire class might fail! (Midoryia): I always forget how much this guy hates us. |
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| ~ Neito taunting Class 1-A members during the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc. |
Whilst present, Neito can often show himself out to be extremely sarcastic, loudmouthed, extremely vocal, arrogant, competitive, deranged, overdramatic and outright brash as a heckler since he is usually seen mocking, taunting, insulting, ridiculing, belittling and sometimes even threatening all of the students of Class 1-A with plenty of trash-talk and his competitive behavior amounts to lots of vaunting on how much he could bait everyone in 1-A for their flaws or shortcomings in order to rile them up and put them down while putting lots of attention on Class 1-B's success and superior skills, desperately not wanting Class 1-B to rain in the shadows. Out of everyone in his classroom, he seems to be the one most dedicated with toppling 1-A's popularity to the point of where his acts of gloating start to become an unhealthy obsession he does out of habit and impulse.
Him being antagonistic towards Class 1-A comes from the fact that he is so shameless about his fixation for classroom superiority and popularity so his class 1-B can be even more popular than 1-A, from there he will take any opportunity to proudly mock, disrespect, poke fun and belittle Class 1-A in a very condescending, supercilious, spiteful, judgmental, provocative and passive-aggressive fashion, all with a very pompous attitude and sometimes throwing fits of shrill cackling laughter to relish in their inconvenience while he gloats, which goes to the point that it's quite monomaniacal and shows concerning signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder with a whole shade of Idée fixe to his fixation on class superiority and bragging rights (as his last name implies) and his plans to make Class 1-A look bad out of spite and envy (as well as his desperate attempts to make Class 1-B become more popular and superior to Class 1-A at any moment) always backfires on his end, does nothing significant in general and oftentimes, he repeatedly gets tons of karma given to him at the end for acting unstable as well as being a spoilsport and a petty bully towards a whole class of trainee superheroes.
His tirades and meltdowns are typically stopped by Itsuka Kendo frequently karate chopping him on the neck to discipline and silence him while she also apologizes to Class 1-A on his behalf, Awase whacking him with a baseball bat to shut him up when he was going crazy and cackling at the idea of Class 1-A acting like crybabies over Class 1-B putting on a better performance than theirs, or Aizawa using his Erasure Quirk to strangle him for taunting his rain of potential success onto Class 1-A in the Joint Training Arc.
As a result, Monoma is often hated by Class 1-A, and there were a fair amount of times where even Class 1-B themselves find him to be annoying or obnoxious for his overwhelming egotism and his dramatic way of bringing attention to Class 1-B in itself such as Vlad King, his own teacher (and typically Monoma is seen as unhinged and completely nuts by some people in 1-A such as Kirishima and Kaminari, who alongside Sero have shown to be equally creeped out and unsettled by Monoma's shouting and deranged cackling laughter).
| “ | (Tokage): Monoma, I apologize. One win, two losses, one abroad, Class B can hope for time now. (Monoma): What are you apologizing for my dear Tokage? Our immature compatriot reflected on his actions and evolved; it's a marvelous thing! While it's true that Class B can't win anymore we still haven't lost yet! The people will see, win or lose we'll prove our point! We're hardworking students who never cause an ounce of trouble, meanwhile Class A gets undeserved attention because they're disasters! Always on the better path, everyone is a side character in other people's stories... but we are each the protagonist of our own lives... (Yanagi): So what's the plan? (Monoma): You're KILLING my vibe! |
„ |
| ~ Monoma to Class 1-B after his class lost in the episode "Early Bird" during the Joint Training Arc. |
Monoma appears to hold something akin to an inferiority-superiority complex. Despite putting on a overly loud, smug, cocky, snobbish, petty, childish and seemingly narcissistic front in public, he does this to hide his fears, especially since his insecurities comes from the fact he feels threatened by Class 1-A's strength and skills they've shown throughout, his acts of provoking and taunting also being an unsubtle attempt to cheer up his own fellow classmates up while he is also envious (and sometimes power-hungry) of Class 1-A themselves for their popularity. His smugness and overconfident attitude also serves to mask his true feelings, of which he has had difficulty justifying his own desire to become a hero due to his Quirk being deemed useless in itself by many compared to other Quirks, and with Monoma seeing himself as unable to become the "main character" of his own story despite the fact he believes everyone is the focus in their own stories.
He also happens to be deceitful, duplicitous and two-faced sometimes since he also replies to random online comments on social media saying: "Oh so you don't have time to message me back, but you can comment on this picture? we're through xx Come get your stuff." It's not helping that he also admits that he wants to be "manipulative" and a schemer since he believes he is not powerful on his own as an excuse for not being able to do things like a typical hero would and feels like he has to resort to playing the role of a trickster and concoct underhanded tactics and having a need to lie and deceive people as a habit for his own gain as a student and as a hero.
| “ | (Monoma): Midnight said the obstacle course was just the first game, and we figured they wouldn't cut that many of us right off the bat. Would they? (Bakugo): Huh? (Monoma): Assuming they'd keep at least 40 contestants for the next event, all we had to do was to make sure we stayed within that group as we ran. From our spots in the middle ranks, we could fully observe the Quirks our rivals and judge their capabilities. Only a fool would obsess over winning the preliminary rounds, wouldn't you agree? (Bakugo): You planned this as a class? (Monoma): It wasn't totally unanimous, but I'd say it's playing out well- (Kaibara): Hey they're coming. (Monoma): It's better than chasing after temporary frontrunner like a horse with a carrot waving on it's face. |
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| ~ Monoma explaining his strategy to steal Bakugo's points via head strap and then provoke Bakugo in his very first appearance "Strategy, Strategy, Strategy". |
Nonetheless, Monoma still does prove to be quite intelligent, strategic and even competent at times, as shown with his performance in the Cavalry Battle, with him provoking Katsuki Bakugo in several ways such as by copying his and Eijiro Kirishima's Quirks to toy with them when they least expect it and surprise them with said imitations during the battle (which goes to the point where he got Bakugo and his team stuck in place by Kojiro Bondo's glue stick power while stealing their points, which got the Bakugo switched targets from Midoriya's team to his before going back to Midoryia's). In addition, he was also able to see and understand Uraraka’s strategy of using the stadium debris against Bakugo while she kept the latter focused on her before telling her how his costume is a disguise to make people think he can copy three Quirks when he can copy four in fact (for about 5 minutes in fact), he took Shinso's Quirk during the Joint Training Arc in an attempt to provoke Midoriya into revealing the location of his allies.
When Vlad King told him that he would play a key role in the Pro Heroes' plan, and reassured him that he was always a star, Monoma confidently assisted the Pro Heroes by teleporting them into the battle via copying Kurogiri's Warp Gate, though he boasted about his role as "The Man Behind The Curtain" out of glee. As well as putting up a fight against Shigaraki (as well as foiling Shigaraki's plan without Monoma even knowing that would happen).
Despite all of this, Monoma has proven to be able to put his extremely scornful attitude aside if it means assisting others or helping his classmates. This is shown when he attempted to copy Eri's Quirk, only to fail and apologies to Aizawa, Mirio and Midoriya, saying that he wishes he could have done more. However, he still proved to be helpful when he puts his mind to it despite his many limits and shortcomings, like when during the Paranormal Liberation War he copied the Erasure Quirk and used it to watch over Shigaraki before erasing them (thus saving Mirko and the big 3 from being dead).
Quotes
| “ | (Monoma): Your class is too small-minded, think bigger. (Ashido): He got us! (Bakugo): WHAT DID YOU SAY?! COME BACK HERE!!! |
„ |
| ~ Monoma taking Bakugo's headstrap off without him seeing during the Cavalry Battle, and baiting him about Class 1-A to get a rise out of Bakugo after taking his and his team's points in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | You're kinda famous aren't you? For being attacked by that Sludge villain, you'll have to tell me about it sometime. It must be strange to always find yourself in the role of the victim. | „ |
| ~ Monoma baiting Bakugo in a insensitive and condescending fashion, which made the latter even more angry at Neito in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc in "Strategy, Strategy, Strategy". |
| “ | (Kaibara): Monoma, don't provoke him man. That's the kind of thing he would do. (Monoma): Yeah I guess you're right, it's not very heroic of me, besides you know how these things work. Heroes are always being hounded by moronic villains desperate for some kind of revenge. |
„ |
| ~ Monoma, when Sen Kaibara from Class 1-B, told Neito to not provoke Katsuki while Team Monoma, Kaibara and Kosei Tsuburaba were discreetly discussing their plans to combat Team Midoryia and Team Bakugo during the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): I heard a little rumor about Class 1-A. Two people! You had TWO people fail the licensing exam you LOSERS! (Sero): Monoma from Class B. (Kaminari, unnerved): He's just as unhinged as usual.. (Kirishima): Bet you were the only one in your class to fail, just like in the final huh? (Monoma): [Begins cackling] (Kirishima, terrified): That wasn't an answer. (Monoma): Heh. Actually... Every one of us passed! We've pulled ahead of you big shots! |
„ |
| ~ Monoma in the Shie Hassaikai Arc, when Reiko asks Neito if he failed a licensing exam too. |
| “ | I had a lengthy conversation with Shinso earlier, about how those blessed powers destroy society. You're frenemies with Bakugo right? Then maybe you can explain: how can you smile like he doesn't have a thing to worry about? When he let himself get abducted! And because he wasn't able to take care of himself, the civil of peace IS GONE!!! | „ |
| ~ Monoma to Midoriya in the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | I can't get stronger on my own. I don't possess the right stuff to be the main character. I can't walk down that straight, noble path like you people. Still, I don't resent what I've been given. Because it's necessary to pull off these kinds of masterful performances, the ones in which the supporting role upstages the lead! | „ |
| ~ Neito Monoma. |
| “ | The side character gets the last laugh! | „ |
| ~ Monoma. |
| “ | Be careful of the supporting role's dying breath. | „ |
| ~ Monoma. |
| “ | There's no point in being obsessive over winning in the prelims, right? | „ |
| ~ Monoma. |
| “ | Class A thinks it's so great. Well, let's show 'em... why we in Class B hung back and placed low in the preliminaries. | „ |
| ~ Monoma in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): Second place! We've done pretty well for ourselves. Now we can let the clock run out. (Bakugo): LOSERS!!! GET BACK HERE!!! (Monoma): *groans* Doesn't he ever give up? Knowing you've been bested is an important part of being a hero. |
„ |
| ~ Monoma while his team is taking the lead during the Cavalry Battle. |
| “ | The only difference between us and them is that they fought a couple of villains. Just because we're Class 1-B, doesn't mean we're second-rate or can't win this whole thing. So, let's step it up and show those jerks what we can do. Are you with me? | „ |
| ~ Monoma to three members of Class 1-B in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Bakugo): His Quirk, he can copy other powers. (Monoma): ...Very good! So, even an idiot can figure it out. (Bakugo begins growling) |
„ |
| ~ Monoma being sarcastic by mocking Bakugo for pointing out his powers once Monoma is first introduced in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): *Hits his elbow against Midoriya's head while holding his food tray* Oh sorry, your head is so BIG it's hard to miss. (Midoriya): You're from Class 1-B, uhm Momoma right? Really how- (Monoma): I heard you guys stumbled across the Hero Killer... Just like in the Sports Festival; Class 1-A isn't happy unless they're the center of attention, but you do realize you're not on the spotlight because people think you're good heroes, right? It's just you keep getting into so much trouble. |
„ |
| ~ Monoma to Midoriya and three members of Class 1-A during lunch hours in the Final Exams Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): Here's food for thought, someday the rest of us might get caught up in your mess, and then we will all become unwitting victims as well, what kind of horrible villains will you bring down upon us? What demon- *gets karate chopped on the head* (Kendo): That's not funny Monoma! You heard what happened to Etha, chill out... *looks at Class 1-A upon hearing her name* I apologize for him, I'm pretty sure there's a hole where his heart should be. (Midoryia): I think he's out... |
„ |
| ~ Monoma baiting Midoriya with a deranged smile before Kendo karate chops him in the Final Exams Arc. |
| “ | (Kendo): Mmm, so I was listening, I know you are all worried what is going on the Big Final Practical, I heard it's gonna be combat against robots like at the Entrance Exam. (Midoryia): What really?! How do you know that?? (Kendo): One of my friends who's a few grades up that'll be in, I know, cheating but oh well. (Midoryia mutters): No I don't think so, I'm sure gathering information ahead of time is also a part of the test, tho I should've thought of this *mutters*, why didn't I know about that before??? (Monoma): What kind of idiot are you, Kendo?? You just gave away our whole strategic advantage, this was our chance to finally pull ahead of that CLASS full of idiots- *Gets karate chopped on the neck again* (Kendo): They're NOT the idiots! (Midoriya): She's like the class's "big sister" huh? |
„ |
| ~ Monoma to Kendo. |
| “ | (Monoma): What a joke, they're actually taking these dumb side games seriously? As usual, those Class 1-A idiots, really need to get their priorities in check. (Kendo): MONOMA! If you're not playing, come with me! (Monoma): Okay? *pulls out card* ...Uhh, I think you have the wrong impression of me Kendo (Kendo): Trust me, this fits! |
„ |
| ~ Monoma seeing Mineta and Kaminari mess up and ridiculing them during the recreational games before he was being carried away by Kendo in the U.A. Sports Festival Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): Whew, how SAD we won't be able to face either directly! *Maniacally laughs* (Kirishima): Man, this guy's nuts. (Kaminari): Yeah I think he's officially gone on the deep end. |
„ |
| ~ Monoma being dramatic with his taunting in the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc. |
| “ | (Eri): It's the bad guy, oh no! (Monoma): HAHAH!! What's this foolish child saying? *points at her* AHAHAHA!!! (Togata): Oh I told her that UA has it's bad parts and that you represented one of it's downsides. (Monoma): I'm sorry I'm a man who follows the path of peace and justice, how dare you malign me sir! |
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| ~ Monoma to Togata while mocking Eri, a little girl for seeing him as a "bad guy" during the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | AHAHAHAHA!!! Not surprised these troublemakers can't hack it, you wanna know WHY? The reason you get caught up in SO many disasters is because you're immature! AHAHAHAHAHA- *gets karate chopped by Kendo* | „ |
| ~ Monoma infamously mocking Class 1-A and belittling them during the episode "Early Bird" during the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): Ohoho there must be something in my eyes (restrained laughter) it looked like he just protected Jirou just now (Kaminari): Heck yeah I did, by kicking her. (Kirishima): You're getting to see what our Bakugo is really like, cool huh? But don't worry, your eyes are fine. (Monoma): AAAAAHHHH!!! ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT HIS PERSONALITY, CHANGED!?! AAHH!! AAHHH!!!! |
„ |
| ~ Monoma after Bakugo protected Jirou in the episode "Early Bird" during the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | (Monoma): Your powers mine. (Midoryia): Don't tell me... (Monoma): Heh! Gotcha now. (Midoryia): He copied One For All?? Wait Monoma!! Don't do it! (Monoma): TOO LATE! (Uraraka): Not so fast!! I learned marital arts! (Monoma): Hypno activate! ... Ughgh man no fair! I drew a blank? |
„ |
| ~ Monoma copying the One For All Quirk before and after Ochaco stopped him with martal arts in the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | *eye twiching* What? I can't believe that hysterical rage monster was a team player. Since when does he strategize!? | „ |
| ~ Monoma going crazy in disbelief in Bakugo's efforts in the episode "Early Bird" during the Joint Training Arc. |
| “ | The paradox is that to become heroes, we must act unheroically. Otherwise, we'll never measure up to those capable of greatness. Emulating our idols isn't enough. Surely you've felt this way before... how the hopes and dreams of childhood grow heavy as burdens? As if we are cursed. | „ |
| ~ Monoma to Shinso. |
| “ | HAH HA HA HA HA! THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!! | „ |
| ~ Monoma annoucing his presence as "The Puppet Master". |
| “ | Why bats?! | „ |
| ~ Monoma in the light novel when students walk on stage carrying baseball bats to substitute for their broken prop swords without telling Monoma. |
Powers and Abilities
Quirk
Monoma's Quirk, Copy, allows him to mimic another user's Quirk by making physical contact with them. He can maintain any copied power for ten minutes before losing it, and is able to copy up to four Quirks at a time, which can be seen as a psychic power in the vague sense of psychoscopy. Monoma can freely use any Quirk he has copied but is unable to activate more than one at a time.
Monoma is unable to copy Accumulation-type Quirks that required a stored power, as he cannot replicate said power. As shown when he failed to use Izuku Midoriya's One For All and Eri's Rewind. Furthermore, he is limited to his own physical body and cannot handle Quirks that strain the user's body.
He even replicated Warp Gate, which he uses to teleport the heroes to AFO and his forces for an ambush before splitting up the villains and sending them away from each other.
Gallery
.png "Neito Monoma Hero Costume (Anime).png (37 KB)")
.png "Class 1-B Hero Costumes (Anime).png (3.17 MB)")
Etymology
His surname contains the kanji for "object" (物 mono) and "gap" (間 ma), and his first name contains "repose, serenity, preferable" (寧 nei) and "person" (人 to). When written together, the kanji in his last name means "among things" (物間 monoma).
His surname may also be a play on the word "monomaniac," meaning "exaggerated or obsessive enthusiasm for or preoccupation with one thing," which explains his recurring obsession for toppling Class 1-A.
His name also comes from the word "mimicry, imitation" (物真似 monomane), which references his Quirk.
Trivia
- According to Horikoshi, Monoma is based off a real person, that being named Dane DeHaan, specifically because of his performance as Harry Osborn in the film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as told in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #12 2022.
- Neito likes French cuisine and Franco-Belgian comics.
- Neito shares the same birthday as Yo Shindo.
- Neito seems to share similar qualities to Katsuki Bakugo, both being blond-haired, loud, arrogant, wanting to prove themselves to be the best, have moments of being calculating, love to pick on the weaknesses of other people and both exhibit anti-heroic/antagonistic qualities that make them seem more villainous than heroic. But Neito appears to be the personification for what it'll look like if Katsuki didn't mature and grow from his conflicts like getting captured by the Sludge villain, and where Katsuki has matured and outshines Neito in every sense of the word with being a student, Neito is a literal walking shadow to Katsuki.
- It doesn't help that Neito acted similar to Katsuki when the latter was introduced at the beginning of the series as being smug and overconfident before Katsuki learns how looking down on people wouldn't allow himself to recognize his own weaknesses. This allowed him to work with Class 1-A and work with Deku after initially getting hostile with Deku.
- Neito knows he won't be the best and lives in the sidelines of being a "copy", whereas Katsuki develops into a more mature person.
- They both had a freakout over another person's accomplishments. While Katsuki maturing into a stronger person had caught Neito by surprise to the point of finding it impossible and freaking out about it, is quite similar to how Katsuki witnessed Deku improving with the One For All quirk and couldn't believe it was possible.
- In the English dub provided by Austin Tindle; Neito's cackling maniacal laughter he provided in the U.A. School Festival Arc, bears an uncanny resemblance to Edwin Neal's English dub for Dr. Ivo Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, especially the moment where Robotnik revels in Sonic being defeated by Hyper Metal Sonic, with both characters sharing similar cackling laughter from two different English anime voice dubs no less!
External Links
- Neito Monoma on the My Hero Academia Wiki
- Neito Monoma on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Neito Monoma on the Antagonists Wiki
- Neito Monoma on the Shonen Rivals Wiki
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