All For One has been around since the time the quirks came into existence out of the blue. AFO has been the true embodiment of evil and has been terrorizing Japan for over a century. So, how come All For One becomes the only villain to cheat death and continue marching towards his goal of bringing down the heroes and the society? Is All For One’s immortality linked with his quirk, or is he immortal by nature? Let’s discover the reason behind All For One’s immortal status in the My Hero Academia series here.
The Quirk Behind All For One’s Immortality in My Hero Academia
The age of quirks began a long time ago, and All For One has been orchestrating chaos since this age’s beginning. AFO was busy indoctrinating people with quirks and setting them on the path of destruction when society struggled to find a balanced way to move forward and live alongside people born with quirks. During this time, Kyudai Garaki was born with the quirk “Life Force,” which essentially doubled his life span.
As Kyudia became a scientist whose primary research was on quirks, he came up with the Quirk Singularity theory. However, people outright shrugged off his theory where quirks become out of control with time. Hence, when Kyudai and his research were shunned by society, the old man sought redemption with All For One.
All For One ultimately became the one who believed in him and his theory. Therefore, Kyudai not only dedicated his life to serving AFO but also entrusted his life-changing quirk to All For One. Yes! Kyudai created a copy of his quirk and bestowed the original Life Force quirk on All For One. Then, he used the duplicate to extend his lifespan as it was before. In this way, both All For One and Kyudai were able to extend their lifespan to unbelievable numbers.
In addition to doubling life span, the Life Force quirk also slows the aging process of the user. That is the reason why both AFO and Kyudai retained a much younger look despite living for over a century.
Thus, although AFO seems immortal, he technically isn’t one, as you can understand the ability of the Life Force quirk. This great power does come with a big weakness, which directly affects the movement of the users. However, AFO, being a multi-quirk user, was able to nullify the Life Force’s weakness easily with his other quirks in possession.
How Does All for One Become Young Again?
In addition to immortality, All For One became younger and transformed into his prime shape in the final war. However, this extraordinary change is not a byproduct of the Life Force quirk; instead, it has to do with the Quirk-Destroying drug created by Kai Chisaki earlier in the story. Once again, Kyudai came in clutch and reverse-engineered this drug to produce the one and only rewind drug.
While the original drug destroyed the quirk of the targeted character, the rewind drug reverses all kinds of injuries and de-ages the user of this drug, as the name implies. While this drug may seem like a cheat code, it is noted that these effects can’t be stopped by any means, which essentially means AFO will keep de-aging to the point where he ceases to exist.
It’s like the case where Brad Pitt ages in reverse in Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button movie. So, why did AFO use such a life-ending quirk, you ask? It’s because he had to use it as he was almost killed by Endeavor. Currently, AFO rapidly de-aged in his battle with Armored All Might as he continues to push his limits and tirelessly uses all of his quirks.
AFO always finds a quirk and has an answer for all his needs. For example, he used the Antigen Swap quirk to rewrite his blood type to counter Stain’s overpowered bloodcurdle quirk. He achieved near immortality using the Life Force quirk and became younger using the rewind drug, all thanks to his servant, Kyudai.
So, will AFO eventually become younger to the point of becoming a baby? Find it out yourself at the end of My Hero Academia season 8. That said, let us know your thoughts about AFO’s immortality in the comments below.
