Minoru Mineta

The head does most of the work in Minoru's design: large, round, and topped by four bulbous purple clumps arranged like a mohawk, set over puffy cheeks and a small nose that turns up at the tip. His eyebrows are thin, his eyes oval with wide black pupils, and his philtrum is pronounced enough to count as a feature. He is very short, shorter than any other human in the series once children are set aside.

His blazer had to be modified down to a single button to fit him. The costume is plain by the standards of his class: a purple bodysuit and mask, a yellow cape with gloves and boots to match, and white pants trimmed in lighter purple that flare around the waist. A yellow stem went on above his hair sometime ahead of the Joint Training Battle, completing the grape theme. Eight years later he has gained a little height and a trace of stubble, plus grape patterning on his glove cuffs.

Timidity and lechery define his reputation, and the second has made him unwelcome with the girls in his class and several of the boys. His thoughts drift toward women in situations that have nothing to do with them, and any chance at peeping is one he takes, usually to his own injury or to being physically restrained. He admits all of it out loud, unembarrassed. Proximity to women is one reason he enrolled; the other is fame.

Envy comes with it. He resents classmates who read as cool, and complains that his Quirk is simple next to theirs. Attempts at charm land badly. He can be hypocritical, scolding others for perversion he has misread, and his mouth runs cynical and jeering for sport.

He is not cruel. He gets genuinely frightened when people are hurt, reassured Ochaco Uraraka that Izuku would come through surgery, ran to Izuku's side after the public turned on him, and apologized to Mezo Shoji once he understood what being called an octopus meant to someone bullied over his appearance.

Pressure breaks him easily. He panics, cries, and burns through his Quirk hard enough to wound himself, though that reflex eroded over his years at school. Against the slacker reputation, his marks land him in the top half of the class. During the Final War, wrecked by All For One, he offered up his own Quirk if the villain would spare Fumikage Tokoyami's, a trade that would have ended his career outright. He graduated and went independent afterward, though old habits followed him into the job.

Pop Off grows ball-shaped objects out of his scalp, which he plucks free while replacements come in at the same rate. They adhere to virtually anything except Minoru, who bounces off them because he is made of the same material, and how long they stay tacky depends on his health. Pull too many and his scalp bleeds, an injury he accepted repeatedly in training to toughen the skin and improve the spheres' grip.

He fights as support rather than a front-liner. The spheres work as thrown restraints, pinning enemies or their weapons to surfaces or to themselves, and he can bounce off his own deployed balls to clear obstacles. Teamwork is a real strength: he locks targets down and lets allies finish them. The Lurkers, meaning Mt. Lady, Edgeshot, and Kamui Woods, took him on as an intern and drilled him on tight team maneuvers.

His intelligence is the underrated part. He scored ninth in the midterms without ever being seen studying, and he weaponizes the fact that people dismiss his Quirk. At the Sports Festival he stuck himself to Momo Yaoyorozu's back and rode her conditioning through the Obstacle Race. Paired with Hanta Sero against Midnight, he exploited her sadistic streak toward anyone who flees, faked a retreat, and bound her with Grape Rush. He draws well enough to have served as lead artist, alongside Manga Fukidashi, on a manga built around the hero course at his school.

His other moves include Super Grape Rush, Grape Buckler, Vineyard, Mineta Beads, and the Grape-Pinky Combo Mineta Bounce with Mina Ashido. The costume exists largely so his own grapes will not stick to it.