Mei Hatsume was a student of U.A. High School's Department of Support in Class 1-H.[4]
Eight years after the Final War, Mei has graduated from U.A. High School and has become the founder of Lightly Labs, a widely renowned manufacturing company of Hero support items.[2]
Appearance#
Mei is a reasonably short girl with quite a mature build. She has salmon pink hair, which is generally shoulder-length, although it does vary, which is styled into thick dreadlocks and side-swept to her right. Her eyes are wide and sloped upwards with some notably long upper eyelashes, their irises green-yellow with a cross in the center, making them look somewhat like scope lenses.
In her first appearance, she wears the regular U.A. gym uniform (a dark blue tracksuit decorated with the letters "U" and "A"), but she also adds some of her own gadgets onto it, including red and gold steampunk goggles, a utility belt to hold the various tools she carries around, oversized speed-assisting boots, and what could possibly be a jet pack strung over her shoulders.
She's later seen wearing a plain black tank top with workshop coveralls tied casually around her waist, with the same goggles on her head.
Following the Paranormal Liberation War, Mei has donned a new set of goggles with longer, scope-like lenses. She also now has her hair tied back into a ponytail.[6]
Eight years after the Final War, Mei has grown taller and more mature, with her hair having grown longer at the front, but still tied into a ponytail at the back. She is seen wearing an advanced set of teal tinted goggles, while adorning her usual designer gloves and a new strapped tank top.[3]
Personality#
Mei is a smart, off-setting, and assertive girl, often making those around her uncomfortable. She loves creating gadgets, which she refers to as her "super cute babies". Mei has a habit of "going straight to the point"[7] and is very shameless and opportunistic when it comes to advertising her inventions. While talking to people, she has a habit of getting awkwardly close to them, which usually causes them to back away from her but she still moves up to them. She can also be manipulative, as she tricked Tenya Ida into using her support equipment to promote her inventions. Mei believes that while inventors like her may not be fighters, they still help the field of heroics through their inventions.[8]
Mei shows no fear when it comes to failing, seeing it as an opportunity to learn and do better next time, which is why she does not mind when her inventions fail. Mei can be seen as self-centered due to putting her love of inventions and gadgets above others, but this selfishness is not a negative as it is out of motivation to improve herself. She does seem to be a little bit absent-minded as she is easily distracted and can sometimes be completely unaware of her surroundings, as shown by her inability to sense one of her inventions catch on fire as she was speaking with Izuku Midoriya. Furthermore, she seems inept at reading body language and social cues, apparently being oblivious to Izuku's discomfort with her close proximity to him on several occasions.
Abilities#
Overall Abilities: Outside of her intellect, Mei mostly acts as a support rather than facing battles directly. However, she proves to be a capable combatant as seen in her match against Tenya, where it lasted for ten minutes with Tenya unable to do anything to her despite his speed advantage and only winning when she forfeited.
Expert Inventor: Mei is very smart and innovative, creating many different pieces of equipment on her own that can help her in many situations. She is even able to create new inventions in a matter of seconds with only one hand, even while she is dividing her attention to something else.[8] She relies mostly on her inventions to traverse obstacles and tasks. Power Loader acknowledges Mei's talent in the field of inventing, calling her one of a kind.[9] He even commissioned her to help him make upgrades to the U.A. Barrier.[8]
Skilled Manipulator: Mei is good at manipulating people, as seen when she tricked Tenya into modeling her inventions during the final rounds of the Sports Festival Tournament. She took advantage of his honest and trusting nature by offering him some of her equipment, claiming that it would make their fight a fair one.
Business Savvy: Mei has a good mind for business. She took full advantage of the Sports Festival, as the stands were full of scouts from major Hero Support Equipment Companies. She teamed up with Izuku during the Cavalry Battle, knowing that people would pay attention to him, since he finished first in the previous competition. She also spent the entirety of her match against Tenya (a full 10 minutes) demonstrating and explaining her inventions to the crowd.
Quirk#
Zoom: Mei's Quirk allows her to make her vision zoom in on whatever is in her line of sight. If she really focuses, Mei can see things as far as five kilometers.[10]
Ultimate Moves#
- Trial and Error[5]
Stats#
Equipment#
Goggles: A pair of steampunk-looking goggles. It is unknown if they have any practical applications aside from those of regular goggles.
Hydraulic Bracers: A support item that detects an incoming enemy and extents a telescopic metal pole to push the wearer out of the way.
Capture Gun: A pistol that fires capture nets. It can be shot five times before one needs to reload it.
Electromagnetic Soles: A pair of boots that improve the wearer's footwork.
Wire Arrow: This device is a combination of a wire with an arrow-like grappling hook attached to the end, which can be used to reach distant surfaces.[11]
Hover Soles: Two big metallic boots that have turbines implanted inside them, which allows the wearer to hover above the ground.[11]
Inventions#
Mei is a prolific inventor, who is always creating new mechanisms that can be used by others. Many of her inventions simply don't work properly or are even dangerous, but others are really useful support items.
Air Force Gloves: Special gloves that Mei created specifically for Izuku, which allow him to more efficiently create powerful air blasts with One For All while limiting the damage done.
Auto Balancers: A support item that takes the form of leg braces and a backpack. The function of this device is to prevent the wearer from falling, unless they intend to. Used by Tenya during their battle at the U.A. Sports Festival.
High Density Weights: A creation of Mei's, this device inhibits and drains speed and stamina of a user. This allows the user to fight on the same level as a weaker, less experienced opponent. Used by teachers during the First Term Final Exam to give students an advantage.[12]
Iron Soles: Support items she invented for Izuku. They serve both to enhance his kicks and to deal with the recoil, lessening the force that rebounds on him.
Jet Pack: A creation of Mei's, this device is a metal backpack with two turbines on the bottom part of the backpack that will activate when the wearer presses the activation switch. Used by Izuku during the Cavalry Battle.[7]
Sharpshooting Gear: Support items she created with Power Loader for Denki Kaminari. Allows Denki to use his electricity more efficiently without endangering his allies.
Power Suit: A mechanical suit that senses muscle contraction and aids in movement. Mei's forty-ninth invention.[9]
Electric Booster: A speed booster that generates minimum heat. Mei's thirty-sixth invention.[9]
My Adorable Baby: A robot suit with iron soles. Unintentionally explosive. Mei's two hundred second invention.
Battles & Events#
U.A. Sports Festival Arc U.A. Sports Festival Obstacle Race Cavalry Battle Tenya Ida vs. Mei Hatsume U.A. School Festival Arc U.A. School Festival
Chapter Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
m
f
yes
yes
flash
flash
p
yes
yes
yes
flash
flash
yes
yes
flash
flash
flash
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Anime Appearances#
debut
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
sc
flash
f
flash
flash
yes
yes
flash
p
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
f
flash
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
flash
yes
Trivia#
- Mei's name comes "invention" and "eyes", but the second and third kanji have switched positions.
- In the first Popularity Poll, Mei ranked twentieth, which ties her with Toru Hagakure.
- According to Mei's Volume 4 profile:
- Mei's favorite food is chocolate.
- Mei likes the steampunk style, as evidenced by her usual gadgetry.
- She was originally going to be a boy, but Horikoshi changed her gender because he thought Mei being a girl would be more interesting.
- According to Mei's Ultra Analysis profile:
- Within four months since enrolling into U.A., Hatsume has invented over 200 support items. However, the bulk of them had to be scrapped, which makes up most of her failed invention heap.[9]
- Her big marketing stunt in the Sports Festival paid off, as most of the support companies being represented there reached out to her after the event.
- Her personality describes her as being an "undaunted challenger".
- Mei ranked in the top sixteen of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
- Mei's Power Suit could be a reference to the prototype battle suit developed by Justin Hammer, shown near the beginning of the movie Iron Man 2. This suit accidentally twisted the torso section through one hundred eighty degrees, possibly killing the test pilot (although Hammer claims he was injured but recovered). Luckily for Izuku, Mei disabled her suit before it twisted too far.
- Mei's Japanese voice actress, Shiori Sakurai, also voices Moko Tamashi.
Quotes#
- (To Power Loader) "Heh heh heh... Failure is the mother of invention, Power Loader-sensei. Thomas Edison once said that. Just cuz a creation doesn't work as intended doesn't mean the effort is wasted..."[13]
- (To Tenya about using his arms instead of his legs) "If you want to cool your legs, all you have to do is just run with your arms!"[14]