WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 3, "Clash! Class A Vs. Class B!" of My Hero Academia, now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
Hitoshi Shinso made his on-screen debut in My Hero Academia during the U.A. Sports Festival arc, where he showed off his remarkable Brainwashing Quirk in a tense duel with protagonist, Izuku Midoriya. For the longest time, Hitoshi lamented his un-heroic Quirk and failure to get into classes 1-A or 1-B, but his fortunes are turning around at last. As of Episode 3 of Season 5, he has his own All Might in Shota Aizawa/Eraserhead.
Hitoshi Shinso & Izuku Midoriya Find Their Mentors
Even the most talented and powerful students at U.A. need teachers and mentors, and Izuku knew right away that he needed proper rivals and role models to boost his career along, not just sheer willpower or the "power of friendship." Izuku was practical enough to accept an internship with the retired hero Gran Torino -- All Might's former teacher. Izuku is rapidly catching up to Shoto Todoroki or Katsuki Bakugo despite his slow start, and Hitoshi has a similar opportunity.
Izuku has All Might and Gran Torino to look after him, and now, Hitoshi has a similar role model in Aizawa -- whose position to Hitoshi's own is remarkably similar. When Aizawa was a U.A. student, he struggled in live-fire tests, since his Erasure Quirk offered him no physical offensive or defensive power. All he could do was negate the Quirks of others with his eyes. Eventually, Aizawa developed into a tricky support fighter who can take down an opponent without laying a finger on them. Using his Quirk effectively and combining it with his many gadgets and combat training, Aizawa made a name for himself.
While Hitoshi's Brainwashing ability doesn't inherently offer him a physical edge against opponents, he can outmaneuver his enemies -- using his power to trick them into fighting each other or other such actions. Hitoshi can operate like Aizawa, emphasizing stealth, planning and trickery over brute force. Not all heroes need to be skyscraper-smashing powerhouses, nor should they be.
Hitoshi Shinso's New Game Plan
Episode 3 of My Hero Academia's fifth season clarifies how far Hitoshi has come and how strong his resolve is. At first, he merely lamented his Quirk's villainous nature and tried to take out his frustration on Izuku during their Sports Festival match. Now, he's become more constructive and pro-active, like a true U.A. student. He has recognized Shota Aizawa as the ideal mentor -- even adopting his signature binding wraps. Hitoshi acknowledges he is multiple steps behind classes 1-A's and 1-B's students in combat training and experience, but there's no time like the present to change that.
All this came as a pleasant surprise to the characters, who are eager to welcome Hitoshi into their training battles to see what he can do. Hitoshi has a practical and mature attitude about his position right now, and better yet, he has a fancy device/ability of his own: Persona Chords. With it, he can imitate someone else's voice and trick an enemy into responding to what they thought was their ally speaking to them.
During the first combat training battle, Hitoshi imitated Kosei's voice to trick Jurota Shishida into falling for his Quirk. Though we're yet to see how his team will capitalize on this advantage, Hitoshi's progress is as clear as his ambition to become a hero, and Aizawa must be proud.
