In My Hero Academia, Doctor Kyudai Garaki—also known as Daruma Ujiko and Doctor Tsubasa—is a deranged scientist who works for the Paranormal Liberation Front. He created monstrous creatures with the ultimate goal of killing Earth’s mightiest hero, All Might.
His creations include Nomu and High Ends. While they are both essentially Frankenstein’s monsters, there are differences that set these monsters apart.
What is Nomu?
Nomu is a mindless creature created from the corpse of a dead human. He is only able to take orders from his creator and kills without hesitation. In the popular anime, it is revealed that Doctor Tsubasa created multiple Nomus. They have their brains exposed on the outsides of their heads. Due to the experiments they underwent, Nomus have a number of quirks (powers) because they had DNA from four different people injected into them.
The quirks inside the original Nomu include immense speed, strength, shock absorption, and regeneration. The other Nomus have different quirks, depending on the DNA they were injected.
What is a High End?
The maniacal scientist wasn’t satisfied with regular Nomu, so he created 12 intelligent versions known as High Ends. The first of its breed is named Hood, an ultra-powerful monster capable of damaging even the strongest heroes. Like the regular Nomus, Hood’s quirks include immense speed, strength, and regeneration, even going as far as decapitating himself and launching his head to safety to save himself. Unlike regular Nomus, High Ends don’t just blindly take orders but can think, speak, and fly.
Although Nomus were created with nonspecific corpses, High Ends are handpicked by Doctor Garaki, choosing the corpses of the most violent and intelligent people.
Similarities and differences
Besides being created from corpses with similar strength and speed, both High Ends and Nomus are both vulnerable to head wounds. In other words, if their brains are destroyed, they die. However, High Ends are smarter, faster, and stronger than regular Nomus, and it takes multiple heroes to take down one High End.
Since they are both dead creatures, look at it this way: Regular Nomus are like zombies while High Ends are like vampires. Both are technically dead, but only one can still speak and think.