431 is irrelevant and it’s dumb as hell to rewrite your reading of the series to account for its bullshit.
It exists because Horikoshi is a failure and idek why everyone in eng fandom wants to blame Izuku for that.
fyi this post is made up of two parts—the first is for roasting Mr. Horikoshit, and the second is a play by play of how everybody has always been wrong about who Izuku even is, because damn, you know, in hindsight my blog was basically dedicated to debunking eng fandom’s stupid ideas about Izuku. consider this second bit an annotated bibliography.
First, the main thing I wanna say is that I ain’t watching the OVA, because it is a meaningless adaption of some shit Horikoshi churned out simply because he is incapable of matching the production level of his peers.
For the last 3 years of MHA’s serialization, Horikoshi managed on average a scant 15 pages per week, which is 20% less than all of his peers. Whether they were drawn by longtime veterans or debuting newbies who got axed after a year or two, basically every other series consistently released 19 pages of material or more on a weekly basis. Only one series I looked into had fallen to similarly low page counts week-to-week. Horikoshi has admitted that his editor had to negotiate with WSJ to allow him to produce such a low page count every week, because whenever he attempted more, he failed to complete the chapter and made life hard for everyone downstream of him in publishing. He openly stated that his editor asking him to add just 2 pages to one of Toga’s final chapters was a dire fucking request that, if Horikoshi failed to deliver yet again, could have serious consequences for the editor professionally.
And yet the whole eng fandom threw regular parasocial pity parties for Horikoshi, going wehhh it’s such a hard and stressful life. Yeah, and he chose it. He’s a goddamn adult. He could have pitched to a monthly shounen magazine, but no, he chose to publish with WSJ because like every other male mangaka filled with hubris from a young age, he wants to be bigger than One Piece. I ain’t gonna pity a guy who successfully got work with the publisher of his dreams and then proceeded to trip over his own dick week after week for years. To be honest, 431 dropped the scales from my eyes and I realized my own admiration of this dude was deeply flawed and naive.
The final arcs of MHA were not drawn to their full potential nor do they function to meet the needs of the story, they were materially constrained by Horikoshi’s inability to produce the minimum amount of work expected of an artist in his position.
If the final 8 chapters of MHA had just 4 more pages each—comparable to every other regular release in WSJ—431 would not even exist. He would not have had a 38 page deficit in the final tankōbon he needed to fill. Hell, if the last 20 chapters had just 2 pages more each, this wouldn’t have happened. Izuku's final battle chapters might not have felt like a weird fever dream with cheap cliffhangers. The epilogue chapters would have better pacing and, who knows! Maybe they would have lightly touched on some important moments we all expected to happen! You know, like they did in the anime, because Horikoshi knew he fucked up and had to add shit! Just some bare minimum expansion on literally any emotional conclusion!
Anyway, onto Izuku.
I'm writing this bit because, for a long time, I tried to write Izuku character meta that expressed my perspective on him, and over and over again I found myself having to address what felt like willfully mean interpretations of him. It was exhausting and left me unsatisfied.
After being immersed in jp fandom for several years and seeing fanworks by people who adore Izuku, I realized that much of English speaking fandom just straight up hates him. Even if they don't, they seem to like him for traits that don't materially exist in canon and themes they have misread into the series through blatant misinformation posts spread all over twitter by people who don't speak Japanese and don't understand Japanese culture pretending to be experts.
It took me a long time to realize just how badly misunderstood Izuku is, and that a huge swath of the questions sent to me in my askbox over the years were strangers trying to make me validate their bizarre misreading of his character. I spent my blog being as even-handed and intellectually generous with these misreadings as possible, and in some ways I regret that, because the end result seems to have primarily been people I completely disagree with using my posts as "proof" their extremely wrong opinions are correct, actually. So I'm just gonna be super explicit here.
1. Izuku tried to resolve the conflict with Katsuki many times without success; ergo, the narrative onus is not on him to mend their bond, it is on Katsuki. Blaming Izuku for not “appreciating” Katsuki’s growth “enough,” whatever that means, is unhinged and not rooted in respect for either character’s emotional journey.
Source: Bullying in Japan and how Izuku sees Katsuki’s behavior
2. Izuku cares deeply about Katsuki and is not meaningfully dismissive or inconsiderate towards him. These are wildly uncharitable misinterpretations of one of Izuku’s core traits—being kind-hearted but oblivious to how other people feel about him personally. This trait is not framed as malicious or harmful, but rather as a charming albeit exasperating quirk of the person shitty little nerd Izuku is. If you hate that, then you just don’t like Izuku.
Source: “Deku is fine, Kacchan”: Izuku is sincere and Katsuki is hilarious, 424: Katsuki’s confession and Izuku’s tenderness, that bkdk car conversation is really fucking gay
3. Izuku does not repress his feelings for Katsuki; he resolved his own misgivings about emulating Katsuki during DvK2. From then on, he sincerely receives each of Katsuki’s gestures of reconciliation out of respect for the fact that Katsuki is the one who pushed him away to begin with. Katsuki’s redemption is meaningful BECAUSE he is the active agent of it, making Izuku the passive recipient of Katsuki’s active pursuit. If you don’t like that and you want Izuku to be the one pursuing Katsuki somehow, you just don’t like their canon relationship or Katsuki’s character arc.
Source: Does Izuku Think His Feelings For Katsuki Are Gross? (or, DvK2’s Endless Emporium of Nuance)
4. Izuku isn’t some weird possessive psycho about Katsuki, and him learning self-control over his righteous anger is framed as positive character development. If you think self-control is bad, you misunderstood everything about “control your heart.”
Source: Did Izuku say, “Give him back TO ME”?, “Control your heart”: A Misunderstood Narrative
5. Most of what eng fandom seems to clamor for regarding Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship is rooted in fundamental misunderstandings about what the characters want and need from each other. There is plenty to be said about the glaring lack of emotional closure afforded to the end of the series and, specifically, Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship, but this ain’t it.
Source: Stories are driven by what the characters need (“why didn’t Izuku and Katsuki talk about [blank]?”)
6. Implied romance that lacks explicit confirmation is not new, nor is it an inferior approach to storytelling. A manga from conservative-ass WSJ is not going to give you your canon queer representation, but that doesn’t diminish the beauty of Katsuki and Izuku’s bond or the story. You don’t need Horikoshi’s approval to think gay thoughts about them.
Source: Implied romance in shounen manga, “Queer-coding” is only useful for a narrow range of media and it’d be great if we could stop using it for literally everything
431 exists to justify Horikoshi’s half-assed attempts to center ideas he introduced vaguely, late in the series, and did not develop at all. It flies in the face of everything that came before, and its primary goal is to make Ochako seem super duper important and heroic and deep while simultaneously gutting any trace of character development for her.
No one wants to admit it, but 429's whole "You're my hero" shit takes a scenario that could have been used to develop Izuku and bring real meaning to the question of how he can continue being a hero without OFA, and instead it stops the whole plot to glorify Ochako for *checks notes* saving Izuku from tripping and stuff.
We could have had a Deku vs. Kacchan 3-type scene where Katsuki challenges Izuku to see how his own heroic heart has always existed regardless of whether he had OFA or not, which would have been effective because one, Katsuki is always right, and two, Katsuki was the very first person to recognize Izuku for the hero he is back when they were kids. We could have had real, concrete exploration of what Izuku learned about being a hero and saving people, instead of, you know, what we got, which was a single solitary panel of Izuku staring blankly at Aizawa and his student with zero introspection available to the audience.
On her side of things, Ochako could have demonstrated real character growth by learning a single fucking thing from Toga and not repressing her feelings. Instead of regressing into a blubbering lying mess, she could have affirmed her own goals to live honestly in honor of Toga's memory and spend the rest of her life meaningfully reaching out to outcasts like her.
BUT GOD FORBID WE DEVELOP ANYTHING TO AN EMOTIONALLY SATISFYING CONCLUSION!!! NO, WE MUST JUSTIFY THE BAD WRITINGGGGGG.
Ochako and Izuku are both objectified for the sake of Horikoshi stroking his own ego. Izuku is turned into an "untouchable symbol of heroism" who isn't allowed to meaningfully reciprocate the feelings of anyone around him except Ochako, and that's the most "romance" Horikoshi could wring out of that shit. If you don't blame Ochako for how bad her writing is, you can't blame Izuku for his.
That's all I've got to say about it.
I want everyone to know that you don't have to think about 431 or the OVA, you don't have to care, and you can in fact ignore the drama and bellyaching about it. Stay off twitter, ignore people who've never recovered from it and want to let it make them miserable, do your own thing.
431 is so irrelevant, me having even said this much is far more than it deserves. The OVA got made to make money, which is exactly why they are animating the fanbook extra separately, too. The studio executives are just trying to milk the series for all it is worth because they made an investment. Corporations chasing advertising and merch money into infinity doesn't validate the material in any special way.
Over the last few years, I've immersed myself in doujinshi made by people who actually give a shit about Izuku and Katsuki and who WANT to explore their flaws, miscommunications, and yearnings for each other. These stories actually grapple with what Izuku losing his childhood dream and facing Tomura's death could mean for him in those intervening years. And man, that has been so refreshing and truly reinvigorated my love for these two. My advice to everyone is to find your bliss and stop lingering on the big shounen ending failure.
I heard that the japanese fans saying that bkdk was implied is it really true? Can you please explain?!! (I was pretty happy with the ending already, but if it's true I would be ecstatic 🧡💚💖)
I'm not really sure how to answer this. First, I'll direct you to this ask I answered previously about bkdk in the Japanese fandom.
And if you're talking about the same tweets from jpn fans I saw getting shared around, the majority of the comments clearly used emojis, euphemisms, and algorithm-disrupting nicknames for Katsuki and Izuku, which kind of immediately suggests the user is already a bkdk fan. So, I mean... do you go into shipping fan spaces, see people shipping, and decide that means everybody thinks those characters are dating? Probably not, right?
But now that we've got an ending, lemme say outright that bkdk is implied by the base structure of the story. By the characters' thematic arcs. By their words, values, goals, and actions. Regardless of what language they speak, no reader can walk away from MHA without understanding that Izuku and Katsuki are profoundly important to each other.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Izuku loves Katsuki. And by the end of his character arc, there is no way to read Katsuki's actions towards Izuku and not see love, either. The exact nature of that love is up to individual interpretation; this is common for stories outside the romance genre that have complex character relationships, and I encourage you to feel secure in your own reading without external validation.
But if you want to talk about validity, the fact that we don't see either of them say the words "I love you" out loud does not diminish a romantic interpretation.
Just for fun, let's talk a bit about some important history of "implied" romance in shonen manga.
(Spoilers for Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2.)
Takahashi Rumiko, one of the most successful and influential manga creators of all time, famously ended two of her heterosexual romantic comedy plotlines while denying readers a spoken, reciprocated "I love you."
In Urusei Yatsura, Lum spends the entire series actively pursuing Ataru and in the finale, she threatens to erase everyone's memories of her and her fellow aliens if he does not tell her he loves her. The situation makes it impossible for him to win and stop the memory erasing without saying it.
And he still refuses to say it.
He keeps trying to win and avoid losing his memory without saying it; she recognizes his devotion to her when she sees that all this time, he has been carrying something that reminds him of her.
Oh, look at that. I wonder who else spent a long time holding fast to something that represents the time they spent with their loved one?
Lum finally relents and allows Ataru to win, so everyone keeps their memories.
Each of them affirms the intention to be together forever, without using the words "I love you."
WOW I WONDER WHO ELSE WANTED TO BE LOCKED IN A COMBATIVE ENTANGLEMENT OF PURSUIT WITH THE PERSON THEY LOVE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
In Ranma 1/2, Ranma and Akane have been engaged to be married for the whole series, and at a pivotal moment, Ranma thinks the words "I love you," though he does not say them aloud.
Afterwards, Akane finally agrees to let the wedding take place with this as her reasoning:
And Ranma completely objects to having admitted this.
Akane is fucking right, fyi--ignoring everything else that happens in the series, Ranma rescuing her and crying over her injured body while yelling her name might as well be a confession.
Due to ensemble cast chaos, the wedding is postponed again at the end of the manga.
It is worth noting that these series are both in the romantic comedy genre, so their plot devices surrounding love are much more explicit, even if the final execution toys with our expectations. It makes the characters' real feelings obvious while keeping them true to their nature, because that's the core appeal of the relationship to begin with.
As I said, in manga that are not romances, these bonds are often more subtle.
When I said 424 was as good as a confession to me, this is part of why.
Katsuki says he thought they would be together for the rest of their lives. Izuku promises what he can, which is the time he still has the embers of OFA. He may think Katsuki is simply mourning a future where Izuku has OFA, which he can't get back.
In direct response to that exchange, for our finale, we find out Katsuki spent eight years arranging for Izuku to be a pro hero without OFA.
Katsuki beckons Izuku to his side, using the name that used to be an insult, but has since become Izuku's hero name. He reaches out his hand to Izuku, which the reader knows he has wanted to do for so long.
The last image we see might as well be them skipping off into the sunset together, side by side.
Am I supposed to see that as something other than love, just because all their friends are there, too? That seems kinda silly to me.
MHA emphasizes the collective, but that doesn't diminish the individual bonds within it. It goes out of its way to tell us this moment is possible because of Katsuki, because he wants Izuku beside him. We may not get our handhold here, but it is plain to see that Izuku accepts his invitation.
I'm not saying Horikoshi was directly inspired by Takahashi, but her works are an important piece of the narrative language of love within the shonen genre.
Art always reflexively harkens back to what came before it. Whether the creator intends it or not, the audience is reminded of what they've seen before in the cultural landscape of media. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for us to see bkdk as romantic is simply irrelevant to how any given reader is going to see it.
So, if you want permission to think Katsuki and Izuku are in love, you've got mine. tumblr user bakuhatsufallinlove sanctions this epic gay love story. Plus Ultra. You're welcome. <3
All right, listen. It’s pretty damn funny that two weeks ago I posted all like, “oh I don’t really comment chapter-by-chapter, I’m waiting to see what happens next,” but this one broke me.
This chapter was everything I wanted for bkdk, and it’s so much more tender than I ever dreamed it could be.
This post is not going to be like most of my posts, because I am a flood of emotion. If you’re wanting some detailed, well-researched analysis of this scene, that ain’t coming for a while.
I don’t have some kind of comparative linguistics to show you. I just have my visceral reactions as someone who speaks Japanese and has absorbed Japanese media for many years. I have shared my heart with others in Japanese, I’ve sputtered out words between sobs and felt the many kinds of comfort different people try to offer. I have comforted others who let themselves be vulnerable with me.
In all these moments, just as in English, I wondered if my words and feelings reached them. Each time, I felt the warmth of connection when they looked at me, and I decided that they knew I did my best. They accepted me, even if it wasn’t perfect.
I’m gonna tell you the truth, and I wouldn’t normally say this so directly, but it matters to me: the fan translation for this specific scene is not good. The tone is wildly off in some ways and it outright omits a number of very important words.
The official translation gets so much of it right.
But that’s not really what I want to talk about right now. I want to talk about how people are reading this scene.
I have seen a ton of, frankly, oblivious interpretations of Izuku’s side of things.
Listen to me. Izuku is not making fun of Katsuki for crying, he is not telling Katsuki that crying isn’t like him, that isn’t in the text at all. He is not rejecting Katsuki’s feelings, or belittling them, or ignoring them, or any of that.
Izuku has seen Katsuki cry in-canon a number of times, but every time it was over his own personal failures, and the frustration, anger, guilt, and grief associated with them. We see it in the aftermath of Deku vs. Kacchan 1. We see it during Deku vs. Kacchan 2.
Izuku is shocked to see Kacchan cry because this is the first time he has cried for Izuku.
When Katsuki apologized in 322, he looked Izuku in the eye and told him his feelings with conviction and poise. He was gentle and vulnerable, but strong, because he was asking Izuku to trust them and rely on them. To come back with them and believe in them, like they believe in Izuku. He bowed his head to show his remorse. He caught Izuku when he fell, and he accepted Izuku’s own apology.
He embodied dignity, sincerity, and strength of character. He was a true hero.
This?
This is the raw, honest sorrow of a young boy. It is a tender, earnest, unguarded display of how much Izuku means to him.
These are the tears you shed for someone you cherish. These are tears for when you think you are losing something you can’t live without. Because Katsuki isn’t just crying for the loss of Izuku’s dream—it’s their dream, the future they dreamt up together as kids.
Izuku is almost pathologically incapable of understanding how other people see him and feel about him, but this is unmistakable. He is stunned because there is no other explanation.
There is unmitigated heartache and longing at the core of Katsuki saying, “I just thought somehow we would be together like this, competing and chasing after each other, forever.”
And Izuku is reeling, but so, so touched, and filled with fondness. Look at how his shock shifts to this overwhelmed, affectionate smile.
He’s right—this isn’t the usual Katsuki, and that is precisely why it means so much. We as the audience have been privy to Katsuki’s feelings, but until now Izuku himself has never really grasped the depth of them. This is all the tenderness Katsuki has kept locked up inside, and he is letting Izuku see it for the first time.
To see Kacchan—strong, fierce, and absolutely unstoppable—shed these innocent, helpless tears for him and tell him through sobs that he wanted things to stay this way forever, I can’t blame him for being blown away.
I think Izuku expected Katsuki to be shocked and a little sad that he gave up OFA, both for Izuku’s sake and because it is the legacy of their hero. Before Katsuki even starts crying, Izuku has this small smile on his face, like he was ready to reassure him that he had made peace with his own choice.
But he clearly didn’t expect for Katsuki to weep openly in front of him about it or to confess to wanting him by his side. Izuku had so enjoyed just being allowed near Katsuki, allowed in his life at all—to think that Katsuki could want the same and want it this much, to the point that he worries that things would change, that Izuku would abandon him or deny him? How could that ever be?
In what world could Izuku ever stop chasing Kacchan?
Izuku is a bit of an idiot. He has always thought that Katsuki understood how much he cared for and admired him—that’s why he is so shocked during DvK2 to hear that Katsuki thought he looked down on him for years. Izuku thought Katsuki understood his feelings and simply rejected them.
The way he loves Kacchan is natural and unquestionable. Even now, he can’t understand how Katsuki doesn’t know. It’s baffling to him.
But he still accepts Katsuki’s vulnerability and responds to the intimacy.
This is such an affectionate, loving thing to say. Izuku is being so sweet. I cannot convey to you strongly enough how Izuku telling Katsuki, “C’mon, stop it, this isn’t like you!” reaffirms their closeness.
If Izuku had not said this line and instead skipped straight to this nervous, awkward little attempt at comfort here:
It would have read as so much more distant.
With his tears and his confession, Katsuki pleads with Izuku to not leave him. To be with him always.
And in response, Izuku unabashedly stakes his claim on their bond by being bold enough to affectionately scold him and even assert authority on what kind of person Katsuki is. Remember these?
Chapters 202 and 319
This is such a staple in Japanese media for showing close bonds. Your loved ones know you. They tease you. They scold you. They have that right. You gave it to them.
The people you love cheer you up by reminding you that you’re strong and brave and that even if things feel hopeless and like you can’t go on, that they know you can. Everything will be okay, and they know so because they’ll be right there with you. Of course they’ll be there.
Symbolically, throughout the series, Izuku’s response to Katsuki trying to be closer to him has always been: “Of course.”
He has always accepted Katsuki as much as he is able to, as much as he had awareness for. He is wildly lacking in self-awareness, so it’s certainly not perfect, but by god does he try.
What Izuku is really saying is a mixture of “Really? You want that, too?” and “Don’t be silly!”
One part is him being shocked and touched; the other is him being absolutely certain of his own heart, and showing it as best he can.
He does get flustered and self-conscious, though—because it’s overwhelming to see Kacchan this way, and this is kind of new territory for them. So he switches tactics to reassure Kacchan about how things are now, and make sure he doesn’t feel embarrassed about this outburst. He still has the embers, so it’s okay for now. And their bodies are weak, so of course their heads will be in a bad place too, it’s easy to get low spirits. Of course Katsuki would be feeling vulnerable. It’s normal.
He gives Katsuki so many things here. He gives him as much as he can.
Izuku doesn’t know how long he’ll have the embers for and, frankly, he doesn’t have any guarantee that he will be able to satisfy this longing of Katsuki’s after he loses them. This, too, is a staple of promises in Japanese media: “I don’t know if I can satisfy you, but I want to try. I hope you can accept me.”
Things will be different—the future is always uncertain, now more than ever for their world. But what will never change is what they feel in their hearts.
After this scene, I honestly don’t care if we get something other people see as “bkdk canon.”
What Katsuki says is as good as a confession to me. What Izuku says in return is genuine and pure. This is a messy pair of teenage boys figuring out how to reach each other with words, when they have always been so damn bad at it. This is the two of them both reaching a new point of intimacy and reaffirming everything that came before.
Somebody asked about my perspective on the bullying aspect of bkdk, so.
I want to talk for a minute about bullying in Japan. I mentioned in this post that Japanese people are generally socialized to avoid direct confrontation. This means people may not intervene in bullying or public mistreatment; there is also an element of social shame in being singled out. A teacher or concerned adult interfering with bullying may end up making things worse for the bullied child, because now, the child is a victim, separate from everyone else in the class, and they may end up being shunned by their peers (ostracization is also a common form of bullying).
Peers may also fear retribution for objecting. You see this in English-speaking countries as well, where a bullied child being defended makes them and any peer who objects a “weakling,” a “kiss-up,” “tattle-tale,” “teacher’s pet.” In fact, often a whole group gangs up on the victim and participates in bullying. We see this in the very first chapter of MHA, Katsuki mocks Izuku for wanting to take the U.A. entrance exam, and the entire classroom laughs and sneers at him.
Additionally, sometimes the non-confrontational approach and no-singling out incentive also mean that everyone in class just kind of pretends that the bullied child is “In on the joke,” and they laugh along or do not object. Onlookers may view the mistreatment as a private issue between the bully and the bullied that they must resolve on their own.
No culture has a solution for bullying. We all use our cultural context and our personal beliefs to discern how to respond, and this often manifests in unhealthy ways. In the US, a young boy protagonist being bullied in school and “learning to fight back” is an extremely common narrative. The lesson from American culture is that we must defend ourselves, even with violence—that learning to hurt other people is necessary and part of “becoming a man.” In Japan, a collectivist culture, the lesson might be closer to “don’t stand out and don’t bother others.”
I highly recommend everyone read this article about ijime in Japan.
Note the statistic that two thirds of all Japanese children report being bullied. Simultaneously, nearly half (46.9%) report having both been bullied and also bullying others. MHA takes place in a fictional Japan, but it is worth knowing that this is how things are in the real-world society MHA is published in. Suicides related to bullying are a prominent topic and the Japanese Ministry of Education has been trying to reduce bullying rates for years. Bullying is understood as a serious problem, but it is also known to be very common, something many people both experience and perpetuate.
Now, let’s talk about how Izuku personally feels about the way Katsuki treated him.
Izuku has an extremely strong sense of self. He is a determined, stubborn person, and we know this to be true even before he gets OFA: despite the entire world telling him he cannot be a Hero because he is Quirkless, he still plans to enroll in the Hero Course at U.A., even before he meets All Might. Since nearly all villains are going to have Quirks, this is… a horrifyingly dangerous path to walk, but Izuku does not care and is not dissuaded. Katsuki says that Izuku has always been self-sacrificing and not taken his own safety into account—this comment and the river memory suggest to me that this trait is unique to Izuku as a person and his own convictions, so I don’t think it is the result of Katsuki bullying him.
Izuku also sees Katsuki and his actions clearly. He doesn’t hesitate to describe Katsuki as an awful guy (嫌なやつ, iyana yatsu, you could even translate this as “asshole”); he notes Katsuki’s terrible qualities and his continued path down the road to being “bad.” In Japanese, he insults Katsuki several times with バカ野郎 (baka yarou, stupid jerk). Izuku has never been in denial about what Katsuki is like.
Izuku says during Deku vs. Kacchan 2 that normally, nobody would hang around a person who insults them all the time. He acknowledges all the bad parts of Katsuki, but then insists that Katsuki’s brilliance, his amazingness, is even stronger. Izuku sees all these incredible things about Katsuki more than he sees his terribleness.
Izuku has known Katsuki since they were little, since before Katsuki’s Quirk manifested. Katsuki was a cocky kid who liked to show-off, but he was not a bully until he manifested his Quirk and was suddenly exalted for his “incredible power,” while also developing his whole inferiority complex about Izuku being “better” than him. Izuku knows Katsuki has good inside him and that being an arrogant bully is not all there is to Katsuki, because he has seen it firsthand.
In my opinion, if Katsuki’s behavior is viewed by outsiders as a private issue between the two of them, then Izuku himself views it as Katsuki’s issue, not his own. “This is just how Kacchan acts.” Izuku is definitely hurt by Katsuki’s cruelty, but I do not believe that he internalizes this as a reflection on himself necessarily. I think Izuku has felt hurt and angered by Katsuki’s behavior because he hates that this special person he admires and cares about so much could stoop that low. We see this in chapter 62 when Izuku punches Katsuki for saying he’d rather lose than accept Izuku’s help—Izuku isn’t offended by the put-down, he is furious that his image of victory could be so petty that he would accept defeat.
Izuku had already forgiven Katsuki before chapter 322. I think Izuku never expected an apology, and in his own head, he didn’t really need one, because all he wants is to be able to stand next to Katsuki. Izuku wants to be the number one hero, so he does want to surpass his image of victory, but… he also just really wants to be with Katsuki. He wants to talk with him and spend time with him, he wants to fight by his side and see him be amazing up-close and personal. Because Izuku loves Katsuki. He just does. Whether you view it as platonic or romantic, it is pretty hard to say that the depth of emotion Izuku feels for Katsuki isn’t love.
For better or worse, as human beings we tend to forgive the people we love for things we would never accept from anyone else. We give the people we love second chances, and we see the best in them even when it is hard to, when no one else can. Izuku knows Katsuki has done unacceptable things, but he still sees Kacchan in there, and that matters more to him.
Both Horikoshi and Katsuki’s voice actor, Okamoto Nobuhiko, have repeatedly said that Katsuki was terrible and unlikable early in the series because of how he treated others, particularly Izuku, and that he is only became likable because of his humanity. Because he changes, matures, and tries to redeem himself. Horikoshi directly said that despite Katsuki’s character having improved, he still needs to apologize to Izuku, and in chapter 322, this is what we get.
That Izuku does not hold a grudge against Katsuki is precisely what makes Katsuki’s redemption so meaningful. The impetus behind Katsuki’s atonement is his own conscience. Sometimes, people forgive us even when they probably shouldn’t. They give us a second chance, even when we probably didn’t deserve one. Katsuki knows Izuku doesn’t resent him, but he wants to do right by Izuku, and that means being a better person, being there when Izuku needs him, protecting Izuku when no one else will. It means admitting what he has done and truly apologizing for it.
I wanted to talk about the severity and frequency of bullying in Japan not to downplay Katsuki’s actions, but to emphasize that this is both a societal issue and a personal one. If people believe that Katsuki can never atone for the cruel things he did as a little kid and a middle schooler, if you think he will never be anything but a bully, then… half of the population of Japan is also irredeemable. How are young people in Japan supposed to feel if the moral of Katsuki’s story is “once a bully, always a bully”?
If we can’t see value in the redemption of a fictional character from a story about prejudice and social inequality, how can we forgive real people for their mistakes? Nobody has to like Bakugou Katsuki as a character, but I do find the way his story is talked about pretty troubling.
MHA is fundamentally about discrimination and social strife: Who is a villain? Who is a hero? When the world treats us a certain way, are we to blame for how we react? Do you turn a blind eye to people who are inconvenient to you, who you think don’t belong in society, who seem irredeemable? How can we even begin to change a world like this?
Izuku says repeatedly that having done wrong does not mean you can never be good again. Atonement is not denial of wrongdoing; it is the resolve to make restitution and do right by others. This is why Katsuki’s story is important, and why his bond with Izuku is both well-written and genuinely beautiful.
Dynamight and Deku are on night patrol together, but there seems to have been a certain incident...
The full mini comic is done finally!! (after almost a year) it's my fault, it was supposed to be black and white but then I colored the first panel, and then I liked the colors too much 💔 and colored the whole thing...
It's a sweet moment between them haha I love this flavor of oblivious and clumsy bkdk 🙂↕️
Thanks to everyone who joined me on ptreon! I will keep posting wips of more projects of animations and comics I'm working on, so if you're interested check it out 😉
So this is the moment that Arthur chose Merlin over his father. No, really. I mean, I know Uther was all poltergeisty and tried to kill Gwen too, and Percival for that matter. But it was Merlin who was about to get the business end of a sword. And Arthur basically said: no. No to the last vestige of his father, no to the hope of seeing him ever again, no to ever gaining his approval. And yes to Merlin. Even cutting off Uther in the middle of what he was saying. Because Arthur was done, though it killed him. And Merlin knew what Arthur was giving up in that moment. He’s not crying for himself, he’s crying for Arthur. For Arthur saving him. For Arthur chosing him.
So yeah. I like this moment. This is a good moment. And one of my favorite episodes of Series 5, for so, so many reasons.
"Biting Sunrise" (1/1)
[bkdk mer au]
Bakugou mer finds Deku up even before the sun, with contemplative thoughts about the year. He reminds him to focus on the light right in front of him.
Happy New Year
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