I made this blog to talk about language because I find it fun and fascinating, so while I'm not thrilled to acknowledge 431 any more than I have to, there's really hilarious shit happening in this scene and the people need to know.
So, the first fucking thing we hear outta Katsuki's mouth is this:
"Jeez, why the hell do I gotta be Deku's private little chauffeur!"
There are a few ways you could translate this. It's an indignant complaint with some rudeness, but comparatively mild for Katsuki. Some people might rephrase this to something more like "why do I gotta drive Deku's ass around" but I'm keeping the original, possessive grammar of デクのアッシー (Deku no asshii) because I think it highlights an important implication.
Sooooo... the word Katsuki uses here アッシー (asshii) is uniquely loaded slang.
Jisho.org
This term originates from Japan's bubble economy era of the late 80s and saw continued use through the 90s. During the economic bubble, the unemployment rate was very low; the related increased presence of women in the workplace led to a cultural perspective that women were gaining social power and financial independence.
From this new social dynamic emerged several terms:
Asshii-kun, Messhii-kun, and Mitsugu-kun.
English Journal, written by University of Kitakyuushuu linguistics professor Anne Crescini
There's also the lesser known Tsunagu-kun, who hooks up electronics for a woman, and Keep-kun, a "backup boyfriend" for when a woman's preferred partner dumps her.
A couple Japanese websites I looked at talked about luxury vehicles gaining in popularity during this time, so Asshii-kun are associated with expensive sports cars, something Katsuki is probably referencing since his car is fancy as fuck!
It's not a well known term anymore, to the point that I saw a number of jpn fans joking about having to look up what it means, haha. Katsuki's dialogue often has interesting, unusual word choices, and of course, reigning queen of up-to-date slang Camie teased him about his delinquent shtick being "out of fashion"!
In that journal article, Crescini explores English terms which roughly convey the same meaning as asshii. I've used google translate here to show you what is written, so let's take a look!
O--oh.
Oh.
fdkjslhsmh;lkshm;
LISTEN I WAS TRYING TO BE FUCKING EMPIRICAL AND SHIT
oh. is that right.
yeah
yeah he is
FYI shiri ni shikarareru of course carries the implication of a man being dominated or bossed around by his wife.
Now, on social media, I saw people (likely in their 40s and 50s) using the term jokingly to describe having to chauffeur someone around for errands. It was mostly men talking about their wives, but there were a couple instances of it being used for friends and family members. It definitely has the energy of "being forced to drive someone around without getting anything in return."
But notice that Katsuki voices this complaint about Izuku specifically, even though Kirishima is also in the car. Like yeah, he yells about Kirishima threatening to scratch his car, but he doesn't fucking call himself Kirishima's asshii!
He could have used a plural "you" pronoun or even pluralized Izuku's name with Deku-tachi to make it "Deku and the people with him," but no, it's "Deku's asshii."
Tell me, Kacchan, when it comes to Izuku, are you hoping to get something in return?
"If somebody'd just said the words 'I wanna surpass Dynamight,' I'd have taken 'em."
"You ain't gonna give up teaching?"
date me date me date me fucking do hero work with ME Izuku be a hero with ME
[sigh...]
"Man, you got dumped, huh, Bakugou!!"
Listen. My jaw dropped when I saw Kirishima say this.
Weblio (google translated)
This definition specifies "amorous feelings of being in love" (恋愛感情). I'm not joking when I say I've almost exclusively heard this word used for rejected confessions or couples breaking up.
Japanese Stack Exchange question, "Can フラれて be used in any non-romantic sense?"
The Japanese example sentence describes a business proposal being immediately rejected. The comedy here is inherently tied to the verb being used for romantic rejection, like someone saying "I applied for a promotion, but those fickle hiring managers went and broke my heart."
Even if you aren't literally suggesting romantic love, the association makes it sound over the top and dramatic.
Kirishima is drawing attention to how serious and emotionally invested Katsuki is in making this offer and affectionately teasing him for it. Note that he doesn't just use the simple past tense for this verb (フラれた), which would have sounded direct and not particularly sympathetic. He's using a [verb] + shimau construction (further contracted as slang to "-chimatta") which makes it a "regrettable" outcome, like an "aww man!"
You can add that construction to any verb and it would sound funny/sympathetic, so he could have phrased it differently:
断られちまった ("You got turned down," common word used for all kinds of rejection)
拒められちまった ("You got denied," used for romantic, platonic, and familial relationships)
撥ね付けられちまった ("You got totally rejected," used for when someone coldly or flatly rejects an offer or request)
撃沈しちまった ("You got shot down," uses battleship sinking imagery for failure in daily life, business ventures, romance, hopes and dreams, etc.)
轟沈しちまった ("You got crushed," similar to above, but more severe and instantaneous sinking: instant kill, KO, torpedoed, etc.)
The last few in particular are very dramatic and humorous, so they would work well if Kirishima wanted to joke about the speed or bluntness of Izuku's refusal.
BUT NO.
DUDE USED THE VERB SPECIFICALLY ASSOCIATED WITH ROMANTIC REJECTION, which centers the feelings of heartbreak and disappointment.
He is commiserating with Katsuki for "putting his heart on the line" and getting the cold shoulder, and then he fucking wingmans for Katsuki by spelling it all out to Izuku!!
You can say all you want "it's just lighthearted banter, they're joking!" Sure. You're right, this is a funny scene.
But the joke is that Izuku is a cute girl Katsuki keeps trying (and failing) to woo. That he's taking advantage of Katsuki's feelings for him and stringing him along.
The joke is that Katsuki wants Izuku at his hero agency so bad, the rejection is essentially on the level of getting dumped or having your love confession rejected.
The joke is that Izuku is completely oblivious when it comes to love.
oh interesting doesn't that sound familiar
LITERALLY EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS NERD WOULDN'T NOTICE LOVE IF IT PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE
'cause Katsuki already tried that one
But I will say, for all Katsuki's complaints, the problem is obviously not a lack of reciprocation. The problem is that Izuku doesn't recognize what Katsuki feels for him. He doesn't get what Katsuki is trying to express to him. He can't answer honestly if he doesn't even understand the question.
The comedic parts of MHA are often wrapped up in important plot points and messages. Sure, it's funny, but why does that mean we're supposed to dismiss it?
Also, Kirishima says this:
"Midoriya sure is dense when it comes to these things."
その辺 (sono hen) is a perfectly ordinary phrase for "that area," "that topic," "in that regard," or "around there," and I wouldn't think anything of it if not for this next bit:
"On that note, what about you guys?"
They are talking about the Class B students who started dating, and Sero uses the same phrase to ask whether Jirou and Kaminari are a couple. Again, this isn't unusual, and if these moments were separated by whole chapters, it would not read as notable in any way. その辺 is a common enough phrase that it's not something you could pin down as a "thematic phrase" or anything like that.
But the repetition struck me. Sero could have said, そういえば (speaking of which, now that you mention it, on that subject), this is a very common sentence starter, but he also could have said things like 付き合ってといえば (speaking of dating) to be more specific.
In this conversation, その辺 is framed as the topic of dating or romance by the preceding remarks. Meanwhile, the "topic" Kirishima suggests Izuku is thickheaded about is only really defined by his own previous comment...
which framed Katsuki's rejection as romantic heartbreak.
anyway
here's the funniest translation of Katsuki's asshii comment I could think of:
"Jeez, why do I gotta be Deku's vehicular bitch boy!"
Chapter 431 analysis. why everyone drew the wrong conclusions.
When the first spoiler frames from the volume came out, hell on earth began, some shippers rejoiced at the canonization, others cursed Horikoshi.
I was initially going to say that all these wishes of dirty things towards the author are very ugly: at first, when 430 came out, the Katsudeku shippers rejoiced, and the Izuochi shippers wrote Horikoshi curses, and now it's the opposite, and I would like to ask him to behave decently.
I was also upset by the leaks, not only because I liked the other ships, but also because I never saw Deku's romantic chemistry with Ochako, and I hate the trope "a good girl is in love with the main character, he doesn't think about her, but in the end they get married"
BUT then the whole chapter came out. And no. In the finale, there is no Izuocha as a canonization at all. At all. And it’s not about the ships, but about the fact that many people didn’t understand what the author wanted to say. It's just that some have already gotten wound up and drunk from the "canonization", while others have started to wind themselves up with their disappointment and savor it, pulling things onto it that don't actually confirm their disappointment", that is, we have a crowd effect.
At first, without context, only by spoilers (it has already been confirmed that some of them are false), it seemed romantic in itself. That is, out of context, you can see how the hero notices a girl at a party after the timeskip, and can't take his eyes off her
But in the whole chapter, this page followed this.
And Deku doesn't look in love here, he looks... scared.
What moments before this does this page refer to and parallelize?
And these? Deku, Tsuyu notice that Ochako is very ill and she hides her pain, and forces herself to smile.
And this is what parallels this image, which is confirmed by the context of the whole chapter from the very beginning: Ochako is in pain.
8 years of pain and abscess and this is referenced in her conversation with Tsuyu before the party
Next: Deku runs to Ochako as he ran after the war: to save her, he saw that his friend needed saving and urgently.
Ochako herself. You might think that this frame is a confirmation that she still loves Deku.
But the whole chapter had a completely different context.
She remembers this moment as if out of a desire to remember it and feel it again, as if wanting to deceive herself that it is still like that. Just pay attention to the frames: Ochako is shown alone in the crowd, her gait is unsteady, she remembers things that happened 8 years ago out of nostalgia and most likely her wishes will be deceived, that she still has this feeling, because she feels empty. That's why she remembers her conversation with Izuku in chapter 428: Ochako longs for salvation again.
In some form, she gets this salvation when in her head she pushes herself on behalf of Toga to live on.
In some way, there is a romantic subtext here, Uraraka on behalf of Toga tells herself that she should let her go and try to experience something else, she herself feels a romantic subtext here, remembering her feelings, but are they in love with each other at the moment?
VERY, very unlikely
And, so as not to accuse me, I'm not even a Togarako shipper, because I don't like Toga.
Then the fandom carried on and everyone was charged by each other: Izuku left Bakugo and did not go with him to the agency.
But A) it goes without saying that he always wanted to be on equal terms with Kacchan, and compete on equal terms, so he wants to quickly become an independent hero.
B) and this is the most important thing.
The car and their conversation in the car, which was not in the Friday spoilers, and most importantly the context of this conversation.
During the discussion between Kirishima, Katsuki and Izuku that Deku did not agree to work with Katsuki in the same agency, Deku looks at the signed card with All Might and smiles softly and thoughtfully. It would seem: Deku is happy for his friend
But the Context.
This is the same card that was next to Katsuki when he died, and Izuku saw him dead. And Izuku considered himself guilty of his death, that he was not there to protect him, he did not manage to arrive in time to save him, he allowed Toga to drag him into the portal, he was distracted, he did not save.
Deku considers himself - guilty.
And this is exactly what goes in the context of the conversation about Izuku not agreeing to be with him in the same agency, although he himself once wanted it. Izuku still thinks that he is too Guilty to be near Katsuki.
Hence his running away from him, which Katsuki reads as if he is no longer needed.
But who is Deku? The one who was told to keep his heart under lock and key in order to be the heir of One for All. The one who suppressed his emotions since childhood, and made others always believe that he was okay.
And no, this doesn't mean that Deku doesn't care about Kacchan and doesn't love him (in what sense it doesn't matter), Deku thinks that Katsuki would be better off without him and doesn't understand at all how much he hurts Katsuki.
Deku - hides his pain after all the traumas of the war still behind a smile on his face, and this is exactly what Uraraka does in the same chapter. That is why Izuku immediately notices that something is wrong with her at the party, because he feels the same way.
The very context of how he looks at Uraraka, the guys discuss couples and a happy life, but what Deku remembers before turningon Ochaka? Shigaraki and his injury.
About Deku's blushing: when they clash, he probably blushes because of the sexual context, but during the promise to spend more time with Ochako, this is most likely not the case: it's a promise to save her and shame for himself for not noticing that she needed help earlier, as well as some kind of "self-conviction", when a person tries to convince himself of something that he can handle or deceive himself, his face often heats up: after all, Deku can't "save" himself.
That's why he is the one who reads Uraraka's feelings, their traumas are similar. And as a hero who can't stand aside when someone is in trouble, he runs to give her what she needs: help and salvation.
This is not a chapter about the canonization of ships, these are the traumas that haunt them already in adulthood and the story about them.
I think about these guys… if besides the Thistle's dungeon there were other active dungeons (dungeon lords), and they clearly were. Then after the lion's appetite was eaten, their power should have ceased to exist at once, and without explanation. They were stunned. I like the theory that some of them were saved by Mithrun before the end of the manga, but…
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