do you think horikoshi's level of "not giving a fuck" its high enough for making a canon gay couple? (ships aside)
Yes, It’s Possible For Boku no Hero Academia To Have a Canon Gay Couple
Horikoshi is at least aware of LGBT rights based on this moment with Magne.
and based on him creating a canon trans character.
Horikoshi is a progressive writer and handles a lot of mature topics better than most shounen authors. He reminds me a little of Togashi, the shounen author of HunterxHunter. Togashi and his wife both support LGBT rights, and Togashi has made a prominent character trans, and there are a lot of characters in HunterxHunter whose sexuality or gender are shrouded in mystery. The reason why I think these two authors are so similar is because both handle sensitive material rather maturely and both have confirmed LGBT characters.
Plus, if Attack on Titan can have a canon gay couple, then Boku no Hero Academia should be able to get away with having a canon gay couple with time. LGBT rights keeps improving in Japan every year, and Boku no Hero Academia still has years to go before concluding. LGBT rights most likely will have lots of support years from now in Japan by the time the series ends. In fact, Japan has improved tremendously with LGBT rights already. The lives of the LGBT community has become better, there are more LGBT characters in Japanese media, the younger generation in Japan is especially supportive of LGBT individuals, and Japanese culture in general has become more LGBT-inclusive. In fact, a group of Japanese politicians just last week have formed a coalition for LGBT rights, and there are news of Japanese corporations becoming more LGBT-inclusive. Being gay in Japan is becoming less taboo everyday.
Hypothetically, let’s say Horikoshi wants to make Bakugou and Kirishima a canon gay couple, but Shounen Jump won’t allow it. If that’s the case, Horikoshi can simply give both Bakugou and Kirishima lots of intimate moments, make them follow a bunch of romance tropes, give them no other love interests, and even have them become life partners by the end of the series, leaving the romance of their relationship up to interpretation. That would be extremely close to having a canon gay couple without explicitly confirming it. Something similar to this happened with the main characters of the JRPG Tales of Zesteria.
I think it’s too easy and too simple to say there can never be a canon gay couple in Boku no Hero Academia just because it’s a shounen. People aren’t taking other factors into account. Horikoshi isn’t your standard shounen author. I’m not saying Horikoshi will create a canon gay couple because I don’t know what the hell he’ll do. I can’t make that kind of claim. I’m just saying it’s definitely possible.
