Why Ochako Is Actually a Big BadAss
When this past chapter came out, there wasn’t material enough in it for me to really write my thoughts on. To me, it was the class just being adorable and I want to wait til next week to talk about the new Big Three that appeared (also who saw the memes for them? My friend just showed me and I died of laughter.)
Instead, I’ve been rereading the manga (more specifically the sports festival) and the past chapter happened had Ochako’s outburst about the festival and it almost made me upset to see the reactions that were given to it. I remember going through the tag and seeing quite a few people reacting to that outburst as “OMG SHE WAS SOOOO CUTE” or “OMGGGG SO FUNNYTTT”. Of course, I am exaggerating this a lot but the fact there were no more in depth thoughts on it and it kinda made me a bit sad and now that I’m reading that festival stuff again, I just had to put down my thoughts somewhere.
I’ve said this before and I will repeat myself until the day I die: While Ochako’s character is based on her being cute and bubbly and the most adorable gal in the entire universe, she’s so much more than that. She’s more complex than the fandom makes her out to be and I wish more people saw that.
Now, in my Why Ochako is Actually A Complex Character post, I talked about this complexity a bit with how she handles her emotions and more specifically on how she displays this to others. However, I did not talk about how much of a determined individual she is and really how feisty she is (like this girl can be Bakugou fierce ok?).
To start, when the whole Sports Festival came into play, after the stakes of the festival were told to the class, this is precisely how Ochako acted (which definitely caught the rest of the class off guard)
Now, of course I know that it was displayed as an act of comic relief, especially with how expressive she is during all of that but I personally see it as something more about her character that Horikoshi was just trying to mix with the silly cute aspect part of it, especially since we get this scene later one (I stg I have this scene stamped in my memory):
Already in a chapter, Horikoshi showed us that Ochako is a supremely determined individual who has absolutely no chill when it comes to things that would affect not only her goals but the situation with her family.
I mean, in the festival, we got a small glimpse of that with her waiting to use a secret move (which btw, she hasn’t used yet and Im dying for that day)
And here she is being all determined in some other panels (which you can even see her suppressing her emotions once more as she tells Deku congrats for winning first)
And then we get to her fight with Katsuki, which OH BOY really shows how far her determination and feistiness can go. And honestly so much happens in this fight that truly does characterize who Ochako is and how strong she is.
I mean to start, she gives off a Katsuki like sentence to push away the statement he made earlier.
And then it’s so interesting and I see so many people overlook this but look at what she does.
She acknowledges that the fight is bad and the situation surrounding it isn’t completely ideal YET she shoves down those feelings of fear and apprehension and still continues to display herself as this strong woman that isn’t intimidated by Katsuki whatsoever (which kind of ties into her reaction in the newest chapter).
And then of course, here are two pages in that same chapter that really display this fire that she has within herself and how she’s kind of similar to Katsuki in that she isn’t one to back down without really putting up a fight (even if the fight that is something that terrifies her or even makes her a bit uneasy).
What makes all of this incredible too is that Katsuki not acknowledges her by the middle of the fight
But she even crosses his mind when he fights Todoroki when he says this
Yes, my good old gravitational stars, Katsuki even acknowledges the strength and ambition that Ochako has that maybe only Deku might have noticied (even then maybe not too much).
And she doesn’t just show this fierceness in this fight. She shows it not only when she fights 13 with Yuuga but also when she fights with Toga during the training camp (and yes I am referring to the infamous panel of Ochako)
So we get to the little scene from this past chapter where everyone went on the cute train with it.
Now, to me, I saw this scene a bit more than just her being the precious little princess she normally portrays herself out to be. To me, the way I saw it was a girl who clearly was affected by the Sports Festival. As we saw, Ochako took the festival I personally believe much more serious than the rest of the class. For her, this was a real chance for her to show off her skills and how strong of an individual she is. Since they made the Sports Festival to be something of utter importance, she completely put away any fears or apprehension she had and fought to the extreme and even showed up how insane her powers go and just really how determined she can get when it involves her family. So to be told that the festival didn’t matter I’m sure had to have been a slap in the face to her because it would have pretty much told her, “Hey, all the efforts and shit that you put yourself through to really further your goals? Yea doesn’t mean anything at the end.” Yea not a nice way to look at it and not a nice way to interpret your actions during that time period.
Alright so I kind of went everywhere with this but the point I’m trying to make is that scene from the past chapter wasn’t just an adorable moment that we got of Ochako. Rather, although done in a funny way to mix with her general personality, it is a scene that gives us more of an idea of Ochako and how she took the Sports Festival and just how in general she takes events that impact things that pertain to her goal. Even though we see her as a usually laid back individual with a bubbly personality, she’s so much more than that. This is a girl who doesn’t back away from any challenge presented to her and doesn’t allow things to get in her way of her goals. She has them clear cut in her mind and she chases after them. She even has a fiery side that you can compare with Katsuki as seen from the fight she had with him. In general, she’s so strong and powerful and truly fierce and I just want more people to see that side of her. I guess I just wish people could see her as more than just the cute little cutie pie she is and really see her as a badass cutie pie because damn, that strangle she gave Toga was pretty intense for her character.
TLDR: Ochako is actually a big badass and not a lot of people acknowledge that.
