afo being obsessed with yoichi is not even subtext. it's literal text that he sees him as his first possession, gives him the yoichi bc he's his first thing..."you're precious to me" while crushing his face, "keep your eyes only on me, don't refuse to be mine..." grooming the one kid who looks like his brother who died while calling the other kid who has the embers of his brother "baby brother" literally getting triggered by bakugo bc he looks so much like the guy who stole yoichi from him!!! incest as abuse is textual im mha, idek what they could be jumping you about smh
well you see, mimi. people on tiktok aren't exactly known for their media literacy abilities.
people hate nuance over there and refuse to acknowledge that afo abused yoichi and also genuinely, truly, loved him. that love was possessive and afo treated him more like... his childhood blanket, or whatever, but it was still there and was afo's main motivation for yearrrrs. his ass didnt want ofa because it was a strong quirk and would help him take over the world, he wanted it because he saw it as his little brother!! afo doesn't NEED help taking over the world he could already do that. hell, he DID already do that (unlike this blonde guy went "i am here!!!" or whatever 🙄🙄🙄)
people heard izuku call afo out for being a sad lonely old man and went "lalalalala i cant HEAR YOU hes only an uncaring demon lord!!!!"
Do people really think Dabi is the most evil member of the league? Since we’re already going down that path, Shigaraki is probably more evil than Dabi. Even when Shigaraki feels his anger fading in the final battle, he’s still as disdainful of Deku as ever. Compare that to the moment when a dying Dabi is convicted by Shoto’s kindness. He apologises to Shoto.
AT LEAST FROM WHAT I'VE SEEN they do for some reason, they really do. Afaik this is like the only social media platform you won't have like 15 angry children or unwashed young men crawling down your throat for defending him. Shigaraki and Toga also have sizable hatedoms but something about Dabi in particular seems to really get under people's skin. Not sure why, honestly. Was it the stuff with Shoto? (Which tbf WAS pretty fucking bad) Is it the fact that on top of being a villain he's also just Kind Of A Dick? No idea.
*TBF it just hit me that the fact Shigs genuinely cares about the other League members while Dabi largely doesn't MAY be saving him slightly in a few people's books. I personally see it more as him pushing people away and not wanting to form new attachments with anyone because he's planning on ending his life relatively soon and doesn't want any complications that'd potentially eat away at his conviction, but that's not canon IIRC
This art proves (to me at least) that Hori really prioritizes the yuri fetishization and iron might (even though both sucked) over everything else in the actual story
Yeah. It's interesting to watch Hori react to the (very predictable) backlash to Vol 42 and Ch 431 from fans / and the marketing department trying to do damage control.
BNHA's core support (in terms of events and merch sales) are adult women / especially shippers. Now, many of these are primarily invested in male characters and male ships. There was also support for tgchk, but from the perspective of goods sales, it was always secondary to their main ship (overwhelmingly bkdk), and when tgchk was used to make izch endgame a lot of that support disappeared.
All Might has always been the face of the franchise, and he's fairly popular with the fans and has some ships, but it was never a big sales puller. Also, All Might has lost popularity compared to the first half of the series and never really recovered his place in the Top 10. I think Hori miscalculated that the reason for that was not enough "badass" moments for All Might. But I think in fact it was more due to the fading of the Deku-All Might relationship, with less and less heartfelt "dadmight" moments. Still, I think AM remains fairly uncontroversial and a "safe bet" to draw. But not a character who moves big money.
So the way Hori tries to push his own favorite characters - Toga, Ochako - often causes a pushback from fandom. You don't see much of that on X, as Japanese won't do much criticism on public social media, but on anon boards, there is a lot of vitriol towards especially Uraraka, who is now in some places, the No 1 hated character of the franchise.
I think a lot of the fandom quietly moved on. This reflects with lower overall engagement on Horikoshi's Twitter art, on news on new merch, on lack of hype for Vigilante, etc.
And it's clear that the marketing division took note. Despite tgchk being in the center of the new art, they do not feature much in the merch. Bakugou, Deku, Todoroki all got individual merch, Uraraka didn't. There is BKDK paired stuff, but no izch.
The collection cards don't feature Uraraka, but have Endeavor or Hawks. The entry ticket bonuses have Origin Trio, AM, BKDK, but no Uraraka.
She is only featured in group art, and the Villain-Hero acrylics, where I think they count on Toga's continuing popularity to carry their paired merch. Otherwise it's blind merch - but even there notice how the Origin Trio got adult designs included, but not Uraraka. This shows that the marketing team knows how "toxic" timeskip Uraraka is for the sales and try to limit her.
I'm not sure how much the talk to Hori about this or just quietly line up the products they think they can sell - but it seems to me that Hori is "sulking" about the fan reactions.
The way the Xmas art became controversial - after 431 fandom lamenting the end of the rivalry, and him dropping the "look back when they were rivals, let me add my fave bunny waifu" art. Then the depressed Aizawa / Shiggy art and now this group art, where he seems to put tgchk explicitly into the "Tomura-Deku slot", as if saying to fans, "I don't care what you think or want, I will draw what I want".
Seeing this, Japanese fans are already doomposting both about the fanbook and the art exhibition, resigning themselves to more Ochako content and Horikoshi's favorite female bodies being drawn over and over, despite having made it clear that they want to see more of the fan favorite male characters. They see it as betrayal that despite having made their preferences clear with the (paid-for) votes and merch buys, the author ignores them and refuses to provide the "fan service" they expect.
Now you can of course say that these fans are stupidly entitled and Horikoshi as an artist should draw what he wants. But from the perspective of WSJ/TOHO/Bones, MHA is not just Horikoshi's story, but their franchise which loses value as fans get unhappy and leave. There is plenty of competition with other stories that are happy to cater to their core paying audience.
Another controversy is that the Global Poll website appears to be deleted/ down / down for update (????) and there is no news on the new global Top 10 art, nor the Bakugou statue in any of the announcements. Many Bakugou fans are pissed. Many fans are also worried that Hori will include Uraraka in the Top 10 art, despite being only 11th, because Hori will simply want to draw her.
It's really fascinating to watch this "back-and-forth" between the fandom, author, marketing team which kind of shows how the readers feel like their buying choices and votes creates an entitlement to certain content, while the author wants to both draw the things that excite him, but also feels bad about the criticism and wants only praise and then the marketing team in the middle trying to boost sales anyway they can.
I think Horikoshi really cares about the reader reactions, but instead of giving them what they want, he pushes his favorites even more, trying to make them more appealing which creates an overall even bigger backlash.
Regarding your bnha post: god, I agree SO much with you.
Endeavour was one of my most hated characters and the fact he gets to have a redemption after all the shit he did.... that was when I dropped the manga as well, it was simple impossible to go on.
The dude pretty much raped his wife until she gave her the son he wanted, he neglected and abused his children and drove his wife insane to the point where she threw boiling water into his son's face.... but HE gets a redemption???? Like for real??????????
(heavy sarcasm voice) you have to remember anon! Endeavor learned his lesson by!...... getting literally everything he wanted and then deciding he felt bad and was sorry?
He really proved his change of heart by repeatedly nagging his family to forgive him (such a stand-up guy). And when that didn't work he REALLY proved himself by.................... taking down a nomu villain?
Like bro really?? no shit??? The #1 hero took down a villain??? Wow. Amaze. So cool. He fight. Wow wow. This must be such a new and novel thing for him to do, as a hero, as the #1 hero. Shouto get the fuck over here and stare your abuser in the eye and say "wow I forgive you now".
No you block heads that's literally just his day job.
A whole big chunk of the reason Endeavor made for a good villain was because he was a hero. He's an ugly and complacently hidden blight on society, because this is a world that let a wife beater and a child abuser become the #1 hero of society.
And the MOST baffling thing is Horikoshi keeps TALKING like hero society is corrupt. That's sure what Shigaraki and the LOV won't shut the fuck up about. And it never makes any fucking sense in the narrative because all the heroes are Actually Just Great People.
Except Endeavor. Endeavor should have been your catalyst. That should have happened when Dabi revealed to the world that Endeavor is a monster. ...but nah no, Horikoshi likes his Sad Man 'Deavor and just decided that doesnt matter :)
And it's frustrating to watch the narrative be like "Endeavor is in the right now, yes." As Horikoshi makes Rei forgive him, makes Natsuo forgive him, makes Shouto forgive him. ......And Dabi doesn't count cuz Dabi's evil or whatever yeah.
There's literally a line where Natsuo talks about how maybe this is his fault too because he should have taken some responsibility for controlling his dad's rages..... when Natsuo was an 8 year old child. Hello?????????????????????????????????
