The way Kacchan talks to Deku - lost in translation & more
This is a piece I wrote that looks at the way Kacchan talks to Deku and how it changes with the mood as well as his current feelings and I wrote it as a compliment of another meta written by makeste that I very much agree with and think these things don’t need to be said again by me because makeste has already done such a fine job at it. I feel like these two topics about Kacchan’s character go hand in hand. Where as makeste’s piece goes into depths about why Kacchan is, this one goes into the how he’s subtly expressing those feelings when Izuku is his focus. I hope these both help build a picture of what’s inside Kacchan’s heart.
So one of the first things we know about Kacchan is his hostile personality that violently lashes out at everyone, an automatic defense that creates an emotional distance between himself and others. Two things with his speech emphasise this antagonism. 1. He treats people as his enemy and calls everyone “teme” almost without exception. And 2. He often omits the subject of his sentences. I saw in DvK2 he doesn’t say ore or teme all that much in his sentence structures, although he still has that mood, at least while talking to Deku. I think this habit of omission is to show both his lack of recognition of the person, “the extra”, and the wide distance he has between them that exists inside of Kacchan’s mind.
Now the neat thing is he has had moments where he got vulnerable and discarded that defensively hostile or dismissive attitude and became a lot softer around Deku. I’ve seen him do this twice now. The first time was when All Might interrupted them and told them to recognise each other’s strengths and help each other learn the parts they’re each missing. After those words, Kacchan hits Deku with a couple of “omae”s and is finally really looking at him and addressing him with more subject and name: “omae”/“Deku”.
When he did that, Deku looked a little surprised to be addressed by him, let alone softly like that. There was a succinct lack of hostility for the first time since they were little, because that’s when he last called Deku with “omae.” It was like the anger and hate he felt towards Deku had been dropped in that moment. It makes you wonder if perhaps Deku’s words of praise and admiration had finally reached Kacchan’s heart and with that, he realised he had wrongly pegged Deku as an enemy and shouldn’t have been so hostile towards him.
But Deku plays the “I’ll be your rival” card very early on.
When Deku first responds this way, Kacchan looks so over it:
Tired of rivalry and tired of the constant anger towards Deku and just… wanting something skirting around the outside of normal with him. He ignores the provocation and goes back to the main topic.
The omae mode Kacchan is short lived because Deku challenges him like this multiple times and offers him the sentiment that he will get stronger and be able to beat him one day and Kacchan’s walls immediately go back up and he returns back to addressing him as teme. I think Kacchan gave into it because he’s scared of Deku possibly more than Deku has ever been scared of him. How do you cherish something so precious when you’re so afraid of it disappearing?
Kacchan is not used to being soft/vulnerable, especially towards Deku. He would find it difficult to navigate how to act around him. And even though it felt like he was a little exasperated with Deku’s challenging attitude, it was an easy out for him. Not to go back to the vile way he was acting before, but at least to a place where he felt more comfortable acting around Deku. Giving space to the feelings of rivalry and inferiority he has secretly been repressing his whole life. Not ideal, but it was certainly a less tricky path laid out for them by Deku and he took it. His relationship with Deku goes back to temes, arm lengths and this faux rivalry as a placeholder for... something else he has possibly always longed for.
I feel like this repackaged rivalry, after Deku told him how he felt, is and was wrong for them and they were a bit forced into the trope /because Shounen Manga/, although, maybe there is simply more to it than that. Horikoshi maybe felt this and did it anyway because, as said above, Kacchan doesn’t know how to be friends with Deku and Deku is hesitant to get close with Kacchan because he has been a terror for 10 years. But anyhow, Kacchan’s most ideal relationship with Deku is clearly one of trust and friendship. This is shown through the bits and pieces of flashback or simply Kacchan being the focus while he’s around Todoroki and Endeavour, the case studies of friendship and atonement for him.
Kacchan watched on while Deku responded to Fuyumi’s “Thanks for becoming friends with Shoto” with “The pleasures mine”
and you can’t help but feel a little sad for him. The focus is on him very briefly during this moment because the series is subtly expressing that he too wants to feel like he’s become friends with Deku. But struggles getting to a place where they’re natural and can be soft around each other, like Todoroki is towards Deku.
More focus on Kacchan as he watches Endeavor express regret to Natsuo and a seed is planted in him. That seed called “apologise.” Kacchan understood from then on that to get from A (how the frack do I act around him!?) to Z (potential bffs), he was the one that needed to let go of their past and do whatever he could to help Deku because words alone were never going to be enough (as said in the past by Shoto to Deku) to fix the immense guilt he feels for everything he put Izuku through before U.A and some continued antagonism after. Ever since their fight and finally, finally, understanding Deku had only ever loved and adored him, this guilt weighed down on his whole heart.
Ultimately it boils down to Katsuki wanting to become a virtuous hero and person like Deku was. Is it not uncanny that the things they feel they lack in they see so clearly in each other?
Just like he was Deku’s image of victory, Deku was his goal of kindness and self sacrifice. It took him over a decade to come to terms with the fact his heart, although aimed in the right direction, just hadn’t developed adequately enough, that he couldn’t be a hero with that wild immaturity people before U.A had allowed him to keep. But the person closest to him had the very thing inside him that he needed most. He was capable of learning it from him. He could still grow.
Fast forward helping him with his quirk, saving his life, chasing him down, to now. The moment he called him Izuku and said sorry for everything he did, this was his leap of faith to really tell Deku that he is here for him not as a rival or someone who treats him like a “temenemy”. But as a friend, confidant, partner etc because after those apologetic words, it was, you guessed it, back to the soft “omae”s again.
Almost like “I’m sorry and if you don’t trust this, well, watch me call you Izuku and brace yourself because I’m also scrapping my usual teme. Because you’re my omae.” He did this in full view of everyone, completely dropping his guard and metaphorically pulling Deku closer into him by calling his name and once more using the foreign softer way of saying “you.” It was the biggest 1-2-3! punch he could have given.
I just love the way how Horikoshi makes me feel with this apology. Kacchan dashing to save Deku from complete mental and physical collapse, tenderly embracing him with his hands and that same feeling of being held gently also having just been exuding from his very speech.
During this moment, there’s an all-encompassing sense of Kacchan’s quiet desire to pull Deku in closer to him being realised and the comfort he freely offers to Izuku at the most fragile he’s ever been is paid out in spades. It demands respect and notice from Deku’s end so I think we should get more from these two.
It isn’t emotionally gratifying if we don’t get Deku’s emotional response to everything Kacchan unloaded on him because so much feels changed. It was a lot for him to process and he hasn’t gotten the chance to recriprocate the delicacy Kacchan offered him this one time in the rain.
Kacchan’s apology feels nuanced with the request of a shift between them and for the divider (his fault), which separates their bond from becoming a real connection, being thrown away. It reads like “Yeah, I know I was💥😤 for most of our lives, but despite that, I want us to be 👬🤝 now. はじめまして。Hi.”
