#Bnha volume 37

[myheromedia]

Volume 37 of My Hero Academia is officially released in English! Here’s an official translation of MHA trivia with Horikoshi and Nejire!

[vaguelyaperson]

anyways I'm still going a little feral over the fact that the title of Volume 37 (禦ぐ者と侵す者 - 'the one who protects and the one who harms') uses 'okasu' (侵す) to describe AFO-Shiggy's violence cause 'okasu' is normally used to refer to the harm/violation of something that belongs to someone

and then such a choice in words paired with the image of Deku placing a protective hand over Dynamight's heart...

[finally-ihave-a-bnha-blog]

Horikoshi it's incredibly rude to draw bkdk fanart on the cover of your manga hours before I have an exam

[kikistrikesagain]

me out here making the volume 37 cover just a little more pieta than it already is

[mettywiththenotes]

Translated extra pages from Volume 37

(Above extra is referring to the Hagakure cover for chapter 368)

(^ The twitter sketch that Hori is talking about)

Source

[siflshonen]

When I first saw the Volume 37 cover I thought it was more of a reference to Batman’s A Death in the Family or even the first instances of Robin dying and how much blowback it got from the readership rather than a direct nod to The Night Gwen Stacy Died, but happily assumed it could be both and didn’t dwell on it.

After further consideration, as well as revisiting the circumstances and reader response to that particular moment in Spider-Man history, now I am not so sure.

[akebo5hi]

from this to this everyone.

[hkartincolor]

Volume 37 - spine and flap

[epickiya722]

BNHA Volume Cover 37 🤝 BNHA Chapter Cover 389

Round eyed dark/brown hair & sharp eyed blond hair pairs

[72crowe89]

There's no heterosexual explanation for this

[origintriodaily]

Volume 37 Bonus cards

[bellmell]

"my body moved before i could think.." yeah i understand that now, same happened to my hand after seeing the cover.

[vaguelyaperson]

Cover for Volume 37

The title (禦ぐ者と侵す者) translates to ‘The One Who Protects and The One Who Harms’

[is-bakugou-alive-yet]

do u have the full image of your pfp because it looks like there's a 37 in the corner so 37 volume's cover-?????

if so MY BOI IZUKU DAYUM

It is indeed the volume 37 cover

look at him, he's so feral

[sleepingpopplio]

Observations for Bnha volume 37’s cover

Ok there is so much going on in this cover that I don’t even know where to begin and it’s pretty difficult for me to articulate my thoughts when I get scatter brained like this, so here are some important observations I made.

The cover looks similar to the draft version of volume 29’s clover, with the feral deku front in center mourning his injured friends. Except this time, it’s just him and an injured Bakugo— both have a feral deku, and both have an injured, unconscious Bakugo 

This cover reminds me of certain comic book illustrations of heros holding injured friends/loved ones/family members in their arms. I am not implying anything in particular, take that information as you will, but it definitely does display closeness between Izuku and Katsuki. 

The red used in the background is pretty much the exact same shade of red as the cover of volume 10. Both of these volumes also include hand imagery, as the force of AFO (with Shiguraki under his control/manipulation) stands in their way as heroes and in the way of their development as people and friends

The color same shade of red also appears in many other volumes, such as volumes 2, 8, and 12

This is clearly a pattern, and brining things back to volume 10 again because it is the most similar in terms of design motifs, we are coming back

Red is an extreme color, and is typically used to indicate danger, violence, and general intensity. It is also the color of blood and as we know, Katsuki’s blood has been spilt in an attempt to get to Izuku (which worked before Mirio stepped in as an emergency therapist lol)

@siflshonen told me that red in a Japanese cultural context, red can mean happiness, and is used for special events such as weddings. I’m personally not thinking too hard about this, but it’s still an interesting and thought provoking fun fact I found out as I was trying to dig around for info! (Also, take this information as you )

The red string of fate also exists in Japanese culture. The string is typically depicted as being tied to fingers, and interestingly enough this cover is filled with fingers in the background that happen to be red. Now I am taking this one more seriously, as this could be a sign of how Bakugo and Midoriya’s fates are intertwined within both their lives and the legacy of AFO & OFA (they each represent one half of heroism— saving and winning— afterall) (ps. I’m not necessarily implying a romantic subtext to this, but I do think fate is a key part of MHA’s story and Bakugo and Midoriya’s close relationship)

The colors of Deku’s new costume currently seem to be inconsistent throughout all the images we’ve gotten of it thus far. WHERE IS THE REFERENCE HORIKOSHI I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT COLOR IT IS

Not having character references is an artist’s worst nightmare, trust me

Deku’s face is covered by his cape. This was shown in multiple chapters, but clearly horikoshi wants us to notice as it is front and center. The last time deku’s face was covered was duing the vigilante arc, and I’ve already talked about how much trauma and pain he was trying to hide during that time. This is probably a similar case

We cannot see his expressions with his mouth, so we have no indication on whether he is smiling like he does when he wants to save, or a frown like when he wants to destructively win

This is not a good thing— this is a warning to the audience to be on the lookout for some more moral dilemmas and emotional hurdles for deku to overcome. 

Finally, it should be noted that this is the 3rd volume cover to just have Bakugo and Deku on it— no one else. The first one was volume 2, then volume 29, and now volume 37

The volumes start with a literal rift between Bakugo and Midoriya, and they clearly are on opposing sides. We then transition into Bakugo reaching his hand out to (kid) deku, and the gap between them is now being bridged by Bakugo’s outreached hand. We then end with this volume, with Deku supporting Bakugo’s body. The point I’m trying to make is that they ae slowing getting physically closer to eachother with each of these 3 volumes. This clearly shows the growth and recovery of their relationship.

In the 2nd volume I mentioned (volume 29), Bakugo is reaching his hand out to deku while in this volume (volume 37) Deku is putting his hand on Bakugo, almost like he is accepting the hand that Bakugo offered to him. Of course he can’t physically reach out to Bakugo’s hand since he’s kinda sorta dead at the moment, but the symbolism of accepting Bakugo’s hand is there.

Also quick shoutout to @mettywiththenotes for being the first post I saw to mention the similarities between the covers for volumes 10 and 37, right after I was shouting about it to people on discord lol it made me really happy

[mettywiththenotes]

Volume 37 Cover + Obi Sketch