#TOGACHAKO BECAME CANON

[krystelovesanime]

FUCKING SHUT THE FUCK UP. I KNOW I KNOW. I'M LIKE MONTHS LATE. BUT SHUT UP. SHUT UP. I TOLD YOU. IN FEBRUARY.

"their feelings become one"

SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[strryskys]

i haven't even read the mha epilogue yet but omg some people are already so annoying about it.

[masochist-marmot]

A fair and balanced look at MHA chapter 431

To all of my fellow bakudeku and togachako truthers out there: I see you, I hear you, and your disappointment is valid. I agree with a lot of the criticism. However, I have a lot of nuanced thoughts, and I will attempt to write them down in a balanced way, so bear with me. I will also treat the leaks as though they were confirmed for now.

(This post became an essay so I'll divide it into subheadings for clarity.)

Reminder: Be kind

Before I get into this, I'd like to remind everyone to please be kind and understanding when having this discourse. I get that there are strong feelings involved, but please don't harass the creators or other members of the community. Remember that at the end of the day this is fiction, and no one has the right to dictate how others view it or consume it. You are allowed to express your opinions and feelings, but try to be respectful to those who don't share them. No matter what side of the issue you stand on.

Queer relationships in shounen

First of all, I understand that it's disappointing when potential queer relationships are sidelined in favour of compulsory heterosexuality. But I can't say that I'm surprised. The standards and norms of depicting relationships in shounen manga go deep, and while it would be nice to see them challenged, we have to remember that there is an entire industry behind these decisions. I'm talking about genre conventions, authorial decisions (affected by unconscious biases), editors, publishers and a whole lot of moving parts. There's a lot of money involved, which means that any changes to the conventions will happen at a snail's pace. I am not excusing the decisions Horikoshi made, but it's good to be mindful that the decisions don't take place in a vacuum. I went into the series with the full expectations that none of the same-sex relationships would be made canon, so I'm not overtly disappointed with that being the case. It's the same expectation I take to any shounen series.

It's obviously worthwhile to question and challenge conventions like these, that's how progress is made. But focusing on a specific author's specific choices might not be the best way to go about it. Although it's worth pointing out that Horikoshi didn't have to make any relationship canon, yet chose to do so. Let me get into that.

Why IzuOcha falls flat

There is no denying that izuocha seems to have been the end goal from the very beginning. She's the first girl, Izuku took immediate notice of her, and her feelings for him became her entire character for a while. It's a cute ship, I guess. The issue is that it lacks any real depth. I'm going to be completely honest with you: I don't think Horikoshi is very good at writing compelling female characters. A lot of the male characters get amazing character arcs, while many female heroes only get a couple of cool moments (full of fanservice) and are promptly discarded. Himiko and Ochako, who have the most compelling female relationship of any kind in the entire series, fail the very simple Bechdel test miserably. Half of their conversations literally revolve around the male protagonist.

I believe this is why many of us prefer bakudeku over izuocha. The boys just get much better character development both as individuals and in relation to each other. Izuku and Ochako's moments don't cut nearly as deep, and while they do somewhat further Ochako's character development, they seem to have no bearing on Deku's character. Meanwhile Uraraka's conflict with Toga meaningfully challenges and alters both characters' worldview, even though their relationship had much less time and opportunities to develop. To me this whole situation just reads as Horikoshi giving Deku a canon love interest early on, then failing to develop the relationship and having to rush it to get the ending he intended.

Character study: Izuku and Katsuki 8 years later

Now I'll ignore authorial intent for a while and ponder on how the leaked chapter reflects on the character development of my main boys. I'm actually not that mad about the decisions Deku makes in this (forced romance aside). I seem to be in the minority that's fine with Deku losing OFA and becoming a teacher, because I actually think it suits him perfectly. In chapter 430 I mostly took issue with him being lonely for eight years and then jumping the gun to become a hero again, which seemed kinda contradictory. If he was truly contented with being a teacher, they could've made it clearer. Though I'm not going to lie, Kacchan funding his battle armor was incredibly cute. In the leaked chapter, it almost feels like they were trying to reinforce the notion that Deku is happy with his life as a teacher, which feels a little forced, but I can respect it. You have to remember that he's been quirkless for eight years and has had time to come to terms with it. People change a lot in eight years. I barely recognise the person I was eight years ago. So what rubbed me the wrong way wasn't that he rejected Kacchan's roundabout offer but the way he rejected it. Like the guy's really hung up on you, the least you could do is let him down easy.

What I think is an especially hard pill to swallow is the distance between Kacchan and Deku. Unfortunately, it also kinda tracks. Hear me out. Their relationship maintained its intensity because of the rivalry. It motivated their respective personal growths, it pushed them further, and it tied them closer together. And it was magnificent. What we see here is that Katsuki is still driven by the will to compete, but Izuku isn't. He's a teacher now, he's got lives to change, he can't be bothered with competition and numbers. While Deku was building his new identity and new life, Kacchan was still hung up on the past: He was collecting funds for the suit to get Deku back into the game, he was rejecting sidekicks who didn't spark the same joy in him, and he was slowly dropping in the charts because he didn't have Deku to push him to try (also something about his personality, I'll just let it slide). I think in this chapter we kind of see him finally accept it. He doesn't push a hero suit on a rival and urge him on anymore, instead he forms an offer to join him as an unrelated question about if Deku's still intent on teaching. Since he says yes, Kacchan won't even bring the agency offer up; Kirishima has to translate the intention. Which is where I think Deku's answer has uncharacteristically little tact.

Does Kacchan deserve a better ending than this? ABSOLUTELY. Does the ending we get counter the character development seen so far? I don't think so. The sad reality is that people do grow up, and I see the ending we get as one possibility that reflects that. I would've also been happy with an ending where Deku keeps OFA and the boys go be gay fight crime for the rest of their lives together, but in all honesty, Deku coming a full circle back to quirklessness is more thematically satisfying to me. Mind you, none of this means that the relationship between these two isn't important to them. It just means that it was always bound to change, adapt and grow to a different direction. Kacchan's final goodbye may seem like an important moment that was completely brushed off, or you can see it as not being important because it's not a goodbye. These two men will continue to be part of each other's lives. And now I kind of want to read comfort fics about what their new relationship and domestic life would look like.

Brief togachako tangent

I said in an earlier post that I will be a togachako truther until the day I die, and I stand by that. In my book, it's already canon. Though sadly, it was also doomed. I'm a little conflicted on the whole thing. On one hand, I think Toga had a satisfying character arc, but on the other hand, we mostly just got our gays buried. Still, purely from a character perspective, I don't see her pushing Uraraka to live her life as a problem. Toga would definitely not want Uraraka to dwell on her memories and guilt. They seem to be bound together by blood now, and that won't change. Neither of them gain anything if Ochako denies herself happiness by not pursuing other relationships. Still, I understand the criticism in a narrative sense. It does come off as a queer character used as a device to push forward a comphet relationship. I just want them both to be happy.

Final thoughts: Canon is not law

I have shared my complicated thoughts and feelings on this presumed final chapter. You are obviously allowed to disagree with me, and your thoughts and feelings are just as valid as mine.

I think it's important to remember that you don't have to treat canon as law. The canonicity of something has never dictated how you should interact with the media. Obviously the author making something canon has a bearing on their story, but that's just what it is. It's their story. Which means that we don't have any say in what they decide to do with it, but they also have no say in how we make their story our own. If the ending is left open, it's left open for a reason. You get to interpret what happens next based on your reading of the story.

So please go create fan content where Izuku keeps his powers and hero status and where he keeps his rivalry alive, or write a fanfic about his life as a teacher. Go explore how the thing with Uraraka develops (I trust that many of you would do a better job than Horikoshi), or ignore that part completely. Write about Uraraka's blood bond with Toga, maybe their relationship is still worth exploring post-mortem. Hell, make it a polyship between the girls and Deku. And there are so many things about Deku and Bakugou's relationship as adults that I'd read about and see fanart of, whether or not you take my interpretation of them into account.

[cherryblossombombs]

I have an issue with the "the giga cover is likely fujobait" because I can't help but think:

if it was truly fujobait, why now?

Why try to get their attention if MHA is now in the 100M club? The series now so popular, hori/jump doesn't need queer shippers to increase its popularity.

Why try to get fujos and queer fans, if it's already popular in that group? Wasn't it apparently shown that MHA is more popular with women and LGBTQ+ fans?

Why try to get that audience when hori had the chance to do that back in 2016-2018 when Kr//bk was the popular gay ship? Wasn't there an interview where someone pretty much asked hori if he's for kr//bk, but instead of playing along, hori made it about bkdk (the ship that no one took seriously at the time) and said he saw the hand hold more about bkdk angst. Kr//bk was a popular ship, it had bones making official art of them. The smash parody manga had moments of it. Two heroes was their movie [I believe hori didn't really help in that movie. However, notice how in the second movie, (he was a part of that one), focused on bkdk (again, the ship no one took seriously)]. Hori had the ability to use that ship as bait, but he seemed to be the only one out of everyone else to not go for it. Instead he kept pushing for the ship that was thought to be too toxic to even become a platonic ship.

If horikoshi did not want bkdk to seen as romantic, why isn't he stopping jump for implying it? You really can't say that he has no ability to, the guy went to bones and told them the ending. Now, notice how bones suddenly stopped making iz//ch moments and added a bkdk moment in the recap episodes (something that they would never do 2 seasons prior). The assistant (whom hori is friends with) is a loud speaker of dkbk lol. Hori follows him on twitter, there's no way that hori hasn't seen his dkbk art once. Same for katsuki's JP VA (who is also a friend of Hori).

Why try to bait the audience when the manga is ending?

Idk, maybe there's a chance he is actually queerbaiting and make iz//ch canon, but again, after everything?

After the togachako arc? He had made ochako confess her crush on midoriya, only for seconds later to not only brush it off as unimportant (unimportant in the sense of it was more of way to relate to toga and speak with her, it wasn't really used as a "canon izu//ocha" moment), she tells toga that she could have ochako's blood for the rest of her life (and we know that's toga's love language of returning/accepting her feelings) and she told toga that she had the cutest smile in the whole world. Like, didn't hori say that toga was made for ochako's character? I feel like it wouldn't make sense for hori to do all of this, then have ochako end up with midoriya, it would feel like a middle finger to toga tbh.

After chapters 285, 322, 362, 367, 403, and 404? The apology? The "you're the closest one to midoriya izuku, therefore I need to kill you in order to make him go crazy". The heart shaped black whip after seeing bakugou's dying body? The "their feelings became one" double spread? this bullet point could be spread to about 2-3 document pages, but I'm just going to summarize for this post lol. But overall, these chapters (and a few more), show me (imo) that it the "fujobait" claim isn't really strong to use against bkdk.

Again, maybe this is queerbait, because I know that there are times where other media/anime have done simliar and still had the MC in a heterosexual relationship, and leave everyone dumbfounded lol. Once again, all I say to this is "let's see what happens."

P.S. Isn't this the same author who said that he thought that naruto was going to end at 698 (the implied SNS ending) lol? Idk if it's true, that's just something I've heard.

**************************

EDIT 11/29/24: WELP I GUESS I'M BOOBOO THE FOOL LOL

[evelynquack]

Only reason Izuocha didn’t become canon is because Horikoshi became a Togachako shipper lol

[lesbianneopolitan]

Talking about Togachako, I had a dream where Toga died like in canon, so Ochako became a villain to dismantle society and build it again, so no one had to suffer the rejection that Toga did 😭

And it was insane, because of how Toga give Ochako her blood, Toga and Ochako's quirks got mixed creating a new quirk. So Ochako now could take away the blood of everyone she touched, like, making them vomit their blood-

It was insane.

girl, BUT THIS IDEA IS SO COOL THO?? YOU COULD WRITE AN AU OFF OF THIS OR SOMETHING LMAO

I love it...

[novastrypes]

Tldr; mean comments were unnecessary, still ship bakudeku and togachako, let me be delulu on the Internet, happy for Izuocha, death threats to horikoshi WERENT AND NEVER WILL BE OKAY IF YOU WERE ONE OF THEM GET OUT

Alright my last post about Izuocha becoming canon got some traction and nasty comments

It's nice to have opinions but PLEASE be respectful and don't be mean in comments just because someone expressed they prefer bkdk and togachako instead of izuocha (which I still ship)

I am happy for these 2 fictional beans, and they do look cute together. I didn't mean to come across as "grrr my gay headcanon didn't become canon I must go feral now GRRRR"

I still prefer bakudeku and togachako over izuocha even though they're now canon

I have already seen people using this as a way to be homophobic. "Bkdk shippers now look delusional as always" just because izuocha became canon. I'm sorry but that is not stopping people from making ships

Does that mean I am all for sending death threats to Horikoshi? FUCK NO! and if you were one of the people who did that FUCK OFF FROM MY PAGE YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE

I don't have time for passive aggressive or straight up mean comments. I just stated my opinion (I understand this is the Internet and people have the right to literally respond to me) but there is no reason to be straight up mean or passive aggressive

I apologize if my original post sounded like I was really upset over bakudeku and togachako not becoming canon, that was not my intention.

Am I upset? A little, but at the end of the day, they're fictional characters, and the world will keep on spinning. So this will leave my mind in the next hour because I have better shit to do than to argue over what fictional character should have ended up with another fictional character. As long as they're the same age and can consent and it's not overly sexualised I AM FINE WITH IT. Hell ship mineta with the girls. I don't care because they are the same age! As long as it's not pedophilic or has a power imbalance like hawks x endeavour (still iffy about this ship because Hawks is a big fan and endeavour could take advantage of him??? Like, yeah, they are adults, but I am iffy about fan x celebrity ships)

What I'm trying to say is ship whoever and whatever you want even if izuocha is canon. I don't care if you'll call me delusional because I still prefer bakudeku and togachako. I am fine with that. Let me be delulu on the Internet.

Again I just respectfully wanted to talk about how izuocha seemed forced but after some passive aggressive and unnecessary mean explanation in the comments, yes I can see why they ended up together. I did say it WASNT UNNECESSARILY OUT OF NOWHERE

Also, yes, I understand people are passionate about these things, but still, there was no need to be mean or passive aggressive :(

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

Here have a denki in these trying times

[marimeeko]

I know I don't have dates or anything, and I don't recall if I even posted these before. But, I find immense satisfaction in the fact that I doodled these a couple months ago before we got the latest togachako confrontation chapters, and

I find hilarity in the fact that a floating togachako embrace became canon....and that I went with a Howls Moving Castle inspo for them in the right doodle, while Horikoshi chose a Spirited Away theme for them.

I finally scrounged these up from my doom piles, and had to laugh, and also just appreciate how we Togachakos got pretty much exactly what we wanted 😆

[kaleidoscopic-quiddity]

thoughts on bkdk and or togachako?

bakudeku are a prime example of two people who absolutely should never date but do need to angrily and impulsivly make-out once bc it's either that or they kill each other. generally I'm far more invested in them as a friendship/rivalry/kinda siblings-esque dynamic but I see logically why the romantic ship is so popular. that being said I think it'd be really fucking funny if it became canon purely bc of how much it would piss off basically every part of the fandom for a variety of different reasons

togachako makes me fucking insane like how did horikoshi manage to write the most yuri to ever yuri, they should lez out on the battlefield and kiss whilst stabbing each other or something, it would instantly make the world a better place

[gradelstuff]

You know that things with shonen manga which manage to make non canon gay ship have more poignant moment than the straight predetermined from the first episode ship

YEAHH IDK WHY 😭

The IzuChako moment that happens later isn't that good compared to the earlier TogaChako scenes. Probably because it has Izuku and Hori doesn't give him much character development. It makes me wish TogaChako became canon instead lol

[lewisshipsthings]

Ahhhh I love hearing stories of how people became bakudekus. Thanks for sharing!

When I started MHA, years ago now, I was still religious (or just out of being religious, I forget the exact timeline). I also had a lot of internalized homophobia, so bakudeku was not on my radar. I never liked Iz*chako, so didn’t really have any ships. (Sorta the vague idea that Izuku and Tsuyu would look cute together.)

Then the right comment from the right friend made me realize I needed to deal with this internalized homophobia shit. A step towards this was to read gay fanfiction, even though it made me super uncomfortable with all sorts of strange feelings going on inside. For some reason—I don’t even really know why—I started with a bakudeku fic. The rest is history.

I still can’t really convince myself that bakudeku will be canon, although I would love that so so much. The biggest thing to convince me in that direction was, like you, the togachako stuff. Those girls are just.... so gay.

I know no one asked, but I have exactly zero (0) people to talk about bkdk with irl so here you guys go

My BKDK Journey

Yes, this sounds stupid, but my god it’s been almost three years of an absolute rollercoaster of feelings and denials and tears and revelations…

and if you don’t mind, I’m gonna rant about it.

(not spoiler free)

_____

May 2021

To start off, i wasn’t always a bkdk shipper.

I shipped izu*cha at first (not saying it’s a bad ship btw; it’s actually quite cute. im just afraid people’ll be mad if I accidentally invade their tag lol), primarily because I assumed that would be the ship that became canon.

But also, my veryyyyy leasttttt favorite character… was Bakugou Katsuki.

When I tell you that I would’ve loved nothing more than to somehow spawn into the bnha universe and punch that brat in the face— AGHHHHHHHHHH

Now this wasn’t all his fault: A) I watched the dub first lol, and B) he reminded me of someone that i was not in a place to stand up to at the time, and his constant anger, yelling, and harsh treatment of Izuku—who i began to relate to—made me hateeee him.

There was a time when I literally said “if he died, I wouldn’t miss him.” <- this was later proven false lol

So, I was watching the anime dub with an absolute animosity for our resident deuteragonist, but on top of that…

I was watching it with a friend with a crunchyroll account who lived in another state that I was visiting and staying with for two weeks, so by the time i had to go back home, we’d only gotten up to the part where All Might was getting Inko’s permission to let Izuku stay at the UA dorms.

Anddddddd in my drive to consume more bnha once I got home, i somehow stumbled across an Instagram account that posted bnha sub episodes divided into parts,

but they only had season four and onwards.

Sooooo I never saw the second half of season three… more importantly,

I NEVER SAW DEKU VS KACCHAN 2!!!!!

(I will say that I had seen a couple photos/edits/etc, but I never knew what had been said, or why they fought)

_____

June 2021

At this point in time, I’d been exposed to a lot of the fandom. My fyp on both IG and Pinterest were filled to the brim with all things bnha (because this is what happens when one has a hyperfixation), so I saw a lot of stuff.

Especially fanart.

This is where I started learning about the different ships.

I saw a lot of the side character ships and thought they were adorable (kamijirou, todomomo, even kiribaku), but then I saw some with Izuku.

Izu*cha was a given for me. I didn’t think there was a single person that didn’t ship it. But then I started seeing fanart of ships like tododeku, shindeku, and bakudeku.

And my first reaction to finding out that people shipped my beautiful baby sunshine boi with the person who bullied him for years?????

HELLLLLLLLLLL NO

So with my (unknowingly) limited knowledge of their relationship, i was very much an anti (i never spoke out or anything, i just reallyyyy didn’t like the ship lol)

(And then, you know, I started to see all the bkdk hate online and kinda went “okay not touching that”)

But that began to change…

_____

August 2021

…after I saw a manga leak for the first time.

I was scrolling thru my feed and all of a sudden. BOOM!

I was like 😧

IS THAT IZUKU?????

And i looked in the comments and yes it was.

I checked out the page and found that they had an entire account of manga leaks and was so happy.

I quickly began to read from the very bottom of that account, and it started from right about where Izuku first began his vigilante arc (i had no idea how much was in between then and where I left off on the anime, but I was willing to read it lol)

And so I waited diligently for the leaks every week (a practice I have continued to uphold lol), until one day, i came across an untranslated series of panels from the latest chapter. I looked at it and it was of Katsuki and Izuku, facing each other in the rain (you know the one). I knew the leaks would be coming a day later, but I wanted to look through them anyways, so I did.

I didn’t understand a word they said, but the pictures and imagery of them as kids then middle schoolers then where they were now seemed so touching…

And then I came across a pair of kanji that I recognized.

I was like “wait WHAT???”

I zoomed in and went “that— isn’t that—? That’s part of Midoriya’s name, right???”

And then I was like “wait a second… omg that’s Izuku, isn’t it. That’s the freaking kanji for Izuku.”

And it was!!!!!

So inside I’m having a mini freakout cuz—

Bakugou just called him IZUKU

Fast forward to the next day, and I looked at the translated version, and found out that not only did he call him Izuku,

He

Freaking

APOLOGIZED

And I was like “huhhhhhhh”

What happened between now and the most recent anime episodes for this to occur???? For Bakugou to do a complete 180 and apologize????????

Well, I finally got my answers…

_____

November 2021

…when I started reading the manga.

I started from the beginning, cuz I wanted to see Horikoshi’s art style and the extra drawings and all the other stuff…

And when I tell you that Katsuki became a whole new character to me—

First, I read everything about early-on Bakugou— without hearing him yell in his dub voice—and realized “oh wow he really is just a kid with issues and a worldview that he’s now having to change.”

Then, I finally read what happened in that space between moving into the dorms and the beginning of season four (most importantly, DvK2).

Cried.

Then, oh then, I got up to where season five ended and the rest of the manga began.

. . .

Funny thing: back when I read the leaks to ch322, I remember thinking to myself, “huh. what did Bakugou mean by Shigaraki making swiss cheese outta him?”

😦

THE WAY I GASPED

AND THEN CRIED

OH MY FREAKING GOD

That was the moment where i truly ceased to hate Katsuki cuz holy character development batman

Then, of course, we see them in recovery

And then the vigilante arc and apology scene *sobs*

And then I was caught up.

(Btw I finished the entire manga up ‘til ch334 in just over a week. I read for nine days straight. During the school year. My emotions were all over the place goodness gracious I could barely concentrate.)

So that’s how I went from being a Bakugou hater to going “you know what he’s a complex character and he’s slowly becoming a better person” and realizing that he was now one of my fav characters and therefore cursed to die but I’ll talk about that later

Was I now a bakudeku shipper?

Hah nope.

_____

December 2021

I began my dive into the true essence of any fandom: fanfiction.

Over the course of winter break, I had started off with fics that had no romantic pairing (I just wanted to see my boi Izuku), but then somehow stumbled across Mastermind: Strategist for Hire and then read the entirety of the For Want of a Nail series (shoutout to Clouds btw ❤️) cuz I was like “ok whew no bkdk fics” which was my mindset at the time.

But somehow (I can’t even remember how I found it) I came across a bkdk fic. It was called For Want of Izuku’s Toe Joint by Talavin (okay now that I think about it there’s probably a simple explanation lol).

I don’t quite know what compelled me to start reading it, but I did.

And I really liked it.

But not in the “I’ve been converted” kinda way.

It was like an “I shouldn’t be enjoying this why am I enjoying this?” kinda feeling. Like my head says no but my heart says yeah.

A really really really really guilty pleasure.

So, from that day on, whenever I came across any form of bkdk media, I would simultaneously feel discomfort and yet an odd sense of satisfaction.

A snippet of my daily life:

Me: *comes across bkdk fanart on pinterest*

Me: eww

Also me: *stares at it for like five minutes straight*

Me: who even likes this?

Also me: *saves pin to my mha board*

Me: not my ship

Also me: *scrolls down to more like this*

Bless my heart I was in such denial.

_____

July 2022

Bit of a timeskip, but nothing of note really happened in those last six months so here we go.

We’ve gotten to the point in the manga where the final arc is underway and Bakugou is about to KICK SOME BUTT

He’s revealed his Panser Strafe support item and I’m gushing about it to my friend (she kinda fell out of the fandom but still tolerated my rants bless her)

Oh, side note: it was then that I also expressed my concern for Bakugou’s “alive” status

Evidence:

For reference, some of my favorite characters are:

Beth March (Little Women)

John Reese (Person of Interest)

Joss Carter (Person of Interest)

Leonard Snart (Arrowverse)

Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

Fantine (Les Mis)

Eponine (Les Mis)

Jean Valjean (Les Mis)

Simon (Lord of the Flies)

Piggy (Lord of the Flies)

Grace Stone (Manifest)

Bubaigawara Jin — Twice (BNHA)

Wanna guess which of these guys died?

Trick question! It’s all of them (:

Yeah so anyways those following chapters really made me excited and nervous cuz YEAH KICK HIS ASS BAKUGOU but also IZUKUUUUU WE NEED YOU

hah hah.

_____

August 2022

Utterly gobsmacked. Cried. Disbelief. Horrified. Confusion. Anger. Went through the five stages of grief and then some.

Sometimes I hate being right 🥲

But the good thing that came from this was that my positive view of Katsuki only grew after seeing his utter faith in Izuku (and his thoughts being on him in his final moments???? 🥺🥺🥺)

And it was at this point in time where I could admit to myself “you know what? i see it. i see the appeal. i wouldn’t mind this actually becoming canon.”

Did I think that it would actually become canon?? No.

_____

September 2022

I don’t know how I thought Izuku was gonna react to seeing Katsuki’s body on the ground, but GOOD LORD IT WASNT THAT

Even sweet little blind me realized “oh wow he like really feels intense stuff for Katsuki huh”

(But some things I missed—cuz I was still a bit wired for izu*cha—were shigarakis implications “yeah u looooove the present I got u” and the freaking HEART that blackwhip caused??? when Izuku reeled himself back in???? like how did i miss that i read that chapter like fifteen times??)

So this is all to say that I’ve missed any and all actual bkdk hints up until this point. I finally lifted my head out of the izu*cha fog when…

_____

July 2023

…Ochako and Toga had their chat about romance.

The first actual hint was when Ochako had told Toga “I’ll give you my blood for the rest of my life.”

Little blind me became a bit less blind that day, cuz I was like “um. ochako? that— that sounded kinda like a proposal. like. a marriage proposal. ochako??”

And then those chapters just kept getting better!!

Bebe Ochako’s determination???

The Spirited Away moment?????

“I’m envious of your smile”????????

“YOU REALLY THINK IM CUTE?” “THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD” LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭

For the first time, I was looking at the manga without the assumption that izu*cha would be endgame. And it only got better after I…

_____

August 2023

…got Tumblr!!!

Everything was downhill from here folks.

In the best possible way.

I came across some analyses of what was going on with togachako, and consequently led me to some bakudeku analyses. I read them and my goodness they made so much sense.

Like not even just personality-wise!! Those metas brought in actual things Horikoshi said about wanting to go outside the norms of shounen (and about not liking the Naruto ending 💀), and compared bkdk to tropes in different works of fiction, and even discussed how bkdk made sense narratively. They properly convinced me of the ship.

And then for good measure, I reread the manga in its entirety thru a bkdk filter, and lo and behold things took on new meanings and my eyes were opened.

I totally and irrevocably shipped them! And I actually thought they had a chance at being canon!!

(And then I binged so much bkdk fanfiction omg you wouldn’t BELIEVE like I read the ones with the highest kudos first and then just picked the biggest collections I could find and read down the line

It was like being on drugs like each fic gave me more dopamine than the last I was so happy oh my god)

_____

October 2023

And then finally, the day came.

The answer to “is bakugou alive yet?” became a yes.

We screamed. We cried. We jumped for joy. We told bakugou antis to suck it. But most of all, out bkdk hearts soared to see our boys make eye contact with each other for the first time in over a year 🥹

And from that moment on, I truly began to believe that bkdk would indeed become canon.

_____

And so, this concludes my 42672288 page rant about how I came to be a bkdk shipper.

Thank you for reading, and before I go, I want to ask:

How did you guys get into bkdk?

Did you convert over from izu*cha? Or perhaps tododeku? Or maybe kiribaku? Or are you one of the few who have shipped them since the beginning??

In any case, I’m happy you’re here. And while it may have taken me a couple years, I’m happy that I’m here too :)

(and thank you @animelover32456)

[rikusoma]

(no hate to the shippers) I think the biggest problem with the "female love interest" in bnha is that anything that went past the first chapters became one sided, empty and sometimes really impersonal.

One sided because the MC barely showed interest aside from pretty superficial things, and their development became very easily platonic very fast.

Empty because the mentions and moments where the "crush" is brought up don't go anywhere, and are acknowledge to bring her down and make her uncomfortable

Impersonal because some things weren't either exclusive to or about each other.

Like, just because she isn't a love interest, don't mean she will suddenly stop being important or that she won't be a close person to the MC anymore. They just aren't going to be romantic.

(no offense to izu/ochas, you keep shipping whatever you want, I will not judge, but keep your opinions on it to yourself off my posts please, if you have a problem, block me and/or just keep scrolling)

Oh absolutely! And even in the first chapters, they didn't know each other well enough to anything To Be mutual. It's always been either nothing or one sided, there's never been a moment where Deku had any feelings toward Ochako.

I honestly think that part of the reason she was even hinted at being a potential love interest is because Hori needed something to keep the people who could pull the series early from realizing what he was doing. He had the formulaic "he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it anymore obvious" hetero romance starter. Izu/ocha basically became a beard for bkdk.

Now that mha is kind of "too big to fail", Hori can pretty much do what he wants, and the man is chaotic enough to not care if making his two main characters a couple get him blacklisted. He's got a pretty dedicated fan base on his own. He'll be fine.

I will say I wish he was better at writing the women in his story, and he has admitted to being bad at it. But if I'm being honest, he does way better than a lot of mangakas and authors in general with writing women and giving them the spotlight. Is he perfect? No. Does he give them the same attention as the main characters? Of course not, why would he?

Ochako has had some great moments, but that speech when they brought Deku back to UA? It could've been pretty much anyone. I liked that it was her, but Deku would've reacted the same regardless. Bakugou's moment in 322 couldn't have been done by anyone else. And their moments are consistently exactly that. Ochako speaks for everyone and could be replaced by anyone and get the same reaction. Bakugou's moments would not have the same howitzer-level impact (ha, see what I did there?) if someone else took his place.

I still believe that she's going to have some really great moments coming up, completely divorced of Deku at all, save for maybe some teasing from Toga that will be immediately shut down because it just won't be good ammo anymore. She's not the love interest and her character is better for it. She's a hero and is focusing on being a hero. If it were up to me, I'd still have her get together with someone in the future, I personally love IidaChako, and TogaChako is cute, although I'd want to see some development of how Toga shows her love.

Basically, if izu/ochas cared about Ochako's character beyond her being in the same old formulaic main characterxlove interest that typically makes female characters "important" in a story, they'd realize that for her to have an arc that is on par with Deku and Bakugou, she NEEDS to not be paired with Deku. She NEEDS to have her own thing. She NEEDS to not be shoehorned into importance through just being a romantic interest.

TL;DR Hori is doing a great job and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, bkdk canon

Also Bakugou is going to survive, don't @ me.

[justadreamer1]

Ten of my bnha otps in no particular order

Bakudeku! I just love this one. They are soulmates. Win to save and save to win and all that :)

Togachako! I just think they have a lot of chemistry. I'm also a sucker for shipping narrative foils. Also, it's half canon already because toga is canonically interested. Also I hate when two girls are pitted against each other for a guy, so I'd rather they forget about deku and date each other lmao. They have more chemistry together than either of them has with deku lol

Kamijirou! I love them so much. She's so smart emo and angsty and he's so happy and idiotic. They're perfect for each other. He pushes her to have more confidence and do her best, and she pushes him to be more mature and brave. I love them together.

Miritama! I love miritama. I think pretty much everyone agrees that they're married and have been in love since childhood, so no need to explain this one.

Tododeku! One of my first ships. It's so wholesome. A ship about healing and supporting each other

Momojirou! I just love how they not only gave jirou a boyfriend, but a girlfriend too. Everytime I see them in the background being wives I get happy :)

Kirimina! I absolutely adore these two. Probably my favorite het pairing of the show. I love how kirishima has been inspired by mina since middle school. I love seeing them interact or get any development.

Hatsushield! This one is new but quickly became one of my favorites. Check out the light novel chapter 3 if u wanna see them interact. Two machine experts with every different outlooks finding common ground in each other built on mutual respect and friendship :)

Lidachako! I love them together. They're my favorite pairing for each of the characters. All their interactions are just so funny and wholesome, and they've developed such a natural supportive chemistry. He's square and she's round. Opposite attract 😂

Todobaku! I do love them together. They're complete opposites, they should be enemies, and yet they're drawn to each other. They have such a fascination with each other, and are genuine friends (even if bakugo won't admit it lol). They're fire and ice soulmates lol

[amethystoceandespiser]

For me is any romantic combinaron between izuku, bakugou, ochako and toga.

IT is impossible for me to ship in good fate any character of the story with either bakugou (that all of you know that i hate with passion already) and toga (since i believe that her "yandere" characterization actually works against her character).

So

I hate bakudeku since it has no future to be anything resembling a healthy loving relationship. And in the ship the narrative makes it that suppoesdly they need eachother in their lives, it is bound to fail out of codependency.

Kachako since i believe that ochako deserves better than that insult to exploding dogs everywhere. Also this ship only exist to shit on izuku ¿the best friend of the MC becoming romantically involved with his tormentor? Fuck that.

Izutoga since i can't see anything resembling a relationship with these two thank to barely interacting in canon.

Togachako for exactly the reasons that were listed before me by @bibibbon.

Bakutoga since i believe... she deserves better... even though i can't think of anyone to ship her with.

The surprising one is... izuocha.

There. I said it. My dislike of the ship begin out of bias, and unfortunately with time it became more and more rational.

It was simply that i've read so many fics where izuocha becomes the main ship that i grew tired of it. So now every time i see a fic that has izuocha as the main, i roll my eyes.

But then. With the narrative of canon making ochako distance herself away from izuku as she realize she's in love with him is... not a good look to the ship. And how the narrative makes her unable to express it in a way that's important (like for example defend him when the girls say that he would make a bad husband for... ¿being a fanboy? ¿What kind of shit argument is that?) Made any way for me to ship it on either Canon or fanon die exponentially more.

IT doesn't help at fucking all that i can see a happy relationship (or an steamy one) with any other girl or woman from canon than with ochako (i love you girl, but canon ruined your chances).

So yeah... these are some of my NOTP's in MHA

MHA critical community, quick question: What is your least favorite MHA ship and why?

For me, my least favorite ship is Toga x Ochako. Because it completely ruins both of their characters and the morals they carried through the series.

@theloganator101

@theuntamedangel

@bibibbon