Hori Really Does Love Rewarding Characters Who Don't Deserve It, While Punishing Those Who Actually Give

Katsuki Bakugo: A Semi-Comprehensive Character Analysis (and Why I Will Never Consider Him a Hero)

I’ve written on Bakugo before, hurriedly (within about 24 hours) and messily, but he’s a character that I feel so strongly about that I need to give this another go. Before we begin I have a few disclaimers that I’d like everyone to keep in mind:

1. You’re always allowed to like fictional characters, for any reason. Deconstructing why a character’s behavior is problematic is in no way a personal attack on those who like them in spite of (or even because of) those actions. Is Bakugo your fave? Awesome! I’m glad you’re enjoying him in the series. Feel free to read this if you’re interested in differing opinions, but to be honest this is probably more geared towards those who already don’t like him. “Don’t like, don’t read” remains a staple of fandom for a reason, so please stick to it. 

2. I’ll be writing this up through Chapter 190, hence “semi” comprehensive. Maybe I’ll do a part two once the series is finished. I’m not sure yet. Also, keep in mind that every translation is slightly different. The one I used can be found here. 

3. I’ve already decided that I won’t be responding to any comments on this post. Not because I don’t enjoy a good debate (boy do I ever), but I’ve got a lot of important Real Life writing to do and really can’t afford to get distracted. That is, any more distracted than I’ve already been with this meta and to be frank, charged conversations about this character is not what I’m looking for right now. I wanted to say my piece and now I have. But feel free to chat among yourselves—respectfully!

4. This meta is long. I mean it’s really long. You think you know how long it is? You’re wrong. It’s longer. This is my magnum opus of metas and honestly I have no regrets. Just keep length in mind if you think, “Oh, I’ll give this a quick read through!” You won’t. That’s not possible. And I’m so very sorry.  

Okay, that’s the boring stuff out of the way. Let’s dive in.

There’s something to be said for the argument that the most important part of a story is its beginning. The start of a tale either grabs us or leaves us cold. It sets up all our expectations and, whether the author is consciously aware of it or not, has a strong impact on the ending. Stories don’t exist without their beginnings (for obvious reasons) and it’s worth giving them some extra attention. Boku No Hero Academia starts with this:

We don’t know these people yet, but it’s easy enough to figure out their role in this tale; who’s the hero and who’s the villain. We learn a lot in just five panels. Bakugo has been beating up on another, weaker kid and he’s “already made him cry.” This is significant because it sets up Bakugo’s empathy—or lack thereof. His first victim is not Izuku, the “friend” who we later learn infuriates and at times even intimidates Bakugo. As horrible as it is, we can explain some of his violence towards Izuku, though we certainly can’t justify it. But this is different. Bakugo appears to be beating on a random kid simply because he can. Because he enjoys it. Though we’re only in the first panel, the crux of Bakugo’s characterization is laid out for us to see. It emphasizes my primary argument and the reason why I don’t think he can ever be a hero, no matter how much Horikoshi wants us to root for him.

Bakugo lacks empathy for other people. 

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real question,

why do proshippers love rape so much? do you guys want to rape someone irl?

why do you guys love pedophilia/grooming so much? have you ever had thoughts about doing those actions or irl minors?

why do you guys love incest so much? is this just a way for you to vent your frustration cause your sibling(s) /step sibling(s) rejected you for your literal illegal behavior?

why do you guys love all these crimes so much? why do you love it when someone calls sexual and predatory abuse attractive as if it hasn't traumatized billions of people word wide?

this is like a genuine question I'm being deadass

EDIT REAL QUICK LMAO

for the proshippers whining and bitching in my comments abt me getting a hobby just letting you know that I,

play guitar, play volleyball, I read books, write OC lore and my indie show lore (cause I wanna make showns n shit), I thrift, I collect physical media like dvds, vhs, ect, I regularly go to flea/farmers market, I draw regularly, I collect plushies, I make pins and sell them to kids at my school, and as of recently I've been thinking abt making loom bracelets and kandi again!

so how about you hoes find a better comeback and get some hobbies of ur own? thanks 😊🖕

I just realized something about BNHA that I'm sure nobody on here talked about yet.

The show suffers from a protagonist centered morality.

Izuku or to a lesser extent those that're on the side of the heroes, are always seen as in the right and that anything going against that is automatically in the wrong and should be called out. Even if the other side makes a good point about something.

Take Eri and the reporters for example. The reporters raise good points about Bakugou and how irresponsible UA is, but are told "na nuh!" By Aizawa and it just ends at that.

Then Eri... She literally went from one place who used her power to another. It literally falls into "It's okay if WE do it!" even though this is supposed to be a story meant to point out the flaws in society but gets onto anyone who dares try to say anything bad about it!

God even after all this time BNHA still makes my blood boil!!

People need to talk about this more.

Good and bad in MHA has less to do with morality and more to do with who are the heroes and who are the villains. Which could have been a GREAT setup, only for Horikoshi to never talk about it.

Any time ANYONE has a point, they are immediately discredited or brushed aside. Like Izuku dismissing what Dabi said by defending Endeavor as his mentor. For this to come from our protagonist of all people that late in the game? It not only ignores something blatantly being called out, it also makes our protagonist look worse. Instead of addressing and amending the propaganda he set up, Horikoshi repeatedly reinforces it for some reason.

(This is a repeated problem with Izuku especially. He's such a blank prop that never got the development he deserves that any critiques about the world around him go right over his head. It's actually bittersweet that in the epilogue he is starting to come to a realization because no it's too late)

I've talked many times about how the LOV regressed into irredeemable monsters to make their suffering and the points they made meaningless. Spinner suffered from this the worst. He was the member of the LOV who didn't crave destruction and wanted to change things, only to forgo all of that in the Final War.

To watch all this happen when I used to love MHA is just so disappointing

how it feels to enter what seems like a really cool fandom only to find it overflowing with puritans and antis:

So there's a strange "defense" of Miraculous I've seen crop up on occasion. The idea that everything wrong about the Lovesquare powerdynamic is deliberate and will all be explored next season (lets put aside that this defense has been cropping up for 3 seasons now). The claim that Soon(TM), the writers are gonna make the characters face the concequences and explore the fallout of the entire jenga-tower of BS they've been "carefully" setting up all along... Which... isnt a defense I vibe with, cause it fundamentally boils down to "its not a Kids Rolemodel Show, its a deconstruction of a Kids Rolemodel Show". It's a defence that would place Marinette alongside Tyler Durden, Walter White and Rick Sanchez in the "you werent supposed to relate to them" pantheon. And while i think there are plenty of reasons that deconstruction is a usefull tool (even if i hate the dime-a-dozen "Childrens Fairytale but its depression" and "Superman, but psycho"' decon-stories out there). I'd argue 'Kids Rolemodel Show' is the one genre that should never be deconstructed, or at least not in the slow-burn,long-form way the people arguing this claim the show to be doing. And i hold that stance for one simple two-part reason: Poe's law, and the fact that the deconstructed genre is aimed at an audience with absolute zero media-literacy. (reminder: "5-6 year old kids" is the one audience where that is not an insult, simply a statement of fact.) A show aimed deconstructing a genre with an audience for whom it may actually be their first big piece of media is legitimately dangerous. Because there is no way a 5 year old can be expected to tell "deconstruction of a formulaic kids cartoon" from "Formulaic kids cartoon". The idea that "they've been making Marinette into a bad example deliberately and are going to reveal the entire show to have been a carefull ruse in season 6/7" is supposed to be a defense? Its frankly absurd. A 6 year kid who watched the show when it first aired and idolised Ladybug, could be old enough to drink by the time S6 reveals she was supposed to be a bad example. A little girl who based her relationships on the way Mari pursues romance would have a restraining order by the time the show indends to pull this twist. And some of y'all are claiming that "actually its a long-form deconstruction" is a defense? I legit don't get y'all.

When KIBUTSUJI MUZAN had the GOATED villain entrance in anime history.

Sorry for not being on in, like, forever. Life’s just gotten in the way.

Anyways, that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. What I really wanted to focus on is something I’ve been thinking a lot on lately, and that’s the idea of asshole characters.

Obviously asshole characters come in all shapes and sizes. Each have their own motivations for being an asshole and/or unfriendly individual. Katsuki, Shota, and Hitoshi are asshole characters themselves, but why is it that I dislike them so much?

At first I thought I didn’t like asshole characters in general. However, I then remembered that there are several characters people would classify as assholes/unfriendly individuals that are characters I adore. Lysithea from Fire Emblem 2 Houses and Natsuki from Doki Doki Literature Club are characters who are rough around the edges and aren’t nice to people immediately. The reasons behind their behavior aren’t too far off from why Shota and Hitoshi act the way they do, that being trauma, so why am I able to look past their behavior and not that of Shota and Hitoshi? With Katsuki, it’s obvious, but the other two had me scratching my head for a bit.

The answer, outside of the fact that Lysithea and Natsuki are multi-layered characters written far better than Shota and Hitoshi, is that the girls are REACTIVE assholes while Hitoshi and Shota are ACTIVE assholes.

What do I mean by that? Well both Lysithea and Natsuki for the most part keep to themselves. Something that someone does ends up causing them to snap. For Lysithea, it’s when she feels that her time is being wasted after someone approaches her about something irrelevant. For Natsuki, it’s a defensive mechanism triggered by a perceived attack on her character. Now, is that an excuse for their behavior? No. There are better ways to defend yourself and to get people to stop talking to you, but it’s at least understandable that they’d snap due to their traumas.

Katsuki, Hitoshi, and Shota aren’t like that. When they’re an asshole, it isn’t because they’re provoked into being one by someone else’s actions, but because they’re the ones doing the provoking. Katsuki’s rude and aggressive to everyone around him, choosing to make the life of another boy absolutely miserable without any provocation. Hitoshi decides to mock 1-A and issue his “challenge” not because anyone approached him, but because he himself is looking for trouble. Yeah, Katsuki gave off a shitty first impression, but Hitoshi already was planning on challenging 1-A from the beginning. Shota’s the one who controls his teaching style and is a position of authority. Rather than do his job, he’d rather tear someone down.

Am I supposed to sympathize with these so-called heroes? I for the life of me can’t seem to do so. Meanwhile, with characters like Lysithea and Natsuki, I can because they don’t mean to be an asshole, it’s just that they want to be left alone.

Now, am I saying reactive assholes are better characters than proactive assholes? No. Proactive assholes can have great character development. The problem is that proactive assholes are tougher to warm up to, especially when they’re meant to characters the audience is meant to root for. MHA’s writing does nothing TO make people want to root for these guys. They’re just assholes who wanna throw their weight around and never receive punishment for it/are called out for it. Hell, MHA seems to think these characters ARE in the right for being the way they are and/or doesn’t take the fact that they are assholes seriously (looking at you Katsuki).

Anyways, I thought I’d write this up to really explain more of my thought process and why Katsuki, Hitoshi, and Shota bother me so much whereas I find myself adoring characters such as Lysithea and Natsuki.

things that happened to me when i was a woman in STEM:

an advisor humiliated me in front of an entire lab group because of a call I made in his place when he wouldn't reply to my e-mails for months

he later delegated part of my master's thesis work to a 19-year old male undergrad without my approval

a male scientist at a NASA conference looked me up and down and asked when i was graduating and if i was open to a job at his company. right before inquiring what my ethnicity was because i "looked exotic"

a random male member of the public began talking over me and my female advisor, an oceanographer with a pHD and decades of experience, saying he knew more about oceanography than us

things that have happened to me since becoming a man in STEM:

being asked consistently for advice on projects despite being completely new to a position

male colleagues approaching me to drop candid information regarding our partners / higher ups that I was not privy to before

lenience toward my work in a way I haven't experienced before. incredible understanding when I need to take time off to care for my family.

conference rooms go silent when I start talking. no side chatter. I get a baseline level of attention and focus from people that's very unfamiliar and genuinely difficult for me to wrap my head around.

like. yes some PI's will still be assholes regardless of the gender of their subordinates but, I've lived this transition. misogyny in STEM is killing women's careers, and trans men can and do experience male privilege.

If you watch the interview from Bojack Horseman, that's exactly what would've happen to Bakugo if the narrative ( Hori ) doesn't sugarcoat every misdeed he's done.

Bakugo: "I didn't tell Deku to kys until we're in highschool!!!"

Reporter: "I'm sorry what?"

Bakugo: "!!-I mean-!?-I-!!"

Reporter: "Did you say you tell you're 'childhood friend' to 'kys'??"

Bakugo: "That was me and Deku in highschool!! Not my fault he's a useless quirkless!!! I was only a teen!!".

And all of the conversation would be broadcasted in live TV too lol.

Katsuki would fuck up an interview like that 😂

What do you think about All Might’s writing at the end?

I thought All Might making a stand and throwing a suitcase at someone with bkdk saving him would exactly be his endgame, but I didn't like how it was executed:

All Might making a desperate stand quirkless is fully in character, but I thought it would be more spontaneous. Him having poured his earnings into a powered suit in secret, with no build-up, and then hide it from everyone while sending literal children to the frontline is not it.

The armored suit was too powerful and was really harmful for the overall balance of the power system in-story and had to be retconned constantly why it was impossible to have quirkless heroes before

All Might 1-man suit combo-ing all of Class A and sucking away the oxygen and highlight from the next generation he supposedly raised was a bad overall decision for the narrative, imho. It made it look like he was taking the power of the kids he was supposed to lift up for himself

All Might learning Shigaraki was Nana's grandson was a huge moment of the first Kamino fight, yet the narrative did nothing useful with it.

So I get that people like All Might looking "raw" in the fight and that AM wanted to have more of his backstory, but to me AFO vs All Might felt really cringe and reductive. It felt like its entire purpose was to build a moment for Bakugou to swoop in as savior and really didn't add much to All Might as a character and took away the story-space from a big Class A combo that has been set-up for forever.

In the epilogue, All Might had not a lot of moments:

he repeated Gran Torino's line about death being salvation

he praised Bakugou and Deku because they saved him

he brought the armored suit to Deku as a surprise, which in the end felt like a gimmick moment and created its own problematic issues around Deku's passivity, etc.

To be honest, it felt to me like those warm moments that All Might was so loved for has gradually disappeared. It says a lot that he had memorable moments with Shoto and Bakugou during the final war, but not really with Deku.