nedzus such a funny fucking character jesus. the current anime arc is so so so hilarious. imagine being one of japans most successful news reporters and you got a hot scoop on the countrys most prestigious hero school fucking up again and letting one of their students get kidnapped so you rock up ready to absolutely rip into the head of the establishment only to find hes literally a rat. not even a ratman just straight up a little furry animal. id go ballistic
reporter: mr principal how could UA let this happen
Sometimes I remember Izuku’s hero analysis journals and I get a bit nervous because there’s no telling how beneficial that information could potentially be for villains.
Everyone in 1-A: How did they find out these really specific weaknesses we have?
Izuku, whose journals went missing a week ago: I have a theory, but I’m not sure if I want to share it.
What she says: I hate Mineta.
What she means: I hate how a show as robust and compelling and fascinating as Boku No Hero Academia gleefully includes invasive, aggressive, unapologetic sexual perversion and dresses it up in a weak and unmasculine hat so that it seems harmless and forgivable. By making Mineta small and easy to shut-down, his non-consensual harassment of his classmates is allowed to be presented as funny, harmless, and almost charming since it is so apparent Mineta stands no chance of wooing them. All these scenes do is give the audience reason–and worse permission–to sexually objectify the young girls through Mineta’s eyes in a way that’s presented as innocuous. The narrative is happy to lampshade the fact that Mineta’s harassment is bad, and yet chooses to include it anyway, for no other reason than as a wink and a nudge to the audience saying “hey arent these 15 year old girls sexy?” So long as the audience understands Mineta is being “gross” and enjoys seeing him shut-down, then they are free to enjoy his constant invasive harassment with a clear conscience. This tactic is insidious, because it attempts to make itself clownish, harmless, and therefore inoffensive, while perpetuating sexism far more harmful than it’s willing to acknowledge. And I hate the purple grape fucker as a person too.
I was rewatching Uraraka vs Bakugou and Midoriya vs Todoroki at the gym today and theres a few important things i wanna point out that i missed with my old recap
Okay really it’s one thing but Deku has this habit of just rolling over submissive to people who intimidate him, until they say one negative word about someone Deku cares about
Then Deku goes right for the jugular and it’s great
Bakugou: Move, loser Deku: O-o-o-h-h-h Kacchan I didn’t see you!!! Ah whoops s-s-sorry I’m heading on out of here sorry to be in your way I-I-I I’m going now!!!! Bakugou: You piece of shit, you told Gravity Girl to mess with me, didn’t you Deku: Hey Baku-bitch listen the fuck up for one second k? Uraraka came up with that strategy all on her own, because she’s smart, and if I catch you insulting her ever again you can catch these fucking hands,
Endeavor: Move, loser Deku: O-o-o-h-h-h-h Endeavor I didn’t see you!!!! Ah whoops s-s-sorry I’m heading on out of here sorry to be in your way I-I-I I’m going now!!!!
Endeavor: Dont hold back fighting Shouto–I need him to surpass All Might as my ultimate creation and beating you is the first step. Deku: Yo hey Endeavor u take criticism? You’re a horrific piece of shit and Todoroki owes you nothing. He’s his own person. And that’s not you so. Crawl back into the sewer you spawned in and never come back out.
“Ah heck oh no I annoyed Kacchan! I’ll just keep walking dont want any beef with Kacchan!”
*insults Ururaka*
“Fuck you I take that back now I’m angry.”
“Oh geez oh man it’s Endeavor I gotta just keep walking he’s a scary dude.”
I love BNHA a lot in general but one of my highest praises is for how they handle Bakugou.
Like, the “cool, angry, top-of-his-game rival character who hates the protagonist” is dime-a-dozen in shonen series. That’s who Bakugou is. And its real common to toss a set of rose-tinted glasses on every other character so they all see Rival Guy as cool and amazing and admirable. That way the protagonist has to work extra hard to beat his rival AND prove himself to everyone else, who all just blindly adore Rival Guy.
And BNHA…doesn’t do that. BNHA lets everyone understand that Bakugou is an asshole. He’s strong. He’s talented. He’s a force of nature. The other kids know this, but theyre not blinded by it. They understand he’s unfairly cruel to Deku. They know his ego is a problem. They’re not scared of him or dazzled by him. They take notice when he’s being a problem. They call him out. They tease him.
There’s the bus scene in early season 1 where Deku’s cowering in shock because Good god, these kids have the nerve to mock Bakugou. Because the kids in Deku and Bakugou’s old school were a lot more like the typical shonen characters. They let Bakugou get away with his awfulness because he was Bakugou. The UA kids are a different cut though. They don’t care Bakugou was #1 in the exam. They don’t care that he’s Bakugou.
And heck, half of Bakugo’s character arcs involve him hopping from one angry existential crisis to another, because he’s not always the best, because he can’t win everyone over to his side with confidence, because he can’t accomplish every single thing his inflated ego says he should be accomplishing. The audience witnesses him meet resistance and hardship and consequence for being an egotistical, hot-headed bully. He faces real-world honest consequences for being that kind of terrible person.
Bakugo hasn’t had one definite character-redeeming moment–no “oh you talked sense into me and now im Good™ “. But as the manga goes on, he’s become less volatile, less cocky, less eager to harass Deku. He still is an asshole, but he’s changed. I have a lot of respect for how it’s been handled. Slowly, progressively. His ego has been chiseled down by personal failures, by witnessing how his cocky confidence does harm to himself and others.
I love that BNHA doesn’t let the cool, powerful, rival character just have his way. I love that BNHA doesnt just whack Bakugo with a single character-redemption arc and pull him through the other side. I love that BNHA shows us what things are whittling down Bakugo, that they take a metaphorical spray bottle to him again and again, pushing him into something less cruel than he was.
And it’s really good.
Okay, going back through and reading all of bnha is too much for me so I’m hoping that you can link me to a moment where someone did call Bakugou out for being cruel to Izuku cause I have yet to see it. I am eager to see Bakugou develop and round out with his personality but the villains took him for a reason and right now I still see him as a cruel bully who is learning to be less of a bully but is still a pretty selfish person. The most recent chapters were a great development for him but I was always so mad at the teachers and everyone else cause noone ever says, hey, don’t you think you’re being a little too violent to Izuku? It never happens, instead the teachers force the two to work together never mind that this puts Izuku in physical danger and everyone else in the class does that whole, yeah he’s angry but we still respect him because of his power. Like that’s so stupid! I wouldn’t respect a person just cause they’re powerful, if they’re an asshole, they’re a selfish asshole!
Not to mention I hhhaaatttee Izuku’s idolisation of ‘Kacchan’, every time he says it, it sounds like stockholm syndrome words of someone in an abusive relationship who has to make up good points in their abuser in order to deal with their situation.
I love bnha but one of my biggest issues is not just for how they handle Bakugou but for how they make everyone else around completely okay with ignoring his nastiness and how that’s affected others.
hate to disagree with you chrissy! but I agree – it’s like the author subverted one layer of a trope, but… kept all the deeper layers that really count imo
case in point: Bakugo is still a student at a hero academy. he’s still one step away from protagonist. he’s still being put on the same pedestal as Deku, saying “this is just as much hero material as our actual hero, who’s kind and determined and all these great qualities you’d expect a hero in training to be”.
Bakugo is forgiven on multiple levels for his continued abuse, without any internal acknowledgment that he was even slightly a jerk. deku continues to idolize him, furthering the narrative that Bakugo is forgiven. it’s okay that he keeps up the abuse because deku thinks he’s cool!
the author has really muddied his own message of the story by having Bakugo be unapologetic with abuse, yet continues to (or attempts to, anyway) cast him in a sympathetic light – little moments of weakness, briefly cooperating with teammates, his fascination with All Might, even when he’s used as comic relief.
you can’t have it both ways. I get that it’s very realistic for an abuser to go even their entire lives without consequence or remorse, but we aren’t talking about reality, we’re talking about a fabricated story that’s MEANT to bring you a cohesive narrative. and the author has a responsibility to, if he wishes to write about such abuse, not portray it in such a way that it’s something damn near positive.
Bakugo was so close to being a great character. he just needed a few adjustments (like eventual actual remorse /reason for traumatizing deku… before trying to pass him off as hero material), or just for the author to better handle the tone in which he’s presented to the audience.
backup 