Chapter Text
PREFACE
***Warning! Spoilers for the My Hero Academia anime and manga and light novels are about to begin! So many spoilers, all of the spoilers.***
OK now welcome to Bakudekubaku is Canon: A Fuckin’ Treatise, You Damn Nerds, brought to you by Bakugo’s Queero Acagaymia.
Now, just a little about how I wound up doing this. I was a fan of MHA for years before I even discovered that shipping was a thing at all with this series. I’ve never been into shipping, for anything. I actually was anime-only for a long time, but I started reading the manga because I kept seeing spoilers about the Dabi-Touya reveal, and I wanted to keep consuming MHA content on youtube but didn’t want to be spoiled. Bakugo was already my favorite character, but I didn’t actually know that there was about to be a bunch of stuff with him in the war arc and after when I started reading it, and I didn’t know shipping him with Deku was a big thing.
But by the time I got to the end of chapter 322, I was just overcome with this feeling of - holy shit, is Bakugo so gay for Deku? And now that I mention it, is Deku super gay for him back? What’s going on? Has this whole show been completely gay the whole time? So I went to my trusty youtube, but I couldn’t find any video titled “Bakugo is gay” or “Bakudeku is canon” or anything like that. YouTube did suggest lots of wonderful doujins I had never imagined existed, but I wanted analysis, damn it. I mean, I read the doujins, obviously. But I couldn’t stop there!
So I started doing more research, and things started seeming gayer and gayer the more and the closer I looked. Then the extremely gay sixth light novel came out in Japan, and I knew I was right. This shit’s gay as fuck and Horikoshi knows it and he ships BKDK and this is real. And it’s such a great trick he’s playing on everyone because even my gay ass took hundreds of hours of episodes and rewatches and hundreds of chapters of the manga to even NOTICE that My Hero Academia has been fundamentally queer as fuck the entire time.
Look - look - the emotional endgame of the whole series has always been Deku and Bakugo finally holding hands.
GAY!
So before I get into the absolute embarrassment of Bakudeku riches, let me explain how I’m going to format this essay.
The first part is just the preface, that’s this, you are here in the preface. In this part I’m going to present an abridged timeline of Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki’s relationship up through chapter 327, and tell you just a little bit about why I interpret the events therein as gay. I will be generally referring to the two of them as Deku and Bakugo, respectively.
The next section of the essay will be the introduction, where I will go over some of the recurring themes in the story of Deku and Bakugo’s relationship, relevant background information, meta stuff, etc.
The third and longest section will be the extended timeline, where I’ll cover the same timeline as I’m about to go over in this video, but in much more detail, because it’s a huge amount of content since they’re so gay and their gay romance is actually the heart of the whole story.
The timeline is mostly based on the My Hero Academia manga, official light novels, and second movie, along with some other official materials. The manga is obviously written by Horikoshi Kohei, the one true god of the MHA-verse. For what it’s worth, the light novels are illustrated and approved by Horikoshi, and from what I understand the second movie had the most involvement from him out of the three movies released so far.
Now without further ado, let’s take a look at that abridged timeline.
ABRIDGED BAKUDEKU TIMELINE - I made a video to of the abridged timeline! Watch it here if you’re interested - https://youtu.be/5v4OdVNAE8Q
— Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki grow up in the same neighborhood and are childhood friends. Both obsess over the Number 1 Hero All Might, though Deku focuses on all the people All Might saves, while Bakugo is more impressed by all the fights All Might wins. At age four, Bakugo gets a siq explosion quirk, and Deku is confirmed to have no quirk, which is very rare and very uncool. Seemingly as soon as he learns to read, Bakugo starts calling Midoriya, Deku, an insulting pun on the kanji spelling of his name, which implies that he is useless.
— One time Bakugo falls in a pond and Deku reaches out his hand to help, and it takes Bakugo ten years to forgive Deku for it because the gesture makes him think that Deku must look down on him. Bakugo starts pushing Deku away then, but Deku doesn’t know why.
— By around age seven Bakugo is definitely a bully and starts to especially target Deku, through to the beginning of their last year of middle school.
— Throughout that entire time, Deku still notices everything about Bakugo, takes actual notes on him because he thinks that he’s amazing, sticks close to him as much as he can and continues to call him Kacchan, the cute nickname from when they were kids, which by middle school nobody else seems to call him. In return, Deku receives mostly hostility and violence. From what we can tell, Bakugo never actually opposes Deku’s use of the nickname Kacchan.
— At the beginning of the third year of middle school, Bakugo tells Deku not to apply to UA and suggests that he kill himself, and then All Might tells him he can’t be a hero without a quirk. Then Deku sees that someone is caught by the sludge villain. He realizes it’s sort of his fault, but he does nothing to help at first, watching and waiting like everyone else for a suitable hero to show up. But then Deku sees that the victim is Bakugo, and he immediately and without hesitation risks his life to save him, thus instigating the main events of My Hero Academia.
— Deku trains and gets strong, while Bakugo stops being violent with him after the sludge incident.
— Deku gets All Might’s quirk, and he and Bakugo are both accepted into UA. Upon learning this, Bakugo gets violent with Deku for the first time since the sludge villain incident, but now, Deku stands up to him.
— At UA, Bakugo feels betrayed by Deku upon learning he has a quirk, and he makes rash mistakes during their indoor combat training at Ground Beta because he’s trying to attack Deku instead of focusing on the actual exercise. Deku tells Bakugo he wants to beat him because he’s amazing, then he does win the battle but is badly injured and has to go to recovery girl.
— After Deku is healed enough to come back to class, he sees that Bakugo left already and runs after him. Deku can’t stand letting Bakugo think he tricked him about being quirkless, and so he spills most of his and All Might’s and, in a sense, all of Japan’s big important secret to Bakugo by revealing he got his quirk from someone else, but he says he will make it his own and beat Bakugo with his own power. Bakugo then cries to Deku about his most vulnerable feelings of inadequacy, but he also says he’s just getting started.
— At the sports festival, Bakugo wins first place, but he can’t accept his final victory over Todoroki because Todoroki wouldn’t attack him with his flames like he had attacked in his fight with Deku.
— When the time comes to choose their hero names, Deku goes with… Deku.
— Bakugo then obsesses over Deku to the point that it’s driving him literally insane, so when they get partnered up against All Might for their final, he says he’d rather lose than rely on Deku. Ultimately Deku won’t allow this, saying that that doesn’t sound like him, and they’re able to overcome their feelings and work together to pass. Deku rescues Bakugo again at the end of the final, even though it’s not really necessary.
— At training camp Bakugo is kidnapped, and Deku goes feral and risks his whole battered body trying to save him, and then apparently his world shatters when Bakugo gets taken anyway. Deku calls it a total loss. Then even though Bakugo tells him, specifically, not to come after him, Deku risks his life and risks getting expelled from UA to go save him. Deku looks absolutely wrecked when he tells the rescue squad that they have to rely on Kirishima’s friendship with Bakugo in order to pull off his plan, because he doesn’t trust Bakugo to take his hand.
— Bakugo notices Deku crying when All Might says “you’re next” and he realizes the truth about Deku’s quirk
— When Deku gets his provisional hero license and Bakugo doesn’t, Bakugo has Deku meet him under the stars at Ground Beta, reveals that he knows that Deku got his quirk from All Might, cries about his feelings again, and then challenges Deku to a fight. During the fight Deku compliments Bakugo a lot and thinks even nicer things about him than he says. Bakugo wins and puts Deku in a very firm hold, for longer than necessary, until they’re discovered by All Might.
— The pair are suspended together for fighting, and it’s clear their bond has now grown and is getting stronger. A light novel scene during their suspension reveals that Bakugo thinks naked women’s bodies are disgusting, and in the same chapter he and Deku bond more, over finding a lost rabbit together.
— A lot of stuff happens now to both of them separately. Deku keeps getting tougher, while Bakugo keeps getting softer and kinder but also stronger.
— Heroes Rising happens around now, and it’s basically a Bakudeku fic that ends with them holding hands for Deku to give One for All to Bakugo so they can win their fight together. Unfortunately the power doesn’t stay with him at all, and Bakugo forgets the incident, and apparently nobody tells him about it.
— During the A vs B battle arc, Bakugo first inserts himself into one of Deku and All Might’s One for All conversations.
— During his team battle, Bakugo shows off his new heroic teamwork style, and Deku looks at him with a tender expression while the world seems to disappear around him. This is the moment when I think Deku may finally realize he’s actually got it bad-bad for his Kacchan.
— Then in Deku’s fight, Monoma insults Bakugo, and it makes Deku so angry that he manifests a past One For All user’s quirk, blackwhip, for the first time.
— After Blackwhip manifests, Bakugo starts working with Deku and All Might on a regular basis to help develop Deku’s powers.
— Around the same time, Deku and Bakugo end up going together with Todoroki to Endeavor’s agency for their work studies.
— From what we know about winter term, which is time-skipped in the manga, the pair bonds a lot during that time. They work together, but also they pray together on New Years in the fifth light novel after helping two little boys repair their friendship, and they get sick together and touch each others’ foreheads and kind of hold hands and Bakugo catches Deku when he falls, in the sixth light novel. Also in the sixth light novel and on Valentine’s day no less, Deku confirms that Bakugo never showed any interest in girls during middle school, reemphasizing his canonical queerness.
— In manga flashbacks we’ll see that Bakugo talks candidly to All Might about how worried he is about Deku, and how he regrets bullying him.
— The UA students go to war against Shigaraki and friends. Bakugo chases after Deku, tries to keep him out of trouble, and when he can’t do that, his quirk spontaneously evolves to enable him to move fast enough to jump in front of All for One’s finger knives, risking his entire life to save Deku without any thought.
— All for One calls Bakugo worthless as he shakes him off of his finger knives, and as a result Deku goes into a previously unseen beast mode. He forgets he’s not supposed to touch the boss, and All for One tries to take One for All. Deku passes out, and even though One for All wasn’t stolen, his consciousness remains in the vestige world while his body is passed out, lying in the hospital for several days.
— When Bakugo wakes up in the hospital after surgery, he tries desperately despite his injuries to get to Deku, who is still unconscious, but he is prevented from seeing him.
— When Deku comes to, he goes away without saying anything and leaves notes for his classmates, including Bakugo. He does the vigilante Deku arc, taking out villains single handedly and isolating himself, scared that he will put his loved ones in danger if he doesn’t stay away from them.
— Bakugo rips up his note from Deku and rallies their class and Endeavor to save Deku from himself, telling everyone that Deku needs them and that nobody but he, Bakugo, can really understand Deku and how reckless is, or how little regard he has for his own life. He calls this the worst case scenario.
— Right when Deku is at his breaking point, Bakugo dramatically shows up with class 1-A, saving him from Dictator. At his first opportunity, he spills his guts to Deku, telling him how obsessed he’s been with him all these years and how wrong he was and how sorry he is for everything. He bows and calls him Izuku, not Deku, and it’s all in front of everyone, as it rains, and time appears to stop. Izuku falls into Bakugo’s arms and finally stops fighting against him and their other classmates.
— Once his friends get Deku in the bath, Bakugo splashes him, says he’s still his rival, and with some difficulty, calls him Izuku again. It is visible that Bakugo has large scars from jumping in front of Deku during the war arc. Bakugo stays up way past his bedtime that night, at least until Izuku rests.
— Two days later, we see the pair together with the rest of the class getting info from All Might on the upcoming battle against Shigaraki.
— All Might tells them to train, and Deku announces that Kacchan offered to help him train one for all, which Bakugo denies, saying he just wants to test his cluster technique against him.
//that’s everything up to 327. I’ll talk a little about events past that at the very end of the actual essay (next chapter)//
All right, so, let’s take that story again, but now I’m going to interpret those same events a bit.
So. The boys are friends as little kids, right. But then they learn at the age of four that they are different from each other, that Bakugo has a strong quirk while Deku is quirkless. This quickly creates tension and fissure between them because of how important quirks are in their society. That’s a common romance trope already right there, right? Think Romeo and Juliet or Cinderella. They’re from different worlds! And this even while, at the same time, they’re childhood friends, and childhood friends (or Osananajimi) is another popular romance trope, especially in Japan.
But anyway, at home, Deku is learning from his mother and all might videos mostly how to be kind, while Bakugo is learning from his mother and different all Might videos how to be confident and violent and a winner. So Deku’s hand held out in the pond happens, and it makes little Bakugo feel all kinds of weird because it flies in the face of everything he’s learning from society and from his mother. Bakugo starts to push Deku away, and they grow more distant and antagonistic, but they both still think the other is amazing and can’t stop paying attention to each other! Canonically! I mean… angsty.
The older the boys get, the more Bakugo seems to react to Deku’s attention on him making him feel a way - excited, flustered, “creeped out,” which he covers up with anger. We know from chapter 322 that Bakugo actually thought Deku was better than him and that Deku was looking down on him. Bakugo clearly believes in Deku, since otherwise he wouldn’t feel the need to discourage Deku from applying at UA because he would just assume like everyone else that the guy just couldn’t get in.
But also it’s likely that Bakugo had some kind of feelings for Deku by middle school. Think about it - Bakugo pushes Deku around, but the kid won’t stop following him, watching him, seeing and calling out to a version of him who hasn’t existed in years, and he’s cute, and he’s known him forever, and it’s getting Bakugo hot and bothered all the time, and he doesn’t want anyone to notice, so he lashes out at Deku. Even though he does have a generally belligerent disposition, he’s noticeably harsher with Deku than he is with anyone else. This would completely make sense if a tough guy like him had a secret gay crush on his childhood friend, even if it is still a secret even from himself. It’s easier to cover up one strong emotion with another strong emotion than it is to pretend to be apathetic, after all. Most likely Bakugo doesn’t want Deku to go to UA, not just because of his “perfectionism”, but because he’s hoping he can escape his feelings for Deku by going to a different school. Like, sure, he was afraid of losing and being less than and all that, but still, methinks the hero doth protest too much.
It’s also really something that Deku always calls Bakugo, Kacchan, and gets away with it! Like, the one thing Bakugo doesn’t give him any shit for is continuing to call him by a cutesy nickname like he’s Deku’s girlfriend? He just lets him? Like, for all of middle school and then some, only Deku calls Bakugo Kacchan, and only Bakugo calls Deku, Deku. It might be twisted, but it’s a kind of intimacy between them that they both let exist right out in the open for everyone to see. Bakugo could have changed that when they went to UA, could have told Deku to cut it out with the Kacchan nickname and could have called him Midoriya, but he doesn’t.
So Bakugo’s feelings for Deku seem to be there, simmering under the surface, and we know he’s always thinking about him, as he later admits in chapter 322 and which we see for ourselves in the sixth light novel. Deku’s feelings for Bakugo, on the other hand, have really never been hidden. Deku risks his life for Bakugo before he has any power, he runs after him to tell him his secret and comfort him after combat training, he risks his life for him some more and then has an epic freakout and acts noticeably possessive when he gets kidnapped, then he risks his life again as well as risking expulsion to save him from the League, and during experience that he clearly feels jealous of Bakugo’s friendship with Kirishima. He’s an absolute Kacchan Stan from day one. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - if you’re a “fan” of someone you know in real life - that’s called a crush.
Then they have their big fight at ground beta under the stars, and Bakugo has completely figured out Deku’s secret, and this starts the shift that will allow them to move beyond their past and be together in the future. We know from the fifth light novel that after this fight, known as Deku vs. Kacchan 2, Bakugo stops feeling disgusted by Deku but still feels “creeped out” by him in a way he can’t place. I extrapolate this unidentified feeling to be his unacknowledged gay love for him.
Shortly after this, the pair are mostly narratively separated for a while. Deku goes on a journey that makes him stronger, tougher, more capable. Bakugo, meanwhile, goes on a journey that seems to make him softer, kinder, more in touch with his emotions and more genuinely heroic. Deku and Bakugos’ arcs here are largely separate but inverse to each other, as each emulates the other more and more. This is another common trope from romance novels and the like - the lovers separate and improve before coming back together.
Uhh heroes rising happens then and it is so very very VERY gay between the two of them and for 100% of the movie it’s just a love fest. A love fest whose climax was Horikoshi’s originally conceived ending for the whole MHA manga, which brings me back to my premise that their love and their need to hold hands is and always was central to this entire story.
Then when the main story finally puts them back together again, it’s SO ON. During the A versus B battles, Deku sees proof that Bakugo is changing into the hero he always knew he could be, and as I already mentioned, he looks at him like he’s in love with him. Period. I don’t know what else this is supposed to be. Bones didn’t animate that moment, but Hori didn’t draw it like that by accident.
Then, of course, as if we couldn’t already tell that he loved him, Deku’s quirk evolves in a HUGE WAY right after that just from Monoma shit-talking Bakugo for like fifteen seconds.
From this point forward, Deku and Bakugo may as well be dysfunctional boyfriends. They have their work study together, and classes, but they also spend most of their free time together, either training or meeting with just All Might. Deku counts time with Bakugo as one of his great blessings, along with All Might and U.A. Their light novel stories read like awkward shoujo romance dates, complete with shoujo romance tropes like praying at new years’ together and getting sick together and taking care of each other and more. Deku thinks about how he can’t imagine life without Bakugo, and Bakugo tries desperately to understand Deku, thinking tenderly about his pure, heroic heart and about how scared he is to lose him. In short, they’re bonding a lot, and it has a really extremely romantic flavor much of the time.
Then the signs just keep getting stronger and the romance tropes more dramatic. While at war, Bakugo’s quirk evolves so that he can sacrifice himself to save Deku. Big style romance trope. Deku goes feral after that, and then later Bakugo goes apeshit trying to get to Deku in the hospital. Again, very romantic! The desperation, the intensity - they react to these kinds of situations as if they’re lovers. The text is telling us to see them that way. They’re absolutely literally crazy about each other. Then Deku can’t even face Bakugo after what Bakugo did for him, so he runs away to keep him and the others safe, which is yet another solid romance trope right there. Then Bakugo rallies the troops to save Deku again, putting on a tie and everything. Bakugo dramatically swoops in to defeat the villain Deku was losing against, and finally saves him from himself, with his big beautiful gay love confession apology, where he basically tells Deku that he always thought he was amazing, but it made him angry, and he’s sorry, and he calls him Izuku and time freezes and that’s when I died and came back as a Bakudeku. Anyway, then Deku stops resisting and falls apart and Bakugo catches him. In the rain. It’s so romantic! Like, by this point in the story, aren’t you swooning? If, let’s say, Bakugo was a girl, would anyone even be questioning that they belong together in the end? That they should kiss before they go to battle again?
These guys are living and dying for each other like it’s nothing. They each thought the other was absolutely amazing from a very young age. Bakugo is definitely queer (more on this later) and Deku is extremely queer coded, even if he is attracted to girls. Listen, if Deku blushing is a sign of attraction, let me assure you that he blushes at guys a LOT. Look at how he looks at fucking Present Mic. Some people in the world are bisexual, and Hori knows this and even confirmed that Toga is bisexual, so it’s far from impossible within the MHA universe. Deku and Bakugo have passion - fiery, explosive, electric as fuck passion for each other, more than they have for anyone or anything else. Their love for each other is the heart of this epic story.
Therefore - and I say this as a gay person with more than one complex and unconventional queer relationship in my own life - I contend that even if Deku and Bakugo never literally confess their love or become physically intimate with each other in any way in the canon story, there is plenty of canonical evidence to conclude that they love each other, that the nature of their relationship is more than friends, and that they are meant to be together.
In other words, Bakudeku is canon. Or Dekubaku is canon. THAT distinction is not what this series is about, and anyway I personally believe that they would switch.
—-
To help me preface this topic and why I feel so invested in it, let me tell you a riddle that you may have heard before. The riddle goes like this:
A father and a son get in a car crash and are rushed to the hospital. The father is dead on arrival. The boy is taken to the operating room and the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy, because he’s my son.” How is this possible?
Did you figure it out? Of course, it’s possible because the surgeon is the boy’s mother, but allegedly over half of people hearing this riddle can’t solve it because they can’t imagine the surgeon being a woman. This riddle plays on our internalized sexism.
I believe that Horikoshi is playing the same kind of trick with his fans’ internalized homophobia to keep us from seeing the many, many, many signs that Deku and Bakugo are actually meant for each other. I mean, my gay ass didn’t even notice what was happening until I read chapter 322 and then I was like - WAIT! Is Bakugo gay? Are they in love? Unfortunately, there was no single resource that satisfactorily answered this question for me, so I started doing my own research. And the more I did, the more my observations were confirmed. So now I‘ve written the essay I wanted to read, in hopes that it brings some enjoyment to people who also see Deku and Bakugo as soulmates. I do not see this as shipping, but rather a close reading of the text of My Hero Academia that is informed by an understanding of romance and relationship tropes in media. If you like another ship, or you hate this ship, I’m certainly not trying to convince you to like it. This stuff is for fun. Like what you like. I’m just trying to interpret what Horikoshi is trying to tell us about these guys because it’s meaningful for me, and I know it is for other people, too. And because it’s fun. This essay isn’t intended to attack anybody for what they enjoy.
On a personal note, I believe it was my own internalized homophobia that kept me from coming out until my senior year of college, and I honestly believe that things might have been different, that I could have understood myself better and sooner, if I could have seen and connected to even one great homosexual romance growing up, instead of only seeing gays as side characters at best to whatever the hetero romantic plotline was. And I believe that the very core, the foundation of My Hero Academia, is actually this tender gay bildungsromance between Deku and Bakugo. At this point, even if they don’t get explicitly paired together by the end of the series, I’m still very confident that this interpretation is accurate. They are in love. They don’t need to end up together or even be intimate, ever, for that to be true. But if Horikoshi really goes for it, this shit could be groundbreaking as hell and honestly, probably make even more money, the gayer it gets.
So like I was saying, ever since reading chapter 322 of the My Hero Academia manga with Bakugo’s big love confession I mean apology, I have been obsessed with the question - are Bakugo and Deku like, soooo gay for each other?
And then, just as I was beginning to explore this topic, CHERRY BLOSSOMS was published, the sixth MHA light novel. The spring snowy mountain camp chapter is the gayest thing I’ve ever read, and I read gay porn. It is very literally a bakudeku sick fic, except that it’s not fanfiction, it’s official material, Horikoshi approved. Plus, in the Valentine’s chapter Deku basically outs Bakugo to all of their classmates as… not interested in girls. But then I learned that that’s not the only light novel with an arguably very gay storyline! And then I started doing a closer reading of the manga and there’s just. So. much.
So that was a broad overview of their relationship through the series, and as you probably noticed, it’s romantic as hell. That’s my point. The trajectory of their relationship so far has been childhood friends to enemies to rivals to… what? To lovers. Their next logical step is to be lovers, you know, probably when they’re not fully at war. They’re obsessed with each other. They make each other better. They have history. They love to watch each other and to be watched by the other. They risk their lives for each other like it’s nothing, because they don’t want to live without each other. They fucking love each other, and if Bakugo was a girl, their endgame wouldn’t even be a question. It’d be kind of weird at this point if they didn’t kiss by the end. The story itself is leading its readers to these conclusions. And if you thought that little baby preface timeline was gay in broad strokes, wait til we get into all the nitty gritty details of my big hulking Bakudeku-Dekubaku timeline after the introduction! Hold on to your homo horses, folks. We are just getting started.
INTRODUCTION
A note on Bones - a lot of people like to say that Bones doesn’t like Bakugo, and while I see what they mean sometimes, I want to give them credit for some anime-only BKDK moments that they added:
The kabedon in their final against All Might
Queeroes Rising for fucks sake
Bakugo’s arm on Deku’s shoulder in the car
Thirsty fantasy AU ending
All anime only! Let’s show them some love.
There’s a photo of Deku’s voice actor kissing a cardboard cutout of Bakugo. Show him some love too. Also the Japanese voice actors have said a lot of stuff like that they think Bakugo likes Deku. Omg they all think it’s gay.
Anyway…
Number 1 - childhood friends
We hear a lot about how Deku and Bakugo are childhood friends, or “osana-najimi”. Apparently, the translation to “childhood friends” is more of an approximation, with the literal translation being more like “childhood acquaintances.” It means they’ve known each other since they became aware of the world. It is absolutely distinct from the regular understanding of friendship, even though two people can be both osana-najimi and friends at the same time. It’s a popular trope in Japan, romantic and otherwise.
Midoriya and Todoroki are friends. Midoriya and Uraraka and Iida are friends. Deku and Bakugo are not friends, they’re childhood-friends. It feels to me like on some level they don’t want to friend zone each other, even though they want to be closer… and they get all angry or embarrassed if people think they’re getting along or ask them about why they aren’t actually friends.
Number 2 - the nicknames.
So, in my research, I came across many Japanese fans giving their takes on the Kacchan question. Because Kacchan and Deku are childhood friends, it’s not surprising that Deku would have called Katsuki, Kacchan, at some point, as it’s a common nickname for the name Katsuki. But it’s also apparently about the sweetest, most familiar, babyish, loving way that you could refer to someone named Katsuki. One video said that if he had a girlfriend or boyfriend, they might call him Kacchan, but at his age and with his tough guy persona, it would be actually weird for anyone else to call him that. So to a Japanese fan, it’s probably pretty obvious that the name Kacchan is completely unsuited to someone like Bakugo Katsuki. And, according to another source, it’s pretty weird that Bakugo never just asked Deku to stop calling him that, since he seems to have no problem telling him what to do in general. And considering how much Bakugo bullied Deku, it’s weird that Deku didn’t just naturally stop calling him that cutesy nickname at some point. Now one theory I heard is that since Bakugo calls Izuku, Deku as an insult, then Deku calling Bakugo, Kacchan is kind of a sly way of insulting him back, implying that he’s weak or effeminate. But I disagree with that theory because Deku is just so damn guileless all the time. He doesn’t ever seem inclined to make fun of Bakugo at all. And if Bakugo got even a hint of an impression that Deku was calling him “Kacchan” to look down on him, wouldn’t he have immediately demanded that he stop calling him that? No, Deku calls Bakugo “Kacchan” because he still sees the confident, chaotic neutral kid he knew before he got all messed up in the head. Additionally, it’s interesting to note that in later chapters and in the heroes rising movie, Kaminari takes to calling Bakugo, Kacchan-kun, in a manner that does seem to be gently poking fun at him. Bakugo doesn’t ever fight him on this either, I imagine because he doesn’t want to draw extra attention to the special bond between himself and Midoriya, though he obviously doesn’t want to sever it either. Again, he could have easily told Deku to at least stop it with that Kacchan nonsense or something before they got to UA, so he wouldn’t have to be closely associated with him there. But no, he played his own part in making sure they’d stay Kacchan and Deku.
As far as Bakugo calling Midoriya Deku, I see it as just one of his many tsundere rage attempts to hide how much he likes the guy (remember Hey Arnold? “Move it, Football Head!”). Midoriya also embraces “Deku” as his hero name, though at that point in the story this action seems to have more to do with his friendship with Ochaco and embracing where he comes from, than it is about Bakugo, perse. Still, it certainly validates Bakugo’s influence in his life, considering he’s the one who came up with Deku and brought the name with them to UA by calling him Deku before he’d even met everyone. And it really seems to grind Bakugo’s gears when Deku announces it as his choice for his hero name, maybe in part because he doesn’t want others using his “derogatory pet name” for Deku, as Iida calls it. But the best part is how the name comes into play during and after Bakugo’s apology in chapter 322. Because by this point, everyone else is calling Midoriya either Deku, since that’s his hero name and regular nickname now, or Midoriya. But in this post-apology reality, Bakugo’s can call him Izuku. Even when Deku tells him it’s fine to call him Deku and he doesn’t have to force himself, Bakguo insists that he’s not forcing himself. And now he’ll be the only one calling Izuku, other than his mom. So while Bakugo apologizing, bowing and calling him Izuku is an admission of wrongdoing, a submission of sorts in front of everyone, it’s also got the ring of a kind of claim to it. “You let everyone call you Deku now? Fine. You’ll just be my Izuku.” Cute. Moving on.
Number two - Bakugo is queer, you say?
Yes. There is enough information about bakugo’s interests in the Horikoshi-illustrated-and-approved light novels to say with a high degree of confidence that Bakugo is, at least, not interested in girls. Before I get into the light novels though, I just want to touch on what the manga and anime give us on this topic. First off, we never get any kind of impression that Bakugo has a crush on any girl or that he is in any way flustered by or interested in their presence or proximity (whereas we do see some version of this for most of the other major male characters in class 1-A, including Deku, as well as for a number of smaller male side characters). Additionally, the hero who Bakugo comes to really see as his personal mentor is the arguably queer-coded hero, model and fashion icon, Best Jeanist. Finally, despite his baggy pants and foul language, Bakugo is actually clean and tidy and fashionable and wears nice shoes and goes to bed early and is good at cooking and music. All of those details could be queer coding, but his parents do work in fashion, and it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that his mom is a terrifying stickler about keeping their house clean, and lots of people like cooking and music, so none of that necessarily means anything.
However, let me introduce you to the light novels. In case you’re not familiar, this is an official spin off series illustrated and approved by Horikoshi. They’re written by Yoshi Anri, but nothing gets in them that isn’t faithful to the characters for their one true god, Horikoshi Kohei. We’ll talk a lot more about these later, in the timeline, but for now just understand that they are official material. So, in the third light novel there’s a part where Bakugo is looking for Koda’s lost rabbit and goes looking for him in Mineta’s room, where the rabbit makes the following observations:
Bakugo stops and surveys the room. “Ugh, we oughta burn this room to the ground with [Mineta] in it!” He says. The disgust in his voice would be appropriate had he stumbled upon a writhing nest of centipedes. It is not arthropods that fill the room, however. Only posters of naked female humans and magazines whose covers feature similar humans clothed in little to nothing at all. That boys this age would possess healthy sex drives seems perfectly natural to me. Instinctual, even. Bakugo’s revulsion tells me, however, that the contents of this particular room imply lust bordering on unnatural obsession.
Later in the chapter, he follows this up by telling Mineta that he should light his room on fire to clean it up. So, there’s that. I mean, Bakugo is alone in Mineta’s room, other than the rabbit that he hasn’t noticed yet. And he’s a teenage boy surrounded by pictures of naked women. Obviously it sounds like Mineta’s gone overboard, but for a teenage boy to be not only disinterested, but outright disgusted, like it’s a nest of writhing centipedes? Sounds pretty gay to me. But that’s not all!
The sixth lite novel, cherry blossoms, was recently released in Japan and hasn’t been officially translated into English yet, but thanks to some Japanese fans translating it, we know all about its contents already. Anyway, it has a Valentine’s Day chapter. At one point in the chapter, Deku, Ochaco, Mina and a few other classmates witness what they think is a girl about to make a love confession and give chocolates to Bakugo, but actually she just tells him his fly is down and runs off to meet her boyfriend. Then Midoriya is like, actually you guys, Kacchan never got any chocolates from girls in middle school, can you believe that? And then he goes on to say that likewise, Kacchan never gave any chocolates to girls or seemed interested in them, finding them to be sort of a nuisance like his terrible mother. And then Bakugo hears Deku talking about that and is enraged and fights him.
So. Bakugo doesn’t like girls. So he’s gay, or possibly asexual, though I strongly believe that if he is asexual, he’s the kind of asexual that still falls in love because the boy’s in LOVE. I personally choose to believe that he is gay because I think he wants Deku real bad, but if you have more fun imagining him ace or demi, I don’t think the text specifically contradicts that at the time of this writing. However, he’s not straight, or even bi. The two scenes above basically scream that as a fact, and Horikoshi gave the green light. It’s canon - Bakugo is disgusted by naked women’s bodies and not interested in girls.
Number three - what about Deku? Doesn’t he like girls?
Well, yeah. I think it’s possible/likely that Deku likes girls. There’s evidence for that. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t or couldn’t like boys, too. I’m pretty convinced that he does, obviously. So I’ll tell you the stuff that makes me think he could be a queer boy.
First off, his obsession with heroes and All Might go way beyond even any of the other kids at UA, with Ochaco even calling Deku an otaku after seeing his room with all its All Might posters and figurines. I'd think that if he was straight, then as he grew into his teen years he might have at least added a top female hero to the mix - maybe someone like Mount Lady, who he noted in his journal was “sexy” - but no, he remains content to stare at a muscle man in tights, just, forever and always. And he’s also such an otaku for Bakugo, a Bakugotaku if you will, despite getting beat down by him all the time, that he’s obviously some kind of attracted to him and excited by him, and it’s to such an inordinate degree that he’s willing to take a beating for it. Sure, Bakugo bullied him. But as they both acknowledge, Deku seriously kept coming back for more when he could have just not. He’s clearly very interested in strength, and he was interested in it even before he really started to pursue it actively for himself and his own body.
Now, getting into some probably really dumb and totally speculative quirk stuff, I also think it’s interesting to consider what it means for Deku to have Nana Shimura’s personality living inside him within One for All. Especially since she seems like she could be the strongest personality living in there, with the possible exception of the first wielder. Cuz we know for sure that Nana had a kid, and we also know that she didn’t actually want to raise a kid for lots of reasons, so in all likelihood that unfortunate son was the product of a wild act of passion… presumably with her husband, but definitely with a man, or at least, with someone who had a fully functioning penis and balls. So we can surmise with some degree of certainty that Deku has at least one personality living inside him who was interested in men/males in her lifetime. Nana specifically states in All Might’s memory that feelings are what are mostly preserved in the vestiges. In theory, it seems like this could potentially increase the likelihood of Deku being open to being with a male in that way, maybe even if he wasn’t before receiving One for All, though I think he probably was, even if he didn’t realize it. And consider this - Nana Shimura was the seventh OFA user and her name, nana, means seven in Japanese. On the UA entrance exam, Deku scores in 7th place with 60 rescue points and 0 villain points, while Bakugo scores in first place with 77 villain points and zero rescue points. Also Bakugo’s class ranking for academics is 3, while Deku’s is 4, which add up to seven. When they’re suspended, Deku is suspended for three days, while Bakugo is suspended for four, adding up to seven again. Nana’s number specifically connects them when it comes to a lot of their random stats. Coincidence? Maybe.
Finally, it’s not evidence really but Deku is just sort of a soft boy. He cries a lot, he’s small, he has big doe eyes, and he’s super duper tender. He’s probably the softest person in their whole school, other than maybe Koda? I’m not saying that makes you queer, ok! But… it doesn’t do the opposite either. Right? Shonen manga isn’t a forum where they’re likely to introduce the main character as a proud pansexual imp, but he’s kind of coded as a pansexual imp. He’s not coded “straight” even if we do see him get flustered when he’s up close to girls in a new way. He’s been around boys, including Bakugo, his whole life. Just like Deku doesn’t get flustered around Uraraka or Hatsume again after his earliest up-close-and-personal interactions with them (or any girl at all after the incident when Toga-as-Camie gets fully nude in front of him), he’s not going to suddenly get flustered around boys even if he does like them “that way”. Any random gay person could tell you the same. Even if you’re gay or pan or bi, you’ve still seen it all before at some point, when it comes to whatever gender category society generally groups you in. And like, doesn’t Deku just seem like the type who wouldn’t discriminate? Who would just be like, I love the person, not the body. He’s got so much love to give. I dunno at this point I’m headcanoning, let’s move on.
Number Four-A - Uraraka
// I wrote the next section when we were still at chapter 327 - I still think it’s worth including, but I want to acknowledge all Uraraka’s development since then! It seems like she’s over her crush on Deku, and that she might actually like Toga, even if she doesn’t want to feel that way about her, either. //
Ok, so obviously Uraraka likes Deku. It’s a real snooze fest. Seriously, it could be removed from the story completely and it wouldn’t affect the plot. Not great. But still, I see her as a legitimate love rival for Bakugo. After all, she’s adorable and has been nice to Deku since the moment they met. She’s saved him and he’s saved her. Saving each other helped them both get into UA. They have a special friendship, and Deku obviously finds her attractive, especially at the beginning of the series. But then, I feel that Deku basically friend zones her, which I’ll go into in more depth in the timeline. Also, he generally doesn’t really think about her when she’s not around. Uraraka’s crush on Deku is pretty much a Uraraka problem.
Still, she’s a legitimate suitor. But like, if we were to think of MHA in the terms of a more romantic series like Ranma one half, with Deku as the Ranma of the series - like sure, Shampoo and all the others are great and legitimate suitors, but he’s obviously meant for Akane. The text of the story leads us to that conclusion, without actually being explicit about it in the anime. It doesn’t matter if we see it pan out or not, we all know whose love story it really is because we know how to identify the coding for soul mates and love and romance and meant-to-be, in a story. And for real - if Bakugo was a female character, at this point in the manga I don’t think we’d have any doubt as to which of the two strong ladies thinking bout Deku all the time was going to win him in the end.
And Uraraka and Bakugo actually go head-to-head as their first match-up in the sports festival, perhaps subtly setting them up as rivals in their own right - Deku’s love rivals. Uraraka is also the only one other than Bakugo to call Deku, Deku, outside of hero stuff, though she calls him Deku-kun, and only after Deku says it’s all right.
With Deku and Uraraka, there’s just no friction, no two-way tension, no complicated history. There hasn’t been any build, except on her part, even as she tries to quash her feelings. Sure, I guess it’s possible that she’d be the healthier choice if these were my friends and not characters in a series meant for my entertainment, but all the heat comes with Deku and Bakugo. It’s only when applying the doctrine of compulsory heterosexuality that we assume Uraraka will be the one. She could be, sure... But I’m more inclined to think that her crush on Deku is a red herring - a ploy to distract us from the true romance at the heart of MHA.
Oh and they look like they could be twin siblings, which is not that sexy. Same face shape, straight on or in profile, same big round eye shape. Both have a medium dark hair color that matches their eye color exactly. Both have cute details on their cheeks. You’ve probably seen what happens if you give them the same hair.
I will be addressing Uraraka’s relationship with Deku in comparison with that of Deku and Bakugo throughout the coming timeline. If you ship Deku with Uraraka, please don’t take this personally, I’m just trying to emphasize my points.
Four B - Kirishima
As for Kirishima - frankly, I think he likes Mina and she likes him back. And Kirishima and Bakugo, along with Kaminari, are very much coded to look like a band of brothers - between the three of them, two have red eyes, two are blonde, and two have spiky hair. Bakugo has all three features. Likewise, Bakugo is effectively the leader of this pack, and Kaminari and Kirishima’s colors (red and yellow) combined add up to his color (orange). All of their names also start with a K-sound. These guys are literally designed to be his bros. Obviously Kirishima likes him a lot, and the feeling is mutual, but both of them reserve their longing looks for other people.
Four C - Shoto
This guy’s an enigma, and he could be into Deku, but it seems like his story with Deku is more about developing a friendship with him after never having friends before. More importantly, Shoto’s primary relationship in the story is actually with his father, Endeavor, and Dabi and the Todoroki family in general. Shoto’s story isn’t designed to revolve around Deku the way that Bakugo’s is, or even Uraraka’s. Just narratively, I don’t see Shoto as a big contender.
Number five - but, Bakugo is mean!
It’s true. Bakugo is mean. But this series clearly sets us up to sympathize with those who have made mistakes, or have bad personalities, as long as they’re willing to change and atone, which Bakugo clearly is doing at this point. Endeavor’s character arc has a similar vibe, but Bakugo’s misdeeds are literally child’s play compared to Endeavor’s, and the stuff he does and says to protect Deku are so hardcore. Horikoshi has said he might have gone too far in making Bakugo tell Deku to kill himself, and clearly he makes sure Bakugo feels the same way.
Regardless, Bakugo bullied Deku to one degree or another for it seems like at least the better part of a decade. And that’s fucked up. But why did he do it? Why did he become such an angry little prick in general? I think it’s fair to say that his specific quirk has something to do with it - even if he hadn’t been praised too much as his mother claims - since it’s canon that quirks affect personality and that Bakugo started taking a turn towards bad after his quirk manifested. It’s a dangerous, violent, literally explosive quirk, and it seems his personality and his home life and his quirk were probably mutually reinforcing in a bad way that was about more than just ego.
Moreover, it’s unclear when Bakugo starts being smacked and berated by his mother, but it’s clear that behavior is longstanding and ongoing. She smacks him no less than five times in front of his teachers and blames him for being kidnapped due to his weakness. She’s clearly a terror and his dad does nothing at all to help Katsuki, even acting in front of All Might and Aizawa as if Katsuki and his mother were both equally to blame for the one-sided physical and psychological attacks his mother rains down on him. Maybe Mitsuki was jealous that Bakugo’s quirk is so amazing when hers just gives her a nice complexion. Maybe Bakugo was bragging or blowing shit up all the time and she snapped. Maybe she’s just that kind of person. Hard to say… but All Might wonders at the darkness in their household… Clearly, Bakugo was not getting the kind of support he needed at home. This makes a lot of sense. Kid bullies are often being bullied at home. It’s terrible. And it makes Bakugo’s behavior more understandable.
If, on top of that, at some point some part of him was starting to come to the dawning realization that he was queer - at least that uncomfortable feeling that somehow what the other kids are growing into isn’t the same as what you’re going through - this could have increased his anger. I know it increased mine as a baby closet case.
On top of all that, regardless of how well he understood his queerness or not, he clearly had some intense feelings going on about Deku that were overwhelming him. He’s explained this already - he thought that Deku was looking down on him, when really Deku just couldn’t stay away because he thought Kacchan was amazing. Thinking Kacchan was amazing made Deku want to be near him because that’s actually a pretty normal and well-adjusted reaction to liking someone, and Deku could be like that at least in part because he was raised by a loving, caring mother. And when Bakugo beat up Deku, Deku at least went home to someone who cared, who wouldn’t berate him for losing. Izuku’s mom’s favorite thing is listed as Izuku, after all! But when baby Bakugo saw how cool and heroic and concerned baby Deku was for himself, it made Bakugo want to cut him down - because that’s what he was taught at home by his mother. Be strong, dominate, don’t be needy. These feelings mixed with his queerness as he grew up probably made him feel the need to push Deku down even more, for fear of betraying the fact that he actually wanted to pull him in close, that he made him feel weak in more ways than one.
Now I want to make another point as far as Bakugo’s parents go because of how they’re coded and how they look and are with each other. A child being raised by two married parents is naturally going to look to them for what a relationship is supposed to be. And what does their relationship look like? Well… it looks a lot like Bakugo and Deku. Literally. Mitsuki basically looks and acts like Bakugo as a woman, all dominating and violent and blonde with red eyes, while Masaru is subdued and yielding while making attempts at keeping the peace, and he has dark hair and eyes and is plain. And when we’re first introduced to him in the anime, Masaru is wearing a green shirt and red slippers. Deku much? The manga says that when Mitsuki set her sights on Masaru she hit on him, “hard.” Yeah… so all of that together just makes me think that at some core level, Bakugo believes that if you love a nerdy weakling, you should try and subjugate him. Worked for mom!
And of course, it’s important to remember that after all that bullying, ultimately Bakugo risks his whole damn life to save Deku, then saves Deku again, then calls him Izuku and apologizes to him for literally everything ever and basically admits to being completely obsessed with him in front of everyone, and then later shows his commitment to change by making a point to call him Izuku again afterwards. I know Deku forgives his Kacchan. I actually think he pretty much always did forgive him even as the abuses were ongoing, but now I think Bakugo is actually earning that consideration. It’s beautiful.
Number six - But that can’t happen in a shonen series!
Well. Who’s to say? Look, for instance, Legend of Korra is not shonen anime obviously but it’s not so far off, and it came out a million years ago and still ended with two young ladies hand in hand walking into the spirit realm or whatever together. Two ladies who had previously dated men, no less! Steven Universe and Adventure Time both have major canon lesbian characters. The new Superman came out as bi and has a boyfriend! She-ra and Catra were childhood friends then enemies then friends again who fall in love and even kiss at the end of the series. Shojo series like Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena have been featuring lesbian characters for decades. Yuri on Ice is a sports anime series with canon gay characters. My Hero Academia itself has featured two trans women characters and one trans man character, and Horikoshi has confirmed that Toga is bisexual. And does anybody think Aoyama isn’t gay? Look, the world is changing. Even in Japan! I’m not saying that there will definitely be a BakuDeku kiss in the series… but I don’t see why I should think it’s impossible, either. I mean, doesn’t it seem like their whole storyline revolves around their ultimate desire to hold hands? Viva la homosexuality!
Number 7 - quirk evolutions
We know that quirk evolutions can potentially be prompted by romantic attraction among other strong feelings like being on the precipice of death, with an important example being Toga, who is only able to copy the quirks of people she likes, and who doesn’t develop that ability til she thinks she’s about to die. Horikoshi has confirmed that Toga is bisexual, so it’s reasonable to surmise that she actually like-likes Uraraka, and that’s why she can use Uraraka’s quirk instead of just recreating Uraraka’s body. Likewise, when blackwhip first manifests for Deku, it is immediately after Monoma insults Bakugo by blaming him for All Might’s downfall. And I’m not sure if it’s technically a quirk evolution or not, but whatever happens to Deku when All for One stabs and then insults Bakugo does seem like some sort of berserker power up since he’s biting through All for One’s quirk knives and shit. (//also danger sense activated at this moment//) And remember that Deku only even got his quirk in the first place because of his feelings for Bakugo, since seeing Bakugo was what prompted him to run at the sludge villain and be all plus ultra heroic for the first time. Bakugo’s quirk also spontaneously evolves to save Deku from Shigaraki, and he’s able to repeat the action later to save Best Jeanist by remembering how he felt when he thought Deku was going to die. Their love for each other changes and grows both of their abilities in so many different ways.
Number 8 - you want to become the person you like
Ok so wanting to become like someone is not necessarily a romance trope. But it IS something that is set up as a thing within the world of my hero academia, through things toga says to Uraraka and as a result of us knowing some of Uraraka’s inner monologue, and how part of her crush on him is that she wants to be like him.
Well, Deku doesn’t want to be like Uraraka. He wants to be like Bakugo. And he becomes like Bakugo, mouthing off when he wants to win against villains. And he becomes more like Bakugo, stealing his moves, which everyone notices. Bakugo on the other hand would never admit that he’s trying to become more like Deku, but over time that’s effectively what he does. They’re becoming more and more like each other all the time, and in THIS PARTICULAR SHOW that may mean you like them.
//this part has had more development with Toga’s confession to Deku when she pulled him through the warp gate and told him she wanted him to be her boyfriend and drink his blood and become him//
Number 9 - MISCELLANEOUS observations
MISC 1 - Katsudon
On Deku’s character description page, his favorite thing is listed as Katsudon. Now, katsudon is a dish made of breaded pork and rice that sounds delicious… but like, let’s just observe the fact that “Katsudon” sounds a lot like “Katsuki.” If Katsudon was a name for a person and not a food, it could arguably be nicknamed Kacchan. And I mean, how is that his favorite thing? Not all might? Not heroes or heroism? Not literally anything I’ve ever heard him talk about ever as the main character of this massive series? Katsudon? Izuku likes food, but he’s not obsessed with it. Yet his favorite thing is a dish that sounds a lot like Katsuki. Coincidence? Obviously not because this is a fictional person with a fictional favorite thing chosen for him by his one true all knowing god, Horikoshi kohei.
MISC 2 - Complimentary colors
Deku has green eyes and is green all over, which is the exact complementary color to Bakugo’s red eyes, and while Bakugo’s costume is orange, it’s similar to red and anyway had to be orange not red to keep them from looking too much like Christmas and also to make sure Bakugo looks enough like Naruto to get that point across. Veering back to Uraraka, it’s interesting to note that her costume is pink, which has a much softer vibe than red or orange but is also complementary to green. Moreover, her and Bakugo’s costumes were made by the same designer, as represented by the two black dots they both share. Their costuming then seems like a nod to their love rivalry, although it’s interesting that Uraraka only has complimentary colors to Deku when she’s in costume, whereas Bakugo’s and Deku’s complementary eye colors are intrinsic to their bodies.
MISC 3 - They have compatible astrological signs and blood types
Ok so Bakugo Katsuki is born on 4/20, hilarious. Anyway, Midoriya’s birthday is July 15. These birthdays make Bakugo a Taurus and Deku a Cancer, whose astrological compatibility for romantic partnership is considered one of the best possible romantic matches for either partner, with excellent harmony and sexual chemistry. Mangakas often choose character birthdays with these kinds of things in mind, so even if you don’t believe in astrology for real life relationships, it does seem significant for these guys.
Now, Uraraka is a Capricorn, which is also a good solid match for a Cancer like Deku, though not to the level of star-crossed perfection he’s expected to experience with a Taurus like Bakugo. Surprisingly, Taurus and Capricorn - that’s Bakugo and Uraraka - are expected to be an exceptional pairing for romance or for work.
Oh, and they have compatible blood types!
Misc 4 A - they are two halves of a whole
Save to win, win to save - all might needed both parts. Their whole destiny is about becoming the greatest heroes together clearly
Fantasy AU with two swords that form one whole
MISC 4 B - They are the sun and the moon
Bakugo’s hair looks like the sun, with very little shadowing, and his colors are red and orange. He also makes explosions, which is something the sun does. He’s also known for going to bed early and though he definitely likes to get his beauty sleep, Shoji mentions in the sixth light novel that Bakugo always gets up early and never has to rush in the morning.
Whereas Deku has deep green eyes and a dark green costume and dark hair with a big crescent shaped shadow visible from the front. And check out Vigilante Deku’s spooky storm vibes. More importantly, his costume has rabbit ears - in the first costume he looks like a perky little Easter bunny, and then by the time we get to vigilante Deku he looks like Frank from Donny Darko. Still a rabbit tho. And in Japan, instead of a man in the moon, they call it a bunny in the moon. So bunny coding is automatically moon coding. Take sailor moon, for example - her human name is Usagi Tsukino, which means bunny of the moon. Moreover, Deku is always shown staying up late, training under the moon.
To be fair, if Deku is moon coded then Uraraka, whose quirk is zero gravity and has a kind of saturns rings vibe, would seem to also be a kindred spirit based on her coding. Which she is of course! Nobody is denying their connection. They’re very alike which is nice but boring. And who needs zero gravity on the moon?
Their hoods in the new World Heroes Mission movie emphasize this point, looking distinctly like rabbit ears and a sun.
Sun and moon. Night and day. Forever chasing after one another, with Bakugo as Deku’s shining light.
Misc 4-C - They’re actually both rabbits
Weirdly, they’re both actually kind of rabbit coded. Deku has rabbit ears, but Katsuki has coloring that is commonly associated with rabbits - i.e. that classic albino white rabbit with the red eyes. So, they’re both rabbits. Bunnies. Two of a kind. And what’s that thing bunnies are known for doing together...? Just saying.
MISC 5 - Team Up Mission 14 class 1-A Shuffle
The Team Up Mission spin-off series is official, but it doesn’t necessarily fit within the canon timeline, so it makes more sense for me to talk about this issue here. In it, some members of Class 1-A have to dress up as each other and imitate each other well enough to fool the robots. And Deku has to be Bakugo and it’s absolutely adorable! Look how cute! And then Bakugo spends his time coaching Iida, successfully, on how to be a better Deku, telling him he needs more freckles and to be more adorable I mean annoying. It’s very cute!
MISC 6 - @nstine23
Horikoshi’s assistant who uses the twitter handle @nstine23 sometimes releases My Hero Academia sketches on social media. Lots of cute sketches of Deku and Bakugo hanging out as kids, which go to show how close of a relationship they actually had for a time.
There’s also some very interesting sketches of them hanging out in the bath at UA. This one’s cute, Mirio is there so it doesn’t seem too intimate. Then we get this one and… well, they seem pretty close since we can presume they’re nude here, right? But that’s nothing compared to the next one and… and… Bakugo is washing Deku’s damn back!? He’s all smirking and Deku’s all giggling and they’re almost naked? Look, this is intimate as hell, and they’re having such a good time. And this was drawn by someone who draws the actual manga with Horikoshi. That’s not nothing, folks.
//when I wrote this I didn’t even realize the extent of it but wow if you know you know, you know?//
MISC 7 - They look like another gay couple we know
One of the most well known explicitly gay couples in anime history is Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune in the Sailor Moon series. And their character designs and coding are shockingly similar to Deku and Bakugo!
First off, the obvious - one of them is a tall blonde with narrow eyes, while the other one is shorter, with curly green hair and large, round eyes. While both are highly intelligent, Uranus especially excels at sports like race car driving and fencing, while Neptune excels at academics and music, much like the sort of jock/nerd (but they’re both smart) dynamic we see with Bakugo and Deku. Uranus is only ever seen flirting with women, while Neptune is seen flirting with men and women, so we are led to believe their pairing is that of a homosexual and a bisexual, much like what I am led to believe about Bakugo and Deku. Oh yeah, and they’re often portrayed with cherry blossoms as a sign of their romance together - and weirdly, so are Deku and Bakugo. More on cherry blossoms in a minute though.
With regards to Uranus and Neptune, it’s fun to consider that they ultimately end up adopting the reincarnated Sailor Saturn and forming a queer family. I mention this because Eri is, ostensibly, up for adoption. She loves Deku, and in the sixth light novel, titled Cherry Blossoms, Bakugo is given an assignment to befriend Eri, which he passes. Eri also has red eyes and light hair, making her look a lot like Bakugo already, and the Cherry Blossoms cover shows them bonding. Could Deku and Bakugo adopt Eri in the future? I recognize that this train of thought is bordering on fanfiction, but when I noticed the similarities to Uranus and Neptune I couldn’t help but see it as a possibility. Then there’s also the kids from the movie, who kind of vibed as their kids.
MISC 7-B - Since we’re talking about Sailor Moon…
I just want to point out that, in addition to being coded a lot like Neptune and Uranus, Deku and Bakugo also have a lot in common with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Here’s some commonalities I notice -
Both couples have a history that begins before the beginning of the story’s main events - with Deku and Bakugo, it’s that they are childhood friends. With Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, it’s that they were star-crossed lovers in their previous lifetimes a thousand years ago.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask start off the series, ostensibly, as enemies who mistrust and misunderstand each other. Their human counterparts always end up running into each other and bickering, with Mamoru being a jerk and giving Usagi a rude nickname, Bunhead. Likewise, Deku and Bakugo start off the series, ostensibly, as enemies who mistrust and misunderstand each other. They always end up together, often bickering and fighting, with Bakugo being a jerk and giving Deku a rude nickname, Deku.
Much of Sailor Moon revolves around Sailor Moon and Tuxedo mask as a duo, just like MHA revolves around Deku and Bakugo’s relationship.
In Sailor Moon, both rescue and risk their lives for each other frequently, but Sailor Moon rescues Tuxedo Mask more often, including from multiple kidnappings by villains, during one of which they turn him evil. Again, it’s a lot like Deku and Bakugo.
And finally, as with Deku and Bakugo, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask’s love for each other makes them both more powerful, and it makes those around them more powerful.
So, to summarize, Deku and Bakugo have character designs extremely reminiscent of Sailor Moon’s famous gay couple, Neptune and Uranus, while their plot points and relationship tropes are more like those of the series’ central hetero couple, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Now, do we know for sure that Horikoshi was inspired by Sailor Moon? No, not for sure…at least I can’t seem to find any interviews where he mentions it. However, Toga really looks like Sailor Moon. She wears a blue and white sailor uniform with a red bow, and she has blonde pigtail buns. It feels like she’s designed to look like a wicked Sailor Moon - like she’s an homage to Sailor Moon - it’s pretty on the nose, actually. To me, this screams, “I was influenced by Sailor Moon, and I want everyone to know it!” Why else would he make a major character look so recognizably similar to Usagi? And just considering the fact that Horikoshi is who he is and does what he does, and that he grew up in the nineties when Sailor Moon was an incredibly big deal, I would be shocked if he wasn’t pretty familiar with it and taking inspiration from it on some level. And the inspiration he’s taken for Deku and Bakugo makes it seem like they’re really, really gay together. And honestly, even if Horikoshi isn’t doing this on purpose or even subconsciously because of Sailor Moon, it still goes to show that the dynamic between Deku and Bakugo fits and has been used before with characters who absolutely are meant to be understood as romantically linked. Their relationship arc’s whole vibe is romantic.
MISC 8 - Cherry Blossoms
As I mentioned in the last section, they keep showing these two with cherry blossoms. It’s actually part of the opening sequence for the first season of the anime. We see them smiling at each other as little kids, and the trees behind them are green. But then as we see them as scowling middle school and high school students, the trees behind them become cherry blossoms in bloom. Cherry blossoms in Japan represent renewal, spring time and the fleeting nature of life, in addition to love and romance. And they often represent love and romance in anime, as with Neptune and Uranus in Sailor Moon. And we’ve got this moment in the intro as well as three different pieces of official art that show just the two of them with cherry blossoms. The sixth lite novel is titled Cherry Blossoms and has a Valentine’s theme, and it features three different stories that highlight Deku and Bakugo as a pair together, two of which are extremely gay. It’s also interesting to note that Deku and Bakugo are both on the cover of the Cherry Blossoms novel, with just Eri between them, imitating Bakugo, while Uraraka didn’t even make it to the cover of this lite novel, despite being on previous covers.
MISC 9 - OVAs
I’m not going to include the OVAs in the timeline because I can’t find any evidence to suggest that Horikoshi was directly involved with them in any way, and little things about them often seem to me to contradict the manga. The light novels and the second movie, on the other hand, definitely went through Horikoshi and do not seem to contradict the timeline of the main story, so I will include those in the timeline.
However, the first OVA, known as Save! Rescue Training! has this delicious little scene between the pair that I just want to share with you now, for fun, in case you haven’t seen it.
//here I wanted to play that scene where Deku is Bakugo’s cane lol//
MISC 10 - Ultra Analysis Nickname Explosion
Look at this shit. It’s a full page about Bakugo being a total asshole and insulting their friends, and everyone else is mad about it, but Deku says, “you’re actually learning about our classmates, Kacchan… wow!” I mean, what? How can he see him in that light for this behavior if he is not straight up whipped?
MISC 11 - They're Achilles and Patroclus from the Iliad
I wrote an entire essay just on this (2000 words). The parallels are astounding and DEFINITELY intentional. Read that essay here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40665738
Number 7 - a note on shipping
So, I just want to say that up until reading chapter 322 of my hero academia, I have never been a shipper at all! I actually barely engaged in fandoms. The only reason I even started reading the manga was because I wanted to read the Dabi reveal in the war arc. It had nothing to do with shipping, and I didn’t even know shipping was a big thing for this show.
Anyway, as a tween I was obsessed with sailor moon, but I was never interested in any kind of shipping. I mostly just really loved sailor Saturn. After that I got obsessed with the Series that Will Not Be Named and sure, I’d read a saucy fic here and there between books but I was never in it for that. Mostly I looked for and wrote theory and plot predictions. From the end of that series til now, I really haven’t even touched a fandom. I watched shows that I loved, and I just always enthusiastically ship whatever couple the show is telling me right on the surface that I should root for. Sailor moon and Tuxedo mask. Harry and Ginny. Ang and katara. Amy and Jonah. Jess and Nick. Steven and Conny. Devi and Paxton (nobody likes you Ben, get out!). Mindi and Danny. Chidi and Eleanor. Eric and Adam. She-ra and Catra omg. Ooh this - remember this hot AF episode of black mirror (I think I was referring to the ones where the guys enter the video game and have sex)? You get the idea. I’ll just take what they feed me and I’ll like it. I’m a lesbian, but a good slow-burning romance is a good slow-burning romance. I don’t need the characters to be gay, that’s just a bonus. A big, fat, life-affirming bonus I could use to buy a goddamn pool, but still. Still, the pair of main characters of My Hero, who are experiencing a romantic as hell enemies-to-lovers style romantic arc, are just very clearly Deku and Bakugo. The evidence is overwhelming. What I’m trying to say is, on some level, at this point, almost no matter how it turns out by the end of the manga, I’m saying that as of chapter 327 of my hero academia, Horikoshi kohei has constructed one of the most ingenious, compelling, surprising and earth shattering slow burning romances ever written. And I’m not frikkin’ imagining it! I know some people want to gaslight Bakudeku fans or something, but really we are just reading the text, and anger directed at a ship like this just reads to me as mostly poorly concealed homophobia. That’s why I had to make this. I read chapter 322 and I was just like… wait. What? What? What have I been reading and watching this whole time? Have the signs all been there the whole time?
Horikoshi is a romantic writing genius. He puts together so many romantic tropes with Deku and Bakugo that if one of them - most likely Bakugo - was a girl, it would be super obvious what was going on. I say that a lot I know but it’s just so true. And yet even a gay like me took over 300 chapters to notice. But you go back and look, and it’s all there, as I’m about to attempt to demonstrate.
Ok, now that all that’s out of the way, let’s get into the great Bakudeku timeline. Please note that there just isn’t enough time to go over every little Bakudeku moment from the manga because there are so many, but this is going to go over their most important and gayest moments, in chronological order, start to finish, along with relevant Uraraka moments more-or-less for comparison. Going over just their story and their relationship in order with all and only the content that is relevant to them makes the nature of their feelings for each other and the nature of the story they are in and what it’s trying to say about them abundantly clear, as I hope you’re about to find out. Strap in! Also, please be patient. This is a timeline of a goddamn double Bildungsroman slow burn forbidden gay enemies to lovers super shonen manga romance where they’re literal babies when they meet and also spend a long time ostensibly as a bully and the bullied, so it’s not as gay at the beginning as it is by the end. Trust the process. Enjoy the journey.