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justatalkingface · 1 year

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Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem

Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:

The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.

There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:

I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.

Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.

Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'

I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?

'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.

So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.

Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.

I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.

So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!

...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.

On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.

Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.

Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.

Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.

That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:

All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.

Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.

And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?

Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?

Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.

Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?

Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.

And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.

Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.

But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).

Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.

Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.

Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?

Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.

Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.

Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?

What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.

Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?

This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.

Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.

Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.

Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.

For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.

In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."

He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.

But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.

Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.

Because he can. Because it's fun.

(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?

Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?

Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.

So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.

But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)

This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.

Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.

Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.

And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.

His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.

'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'

Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.

Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.

This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.

This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.

And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.

But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.

Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.

I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?

This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.

Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.

Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.

This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.

Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.

Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.

First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.

Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.

Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.

And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.

But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?

Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?

'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.

...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.

It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?

Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?

Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.

So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.

And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?

This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.

Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).

Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:

When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.

In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.

Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.

Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.

And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?

Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?

Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....

*shrugs helplessly*

If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.

But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.

And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.

Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.

Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."

And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.

Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.

And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.

Simply marvelous.

Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?

Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!

And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.

The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.

This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support

No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'

I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.

There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.

Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!

Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.

Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.

And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.

But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.

But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.

But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.

Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it

One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.

Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?

The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.

Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.

...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.

Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.

So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.

(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)

But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?

And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-

Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.

That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.

Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.

And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.

You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.

But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.

So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....

All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!

In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.

The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.

And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.

And. And am I supposed to believe that?

I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.

He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.

Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.

And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.

All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.

All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.

That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.

While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.

Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.

When he has a Quirk.

And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.

And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.

I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.

Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.

The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.

*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.

Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.

The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.

But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?

And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.

And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.

#this got way too long #basically an ask at this point #bnha critical #mha critical #bakugou critical #anti bakugo #izuku deserves better #izuku is basiclly an abuse victim #why doesn't izuku have burn scars?#the power dynamics of saving #'change and improvement' are hollow words without context #bakugou's SCP Worthy Tsundere Field #Izuku is an unreliable narrator #AP Shot makes no sense #Bakugou's development is like watching someone get over an infection of Morals

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siflshonen · 2 years

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The Bakugo Presentation 2.0 Part 2

Sequencing My Hero Academia’s “Manga DNA”: A Breakdown of Katsuki Bakugo Part 2

Welcome to the Bakugo presentation 2.0 part 2!

Link to the Bakugo presentation 2.0 Part 1

Link to the Bakugo presentation 1.0: Part 1 | Part 2

Link to the Kirishima presentation

Link to the Todoroki presentation

Link to the Deku presentation coming eventually

Japan and Bullying

Bakugo implied Deku should jump off a roof. Fact. But “canceling” Bakugo over bullying Deku without acknowledging the series’ point that the motive for “evil” and pressures that inspire it are bigger than just one person is, well, reductive to the thesis of the story. It is also culturally naive.

This article from the Atlantic discusses Japan’s current education climate in a general sense through taking a look at Precarious Japan, but it also includes an interesting comment about bullying: “The notorious bullying in Japanese schools has actually been seen by many parents and teachers as a feature not a bug.”

What does that mean? Well, it can mean a lot of things. But here it means that Bakugo and Deku’s peers and authority figures—and especially Bakugo himself as Deku’s osana najimi (childhood friend)—was expected to bully Deku into fitting into the mold of a quirkless nobody. (That’s not exactly why Bakugo did it, but that is the expectation placed upon him by his social role and the thing that has been signaled to him by society as the correct thing to do regardless of his true motive. He takes it too far in the first chapter, “even for [him]” as his classmates point out, but the act itself is borderline socially sanctioned.) This is also why Bakugo and Deku’s middle school teacher announces Deku’s goal of attending UA to the class. He is actively trying to pressure the dream out of Deku via his peers as professional Heroism isn’t something a quirkless person is suited for. While presented much more condescendingly and aggressively than my next example, the teacher’s underlying logic is the same as Inko Midoriya’s fervent apologies to her son upon his quirkless diagnosis and his realization that it compromises his dream of being a Hero “like All Might”.

In fact, from Inko’s perspective or the perspective of a lot of Japanese parents, Deku being bullied for his quirkless dream in context of his dangerous Hero goals can reasonably be construed as a way of “protecting Izuku from himself.” Repeat it to yourself until it sinks in: “The notorious bullying in Japanese schools has actually been seen by many parents and teachers as a feature not a bug.” I am not saying she would approve of Bakugo telling Deku to “take a swan dive off a building and hope you get a quirk in your next life”, but I am saying that the bullying from Deku’s peers overall is something she likely expected.

While Horikoshi has said in interviews that what Bakugo said at the beginning of the series (“take a swan dive off a building and hope you get a quirk in your next life”) was harsh and cruel (and perhaps even a bit too much even for Bakugo), the spirit of what he was getting at (which would be something like, “You’re mental for thinking you can get into UA, you quirkless shitnerd”) is phenomenally on brand for him.

What do I think as a Bakugo fan? I think Bakugo is more entertaining as a character in part because he is legitimately nasty upon his introduction. Who wants a toothless first-act antagonist that isn’t threatening? That’s boring. That’s so boring. I like Bakugo more for being so aggressively terrible in the beginning because it gives us more to unpack, particularly since Deku’s reaction to it is a clue that their dynamic is utterly complicated. The only thing I might change is the phrasing so Bakugo says more directly, “Go die and see if that gets you a better quirk next time, shitnerd” because the insidious, sideways phrasing of “take a swan dive off the roof” sounds more like something Monoma might say to get under an opponent’s skin.

But even more importantly: Bakugo’s role as an early-series representative for the reality of the Hero society in which he and Deku live is established by the complicated relationship the two of them have as osana najimi and bully-victim. Bakugo’s role as a pseudo-conforming bully is also an ideal starting point for his as a character’s journey of awareness of the greater implications of the world around him as well as beginning to look within himself and what he actually values.

Bakugo’s abrasive introduction is an ideal starting point for a character meant to grow into the role of a trickster hero.

My Trickster Hero Academia

An antihero isn’t exactly a trickster hero and a trickster hero isn’t exactly an antihero, but they can overlap. Bakugo’s transition into a “heroic” role isn’t one of exact and consistent conformity. It is instead ambivalent and meant to challenge the social convention by subverting it or using it maliciously to prove a point. Bakugo does this repeatedly (treating Ochako as a legitimate opponent in the Sports Festival; making Kaminari shock himself to lighten the mood; framing the Culture Festival as a challenge and competition rather than a friendly event; Bakugo repeatedly indirectly sniping at Endeavor during their internship; acting up in the Todoroki household in response to Fuyumi and Shoto breaking social convention and discussing their family problems to guests; the harsh dichotomy between what he says, what he means, and how it usually reflects the truth of the world’s reality despite how others try to frame it…)

Usually, the “trickster” part of a trickster hero’s name refers to the character in question stealing or performing the “trick” as an act, but it can refer to general mischief. The Monkey King—the figure on which Goku is based off of and named for—is one of the most famous trickster heroes.

In order for me to explain Bakugo’s most potent tool for the subversion of social convention as well as the most important lens to understand regarding his struggles with identity, I need to explain a distinct feature of modern Japanese social norms.

Honne and Tatemae: Public and Private Faces

Of all the masks and roles Bakugo puts upon himself, this is the most complicated concept and yet the most important to understand when it comes to his forms of self-expression, “Heroic antiheroism”, and status as a trickster hero: honne and tatemae. Or, in English, the “public face” and the “private face”.

I could not possibly unpack all of honne and tatemae. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that, compared to the grand scheme of all Japanese media, the portrayal of it in MHA ain’t even that deep or complex. But the fact that it exists and has bearing on these characters is worth noting. Bakugo’s struggle with honne and tatemae, while distinctly an Eastern struggle, is also a very common one.

The tatemae is supposed to be friendly or socially acceptable, polite, and professional (or at least match the level of formality/casualness inherent in the setting). In fact, in a professional or social role setting (such as those of “matriarch” or “club president”) the tatemae is almost like a role one is meant to play that supersedes all individual opinion, expression, or presentation. The individual takes on the role society gives them for the benefit of the whole and only “removes” it in private spaces and among those intimately close with the individual (and this does not always mean a husband or wife show their honne to one another. Some may also wear a tatemae of “husband” or “wife” in varying degrees depending on the depth of the relationship.)

Conflicts born from a character’s honne conflicting with their tatemae is a standard theme in Japanese drama. This is the best watered-down analogy I can make: honne/tatemae conflicts are like when characters have to choose between themselves or what they love and some duty they must carry out.

More than anything else, the thing Best Jeanist was trying to groom in Bakugo isn’t exactly his whole personality, but his tatemae and the feelings of cooperation that inspire the use of an agreeable tatemae in the first place. Westerners can think of it like Best Jeanist is trying to groom Bakugo’s “professional face”, but the concept is a little more nuanced than that.

Bakugo’s Tatemae

So, because Bakugo is rude, mean, blunt, and generally obnoxious, this must mean he doesn’t have a tatemae, right? Wrong. Bakugo does have a tatemae: one of a loud, overconfident cartoon delinquent protagonist antihero that makes room for the more negative aspects of his honne. While Bakugo has not completely mastered the art of keeping his honne and tatemae separate, he does have both and he switches between them at will. If you understand this, his antics become a lot more interesting because it is apparent that he, while rarely outright lying, implies one thing with his speech while in pursuit of a seemingly contrasting objective.

If you ever think Bakugo is being completely honest on the surface, you’d best make sure he’s not putting on delinquent airs or smiling his most terrifying battle-ready smile. And even then, you’d best think about why he says what he says before you get a good picture of what he is actually trying to express. The shonen delinquent persona, the shonen protagonist slant to his Hero persona, a literal hero mask… all of these are part of his tatemae. It is understood by most Japanese readers that many of the ways Bakugo portrays himself are his own specific and socially required brand of saving face. Paradoxically, this sometimes includes the moments in which he is breaking conventional tatemae social rules.

My favorite example is Bakugo’s accompaniment of Deku during the War Arc. Bakugo says he is following Deku in order to get revenge on Shigaraki (which is not totally untrue) and implies with his face (a tatemae “public face” smile) that he is excited by the prospect. Meanwhile, Deku knows that in truth, Bakugo is trying to take responsibility for All Might’s forced retirement, which he feels guilty for having a hand in. The panels even show Deku thinking about his (literal) “private face” honne. To make it more complicated, Deku doesn’t completely understand that Bakugo is trying to protect Deku because he cares about Deku and not just because it is the most tactically sound thing to do for the wielder of One for All.

When Bakugo declares his Hero name, the self-aggrandizing and unheroic-sounding “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight” to Best Jeanist, he also declares that he is intent on not conforming to the understood tatemae conventions but will do with them as he sees fit. Best Jeanist said a Hero name represents one’s wish, and that is Bakugo’s: to ascend beyond convention and do whatever he wants as he sees fit.

Inarticulate Angry Young Man: Trapped By Tatemae

Bakugo uses his multifaceted tatemae to express his individuality simultaneously to protect and obscure the same thing from others. But the longer one wears a mask, the more it becomes them. While Bakugo always had a burgeoning sense of tatemae (he pretended to be a confident “superior” to Deku despite being absolutely scared shitless of him, after all. Do you think all of that was childish bluster and not just honne/tatemae? Why, yes, it was! But posturing and aggressive fronting to save face overlaps mightily with the tatemae concept in emotionally immature individuals!), he wasn’t very skilled at completely separating it from his honne, nor was he very good at identifying his own honne in the first place.

Bakugo is, very pointedly, fighting a war within himself and with the entire concept of social obligation as it pertains to his collectivist society. Even when Bakugo switches between his personas or drops his tatemae to show his honne—or fails to articulate himself well regarding either one—he is consistently aware of the bigger picture. Unfortunately, he isn’t always very skilled at expressing himself directly, especially in the early series and it made a nasty combination with his overlapping, underdeveloped honne/tatemae. The result is a very abrasive teenage boy (who happens to have a superpower.) Like I said in the beginning, Bakugo is, at his core, a very common kind of kid you might find in modern Japan.

The ending of the Sports Festival—and every ham-fisted “I should be your rival!” overture he makes towards Todoroki for the duration of the arc—will forever be my favorite showcase of how Bakugo always has more than one motive that he can’t express AND how bad he is at communicating in a general sense.

Not Just Redemption: Bakugo’s Growth Is in His Honne

Some character arcs are not about changing outward behavior, but rather for changing motives behind that behavior and how much a character understands about their world and the people around them. The original Monkey King’s arc is structured this way. Dragonball’s Goku (the Japanese one more than the one in the dub) likewise follows this model. Bakugo’s arc does as well.

Bakugo points this out himself whenever he refutes other characters insisting he has changed. Bakugo’s arc isn’t one of redemption for redemption’s sake, but rather one of self-awareness. Put simply, he makes a change from an antihero (doing heroic things for unheroic reasons) to a trickster hero (and classic hero, as he occasionally does heroic things for genuinely heroic reasons.) This doesn’t mean Bakugo’s presentation (tatemae) changes. This doesn’t mean he becomes polite.

What, the rude exterior is too much for you? Are you still falling into the trap that everything he does is exactly for the reasons it appears at face value and doesn’t have a deeper motive and intentional use behind it?

A Hero Name Is A Wish: Tatemae that Reflects an Enlightened Honne

Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. I adore Bakugo’s Hero name and I will fight anyone who doesn’t. It’s stupid and self-aggrandizing, gives Best Jeanist the middle finger, and is also points out the fact that he realizes he has “reached enlightenment” after figuratively dying and has ascended to godhood. This ascension to enlightenment is the culmination of the Monkey King’s story in Journey to the West—and it follows that it is a major part of Dragonball’s trajectory for Goku.

Also, his Hero name announcement provides comic relief and an in-story morale boost in the middle of a horrific battle - all while he’s bleeding out on the ground. If that doesn’t exemplify Bakugo’s penchant for redirecting the mood, I don’t know what does. He could’ve just said “I’m still alive!” but instead made the choice to pull a stupid stunt.

I’m not done discussing honne and tatemae yet, but before I get any farther I need to touch on another subtopic.

Osana Najimi: Childhood Friends

What’s an osana najimi, you ask? It’s a childhood friend much like Bakugo and Deku are. Why is it important that Bakugo and Deku are childhood friends? Because in Japan, these kinds of friendships are forged before kids begin to develop, differentiate, and be expected to uphold the honne and tatemae. They are very valued relationships in many Eastern cultures, Japan included, because they have an intimacy about them that is not accessible in new relationships.

Childhood friends relationships (both the romantic and platonic kind) are romanticized in Japanese media. It’s a whole trope. Bakugo and Deku’s status as osana najimi with an early falling out is an interesting take on the osana najimi trope in anime—particularly in how it alters the understood interpersonal boundaries between Bakugo and Deku as bully-and-victim. That’s also why the other characters point out that the two of them are “childhood friends” as opposed to just “friends a long time ago”.

Here’s a Reddit thread discussing osana najimi in Japanese media to give you more to think about.

Childhood Friends Aren’t Restricted by Tatemae

Or are they? I wonder. While childhood friends are supposed to know one another without tatemae, Bakugo and Deku have, through the rift between them, are in a relationship that forces them both to use a tatemae with one another. As Deku points out, they had never talked things out prior to their fight in Deku vs Kacchan 2. Afterwards, they maintain a relationship centered around training because that is the only indication Deku has given Bakugo that he wants from him. The two of them still do not know what the other is thinking nor are they sure where the boundaries lie.

Manga readers’ mileage may vary when it comes to when they believe Bakugo first wanted to apologize to Deku for bullying him, but he definitely wants to do so earlier than when it actually happens in the manga. It’s interesting to watch Bakugo grapple with it even if he doesn’t deliver entire soliloquies about his internal chemistry. I have an (admittedly) emotionally charged post about it here.

Audience anticipation regarding Bakugo’s apology (and the constant denial of it) is a major source of MHA’s tension. Horikoshi does a great job of making the audience (read: me) care about this moment by making us (read: me) care about Bakugo and the hoops he goes through to tell Deku that he’s sorry.

Making the wronged party feel guilty is not the best way to deliver an apology, and Bakugo knows that. In fact, Bakugo does the most legwork between himself and Deku when it comes to communicating. Despite appearances, Bakugo leads the way on the emotional development and goes out of his way to support Deku whenever he can without overstepping the tentative boundaries between them. To tie this back to the honne and tatemae discussion: sometimes (only sometimes. Not all the time! Sometimes he is just a shit in sincerity) Bakugo’s bad attitude is a security blanket for them both!

The greatest compliment I can give Horikoshi’s writing for Bakugo (and many of the other characters) is that he usually has more than one motive at any given time. He may not express them all well or completely (this is usually one part “he’s bad at communicating” and one part “he is upholding his tatemae” and sometimes “In order to discuss this he would be giving out sensitive information he’s been trusted not to share” and also sometimes “holy crap the other people involved in this situation are truly not ready to talk about it! Good luck navigating that, Bakugo!”)

Bakugo’s Apology and the Mistakes of the Previous Generation

Time to step back into the history within Bakugo and MHA’s shonen DNA.

Bakugo’s retrieval of Deku (MHA protagonist with an ambivalently loaded bomb-esque ultimate shonen superpower) from the streets of Kamino alongside the class—as well as his apology—eerily resembles the shade of a classic shonen protagonist from an age gone by talking the new-generation protagonist out of making the same mistakes he did (in emulating the unforgiving, victorious power of the West and becoming a figure just like his predecessors). Considering that All Might, the in-story previous generation superhero mentor (with Western-coded persona), regrets being unable to reach out to Deku and tell him, “don’t make my mistakes” himself, Bakugo’s role as the mouthpiece for the final exchange of 1-A’s retrieval, including language about surpassing All Might, seems to lean even harder in that direction in my mind.

Bakugo was All Might’s proxy and, thanks to all of class 1-A, surpassed All Might in reaching Deku. But he also gave Deku a message that only a classic shonen protagonist who lived through the experience of having the power of a bomb at his fingertips in their shared modern social conditions could.

That Bakugo closely resembles the Second User, a fallen warrior from an age gone by who is focused on the association of victory and life versus failure and death in a literal way rather than a social one like Bakugo, is also something worth noting in this context.

But is it Enough? Lex Talionis and Bakugo

Many MHA fans dislike Bakugo because of his early series treatment of Deku or his continued rudeness. There exists a desire for Deku or someone else to “pay back” Bakugo for his treatment in kind as some sort of retribution, or perhaps for Bakugo to be cowed and his manners curbed into something less loud and aggressive.

While it’s perfectly fine to dislike Bakugo for any reason or find him annoying (I am a fan and I find him annoying), I have to say: this point of view sounds an awful lot like the point of view of the existing hypocritical society in the work. Maybe MHA isn’t the story for those people.

Honne and Tatemae Taken Out of Context: A Note on the Western LGBTQIA+ Community and Bakugo’s Popularity

Westerners don’t share the concept of honne and tatemae, but if you are an individual who has ever tried to “pass” in your current life or former life, you probably understand the paradoxical nature of “fronting” to other people with a social presentation indicating one thing while your personal beliefs and feelings are different. If you don’t, that’s completely fine. Bakugo is a cruddy teen boy with authority problems who is trying to figure himself out. That’s all you need to know. However, speaking specifically to the LGBTQIA+ audience: there sure is a HECK of a lot of correlation between Bakugo’s honne/tatemae experience and a modern queer one.

To Western readers in the pertinent queer weeb community, it’s a well-known observation that Goku-esque shonen protagonist types come off as being somewhere on the grey/ace spectrum. This isn’t definitive for any of these characters, but is just something to keep in mind about how certain demographics perceive them. In Bakugo’s case: he is absolutely and completely uninterested in romance or girls, and not even in the “ew cooties” or “that would be embarrassing!” way. His antipathy and boredom with the concept seems sincere. (And if he’s even so much as emotionally interested in anyone, it is restricted to a specific selection of other guys in his class.)

There is not much in media that the asexual and aromantic communities can turn to, so it may as well be found in characters like Bakugo. It’s about all we’ve got.

A Note on Eastern Fujoshi

While this demographic is not interested in connecting with a queer or queer-coded character because they relate to that experience, Bakugo’s, um, canon relationship with characters like Kirishima, Todoroki, or Deku endear him to fujoshi. It is important to note that fujoshi often (but not always! Not always! The fujoshi community is huge and wildly different in different countries) are homophobic in real life but enjoy the fantasy of two dudes in love for their consumption. The fujoshi view and appeal drawn from the idea of Bakugo potentially being in love with another male character is completely different from folks who are actually part of the LGBTQIA+ community!

Anyway, that’s enough about all that gay shit for now. Back to the questions that really matter.

Tsundere: Bakugo’s Last Mask

Hi, Asuka Langley Soryu from Neon Genesis Evangelion. I’m so pleased you could join us today for this discussion about aggressive, egotistical tsundere characters who wear red-orange and have complicated feelings about the main character of their series.

Bakugo is annoying. As a sincere fan, I’m telling you that he is annoying. Somehow, he makes it work. It’s part of the package. While he is not as obnoxious as a moe-style tsundere squealing “it’s not like I like you or anything!”, the trope is the same. And no, I don’t just mean in a potentially romantic context with his osana najimi Deku. I mean that Bakugo is a tsundere to everyone.

As subtle as some of Bakugo’s storytelling can be, just as much of it is comically unsubtle. Ochako Uraraka seeing right through him and eliciting a look of panic on his face is a personal favorite bit of content.

If a reader is paying attention, they may notice a correlation between moments Bakugo either loses or is not wearing his Hero mask and moments his honne, including his flustered tsundere self, appears. One may also notice that, sometimes, the screen-tone shadows on the top of his face in moments of conflict or anger sometimes take the place of his obscuring hero mask.

Heroine of the Series?

If you didn’t look into that Reddit thread about osana najimi/childhood friends I linked earlier, here it is again for your convenience.

Before I discuss this, I want to once again point out that there are non-romantic osana najimi relationships between same sex characters in lots of media. There’s also plenty of platonic opposite sex osana najimi portrayals. They follow their own set of similar tropes, but what’s interesting about Bakugo is that he incorporates these same-sex tropes as well as the “love interest” osana najimi tropes. No, I am not saying that BakuDeku is canon. I am only pointing out the overlap of tropes present in their relationship.

Osana najimi relationships are often used to evoke security and safety as well as an idyllic past. Depending on the thesis of the work, the main character generally either ends up in a relationship with the (traditionally Japanese in appearance) osana najimi as a representation of maintaining tradition and honoring the past or they end up with the (foreign-looking, exciting, and contentious, and often a tsundere) girl who challenges the main character and represents the future and the outside world.

Bakugo is an osana najimi figure, but he is also a loud, blonde tsundere who is a catalyst for change and mystery for the main character. In conclusion: BAKUGO IS BEST GIRL! AND I DON’T MEAN THAT HE’S GONNA END UP WITH DEKU. I JUST MEAN THAT HE IS BEST GIRL BECAUSE I LOVE HIM AND HE IS THE BEST EVERYTHING!

These osana najimi qualities combined with the fact that Deku saves Bakugo in the series twice inspires some fans to call Bakugo the “Heroine of the series” or even “Princess Kacchan”. It’s just a funny little detail.

Speaking of the ladies.

Shueisha-specific Subversions

I’ve unpacked the history of shonen manga in brief, so I will try to make the culture and history of Shonen Jump publisher Shueisha even more brief: it’s sexist and the standards for portraying women and girls in their shonen series is sexist, too.

The biggest success of the Uraraka vs Bakugo “girl power moment” is that it has a nice execution, isn’t cloyingly preachy (because let’s be real—Aizawa gives a full sermon to the audience over this), and doesn’t come off as insincere. Of all the conflicts Bakugo has with society and its expectations, the presence of this one within a Jump title is notable. One does not usually read about a female character being taken seriously to the point that the male main characters are allowed to trade blows with them as equals in the ring and not be portrayed as a completely villainous thing. That she loses to Bakugo is second to the point—Uraraka performs well, pulls off something legitimately impressive, and is treated like an equal in the ring for better and for worse.

Is MHA the most feminist of titles? Not by a long shot. But the bar is so low that it is notable whenever anything like this happens.

Bakugo’s choice to fight Uraraka in the Sports Festival despite popular opinion is one of the moments that establishes him as an antihero, by the way.

Cartoon Rage!

Horikoshi is a fantastic illustrator and character actor. Honestly, the amount of charm and expressivity his work imbues his characters with is something I can neither overstate nor begin to even put into words.

I don’t spell this out in the slides, but part of Bakugo’s popularity stems from the fact that he has some of the best background gags. I don’t find him as funny in the anime, but in the manga he consistently makes me smile.

I included some well-known anime shots here, too. If one doesn’t appreciate him when he is screaming “SHINE!” (“DIE!”), one doesn't deserve him at his sparkliest. My personal favorite Bakugo manga face is on the top left corner.

He’s My Hero, But He Doesn’t Have to Be Yours Part II

Bakugo combines genre history, media tropes, and the subversion of cultural norms into one character. While this makes him a strikingly complicated portrayal of a teenaged boy influenced by his world, it also requires the audience to understand the greater context surrounding his creation and influence to foster a full appreciation of his portrayal in MHA. Not everyone appreciates that and that is perfectly ok.

Some people like loud and aggressive characters even without the bigger context of why they might act the way they do. Just as many hate that kind of character regardless of these details. It is what it is. As for me, I love him, but more than that, I appreciate you for reading this. Hopefully, it brought value to your MHA-consumption experience.

Thank you!

#bakugo katsuki #bakugo presentation #bnha #bnha meta #katsuki bakugo #great explosion murder god dynamight #GEMG Dynamight #heroaca meta #bnha manga #bnha manga spoilers #tsundere #fandom discourse

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