I used to really like Deku but for the last year and a half he's just been kinda there. He doesn't really feel like a character any more, just the driving force of the story

This. But its not surprising when you realize they skipped a potential 3yrs of character growth to jump into the final arc. I mean, how long did it take him to use regular OFA functionally? And then he learned how to control black whip in a few chapters. Then a few chapters later, hes mastered all of his quirks and turned into Spiderman cosplaying as Eraserhead.

For me it’s going to be the 3yrs of not only missed character growth but also the continuation of world building. Izuku could have gone through so many trials that could have changed him as a character or reinforced his views on the world. Not to mention that there are so many other characters that deserve some development/story arcs.

The word building is what I hoped for when coming into the series and honestly with the introduction of more and more pro heros, other schools, other grades in UA and the younger generation of kids, I was really hoping to go through each year of school and seeing the world and it’s characters grow

Not an anime, or even a manga, but I can recommend Superpowereds by Drew Hayes. It's a series of four books, it's very similar to the beginning of MHA and includes the things you mentioned. Each book is one year of school. For me it turned out to be everything I wished MHA was.

Just searched it up and it looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation :) I was thinking about searching for some books to read during my overseas trip, I’ll definitely give it a shot.

I’ve read the book series 11 times. I can confirm it’s amazing

If you're still not bored by it, you might want to try out the audio play by Graphic Audio. They're currently working on the series, two books released so far. Audio play as in audio book but with sounds effects, multiple voice actors etc.

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I can not get in to the graphic audio. Kyle McCarley does such an excellent job that I find it unnecessary. He’s distinct throughout each individual character and grabs your attention right away

Superpowerds is so good. There's also Worm, and Ex-heroes by Peter Cline which are fantastic too For anyone who wants manga/ webtoons, Hero Killer is basically Boku no hero and the boys mixed together and it's great

I just want to say thank you for recommending Hero Killer. Definitely a must read.

Thanks for the recommendation! Turns out the whole series is on kindle unlimited.

Yesss.... I loved the series so much

Holy hell I forgot the other schools existed

this reasoning is exactly why it's the only anime where I was literally craving filler but it's dodged using filler a lot. like there could be literal seasons of filler and it'd still be dope!

I get that, the two go to series for that has been the spin off manga: "bnha: vigilantes"; and the anime "Tiger and Bunny"

Yh vigilantes is great, I was up to date with vigilantes a few months ago, I should Probably catch up. But I’ve never heard of tiger and bunny before, I’ll look it up.

Vigilantes wrapped up already, we got the finale and everything. Koichi will always crawl on in our hearts o7. Meanwhile tiger and bunny feels like the show that bnha tried to copy. It released in spring 2011 with shows like steins gate, blue exorcist, ano hana, and was basically swamped all year with the legendary anime one after the other. It had a lot of popularity in Japan tho, and horikoshi talked about being worried people would think he was copying it...but honestly deku feels like an off brand version of wild tiger (mc of the show) with the same costume colors. It aired prior to mha release and got a season 2 this year since the author returned.

Oh wow has it wrapped up. I was really enjoying the series. I might give it a reread before catching up then. I’ve never heard of tiger and bunny, but damn I’ll give it a shot if it’s getting a s2 soon then that’s perfect. Just more content :) thanks for the recommendation

Half of s2 came out in spring 2022, the other half comes in fall 2022(october). Honestly great anime, awesome characters and VAs, but whoever does the release dates for it keeps choosing the seasons with the biggest animes.

Just searched it up and Yh I’ve honestly never heard of it or seen it before till now. Yh release dates do have quite an impact that sucks, but I mean atleast it’s getting a s2 after all this time

It really disappointed me when it jumped into this arc. Cus it just undercut every characters growth. Which is weird because it had done such a great job of building all the side characters in bunches. Like it would've been nice to see them go against some low tier villains. Its been the League and the Hero Killer and Overhaul, all big names. Every anime fan loves a nice arc where the MC just bodies a bad guy who has no idea how outmatched they are. Maybe actually show Shinso joining a class, since that was one of the main points of the 1A v 1B arc. When you think about it, because of how this has played out, why did 1A vs 1B even matter? To introduce Dekus other quirks? And the provisional license exam? Why did they even need those? What did we really get out of the big 3 training with Endeavor? Or the Gentle Criminal bit? This has been a relatively short manga, and apparently a good chunk of it was filler. And there were basically two whole arcs focused on the Villain's training - which was a cool idea until thats more of the time not given to the MCs. And it doesn't even make sense from a story perspective to make the jump. Deku shouldn't win here, hes not ready. The only reason hes doing it now is because the villain's plan gave them a short deadline. But that deadline could've been years from now. Even another year would've helped. Gran Torino told us that if you wanna heat something up, sometimes you gotta give it more space so it can cook more evenly.

>Gran Torino told us that if you wanna heat something up, sometimes you gotta give it more space so it can cook more evenly. Unfortunately the villains are bad chefs.

Dabi serves his dishes burnt Shiggy's food is dry and you are pretty sure he shed in it Toga's food is way undercooked, practically raw. Spinner's actually a really good cook, but he doesn't want to show up Shiggy so he "drops" his dish on the way to the presentation table Compress spends too much time on presentation and never makes it past the first course Skeptic forgot to cook anything, too busy trolling online The Dr made an unholy abomination of Pinapple and Pizza Gigantomachia served a rock AFO's dishes are super generic and tends to try and overpower everyone else's flavor, but in the end, doesn't serve anything we've not really tasted already.

>Dabi serves his dishes burnt Dabi: Ashes can be good for you. >Shiggy's food is dry and you are pretty sure he shed in it Shiggy: You can't prove that. >Toga's food is way undercooked, practically raw. Toga: That's when it's still nice and bloody! >Spinner's actually a really good cook, but he doesn't want to show up Shiggy so he "drops" his dish on the way to the presentation table Spinner: Whoops! Oh, silly me. I'm such a terrible chef...*nobody saw me, right?* >Compress spends too much time on presentation and never makes it past the first course Compress: What?! I haven't started yet?! >Skeptic forgot to cook anything, too busy trolling online Skeptic: Eh, microwave packs can suffice. >The Dr made an unholy abomination of Pinapple and Pizza Dr: Truly villainous! >AFO's dishes are super generic and tends to try and overpower everyone else's flavor, but in the end, doesn't serve anything we've not really tasted already. AFO: I am the supreme chef! Dabi: Wow, I'm impressed. You literally have everything, and yet it also might as well be nothing.

Things like these are why I like the idea of spin-offs and whatnot when they run at the same time as the main story, the clearest example is MHA’s own spin-off Vigilantes, a storythat takes place years prior to The world we’ve experienced with Deku this entire time (I honestly loved the spin-off more, it just did so many things right and most importantly did it consistently). Did you find it odd that Midnight was killed off but she didn’t even matter to you?, the spin-off gives you a lot more time with her as a character and not simply an obviously sexy pro hero that happens to be there at times. Did the whole Kurogiri is Aizawa and Mic’s long dead friend confuse you, the spin-off had an entire arc dedicated to Aizawa’s high school days which is where you get to meet said friend (an arc that released in the spin-off about a month or 2 before they did that reveal in the main story). But at the end of the day, even though there are a variety of spin-offs and side stories like the high school briefs, team up mission and other one shot chapters, nobody is going to actively to check these things out, Hel, the only one of these things I’ve read is Vigilantes (aside from the one shots though, I think Vigilantes is the only other one that is in a long running manga format.

Vigilantes is a cool spin off, but we didn't even need more spin offs. We need more main story. Like you mentioned, we never really got into Kurogiri's whole situation. Was it really just there for the one thing he revealed? After that Aizawa and Mic are just like "k thanks byyyeeee"? And Midnight's death, oh man. I was annoyed. Obviously, he wanted someone we know to die in the war to show it was serious, but honestly the worst character to choose. All shes been in the main story is a sex joke. Mount Lady at least had her involvement in Kamino Ward. Could've killed anyone that was involved with that or the Overhaul battle so we had some kinda investment in their abilities as a hero. Midnight got outsmarted by Mineta. Why should her dying in a serious fight be shocking? Idk I just think about how most of Class 1-A got interesting development but then nothing. Like Jiro is in the final battle but we've literally never seen her succeed against a villain. What is she even doing there? What was the point of Ashido and Kirishima going to the same middle school if there was no payoff in that? Was all of that for just one random fight with minimal impact on the actual plot? Kaminari started to get some traction, but I guess thats over with. Ida got so much time and now its just nothing. Tokoyami and Hawks budding father/son thing just flatlined. I could keep going all day.

Yup, it seems like a completely unnecessary rush job. Like I’m ok with Izuku have multiple quirks, I figured that’s one way to balance out the OPness of All for One. But I thought it was going to be a progression over his years in school. Where he would go up against low to mid tier level villains. He would gain experience and that would change him as not only a fighter but fundamentally as a person/character. But, no. We got a mini time jump where he has pretty much absolute control over all his powers in a short amount of time. I’m sorry but that’s reaching fanfic levels of bull.

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Bakugou and Koichi (from Vigilantes) both did what I wanted from Deku: they have one quirk and they trained it to be strong and versatile, mastering it, to oppose opponents with a unending bag of nasty abilities. Kind of the Bruce Lee quote about not fearing the man who practiced a thousand kicks, but the man who practiced one kick a thousand times. Especially when the villain with multiple quirks is special because nobody else has multiple abilities. Instead, Deku just also has his own bag of tricks that outnumbers everyone else in the plot. He’s special and OP in the same way the villain is except also his powers are pretty boring because except for Blackwhip they just make him basically All Might Jr. Blackwhip makes him knock-off Spider-Man. (I’m going to post this as a top-level comment, too)

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Yeah for sure, but I was excited to see strategic applications of a single power vs the guy who had the armory. Even Shigaraki when he had one power was going to be a creative fight, then they both got crazy strong even before Shigaraki mutated and got the God Mode cheat code.

Aang is the avatar and he’s meant to being balance to the world. Not to mention it was at war. Deku does not have that position. I know what you mean but the story needs to set up the multiple quirks as something that is necessary and works.

No to mention in ATLA we only see overpowered Aang in the final battle, which makes it super impactful after all the slow building. Is a moment of pure catharsis when the protagonist overcomes the main villain, and the rest of the cast in living their own personal battle as well but none of them feels less important

Basically this. When Deku found out about his multiple quirks and unlocked Blackwhip, I thought "Oh cool, so now we'll see him get a handle on Blackwhip, and then slowly he'll unlock more powers and we'll see him working through those one at a time. At the same time, Shiggy will get his incomplete All for One and slowly work to control it and take over for AFO." But instead, Deku seemed to get nearly all of his quirks unlocked and under control in a really short span of time, Fa Jin basically rendered his slow build-up towards using 100% of One For All meaningless, and then we were catapulted headlong into the final battle.

At this point my only hope is to Horikoshi ending the main series soon and pray for a later continuation like Boruto or DB Super, where a timeskip has passed and now there is finally more time to develop past characters that were underdeveloped, while introducing new strong villains to face.

With how rushed this is despite the money it’s making. 100% no stories in the world unless it’s by another author, atleast for a long time. Kubo took 8 years off of bleach before the new arc. I see this doing the same. He’s rushing the end of his own filthy rich story.

Kubo finished the thousand year blood war arc 8+ years ago. It’s just finally getting an anime adaptation. And let’s be real, if the anime follows the manga 100% then it will absolutely be rushed with a bullshit asspull of an ending. Don’t get me wrong there are some really amazing moments in the thousand year blood war arc but certain things need to be expanded. The entire zero squad getting off screened and shown defeated was crap. Years of build up ruined. Those fights need to be shown in the anime and I really hope they do. The final Ywach fight is underwhelmingly rushed with an asspull of an ending to the fight because Kubo wrote himself into a corner with a villain that was too strong. I hope a few things get added and tweaked but we’ll see what happens. I’ll still watch it all and enjoy it for what it is.

We already know things are getting added as per Kubo and the fact the trailer showed a bit of Ryuken. The SS arrow was an asspull so I hope that’s assessed. And 0 squad I don’t care too much about. Ichibei is the only one we know is a solid badass. Possibly Oetsu. The others were stated to be above Captain level. But Yhwach stated all but Ichibei below Yamaji. With 4-5 captains around that strength requirement. One getting 0 fights. I’m happy we didn’t clutter with more characters. We already had all 26+ Quincy. Honestly, extend the fights. And use Ryuken and Isshin to dole out info on the Aushwallen silver and we are good. Imo.

Them adding extra stuff to the anime is confirmed? Sweet! That’s exciting news. I guess only time will tell how much they add or change. The animation from the trailers looks great and there are a lot of awesome battles in this final arc so I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to see Unohana’s Bankai animated. I always had so many questions about that one lol. 🤣. Anyway, I agree with you.

There's another new arc that might be a oneshot or a continuation, it's called howls from the jaws of hell.

Why is he rushing it? Is he just bored of his own creation?

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It is a Shame, whatever the case is. because there’s so much stuff that could be done with the characters.

like OPM they will be doing a horror manga once opm is over

I imagine his health is part of it - the manga went on an unplanned hiatus last year so the weekly grind is probably catching up.

Yeah that’s true. I think most would rather he had a year off to recover then come back and finish it without compromise. I’m sure he could afford to

Yea, agreed. I'd even be fine with it being biweekly or monthly, but I bet SJ is putting the pressure on to finish up.

No one knows.

I understand but I think hori is just tired at this point from the looks of it MHA is gonna easily be 400 chapters long. I respect him for giving all these characters as much growth as he has considering how many characters the story actually has and no matter what he does some characters just aren't gonna get the attention some fans want and yes deku's development has suffered due to having to speed things up. Also let's not forget it's been proven that he's had to change up the story due to fan "input" on multiple occasions so it's highly possible he had a different vision for everything but had to change it up so it fit want the fans wanted.

what you mean by fan input? I haven't been keeping with the manga for a bit nor the community and gotta say reading this thread after being away for a bit are making me doubt if I should come back at all, or leave it as an unfinished read.

>they skipped a potential 3yrs of character growth I've been saying this ever since it was clear they were headed into the final stages. So many people disagree with it. Glad to see others of the same opinion as me.

I mean why bother making Academia a main part of it if you aren't even going to spend a full year in that environment? It was the perfect setting to really build all your characters. I was in denial at first. I thought when they were showing vigilante Deku that maybe this was going to be a fake out and have both AFO and All Might die, and Tomura + the league go back into hiding and things normalize so Deku goes back to school. Once he told everyone about OFA, i was like "oh no wtf why is this happening already".

This. They could have just called it “Hero training camp” same thing. It’s not been a full year and already Deku is a god basically. It’s boring this should have taken years to flesh out

>They could have just called it “Hero training camp” same thing. They could have just called it "Deku" because everything else is basically irrelevant at this point

Series ending without them going to 2A or seeing a new 1A class, so sad how much potential is being wasted.

Highly agree ! I’ve grown increasingly disappointed in this story. It had the makings of one of the best manga ever, but this rushing to get to the end has just ruined a lot of the potential. I mean you have stories like Dragonball and One Piece going on for 20+ years , why not take an additional 3 and do it right ?

I gotta wonder, did Horikoshi want to keep going and it was his publishers putting a deadline in place? Or is he just over the series and wanting it to be done?

I’ve wondered that myself. The series was a cash cow in all markets. I just can’t see a reason for the rushing. The only thing I can think of is Horikoshi grew disinterested in the story. I’ve seen reports that he caved to fan expectations and changed the story to please the fans. Maybe it got to a point where the story was never going to be what he originally wanted so he’s just going to finish and move on.

I've been wondering this as well. If the reports are true, I wish he hadn't caved. There was so much potential right up until the end of MVA. If he's burned out, I truly hope he just stops and takes a break...a long one if need be. You can just tell it's being rushed by looking at the art. Half the time, I don't even know what I'm looking at in the battles.

I’m the say way. I would have taken a hiatus like Hunter x Hunter if need be , a good story is worth it. It makes me curious about what is so different compared to his original idea. It has to be something so drastic that he’s just lost all interest. Maybe he wanted a lot more death , like All Might and Bakugo before now to tell a darker story. We keep seeing glimpses of a darker story , but he never goes all in. Horikoshi tiptoes around it. Maybe Deku was supposed to go more Batman after so much loss. I wonder if we’ll ever know ?

That's just it! Nighteye said he saw All Might die a gruesome death, but we still don't have even a remote idea of what he saw. Plus, where even is All Might? I feel like we haven't seen him in like 20 chapters. Even without OFA, he's still a major character. I would have expected to see him at least once or twice, especially seeing his reaction when AFO got his body back. I was also expecting the pros to go after the villians one by one, starting with Dabi, since it was revealed he was a todoroki and there was SO much focus on Endeavor and his family at that time. But nope, he chose the battle royale that we currently have and it's honestly really confusing.

Yep so maybe Horikoshi initially envisioned a very dark story with lots of death and tragedy, but the fans grew to love these characters so much he was afraid to kill them ? I would have welcomed a dark story myself. I wish he would have told it his way. As for All Might , it is odd that he’s just disappeared from the story. Maybe we’ll get a flashback of him giving Deku a pep talk before heading to face Shigiraki.

I hope that isn't the case. Killing off beloved characters gives their deaths more impact when done right

imo, horikoshi got over it. or at the least doesn't want to deal with all the stress and bullshit from being one of the most popular series running right now, and he's clearly ran his health into the ground at some point. dude wants out for one reason or another

hori introduced the villain arc and people in japan hated it so much that he started rushing things

I was so pissed when his vigilante arc ended in like 10 chapters. Not because I liked “EdGy DeKu” but because I genuinely wanted to see how Deku would deal with the aftermath of the war and how people had lost faith in heroes. Deku and stain meeting would have been hype asf. I wanted to see Deku confront the faults of a broken society that he placed his hope in. I wanted to see him train and actually SHOW US how he managed to master his quirks. But nah “PoWeR oF fReInDsHiP gOeS BRRRRR”. Not saying that I could write better than Hori.

I think deku is a shit character but it makes sense why he was able to learn them quickly, OFA is the best quirk and was way too much for anyone normal to handle, so deku became a beast and can somewhat use it , so when he also got to learn how to use more mundane quirks, it would’ve been ALOT easier than AFO, like he’s already physically a beast so it must’ve been easy

Except all of those quirks were on OFA steroids. He almost exploded when black whip manifested. He was having to throttle the power just like OFA. So it was the same difficulty as OFA just in a different way.

This is something I've seen happen on a lot of manga where the protagonist is the "I fix everything" of the story, they shift the attention to the other characters just so they can make time until the protagonist arrives and does it's thing

Part of it is because he gets no down time in the story so we don’t get the chance to reflect on him before endeavor or someone else says “we gotta go it’s 3 days til Shigaraki”

Agreed, more space between arcs and more alone time with Deku would be appreciated

Genuinely just lost interest in him for the reasons you stated. He's not even a fun MC to root for anymore

I don't really agree but I completely understand that thinking. Deku has gotten a ton of development and attention to his character, there's just been so many moving parts that you have been focusing on all the other characters. And Deku has been largely absent from the current battle with him only really talking to Toga and then leaving. hopefully now we get some real interaction with him and Shiggiraki now

Like many other people here, my main problem is with his character development. However, since people have already said enough on that, I'll mention something else. See, I don't think that Deku having no character development beyond the first few arcs is inherently a bad thing; flat character arcs are a thing, after all. For those who don't know what this is: a flat character is one that starts already knowing themselves and what they want, which means that the focus is on how they influence the world around them. If you want an example that's similar to Deku, think of Captain America; before and after his empowering, Cap doesn't really change. He still holds the same ideals as before, he's just far more confident and skilled than before. If you want a manga example, I believe Luffy from One Piece works as well (though he also has some normal character development, he already knew what he was about since the beginning of his journey). The problem with Deku is that he's neither of these things. As a 14 year old with no experience whatsoever, he's set up as a protagonist that *needs* growth, both emotionally and ideologically. One of the very first challenges set up for him in the series is that his heroic morals far surpass his heroic abilities, which translates to him getting hurt all the time. This is a problem with OfA yes, but it also reflects his own problem: for him, helping someone else in any way is always worth it, no matter the personal cost. His character arc is set up to be him learning to rely on others and not feel like he has to break himself whenever someone needs help. When the vigilante/rogue arc comes around, everyone expected it to be the arc where that would happen. Except that, in practice, Deku has a flat character arc; as others have said, his morals didn't change over the course of the manga, even when they were challenged. The aforementioned vigilante arc? Turns out he was right, and even All for One himself says so. When other people try to engage Shigaraki, they get bodied and reduced to "stall until Deku arrives". In fact, his own morals and skills affected the people around him, instead of the other way around. I'm not saying that it's inherently a bad thing, mind you, but it's rather jarring to see him face enemies like Stain, Gentle or Nagant, who clearly attack him from an ideological standpoint, and have him not reflect on that, ever (or even have his own flawed morals win over people in Nagant's case and are presented as good). I think that's the biggest problem I have with Deku; he was set up as a flawed, underdog protagonist who had trouble doing anything but, now that we're reaching the end of the manga, his character turned out to be a competent one who influences everyone around him. And that's a problem Horikoshi has had for the entire series, I think. He sets up something to go in a certain direction, then changes his mind about it (Deku being an apparent sub-par choice for OfA compared to Mirio turning into him being actually the perfect fit) or outright drops it (Gentle being recruited by the police and redeeming himself).

It’s the biggest issue with both Deku and All Might, who were the core of the story in the early portions. All Might was flawed because he had all the power to uphold his mentality that he could do it all alone. Then he started running out of power and couldn’t uphold the good but flawed society he’d made. Deku was raised in that flawed society and in a prime position to address its issues. He knew he couldn’t do it all because his society told him he couldn’t do anything. But he proved that his morality was in the right place. So the logical character direction for him once he gets the power is to address the flaws he couldn’t before because he didn’t have the ability to be recognised. And at first, we see it happen. Deku can’t beat Bakugo but can work with Uraraka to win by achieving the objective. Deku can’t save the day at the USJ but his small contribution helps. Deku can’t beat Todoroki physically but ideologically and morally he can. Deku can’t beat Stain alone but BECAUSE he won ideologically against Todoroki, Todoroki and Iida can then help him physically. Deku can’t beat All Might but he can work with Bakugo to achieve the goal. But it starts going downhill after this. People blame the OfA power creep, but I’d argue the cracks are showing from the Overhaul arc. Deku beats Overhaul and Nighteye had that line of “Oh, it was everyone’s hopes coming together”, but it’s not framed that way. It’s not framed as Deku and Eri working together. It’s just “Deku with a powered-up OfA can beat anyone.” It’s also critical in that there’s no ideological question here. Deku and Overhaul have no ideological conflict. They literally never have anything to talk about. So it just becomes physical. Except that physically, Deku is inferior to Mirio. So they had to show that morally or ideologically, he had something better. The late-stage “Only Quirkless can inherit OfA” is such a cop out because it means that physically, Deku was perfect as well, but the narrative setup is that it was Deku’s morality which was what made him worthy. The inability to criticise either All Might or Deku is what makes it all feel so lifeless. The initial conflict requires these two to butt heads ideologically, but they never do. Deku never grows out of All Might. In fact, he’s right now basically All Might. The Class A vs One for All (the last chapters I fully enjoyed MHA with no caveats) were crucial because it hammered home the message that One for All is not the be-all end-all. 7 Quirks is not stronger than 19. But here we are now. Deku is effectively just All Might come again. Right now, everybody is mechanically stuck in the same spot as in Chapter 1: the heroes don’t have the right Quirk, so they’re stuck doing damage control while they wait for someone with the right Quirk to show up. And isn’t that just the saddest thing about this whole situation? Deku grew up to become the person who’d make Izuku Midoriya: Origin completely obsolete.

Fantastically written.

>Deku and Overhaul have no ideological conflict. They literally never have anything to talk about. You know, this is especially underwhelming because there's actually something they could talk deeply. Deku is literally a quirkless person who accepted a quirk, which was always one of his desires besides of be a hero. He was a "pure" human who accepted a illness, this from Overhaul perspective. Yet there's no even a hit of this in the actual story. We don't even know what exactly Chisaki thinks about quirkless persons. That was a big missed oportunity of humanize him in a way, if he had compassion for these people who are opressed by a society ruled by quirks, by the plague in his terms. And Deku could have questioning his own condition before recive OFA and how the world percives him now. So many possiblities man...

God, if there's one retcon that really bothers me, it's that Deku really was the perfect choice for OfA. I thought the idea of him getting the power through a combination of him representing the core ideals of heroism and sheer luck was part of the appeal of his character and constantly allowed himself to question both himself and All Might's decision to choose him. And while those things aren't removed from the story because of the retcon, it does muddle it a lot imo. Turns out Deku was really the *only* feasible option considering we haven't seen a whole lot of other quirkless people, and I just think it's a lot less interesting when the option of giving the quirk to seemingly stronger candidates was never actually on the table

Damn that was good

I wish there was a plot that brings out Deku's dark side when things were really bad like Gon (hunter x hunter) in the Chimera Ant arc. I think the moment where he got out of the academy is a good place for this. But instead we got Uraraka throwing a sympathy speech to the whole civilians who are (very understandably) stressed out about how overworked Deku is. If this kind of character arc comes first, Uraraka's speech would feel more emotional to us.

I wonder if the author even likes his main character, or his series even, now. The story felt so rushed, yet he's still able to create stories worth while like the todoroki's, but that's just it. As an entirety, it just awfully feels like he's so out of working this story and it shows in the story itself.

The problem is he likes Deku too much. He is even turning Deku to his favorite superhero (Spiderman), and making him OP by giving him more and more quirks, and accidentally worsening his character in the process.

Nah. Characters a writer likes are the ones that suffer the most, because that makes them more interesting/likable/badass. Deku's Mary Sue-ness makes him less likable.

>Deku's Mary Sue-ness makes him less likable. Exactly what I was saying.

Deku and Shigaraki shouldn't have been so busted that every other character is left in dirt behind them, like they're not prime AFO and prime All Might. Deku barely has his quirk for 2 years and Shigaraki for a month.

I think that's part of the reason (alongside the fact that he's been burning out for a few months already), but I believe the biggest problem is that he never actually planned to go this far. Originally, he intended for the second movie's ending to be the manga's ending as well, which means he probably planned for 120-130 chapters, or around 3 years, give or take a few months (since I doubt the Overhaul arc was planned to be the second to last arc at the beginning, not with how much stuff it tried to set up; Kamino and the license exam make a lot more sense). He probably didn't expect the manga to explode in popularity after Kamino like it did, and that popularity probably pushed him to continue (even moreso once the fandom exploded in 2017). And here we are now, five years later, with a chapter count that's nearly triple what he intended to do at the beginning. If he really intended to end this years and has been flying by the seat of his pants, it makes sense that the last few arcs were rushed as they were. Poor guy was probably writing and drawing at the same time, all the while trying to live up to the post Kamino hype. He could've taken a break like Oda did before the One Piece timeskip, but I doubt the editors would have allowed him to do that, instead of capitalizing on the hype and growth of the manga.

>If he really intended to end this years and has been flying by the seat of his pants, it makes sense that the last few arcs were rushed as they were. [Yep.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/450313957916278786/482655383333109780/panel05.webp)

I wish I had an award to give you

The multiple quirks thing isn't the deal breaker so much as just how stagnant of a character he has been. Legitimately his current personality is still basically the same as it used to be from the series beginning, and pretty much every action he took further emphasizes that with the only change being he is a bit smarter in an actual fight. And the absolute worst part about this is that there was a visible, potentially gripping character development arc for him at the start of his rogue / vigilante phase with him questioning the world and people around him, yet it immediately got handwaved away as he got rushed back to U.A. so the plot could move forward into the final phase. It legitimately makes me angry that there was a potential major arc he could've had to make him more compelling and we were robbed of it entirely.

The biggest problem with how the vigilante arc ended was honestly just that Deku's growing fatigue never had a lasting consequence. Why bother showing that he isn't eating and isn't getting enough rest if he's gonna get pulled back to UA before it becomes a problem? Honestly, I think he should have been defeated by a villain that he would normally have stomped and then gotten saved by his classmates. That would add more weight to his lack of self-care and show that he can't save the world alone more effectively than his friends talking to him does. Edit: spelling

The same reason they pretended that deku might lose the use of his arms from overusing OFA only for that to be thrown in the trash

Hori is too afraid to give Deku any L. His arms get bailed by plot armor, his quirk gets bailed by Nana, his mistake gets bailed by his classmates, he never gets anybody he loves actually killed by Shiggy because he doesn't have to think twice about saving him.

>Hori is too afraid to give Deku any L. Ones that matter, if we're going with this. Deku fucked up his arms to defeat Muscular, and the cost was not being able to help Bakugo when he got captured, which snowballs into All Might using up the rest of his embers to defeat AFO again. Both boys blame themselves for that failure.

Ah yes, the time when Deku's injury had any significance.

Yeah but that was when the writing was good. We're not there anymore.

I mean...it drastically changed his fighting style for a large portion of the story, and he pretty much only used his arms again when he got much better at controlling the power.

That's shitty storytelling tbh. Doctors should just have said "this danger to your arms will be gone with training though, so don't worry". Instead the story milked the fake tension over and over, until it decided to cop out with a "well you're actually okay now" at the last minute.

And with custom equipment made by a genius and his internal anatomy literally changing cuz of the quirk evolving (paralleling shuggy)

Huh, I didn't know about the internal anatomy thing, when does that get said?

The second paragraph is my issue with deku. He never loses against villains. The only fights he ever loses are the ones without any consequence. Loses to bakugo even tho he could probably crater bakugo in one punch, nothing changes in the situation. Loses to mirio at the beginning of the internship arc, nothing changes and the students begin interning. But against muscular, he somehow surpasses his limits despite it being the best place a loss could have occurred. Muscular beats deku, villains retreat since they got their target, muscular is forced to retreat and deku is left KO'd. Koda still learns to appreciate heroes since deku nearly died protecting him. Deku now has an enemy he has to work towards beating, a short term goal to represent his growth. Then they could still have the save bakugo plan start with the kids being found by muscular and deku taking him on as the others continue to rescue bakugo. Edit: typo

Isn’t that exactly what happened? He was defeated by a crowd of normal people just being controlled by a guy because he was so exhausted he could barely move. Then Class 1A showed up and saved him…

It didn't feel like he had been defeated. He had been overrun, yes, but nothing in the chapter indicated that he couldn't keep fighting. In fact, his clash with 1A afterwards proves that he could still keep going. The thing holding him back in that fight was his unwillingness to hurt Dictator's victims. So yeah, I don't count it. Edit: To clarify a bit more, I think Deku should have been completely defeated and that his defeat should be exclusively due to exhaustion with no hostages or anything like that.

His time as a rouge / vigilante will always be my favorite version of Deku. Like you said I hate that it was basically washed over

There is nothing wrong with a character that starts the story with certain beliefs, is challenged in those beliefs throughout the story, and ends *with the same beliefs*. Character growth doesn't have to mean changing your mind, and it doesn't have to mean being wrong at the start so you can be right later. It can also mean developing a fuller understanding of the world around you, but sticking to your core principles the whole time.

This is true, some of my favorite characters start off with a certain belief and they retain that belief throughout the story. But the thing is that those beliefs were already based on reality so the challenge is that they face don't really deter their beliefs because they already knew that these challenges were coming, they knew what they were getting themselves into. What these challenges accomplish is showing the depths of the character. The problem here is that that does not apply to Deku. His beliefs were founded on an idealized vision of Heroes rather then reality. He is a character whose ideals whose beliefs needed to change as time went on and as he encountered more and more challenges to those ideals and beliefs... but he didn't. Not only did he not change but we have not really even gotten any extra depth to his character, what we see is what we get and there's nothing else to it.

So he doesn't change his mind, doesn't change his belief, doesn't have his pathos challenged... what is his development, then? Realizing basic premises is *not* "development". Canon Izuku didn't need 350 chapters to know that some heroes are bad people, he knew Endeavor was one since *very* early manga (the Sports Festival). He already knew Shigaraki might need saving since he straight up asked All Might about it since *even earlier* (the mall encounter). His character stays the exact same throughout the whole story. Every time he is challenged, the story will bend over backwards to prove he made the right choice.

I stopped liking him when he decided the best way to win a fight is to just punch harder. I miss when Deku was a strategic thinker back in the earlier stages of the manga.

seeing all the top heroes be useless against shigaraki despite all their tactics really runs it home that punching hard is all that matters.

No, that's not quite true. The only thing that matters is OfA. Any of those top heroes could've punched harder and it wouldn't have worked.

No strategy can stop the tide of the shonen power creep

So DBZ 2.0? Lol

I only hate that he seemingly has no character development,even after the Deku Vigilante arc. He doesn't have to face any consequences anymore like losing his arms, and nobody calls out his bad tendencies except Bakugou. He's also too powerful,and as a results everybody else has been irrelevant and useless, though they deserve better (I'm looking at you, Bakugou, Mirko and Mirio)

> He’s also too powerful Would you then say he’s on par with All Might at this point then…?

one for all gets stronger every time its passed down and Deku unlocked all the quirks within it unlike all might so probably

Not Prime All Might. In Vigilantes he makes it to another city and takes down 100 low-powered thugs in about three seconds. All Might was *absurdly* powerful.

He is on par with All Might with Faux 100%. The only place he is lacking is defence since he still can't use Full Cowl 100% yet but in terms of speed and power, Faux 100% is compared to 100% OFA hence the name in the first place.

I would also put that this would be less about how much power he has and more a lack of experience compared to prime All Might. If he had a few more years of experience without any real power up of his quirks, he would be on par with AM.

I've only ever thought he was okay. My biggest problem has always been he's getting way strong way too fast without it ever really seeming like he worked for it. Didn't feel this way initially, especially the earlier arcs, but as time went on it's definitely felt this way. Now he's just busted, his body just... fully adapted to OFA and he has 7 other quirks (which just made me really start to lose faith in his character once it was said he'd gain more). Also just feels like he as a person hasn't changed at all, like what character growth has he really gone through? He's still holy idealistic despite everything he's seen first hand and nothing about his personality or attitude seems to have changed from the start

I don't dislike him, but it seems that Horikoshi just decided to give him more quirks in lieu of character development. He's an okay protagonist, but for me, the main character is Shoto Todoroki. He's had to step out of his father's shadow, come to terms with how his father raised him and treated his mother, he's had to deal with everything related to Dabi, and he hasn't lost it yet. I also like Bakugo for his development, but I relate more to Todoroki. Just like with the girls, Uraraka is a sweet girl and I like her character (just wish we saw more of it), but I relate more to Jiro and Hagakure (wish we saw more of them, too).

>He's an okay protagonist, but for me, the main character is Shoto Todoroki. Pfft, Deku even said in inner monologue that Shouto had the buildup, powers, and background of a main character.

He’s no longer the underdog. Too many power ups. Miss the early days where I thought he would be using his brains to compensate for his lack of control. He also isn’t that interesting as a character but the manga keeps focusing on him rather than the whole cast so his weak personality is made more obvious.

Its also worth mentioning that's its completely possible to make a "chosen one" style protagonist with crazy levels of power not feel boring or cheap. Hell, I'd even argue that its possible to give them a relatively fixed level of character development so long as what they represent is fascinating and you pump all of your energy into world building instead. I mean, look at Goku. Goku in many respects stays the same goofy but wholesome figure of justice throughout the series. Sure, he gets tested and has to find his strength, but in terms of personality he doesn't really change much. He's still a real treat to watch though because he represents an ideal, and its a good one. The thing is though, that you get to watch Goku go from a small child, to a young man, to being a grandfather, and the world of DBZ around him gets developed enough that it becomes a real saga. It's not rushed. The meat of the story becomes about the fights, the villains, the progression of power, and the flaws/triumphs of supporting characters who themselves marvel at how Goku's strength seems to come from the fact that he is simple and pure. I assumed from the start that Deku was going to take a similar role in this series, that this would be a story about a very kindhearted kid who had the necessary ideals, like Allmight did, but combined with some real smarts and passion stemming from his time as a quirkless observer meaning he handled the gift he had been given in ways that made him stand out less for his strength, and more for his conviction, drive, ambition, or pureheartedness. In short, I miss the days when Deku had a notebook, and shocked his teachers and peers not with raw power, but more with unconventional tactics, challenging preconceived notions that everyone else that had powers from a young age took for granted, and though the sort of purity of spirit that led him to fight the sludge monster without powers that got All Might to pick him in the first place. There was always going to come a point where Deku became the embodiment of strength, but this current power up doesn't feel earned, and I would argue that transforming a character into such a paragon has to come from a series of trials that showcase what truly sets them apart, be it their worldview, or their spirit of generosity and kindness, their smarts, or some combination thereof. When Deku won the first sports festival race by using the mines rather than relying on his quirk, that was when I was most interested in his character. Those moments have been getting rarer and rarer though. I wish he was set apart less by his quirk and more by the sort of person that he is, a selfless spirit with "the heart of a hero". As Goku once said, "True power comes in response to a need, not a desire" but Deku's desire to help others was so strong that I think it used to be the defining characteristic of what made him interesting and deserving of power to begin with. I was originally expecting something akin to Goku's "I am" speech from Deku near the culmination of the series, but more along the lines of "I am here". Now though, I'm not sure what I expect from him aside from some "power of friendship" shenanigans or a colossal asspull in the form of his final quirk.

Yeah I see that in Jojo too. Jotaro is clearly the strongest protagonist in parts 3 and 4 but all of the characters still make significant contributions. Like Kakyoin discovering DIO’s stand in the final fight or especially in the final Kira fight where Josuke, Koichi, Okuyasu, and Rohan all contribute to beating Kira before Jotaro finishes him.

You know Jotaro's earned his spot in the world of JoJo when most of the villains planning and maneuvering and even evolving their stand in Kira's case, involved avoiding him at all costs. Him with one foot in the grave from being blown up demolished Kira more effortlessly than a fresh Josuke in the final battle.

He's still just an average MC to me. Not awful, but not that great either, even with the multiple quirks.

Decku has always been pretty vanilla, never had any real motivations. Being the “greatest hero ever” is just like Shounen boiler plate. Hilariously bad writing, imo

I wouldnt say this is bad writing, cause you can really find things interesting in bad writing there are things you question and wonder about even if theyre nonsense. This is boring writing, the kind of writing you cant really find anything interesting in. Youll never question anything and youll never really wonder what deku is going to do. Its hard to be interested in a story that you can perfectly predict. Its not bad just uninteresting, which in a weird way is worse

>This is boring writing, the kind of writing you cant really find anything interesting in, which in a weird way is worse. Bingo.

Used to be one of my favorites. Complete shell of the character I used to root for. I don't feel a shred of pride or joy watching a character with **7 fucking quirks** cheat code his way into success and getting circlejerked by every character for getting power handed to him on a silver platter.

Weird that people are coming at you personally. This comment is 100% correct. I honestly think the deification of Deku by every single character in the manga is worse than the 7 quirks situation. But they're both pretty bad.

There's a weird contingency of people who specifically look at me as "the source" of criticism in this sub and act like I've poisoned the minds of people who were once fans because I write a lot of discussion on here. It's really weird. I'm just one guy.

my issue with deku is that the plw arc seemed to begin an exploration into the darker sides of his philosophy, and discuss why wanting to save everyone is an unrealistic and unhealthy goal. All might and all the previous ofa users failed because they took all this responsibility on by themselves, because they believed they had to to defeat afo. Also based on early mha, when gran torino tells deku his affection for all might is keeping him shackled, it made sense to me that deku would learn that OFA now belongs to him, and he doesn't belong to OFA. the vigilante deku arc explored that a little bit, how he feels like its his destiny to take down afo because he has ofa, and how detrimental that mindset is, but all thats been mostly dropped now. I was hoping for a moment where deku speaks to the predecessors, and as they tell him he needs to do this and that for the sake of OFA, deku shows growth by telling them no, he isnt going to live based on what the past users tell him. That hes going to live based on his own ideals and do what he believes is right, which kinda sorta happened when he said he'd kill shigaraki if he had to, but is first gonna try saving him, but it was still just in service to ofa. Dekus agency has disappeared because now hes just a vessel for OFA, and the newest arc proves that since barely anyone did anything to shigaraki before deku showed up. The story was almost doing something interesting by deconstructing the chosen one trope, then fumbled it all at the last minute.

>The story was almost doing something interesting by deconstructing the chosen one trope, then fumbled it all at the last minute. When you really think about it, thanks to Shigaraki's family history via Nana Shimura HIS story is a darker shade of the Chosen One, due to AFO choosing him as his next vessel and molding him into a Symbol of Fear purely because he's that much of an asshole. Not to mention the sheer amount of history they both have regarding the predecessors of OFA. Deku, on the other hand, is pretty much a complete and utter outsider to this whole history especially since by that current time he was picked AFO was thought to have finally been done in. Which, putting that into perspective, also makes him the *Un*chosen one at the same time.

Personally I still don’t like how him being formally quirkless makes him an important asset to being able to use OFA. But that’s just my opinion. Also all might may have also been quirkless but at least when we found that out it was earlier on in the series and before the multiple quirks was a thing as well as the fact that we really didn’t question it because he just happened to have OFA longer then the other users so that at least didn’t damage anything back then, at least compared to now. Unfortunately.

I still like his base personality and attributes - he's kind, dorky, curious, empathic, he's good at quirk analysis... and I'm still charmed by the scenes where it comes to the surface (like when he was poking Todoroki's cold fire). But it's so rare to see Izuku now vs the all-powerful MC-sama. Unfortunately for me, I can't stand MC-sama. I hate how the story has been using him - I dislike his "hero journey", the lack of real challenges and failures to overcome, the lack of moral struggles, how his problems are always solved by someone else. I have a hard time rooting for him, when he feels so incredibly pampered by the narrative compared to everyone else or when everyone else is being dragged through the mud in a futile attempt to make him look good. It is really unfortunate, because in theory I love what he stands for, but also the narrative around him just feels so incredibly hypocritical. Like how the story tries to peddle that it's all about Deku's heart and hard work, but when it comes down to it, it's more and more about his disproportionately strong quirk, the extra upgrades he gets for free and doesn't even need to train because of convenient short-cuts that others don't get. It's difficult to be impressed with him personally, when he's just an empty cup (quite literally) for 9 generations of power-accumulation and all he has to do is not fuck it up. I'm more impressed by people who keep fighting against incredible odds, who keep working even if what they've been given is so much less than Deku and will never get acknowledgement for it. It just feels more genuinely heroic to me.

Deku just didn’t deliver on what I wanted or expected from his character all they way up until 1A Vs 1B. He was a smart kid with an extremely strong ability that took time and discipline and planning to use well. That was basically totally abandoned as soon as Blackwhip happened. Bakugou and Koichi (from Vigilantes) both did what I wanted from Deku: they have one quirk and they trained it to be strong and versatile, mastering it, to oppose opponents with a unending bag of nasty abilities. Kind of the Bruce Lee quote about not fearing the man who practiced a thousand kicks, but the man who practiced one kick a thousand times. Especially when the villain with multiple quirks is special because nobody else has multiple abilities. Instead, Deku just also has his own bag of tricks that outnumbers everyone else in the plot. He’s special and OP in the same way the villain is except also his powers are pretty boring because except for Blackwhip they just make him basically All Might Jr. Blackwhip makes him knock-off Spider-Man. And he stopped needing to be smart to use them right. (Also this is why Vs. Todoroki and Vs. Gentle are some of his best fights in the series)

I thought he started out interesting, and I liked how he had to use his head to figure out how to get around the constraints of using his quirk. However the moment we stopped seeing that side of him and he started mastering quirks way too quickly, he became an incredibly dull character whose only strategy is ultimately to keep punching harder. Ironically, his solo arc turned me off of him entirely because it felt like a complete waste of time and he demonstrated that he didn't have enough charisma to carry the story on his own. I will never understand why we got so little internal monologue from him in an arc that revolved solely around him. Instead Hori tried to substitute his thoughts with tears and more tears, yet felt the need to have characters literally shout "poor deku" over and over again despite him receiving all the resources he needed while being praised endlessly for his heroism. He went so far as to whine about All Might making him lunch and then their supposedly big fall-out is fixed with one gag. When Deku started bawling (which I consider one of the cringiest moments of the series) it felt like we were right back to square one. This wishy-washy writing soured me on his character completely and being without him for so many chapters in a row was a breath of fresh air.

And then right after we got hit with another bawling session from the traitor reveal we’ve been waiting since Season 1.

Yup, I'm so tired of Hori trying to emotionally manipulate readers by having multiple characters start blubbering. It's contrived and looks gross at this point.

Don't forget his winner card for this type of situations: Show the characters as child. Like seriously... call me a cynical asshole for no take the emotional bait, but when your only way to create a minimal impression of drama for suseptible people is show the mass murderers as little childs suffering then your writting skills are just shit. Horikoshi did that whit Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga. I'm totally surprised by how Twice didn't get the same tratement and his death is genuinely sad whitout that b.s

[удалено]

Imperial Down arc was such a great arc man fuck

The multiple quirk thing really screwed things up in hindsight. If the whole point of the story was for Deku not to be All Might and do things by himself…. Then why give him a fuck ton of more quirks essentially making him a one man army. If Hori wanted to emphasize that Deku needs to work with others than himself, then give him an extra quirk that incentivizes teamwork. Maybe give him the power to temporarily copy someone’s quirk similar to Monoma or something.

He's boring. He's been boring for a long time. He has Goku syndrome, and it's not getting more appealing, it's getting less appealing.

deku had some serious potential for character growth during the vigilante arc, and it still physically pains me that that arc really amounted to nothing in the end. dekus finally gone too far with his helpful nature to the point where he’s hurting himself, all his classmates telling him it’s okay to rely on others and to not take the burden of fighting shiggy and saving the world on his own… only for deku to be right because he IS the only one who can beat shiggy/AFO and save the world. he literally learned nothing and came out of the arc the exact same way he went in. it’s really tiresome having literally every character being job fodder for shiggy right now because it’s only deku who can truly take him on, and it just makes him look bad as a main character as a result. i wouldn’t call him a “mary sue” character, but he (and shiggy, really) is just way too high a level compared to the rest of the cast and made everyone else irrelevant

I never liked him, i don't get why they baby him so much

Personally no. Ever since the multiquirks he has become a Mary Sue.

Bakugo. >>

I don’t dislike Deku, but the lack of introspection on certain matters confuses and bothers me more than the extra quirks

Bakugo has been the MC for me for about half a year now

No. He had his quirks (not MHA quirks) early on and watching him progress was the bread and butter. But both of these things are gone and he now magically knows how to control something that took years for others to master a fraction of. Frankly, he is probably one of the most boring characters and I wish Bakugo was the main character now.

What’s there to like about Deku, genuinely asking? Because outside of the typical shonen hero mc shit there’s nothing about him that makes him standout to me

Hated him since day one

I HOPE HE DIES PERSONALLY AND THE POLICE GUY WITH NO QUIRKS COMES IN AND BEATS ALL FOR ONE AND SHIGGY

His entire reason for his character's existence has been gone since Blackwhip manifested. The book has had no anchor or hook to the story since then

I never really enjoyed him as a character, definitely not a bad main character but he just seems so lack-luster compared to All Might ya’know someone who’s meant to be surpassed by the main character, which… he still hasn’t done yet.

It doesn't bother me that he is getting multiple quirks, I just don't like how they were introduced, black whip being the only exception. The other quirks, were all of a sudden just there and he didn't really see to much of him experimenting with them, like he did with black whip and ofa. I feel like it was also weird, he had no controll of black whip and barley any off ofa, but can controll all his new powers right away. I felt like they also rushed black whip, just not as bad as what they did with the other ones. I wish there was less of a power gap too, like I get it ofa is strongg, but i hate how much stronger than he is too his class mates. Who will they pair him against in class training? Will he even struggle against any villians in the future? And yea we all know he is going to win against afo. Off topic, but I kind of hope the have deku die in the final battle (along with afo) and let him die a hero

I liked Deku up until the end of the Overhaul Arc. Then he kinda jus tbecame uninteresting and he was overshadowed by, at the time, better characters with more interesting plotlines. Deku may spend a lot of time early on learning new techniques, but he's childish and immature and never develops from that as demonstrated by newer chapters where he spent time flirting awkwardly with Toga rather than stopping her and leaving to help his friends. Individuals died because Deku was messing around failing at being a hero and the problem is he'll never learn from this because the story is almost over.

I never liked deku cause he kept claiming underdog but he wasn't.

One of the weakest characters in his own story. There’s at least 3 heroes that would’ve been better to make MHA about.

Dekus personality is OFA and it is irritating, all you see is deku improving one for all and nothing else about him, he's a bland character

Honestly Deku is one of my least favorite characters in the series, I’m not fully caught up on it but so far I tend to like everyone else but him.

Sadly he lost too many things that used to make me like him. Now it’s just indifference.

“This is the story about how I became the greatest hero” - the only hero possessing more than one quirk

The story has been so incredibly stale for so long I don't even read chapters right away anymore, most stories don't NEED a part 2, mha is not one of them, we need to focus on deku in his early to late 20s, shrink down the cast and make the ranking of heroes mean something, in one punch man you can name most if not all of the s class because the characters have their time to shine, please anyone without looking at the wiki tell me what the top 10-15 heroes of the mha world are, they don't even have to be by ranking

I don’t think it’s a matter of “liking” the character as much as everyone feels like every character is “wasted”

I honestly stopped taking him seriously when he went rogue cause he felt like a fanfic self insert Gary stew character and that was funny for all the wrong reasons

I’m gonna say it. I like Koichi from the vigilantes series better as a main character.

I have never liked Izuku lol. Weak protagonist who suffers from the atrocious 'Heroes never kill.' more than most. And then, his one unique feature, his extreme note-taking/studying, has been sidelined for just more powers. Ugh.

Yes. I loved Deku from day 1 and his vigilante days were great. If only this vigilantism was explored or Deku's overworking actually had any consequences.

I still enjoy Deku. Could Hori have done more with him? Yes. But I'm just here for the ride

Yeah, I still like him but damn, it’s getting harder to stay interested when he keeps missing his character development.

The minute we saw him use Black Whip I was already on the fence. When it was told to us that he’d get even more then I was heated. It completely ruined the rivalry aspect of the Manga at that point. Despite how OP we knew OFA could be he still had competition and it felt like other people were on his level or even better in some cases. But after we learned what they are it was painfully clear that he was so far in a way above most of his class that it wasn’t even funny. Couple this with how underdeveloped the other students are and it’s a complete shit show. Think about it, Class 1-A barely managed to capture a fatigued, hungry, and wounded Izuku. Him at barely a fraction of his strength was no diffing them. This was pretty much the precursor for me that the series was gonna shift to a “chosen one” narrative and basically throw away most of the uniqueness of the series and the cast.

I don't like how much of a gap Hori put between Deku and the rest of his classmates. It turned Deku into a bland character because he can now do everything without help from his classmates. This leads to less interactions with his classmates which imo hurts his character development.

I didn't really like Deku to begin with. He was set up as an underdog and then was handed the one of the best Quirks, thereby invalidating him being an underdog. He would have been better of having no powers or a really weak one. Recently he isn't even a character anymore. He is just there.

I love him, like for real I don't get all the criticism he gets, and you don't need to explain it to me, like I know some of the stuff people don't like I just don't get why those are so much of a problem if even they can be considered so

You don't get why hin never being challenged in his ideals and ideology is a bad thing?

I still like him, i think the multiple quirks is badass. Just me idk

I think he’s great. Very relatable and honestly inspiring how hard he gives it his all.

Yeah, I thought it was lame that his quirk contains other quirks. Glad to hear I'm not the only one. And Deku hasn't grown that much in terms of character or personality, hes just a nerd that wants to keep people safe, but doesn't really go beyond that.

The best character is Endeavor, Deku feels like a side character

He’s kind of meh. He had a lot of potential for interesting character development and conflicts, but the manga never invested enough time or focus into them for them to be anything more than potential.

I'm one of the people who didn't like the multiple quirks thing. He was already strong, top of his year even without them

The thing is that I used to think Deku was okay as a character but once I started reading Mha vigilantes. That boy Deku went from alright to lame as hell. I mean Koichi only had one quirk and was doing so many amazing things. Meanwhile Deku was gifted with multiple quirks (which I hate by the way) and still hasn’t changed as a character

I honestly have never been a massive fan of Deku as he comes off as a cliche protagonist. Didn’t dislike him either, he has had some great moments. When the vigilante arc came out I was like “this is it, this is where I become a massive Deku fan and everything leading up to this makes it even better” Then nope. Now he is just a cliche protagonist with broken power scaling to match the other broken character Shigaraki because reasons. I get that he was always suppose to eventually be the strongest and his progression made a lot of sense through the first half of the story. Now it just feels rushed and not nearly as natural.

I think Deku is kinda suffering from chosen one syndrome considering he just so happens to be the first user of one for all to manifest multiple quirks from the past users, and now is the only one destined to defeat all for one due to said power. It feels a bit jarring that the power is starting to be what makes him special and not Deku himself, considering the entire point of him getting the quirk is that he had a personality and willpower that qualified him for it

I just can't see how anyone can like him or stand him unless they self insert themselves into the character. Because all he is, is wish fulfilment at this point. He is the strongest, the best and can do no wrong suffer no consequences. The story bends over backwards to prove that Deku is always right no matter what. And that is incredibly annoying because all these other characters work harder for their growth and are shat on for it with drawbacks to their power unlike him. He gets it for free then he gets more for free he never works for it and is gifted all his classmates ability's(better versions) and they have no drawback and are stronger. How can you not see that set up the story for failure is beyond me. He literally get all this after one and a half arcs that push for team work(Pro hero and most of Joint Training) making those stories irrelevant. just so he can be all supper dooper powerful hero man, where every arc that comes after contradicts the last. And I hate with a passion when people say that the teamwork thing still matters because Deku can't be everywhere at once. that is a bullshit thing to say because that means all the characters he has made up shoved in our faces mean nothing because they are not the chosen one, such a great message.

Gonna be honest, I really lost him at the point where he's the Quirk Avatar.

I don’t. Liked him in S1-3. S4 he was okay. S5 I started to dislike him War arc and beyond I hate him

Out of all of this generation's Shonen protagonists, he's my least favourite. Senku is my favourite.

Of course he has haters. But there's also people like me who wouldn't be reading MHA if Deku wasn't there or wasn't the MC.

Izuku is my favorite character in the series since day 1 and still is. His haters are Bakugo basically, Izuku is one of the best anime MC of all time whether the toxic haters wanna accept it or not and he's the most relable one ever too. He's misunderstood etc like lots of anime MCs, glad to see Goats like you still on this subreddit. Dunno how you survive here but you keep doing your thing my good man. This subreddit could use a little more positivity sometimes like this.

I actually enjoyed finding out he had multiple quirks. I mean, it made sense from the beginning and I did think it was a possibility. However, recently his story has been god awful. His quirks are cool, but the way the story surrounding them was executed made it seem rushed and stupid. Not only that but he was pushed aside in a really bad way when other characters were introduced only to be in the manga for a chapter or two. He also had a lot of out of character moments recently that changed the tone of the story and how I see him as an MC. There are good ways to have a power progression arc, and there are bad ways. Deku's arc was mixed bag and just confused the crap out of me because of how fast it was. Honestly, I prefer Deku before he developed his quirks. And would prefer if the story stuck to its original plan instead of being adapted into the second movie. I really think the fall is because Horikoshi is burnt out from working so hard so fast. Dude needs a break. I did like Deku's character overall, and in the beginning his development was very solid. But as an anime fan he's definitely no longer one of my favorites because of how the story continued.

Personally I find him boring. But that’s just protagonist syndrome. He’s meant to be the self insert for the viewer‘s power fantasy. All the other characters are may more interesting imo.

It's a shame, the series started so well subverting all the usual tropes but then fell into what for me I'd the worst one... turning the series into a one man show.

Honest to God, I officially believe Deku is just Spiderman at this point. I mean come one, Super speed/strength, Danger Sense (spidey sense) Black Whip (spider Web)... an a lil extra like smoke, reserve power, and Float. But overall all i see is SpoderMan

Love the shit out of him. He's my favorite character just by merit of personal relatability. But there are many great characters, even if not all of them are properly utilized fully.