My Hero Academia's number one fanboy, izuku midoriya, has lead fans through the entire series, but is he still keeping some secrets?
Izuku Midoriya, alternately known by his hero name of Deku, is much more than just a hero. He's a very well thought out Shonen protagonist, and he's undergone a whole bunch of character development since the show has started.
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Much more than just All-Might's pupil, Bakugo's rival, Ochako Uraraka's crush, or Tomura's one-day-worst-enemy, Deku is a living, breathing piece of fiction with tons of interesting facets. Here, we'll be digging into some facts that you probably didn't know about the ultimate hero of My Hero Academia, and as the show progresses, perhaps one of the greatest Pro-Heroes who ever lived.
10
Deku Was Intended To Be An Adult
Looking back at the early character art for Deku, it's clear that he was originally meant to be an adult, meaning that the entire school structure or My Hero Academia was an afterthought. This is particularly shocking since the school idea seems so well put-together, and it is, but only because Horikoshi decided later that a story set in that location would be a lot more interesting than the content of the original one-shot the manga was based on. Not only that, but Deku also had swoopy emo hair before, because manga likes doing that. Thanks, Sasuke.
9
Deku Went To Extreme Measures To Hide His Quirk
Deku needed not to have his quirk revealed, except to his closest friends when it was unavoidable, and to All-Might considering the Pro-Hero gave him the quirk and all that. When Deku registered for school in fact, all the official paperwork just listed a generic entry of Super-Power, so as not to draw any extra attention to the fact that he was the wielder of One-For-All. While this might have seemed like a good idea, isn't just not listing it like that a little suspicious?
8
His Place In Popularity Polls Has Dropped Over Time
When the show first started, a lot of the polls that were ran showed that Deku was the most popular character in the anime. As time has gone on, however, the rankings have generally changed.
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Deku has fallen to third place in the most recent polls, but as far as we're concerned, that isn't necessarily because Deku isn't a great Shonen protagonist, but because the show has so many rich and interesting characters, and a lot of the time, it doesn't exactly make Deku the main focus.
7
His Nickname Doesn't Have The Nicest Origins
Izuku Midoriya wasn't always Deku, but once he was, he wore the name with pride. Originally, the name Deku was a direct insult to him since he didn't have a quirk. It was originally given to him by Bakugo, who would call him Deku to liken him to a wooden training puppet, implying that all Deku was good for was getting beat up on. Eventually, though, he was able to get some clarification from Ochako Uraraka, who consoled him and explained that the name reminded her of Dekiru, which means "to be able to do", and he found power in the name.
6
His Real Name Is Full Of Puns That Tell His Story
A common trope in a lot of anime that doesn't quite carry over into the localizations is that pretty frequently these names refer to traits of the character through puns. This gets lost in translation but in the case of the name Izuku Midoriya, it pretty much outlines the entirety of his arc as a character. The name contains characters for "Green" and "Valley", implying his color. He also has the character Izu, which means something similar to "One's turn to go on". His whole name presents his adversity and explains that his path is to conquer it.
5
He Was Supposed To Stay Quirkless
Early on in the writing of MHA (or the prewriting to be more accurate), Deku was supposed to be quirkless.
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While this might not make sense in the context of the show since almost 80% of people have quirks, we see that this idea was still run with for a little while since Deku started without a quirk, and then after that, he was given perhaps one of the best quirks overall, known as One-For-All. Luckily for Deku, All-Might saw his good heart and his potential as a hero and decided he was worthy.
4
He Never Really Placed First In Much, Maybe For A Reason
Fans see time and time again in the series that Deku doesn't necessarily do the best in school. His scores assigned to how well he knew his quirk were extremely low, and there are still 5 parts of his quirk that haven't been revealed to the audience yet. While it may at first seem odd that Deku hasn't placed first in anything despite being in the top 4 of his grade, there could very well be a great reason for this. In the same way that Deku's quirk is concealed in the paperwork, he also probably did his best not to stand out.
3
He Has The Same Birthday As Ichigo Kurosaki
Another protagonist from a famous Shonen manga is the main character of Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki. In the same way that Deku originally didn't have a quirk, Ichigo wasn't initially anything special, essentially just being a highschooler.
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Over time, he grew into a great Hollow-slayer. Deku became an absolute legend of a Pro-Hero eventually as well. It makes sense that Deku has this birthday even though this birthday may have been an accident, but we prefer to assume that Horikoshi did this on purpose.
2
His Favorite Food Is Katsudon
As much time as we've spent with Deku, we don't know about him much from a personal standpoint. We see his battles, his interactions with his classmates and with fully grown heroes as he interacts with the pros, but little did we know, it's canon that his favorite food is a noodle soup dish known as Katsudon, made with a bed of rice, pork cutlets, eggs, and tons of other condiments that make for a really good dish that's immensely popular in Japanese cuisine.
1
He First Appeared In A One-Shot Comic
Jack Midoriya, a friendly retail salesman who specializes in Hero memorabilia, looks forward to the pipe dream in his head that maybe, eventually, he'll be able to be a hero just like his idols. 2008, in the winter issue of Akamaru Jump, a small one-shot comic that would one day grow to the stature of My Hero Academia. Jack becomes Deku and now he's an extremely promising young man, still dreaming of becoming a hero. After years and years of practice, the culmination of his wishes come true, and he reflects upon his past training to become who he is. There's the show fans all know and love!
