My Hero Academia is a manga/anime written by Kohei Horikoshi that follows the story of Izuku Midoriya, a lovable character finding his place in a world full of superheroes and supervillains. While this tale may center around Midoriya’s journey in becoming the number one hero, this blog will barely mention him. Instead, I will be focusing on the character Katsuki Bagukou. Midoriya’s bully in middle school and his rival in high school, Bakugou is hotheaded, easily angered, prideful, and, ultimately, my favorite character. Apparently, I’m not the only one who has found myself rooting for Horikoshi’s temperamental character. After both the US and Japan’s first popularity poll, Bakugou has managed to rise to the top and remain in first place, sometimes almost doubling the votes of the second place winner. How does this character, despite his dislikable personality, prove to be the audience’s favorite time and time again? We can find one reason through a single word: freedom. Psychologist watches, a channel on YouTube, explains, “Inappropriate behavior indicates an amount of freedom which many would like to have, so his [Bakugou’s] negative behavior shows an underlying in the freedom from social norms.” Looking at the context in a cultural sense, Japan is heavily collectivistic instead of individualistic. One must always act in a certain way to conform to the values held by this society; therefore, Horikoshi giving Bakugou an explosive attitude makes the character more desirable than hated.
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