Bakugou Katsuki

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Character
Name: Katsuki Bakugou (爆豪勝己, Bakugō Katsuki)
Occupation: U.A. High School
Relationships: Masaru Bakugou (Father), Mitsuki Bakugou (Mother)
Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia
Other:
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Katsuki Bakugou (爆豪勝己, Bakugō Katsuki), is a main character of the shounen manga and anime series Boku no Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi.

Canon

The show introduces Katsuki as Midoriya Izuku's predominant aggressor; previously childhood friends, the two had a critical break when it became clear that Izuku was Quirkless and Katsuki began to physically and verbally bully him. Though it's clear his main victim was Izuku, the opening scene shows him standing up for another child that's been picked on. Given Katsuki's low opinion of anything he deems "weak," it's implied that Izuku was not the only one to be bullied. When shown as teenagers, the rest of the class seems to have respect and an amount of fear for Katsuki, either as a result of his powerful Quirk or commanding personality; from this information, Izuku seems to be the only one at the end of Katsuki's ire.

Izuku also applying to UA infuriated Katsuki, enough that he said: "If you really wanna be a hero that badly, there's a quick way to do it. Believe you'll be born with a Quirk in the next life and take a last chance dive off the roof!" S1E1, Funimation

This quickly establishes the antagonistic relationship between the two but also provides the baseline for Katsuki's character development- and their rivalry- later within the series.

Katsuki's motivation for becoming a hero is to become the strongest, and ultimately rise to the position of No. 1 Hero. He is one of the top students in Class 1-A both in regard to combat and academics and won first place in the Sports Festival. Although his Quirk is undoubtedly an aspect of his success, he also possesses a strong fighting instinct, as well as a competency in hand-to-hand fighting. However, Katsuki often struggles with rescue work and public interactions due to his lacking bedside manner; this was made evident during his internship with Best Jeanist and the Provisional License Exam.

Personality

Katsuki is a proud individual, with an aggressive bearing and an almost-obsessive need to succeed. He has a superiority complex that was made obvious from childhood, but exhibits uncharacteristic self-doubt upon the retirement of All Might. Although his temper is extremely volatile, Katsuki shows atypical patience when in regard to his friends. He consistently scores high in the 1-A academic rankings, and is shown to be an intelligent and capable combatant and individual.

While not actively angry, Katsuki is blunt and goal-oriented, and dislikes mincing words or wasting time with trivialities and politeness. He cares little for the opinions of others and even called many of his classmates by made-up monikers instead of memorizing their actual names.

In stark contrast to his strong mind for combat and strategy, Katsuki often rushes into situations without fully thinking through the consequences. Whether because of his short patience or compulsive desire to succeed, he will disregard warnings from classmates and teachers alike in favor of his own instinct, with mixed results.

Quirk

Explosion: Katsuki's Quirk allows him to secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat from his palms and detonate it at will to create explosions. The more Katsuki sweats, the stronger his explosions become. He has a strong grasp of the versatile applications of his Quirk and is able to create explosions on an incredibly large scale (Howitzer Impact) or a very condensed, and thus more accurate scale (AP Shot).

Fandom

Katsuki is the deuteragonist of BNHA and has consistently been the most popular character in character polls. He is also one of the most divisive - see Controversy.

Pairings

Trios and More

  • Midoriya/Bakugou/Todoroki aka TodoBakuDeku
  • Kirishima/Bakugou/Kaminari aka KiriBakuKami
  • Kirsihima/Bakugou/Midoriya aka KiriBakuDeku
  • Kirishima/Bakugou/Kaminari/Midoriya

Less common ships

Tropes & Fanon

Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot is a tag commonly used in AO3, based on his often-foul language in the source material. Aside from his foul mouth (which is more canon than fanon), popular characterizations of Bakugou usually delve into tsundere tropes, and fan writers often write him as an 'asshole with a heart of gold', and protective of the very few people he does care about (usually whomever he's being shipped with).[citation needed] Another popular Bakugou tag on Ao3 that illustrates this is Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, which has 3,300+ works as of 2019.

Bakusquad

Bakusquad is the fandom's name for Bakugou's typical close friend group, which consists of Bakugou, Kirishima Eijirou, Ashido Mina, Kaminari Denki, and Sero Hanta. Fic and other fan activity also often differentiates between two major friend groups in class 1A: the Dekusquad--Izuku Midoriya's group--and the Bakusquad. Bakusquad may also refer to the poly ship between the group. The characters within the group are often shipped together in different combinations, whether or not Bakugou is involved.

Fanon 'facts'

For years now the name 'Ground Zero's has been widely accepted by the fandom as Bakugou's hero name. This is said to have come from the 'Bakushin-shi' in an early development sketch, which is often translated to 'ground zero' in English. Some fans also supported the idea of his hero name being 'Kacchan' as a parallel to Midoriya Izuku's hero name 'Deku'.

Canon has since jossed this headcanon by officially declaring Bakugou's hero name to be 'Great Explosion Murder God Dyna-might.' Some fics now use "DynaMight" as his hero name, while others reject that and continue to use Ground Zero. The new name has caused some controversy in shipping communities: Previously, "DekuMight" was Midoriya/All Might; now, some fans are using it instead of BakuDeku for Midoriya/Bakugou, and some of them are disturbed to find the mentor/student ship when they search the #DekuMight tag on Twitter or Tumblr.

Controversy

Katsuki is a controversial and polarizing character because of his aggressive behavior towards Izuku and others. His actions, behavior, and attitude make it difficult for fans to like him.

Arguably the largest BNHA fandom controversy is over the acceptability of BakuDeku as a ship, due to disagreement over shipping Midoriya Izuku with his childhood bully. Criticism of the ship is largely aimed at Baukgou, and rarely at Midoriya. The controversy is related to mixed opinions about Bakugou and his attitude, cultural nuances lost in translation, and misconceptions and disagreements about the extent and severity of their antagonistic history.[1]

There are differing interpretations of exactly how severe Bakugou's aggression is. When it comes to his physical aggression, there are questions of whether or not his violent behavior is played up for humor/drama by the narrative and how literally it should be taken. Part of the reason for this is the way bullying is viewed in Japan in comparison to the West. In Japan, bullying is not treated with the same weight as in the West; it is rarely brought up with teachers, and bullies often never face consequences. In the West, the narrative's subtlety of punishing Bakugo isn't good enough.

His physical aggression in the present may be considered more excusable, as all UA students often face violence and are generally able to defend themselves. When it comes to his bullying of Midoriya as a child, his actions may be more critically or may be dismissed because of the time that has passed.

When it comes to verbal aggression, supporters say Bakugou simply has a dirty mouth, and that his threats of violence are not literal, as is common with tsunderes. This is supported by the fact that some fan translations have been known to alter Bakugou's words to make his insults more extreme and humorous - many who read the translations were not aware that they were not canon, and this led to criticisms of inaccurate translations. More serious criticism points out the degree to which Bakugou's verbal bullying of Midoriya - which includes calling him useless, worthless, physical threats, telling him to kill himself, etc. - affected Midoriya. A sore point for critics is that Bakugou has yet to apologize to him in canon, or received any concrete repercussion for those actions. A common criticism, especially in more recent chapters, is the seeming lack of repercussions he's faced for his past actions. As mentioned earlier, however, this complaint is mainly from outside Japan.

Fans and detractors of both Bakugou and the ship frequently write meta and analysis of the characters and their relationship. They are often related to attempts to discern how much of perception about Bakugou and canon or widespread fanon, and how canon should be interpreted. On TV Tropes, he's listed under the negative tropes Designated Hero[2], and the Base-Breaking Character page for the entire show.[3]

There are also those who, whether or not they care about shipping or the narrative's treatment of Bakugou, simply do not enjoy the character, and are unhappy with his large popularity in the fandom. Fans may express discontent with how/debate over Bakugou dominates much of BNHA fandom.

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

Meta

Fanart

Zines

Challenges

Resources

References

  1. ^ Mythbusters: Deku and Kacchan Edition by osakakitty, March 2018
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
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