‘My Hero Academia’ Reveals A Surprisingly Touching Bakugo Moment

It was an emotional week for Class 1-A on My Hero Academia, and even Bakugo found himself dolling out compliments.

Warning Spoilers for My Hero Academia season 3 episode 18 are below!

After a stressful couple of episodes, all of Class 1-A managed to pass the first part of the provisional licensing exam — some with more ease than others. The would-be heroes ended up dividing into groups to get the job done, and this week, they met up in the ante room to see who else had made it.

Bakugo got through with the help of Kirishima and Kaminari, showing an unusual willingness to cooperate. Meanwhile, Midoriya teamed up with Sero and Uraraka, just barely making it into the top 100.

The series has traced a lot of growth in all the characters already, though Bakugo is generally the most hesitant to show he has matured. This week, however, a bit of his new mindset shone through as he encountered Midoriya with the rest of the passing students.

“You passed, huh? Deku, you damn bastard …” he said.

In his typical nervous, stuttering fashion, Midoriya greeted Bakugo as “Kacchan,” realizing as he did that Bakugo has been less cruel to him in recent arcs.

“Ever since Kamino, he’s come at me even less than before,” he thought.

However, Bakugo took it a step further than not bullying Midoriya — complimenting him on his massive growth as a hero.

“With the power you’ve got, it’s only natural,” he said. “You’ve made what you borrowed your own, huh?”

Midoriya was just as stunned by this praise as most fans seemed to be. The moment was a heart-warming reminder that Bakugo is not a static character, and that he is also growing into his role as a hero.

The exchange served another purpose as well — it reminded fans that Bakugo knows the origin of Midoriya’s quirk. In a flashback, Midoriya recalled telling him that One For All was passed down to him, and that he was determined to make it his own. Of all the people he could have told this to, Bakugo may be the most likely to exploit the information, but only time will tell.

No matter what, the moment elicited a charmed reaction from fans this week, who took to social media to marvel at the character development. On the Boku No Hero Academia subreddit, commenters pointed out that Bakugo may not have ever directly acknowledged another person’s strength before.

“The fact that Bakugo is finally directly acknowledging Midoriya’s strength is a huge development on Bakugo’s part,” one person wrote, “and Midoriya’s as well because it just shows how much he’s improved from that episode that was shown in the flashback. I’m really starting to like and appreciate Bakugo more now. He used to be one of my most hated characters in the show but now he’s truly grown on me.”

For those unfamiliar with Bakugo or My Hero Academia in general, the series takes place in a fantastical future where superpowers have become all but ubiquitous. It follows Izuku Midoriya through his education at U.A. High School for heroes, as he inherits the One for All quirk and attempts to become the world’s No. 1 Hero.

My Hero Academia simulcasts on Hulu and Crunchyroll in the U.S., with new episodes Saturdays at 4 a.m. ET.