Official My Hero Academia Guide Teases Ochaco’s Feelings for Izuku

While Izuku Midoriya and the fellow hero students of U.A. Academy have the threats of powerful villains and unforeseen catastrophes to deal with, part of the appeal of My Hero Academia has been seeing how Midoriya and the others grow as people in the meantime. This includes all of the normal issues kids deal with at high school, and it’s been teased that Ochaco Uraraka could potentially have feelings for Midoriya that have only been growing as the series rolls on. But a new guide book for the series gave fans another hint that this is indeed the case.

The recently released My Hero Academia: Ultra Analysis guidebook in Japan offers another hint that Uraraka is holding an unrequited love for Midoriya. As @aitaikimochi on Twitter points out, a statement from series creator Kohei Horikoshi on the matter reads, “Even though she’s sealed away her feelings for Deku, when her friends ask her about it, she gets flustered.”

The feelings Uraraka has for Midoriya have been blatantly teased by Horikoshi in the past. It’s pretty much seen as a crush, but there is also a hint that it could be something more complicated. As it seems like Uraraka might like Midoriya in that way, her resolution to keep her feelings down during the Hero License Exam seems to suggest that it might be more admiration than romantic love. She decides to hold those feelings back because she admires Midoriya’s drive to grow.

Naturally this will most likely be explored over the course of the series as fans don’t quite know how Midoriya feels about Uraraka either. He’s awkward around her, sure, but he’s awkward around many of the female characters in the series. He’s just an awkward person.

The two have yet to share an intimate moment that would suggest something along the lines of romantic love, and just might be in that admiration phase for one another. But this statement from Horikoshi confirms there are feelings there that fluster her, and that’s sure to fuel fan theories until the series confirms one way or the other outright.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. The much anticipated fourth season of the anime will be debuting on October 12th.