In the world of anime, few things are more decisive than shipping. From shojo faves to shonen classics, romance finds itself into every anime whether or not it was intended. As you may expect, the discourse around shipping becomes more complex the bigger an anime is. And now, one star on My Hero Academia is asking fans to leave him out of the conversation.
The request was made on social media by Justin Briner, the English voice of Izuku Midoriya, and it went viral rather quickly. Taking to X (Twitter), the voice actor politely asked fans to keep any shipping questions away from his convention panels.
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“Kindly stop asking me about ships at my panels! It’s none of my business and it’s officially gone too far,” the actor shared.
“I’m not indicting any fandoms I’m parallel to at large! In general you’re very considerate and we have a lot of fun together. I’m certainly no stranger to the internet. The fandom space is yours. Involving myself in it is at best uncomfortable and at worst very inappropriate…. I can get in big trouble for these interactions and had to put my foot down, that’s all.”
As you might have guessed, well – My Hero Academia has a lot of ships. And we do mean a lot. The superhero series is a shonen at heart, and while it has touched on teenage crushes before, romance isn’t its focus. Still, the fandom is free to explore that genre at will. From Izuku x Bakugo to Shoto x Momo, there are tons of ships in the My Hero Academia fandom. None of the romances are canon, and for actors in the anime, things can get messy if they lean publicly towards any ship.
In the past, other big-time anime series have suffered from this kind of shipping frenzy. From Cowboy Bebop to Naruto, the list goes on and on. My Hero Academia is now big enough to support a thriving fandom filled with ships. But moving forward, try to keep anime actors out of the conversation.
Where do you land on shipping in the anime fandom? Let us know what you think over on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!
