‘My Hero Academia’ Begins Bakugo Redemption Arc With Latest Development

One of My Hero Academia‘s more divisive elements is Katsuki Bakugo. Due to his attitude toward Midoriya, fans have been split over whether or not to “love” the character as much as the other favorites in the series.

But after his fight with Midoriya in the latest episode, the walls have started coming down as Bakugo heads toward his own redemption arc.

The fight with Midoriya revealed what Bakugo had been carrying around with him for the past three seasons. He was angry at Midoriya for becoming as strong as he did because when compared to his own growth, Bakugo had been lacking. This was made even worse when Bakugo put it together that All Might gave his power to Midoriya as well. Midoriya remained as one of the few reminders of his young life, and thus constantly reminded him of the weakness he was afraid of.

But the fight forced him to confront this feeling, and come to grips with his feelings of weakness. After being told through his entire childhood that he was a prodigy who could do anything, he had been frustrated in U.A. when he came across others who could do the same but better. His frustration is not entirely forgivable, but it’s understandable when it looked through his own perspective.

Bakugo had been carrying all of this alone, and because of his volatile front few bothered to get to the real root of his problems. But this fight brought him back down to earth as he was finally able to express all of this in his own way.

With a different drive to become stronger, and a more civil rivalry with Midoriya, Bakugo has started on his own path to redemption. Tossing aside these past frustrations, he has fully accepted his own weakness and will no be an even better hero than he ever could have been otherwise.

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 super 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 collected into 19 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.