My Hero Academia Teases Ochaco’s Deeper Feelings for Izuku

My Hero Academia has been the story told entirely in a flashback from Izuku Midoriya’s perspective about how he eventually becomes the number one hero, but he’s not the only focus of the series. Throughout its run fans have been introduced to all sorts of heroes and heroes in training, and Izuku has had all kinds of different relationships and connection to each one. But one that has fans the most curious has been the deepening connection between Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka following their initial meeting at the entrance exam.

While Uraraka has battled with her feelings at certain points in the series, the latest chapter of the series teases that her feelings have not subsided as much as she told herself they would as she’s been keeping a gift of his close to her at all times.

Chapter 253 of the series sees the girls of Class 1-A talking shop about Uraraka’s newest hero costume, and when Ashido grabs Uraraka’s compartment belt a small keychain falls out of it. Uraraka rushes to grab it before anyone sees, but Ashido quickly pieces together that it’s the same All Might keychain that Midoriya had gifted Uraraka during their Secret Santa gift exchange.

Ashido loudly proclaims that she “knew it,” in reference to the fact that she pinpointed Uraraka had a crush on Midoriya before they took on the Hero License Exams, but Uraraka tries to shoot it down. Instead, Uraraka says that she’s just “keeping it on hand” with a much different look in her eyes than she’s been portrayed with before.

So while Uraraka said that she would try to bury these feelings she had for Midoriya during the Hero License Exams, it seems that a part of her is still keeping this flame lit as they have moved much closer to the end of their first year. It’s still not a concrete confirmation that she still has feelings for him, but this could be the nugget that leads to something much larger later.

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. My Hero Academia will also be launching its second big movie, Heroes Rising, in Japan this month.