My Hero Academia Fandom Reacts to the Doctor's New Name

My Hero Academia fans have been through a lot in the last few weeks. A couple of chapters ago, [...]

By Megan Peters

My Hero Academia fans have been through a lot in the last few weeks. A couple of chapters ago, fans were reintroduced to the doctor who helped bring All For One into power. The old man is set on helping out Shigaraki these days, but Pro Heroes have caught on. That is when the doctor's real identity was finally shared, but his name was met with international controversy. And after a short wait, the man seems to be going by a new name.

Not long ago, Viz Media updated its digital copy of chapter 259, and it was there fans saw the new name. The edit took away the name Maruta and gave the doctor the name Kyudai Garaki.

Over on Twitter, the official translator for My Hero Academia broke down the meaning behind this new name. The doctor's last identity offended fans given its ties to Japanese war crimes done during World War II. Even though creator Kohei Horikoshi stressed the connection wasn't done on purpose, My Hero Academia promptly changed the name after outcry was shared.

This name? It is not nearly as controversial as Caleb Cook puts it.

"Kyudai (球大) = ball + big (in same spirit as "round + fat")," Cook translated. "Garaki (殻木) = husk + tree (end of Shigaraki, instead of the start. Also, the "wooden" element is preserved through "tree")"

Basically, the name refers to the doctor as a fat round tree, but other fans have looked deeper into the name. Some online are connecting the name Kyudai to Kyushuu University which once performed human experiments on captured U.S. soldiers. However, given the ties of Shigaraki's name, it seems the fandom has mostly given approval to the name as you can see in the slides below:

What do you make of this new name? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in 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.

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