My Hero Academia: Is Mineta Actually a LGBTQ Character?

Is My Hero Academia's Mineta really a LGBTQ+ character? That's the question that a lot of fans are [...]

By Kofi Outlaw - August 3, 2021 02:04 pm EDT

Is My Hero Academia's Mineta really a LGBTQ+ character? That's the question that a lot of fans are asking right now, after reading the latest chapter of the series. My Hero Academia chapter 321 sees Class 1-A team up to save Izuku Midoriya from himself after Deku has gone slightly off the deep end with his obsessive pursuit of All For One.

This "battle" allows each member of Class 1-A to step up and shine with some impressive action and some heartfelt emotion about friendship. However, when it came to Mineta's moment, the love he expressed for Izuku has some convinced that My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi was revealing more about the character than it may initially seem.

The idea of Mineta being LGBTQ+ would be a major trip for a lot of My Hero Academia fans, as the little pervy boy has long been a lighting rod for the series.

Check out the debate about whether My Hero Academia Chapter 321 has made a big LGBTQ+ reveal about Mineta:

What Does "Love" Mean?

And a little trivia, Mineta actually used the word 惚れた (horeta) which is an expression used when saying they fell in love with someone 😂
— Deku’s Notebook (@redandblonde420) August 1, 2021

The whole debate about Mineta's LGBTQ+ status stems from the semantics of what you think this translation means.

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Monkey's Paw Turn

#bnha321 spoilers

Horikoshi having one of the male characters in BNHA confess his love to Deku, but having that character be MINETA is such a monkey's paw ass turn of events https://t.co/l9nn4bBLHf
— Minerva Pining Kelley (@doubleca5t) August 1, 2021

Yaoi stans have been waiting years to see some of the boys of My Hero Academia profess love for one another - but finally getting that moment from arguably the most sexist and pervy character in the series is, indeed, a "Mon

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Not What It Says...

Also, for those who actually wish for Mineta to be bi, this is not bi-erasure, and you can interpret it how you like.

However, Japanese fans did not interpret this line to be romantic (you can check 峰田 in Japanese twitter), so for this case I think platonic makes more sense.
— ☆オードリーAudrey☆ (@aitaikimochi) August 2, 2021

One of My Hero Academia's most prolific translators rebukes the idea of the words indicating something about Mineta's sexuality.

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Totally What It Says...

its actually not, the term he uses in japanese is exclusively used in romantic content pic.twitter.com/UKxyCfboeq
— dan (@kitykenni) August 2, 2021

For every translation, there is a counter-translation that claims there's only one way that Horikoshi could've possibly meant that word.

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This Is Going To Escalate

Kinda feel like more people need to see this before this joke turns into actual discourse
— SparrowWing ∞ JJBA arc (@SparrowWing137) August 2, 2021

However you view this translation, one thing is for sure: this isn't done being an issue.

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Twitter Funny AF

I know it's a mistranslation and all, but seeing Twitter eat this up is funny af
— Joichiro.S (@jean_kerwyn) August 2, 2021

In the end, this may be the truest statement of all. Twitter is a hilarious place.

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Mineta Trending

Mineta is trending with over 75K tweets currently pic.twitter.com/S12UNPa4mP
— Atsu (@Atsushi101X) August 2, 2021

If nothing else, this My Hero Academia debate is bringing more awareness to Mineta than the character has arguably ever had. And that's a good thing?

My Hero Academia releases new chapters FREE ONLINE weekly. Season 5 of the anime is now streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

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