What other MHA ships should I talk?

I still can't believe people disliked her for wanting money for her family. Her motivation is literally for the sake of her family, but somehow people can't see past the first half of her explanation.

I love how the only reason Bakugo won against Uraraka in the tournament arc is because he didn't underestimate her, unlike most of the characters who were watching. He was fully aware of how strong she is and was prepared to fight back. It is a crying shame that Uraraka was diminished to be exactly what people mistakenly thought of her as the series went on.

"Questionable motivation" She was relatable as hell with her motivation. I liked Uraraka more when I found out she's just in it for the money. Like, being a hero is nice and all but you gotta eat, and have a family to feed if you have any. Uraraka had so much potential.....

her aspirations went from: "i want to help my family" to "deku is doing it so i will do it"

Honestly, this doesn't bother me that much for one reason: EVERYONE who is not Deku, Bakugou, or Todoroki gets the same treatment. Regardless if they are male or female, they will get their episode to shine and then never be useful again. It's kinda like how in Sonic everyone who isn't the blue hedgehog is completely useless.

Everyone who isn't Deku, Todoroki or Bakugo are completely sidelined which is wild because at the beginning it looked like everyone in the class was gonna get a fair share of story due to their various backstories, designs and personalities. Iida, Deku and Ochako being our wholesome trio is completely tossed aside because they aren't tragic enough characters and are 'too nice' when more could have been done with Iida trying to live up his family's expectations and protecting their legacy at an extreme degree and Ochako being at such a disadvantage as a poorer member of society making her have to do as they need so she can get even a drop of cash for her family. Once the manga shifted to becoming Keeping up with the Todorokis I completely dropped it.

The problem with her wasn't shipping but rather both her AND Iida Tenya (seriously dudes even more irrelevant to the story after the Stain arc than Uraraka) being shoved aside and replaced as Midoriyas 2 main classmates and companions by Bakugo and Todoroki. Honestly it felt like the author decided to just swap the 2 of them out for the already established to be stupidly strong classmates rather than bother to try and build them up to the big leagues of power scaling. It also didn't help that the sheer popularity amongst the fans Tsuyu had kept getting her bigger and bigger roles in the story that would have otherwise gone to Uraraka

unfortunately this doesnt only apply to uraraka, but pretty much all the characters who arent deku, shoto & bakugo will have their "star moment" and will later just be left to rot in the sidelines (ex: mirio, iida) and dont even get me started on the girls .. they're lucky to even get a standout moment .. nejire is one of the biggest examples of this (and honestly one of the biggest missed opportunities in the show). while the boys have melodramatic & intense arcs about self-sacrifice, nejire's "arc" is about winning a beauty pageant. it starts to become funny at a certain point

I've said it years ago and continue to say it again. I'll forever miss Sports Festival Uraraka. Peak of her character, truly earned mine and Bakugou's respect that day.

It's not just Ochako that got screwed over. For example The Big 3. We know about Mirio and Tamaki backstory goals and why they have their Hero name. We don't know anything about Neijre other than she's apart of the big 3, her hero name "Neijre-chan" , and she works with the dragon hero.

She turned from caring about her family, goals and education To only thinking about Midoria.

One thing regarding Toga that I find strange is the fact that she was paired up with Uraraka as a "dark reflection" or whatever, when I have always seen Toga as a dark reflection of Deku funnily enough. She is someone who had to surpress her true self and be cast out by society because of who she was. Because she never received any aid, her fascination with blood which stemmed from her quirk, became a psychotic obsession. She became a villain due to circumstance because of how she was born and a society that wouldn't help her. Deku is similar in that sense where he got cast out because of the circumstances of his birth. The difference is that he ended up getting help and set towards a path of becoming a hero instead. If we would remove the part of him meeting All Might, Dekus backstory is for all intents and purposes a villains backstory if anything, and I could see him ending up similar to Toga because of that. But that's just my read on it at least. At least it makes more sense to me than Toga being a reflection of Uraraka tbh

I'll admit, as much as I like IzuOcha, I much prefer the fanon interpretations of it over canon. Fanfic writers really go above and beyond when exploring Ochako's character and giving her lots of development, while still HAVING a crush on Deku that doesn't interfere. Edit: A few of you have asked me to include some of my favorite Ochako-centric IzuOcha fanfics so I'll put them here: "Drops of Jupiter" by SingingCookie "Missing" by Encyclopika "The Emerald Ghost" by MHA Fics by LK (LK713) There are of course plenty more but these are my top three. Hope you all like them. I certainly did.

FINALLY. She was one of the few female charecters in anime that I genuinely liked and enjoyed even respected. But then the moment with Ayoma happened and I felt that sense of dread. That everything about her and every important moment to her charecter will most likely be deku related and it crushed me. She still had few moments to her but she doesn't feel near as wholesome and independent as the beginning of show. Her journey became at least 90% deku related and it breaks my heart.

I feel like uraraka actually had a good motivation, she wanted to support her family with the money she earns but later on in the series, her motivation just became about supporting deku achieve his dreams and 'make deku notice her'

Addressing how bad Shonen writers are at creating good female characters made me feel like I wasn't insane anymore. Like I've always felt like something was off, but as a beginning writer, I couldn't really explain it. So my faith in anime has been brought even lower again, thank you so much!! Edit: where did all these likes and comments come from?? 👁👁

I think the main problem with love interests in battle shounen, is that that the MC gets the safest and most boring love intrest, so even if the mangaka can write female characters, the love intrest themselves will be sidelined for more intresting characters as the story goes on. As overdone as tsundere trope is in other anime, that trope lends itself for tragic backstories and easy character development.

The worst part is there was literally so much potential for urarakas character, it could've delved into her motives of becoming a hero for the money and explore the concepts of privatization/heroes for profit, how heroes can serves as a business being exploited/and or manipulated by their employers. We could see maybe uraraka be swayed to do something morally questionable in order to get money, and even involve stain and other characters ect and allow her to have self reflection on hero society and the hero system, decide what her protiorites really are, and give her a really awesome character arc with great development. There were really so many ways hori could've gone with her character.

I remember being so frustrated during that time where the meme "every girl is Best Girl" was going around talking about MHA. Because yeah, every female character had a lot of potential, and I could see how each and every one of them could shine. Yet somehow the story kept finding ways to sideline them constantly. And no-one got hit harder by that syndrome than Uraraka.

Shipping wasn't really the problem with Uraraka, in fact it's one of the only ships on the show that actually makes sense and has canonical material. I think what really hurt characters like Uraraka and Iida was the rise of Todoroki. His entire family conflict becomes part of the main plot, and thus giving him a large amount of screentime in most arcs became obligatory to advance his storyline. The original "Power Trio" of sorts was Deku/Uraraka/Iida, with Bakugou as the rival. But when Todoroki gained the focus he did and Horikoshi established him/Deku/Bakugou as the new Big Three, Uraraka and Iida got completely pushed by the wayside. The abundance of shipping moments feel more like the product than the cause, as they're easy to squeeze into the story without dedicating too much time to it.

Uraraka really feels like she has basically disappeared from the story. She's here to remind us about the ship; but I've honestly gone whole story arcs of this series forgetting they were even an eventual author's planned ship. Like; I almost feel like Toga is in the story at this point to remind us that Uraraka is into Deku lol

a lot of characters get sidelined in my hero, but it stands out so much with ochako because of her crush on deku like you said. momo, mina, tsuyu, hagakure, jiro aren't canonically shipped with any of their classmates so they still feel a lot more fleshed out because they're focused on their goals rather than blushing over a boy. and that being said, it feels totally weird that she's so shy and blushy around him, i feel like it should be the other way around. ochako is outgoing and nice and friendly while deku is the more timid one so i feel like deku should be the one more aware of her?? if that makes sense

one of the most frustrating moments in the show for me personally is yaororozu’s liscene test. she falls into a leadership role, that’s great! it makes sense! and then when she’s backed in a corner, she thinks “what would these three male characters i’ve barely talked to do?” and she realizes, she has to save everyone instead of prioritizing getting her liscense. WHAT? you mean to tell me YAOYOROZU wasn’t already trying to stop tsuyu from FREEZING TO DEATH? we already went through her lack of self confidence and believing in herself but the solution to her big moment is thinking what would deku do. and it WORKS.

Rather than shipping love interests, uraraka should have gone into literal shipping. She'd make WAY more money for her family working in logistics moving things than as a hero. I understand people willing to get paid terribly and suffer to help innocent people and protect the public but if her motivation is just to earn money for her family she didn't think through her quirks utility.

Finally, this topic needs way more discussion

She’s one piece in an entire puzzle that points out the main issue of MHA: anyone who isn’t Deku, Bakugo or Todoroki are thrown into a box labeled “cheerleaders”. No one can do anything unless they give one of the big 3 a pep talk about how they’re the coolest and strongest and smarterest gigachad alive

I was hyped when even Bakugo said calling her weak is a mistake. That character assassination hurt me even more😢😢 I also like how you also dismantled the ''rivalry/nemesis" with toga

If two characters are going to get together, that should be more reason to give BOTH of them better development. It'd be one thing if Ochako fell out of the limelight altogether, but it quickly gets old if she keeps getting pulled into the story just for shipping and nothing else.

This is what they call "Demoted to Satellite Love Interest." At one point, Japanese readers considered Ochako a worse shonen heroine than even Sakura. Why would she be some nervous admirer from afar (another Hinata basically) when it makes more sense for Deku to be that way (like he was in the beginning)? And this author had more interesting main heroines in his previous works so what happened? It feels like he made more "stock" characters like the nice love interest because that's what editors would say their readers like.

As an OG Izuocha fan, their relationship instantly grabbed me BECAUSE it was so refreshingly simple (I was already invested in other “Rivals/Enemies to Lovers” ships, queer and straight-passing, in other fandoms, so a little vanilla was exactly what I needed). There was no harassment at first sight, no history, no excessive nervousness around each other to the point of killing the chemistry… For a Shounen, it looked like a stupidly easy set-up for a great friendship and, even though it didn’t have to be, a sweet romantic relationship that mutually benefited both characters. At least there’s fanfiction to cope with the disappointment!

Imo, Dekaraka is a really sweet couple, of two characters that can really complement each other - but the writer just handles this relationship horribly. They should have time to develop slowly, as Deku builds up his confidence, and have Uraraka slowly make advances on him, taking the lead by being the more outgoing person of the two, and thus building their crush on each other, maybe giving them sweet moments together. Instead, they just make Ochako be a fangirl and blush everytime Deku's even mentioned, while Deku is just being like "ooooh cute girl is cute that girl sure is cute she is nice to me and really cute". It's a horrible representation of what teenage romance actually is like, and a terrible waste of potential for the characters and their setting.

I think there are three main issues with Uraraka: 1) Shounen as a genre doesn’t care for female characters at all. Like, legitimately, female characters are either played off as strong b*tches or as side characters serving romantic plots. There usually isn’t any in-between and I think it’s because male writers from the genre typically don’t know how women think and so just write them in for realism and to have romance arcs. They try too hard to make a “woman” character and fail at making a real character because of it. Women are a lot like men, and all it really takes to write one realistically is to write them like any other character. 2) Horikoshi doesn’t care about any character that isn’t All Might, Aizawa, Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Endeavor, Shigaraki, and Dabi. He legitimately has given almost no REAL screen time to anyone else, unless it’s some generic backstory without much detail or a side-fight that isn’t interesting at all. Like, we barely know anything beyond surface details about most of Class 1-A, and even Deku’s main love interest, Uraraka, has gotten basically no real screen time since the first few episodes. And by that I mean screen time that furthers the character and adds depth to her. You can’t just rush through the story in less than one canonical school year and then TELL me that the characters have developed; you needed to SHOW me. And that’s why Uraraka’s bs development arc that we see when Deku returns to UA is just too little, too late. It’s just a pity that Horikoshi created so many interesting characters and a school system that last three whole years, only to rush us through with minimal character interactions within one school year. 3) I’ve seen it time and time again and it just makes me angry here with IzuOcha. Horikoshi tried so hard to make them look like a preordained couple to ward off any other ships that he made it feel forced and unnatural. Instead of developing the ship naturally and just writing them as a dynamic, he instead injected cringy awkward romance into basically every interaction they ever had, which made the ship just feel cringy and awkward as hell. I actually began kinda hating Uraraka around the Summer Training Camp Arc because I got tired of seeing her obsess over Deku and act so idiotically. There’s a reason why Bakudeku and Tododeku (as cringe and toxic as the first one is) both outrank IzuOcha in terms of popularity, and there’s also a reason why Deku is regularly shipped with characters like Jiro and Momo and even Toga in such large droves. It’s because Uraraka is a largely static and unnatural romantic interest. When every meaningful interaction of theirs is so full of awkward crush energy, it takes away from any natural chemistry or feeling that the audience might have felt between them.

The worst part of her getting reduced to a love interest is that she doesn't even get to have cute rom-com moments with Deku because they're not actually in a relationship she's just the boring as crushing trope. I can't wait to see them together in one panel in the final chapter.

One thing I have thought after I watched this video was that how Three Musketeers and Three Amigos combined could've gave us a great Five Man Band trope: Deku - Leader Bakugou - Lancer Uraraka - Heart Todoroki - Big Guy Iida - Smart Guy Like THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO SIDELINE IIDA AND URARAKA, this hurts me so much ngl.

It also happened to Haru from Beastars. Even if she was set up from the getgo to get with Legoshi, that became her entire character and all her agency and plot relevance was stripped away.

Really glad people can actually talk about this problem with writing in shonen. It's so tiresome and it's one of the most obvious problems...

It's really sad to me because I actually love how Izuocha was set up as a ship. It was super cute, and you can never go wrong with friends to lovers. At that point they were both rounded characters with decent screentime who were also friends who liked each other quite a lot, and that's wholesome and good. But the longer the series goes on, the less screentime Ochaco gets, and the less of a person she becomes. It's tragic to me.

No offense to the Ochako lovers who love her character even now, this is just my opinion But I've always felt like that for years. I loved Ochako at the beginning of the series, and still found her small crush on Deku cute in season 2 and was rooting for them, because she wasn't only defined by _that._ But imo, it just got worse ever since season 3...

I remember how pissed I was when (Season 6 spoilers) Ashido got screwed over from giving the 'final' blow to Gigantomachia and instead her big character moment was taken by Red Riot. Who already had a big character moment. I can't believe that Alien Queen was so badly done that episode.

urarakas love really does feel one-sided, her entire personality, motivation and story started to just revolve around Deku, even when he isn't there, there's not a single scene in mha after the sports festival where she's alone and not thinking about Deku while in dekus mind uraraka is nothing but a cute girl who he blushes from when she's close, never in a major fight scene will you see Deku thinking about uraraka

Same shit happened with Mirio being used as a foil to propel Deku's growth. He's established as the top student and already on the level of pro heroes. He looks goofy but is capable of taking out class 1-A with ease using his quirk. His super strong quirk was also extremely difficult to use but he learned to master it. Then it's revealed that he would have been the one to receive One For All because of Sir Nighteyes recommendation. He wants to save a million people he's jacked, he's like a mini All Might. And then he gets shot with a quirk erasing bullet saving Eri. After he's shot he goes on to prove that you don't need a quirk to be a hero. Deku's whole initial character revolved around the question of whether you need a quirk to be a hero. And Mirio's sacrifice meant fucking nothing. Deku gives as much as fuck as the writer because this doesn't matter to him. Mirio gets put in the background until the final arc roles up and he got his fucking quirk back off screen. Then it gets revealed in a flashback that Eri learned to control her powers and gave him back his quirk. His sacrifice still mattered because he didn't know that he would ever get his quirk back but it was such wasted potential. Imagine a scenario in which Deku questions if needed One For All to become a hero. Or he just decided that Mirio truly deserved it and tried to convince him to take it. Both of these are far more interesting than Deku beating Overhaul and just moving on to the next arc. If you're going to dedicate other characters to develop your main one at least use the opportunities your given.

It irritates me that supposedly 20% of the population is Quirkless. And yet, through the entire show... we see two Quirkless characters. Both of whom end up acquiring the world's most powerful Quirk. By the show's own 20% rule, of the at LEAST 100+ characters we've seen... 18 more of them should have been Quirkless. And yet... No. Deku has to be Special.

here's your daily reminder, that Uraraka's motivations aren't just about money. sure it's part of it, but her main motivation is actually to see people smile. as she explained she never really looked at heroes, but at the smiles on the people around them ,and that's what made her choose to be a hero.

when 12 year old me watched the first two seasons of mha, i was HYPED. ochaco was my favorite by far, and i was so excited as a young girl who loved shounen anime to see a female character who actually HAD character beyond being the main character’s little gf. i could see myself in her, i’ve always wanted to get a good job to support my mom just as she’s supported me. i’m the same as you, i could take or leave ochaco and deku, but it didn’t matter to me. ochaco was a character beyond her romances, so whether she got with him or not was irrelevant. until it wasn’t. season three came out, and ochaco was pushed aside. it’s okay, i thought. i liked todoroki as a character as well so i was fine w him getting more spotlight. i thought it would just be for that arc, that deku would return to his origin friend group with iida and ochaco. season 3 kind of put me off the series, and at that point i was kind of growing out of my MHA phase anyway. season 4 was the final nail in the coffin. i couldn’t even finish it. any character that wasn’t shoto, bakugou, or deku got little further development regardless of the groundwork that was laid down previously for it. ochaco disappointed me greatly. i was SO excited to see a female hero that was actually badass, could do things, even had a morally questionable motive. someone i could imagine to be a real person. a woman i could see myself in. it was all ripped away as she was watered down to what most female shounen characters are from the jump. a love interest that doesn’t do jack shit for the plot except give the MC a motive to fight. so saddening. unfortunately she’s not even close to the only wasted potential in this series. yk, as notorious as the fandom was, the beginning of the show was actually good. too bad it didn’t live up to the expectations it established previously.

something that I saw on twitter that made me even more annoyed by this is that someone actually went through and recorded how many interactions that Todoroki, Bakugou and Ochako had that were about Deku or revolved around Deku and Ochako had the most numbers. they also went in and looked specifically for more interactions between Ochako and other classmates, from what this person discovered, Ochako barely interacts with most of her classmates outside of Tsuyu, Iida and a few others as if she's being purposely isolated from other characters I used to love the Izuchoa ship but the more I see it and seeing just how much it's reduced her character to the classic love interest trope. I've found myself no longer enjoying it because it no longer had the solid foundation it had in the beginning. it had just become the classic "FMC loves MC and blushes about it all the time but MC is too focused on other things to the point where the romance feels so one sided"

i absolutely loved uraraka at the beginning. sadly, as i kept watching the show, her fierce determination and her values watered down to “i want to save people, anyways, where’s deku?”. it breaks my heart because she was so great, and now i see her and just see wasted potential.

To be fair, I don't think Ochako's presence would have changed Stain's mind as he is totally radicalized. Ida's family by all accounts seem to be pretty stand-up despite the fact that they get rich off it, and Stain still targeted them. If anything, he probably would have been MORE pissed at her for her outwardly monetary motivation for heroing.

Uraraka became exactly what I thought she would from minute one. Everything from her design to the way the story treated her like an afterthought, even in scenes that were supposed to be focused on her (with a few exceptions, admittedly), never gave me any reason to believe she would end up as anything better. Admittedly, nothing prepared me for just how quickly the writing overall dropped in quality, I was just less surprised about her.

I honestly wish Ochaco and Tenya were involved more. I loved that friend group dynamic and it's so sad to see it isn't being used when they had such good chemistry. The characters bounced off each other more and had interesting stories, but nah, we need a girl to be useless and blushy for a the main character and we gotta stuff the fan favorites in more.

There's this essay on AO3 called "why do non-canon ships become so popular" that, among other ships, touch upon UraDeku and the general problem of women in Anime and shonens. Also people like to harp on the MHA shipping fandom and how it's "toxic" but it's all bollocks.

I think Uraraka's problem is an extension of the bigger problem within MHA of the girls being set up for failure. MHA is a battle shonen. the focus will be on the action, and that is non-negotiable. so the spotlight roles in the cast will _always_ belong to the people with the coolest looking quirks to fight with. Iida gets shafted by this a bit as well actually... all he does is run fast. all it looks like is Iida... but fast. that's nothing compared to fire, ice, explosions, Mega Super Punching... you name it, it'll look cooler than Uraraka hovering. and not only do the spotlight roles go to quirks that are visually interesting, but also quirks with a clear linear progression for growth. if you're training your fire/ice quirk, it's pretty intuitive to imagine what growth would look like... to increase your power output while decreasing drawbacks like overheating or freezing. and you can get inventive with how it's used, too... you can build barriers with ice, destroy things with fire, use either one to aid in mobility or change terrain, and you can use either one of them at close, mid, or long range. you literally cannot say half that stuff about basic anti-gravity... what meaningful thing could Uraraka hope to improve about the way her body produces the effects of her quirk?? my point is that broadly, the boy characters snap up all the flashy, interesting, versatile quirks with whole character arcs built right in, which practically write themselves... and as a bonus, they also get implied durability. you know how Bakugo should be exploding his own limbs off with half the shit he does? well... we routinely watch as he doesn't. so you can assume that Bakugo himself has the durability to withstand using his highly destructive quirk, at what is essentially point blank range for him. so if someone else's attack hits him, you can expect him to tank a certain amount of damage. compare that to people with weaker quirks, who intuitively feel like they'd be more fragile on the battlefield because their quirk doesn't _require_ durability from them as a baseline. and to be fair, yes, they do attempt to show how someone might be damaged by the power of their own quirk with Deku... but it's all played for drama with him, because it is unusual for someone to grow up with a quirk and not be able to withstand what it does. and the _whole point_ of his progression when training to be able to receive One for All, is that he's becoming more and more durable in record time. it's literally acknowledged! the idea that durability against one's own quirk is thrown in as a freebie for a lot of the more destructive abilities that we see people have in MHA, is literally in the text! that's right... we watch as the narrative textually grants Deku his implied durability factor. past a certain point, you would never expect Deku to, say, sprain his ankle, or pull a random muscle in his shoulder, or break a leg from hitting the ground too hard after a jump, and have to actually think about the consequences of sustaining mundane injuries... we're suspending our disbelief for him to some degree. the video even points out that, when Uraraka gets incapacitated at one point, that would not have stopped Deku if he'd been in the same situation. Deku gets main character recovery privileges because he's special and has to be the solution to all the conflicts that are important to his character. but none of the girls get to have this same benefit. but I mean... is this the cause of their irrelevance, or a symptom? are they irrelevant because they don't have good abilities, or do they not have good abilities because the author never meant their characters to be used for anything important? look at what the girls can do... creating objects, sound manipulation, invisibility, levitation... frog? it's all powers that you either can't see, or that isn't very visually transformative... at least not on a large enough scale to be interesting. Tohru's power is literally being invisible, how much more spot on could it get?! Uraraka's ability has no visual element of its own, and therefore can't produce visually iconic moments for her character... Jiro's whole quirk is literally auditory and not visual... Tsuyu's power is basically just her body and whatever it can naturally do... actually, Sero's quirk is comparable to what Tsuyu can do with her tongue dexterity, but his quirk is actually way more versatile for doing the same thing, and she's not as strong, fast, or durable as the people with quirks that specialize in those areas specifically. Momo could have the most impressive quirk of the bunch, but she inexplicably has zero weapons training. somehow she got into UA by recommendation, because she supposedly always wanted to become a hero, plus her family has the financial resources to get her all the extra tutoring or training she could ever want... and yet she doesn't even make things that often during battle, nor does she know how to use a variety of stuff that she could be creating on short notice. if she had a repertoire of different weapons that she was trained in using, she'd at least have a solid baseline of ideas for what to equip herself with, and that'd give her enough time to think and get creative. a lot of her greatest combat potential gets left on the cutting room floor. but like... _all_ of their powers are soft, defensively squishy magic type abilities. Tohru is stealth based, Tsuyu is dexterity, Jiro's a glass canon... you get the idea. none of them are the kind of damage sponge that, like, _ALL_ of the boys get to be as a rule, based on what their abilities do. so if anyone was wondering why people might be disappointed in the girls in MHA, despite there being more of them than most shonen titles will include, and despite them seeming like a huge step up from the likes of Naruto, or similar titles from that era... it's this. MHA still leans into a general idea of gender roles, where men are strong and robust, while the primary job of women is to be cute or pretty, and then they can also be sorta strong as a secondary trait when the plot allows for it. the literal canonical biology of the characters supports this concept. or, if we're looking at it from a meta angle... people will often call out Deku's rare quirklessness, and his subsequently being chosen by All Might himself, as a slightly contrived setup for a zero-to-hero underdog narrative. so... if we're willing to examine the meta of why certain people do or don't have power in the story, because we understand that as an author decision... then what about this trend amongst the girls? even in the case of the series' many monster girls, like the snake girl, or the dragon lady, or Froppy herself... their entire quirk centers around having an unusual physical appearance. their character design is their quirk. compare this to the boys with unusual appearances... Tokoyami has his bird appearance, but he _also_ has dark shadow. he gets a strange appearance, but _also_ an ability. or look at Shoji... his multiple appendages can manifest different body parts like eyes, ears, or mouths, and he can use his appendages all together in order to glide. once again, his appearance is weird, but he also has, like, a limited shapeshifting ability on top of that. and then on top of the girls having less fun abilities... Uraraka's isn't even capitalized upon the way it could've been. if she had some form of propulsion built into her suit, she could basically have a limited type of flight, sort of like Shoji. Uraraka already has the lift part covered, and we see her repeatedly struggling when she's floating and hasn't given herself enough momentum to move. she literally could've requested this when she saw Deku request upgrades to his own costume! it even could've been inspired by her seeing Deku think about how to improve in this way! instead, we see her agonize over Mei giving Deku attention. the narrative doesn't even do her any favors.

Thank you for this video because I have always been a Uraraka defender and it really sucks to see her own creator sideline her this way. I even wrote a whole fix-it femslash fic retelling the events of season 4 because of how little the story focused on her. It's truly a shame.

I legitimately lament that we never got an arc that had Izuku, Ochako, and Tenya doing hero work together. Would’ve been fun to see them work together against a villain. Closest thing I’ve got to that fix was Heroes Never Die Its Hero Time when it adapted the Stain arc. Now some context, Heroes Never Die It’s Hero Time is an au where Izuku got the Omnitrix while Ochako gets One for All. When it got to the Stain arc, Izuku decided to go with Gang Orca while Ochako went to Gran Torino. It later leads to Ochako getting involved with the battle. against Stain Other than that I do wonder how Izuku’s classmates from Middle School feel about seeing him actually get to U.A. Also imagine what kind of friend dynamic there’d be in a friend group consisting of Izuku and Ochako, Zenitsu from Demon Slayer, Karma from Assassination Classroom, Megumi from Food Wars, and Kirby

THANK YOU for so long I've hated ochako for just being another "girl" character or "crush" because she dose actually have goals and aspirations *and* is actually really strong. But then she just has all her good traits have been put on the sidelines for a crush that is destined to go *nowhere* Edit: AND ANOTHER THING! her and toga being foile characters is amazing representation!....IF they didn't both not only have a crush on deku but also (canonically!) Toga has a crush on ochako....so ochako is ruined on both ends by?... CRUSHES!

I have a pretty much the same idea as yours on Uraraka's character. I really, really loved her in the early MHA. When she started to develop a feeling for Deku, I still tolerated it. But damn, what a downhill her character development has became. In my perspective, Uraraka changed her goal being a hero from getting money to help her parents to a hero who wants to save other heroes is just her coping mechanism to mask her true feelings and love for Deku. She doesn't want that feeling to interfere her career as a hero by turning that feeling into a "heroic" way. Yet she doesn't realize that her new goal is exclusively for Deku, as you said in this video. I hoped she just confess to Deku during the School Cultural Festival arc but Horikoshi decided to not do it.

I love izuocha but I think at this point it would be an more fitting ending if she actually moved on from her crush, the ship just feels one sided half the time even if we look at it from undertones and if Midoriya did somehow like her the story dragged it out too much that if he suddenly had a revelation like "oh I'm in love with her"it would just feel rushed,and I think she deserves better than to have that, Ochako overall just feels more interesting when her charecter doesn't focus on the romance part tbh Izuku and her are just better off as friends. And about Uraraka's own charecter I liked her sweet and bubbly personality, she started out as someone who only wanted to help her parents by earning money,but she soon changed that to wanting to help whoever she could after getting inspired by Izuku, I liked her dynamic with Toga because Toga questioned and challenged Ochako and her ideals in general,and that worked I want to see where she continues from here on forth If the author does intend on making Izuku x Ochako canon it just needs more development that's all I'm saying I don't mind the ship by itself I just feel like it needs to be fleshed out more so I'd prefer if the story left it open-minded or ambiguous if it won't have a sequel

OK K.O did the "making sure every character felt like the hero in their story" approach way better...IN LESS EPISODES THAN THIS.

I feel like Lila from Hey Arnold! was a character who had the depth in her first episode, but then had it all wasted by becoming Arnold's crush (and thus a target for Helga's ire) for most of her remaining appearances of any relevance. It says something that the remaining episodes and the two movies after Arnold gets over his crush on her she doesn't even speak.

I think that Uraraka's crush on Deku could still work yet not be detrimental to her development since Hori is trying to contrast Uraraka's puppy love for Deku that inspires her to better herself vs Toga's yandere obsessive love that selfishly want Deku, Urararka, and Asui to accept her despite her crimes. But let's face it, Hori can't write romance for shit. He can't at least let Deku and Uraraka team up more often like some other shonen at least attempted (I stumbled on some Deku/Uraraka fanart where they work together stopping robbers and it made me realise they barely got team ups post crush) There is also how she doesn't get to interact with Deku's other guy friends much. She NEVER interacts with Shouto who is firmly part of Dekusquad post Stain smh but Shouto often interacts with Iida. I don't think she even talk much with Bakugou post their match despite gaining the gremlin's respect.

I honestly disagree when people say her fight against Bakugou was a subversion of shonen tropes. To me it was a BAIT of a subversion. Why? Because for all her determination and effort, the author didn't allow her to land a single hit on Bakugou. Honestly, ONE scratch would be enough to make the point, to actually give the narrative of "there's nothing fragile about her" have true pay off. In the end, she is rendered as ineffective as any damsel in distress, but with the fact she actually tried and failed making the whole situation even more bitter, in my hones opinion. What is worse, the fact she does (apparently) gains Bakugou's respect has no follow up, as the two barely interact in any meaningful way after the fight as Ochako gets shoved into the background. Now, imagine if the two of them could actually become friends and maybe have a rematch? Oh the dream...

So nice to hear someone else articulate how I've been feeling about Ochako for a while now. And like, I'm sorry, when Deku is having mutually respectful, impactful and meaningful interactions with the likes of Shoto, or is going on a whole ass character arc with Bakugo, then bro, just having Ocha blush and gush over how cool Deku is doesn't cut it.

I had a realisation about Hinata from Naruto a few weeks back. I always loved Hinata as a kid because I was also a shy girl. But the other day, I realise she was not witten for little shy girls like me to feel seen, she was writen for guys who want a shy little waifu simping on them in the background. And that makes me very sad.

Ochako vs Toga in the manga tho was super cool

the way you put Izuku looking at Katsuki's abs in the thumbnail lmfao😂😂😂 please I'm crying laughing rn shkshksjskshshksks

Ironically, Mikasa is a character that on the surface level seems to avoid this, but when you actually see beyond her kicking ass, Isayama makes the same mistake and in some ways to a worst degree even. Mikasa is the proof that even if you make you female character the strongest, that still not enough if at the end of the day it's still 99% in service of the main character, her crush. At least other female characters are given more interaction with their other friends and livelier personalities. But Mikasa's care for her other friends is so rarely emphasized. It's there, but it's made so damn subtle and miniscule, it gets buried in all the "Ereh", which doesn't help at all.

Honestly, as much as I love MHA, Horikoshi cannot write women. And it sucks cause all of the male characters are so interesting and have great depth... Like Suneater and lamillion! Awesome characters, great backgrounds. And then you have nejire. And she's... There. Cause they talked to her, or something. I just want interesting women who are more than just "her name is ____, and then this guy came in and...". And ururaka was a major casualty of that.

Female characters in anime generally suffer two fates , Either having there character relegated to love interest and all of there character development being about someone else or just being there for the occasional lewd scene or both

While female character in general aren't given that much space in the anime, I think Uraraka had it much worse compared to others. Take Momo for example. She isn't on the same level as the main characters, but she is given many moments to shine that don't require raw strenght. She has her fight against Aizawa, her quick thinking to put that thing on the Nomu in the woods, she took part in Bakugou's rescue and she was essential, she saved her friends against the IQ girl in the license exam, she was the brain in her fight in the joint lessons with class B and of course she was the one to keep everyone together to fight Machia (and it's because of her they managed to put him to sleep). She has interacted with many different characters and fought different opponents, while also having a character arch that is pretty good for a secondary character. I find her stuggles to be some of the most relatable. I was scared she would get attached to Todoroki and do nothing for the rest of the series, but she got her moments that were hers alone. I think she is a successful female character. Same with Asui and Jiro for example, even if they have little screentime. Now compare that to what Uraraka got. Uraraka is almost always paired with either Deku or Toga/Asui. She was with Deku in the first season against Bakugou, during the first part of the festival, during the license exam, during the Overhaul arch (even if she didn't do anything) and even during the fight against class B. Otherwise she goes against Toga because of COURSE the only thing we needed was a love triangle. She was SO good in S2. Her fight against Bakugou is still one of my favorite in the entire show and I loved her so much in that moment. But she never got her time to shine again if not to talk about Deku, help Deku, blush because of Deku, get saved by Deku. She talks about Deku even with the villain. Yes her speech at the end of S2 was AMAZING, but it was still about Deku. She would not have made the speech for another student. Her character arch is being wasted. Even in the war arch the others got something at least a bit cool to do, but no, she got to talk with Toga about Deku's plushie. And it was in the same episode of Dabi's reveal, so totally overshadowed. I understand her quirk isn't super strong, so she has her limitations in battle, but she still held her own against BAKUGOU while not having many objects to send flying. Asui's quirk is also weak, but she got amazing moments in some fights. Not to mention how BORING her ship with Deku is. It's not even a good ship, it's predictable and uninspiring. Jiro and Kaminari have more chemestry and they have interacted far less than Deku and Uraraka. I can totally see why many people ship Uraraka with Bakugou: her best moment was with Bakugou, he was the one to push her to give her all and the one who respected her strenght and didn't treat like someone who can only be saved. Her ship with Deku gave her nothing. Deku has influenced MANY characters in the show, I would say the majority, but Uraraka got the short end of the stick. She wasn't pushed to go "plus ultra" by Deku starting from S3. Her character revolves around a ship that isn't even good because Hori can't write romance. Overall this ties into a bigger problem with the anime: there is soooo much care put into the relationships between male characters than the relationships between female and male characters. It's a brutal comparison to be honest. Even when the female characters are decent, their relationships with the boys are crap or boring or nonexistent. And this is a shame because yes it is a shonen and it is marketed to boys, but a good part of the fandom is actually female and we deserve better. Much of the fan-created content is made by girls. But then the fandom has such a bad reputation and gets torn apart because just how much popular the male/male ships are compared to the "canon" female/male ships and how everyone is always fighting with everyone about what ship is the best and the non-shippers attack the shippers and it's just chaos. Never seen a fandom like this fr. But whose fault is that actually? Every single big emotional moment a male character has they have it with another male character. I don't personally ship BakuDeku (I have no pronlems with it tho), but it's unquestionable they have a much deeper relationship compared to Uraraka and Deku and way better meaningful moments together. They have been given a lot of attention and effort got put into it, while Uraraka/Deku was just thrown in there because it's a girl and a boy, they are both cute, they have met on the first day, so they must end up together and it killed the female character in the process. Like, if the boys are only friends, then the straight canon ships better be off the charts, but they are not even close. Or like Momo/Todoroki is possibly a ship? Even if the interacted like twice. There is no effort put into these ships because the female characters are way less complex. You can't create mediocre female characters, give them even worse ships with the male characters and then get angry because the majority of the fans ship the male characters together: it's pretty obvious the boys are the most important in the story. So yeah, Uraraka's situation is very sad and it highlights very well a bigger problem with the anime and the fandom.

Straight up, I start to forget she's even in the show. I used to love Uraraka at the start. That battle with Bakugo made her look so cool and interesting, despite losing. I was invested in her as a character, and then she got her crush on Deku and the plot ran away from her screaming. She does nothing now, and it's so sad. I want early seasons Uraraka back. I so agree with you about that scene during the provisional license exam. Would've been so much better if after that retrospection of herself, she actually put that crush of hers behind her and focused on her school studies and her hero work, until maybe Deku started feeling the same and then she could come back to it, now that they were on the same page, but no.

I saw the Deku/Uraraka shipping coming a mile away (veteran reader of shounen manga). But yes, she (and majority of the other female characters) had their potential wasted simply for shipping. I don’t mind romance and shipping in general-I’m a romantic at heart-just want the love interests to have their own character arcs and development beyond being a love interest.

The romance plot was always there, the problem starts when you take out everything else. You can have your cake and eat it too, just not if you screw it up

Besides the shipping. Honestly the main thing I hate is that people call her money greedy like that’s the only thing she cares about. She needs to be talked about and loved for who she really is. Her personality and her stunning abilities. Her heart and how she cares so much about her family and how much she wants to help out her family and others. She’s always wanted to save people and help the,. Civilians and also heroes. Again, she needs to be known for her MAJOR empathy wich she has a LOT off. And her fighting spirit. She is amazing!!! She needs more fans.

honeslty I feel like Horikoshi saw people started to love Todoroki and Bakugou, so he stared putting them in way more often. Like of course Bakugou would appear a lot he is Deku's rival. But it's really sad we don't get to see Iida and Ururaka more often. Like she get brought up for ship purposes, and Iida barely gets anything thing.

Imagine having the majority of one’s character being a love interest for the main character and nobody even wants you in a relationship with them

"Mirodiya has the strongest super power, connection" God that line is cold

1:11 those motivations were 9/10 Money on top of that money to help the famil- fuck that became way more relatable in just a few years

What's worse with the Yakuza arc... the Villain the girls took down was TECHNICALLY the second most dangerous person in the Yakuza organization... and it could have been an amazing fight with huge stakes. ... instead it's a nothing fight with them dog piling and making the whole fight seem trivial.

Also anyone remember when Ura took up martial arts? It really killed me inside to see that plot line get straight up abandoned.

I don't understand how anyone could look at a person with the ability to manipulate gravity and say "Yeah, she looks weak"

I’m so glad I’m not the only one who noticed this

"Leaving Deku to get jumped by eczema" Best line in the whole video 💀

Seeing that video makes me think that's probably why the Ochako and Bakugo ship (as a romance or as a friendship or partnership) came to be in the fandom as it was mostly based on their dynamic in their fight against each other. Bakugo was almost the only one who took her seriously, Ochako was her absolute best at that moment of the story, searching independence and trying to push her limits, and Ochako being Ochako she didn't have any preconceived perception of Bakugo either (not just angry dude 24/7). So people saw in that ship an opportunity to combine this with mutual character development. Ochako to continue to find new ways to use her ability, not downplay what she is capable of, push her limits, become stronger and stand up for herself. And Bakugo learning more about cooperation and rescue and showing a side of Bakugo that is more tactful or empathic or sensible (in his own way, kinda like his mother I think). Now it makes a bit more sense to me. Not that I don't think it can't be done by their own will and individual experience alone but this relationship (no matter the status) could have made it even more interesting (because unexpected).

Bnha is one of those anime with great potential for storytelling but underutilized

I looked at this very differently. She is constantly Deku's hero. Her arch is realizing that heroes need to be saved as well. With the climax being that she needed to be a hero for a villian. She resembles a great deal of positive traditional femine traits. The crush is the catalyst for this.

People are saying that every character gets this treatment. They absolutely do not. She basically has her personality taken away from her

Welcome to Shonen anime, where fleshed out female characters go to die.

I'm caught up with the manga currently and i think her character is fantastic. Sure her arc dipped a bit but what's being shown currently about her character is great imo.

EDIT: Yes! Do a video on your thoughts on all BNHA ships. For real... I've been having such a hard time at the current season (6). The pacing has been off imo so its even easier to spot all this shenanigans. It's not only with Uraraka (although she is one of the worst examples). It infects most situations where theres a boy and a girl, even for minor characters. Like the boy will ALWAYS take the lead and the girl have to either not be powerful enough, be scared or in the helping people role. So for a show that had me having high hopes for its female characters, I'm getting a whole lot of Sakura (Naruto) all over again and thar makes me furious. PS: I wanted a shonen that the main focus had a girl so much. For Example what if Todoroki was a girl? That would've been awesome to have that in the "main trio". But nope, just guys, guys everywhere.

Totally agree. You know whose relationship development I like more? Kaminari and Kyouka. Its not their own defining feature and their bond feels genuine.

It's very interesting how 3-4 years ago people that were calling out the flanderization of Uraraka's character were all labeled as jealous yaoi shippers but now the general conversation these days is more critical of Uraraka's diehard fans.

"A school with more money than god" 🤣🤣🤣

I loved her so much because of her infectious high energy very happy personality

Never watched this show but hearing how great she was in the beginning makes me so much sadder about what happened after 😭

It's kinda ironic that when Ochako actually got feelings for Deku my interest in them together went down. Should've waited longer smh

As somebody who experiences 99% of the show through the fandom, the fact that the official ship is still midoria/ururaka is kind of hilarious to me

Deku, Ochako, and Iida’s friendship >>>>>> Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki’s friendship

The dark deku arc had the most potential to really change the series for the better. You actually see the rushing start especially the part with toga disappearing from the villains only to randomly just pop up again. Wasted some great development there. Same with the students, didn't even have a funeral for midnight and how life was after the war.

Anyone else think it would have been better if Uraraka (during the Blackwhip incident) put Deku in a chokehold and made him pass out (using her combat training from her internship)? That way, her role in the incident would be her actually solving the problem instead of telling someone else what to do and then keeping him from falling... Also, that hairstyle she has during the Float training flashback... how come we never see it outside that flashback? It looks great!

I'm so glad someone is talking about this since she was my favorite character and then they basically threw her away after she literally saved the plot multiple times! She is the reason deku had pride in his hero name and himself. She drove the plot so much but it was almost all for nothing. The best thing they could do is make her confess feelings then maybe after that they would give her character development other than her having a crush. The hero I wish we could see more of is is ashido (personal opinion)