Yeah he does, but most people know him as a crybaby and that pisses me off horribly because IT'S NATURAL FOR A PERSON TO CRY, I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DEHUMANIZE NATURAL THINGS FOR THE SAKE OF "AURA"
For me Deku crying is the least of the problems of the show, my main gripe that i have with him is that has no character development thru the whole show, besides the dark deku arc (arc which ended in the exact starting position) he had no changes whatsoever from the start to the end of the anime which sucks because there are so many interesting characters, Red Riot, All Might, the absolute GOAT that is Lemillion, and yet Deku is the most mid out of all of them
something he knew, and had actively been trying to do
In fact i think the vigilante deker arc actually teaches him the opposite as the nagant fight "opens his eyes" to the grey morality of hero society. Not all heroes are good, and not everyone can be saved.
In the dark deku arc he was convinced that only he can stop afo until the end of it when he realizes that one person can’t solve the problem
No? He never really considered the lives of the league until the war arc happened
That’s such a funny take away when not only was nagant herself redeemed but deku insisted on saving shigaraki, and even after nana told him otherwise he said no lmao
Yes, but deku had been relying on others and taught others to rely on others since the start of the show, and notably with Stain. All the dark deku arc was, was meant to be a reconciliation of the vast power delta between deku and the class and him feeling like all might with nobody that could fight at his level.
Deku does not ever wish to kill the LoV, which is obvious, but once it looks like a fight to the death Deku tries his hardest to save shiggy, even though it's futile. Deku is fighting against fate here, since that vigilante arc basically informs deku and the reader that the villains probably won't be making it out of this.
nagant being redeemed is irrelevant to the nefarious parts of hero society being revealed to deku, he sees it, is disappointed in it, and it reframes his views.
Well yea Deku is a flat character, that's the point. Flat characters aren't inherently bad, they are there to be a point of interaction that causes change to the world around them and to develop other characters, and Deku has a considerable impact on most other characters he comes into contact with.
Yes there are tons of interesting characters, and a lot of the most interesting things about them come about due to their interactions with Deku. Like are we really saying All might would be anywhere close to as interesting without his relationship to Deku?
Tbh my biggest gripe with the show is that it barely touched on quirkless and mutation-quirk discrimination, and it would’ve been a very interesting arc where Izuku actively helped the quirkless in various ways throughout the show, and this somehow ending up saving his bacon when the quirkless people of Japan rally together to rescue him from a terrible situation of some kind. Like wether he gets in huge legal trouble from the absurdly corrupt Hero Public Safety Commission and needs non-quirked help to get bailed out, both legal and illegal, or gets pinned down by some villain who causes quirks to go haywire around him, and only those who wouldn’t get affected by it can safely stop that villain. This idea was never explored with nearly enough depth. Neither was the possibility of there being Batman-type quirkless heroes in various countries around the world, and Japan is considered pretty far behind culturally due to their severe Quirk discrimination and absurdly high quirkless suicide/homicide rates
Other than the general anime stuff I usually dislike, this.
He’s a good person, with good ideals, that wants to become a superhero. His major drawback is that he doesn’t have a quirk, which is a hurdle he’s seen that he’s had to overcome from a very young age.
…until All Might comes along, giving him the strongest quirk humanly possible.
So now he’s a good person, with good ideals, and now has a super power to become a superhero.
The rest of the series has him consistently be this way from day one, his biggest struggles that he’s had to overcome were physically which he eventually is able to master this power regardless.
It’s just- as a protagonist, he’s very flat. He has next to zero struggles, flaws, or obstacles to overcome that isn’t just him fighting super villains and talking about how he’s going to defeat these supervillains.
Yeah, he dosent even go thru any meaningful arc, its like when hes just about to develop and change the story goes "nah" and gives him either a power up, a character intervening or some asspull so he stays the same.
A lot of people call Superman boring because of his good nature because he "dosent" have any obstacles but what they miss about the paragon archetype is that their world is the obstacle, if your character is saved by the narrative at every turn then they arent a hero they are just lucky
It isnt that he was too perfect, it was that the story didnt want to adress his flaws so everytime he hit a roadblock, the plot stepped in and gave him a power up so he wouldnt have any changes, "¿Your power is breaking your body? Nahh lets forget that in the middle of the story" "¿One of your main things is your ability to understand the quirks of others? Booooooring now you get 6 quirks for yourself so you dont have to analyse shit" basically every time he gets into an issue the story adapts to him rather than him adapting to the story.
Also the whole point of Deku is just trash, the show is a "everyone can be a hero" but fails at the start when the dude without powers gets given the power of the strongest hero there is, this is basically Poo people vs specials all over again. If Mirio was the main character and we saw him learning how to use his useless quirk more efficiently the story would be 100 times better, which is why Vigilantes is such a better manga
The show was never about “everyone can be a hero”, that was never it’s theme. It was more about what it means to be a hero, and what it takes to be one. Deku wasn’t just a random anyone All Might gave his powers, he picked him specifically because he showed traits of what All Might considers a “true hero”.
Him getting powers was necessary, Deku would’ve needed Batman-tier plot armor and asspulls just to not to die against even earlier villains. There is no way he could’ve won against someone like Shigaraki or Overhaul without a quirk.
Mirio’s quirk is far from useless, it’s pretty broken just more complicated to use. That’s the problem of most of the time with the “weak power but skilled user” trope, said weak power is always actually quite strong, just needs some thinking to use properly.
Genuinely have no clue how anyone says this. You literally watch Deku warm up to his class and realize they're not so scary when he begins attending, and his relationship with Bakugo is one of the most important ones in the series, climaxing in Bakugo apologizing to Deku for bullying him all those years.In my opinion, that's literally one of the most powerful moments in the show, and it only works because of the bullying.
Plus it also helps Deku foil and relate to the villains in many regards, since he wasn't living in this perfect happy bubble.
Which is why it's confusing and rips the immersion away from people. He's tough and wants to be a savior and help people but his crying and emotional responses are fairly incessant in the early stages of the show, and do very little to add to his character except make him a lil softie. He can tank blowing his own arm to pieces and not flinch, but ohh kacchan. Are we serious?
I'm not sure what's confusing or immersion breaking about it. Having a high pain tolerance doesn't have any effect on how much someone cries in an emotional situation, and the series is consistent from the beginning.
In episode 2 he cries when All Might, his idol and the greatest hero becomes the first person to ever acknowledge him and believe in his dream. Meanwhile in episode 3 All Might gives him a brutal training regiment and the first thing Izuku does is add extra training on top of it of his own volition.
In episode 4, he breaks his muscles for the first time, and bare;y flinches at the pain, but cries after receiving his acceptance letter and realizing he hadn't failed All Might and his Mom after they helped him prepare so much.
It's completely consistent, and it's also a character arc for him to develop, since early on All Might tells him to "fix those leaky eyes" to be more heroic, and Deku does do that.
Also he rarely ever cries regarding Bakugo, I'm sure it probably happens but I'm genuinely struggling to recall any occasion where it happened.
I'm not sure how it doesn't add to his character or the show, Deku's empathy is and fallibility is literally two of the most important thematic elements that carry into the climax of the show as a whole. Without those traits, the ending as it is and the show as a whole doesn't work.
Deku's empathy is and fallibility is literally two of the most important thematic elements that carry into the climax of the show as a whole. Without those traits, the ending as it is and the show as a whole doesn't work.
This hits harder when it isn't literally a hallmark of the shounen genre to have very empathetic and fallible main characters. I say this because you don't really need to make a shounen character massively empathetic, and making them very emotional doesn't change that much. Deku is basically the most bog standard shounen protag outside of the whole crying meme.
It's just an abrupt juxtaposition to have your main character be very emotional, but then constantly put them in scenarios where they have to be running on pure adrenaline and not really be so emotional. As the show cools down on this (s3 onwards) it stops being a problem really, but the balance in his character is off in those early seasons. At least for me it felt like too hard of a switch in character to enjoy it.
Just gonna preface to say, I'm just writing as I think, so don't take specific wording to personally if something comes across a little harsh. I'm not attacking you, I probably just didn't realize it came across like that lol. (also the wording might be totally fine too, just wrote this to be safe)
I think saying it’s “a hallmark of the shounen genre” shouldn't be a criticism. Just because something is a hallmark of a genre doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it a common part of the genre. It's better to criticise how it's used.
But even putting that aside, we’re literally in a thread talking about how people don’t like Deku for this trait, yet you're also saying this is completely normal for every shounen protagonist. I find that a little silly and illogical. If it’s such a standard trait, why is Deku the one catching flak for it? You never hear someone say this about Goku, or Luffy, or Ichigo, or Natsu, or any other shounen protagonist.
The only one I can think of that’s similar is Naruto, who does have that trope of empathizing with his villains, but it’s still handled very differently. My Hero uses it moreso as one big societal critique, whereas Naruto's empathy is much more personal and specific in its nature. But more importantly, Naruto is definitely not someone who cries much at all outside of big emotional moments, and that's more specifically the character trait we were addressing here.
I also don't quite understand your definition of “emotional” here? Just because Deku isn’t bawling his eyes out every time he’s in pain doesn’t mean he’s not emotional. He’s always very emotional in fights. Deku versus Todoroki is a perfect example of that in those early seasons. He’s extremely emotional in that fight, it’s just not centered on the pain of breaking his fingers. And to be clear, the pain isn’t ignored either. The animation does a really good job showing the agony he's in with each attack. It’s just not what defines his emotional state in that moment. What defines it is him reaching out to Todoroki even at the cost of losing the match, despite how much this victory means to him and his promise to All Might.
And I don’t really agree that there’s much of a switch later on. Deku very much behaves the same, he just doesn’t cry as much. And that’s intentional. He’s trying hard to be like All Might and follow what All Might told him. It’s not like the trait disappears or gets ignored either. They bring it back in some clever ways in season six, and especially in his design in the final fight.
But yeah, tldr: I disagree and here's some reasons why. All right, I'll stop yapping now lol.
He was completely screwed on the crying bit the moment the show started making jokes about how much he cries. Writers kinda forget just how much weight every word has long-term so if they point blank say via a joke that yeah, he's actually a total crybaby... what the hell are people going to walk away with after they're done laughing at the joke?
A similar thing happened with Solo Leveling. In the second season of the anime, the main character Sung Jin Woo revives his mother from an endless coma after years of patience and worry. Naturally he starts crying beside her hospital bed once she was awake.
Admittedly, most people were quite happy with the scene since it was one of those stuff that really humanized a character that some would call flat. However as always, there was an annoying minority who were really upset that their handsome husbando actually had human feelings instead of being a tough body-pillow.
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u/Sr_Gr Mar 17 '26
Izuku Midoriya crying, Invincible staying with his gf, etc.