Summary
My Hero Academiais filled to the brim with many memorable character dynamics, but the biggest standout is definitely the intense but endearing rivalry between the protagonist,Izuku Midoriya, and his competitive childhood friend,Katsuki Bakugo. Throughout this series’ many chapters and episodes, they went from being rivals who resented each other to loyal friends who became better and stronger heroes while working together.
There’s no doubt that the rivalry between these two characters is one of the most popular narrative elements of the series, but it has also led many fans to make some inevitable comparisons between them. As a result, it has become increasingly obvious that, even though he’s the main character, there are certain things that Deku can’t really do, but that Bakugo can, and these are the eight most prominent examples.
7Winning More Than One Popularity Poll
Deku Was Always Overshadowed By Bakugo In Terms Of Fan Popularity
Popularity pollsare a common practice in the shōnen manga industry, as they let publishers and authors gauge how the audience is responding to the main cast of characters. Naturally, the main character of a series is almost always the winner of most (if not all) the popularity polls, like Monkey D. Luffy fromOne Pieceor Naruto Uzumaki fromNaruto.
But Izuku Midoriya is an unusual exception because he only won one poll in the history ofMy Hero Academia: the very first one, which was run only in Japan in 2015. Katsuki Bakugo won every single subsequent popularity poll in both Japan and the United States, not to mention that he was alsothe winner of the Global Popularity Poll from 2024 that accepted votes from fans all around the world. This proves that Bakugo is incredibly beloved among the fan base,despite how divisive his personality and his actions can be.
6Effectively Using His Quirk Without Training Or Support Items
Bakugo Was Born With An Incredible Super Power
Deku was born without a quirk, and he eventually inherited One for All from the #1 Pro Hero, All Might, so his story is really inspiring and interesting. He was eventually able to catch up with his friends and classmates, including Bakugo himself, which fueled the tension in their rivalry.This is because he was born with a powerful quirk calledExplosion, which allows him to create explosions by igniting his own nitroglycerin-like sweat.
He had a great superpower from the get-go, meaning that he didn’t really need any support items or complex training to effectively use it in battle, even though he later needed both to become a stronger and better Pro Hero. On the other hand, Deku’s body couldn’t withstand the immense power of One for All, so he required proper training and a few support items to even get a chance at fighting at the same level as his classmates.
5Flying At High Speeds With His Base Quirk
Not all the great Pro Heroes inMy Hero Academiaactually need tofly(not even All Might was able to do so), but this is certainly a useful skill that can assist them when they’re trying to reach a specific location in time or even when they chase around a speedy villain. Deku was eventually able to maintain himself in the air for a long amount of time, mainly because he unlocked the Float quirk that was residing inside One for All.
But Bakugo never needed to obtain another quirk in order to fly because Explosion always allowed him to do so. By generating small explosions through his hands, Bakugo can not only propel himself through the air but also accelerate at high speeds and even move around in order to avoid attacks and confuse opponents. This has always been one of the many practical uses of Explosion and it became a crucial part of his fighting style.
4Cooking And Playing Music
Bakugo Has Many Other Impressive Life Skills
While their careers in heroism have made them face each other many times, Midoriya and Bakugo are still regular teenagers with other interests and hobbies, and this is one of the areas in which it’s immediately evident how different they are from each other. Deku is a dedicated All Might fanboy who spends most of his time collecting merchandise, but he also enjoys watching and researching other Pro Heroes as well.
Despite any first impressions that his attitude may cause, Bakugo is not just obsessed with violence and fighting. Throughout the series, he has shown many other impressive skills which he is quite talented at: he was shown to be quite good at cooking on multiple occasions,and he revealed that he’s quite skilled with the drums during the U.A. School Festival, to the point that he joined Class 1-A’s band. On the other hand, it was never shown if Deku was even remotely knowledgeable about either cooking or playing music.
3Intimidating His Opponents
Deku Is Way Too Kind To Seem As Aggressive As His Rival
The world ofMy Hero Academiais filled with many different types of heroes: Some of them are heroic and inspire people to be like them (like All Might)while others are much more aggressive and manage to intimidate both their enemies and the people they’re saving(like Gang Orca). Naturally, Deku belongs in the first group, as his good manners and kind personality make him come off as friendly and non-threatening, regardless of how powerful and skilled he is.
But Bakugo fully belongs to the second group, as his competitive, rude, and violent personality (combined with his destructive quirk and his loud voice) has always made him seem extremelyintimidating. While this can be quite useful to subdue villains, he has also been criticized by civilians and his fellow heroes because of how unwelcoming his attitude is, even when he’s rescuing innocent people.
2Defeating Ruthless Villains Who Deserve No Mercy
Bakugo Has To Do The Dirty Work That Deku Can’t Really Do
Curiously enough, this difference in personality was especially useful during the Final War Arc: while Deku was confronting Tomura Shigaraki, trying to talk to him and comprehend how he ended up in that position,Bakugo was busy fighting against All For One, a ruthless villain who didn’t have a tragic backstory or relatable motivations. He was a completely evil person, and Deku would have wasted his time trying to talk to him, so it was way more thematically fitting that Bakugo defeated him in battle instead.
1Reaching The Top 5 Of The Hero Billboard Charts
Bakugo Was Eventually Able To Become Japan’s #4 Pro Hero
Ever since they were young, Deku and Bakugo have shared one dream: to climb through the ranks of theJapanese Hero Billboard Chartsand eventually become the #1 Pro Hero, just like their idol, All Might, did at one point. Needless to say, they both managed to turn into powerful and respected heroes, but since he lost his One for All quirk during his final battle against Shigaraki, Deku eventually had to retire.
Eight years after the Final War Arc,a 25-year-old Bakugo kept working as a Pro Hero and even managed to reach Rank 4 in the Hero Billboard Charts… until he was brought down a few places because of his unfriendly personality and ended up at Rank 15 instead. On the other hand, Deku became a teacher, and he couldn’t work as a Pro Hero anymore, which means that he never actually got into the Hero Charts. Fortunately, Bakugo and his other friends gathered money for a special armored suit that allowed him to become an active Pro Hero once again, so maybe Deku will eventually catch up with his longtime rival and climb through the rankings alongside him.
