MHA: Deku Is Straight, But Here’s Why Fans Think Otherwise

We know that it is incredibly difficult for fans to avoid talking about romantic relationships when it comes to manga and anime, regardless of the genre of the storyline, and that holds true for ‘My Hero Academia,’ which has a host of different characters who are unique in their own right and have their own stories to tell. Chief among them is Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, whose goal is to become the top hero in the world. Nothing in the MHA storyline showed that Deku could be in love with a male friend. But why do fans think that Deku is gay?

Why do fans think that Deku is gay?

Regarding manga and anime fans, it can be difficult to avoid reading stories about the romantic lives or even the sexualities of the characters involved. This holds for many different anime storylines, even though their genres don’t always involve romance. And while ‘My Hero Academia’ has always been a shonen anime, some fans still try to insert romance here and there.

Of course, the star of MHA is none other than Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, who is the ace of the heroes in their battle against the villains because he has the power of One For All, which is the only Quirk that can stand up to the strength of All For One. Deku, of course, focuses more on improving his control over his Quirk. But for some reason, fans can’t help but talk about his sexuality.

In fact, there are a lot of fans who think that Deku might even be gay. Some of these fans pair him with the other male characters of the storyline, particularly either Katsuki Bakugo or Shoto Todoroki. But why do fans even think that Deku is gay?

Well, it all points back to the fact that he has been closer to his male friends and classmates than the female ones. While Deku has worked quite well with Ochaco Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui, he tends to spend more time with the males, particularly Bakugo and Shoto. His relationship with Bakugo when they were still children has also led people to think he could be gay.

Deku and Bakugo were childhood friends. Midoriya idolized Bakugo’s headstrong nature and leadership qualities. However, they started drifting apart when Bakugo and the other kids developed Quirks, whereas Midoriya remained Quirkless. It didn’t take too long for Bakugo to start calling him Deku because he was “useless.”

But ever since Midoriya started showing his worth, regardless of whether he had a Quirk or not, Bakugo steadily started respecting him as he saw just how strong Deku was from the inside. Fans thought that this was the classic case of the tsundere character falling for the main character.

There’s also the fact that Deku has been more than willing to put himself in harm’s way for the sake of his male friends. In fact, he was willing to meddle in Shoto’s family affairs when Dabi revealed that he was Shoto’s presumed-to-be-dead older brother. While Deku said that he was only meddling in the family affair because Shoto was his friend, some people thought that he had feelings for Shoto because he was more than willing to sacrifice himself to help him.

Nevertheless, there has never been anything in MHA that concretely shows that Deku is gay. In fact, he has never even mentioned anything about having feelings for a male character. On top of that, he has never shown any sort of attraction to men. While Deku was never the kind of person to try to show romantic feelings for someone, there are more reasons to believe that he likes girls instead of guys, especially because he was flustered when a certain someone asked him to be his boyfriend.

Who is in love with Deku?

In line with the previous statement about someone having a crush on Deku, one of the most interesting subplots in MHA is the fact that Himiko Toga, a villain, is weirdly fixated on Deku and even has a crush on him because he resembles a boy that she was attracted to when she was still in school. Toga also liked that Deku was always injured, as her Quirk forces her to have a weird fixation on blood.

Then, during the Final War arc in the manga, Toga even asked Deku to be her boyfriend. Deku was flustered but eventually rejected Toga because she had a twisted way of seeing boyfriends and girlfriends. The rejected Toga eventually decided that she needed to kill Deku instead of making her his.

There’s also Ochaco Uraraka, who started as one of the closest friends of Deku but soon developed strong feelings for him after seeing just how heroic he was and how he was willing to do everything to protect his friends. When the city’s citizens didn’t want UA to bring Deku in after the city had been abandoned because he was the one whom the villains wanted, Ochaco voiced just how much Deku had already sacrificed to keep everyone safe.

However, the love that Ochaco felt for Deku was pure. She wanted the best for him but was also willing to see him getting taken care of. That was why it broke her heart to see that the people Deku tried so hard to protect tried to push him away from UA High School. This is why she has always been the best candidate to be Deku’s love interest, as she even made Deku’s mother cry with her speech.

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