MHA: Why Do People Call Bakugo “Ground Zero”?
One of the most polarizing yet incredibly popular characters in My Hero Academia is Katsuki Bakugo, who has an explosive nature both in terms of his personality and his Quirk. The thing about Bakugo is that there is a running gag regarding his hero name in the storyline, as he doesn’t have the most pleasant alias. Of course, fans started calling him Ground Zero because of how long his chosen hero name is. So, why do fans call Bakugo Ground Zero?
People call Bakugo Ground Zero because the first concepts of his character revealed that Kohei Horikoshi, the author of My Hero Academia, initially gave him the hero name “Ground Zero.” However, this was eventually discarded as Bakugo adapted his current hero name in the manga and anime.
The fact that Bakugo is one of the most explosive characters in the history of anime is the reason why the Ground Zero hero name fits him perfectly. Of course, fans also believe that he has an incredibly long hero name, which means that Ground Zero seems to be the better choice regarding his alias. Now, let’s look at Bakugo’s Ground Zero nickname in greater detail.
The Nature of Bakugo’s Quirk
The world of My Hero Academia has a lot of different characters with special abilities called Quirks. These abilities allow the characters to be heroes or villains, depending on their personalities and experiences. And one of the most popular characters in the storyline is Katsuki Bakugo, who is also one of the main characters of My Hero Academia.
Bakugo wields a Quirk called Explosion. The name of his Quirk explains its nature already, as Bakugo can create strong explosions to take down powerful villains in the My Hero Academia storyline. The Quirk works by allowing Bakugo to excrete nitroglycerin from his hands in the form of sweat, as he can ignite this substance to create explosions that he can control at will.
In that regard, Bakugo’s control over his Quirk allows him to perform many different things, such as blowing up entire buildings, creating shockwaves, or using his explosions to propel himself forward. He could even create a focal point of explosions that he could use to shoot explosive bullets that give him the ability to attack from a distance.
On top of all that, Bakugo’s nature as a fiery and hot-headed character fits his nature as an explosive person in terms of his personality and Quirk. As such, he is one of the few characters with a Quirk that perfectly matches his personality.
What Is Bakugo’s Hero Name?
One of the things that we know about My Hero Academia is that the characters are given a chance to choose their hero names during their first year in their chosen hero academies. They need hero names because they are public figures that should be associated with their hero personas instead of their real-life identities. As such, whenever they are out on the field as heroes, the characters refer to themselves using their hero names.
Almost all of the students of Class 1A already chose their hero names, such as Izuku Midoriya, who chose the hero name “Deku,” which was an insult that Bakugo coined. However, Bakugo chose a hero name initially rejected due to how long and somewhat negative it is. So, what is Bakugo’s hero name?
Katsuki Bakugo chose the hero name “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight,” which everyone knows can be quite a mouthful for anyone to remember. On top of that, it has a very negative connotation for someone who is a hero. It might be a proper alias for someone looking to become a villain. But it is too much for a young person looking to become a true professional hero.
While it might be true that Bakugo’s hero name (which has only been used by a few people to refer to him) might be too long and negative, it fits his fiery and eccentric personality. Bakugo has always used the words “die” or “kill” whenever he is on the field, but he has never wanted to kill his enemies. In that regard, the name fits his eccentric personality and Quirk perfectly, even though no one likes using it.
Bakugo’s “Ground Zero” Name Explained
The fact that Bakugo has a long hero name is one of the reasons why fans don’t often use it to refer to him. However, fans have started using a different hero name for him. And this name is Ground Zero.
Of course, there’s a very good reason why Ground Zero is a hero name that fans have started using to refer to Bakugo. That’s because the initial drafts and concepts of Bakugo’s character show that the manga author, Kohei Horikoshi, initially chose the “Ground Zero” hero name for him but eventually discarded it.
As such, when fans found out about this, they started calling Bakugo Ground Zero because it fits him quite well. In real-world terms, “ground zero” refers to the center or origin of an explosion, and that means that Bakugo is a walking ground zero himself because he is the point or the center of the explosions he creates.
However, it is possible that Horikoshi dropped the Ground Zero hero name for Bakugo because it has a negative connotation in many places that have been victims of bombings. There have been a lot of places in the world that have become “ground zeroes” of devastating bombings that killed many people. As such, it is possible that Horikoshi thought the name might be too offensive for those victimized by such bombings.