BNHA Observations

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Places

Todoroki Mansion (Part 1: Outside view) Todoroki Mansion (Part 2: Genkan) Todoroki Mansion (Part 3: Training Hall) Todoroki Mansion (Part 4: Dining Room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 5: Bedrooms) Todoroki Mansion (Part 6: TV room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 7: Kitchen) Todoroki Mansion (Part 8: Butsuma room)

Hospitals (Part 1: Fujitani Hospital)

U.A. High School (Part 1: Infirmary)

Aldera Middle School

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - How they're called

How the Todorokis call each other (Part 1) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 2) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 3) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 4)

How would you say “The Todoroki family” in Japanese?

The Todorokis, how they are called and how they call others - Part 1 (Chap. 1-21 & Ep. 1-13)

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Scenes and character histories

Dabi’s way to fight in the manga from the start to chap 363

The first day Tōya burned himself

Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 1) Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 2)

The burned photo in the 4th ending

Height references for the Todoroki family

My two cents about Episode 146 (with spoilers about scenes which will appear in future episodes)

The Todoroki Family: Questions and Anwers

Quirk counseling: canon, the cultural references and what we can guess from this all

‘Remedial course’ arc Vs Uraraka’s quirk counseling program in chap 431

Chap 431 and Touya’s panel

The justice system in BNHA - part 1 (canon terminology, real life japanese institutions, chap 1 to 97) The justice system in BNHA - part 2 (chap. 98 to 193)

General Meta

Ramblings about the Shimura family Ramblings about the Takami family Ramblings about the Himura family Ramblings about the Shigaraki family Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 1: Todoroki Enji’s origin and teenager years Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 2: The back that’s too big, the mountain that can’t be climbed Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 3: The girl who’s like ice, Himura Rei and how she became Todoroki Rei

Touya and Shouto’s fight or why assuming the other is you and baring fangs wasn’t meant to work

Chap 374 and Touya’s resistance

Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 1) Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 2)

Why Tōya and Himiko were saved and yet weren’t

Todoroki Enji’s father’s death and why he feels he’s not a superhuman

My two cents about chap 426

Changing society in BNHA

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

BNHA and Japanese law, aka why Enji and Hawks can't go to jail

BNHA ENDING or how a good plan might become something not so good when written down

When Heroes need protecting who will be there to protect them?

‘Code red’ order in Aldera middle school aka teachers supporing bullying in BNHA

Were really Tenko’s choices not his own?

Was the savior trio really a savior trio?

Who’s to blame when the stakes are missing?

Missed promises

Heroes and human rights

Why Rei called Shōto the family Hero?

Why the Sekoto Peak fire shouldn’t have happened or, how it should have happened DIFFERENTLY from what we were told

Technological progress in BNHA

My Hero Academia Ultra Archive (May 2, 2016)

Prototypes for Todoroki Shōto and Todoroki Enji Main events of the 1st semester

Timelines

The facts taking place during the year that ends with Rei's hospitalization and Tōya's assumed death

The facts taking place during BNHA first year

The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April The facts taking place during BNHA second year: May & June The facts taking place during BNHA second year: July The facts taking place during BNHA second year: August The facts taking place during BNHA second year: September The facts taking place during BNHA second year: October & November The facts taking place during BNHA second year: December The facts taking place during BNHA second year: January, February & March The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April & May

Full “Boku No Hero Academia” Timeline (Last update: 2024-09-28)

Settei

Todoroki family related settei for season 3 Todoroki family related settei for season 5 Todoroki family related settei for season 6

BNHA Observation

Chap 1 [Ep 1-2]

Chap 2-4 [Ep 3-4]

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis in the various volumes

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis (Anime version)

1st series: 1 OP “THE DAY” by Porno Graffitti - Ep. 1 & 4 - Ep. 5 - Ep. 6 - Ep. 7 - Ep. 8 - Ep. 9 - Ep. 10 - Ep. 11 - Ep. 12 - Ep. 13

2nd series: 2 OP “Peace Sign” [ピースサイン PEACE SIGN] by Yonezu Kenshi - Ep. 14 - Ep. 15 - Ep. 16

Fanfics

VOLUME 1

VIG volume 1 was released on April 4, 2017 at the same time in which BNHA volume 13 was released.

Let's start from the title that in Japanese is ‘VIGILANTE -Boku no HERO ACADEMIA ILLEGALS-’ (ヴィジランテ -僕のヒーローアカデミア ILLEGALS- “Vigilantes –My Hero Academia Illegals-) which immediately tells us that the Vigilantes of the story are something that is illegal in the BNHA world, the world of Heroes… but, more importantly, the world Horikoshi created, a world in which Horikoshi put a big emphasis on the importance of respecting rules (to the point he’ll murder his Villains). The fact in this story we’ll talk of someone who acts in an illegal way seems to imply this story is willing to offer us, if not the other side of the medal… well, still a different side.

But let's dig into the volume.

After a cover that is clearly meant to mimic the one of BNHA the volume differentiates to BNHA by offering us a black page with a definition written in white.

[VIGILANTE]

NOUN|VIG-I-LAN-TE

: A MEMBER OF A VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE ORGANIZED TO SUPPRESS AND PUNISH CRIME SUMMARILY (AS WHEN THE PROCESS OF LAW ARE VIEWED AS INADEGUATE) BROADLY: A SELF-APPOINTED DOER OF JUSTICE

The whole thing is more interesting in Japanese, because it makes clear vigilante is a loan word and therefore kind of a ‘foreign concept in Japan’ in fact we see the whole first line written as such

[ヴィジランテ(自警団)]<vigilante>

‘Jikei-dan’ (自警団) the Japanese word that is used for is the short for ‘jichitai keisatsu’ (自治体警察) which means… “municipal police” plus ‘-dan’ (団) which means “group”. So yeah, it is a word that means that they are a squad that maintaining vigilance but with the Japanese word… well, we are more on the legal side here than what the word ‘vigilante’ implies.

And now let’s start with…

CHAPTER 1

I’ve said the volume got released on April 4, 2017 but the first chapter was actually released earlier in August 20, 2016, two days before BNHA chap 103 will be released, meaning in the main series we are at the beginning of the “Provisional Hero license exam arc”.

Now… something that gets lost in translation is that this chapter in English is titled “I’m here” (the volume also is called as such) and this is the sentence people associate to All Might but that here is written slightly differently as All Might usually says “I am here” and not “I’m here”.

What does it matter?

Let’s start with breaking a belief, All Might never said “I am here” in the Japanese version, what he says is ‘Watashi ga kita’ (私が来た) which means “I have arrived”, with ‘watashi’ being the polite/formal way to say “I”.

“I have arrived” though it is not a great catchphrase in English, “I am here” sound better and delivers more or less the same idea, hence the change which, honestly, I think Horikoshi himself approved.

The Japanese title of the first chapter of Vigilante though, has nothing in common with ‘Watashi ga kita’ (私が来た “I have arrived”) as it says ‘Ore ga iru’ (俺がいる) which means “I am/exists (here)”

So yeah, the literal translation of this sentence is closer to our “I am here” than All Might’s catchphrase and, spoiler, it is the catchphrase of Knuckleduster, which in this story is meant to be the main character’s mentor figure which parallels All Might.

But I am running ahead.

Where BNHA started with a statement from Midoriya that implied also that he kind of know how the story will end, here we begin with posing some questions to the readers.

‘HERO to wa! Seifu no ninka no shita umare motta “kosei” (Chikara) o ikashite shakai ni hōshi suru erabareshimono-tachi! Daga kono sekai ni wa sōde wanai HERO mo iru. ‘Erabareru’ koto naku mizukara katsudō suru “higōhō (read: ILLEGAL) HERO”. Karera no seigi to Hana n’na no ka? Somosomo karera o HERO to yoberu nodarou ka…!?’ 『ヒーローとは！政府の認可の下生まれ持った”〝個性〟（ちから）を活かして社会に奉仕する選ばれし者たち！だがこの世界にはそうではないヒーローもいる。「選ばれる」ことなく自ら活動する〝非合法（イリーガル）ヒーロー〟。彼らの正義とはなんなのか？そもそも彼らをヒーローと呼べるのだろうか…！？』 “Who are Heroes? Chosen few, who, under government approval, use their innate “quirks” (read: powers) to serve society! But in this world, there are also Heroes who are not like that. “Illegal heroes” who operate independently without having been “chosen.” What is their sense of justice? Can they even be called heroes...?”

VIG aim to reach older readers compared to BNHA but it is still interesting to see how BNHA seems aimed at telling us what’s right and wrong while VIG wants us to decide for ourselves if its cast can be called Heroes… which ties with the Japanese view of justice… which I’ll discuss later.

Oh, a problem I have with VIG is its choice of which canon Heroes to show in the story.

This chapter was printed around the same time chap 103 of BNHA was (actually chap 103 came out two days after this one) so we are at the Provisional Hero license exam and not many Heroes have appeared yet.

Still, honestly, instead than picking Heroes from U.A. High, I think it would have worked better if VIG had made its own Heroes and used them.

After all we are in Naruhata, Tokyo, and not in Shizuoka so it would make sense to have different Heroes than the ones that work in Shizuoka, besides all those Heroes deciding to become teachers all at the same time and having a place at U.A. High for no reason at all (it’s not like the story tell us some teachers died) just didn’t sit right with me.

Of course I understand this was made because cameos of beloved characters from the main series promote the main series and VIG at the same time but it’s still annoying.

I’m honestly not impressed when I see that of the 8 Heroes behind All Might 6 are U.A. High teachers and two of them are teachers no one cares about like Ectoplasm and Cementoss.

On more interesting notes although Knuckleduster is a violent character, his first action in the story is to pet a kitten with a blid eye, and the ties of his bandana fluttering behind him visually resemble All Might’s two tufts.

After the color spread...

...we then move to the story which starts in media res, with Kōichi falling from a 30 meters building, Knuckleduster unconscious, a monster looming over them and Kōichi praying for help, promising he’ll give up on his idea of becoming a Hero…. which is an interesting contrast with how Midoriya stubbornly clung to his idea of becoming a Hero… but this is just a flash forward of two pages.

So back we go to the start of the story and to Kōichi introducing us again to the world in which he lives.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘...Somosomo yononaka ga ‘“chōjō” ikō’ toka ‘chōjin shakai’ toka iwa reru yō ni natte zuibun tattarashīkedo. ‘Minna tokubetsu’-tte koto wa kekkyoku ‘sore ga FUTSŪ’ na WAKE de. ...Mā YABAI yatsu wa chō YABAI ndakedo. Ore-tachi FUTSŪ no ippanjin ga son’na renchū no aite nante dekiru wakeganai. Hontoni ‘chō’na hito-tte no wa sora tonde kuru toka chikara ga metcha tsuyoi toka SPEED ga sugoi to ka. Egao ga chō Ī to ka. (Iya… kore wa kankeinai ka). Yō suru ni atama no ue no sonzai jibeta kara miage teru dake no ore nanka to wa zenzen chigau. …Nante omottetandakedo──’灰廻航一「（...そもそも世の中が「〝超常〟以降」とか「超人社会」とか言われるようになってずいぶん経ったらしいけど。「みんな特別」ってことは結局「それがフツー」なワケで。...まあヤバい奴は超ヤバいんだけど。俺たちフツーの一般人がそんな連中の相手なんてできるワケがない。ほんとに「超」な人ってのは空飛んで来るとか力がめっちゃ強いとかスピードがすごいとか。笑顔が超イイとか。（いや…これは関係ないか）。よーするに頭の上の存在地べたから見上げてるだけの俺なんかとは全然違う。…なんて思ってたんだけど──』 Haimawari Kōichi “...Apparently, it’s been quite a while since the world started being described as “post-(the advent of the) supernatural” or a “superhuman society”. “Everyone being special” in the end came to mean “they’re normal/average.” ...Well, some bad/dangerous guys are just seriously bad/dangerous. There’s no way we normal/average people could compete with those kinds of people. Truly “super” people are those who can fly, have incredible strength, or have incredible speed. Or have super great smiles. (No...that’s irrelevant, isn’t it?) In short, they are beings above our heads, completely different from someone like me who only looks up at them from the ground. ...Or so I thought──”

What is important about this monologue is how Kōichi is basically splitting society in groups.

We have:

the bad guys as interesting enough he do not use Villains but ‘yabai yatsu’ (ヤバい奴), “bad guys”

the ordinary people like him, or better the ‘FUTSU no ippanjin’ (フツーの一般人).  ‘FUTSU’ means “normal/average” and ‘ippanjin’ (フツーの一般人) means “people who do not have special status, social standing, or fame” a word that is generally used as the opposite of celebrities and famous people

the really super people or better the ‘Honto ni ‘chō (read: TOKUBETSU)’ na hito’ (ほんとに「超（トクベツ）」な人) which means the “really super people” but we are told “super” needs to be read as “special”, with “special” written in katakana instead than hiragana to further remark it and again Kōichi do not use the term Hero.

His talk clearly put him down, he is not special he doesn’t stand on equal level with those special people even though he clearly admires them.

We also have another thing that is interesting.

All Might  asks if someone is injured but when the Villain points out to his broken teeth he tells him ‘kimi wa betsu’ (君は別 “you are different”), implying him being hurt doesn’t matter because who cares about Villains’ rights?

We tend to miss it because All Might is always presented in a positive light but All Might’s way to solve thing is NEVER through defusing situation, through mediation, he arrives, beats the bad guy as fast as he can without regards for why the Villain is doing what he is doing and leaves.

He is not the only one, plenty of other Heroes employ this strategy, viewing the mere breaking of law as the ultimate evil and Hawks himself will talk about the importance of defeating Villains as fast as possible.

I want you to remember this as it will get important later on.

Anyway here we are told our main protagonist is Haimawari Kōichi (灰廻航一) 19 years old, someone who is not a high school student like Midoriya but someone who has a work and is late for it (though VIG plays on the parallel of both series starting with the main chara watching Heroes in action… but then reverses it because while Midoriya was basically wished good luck in becoming a Hero, Kōichi implies he is no Hero material).

While in BNHA we were clearly in spring, at the beginning of the new schoolyear, here it is a little harder to say when the story is taking place. There are no blooming sakura so not the beginning of spring but people isn’t dressed lightly either so not summer and they aren’t dressed heavily either so not winter either.

This means we’re either past the beginning of spring or in autumn. Thankfully in chap 43 it is confirmed this arc takes place in spring.

To reach his workplace in time Kōichi decides he’ll uses his Quirk, ‘Kassō’ (滑走 “sliding”) or, if you prefer “Slide and Glide” and… he is stopped by a policeman because who is not a Hero can’t use his Quirk.

Keikan ‘Kimi no sono “kosei” dakedo... Hito no ashimoto toka hashiru to abunaikara mendō demo jitensha tsukai nasai ne. `Kōdō de no “kosei” no shiyō kinshi’ wa hōritsu de kimatte iru nda yo. Wa… wa i… kimi wa `jibun no “kosei” o ikashite nani ga warui’ tte omou kamo shirenaikedo. Iron’na “kosei” no hito ga irukara koso, otagai ni kimochiyoku kurashite iku tame ni wa hitorihitori ga--’ 警官「君のその〝個性〟だけど...人の足下とか走ると危ないから面倒でも自転車使いなさいね。「公道での〝個性〟の使用禁止」は法律で決まっているんだよ。君は「自分の〝個性〟を活かしてなにが悪い」って思うかもしれないけど。いろんな〝個性〟の人がいるからこそ、お互いに気持ちよく暮らしていくためには一人一人が――」 Policeman “That “Quirk” of yours... It’s dangerous to run near people’s feet, so even though it’s a hassle, please use a bicycle. “The using your ‘Quirk’ on public roads prohibition” is mandated by the law. You might think, “What’s wrong with using my ‘Quirk’?” But because there are people with all sorts of “Quirks,” in order for everyone to live together/get along comfortably, each and every one of us needs to—”

Yeah, Kōichi could cause people to trip if he is not careful but it’s not like using a bike doesn’t present dangers for other people if not used carefully but the point is he just shouldn’t use his Quirk as not using it would show his respect for other and help everyone to live in harmony.

While BNHA rambles about respecting laws, here we see an annoyed Kōichi thinking that he was caught by a stickler of a cop.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Kusō… MAJIMEna omawari-san ni mitsukatte shimatta… HANASHI chōgeku.’ 灰廻航一「くそう…マジメなおまわりさんに見つかってしまった…ハナシ長げく。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Damn... I got caught by a serious police officer... and the story is long.”

A ‘majime na omawari-san’ (マジメなおまわりさん) translates to a “serious/diligent police officer”, with ‘MAJIME’ (マジメ/真面目) being a key Japanese concept that means serious, diligent, honest, and hardworking and generally implying that someone is responsible, trustworthy, and respects the rules and ‘omawari-san’ (おまわりさん/ お巡りさん) being a friendly, affectionate, and commonly used term for a police officer or a beat cop. However while this can be used to remark how dedicate and hard working the policeman is, it can also mean he is following the rules too strictly, which is likely what an annoyed Kōichi is going for.

Basically while on surface Kōichi doesn’t challenge the policeman, he clearly disagrees with him. Keep all this in mind because the story is laying the groundwork for one of its themes.

Meanwhile, since using Quirks is dangerous but running apparently is not, Kōichi now is running and predictably he ends up slamming against Kugisaki Sōga and his friends. Literally.

They do not take it well so Kōichi does as they request, bows at them dogeza style.

Dogeza (土下座) is the deepest, most formal Japanese bow, involving kneeling directly on the ground and pressing one’s forehead to the floor to show profound remorse, extreme respect, or a desperate plea. Rooted in historical submission, it is used today for severe apologies, such as major corporate scandals, or very rarely, personal requests.

And here we have a better outlook at bullies than in the whole BNHA.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Dogeza wa tokui.Dakedo omoshiro gatte hito ni dogeza sa seru yōna yatsu wa. Tsuideni fundarikettari shite kurunode. Higi “dogeza de kaihi”. Demo KORE yaru to daitai kō naru node nigeru. Nigeru no wa tokuida.’ 灰廻航一「土下座は得意。だけど面白がって人に土下座させるような奴は。ついでに踏んだり蹴ったりしてくるので。秘技〝土下座で回避〟。でもコレやると大体こうなるので逃げる。逃げるのは得意だ。」 Haimawari Kōichi “I’m good at bowing in apology. But those who make people bow in apology just for fun... They’ll also step on you and kick you. My secret technique: “Avoid with a bow.” But when I do that, this usually happens, so I run away. I’m good at running away.”

Being the best version of yourself won’t please a bully, if you do not react but just submit to them, they will try to kick you even more, because it pleases him to do so, because they get a kick out of being so powerful over you. Kōichi though is aware of this and, before things escalates too far, escapes.

This too won’t please bullies as they take it as defiance and this makes them angry and so they give him chase. To no result.

Once he is safe Kōichi stumbles into one of Pop☆Step’s performances, which is also illegal as she doesn’t have permission to perform and also makes large use of her Quirk during it.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘...Uta wa betsuni umakunai yo ne. Hadena MAKEUP de kao mo yoku wakaranaishi. Demo nanka KIRAKIRA shite mieru no wa― ‘sora tonderu’ kara… janai kana.’ 灰廻航一「...歌は別に上手くないよね。派手なメイクで顔もよくわからないし。でもなんかキラキラして見えるのは―「空飛んでる」から…じゃないかな。」 Haimawari Kōichi “...She’s not particularly good at singing, is she? You can barely see her face with all that heavy makeup. But somehow she seems to sparkle— I think it’s because she’s “flying”...”

Kōichi’s opinion of Pop isn’t generous but still he thinks she is sparkly and assume it’s because she can basically fly. Flying can be associated to freedom as well as having a value as she is high.

Kōichi notices the police coming and, even though he is not a fan of Pop, saves her by warning her, so she can escape and then this is what Kōichi thinks next.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Ningen -tte no wa jibun ga miage teru mono ni akogareru. Gyaku ni mesen ga sagaru to mojidōri hikuku mi rare-gachi to iu ka… Jinsei -tte fukōhei, da yo ne.’ 灰廻航一「人間ってのは自分が見上げてるものに憧れる。逆に目線が下がると文字通り低く見られがちというか…人生って不公平、だよね。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Humans yearn for what they look up to. Conversely, when their gaze is lowered, they tend to literally looked down upon others... Life is unfair, isn’t it?”

For start Kōichi expresses a negative outlook on how things work again as he points out how people look up and look down to people according to their Quirks… or, in other words, to how they look. He’s forced to crawl to move with his Quirk, where Pop seems almost flying. He is aware there is a subtle form of discrimination ongoing, though he sadly thinks it is part of life.

The Japanese word for “Quirk” ‘Kosei’ (〝個性〟) actually means “individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic” hence that’s why the theme of discrimination factors so much in BNHA and, in a way, in VIG too.

It’s evening and we see that Kōichi works at the Family Mort, which is this universe’s version of the Family Mart.

FamilyMart (株式会社ファミリーマート) is Japan’s second-largest convenience store chain (behind 7-Eleven), known for its ubiquitous blue, green, and white branding. Operating over 24,000 stores globally (primarily in Asia), it acts as a mini-supermarket open 24/7, providing ready-to-eat meals, snacks, beverages, and essential daily services.

Not only Kōichi was late so he will be paid less but Sōga and Co get inside the store, recognize him and drags him out to beat him. Because bullies won’t forget of forgive.

No one helps Kōichi, no one calls the police, people either didn’t noticed what was going on or pretended not to. In Japan this is seen as an okay behavior because it would be rude to intrude in Kōichi’s business. Personally I find it also a very convenient behavior because it’s easier to turn your gaze away.

Sōga and Co beat Kouchi and pour a drink on him and no one does something.

It’s worth to say they technically do not use their Quirk, if not to threaten Kōichi at the start, so they technically aren’t Villains. What they do is still wrong and criminal because Japanese law doesn’t allow you to beat people. Still, no one comes to help Kouchi.

Kōichi is angry, rightfully so.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Kusso…nanna no AITSU-ra. Ā iu YAKARA koso keisatsu ga tsukamaerubeki janai no ka yo. Ā muka tsuku. IRAIRA suru.’ 灰廻航一「くっそ…なんなのアイツら。ああいうヤカラこそ警察が捕まえるべきじゃないのかよ。あームカつく。イライラする。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Shit... what’s wrong with those guys? Shouldn’t the police be arresting those kinds of thugs? Ah, it pisses me off. It’s so irritating.”

Kōichi remarks again another failure of their society, the cop who was so quick to scold him for doing something harmless now is nowhere to be seen.

VIG allows his main character to be angry and to criticize society, where Midoriya was just supposed to accept it and extend a helping hand.

Something that is also relevant is how Kōichi has a great copying mechanism for when he feels angry.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Sō tomo hōritsu nante kankeinai. Teatarishidaini yatte yaru!!’ 灰廻航一「そうとも法律なんて関係ない。手当たり次第にやってやる！！」Haimawari Kōichi “That’s right, the law doesn’t matter. I’ll just do whatever I can!!”

Kōichi plans to use his Quirk… to help people. Helping people makes him feel genuinely better, he doesn’t do it because it’s cool, he does it because it makes him feel better, and he does it using his Quirk even though the law forbids him to use it.

As he does so he goes by the nick of ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”) but this is more than a nick. This is who Kōichi truly is, a nice person who feels better when he is helping out.

Among the people he helps… there is Midoriya Inko and she looks like she does when Midoriya is a teen. She is not her slim version of when Midoriya was a kid. This makes me think originally VIG was meant to take place when Midoriya was in middle school, in fact in chap 3 we see the shadow of a middle school Midoriya. However later on, when including in Vol 4 one of the promotional chapter for VIG, Furuhashi said Midoriya was meant to still be in ‘Shōgakkō’ (小学校 “elementary school”), not in ‘Chūgakkō’ (中学校 “middle school”) during the story.

Either the whole thing was retconned or Betten wasn’t informed about how he should have drawn Midoriya and Inko and knew only that the story would take place before BNHA, hence he assumed Midoriya was a middle schooler. We’ll probably never know the truth.

Anyway Kōichi feels better and now he is approached by Pop who offers him a drink and wants to thank him for having warned her about the police approaching during her concert.

Despite the nice start, Pop☆Step’s personality doesn’t shine for being nice.

She asks him if he is the one picking up the trash (she will complain in another circumstance on how she finds this lame) and calls Kōichi, instead than ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy”), ‘GOKIBURI MAN’  (ゴキブリマン “cockroach guy”). The two don’t even sound the same or similar enough it might have been a genuine mistake, so she is deliberately mocking him.

She also informs him SHE SAW him getting beaten up but she clearly just watched and didn’t call the police or try to help in any other way and then adds insult to injury by commenting on how he was lame because he got beaten by three guys.

Of course Kōichi is annoyed she was watching, though he admits he doesn’t do well with violence.

Meanwhile Kazuho goes on with being rude by mocking his hoodie… asking him if he wants to cosplay All Might despite sucking at fighting.

I love how Kōichi answers that he is being inspired by All Might ‘to be useful to society any way he can’ which doesn’t mean he has to fight. Kōichi takes the core of All Might, helping people, and not the surface, beating the bad guys.

Kazuho goes on mocking his efforts, by remarking at least he knows his place.

Kōichi returns the sentence to her, telling her if she keeps playing on being a pop idol the police will catch her.

This annoys Kazuho, who claims she is not playing, she is the real deal and… starts making demands from Kōichi, while continuing to mock him.

It only annoys him as he rightfully points out how he isn’t her slave and she hadn’t thanked him yet…

So, remember how the policeman told Kōichi using his Quirk was dangerous and this ended up causing Kōichi to run and slam into Sōga and Co.?

Well, Kazuho too runs without using her Quirk and guess what? She slams into Sōga and Co.

Maybe I’m just overreading things but to me this tosses a clear message on how the idea you shouldn’t use your Quirk because it is dangerous A PRIORI is actually an excuse. Everything can be dangerous if not used carefully.

Anyway Sōga and Co as usual do not take well being slammed into, especially because Kazuho also rudely yelled at them.

…and I get Furuhashi and Betten wanted to make her different from Uraraka (they could have spared us with the pick hair then, and a Quirk that keeps her in the air which reminds me of Uraraka’s) but they ended up making Kazuho unpleasant… and making her such a spoiled and entitled brat seems to be done to make readers less sympathetic when she gets attacked, which… is a HORRIBLE narrative choice, really.

Because really, they using the narrative device of the contrappasso, so they had her mock Kōichi when the latter was attacked and she also didn’t help him but just watched and now they are playing her in his position but… honestly I find that the result becomes pretty gross, because it kinds of work as an ‘excuse’ for Sōga’s group to attack her.

There’s more.

Tōchi Moyuru ‘“Ketsu dashi JK” -tte NET yūmeina Ita i onna.’ 灯市燃「〝ケツ出しJK〟ってネット有名なイタい女。」Tōchi Moyuru “‘The high schooler who shows her butt’ is a notorious, cringeworthy girl on the internet.”

Moyuru calls her the ‘Ketsu dashi JK’ (ケツ出しJK). ‘Ketsudashi’ (ケツ出し) is a vulgar expression referring to the act of exposing one’s buttocks while ‘JK’ is a common Japanese abbreviation for ‘joshi kōsei’ (女子高生),” which translates to “high school girl”.

However later on it will be revealed Kazuho is not a high schooler but a middle schooler. In her last year sure, but she is actually younger than that. Sure, it is possible the idea is just Moyuru was wrong but I think the authors has him say so because they wanted to play safe. The younger a girl is, the more we smell pedophilia if she gets harassed so calling her a high schooler distanced the boys from it.

Something that people might miss at a first reading is that Kazuho’s mask is actually not a mask made with cloth but one made with make up. This is why this is what Moyuru says next.

Tōchi Moyuru ‘Jā sugao (SUPPIN) totte NET sarasu be.’ 灯市燃「じゃあ素顔（スッピン）撮ってネット晒すべ。」Tōchi Moyuru “Okay then, let’s take a picture of her face without makeup and post it online.”

‘Suppin’ (スッピン) refers to a natural face with absolutely no makeup  which is the same meaning as ‘sugao’ (素顔) so, on the surface, even if they changed the reading of the word, they didn’t change the meaning… but there is actually more as ‘sugao’ can also mean “True Nature”.

While the scene is clearly meant to parallel sexual harassment, they didn’t mean to strip Kazuho at the start, just to remove her make up and reveal her true face on the net.

Mind you, the revealing would have had DISASTROUS consequences for Kazuho on a social level. It’s not just that the police could track her down, Kazuho hides her face because she would be the victim of overwhelming bullying (if not sexual molestation) if it were to turn out she is the girl flashing her backside on the net.

By the way the whole scene is also used to try and parallel what Midoriya did for Bakugou because Kōichi, differently from Kazuho, tries to help her. Mind you, Kazuho wasn’t Kōichi’s bully but she had been overwhelmingly rude when he, instead, had helped her, and had left him to his own devices when he was getting beaten up, so of course the scene works as a parallel. I still don’t like the set up.

Now there are differences between Midoriya and Kōichi, but if I have to look at the main ones we can see where Midoriya at first believed a Hero would come to rescue, Koichi didn’t expect one to come and when he decided to act, he came up with a plan, one he couldn’t execute, but he didn’t just jump into action blindly expecting this would be enough. I guess the idea was this is a more mature behavior as Kōichi is older than Midoriya.

He and Midoriya have in common they jump to action when they see ‘the gaze that asks for help’ but there’s to say Kōichi tried from the start to reason with Sōga and Co and persuade them to let Kazuho go while Midoriya covers his mouth as he thinks it’s his fault the Villain is now free, clearly not wanting anyone else to know about this.

Overall I think Furuhata did a better work than Horikoshi at constructing through the story why his main character is bound to jump into action seeing such a gaze.

Through the whole chapter we saw Kōichi being kind and helpful even when this gave him no reward, just because helping others make him feel good, as he is genuinely a nice guy, but the same space isn’t given to Midoriya’s innate kindness as the chapter only has a scene at the start in which he helps a kid, but the rest of the story discusses how he wants to be the strongest Hero because saving people is cool.

But let’s go back to the story.

Koichi fails to put his plan into action and Sōga attacks him with his Quirk, which places him in Villain territory.

Basically, in front of Kōichi’s defiance, Sōga’s bullying attempt escalates.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘Yoshi kimeta. BOKOru dake ja sumanē. TEMĒ wa ano KONBINI-goto buttsubushite yaru!! Tsuideni kono hentai onna wa HADAKA ni muite sarashite yaru yo!! Yaru koto yattekara na!!’ 釘崎爪牙「よし決めた。ボコるだけじゃ済まねぇ。テメエはあのコンビニごとブッ潰してやる!!ついでにこの変態女はハダカに剥いて晒してやるよ!!やることやってからな!!」 Kugisaki Sōga “Alright, I’ve decided. Just beating you up won’t be enough. I’m going to destroy that convenience store along with you!! Also I’m going to strip this perverted woman naked and expose her too!! After I’ve done what I need to do!!”

The sentence is deliberately done to sound as bad as it can while, at the same time, giving the author the chance to claim it’s not as bad as it sound.

I mean, beating Kōichi and destroying the store are pretty plan. However in regard to Kazuho the ‘Hadaka ni muite’ (ハダカに剥いて “strip her bare”) can refer to ‘undress her’ as the English version suggest but also to ‘remove her make-up’ as it was suggested they wanted to do before and even to ‘reveal her true nature/identity’ which was also something implied before.

The following sentence is also more vague than in the English text.

‘Yaru koto yattekara na!!’ (やることやってからな!!) is used to tell someone (or yourself) to finish their necessary tasks, chores, or work before they can relax or do something fun which is why it is normally translated with “Do what you have to do first,” “Business before pleasure,” or “Take care of your responsibilities first.”

The English version considers that the ‘business’ they have to do before the pleasure of unmasking Kazuho is raping her but it is possible the business is just beating Kōichi and destroying the place he works. Sure the sentence can be suggestive same as the one before that can just refer to unmask Kazuho but can sound as undressing her.

Since the whole thing is heavy, to avoid any possible implication of rape, the anime removed that sentence entirely.

And continuing with better depicting bullies, when Kōichi protests, Sōga shifts the blame on him, saying such thing is happening because Kōichi made him angry. Basically Kōichi should have just bowed to Sōga’s authority and let him do as he pleased.

Note that Sōga had always been escalating things regardless of Kōichi humoring him or not because at the start, when Kōichi apologized Dogeza style as Sōga wanted him to do, Sōga still tried to kick him.

It’s not Kōichi’s fault because he rebelled, it’s just that Sōga is out to search for targets on which to vent his anger and show his power. There is no pleasing him, no reasoning with him and humoring him or being the best version of yourself won’t stop him.

‘DEKA i jiko toka dai abare suru teki (VILLAIN) toka hadena PINCH ni wa PRO no HERO ga kaketsukete kureru. Dakedo ore-tachi o osou kiken wa sore dake janai. Nichijō no naka ni hisomu bōryoku, bōhatsu suru akui. Tada no GOROTSUKI datte tokiniha hito o korosu.’ 『デカい事故とか大暴れする敵（ヴィラン）とか派手なピンチにはプロのヒーローが駆けつけてくれる。だけど俺たちを襲う危険はそれだけじゃない。日常の中に潜む暴力、暴発する悪意。ただのゴロツキだって時には人を殺す。』 “During big accidents, rampaging enemies (read: villains) and spectacular crises professional Heroes come to the rescue. But those aren’t the only dangers that threaten us. Violence lurks in everyday life, malice can erupt. Even mere thugs can kill sometimes.”

Kōichi points out the flaw in their Hero society. Heroes are there to save the day in front of big crises but they are in a life threatening situation and yet the problem isn’t big enough for a Hero to appear.

The story will remark this by having Kazuho wanting to call for the police and being told to try with calling a Hero, Rapt and Moyuru do so because they knows no one will come to help Kazuho and Kōichi and they sure as hell aren’t stopping Sōga, wuite the contrary. They enable him.

There is a hole in the safety net Hero culture has created, a hole that in the story will be filled by Vigilantes.

Right off the bat VIG says we need more than Heroes offering a helping hand, we need people to stand up for other people… and they need to do it in a way more meddling than the Hero society would want to allow them to do.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘HERO (ALL MIGHT) datte hima janai. Ima… ore-tachi ga dore dake tasuke o motomete mo. ALL MIGHT ga konna rodjiura no KENKAgotoki ni. Tonde kuru hazu ga ―’ 灰廻航一「ヒーロー（オールマイト）だってヒマじゃない。今…俺たちがどれだけ助けを求めても。オールマイトがこんな路地裏のケンカごときに。飛んで来るはずが―。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Even a hero (All Might) isn’t idle. No matter how much we beg for help right now, All Might wouldn’t get involved in a fight in a back alley like this. Expecting he would come flying in—”

And Knuckleduster comes flying in and lands into the trash. Symbolically it remarks how he is not All Might, All Might he is not going to come, Knuckleduster says so himself. But HE IS HERE…

…and he proceeds to beat Sōga and Co, ask if they use drugs and check their tongues after presenting himself as ‘Tekken Sōjinin KNUCKLEDUSTER’ (鉄拳掃除人ナックルダスター “Janitor of the fist Knuckleduster” lit. “iron fist cleaner Knucklerduster”).

Now Knuckleduster does we same we saw All Might do, he comes and beats the bad guys without wasting time but, even though we will learn in the future he used to be a Hero, currently he lacks the Hero vibe, with the result Kōichi has a reaction rather different from when he watched All Might beat a Villain, even though this guy is saving him and Kazuho. In fact he gets scared as he fear this strange guys would want to beat him as well.

Kōichi doesn’t trust Knuckleduster in the slightest, not even when the latter shows his not aggressive intentions asking him to help and promising him he’ll make him a Hero, in fact he claims of not being interested and wanting to leave.

It’s also worth to note than more than a Pro Hero what Knuckleduster wants to turn Kōichi into is a Vigilante. Still they would fit what Stain considers a Hero more than Pro Heroes.

And it is worth to pay attention to the conversation between Knuckleduster and Kōichi.

In BNHA Midoriya wanted to become a Hero but, at first, All Might tried to discourage him because Midoriya didn’t have a Quirk. Here Knuckleduster encourages Kōichi to become a Hero despite the latter commenting about having a weak Quirk.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Muda tema bakari de shigoto ga susuman na… oi kozō chottokoi.’ ナックルダスター「無駄手間ばかりで仕事が進まんな…おい小僧ちょっと来い。」 Knuckleduster “This is all just wasted effort and no progress on the work... Hey kid, come here for a second.”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘! ? Bo… boku-ra wa KUSURI toka sōiu no wa.’ 灰廻航一「！？ボ…ボクらはクスリとかそういうのは。」 Haimawari Kōichi “!? We...we’re not into drugs or anything like that.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Kanchigai suru na. Omae wa midokoronoaru yatsuda. Soshite oreniha hitode ga iru. Ore no shigoto o tetsudae. Omae o honmono no HERO ni shiteyaru.’ ナックルダスター「勘違いするな。おまえは見所のある奴だ。そして俺には人手が要る。俺の仕事を手伝え。おまえを本物のヒーローにしてやる。」 Knuckleduster “Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re a promising guy. And I need some help. Help me with my work. I’ll make you a real hero.”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘E…!? A~tsuano… ~tsu. BOKU sōiu no kyōmi nainde ka ~tsu… kaerimasu.’ 灰廻航一「へ…!?あッあの…ッ。ボクそういうの興味ないんでかっ…帰ります。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Huh...!? Uh, um... I’m not interested in that kind of thing... I’m going home.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘… Usoda na. ALL MIGHT o sonkei shi ‘hitodasuke’ o shumi to suru. Sonna omae ga HERO no shigoto ni kyōmi ga naidato?’ ナックルダスター「…嘘だな。オールマイトを尊敬し「人助け」を趣味とする。そんなおまえがヒーローの仕事に興味がないだと？」 Knuckleduster “...That’s a lie. You respect All Might and make “helping people” your hobby. You’re saying you’re not interested in being a Hero?”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iya demo BOKU no heboi “kosei” ja PRO no shikaku nanka toremasenshi.’ 灰廻航一「いやでもボクのヘボい〝個性〟じゃプロの資格なんか取れませんし。」 Haimawari Kōichi “But with my pathetic “quirk,” I can’t possibly get a professional license.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘FUN, sore ga dōshita.’ ナックルダスター「フン、それがどうした。」 Knuckleduster “Hmph, so what?”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Dōshita… -tte…’ 灰廻航一「どうした…って…」 Haimawari Kōichi “So what… he says...?”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Kyōryokuna “kosei”‘ ni ‘PRO shikaku’― sonna mono wa shin no seigi ni wa mattaku kankeinai. Nasubeki koto o mae ni shita toki kōdō o okoseru ka hi ka! ! HERO no tamashī ni towareru no wa tada sono ichi-ten nomi!!’ ナックルダスター「「強力な〝個性〟」に「プロ資格」―そんなものは真の正義にはまったく関係ない。成すべきことを前にした時行動を起こせるか否か!!ヒーローの魂に問われるのはただその一点のみ!!」 Knuckleduster ““Powerful ‘quirks’” and “professional qualifications”—those things have absolutely nothing to do with true justice. The only thing that matters to a hero’s soul is whether or not they can take action when faced with something that needs to be done!”

Regarding the things lost in translation previously Kōichi used ‘ore’ (俺) to refer to himself but now he switches to ‘BOKU’ (ボク) all written in katakana. Katakana is used for foreign words but ‘boku’ is clearly not one. In this case katakana is likely used to add emphasis so as to grab the reader’s attention, Not only Kōichi is using the umbler ‘boku’ compared to his usual ‘ore’ but what he says, as well as him being all humble (using ‘boku’ is more humble than using ‘ore’), doesn’t match with what he feels.

Anyway… it’s true that Knuckleduster is advantaged compared to All Might as he had already seen Kōichi in action and knows his heart is in the right place, but still All Might doesn’t believe Midoriya can do something without a Quirk and also his offering isn’t purely selfless. He wants Midoriya to replace him, Midoriya who is a bullied 14 years old boy who idolizes him and doesn’t even tell him the risks Midoriya is going to face since he is not passing him a random Quirk, he is passing him the Quirk AFO is after with the specific duty to oppose to AFO.

Mind you, Knuckleduster’s offer isn’t perfect either as being a Vigilante is a crime and he lied when he said Kōichi he would make him a true Hero, but Kōichi is older, well aware of the risks, not blinded by idolization nor emotionally vulnerable due to bullying and was basically ALREADY being a Vigilante even if he was acting in a way more tamer manner. Knuckleduster actually tried to teach him how to do the job and he did so without overtraining him. The same can’t be said for All Might.

VIG is also a story that talks about justice, justice being helping who’s being wronged, where BNHA was a lot about the respect of rules and enforcing the respect of rules being justice to the point the kids wonder if them breaking the rules to help Bakugou would make the same as Villains.

Through the story we’ll see VIG is a story a lot more prone to discuss and challenge rules than BNHA has ever been.

Said all this at the moment Kōichi’s main concern is that Knuckleduster’s words confirm him the guy doesn’t have a Hero license.

For the ‘lost in translation’ part it is worth to note Kōichi calls Knuckleduster ‘kono ossan’ (このオッサン “this old man/geezer”) which is a slang with a rude nuance that expresses displeasure or mockery towards the other person.

‘Kono’ (この “this”) points to something/someone physically close to or held by the speaker and emphasizes the speaker’s physical, emotional, or situational proximity. It can have three effects:

it can single out someone in the current context, separating them from others, showing either arrogance/confidence or personal involvement. For instance, ‘kono watashi/ore’ (この私/俺) translates to “this very me” to emphasize your personal involvement or qualification and we see that Enji tends to use ‘kono’ when he refers to himself to remark how HE can do something (differently from others) or how HE won’t be troubled by something (differently from others)

it can brings someone closer to the speaker, common when gently addressing a child ‘kono ko’ (この子 “this child”) or a pet, implying intimacy or affection.

In some casual contexts adding it to a pronoun can imply irritation toward that specific person. It’s this case but it’s also the case of how Sōga will refer to Knuckleduster in a moment, calling him ‘Kono KUSO JIJĪ’ (このクソジジイ “this shitty old man”), clearly being way ruder than Kōichi.

 The word ‘ossan’ originates in ‘oji-san’ (おじさん), which means “uncle”, but may also refer to a man of certain age. However ‘ossan’, never means “uncle”, just “old man”. As it is a bastardization of ‘oji-san’, it’s more casual and lacks the level of respect that ‘oji-san’ would have therefore it can be used to either be disrespectful, rude, toward an old man one doesn’t like, who doesn’t deserve respect or it can be used by someone who feels they’re close, buddies, friends, and formalities aren’t necessary. By the way, you can start using it for people after their 30’s. Long story short this is why the official translation went with “this old fart”, though to me it feels more rude and mocking than what Kōichi would have used. Maybe it’s just me.

Meanwhile Sōga has recovered and grabs Kazuho, criticizing Knuckleduster’s idea of justice.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘ZAKE ya gatte… nani ga “seigi”da kono KUSO JIJĪ?’ 釘崎爪牙「ザケやがって…なにが〝正義〟だこのクソジジイ？」 Kugisaki Sōga “You’re kidding me... What kind of “justice” is this, shitty old geezer?”

It is not revealed right now but Sōga’s behavior stems from how, as a kid, he was victim of Quirk discrimination. We can see that Sōga is a perfect result of the ideas behind the “Labeling Theory”.

For who’s not familiar with it the “Labelling Theory” posits that self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent in an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. The theory was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and some modified versions of the theory have developed and are still currently popular. Stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. Labeling theory is closely related to social-construction and symbolic-interaction analysis.

VIG strongly discusses personal identities so of course Sōga’s identity being the result of what the “Labelling Theory” speaks of makes sense (though I’ve no idea if Furuhashi is familiar with this theory).

Anyway, back to Sōga, he makes clear he is not taking Kazuho as a hostage but that he plans to ruin her face with his Quirk as this will be the only satisfaction he’ll get that night.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘Hitojichi nanka ja nē!! Kono onna no tsura (read: TSURA)A ‘SPIKE’ de GUCHAGUCHA ni shite YANda yo! Sō shinēto ore no ki ga osamaranē!!’ 釘崎爪牙「人質なんかじゃねー！！この女の面（ツラ）ア「スパイク」でグチャグチャにしてヤンだよ!そうしねえと俺の気が収まらねえ！！」 Kugisaki Sōga “She’s not a hostage!! I’m gonna smash this woman’s face to shreds with my Spike!! I won’t be satisfied until I do it!”

More ‘lost in translation’. The reading for this kanji 面 is ‘tsura’ (つら), so yes, technically there is no difference between how it is normally read and the reading given in terms of sounds… but writing it in katakana instead than in hiragana is mainly used as slang in spoken language in a way that emphasize the anger of the speaker. I guess they could have said “this woman’s fucking face” if they wanted to add the nuance of how angry Sōga is but it is not a big deal.

Sōga’s next sentence has a nuance that is even more subtle as his ‘I won’t be satisfied unless I do it’ expresses a strong, stubborn determination to take action because your emotions or sense of justice require it. So it ties with Knuckleduster’s talk about justice, Sōga VIEWS HIS ACTIONS AS JUSTICE.

It is worth to mention that in Japan there is the belief justice is not tied to ‘moral absolutism’ (morals exist outside of us and they are absolute rules we should follow, certain actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of context, culture, or personal beliefs) but to ‘moral relativism’ (moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others).

Due to this Sōga can believe his own actions are “justice” and THIS IS WHY THE CHAPTER STARTED ASKING WHICH WAS THE VIGILANTES’ SENSE OF JUSTICE as “justice” isn’t viewed as an absolute.

And this is where, I’ll admit, VIG is brilliant.

As if in answer to Knuckleduster’s statement “The only thing that matters to a hero’s soul is whether or not they can take action when faced with something that needs to be done!” Kōichi jumps into actions to save Kazuho… but he does so WITHOUT USING HIS QUIRK. He just tosses himself at Sōga in order to free Kazuho before the latter could hurt him.

It’s not that a weak Quirk could make him a Hero, the Quirk wasn’t even needed to fit the description, therefore even readers, who clearly have no Quirk, can be heroes as long as they take action. Kōichi can be a Hero with a weak Quirk or with no Quirk at all because all it takes is him doing something to help.

Now that Kazuho is safe, Knuckleduster finishes the job, knocking Sōga out for good and then checking his tongue too. He still writes down their info just in case and then turns his attention to Kōichi insisting on how he’ll teach him to be a Hero.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘SUKAtto suru zo!! Kozō, korekara omae ni wa HERO to iu shigoto no yarigai o jikkuri oshiete yaru. Akutō o naguru to SUKAtto suru zo!!’ ナックルダスター「スカッとするぞ！！小僧、これからおまえにはヒーローという仕事のやりがいをじっくり教えてやる。悪党を殴るとスカッとするぞ！！」 Knuckleduster “This feels great!! Kid, I’m going to teach you the rewards of being a hero. Punching bad guys feels great!!”

For the lost in translation, Knuckleduster calls Kōichi ‘Kozō’ (小僧) which originally refers to a young Buddhist monk. By extension, it is also used to refer to young apprentices or immature, impudent children or young immature youths who aren’t yet fully competent. Likely in Knuckleduster’s mind, he chose such word because he wanted Kōichi to be his apprendice.

Akutō (悪党) primarily refers to “people who commit evil deeds” that are morally or legally contrary. Interesting enough from an historical point of view this is also how, starting from the late Kamakura period to the Nanboku-cho period, the “anti-establishment forces”, groups of samurai and farmers who rebelled against the ruling system, such as the shogunate and manor lords, were called. Of course the meaning Knuckleduster is going for is the first but it gives you an idea of the relativity of things.

Anyway this sentence defines Knuckleduster and, more or less, the Hero world from which Knuckleduster came (even though we’ll find out about this much later). Knuckleduster feels better when he can beat evildoers/Villains and this is more or less a teaching all the Heroes are passed on. While not all of them are as thrilled as Knuckleduster when beating people, they don’t hold back or search for mediation. They just beat the Villains as soon as they spot them without regards for the damage Villains might suffer.

Knuckleduster adds a sense of pleasure for doing his work that not all the Heroes express so openly or feel so markedly.

Psychologically, his pleasure is partly closely linked to an innate desire for social fairness as seeing someone who broke the rules being defeated provides a sense that balance and justice have been restored to the world, but also to how, with the loss of his own Quirk, he couldn’t be a Hero any longer and this allows him to still feel one. Lastly this also offers him an outlet for his feelings of anger and retaliation. Knuckleduster is a victim of AFO who also lost his own kid and has his wife being hospitalized. He is searching people involved with Trigger in attempt to find his daughter but also who destroyed his family. Sōga and Co weren’t involved in this but they still over him a vicarious release for his own suppressed anger and frustration.

Kōichi might have a Hero spirit in the sense he has the urge to help others but, at the same time, he is the opposite of Knuckleduster as he doesn’t come from a culture of violence, his approach is through mediation or avoidance, not through beating the other party, quite opposite to Knuckleduster but also to Midoriya and Bakugō who wanted to physically beat the Villains, so, seeing Knuckleduster expressing so unabashedly how good it feels to beat the bad guys and how he wants Kōichi to feel the same, Kōichi doesn’t feel drawn to him, he actually thinks the guy is just more dangerous than Sōga and Co.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘(Kono toki... Ore ga omotta no wa `arigatō’ demo `tasukarimashita’de mo naku... Motto yabai no ga kita! ! ...Datta. ) Ze... Zenryoku de jitai shimasu…’ 灰廻航一「（この時...俺が思ったのは「ありがとう」でも「助かりました」でもなく...もっとヤバいのが来た！！...だった。）ぜ...全力で辞退します…」 Haimawari Kōichi “(At that moment... what I was thinking wasn’t “thank you” or “that was a relief” but something even worse has arrived!!) I... I’ll decline with all my might...”

As I said Kōichi is old enough, compared to Midoriya, to see that Knuckleduster’s offer is bad news. He’ll later will let himself get dragged into this mess anyway, but he does so with awareness, not with the blind faith of a kid who believes his Hero is giving him the chance of his life.

The chapter closes with Sōga and Co who are limping their way back home, Sōga still angry and wanting to beat Knuckleduster and Kōichi while Moyuru tells him for their own well being they should just stay away from them when they are approached by someone else.

The guy in a salaryman suit, which we’ll later learn is named Kugutsu Mario, notices their sorry state and claims to have the ‘KUSURI’ (クスリ “medicine”) they need and, saying so, he shows them the content of his suitcase which has 6 vials, which are actually syringes filled with Trigger, which is something VIG invented, though it doesn’t get named yet. Now medicine is usually written 薬 which reads the same. The decision to write it in Katakana emphasize the word itself, hinting at how it is not really a medicine. The chapter ends here, with the promise of new troubles for our Heroes.

The anime and its differences with the manga

So… the anime transposition really changed A LOT, therefore I will list only the big stuff.

We start with the anime trying a lot to take advantage of the popularity of BNHA by having Midoriya of all the people (or better his voice actor) doing the general introduction of the world of VIG right at the start of the story even though Midoriya is not a character in the story but, of course, who is watching VIG because they watched BNHA, would immediately recognize his voice.

It also changes the initial scene as in the start of the manga we were only seeing Knuckleduster walking but here he walks toward Kōichi and Kazuho and then the three of them start walking together, Kōichi leading the way, which basically spoilers how the two of them will become Vigilantes too, as if this wasn’t already hinted clearly enough by the opening theme.

The introduction of the world ends with Midoriya’s voice actor saying that this is the story of Vigilantes who try to become real Heroes before Midoriya went to U.A. school, remarking again how the anime assume viewers are watching VIG due to its connection with BNHA as only people familiar with BNHA would care about this info.

The anime then also cuts the flash forward and starts with All Might’s action.

Maybe in an effort to tame down the violence in anime it seems unclear how All Might actually broke the teeth of the Villain, at most a viewer might notice what seems to be a tooth flying away but they might miss it.

The anime also cuts Kōichi’s thought about the bad guys and the Heroes towering over them.

The anime changes things as Kōichi in the manga is late for work while in the anime he is late for class which shifts slightly the timeline. As Kōichi works and study, the fact he was late for work meant he had already attended lessons and therefore that we were in the afternoon. If instead he still had to go to school, we’re in the morning. The change though isn’t a big deal as it introduces how Kōichi is also going to school… and it probably feels more friendly to young readers, who might feel closer to someone who go to school than to someone who go to work… even though Kōichi’s age doesn’t change.

And now here there’s a big cut in the anime.

In the manga Kōichi originally used his Quirk to leave the place but he was caught by a cop and so he was forced to use his legs to run away and crashes into Sōga as he complains about what the policeman says claiming he doesn’t go around crashing into people… before crashing into Sōga.

The anime instead HAS HIM TO RUN AWAY WITH HIS LEGS, and use his Quirk only to escape to Sōga.

Basically in the anime Kōichi doesn’t break the law using his Quirk on the public street if now when forced by the need to escape and doesn’t complain about the police. We’ll see the anime will often cut everything that can be cut and that works to criticize society.

Also this is minor but in the manga Kōichi slams into Sōga because he turned to look behind himself (as if he were to look at the policeman who scolded him), while in the anime he runs straight against Sōga which seems dumber, at least they could have had him slam into Sōga the moment he turned, which would have explained why he didn’t see him.

On the other side, by placing a vending machine near Sōga, the anime subtly explains why Sōga had a drink with himself, subtly implying he had just bought it.

The anime has Sōga fall on the ground when he fails to kick Kōichi, which seems an attempt at ‘excusing’ Sōga’s anger toward him but it doesn’t speak greatly of Sōga’s balance.

Since it wasn’t done before, in the anime we get NOW an explanation of who Kōichi is and how his Quirk work, done by Present Mic’s voice actor instead than by Kōichi.

In the anime we have a flashforward as from the light the sun is clearly setting when Pop☆Step is having her concert and, at it we can see Ichimoku and Teruo. It makes sense as when the chapter was drawn Furuhata might not have planned them yet but the anime know they are Pop’s fans.

While in the manga Kōichi claims it is dangerous to have a concert because Pop doesn’t have a permission to do it, in the anime he only hopes the police won’t find out, which is a way tamer way to put it.

Kōichi’s quote in the anime is changed so that he seems more appreciative of Pop… which might be the anime’s attempt at trying to place more traction in a potential Kōichi/Kazuho ship. In fact while in the manga Kōichi was aware of his surrounding and that was why he could warns Kazuho the police was coming, in the anime he seemed to have been hypnotized watching her to the point he almost forgot he had to run to work and left only when it dawned to him. In the anime we also see Pop following him with her gaze as he leaves, while in the manga she didn’t pay him attention, not even to thank him for warning her.

Cutting the police coming there to stop Pop somehow tames down the fact what Pop was doing was illegal.

The anime also has Kōichi fall before he says life isn’t fair… which seems to excuse such a bitter statement.

To avoid problems with the copyright the anime calls the place where Kōichi works Family Family instead than Family Mort.

I liked how they placed screen showing All Might in action behind him so as to remark the difference between them.

As basically a full day has gone by when Sōga meets Kōichi again, the fact he is still holding a grudge comes out as worse.

The anime cut how Moyuru poured a drink on Kōichi, showing only Sōga and Rapt kicking him.

In the manga Kōichi complain Sōga and Co should be the ones the police should go after (implying they shouldn’t go after him or Kazuho) while in the anime he only says the police should do something regarding them, which tames down Kōichi’s critique of the police and society.

On another side the anime shows Inko looking as she should have looked when Midoriya was in Elementary School as they are clearly aware of the thing.

The anime has to cut how Kazuho is there to thanks Kōichi for warning her about the police, as that never happened in the anime, and also it cuts how she saw him being beat up by Sōga and Co at the convenient store, calling him lame, to which Kōichi replies he isn’t good with violence. The anime also cut how him having an All Might’s hoodie has nothing to do with fighting. As if all this cutting wasn’t enough, the anime cut Kazuho asking Kōichi to work for her.

All this makes Kazuho way nicer than she was in the manga, Kōichi’s warning against the police less impactful and him ruder for a less valid reason. So yeah, it changes things a lot.

Dulcis in fundo, they changed how Kazuho angered Sōga.

In the manga she was running away from Kōichi and slammed into Sōga, then yelled at him for being in his way, in the anime she moves her arm to slap Kōichi, who had been rude to her, and hits Sōga by mistake, which makes more ‘legitimate’ how he is angry at her as he views the thing not as her slamming into him by accident but as her hitting him.

By the way the whole thing is forced as hell as he had to walk too close to her for her to manage to hit him and even then the hit would have been barely noticeable.

The anime makes more clear how Sōga and Co want to unmask Kazuho by showing them trying to remove her make up clearly trying to tone down the rape vibe.

I’ll say the scene in which Kōichi tries to act is better done as in the manga first we were presented with what he think would happen and then we saw what happened, while in the manga we only see what happened and it’s faster and clearer and more smooth.

The anime cuts part of Kōichi’s monologue about how Heroes save the day only in case of disasters and Villains but life’s troubles aren’t limited to the big stuff, in another attempt to tone down critiques to society.

The anime also cuts Knuckleduster asking Rapt and Moyuru if they are on drugs before hitting them.

In the manga, when Knuckleduster calls him, Kōichi assures him he doesn’t do drugs while in the anime he claims he is not with Sōga and Co. so I guess the anime wanted to remove the mention of drugs as much as possible which, considering the role Trigger has in the story, is kinda difficult.

When Kōichi jumps into action the anime put some focus on his feet as if he were using his Quirk, even though he wasn’t doing it in the manga, and the fact he wasn’t doing it was a plus point so I don’t like how the anime tried to make it look like the opposite was true because, I guess, Quirks are cool.

The anime changes a bit the order of the dialogue as in the manga Kōichi thinks Knuckleduster is dangerous BEFORE the latter told him he would teach him how good it is to beat evildoers, while in the anime he will do it after that is said.

Lastly, since Ep 1 covers a bit of chap 2 they moved scenes so that first we see Knuckleduster at Kōichi’s home, a scene that was in chapter 2, then we go back to what we saw in chapter 1, with the scene of Sōga and Co meeting the drug dealer, only in the anime the drug dealer isn’t Kugutsu Mario but Number 6.

It is not a bad idea as this gives him more space as the main antagonist instead than having us waste time with a minor antagonist. Too bad though since the anime doesn’t have a season 3, Number 6 doesn’t get a proper ending.

The rest of the episode focuses on chapter 2 so I’ll stop here.

...but likely it was because BNHA is so driven by its author's intentions the characters ends up not what it would be logic for them to do but what Horikoshi needs them to do.

Mind you, all the characters in a story do what their author wants them to do but the difference is that normally their author tries to make their moves look logical and their own decision.

As you mentioned when Homura learnt she couldn't rely on her time power she tried other solutions and this is logic and build up on her characterization. It seems a thing she could have chosen to do, one htat made sense for her to do.

On the other side Horikoshi needs Midoriya tohave a Quirk and use it because the editor said so.

Originally Midoriya wasn't meant to get a shiny new Quirk, but then Horikoshi was asked to give him one and so the plot ended up revolving on Midoriya having to learn to use such Quirk, the Quirk hurting him creating drama that then gets undone by Recovery Girl who fixes him back to zero so that Horikoshi can use him for a new adventure the following day instead than have to wait a month for Midoriya to recover.

So Midoriya doesn't think he could also use a capture cloth like Aizawa or something like that until he doesn't get used to his Quirk because he just has to use that Quirk for the plot to work.

Using his Quirk is his only way to be a Hero, the story is clear about this. Until it decides to take it from him and give him a suit, that's it.

At least those are my two cents about it.

And yes, I'm being bitter but the whole 'you can be a Hero only if you have a Quirk' thing is ridicule when in the cast we have people like Hagakure who can only turn invisible but somehow manages to get a better result than Midoriya in the qQuirk apprehension test because Midoriya needed to end last DESPITE using OFA once and therefore getting an amazing result... never mentioning he could have used it also in the last exercise since then the test would end so as to get a better result but nope. We couldn't risk him not ending up in the last place...

What is your opinion in how Horikoshi handled Midoriyas bullying in the manga.

Well, I've been pretty vocal in the past on how I DO NOT LIKE AT ALL how Horikoshi handles Midoriya having suffered bullying in the past to the point I believe he made him someone who had been bullied, merely to ride up on how bullying was trending at the time due to how in 2013, in Japan, it was enacted an anti-bullying act which prohibits bullying, due to a 13-year-boy committing suicide in Otsu due to bullying in October 2011, and its parents suing three former classmates, their parents and the city in February 2012.

Mind you, the way Horikoshi handles bullying is tied to his beliefs that people should just bear abuse, don't give in to negative feeling and continue being the best version of themselves and reach enlightment or something but well, I still don't like it.

Finding the correct way to handle bullies is hard... but just being the best version of yourself won't stop them. AT ALL.

Vigilantes tackles bullies better than BNHA does.

To sum it up:

it conveniently removes a huge part of the reason why Midoriya was bullied/discriminated by others, giving him a shiny Quirk.

it offers Midoriya zero help beyond him receiving a Quirk. All Might knows Midoriya has been bullied and all he thinks Midoriya needs to overcome the trauma of having been bullied is fight with Bakugou. TWICE.

By the way Horikoshi tackles Midoriya's trauma and pain as something Midoriya has to overcome, and then procedes to have him just do so with a minimum effort.

Midoriya's admiration for how strong and determinate Bakugou is overshadows what should have been Midoriya's disgust for Bakugou's negative side. At the start Bakugou wants to be a Hero out of greed and wish for popularity, looks down on everyone, breaks laws by using his Quirk, mistreat people when they don't do as he pleases. He is basically in all but the name a villain but hey, he is strong and determinate and the Heroes aren't setting their eyes on him so he is cool and admirable in Midoriya's eyes.

Midoriya's admiration for Bakugou is handled as something valid and not worrisome at all when often admiration toward your abuser is born due to unhealthy copying mechanisms or from the belief you are abused because you are different/worse and therefore, if you were the same as your abuser, you would be free of abuse

Midoriya's lack of sense of worth is not handled as a negative trait but as a noble one, because, thanks to it, Midoriya sacrifices for others.

Midoriya overcomes his abuse so quickly and so easily he never gets to have a meaningful conversation about it. By the time Bakugou feels sorry for it, Midoriya barely remembers he was mistreated and while he probably apprecciated the apology it doesn't make an impact on him the way it should, it more makes him realize he was being mean telling his classmates they couldn't keep up with him, handling them as extra the same way Bakugou used to do even if for different reasons.

Bakugou comes to the realization Midoriya shouldn't be abused because he is a great person and that he abused him because he was afraid of how great Midoriya was which annoys me the most because no matter Midoriya's worth, no one deserves to be abused. Midoriya could have been a failure of a person and could have remained a failure of a person and he still wouldn't deserve abuse. I'll overlook the whole 'Bakugou abused Midoriya because he was afraid of him' because it is not a recurring reason for abuse but it can be one, but it still feels like propaganda.

There's probably more but I know some of it is cultural (I hate how the oh so awesome class A do not act in face of how things are between Midoriya and Bakugou but in Japan it is considered wrong to act in such private business) so I'll cut it here.

Or what is your opinion on how Midoriya was written in general.

And this question is why I took so long in answering because there are so many things I would want to say but I want to try to keep it brief.

There's an ongoing debate in the fandom which says Horikoshi wrote Midoriya poorly due to lack of love toward Midoriya. I don't think the problem is lack of love.

I think at the start Horikoshi genuinely wanted to see himself in Midoriya, to see in his wish to become a mangaka, Midoriya's wish to become a Hero.

But my problem is... he didn't seem to know what to do with Midoriya and since Midoriya is the main character, all the story's flaws in writing hit him way harder than anyone else.

Horikoshi do believes Heroes easily overcome trauma so Midoriya quickly and easily overcomes the fact he had been bullied by Bakugou, which stripped him of a potential layer of internal complexity as well of an internal struggle... something that foreshadow how he'll recover from having to act alone post the first war thanks to a bath with his friends.

Horikoshi's decision not to criticize society despite it being messed up ends up shutting down Midoriya's abilities of analyzing, criticizing and improving it. All Midoriya will say in the end is that yes, society is complicate so he'll offer a helping hand but that's it. Stain saved him but he never again pondered on that. He figured early on Tomura wasn't saved but... didn't matter. Lady Nagant told him the HPSC used to have her kill Heroes and he... fundamentally doesn't care? His only involvement with the Heteromorph plot is through ordinary woman and he is more concerned with reassuring her that those who had attacked her did so because they were scared than with how she got attacked in the first place or how shelters refused to welcome her. He demands Muscular to tell him why does he rage and if there was no other path for him and.. well, then the discussion dies here. The civilians would want to abandon him out of U.A. High in his time of need and this doesn't spark anything inside him because Uraraka manages to switch their mind. Ultimately Tomura tells him he has to stay a Villain to be a Hero fro Villains and... that's it. This becomes an indrance to his growth, as if he fundamentally accepts a society that is presented as flawed as it is without any interest in criticizing or changing it he becomes a static main character. Offering a helping hand is nice but that's it.

By the way this ends up affecting Midoriya's empathy, which is represented in a messy way, sometimes it's there and pushes him to act to his personal disadvantage, sometimes it's just not there, either because it would be a hindrance to the plot (he had to beat Shinsou even though he realized Shinsou has troubles and he couldn't show an interest in him as it was Aizawa the one who should help him and it has to be Uraraka who makes Quirk counseling so he just... does nothing) or because it would go against the idea that society needs to be accepted as it is, trauma needs to be overcome and everyone should just be the best version of himself. The result is Midoriya comes out more righteous than empathic. We start tame as with Kouta is main concern was persuading Kouta it is okay to want to be Heroes (aka accepting how Hero society works), instead than conforting the kid for his loss and accepting he wasn't ready yet to move on and we get worse when said empathy should be extended to Villains. He tells Overhaul he'll help him solely if he'll apologize to Eri. He moves from wanting to save Tomura to only wanting to know why he acts this way and forces his way through his psyche. He has no sympathy for Touya's pain, claiming he is looking at Endeavor as he tries to be better, when he actually had ignored him for 7 months and he happened to look at him in the last 3 months merely because he was interning under him. Himiko told him he liked him but he expressed no grief when she died, nor felt like he had abandoned her when he chose to go fight Tomura instead.

Horikoshi's liking for surprising twists ends up making Midoriya's choice to become a teacher so not foreshadowed it seems a thing decided last minute even if he actually planned it.

Plot needs also erase all the arc about Midoriya's struggle to control OFA without destroying himself which is just waved away as his arms all of sudden won't break anymore because... they got used to it... and later on when he'll lose them they'll get returned soon enough. Something similar happens with his additional Quirks with he quickly learns to handle to the point they ends up being a boring power up.

And should we mention how, always for plot reasons, we are meant to ignore the fact Midoriya's father is missing or how we are expected to be invested in a love story with Uraraka that Horikoshi himself didn't portray as really interesting and that remained stalled for 8 years?

The result is I do not get interested in Midoriya.

His struggles are solved way too easily, his view clashes with mine, his behavior is not an example I would follow. I don't feel inspired to save others when I watch him punch Tomura into dust.

(sorry for any typos, I'm using a translator).

It’s okay, I’m not a native English speaker myself, I understand how hard it could be to talk a foreign language!

1. At what age did Fuyumi start caring for her younger brothers? I believe there was a nanny before, but Fuyumi doesn't mention her. What did she do with the children and the household? Did Fuyumi help Natsu with his studies and send him to school, but she stayed home herself, presumably to be with Shoto? Did she cook his favorite dish, soba? Did she provide them with emotional or other support?

Well, technically Fuyumi AND TOUYA were probably involved in taking care of Natsuo just after his birth, though it was likely a gradual thing and they weren’t immediately fully entrusted Natsuo but just helped Rei taking care of him.

We know from School Briefs for example that, after Shouto’s birth, Rei, who previously would bathe with Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo, stopped doing so to bathe with Shouto, leaving her other three children to bathe alone, meaning Touya and Fuyumi were helping Natsuo, who was 3, to take his own bath.

Entrusting the older siblings with taking care of the younger siblings, where possible, is pretty common in Japan (and not only there).

In Vol 10 there is a small story about Asui’s family and we see since her parents travelled a lot she was left in charge of taking care of her younger siblings, even cooking for them when she was 13 and who knows if she had started doing so earlier than that.

Long story short, in Japan it wouldn’t be seen as a big deal but a normal responsibility that would fall on the oldest siblings.

We don’t know if there ever was a nanny in the Todoroki house. Japan normally do not use nannies, Chap 302 says Enji hired help after Shouto’s birth but insisted for Rei to look after Touya so said help might have been just for housework (In chap 2459 is said they used to have someone to cook for them), or for looking after Shouto, and not after Natsuo, though School Briefs insists it was Rei that looked after Shouto, with the result she had no time for her other kids.

We see an old woman watching as Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo play but I doubt it’s a nanny as in Japan Touya and Co are old enough to play on their own in the garden of their house without supervision while their parents are there. After all Midoriya and Bakugou, at 4 could go alone to play in a playground that was near their house and we see that Tomura does the same as 5. Really, Japan is pretty lax about children’s supervision, they didn’t need to have a nanny in that moment.

It is also worth to mention there is no nanny that is held accountable for supervising over Touya and his trips at Sekoto Peak, Enji blames just Rei so even more it is unlikely there was someone looking after the kids.

The result is the old woman might have been their grandmother or a servant passing by. We’ll never know.

Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo likely all went to school together, with Touya and Fuyumi checking over Natsuo and helping him with homework if Rei wasn’t available, though kids are often pushed to handle their homework alone so it’s not like his siblings HAD TO supervise him, they more likely offered help. After Touya’s death I guess all this was done by Fuyumi only.

Fuyumi went on with her studies so she didn’t remain home to supervise Shouto either, and when she stopped studying she started working as a teacher so no, she didn’t have to look after him the way a mother would.

In theory Shouto should have gone to their own same school once he was 6 so Fuyumi and Natsuo should have gone to school with him but since Natsuo apparently had zero interactions with SHouto growing up… who knows. It is more likely a plot hole.

(And no, Enji’s driver wasn’t their home’s driver, Kurumada worked for Enji the Hero not for the Todoroki the family so he likely didn’t carry his kids at school and we have no mention of other drivers. The kids should have gone to school by foot like the rest of the kids of their age.)

We know for a long while the Todoroki had a servant who cooked for them, then she retired and  Fuyumi AND NATSUO started taking turns to cook food. Apparently they never ate with Shouto as Natsuo has no idea if Shouto even ate what he cooked (it really doesn’t make sense as if that wasn’t the case who was cooking for Shouto? Enji? And didn’t Natsuo realized if the food was being tossed away or not?).

From School Briefs we know Fuyumi cooked Soba for the new year, as that is a traditional dish to celebrate it. She probably cooked it in other circumstances as well.

We also know Fuyumi supported Natsuo and became a teacher because she was ashamed she couldn’t help Shouto.

We don’t know how her interaction with Shouto was but, if you ask me, from the little we see it seems she wanted to be supportive and look after him… but Shouto seemed to keep distant in the early chapters and he calls her nee-san instead than nee-chan like Natsuo does, nee-san being a more polite way to say sister that might imply he is not as close to her as Natsuo.

2. How close is Fuyumi to Shoto? The communication ban was lifted after Toya's loss, so does that mean Fuyumi was raising Shoto? Was she like a mother to him? How does Shoto feel about Fuyumi?

We have no idea if the communication ban was ever lifted or if it was formally lifted in the first place but also, after Rei is hospitalized there is no one to supervise them and maintain the ban since Enji works till late most of the days, so it is possible the ban simply went forgotten and they could have talked if they wanted to. It was just that Natsuo was so grief stricken it never dawned on him he could talk with Shouto.

The relationship between the Shouto and Fuyumi is mostly left unexplored and is riddled with plot holes but Shouto doesn’t seem to see Fuyumi as a replacement for his mother. He doesn’t even seem particularly close to her.

We also know Fuyumi took care of Natsuo WHO DIDN’T INTERACT WITH SHOUTO, so Fuyumi couldn’t really split and be there for both. She likely focused on Natsuo because she was used to do so and Natsuo likely asked for her and tried to look after Shouto too who might not have been open to it due to the trauma of losing his mother because she had protected him.

This is speculation though. The truth is we don’t know.

3. Did Fuyumi visit Rei in the hospital before Shoto started visiting his mother in Season 2? What is Rei's relationship with her daughter?

Yes, she did. According to chap 250 apparently Rei only had problems seeing Shouto post Touya’s death (again this is the result of a retcon and things got messed up futher).

Fuyumi and Rei seem to have a good relation. We see them interact in School Briefs too and it is clear Fuyumi is taking care of her mother and supporting her and so she had been doing for years. We don’t know when exactly it started though as in the beginning it could have been done by Rei’s mother or by a servant. Still the two get along well.

4. I'm very interested in Toya and Fuyumi's relationship. Toya called Fuyumi useless as a child and didn't share secrets with her like he did with Natsu. But Toya agreed to play with Fuyumi, didn't attack her like brothers in the future, and continued to call her by the close suffix "chan" and didn't speak ill of her. Does Toya love his sister? How close are they?

We need to look at the contest.

Touya called ALL OF THEM ‘failures’ because that’s how he believed his father saw them.

He also said his mother and sister are no good BECAUSE THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND him. We know Fuyumi sided with her parents, she didn’t want Touya to train because he would get hurt and she was worried for him, and she also didn’t want people to argue in the family so she meekly obeyed to what she was told and pretended everything was all right because she was too scared to act (with good reasons considering how Enji used to beat Rei because she acted).

We see though that she invites Touya to play and worries when he falls and he agrees to play and calls her Fuyumi-chan which is an affectionate way to call her, so it is not that they had a bad relation all the time, it was just Fuyumi couldn’t offer Touya the support he needed… and back. They were just kids after all and that was too big for them. We can’t compare them to adults.

5. Fuyumi is often accused by fans of forcing Natsu and Shoto to reconcile with their father, calling it manipulation and disregard for their feelings. Were Fuyumi's attempts to reconcile her brothers with their father selfish and manipulative? Did she truly neglect her brothers for the sake of a family reconciliation? How was this portrayed in the original? I'd like to explore this further.

Fuyumi is not FORCING anyone. She has a right to say she wants the family to reconcile, she has a right to invite them to family dinner with their father. They have a right to refuse.

The way Natsuo has the right to express his feelings on how he doesn’t want to reconcile, Fuyumi has the right to express her own. They are family and they are siblings, she doesn’t have to keep her feelings secrets same as he doesn’t have to. They have to be honest with each other.

Of course their own problem is that their respective wishes are conflicting and this makes things complicate because Natsuo is so traumatized he is not ready yet to meet her midway.

Still Fuyumi creating chances for reconciliations is not wrong per se if she leaves Natsuo the freedom to reject them.

In School Briefs we see that she warns Natsuo Enji will come back home and Natsuo decides he’ll leave before he’ll be home and she doesn’t stop him. In Japanese culture a reconciliation is something the family SHOULD DO and it is viewed as a good thing for all the members. Japan is big on reconciliation and group harmony.

To give you an idea Bakugou is not part of Midoriya’s family yet because they know each other from childhood he and Midoriya are expected to be friends by society.

As for Shouto, Shouto started seeing Enji after his match with Midoriya and decided to give Enji a chance after the latter decided to atone. Fuyumi didn’t force him to do it all, it was Shouto’s decision and saying it was Fuyumi who forced/manipulated him brings away Shouto’s agency in the matter.

I forgot to ask in the previous message. Was it a bad thing for Fuyumi to give Shoto's phone number to their father without his permission? I constantly see this moment presented as an example of Fuyumi's disregard for Shoto. But maybe she gave his number out of mentality or circumstances? I'd like to know if Fuyumi should really be blamed for this and said to have done something bad? Or is there something else that fans are missing? I love Fuyumi and I'd like to know she's innocent, but if she is guilty, I'd also like to understand that.

It really depends on your culture. In mine a minor cannot independently purchase or register a telephone contract or SIM card. However, they can own and use a telephone if their parents are aware of it and allow it. Basically no minor as a right to have a phone and keep for himself his telephone number. To me it seems ridicule that Enji had to ask because Shouto is a minor and he is just not allowed to that kind of privacy as it is a parent’s duty to check on a minor’s phone and Fuyumi couldn’t buy a phone for him and give it to him without Shouto’s father’s approbation.

But other cultures might feel differently.

For example in Japan Shouto can do all of the above… with Enji’s money as Shouto doesn’t work and has no money of his own. Or yeah, I guess Fuyumi could buy one for him without asking for Enji’s permission. However in Japan parents can—and are strongly urged to—control and monitor their children's mobile devices (they even have a law about it, the Act on Development of an Environment for Safe and Secure Internet Use for Youth).

So the scene more than of Fuyumi violating Shouto’s privacy speaks of Enji’s failure in parenting as he wasn’t controlling Shouto’s mobile device. Fuyumi is not violating Shouto’s privacy in this setting, she is helping Enji to act like a father.

On the whole the scene in chap 203 is meant to be humorous, Enji is making a big deal of gaining something he should have had from the start, and then he proceed to stress Shouto by sending him plenty of messages because Horikoshi is trying to paint him as an helicopter parent instead than an abusive parent.

As I said before though, if in a country a boy of Shouto’s age can have a phone and doesn’t have to have parental control in using it, it might feel like a violation of his privacy. He gave his phone number to Fuyumi and, if Fuyumi didn’t ask Shouto first, the fact she gave Enji his number would be a violation of Shouto’s trust. Since Shouto isn’t surprised to receive messages from Enji I think Fuyumi told/asked him beforehand and then passed the number to Enji, mediating between the two.

The truth though is that we don’t really know how things went, just that Enji had that number thanks to Fuyumi’s help.

Said all this… there are mostly my interpretations. Horikoshi doesn’t really devote much time on the relationships between the Todoroki siblings so we have no canon answers and people is free to disagree with me and come up with their own interpretation.

But how close were they actually? Did touya ever genuinely held affection for him?

According to Fuyumi they were very close because they were always playing together.

Todoroki Fuyumi ‘Natsu wa Tōya nī to totemo nakayoshi de ne… yoku isshoni asondeta.’ 轟冬美「夏は燈矢兄ととても仲良しでね、よく一緒に遊んでた。」 Todoroki Fuyumi “Natsu was very close to Tōya nī… they often played together. ” [Chap. 250]

We also know Touya trusted Natsuo enough to elect him as the person with whom he could confide his misery...

Todoroki Tōya ‘Jibun ga naze sonzai suru no ka wakaranakute mainichi Natsu-kun ni naite sugatteta koto shiranee daro.’ 轟燈矢「自分が何故存在するのか分からなくて毎日夏くんに泣いて縋ってた事知らねぇだろ」 Todoroki Tōya “You didn't know that since I didn't understand why I existed, I cried and clung to Natsu every day.” [Chap. 290]

...the only one who could understand how he felt...

Todoroki Tōya ‘Natsu-kun made ore o tashinameru no ka! ? Yamete kure! Natsu-kun shika rikaidekinai kara hanashi terunoni! ! Wakarudaro ie no on'na wa kai dame damenada!’ 轟燈矢「夏くんまで俺をたしなめるのか！？やめてくれ！夏くんしか理解できないから話してるのに！！わかるだろ家の女は皆だめだめなだ！」 Todoroki Tōya “Are you going to scold me too, Natsu-kun?! Please, stop it! I'm only telling you this because you're the only one who can understand! You know all the women in our family aren't good (at understanding this)!” [Chap. 302]

...which is confirmed by Natsuo as well.

Todoroki Natsuo ‘Uton deta wake janai...? Dattara nani...? Ore wa zutto Tōya nī kara kikasarete kita….’ 轟夏雄「疎んでたわけじゃない...？だったらなに...？俺はずっと燈矢兄から聞かされてきた…」 Todoroki Natsuo “So you weren't shunning us? Then what? I've been hearing about this from Tōya nī all this time...” [Chap. 252]

So I'll say they were close... but being close when referred to children of that age and who do not have a solid support from family isn't exactly the same as being close when one is older and more psychologically all right.

Touya desperately needs Natsuo's support and it crushed him when he believed Natsuo too was turning his back to him, which really doesn't make for a healthy dynamic, especially since Natsuo is fundamentally a kid and can't offer the kind of support Touya needs.

Still, the moment Touya wakes up from coma his thoughts are for his family. He excuses them, he wants to apologize to them.

Todoroki Tōya ‘Ha… sonna matte yo kaeranakya! Otōsan wa shigoto ga haitte ko rare natta dake kamo shirenai kitto……! Shinpai shite…!! Hidoi koto o shitashi… ittashi… okāsan-tachi ni ayamatte… otōsan ni mata mite morawanakya.’ 轟燈矢「は…そんな待ってよ　帰らなきゃ！お父さんは　仕事が入って来られなっただけかもしれない　きっと……！心配して…！！　ひどいことをしたし…言ったし…お母さんたちに謝って…お父さんにまた見てもらわなきゃ。」 Todoroki Tōya “Ah... no, I have to go home! Father might just have had to work and couldn't come, surely...! He must be worried...! I did and said terrible things... I have to apologize to Mother and the others... and I also need to get Father to see me.” [Chap. 302]

This, combined with the trauma of what had happened and the trauma of having to escape from the orphanage, made even worse how he came back home and came to believe no one cared for his supposed dead.

Touya loved his father, mother and siblings, that's why he wants to go back, he wants to apologize, he is making excuses to explain why Enji didn't come, but when he came to believe they didn't care at all about him, love turned to anger. They hurt him, he'll hurt them back as hard as he can.

“Odi et amo. Quare Id faciam,fortasse requiris. Nescio,sed fieri sentio et excrucior.” (I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured.) [Catullo - LXXXV)]

“If you can just stop loving her then you never really loved her at all. Love doesn't work that way. If you ever truly love someone, then it never goes away. It can become something else. There are all different sorts of love. It can even become hate- a thin line and all that- and, really, hate is just another kind of caring.” [Blakney Francis - Someone I Used to Know]

“No one can hate you more than someone who used to love you.” [Rick Riordan - The Blood of Olympus]

Its no doubt Natsuo did.

Natsuo did love Touya, but he loved him like a child can love an older sibling, it's a love selfish, dependant and immature, and then Natsuo idealized Touya as his father's victim, deciding Touya's death was another way had Enji hurt him. He never truly got to know or understand Touya, what lived in him was the pain of the loss as well as, likely, a buried sense of guilt because he couldn't save Touya, because he got bored to listen to him crying.

Natsuo likely doesn't fully remember Touya, because he just was too young and the trauma of his death helped Natsuo to form a certain type of memory of Touya.

Long story short, Natsuo doesn't really know Touya, not even the kid that he had been, he has in his mind an idealized version of him whom he loves very much, to the point that in School Briefs they say he pays more attention to his deceased older brother than to his living younger brother.

How do u think Natsuo reacted knowing Touya almost caused him to die via Ending?

I don't know if Shouto and Enji even informed Natsuo of that. The video which went viral didn't include this info, that was just something Touya told Enji personally, though the scene can seem confuse because the manga and the anime play Touya's dialogue with his father and the video alternating one and the other so that they seem to be a continue flow of dialogue.

Touya might have heard the video playing as he spoke if Skeptic put it in on mode, but I doubt Enji and Shouto did as they were distant and I genuinely doubt Skeptic's pc has such powerful audio, yet sometimes it seems as if the voice of the video is framing them.

The video though was edited and shared BEFORE Touya started talking with his father, so it can't include what Touya says to Enji right then.

Long story short, I doubt Shouto went and told Natsuo about Ending having been set on Enji by Touya so I don't think Natsuo ever had to react to that

I personally think natsuo prolly cut touya from his life as well after ch 426. He didnt even look at Dabi throughout the whole chapter, untill like once when dabi closed his eyes.

Nobody truly knows.

Technically, since Touya can handle conversations only for few minutes each day and Enji promised to be there everyday and Natsuo doesn't want to see Enji ever again, this also offers him a convenient excuse to never see Touya again.

Differently from the rest of his family Natsuo didn't express a wish to talk to Touya, he just went there once and can't truly met his gaze until the end, but Touya doesn't seem to answer them and they are ushered out... until Shouto tries again to talk to his brother and gets an answer.

Maybe Natsuo needs time before being ready to face Touya, maybe he will never get enough time as Touya will die first, we'll never know.

What we know is that Natsuo is also built to stand in opposition to Shouto, to basically underline how Shouto is better because, in the story, Shouto should be the model at which people should get inspired.

So, even though Touya personally tried to kill Shouto and told him hurtful things and Shouto could have spared himself going there as he is not the one to blame for what had happened to Touya, Shouto is there and wants to talk with Touya and connect with him and he is not worried of how Touya, with his actions, had basically ruined them all as Japan isn't kind with people who are related to criminals even if they bear no blame.

Sadly Natsuo in the story was used more as a device, a device to represent and try to win over readers who disliked Enji (that's why at the end of the story Natsuo first sends Enji to fight AFO and then he calls him father for the first time and tell him he is cool) but also to show how amazing Shouto is, the true Hero of the family.

Natsuo gets some space, definitely more than Fuyumi, it is possible to build analysis about him, but he deserved more, especially in his relationship with Touya... but well, we have what we have.

I think the best way to go at it is to reshare the table I shared in this post

It shows which age the League members would have turned into when they would have their birthday in the year in which Shouto started attending U.A. High.

I'm working on a better version but it will be shared on my other account, @thetodorokifamilyannotated.

If you want them in order by the age they would turn into during the year in which Shouto started attending U.A. High from the oldest to the youngest (including some other Villains for which we have ages) we have:

AFO who's around 138

Garaki who's around 120

Stain, Gentle Criminal and Atsuhiro who're all 32

Kurogiri is technically 31 same as Jin, though the entity known as Kurogiri can exist by at most 14 years since Shirakumo died at 17.

Overhaul is 27

Muscular is 26

Touya is 23

Shuuichi is 21 same as La Brava

Tomura is 20

Himiko is 17

We do not age ages for Giran, Magne, Moonfish and Mustard, but Mustard is suspected not to even be a high schooler so he is 16 (16 would make him in the first year of high school) or younger. Horikoshi completely forgot about him which is a pity because he was interesting but I guess Horikoshi decided Himiko had to be the baby of the League and so he kind of removed him from the story.

I'll say Giran, Magne and Moonfish are all adult from the look they have but we have no canon references for their ages and in BNHA you don't need to be an old person to have grey hair so this doesn't help.

So my stance is that Horikoshi did consider Quirk discrimination from the start, that he planned to have Shouji's backstory being revealed at a certain point, but that he never managed to develop it well through the story if not in small hints.

Something that is worth to point out is that through the whole manga people get named after their own Quirk be they Heteromorphs or not.

Bakugou is the guy doing so more often than everyone else, calling Shouto first Icy bastard and then Half 'n' half while Touya gets called Blueflame by Geten.

Calling someone something different than their name is rude so yeah, it is rude even if you don't know about Quirk discrimination and it gets double when this person is in a position of authority.

Shouto calls Tsuragamae only "dog" in the Japanese version, but in the English one they decided to go with "mutt" which is a term used as an insult in real life too, an insult considered rude, dehumanizing, and offensive which stems from a term for a mixed-breed dog and, historically, as a synonym for "fool," making it inappropriate and demeaning to many.

In short in English it sounded very rude and since Shouto is normally not so rude it stood out.

Probably if Tsuragamae had been a cat and Shouto had called him "cat" it would have been remembered less.

Since I'm at it in Touya's case it also stood out he called Shuuichi 'lizard' because Shuuichi protested loudly at the name.

They're scenes that leave more of an impression than when it's done for other characters by other characters even if readers do not know about Heteromorph discrimination... in fact no one remembers Sero calling Shouji octopus, even though that was the first example of the use of calling people with Heteromorph quirks with animal names.

The scene is just less memorable, there is hardly any discourse about him being racist.

How bad Shouto and Touya's sentences are in canon though?

Horikoshi pushes forward the idea that city people do not know about Heteromorph discrimination.

Except for Shouji, class A seems completely unaware of the whole thing, with Mineta realizing only in that moment that comparing Shouji to a octopus might have been the equivalent of a slur instead than just a joke.

So yeah, Shouto and Touya were being rude but they likely had no idea they were being THAT rude because somehow they managed to remain ignorant of Heteromorph discrimination

Still, people had discussed they might have known what they were doing.

I doubt it for the simple reason that, when Shuuichi protests, Touya is confused. Touya was regularly being rude with everyone else, so he likely had called Shuuichi other things and Shuuichi hadn't protested it, he had done so only when he was called lizard (we see he won't complain when Touya will call him an empty cosplayer) because that one stung it... while Touya couldn't understand why that world made Shuuichi react.

People has discussed if Enji or Rei could have taught them to be discriminatory (calling them racist is technically wrong as Heteromorphs belong to the Japanese race same as them).

This because Enji is considered a jerk and therefore not above doing such things and Atsuhiro made a comment about how the Himura should have been prejudiced against Heteromorphs because now the Himura are the new evil and not Enji.

Enji actually hired Heteromorphs as his own sidekicks from a guy with a horse head to Burnin who apparently can't turn off the fire in her hair (and this qualifies her as Heteromorph) so it is hard to think he has something against them.

As for Rei the argument is poorly constructed because the Himura weren't actually prejudiced against Heteromorphs, they were prejudiced against whoever wasn't an Himura but gave in and let Rei marry Enji instead than a distant relative because he brought money and prestige on the table and the Himuras needed them.

However, since Horikoshi wrote that insane reasoning he might think the Himura (and possibly Rei too as she is an Himura), are more discriminatory than others toward Heteromorphs.

We'll never know.

Still for Horikoshi the premise is that city boys just do not realize such language is that bad because they just don't know about Heteromorph situation. We can discuss how realistic this is, but this is the way he set the story.

All this to say I get why in the fandom there is a discourse about this topic, but I do not think Horikoshi's intention was to portray Shouto as racist.

I'm sorry about your country's problems and I understand you wanted BNHA handle things differently. I've been thinking long and hard to what I could reply but I doubt whatever I will say will satisfy you anyway I still wanted to try to give you my two cents.

I hope it is okay if I've split this in points

WHY HORIKOSHI DO NOT BOTHER PORTRAYING INSECURITY

Japan is the exact opposite of your country, Japan is considered one of the safest countries in the world and this ireflects in Horikoshi's work, in fact the population, despite the Villains going around, feels safe, believes Heroes will save them, the people in BNHA even handle Villain attacks like shows and stop there to watch or wear masks of the Hero killers.

THESE PEOPLE ARE SURE THEY WILL BE SAVED SO THEY BELIEVE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR.

And, interesting enough, it is Tomura who points it out, who doesn't understand why they are so sure they could be saved, because Tomura isn't just a Villain, he is also a victim that wasn't saved and believes the world is unsafe because, for him, it was.

In what for us is ironic, the Villains are actually the ones who most resembles the victims as we know them, the ones that were traumatized by living in an insecure place with no Hero coming to save them and they are a minority.

Normal people do not want that, they see no reason to change the world, they see no danger, society as it is, it's fine for them because Heroes will save the day. They have blind faith in them.

But Horikoshi went a step further than that. When society in act 3 crumbled he didn't focus on how it crumbled because it was actually flawed. He focused on how IT SHOULD NOT HAVE CRUMBLED BECAUSE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE CONTINUED TO HAVE FAITH IN HEROES, keep calm, continue to support the Heroes and do as the government say.

The Heroes have a plan, the Heroes had shelters, they should just be supportive and obedient and blindly do what the government say.

It brings me images of the Japanese people during WW2, which were notable for displaying a profound, state-enforced commitment to national sacrifice, bearing obediently the harsh conditions, the bombing, the extremely scarce food rations with unwavering faith in the state and in the ultimate victory.

It also reminds me of Gaman.

‘Gaman’ (我慢) is a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin which means “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity”. The term is generally translated as “perseverance”, “patience”, or “tolerance”. A related term, ‘gaman-tsuyoi’ (我慢強い), a compound with ‘tsuyoi’ (強い “strong”), means “suffering the unbearable” or having a high capacity for a kind of stoic endurance.

Gaman is variously described as a “virtue”, an “ethos”, a “trait”, etc. It means to do one’s best in distressed times and to maintain self-control and discipline.

Gaman tends to be misperceived by the non-Japanese as introverted behavior or as a lack of assertiveness or initiative, but for Japanese people is a demonstration of strength in the face of difficulty or suffering. Gaman is, in Japanese society, closely related to complying with conformity and silent heroism, which seems to be hidden pride for compensation for sacrifice and being satisfied to pay reciprocal service in advance or to being seen themselves as victims by folks. Showing ‘gaman’ is seen as a sign of maturity and strength. Keeping private affairs, problems and complaints silent demonstrates strength and politeness as others have seemingly larger problems as well. If a person with ‘gaman’ received help from someone else, they would be compliant, not ask for any additional help, and voice no concerns.

If a person fails to have/show ‘gaman’, the result could be a sudden manifestation of aggression.

Long story short, Horikoshi' deliberately decided that, despite the situation, society wouldn't be portrayed as insecure, that who would fall prey to insecurity, negative feelings or unwillingness to cooperate would be portrayed negatively because they should just bear the situation, cooperate and have unfailing faith in the Heroes/government and he didn't do so to absolve the Villains but because he believes this is how people has to behave.

Whoever doesn't is bad.

You are only allowed to be a perfect victim, just good won't cut it.

The Villains are, in the end the ultimate victims who failed to behave as perfect victims, failed to have gaman and turned against society.

The only concession he does to victims is that it is easier to act like he says victims should act if they also get some help.

Do I like this message he wants to spread?

Nope, I quite hate it, but his message isn't based on Horikoshi trying to downplay what the Villains do, it is based on him believing the behavior people/victims should keep is only of a certain kind and whoever can't keep it is wrong when it's not outright bad.

ARE VICTIMS DOWNPLAYED?

While the story do not focus on ALL THE VICTIMS OF VILLAINS, it actually focuses on some of them, who are considered relevant.

True, as this is a story about Heroes and Heroes in training most of the victims belong to those two groups or are related to people belonging in those two groups but they are still victims.

We have All Might, seriously wounded by AFO, Bakugou, who is victim of the Sludge Villain, something that is remarked more than once through the story, the whole class A which is attacked by Villains at the USJ, iida, whose brother is attacked by a Villain, Midoriya who is taken obstage for a short while by Tomura, Kouta, whose parents were murdered by Muscular and who was also attacked by Muscular, class A & B, who were attacked by Villains at teh school campus, Bakugou, taken as obstage, Ragdoll, kidnapped and whose Quirk was stolen, Eri, Sir Nighteye who gets murdered, Rock Lock, who gets wounded, Giran, kidnapped and maimed (and yes, he is a Villain but he is still a victim of another Villain group), Shirakumo, who got killed, Midnight who met the same end (along with a bunch of Pro the story didn't really care to develop) and, I would remark, the Todoroki family is a victim of Touya's actions as Japan will not treat kindly people who is related to a Villain.

Yeah, the story hardly talk about Saito (not Kaito, his name is Saito) because YES, Saito exists for the sake of Himiko's backstory, which is extremely summarized and has no need to dig on Saito because that story is used twice and meant to explain us how and why Himiko, who was supposedly a normal girl, became a Villain.

We couldn't have Himiko becoming a Villain without her committing a crime, hence Saito gets stabbed. It could have been anyone, really, because we are talking about Himiko here, about how and why she became a Villain, not about civilians getting victimized by Villains. And, interesting enough, we get to hear the voices of Himiko's classmates, of Himiko's parents (as I said Japan isn't kind to relatives of Villains) so it's not like victims do not get a voice, but victims weren't the purpose of those flashbacks.

In a story where the Villains are meant to be more than MOB characters, a random personification of evil, you have to spend time flashing them out.

This is not downplaying the Villains' actions, this is just making them characters.

Victims have plenty of representation already by the time we get to hear that Saito got stabbed.

Yes, their representation was shaped according to Horikoshi's beliefs so we see how Iida's wish of revenge is portrayed negatively, how class A and B, being true Heroes get over the trauma of having been attacked by Villains like they wound to an unpleasant tumble, how Kouta is basically taught he should just apprecciate Heroes and the fact his parents died to save people because, and I quote "there's no better way for Heroes to meet their end, an honorable death".

Actually in an OAV and in a School Brief sidestory short after the USJ attack U.A. High teachers pretend they are being attacked by Villains again because the kids have to learn to overcome the trauma of being attacked, by being forced to bear more trauma.

And, of course, it doesn't help that the rewarding system for Heroism in Horikoshi's story ERASES part of the Villains' actions, so that Bakugou actually doesn't die and Edgeshot's body is restored and Tensei eventually can go back being a Hero and so on.

Still we see plenty of people mourning, suffering, crying because Villains did hurt people.

If readers do think that Midoriya's mom being scared to death for her kid because he was attacked by villains do not matter, if they think Iida's pain for what happened to his brother do not matter do not matter, if they think that Mirio and the others crying over Nighteye's death do not matter, if they think little Eri going basically through captivity and torture do not matter, well, no amount of crying victims telling their own sad story of victimhood would manage to influence them.

DO NOT PORTRAYING THE IMPACT OF THE VILLAINS' ACTIONS DOWNPLAY THEM?

Maybe this comes with me not being anymore a kid and having experience with things but I do not need to see/hear the victims of an action to know that crimes hurt people.

I can very well picture in my mind what poor Saito should have felt when he was stabbed by a classmate, and I probably would even picture his reaction and his life with the trauma in a way that is worse than the one Horikoshi would use as I don't think trauma can be easily brushed away just by hearing a teenager girl sing a song about how she wants to be a Hero too (I am referring to the scene in which Eri overcomes her trauma because she hear Jiro sing).

I know what Himiko did to him wasn't right, that it hurt him, his family, his friends, her family, her friends.

On the other side, this is a story, not real life.

BNHA isn't the accurate portrayal of a real life story.

I do not have to care about Saito because all the characters in this story merely exist TO ENTERTAIN READERS. Their success but also pain, their victimhood exits TO ENTERTAIN READERS.

Saito's existence in the story merely as a mob character those use is to give Himiko a backstory is entirely valid. He shouldn't be handled like a real victim of a crime because he doesn't exist. There is no need to offer to someone who doesn't exist our sympathy, like we would do for a real person who were victim of a stabbing attempt.

People are free to feel indifferent toward him or hate him and wish Himeko had stabbed him harder because they should be capable to differentiate between fiction and real life and can wish on him everything or not to care about him at all, which would be a horrible thing to do in regard to a real person who instead DO NOT EXIST FOR THEIR ENTERTAINMENT.

And this is also why people is more focused on the LOV than on their MOB victims. The LOV is simply way more interesting to discuss, as characters and AS VICTIMS OF A SOCIETY THAT IS PORTRAYED AS DEEPLY FLAWED since it condones abuse of children and discrimination, which, by the way, in some countries are also viewed as crimes so the Villains are perceived not as the only criminals in the story.

Not on Touya or on the Todoroki family, but on Enji.

And it's a giant size mess story wise only marginally better of how Touya claimed before Enji turned number 1 he wanted to kill Shouto and never made a single attempt against his life in those months after he decided to join the league and Enji turned number 1, not even when they faced each other during the training camp, as he only worried to retreive Bakugou.

I mean, let's assume to get at Enji he kept his eyes on Touya who secretly train on Sekoto Peak FOR 13 YEARS without doing absolutely nothing.

As far as we know he doesn't approach him, he doesn't try to manipulate him, he just keeps his eyes on him in hope something happens. He just keeps his eyes on him and waits.

What if TOUYA NEVER STARTED A FIRE ON SEKOTO PEAK?

It's something completely random that doesn't even make sense in the story how Touya can't suddently snuff out his fire. It might not have ever happened for all AFO knew.

Hell, Enji could have done the smart thing and show up because, as far as we know, it wasn't like AFO held him back.

I mean, with Tomura AFO definitely orchestrated things starting from triggering Tomura's birth but what about Touya?

AFO is absolutely uninvolved in him, nothing could have happened and AFO could have still be watching him for all he knew... but okay, let's put this aside and let's assume AFO was still keeping tabs on him through some cam he placed on Sekoto Peak or maybe through another Quirk Horikoshi made up out of the blue for this purpose and that was never mentioned before, saw him burn and... waited to show up until Touya managed to toss himself in the river, snuffing out the fire on him before it cremated him into fine dust.

I mean, if Touya hadn't managed to snuff his fire out he would have turned into dust.

The fire was above 2,000°C.

Fire at or above 2,000°C will easily break down, incinerate, and calcine bone material, as it far exceeds the temperatures needed for bone combustion. While standard cremation operates between 900°C and 1000*C, bone mineral (hydroxyapatite) begins to break down, melt, and turn into brittle ash at temperatures exceeding 1,100°C.

I don't know how much material Garaki needs to make a Nomu but it might not have sufficied.

AFO should have rushed there as soon as Touya took fire if he wanted to be sure to find something salvageable for his masterplan which is... maybe he'll use him as a replacement for Tomura who is already with me by 5 years (as he took Tomura when he was 5 and Tomura should have been 10 when Touya burned) and is giving him no problems and doing very good. I can totally see a reason to replace Tomura, sure. AFO was having so many problems with him, we were told so many times that... no, actually we weren't.

Why AFO would replace Tomura with Touya, when Tomura is obedient and is a slap to All Might and a spit on Nana to annoy Enji with whom he hardly interacted is beyond me. The only explanation is 'oh but AFO is so evil! Surely he wants to hurt Enji too!'

Then why he waits THREE YEARS before waking Touya up and when things do not work he let him go because anyway Touya was going to die and NEVER TRY TO HURT ENJI'S FAMILY AGAIN?

We have hospitalized Rei, whom he could manipulate easily, we have 'desperate to have her family back' Fuyumi, we have angry Natsuo, who doesn't even acknowledge Enji as his father and we have golden boy Shouto who also hates Enji and on whom Enji isn't keeping his eyes every waking minute because, differently from what fanfics say, ENJI IS A PRO HERO VERY BUSY WITH HIS HERO WORK AND CAN'T KEEP ON MONITORING SHOUTO 24 HOURS AT DAY!

I mean there were 4 other people AFO could try to use in those 7 years between when Touya woke up and when he joined the League and AFO did nothing.

And he did nothing because Horikoshi hadn't planned this at all since Enji was originally meant to die in the previous war, Horikoshi had pulled it out last minute to make AFO even more evil and had created giant plot holes as a result because he didn't even know how to handle it well.

He could have fed Enji the story of how he actually manipulated Touya, encouraged him to pursue Hero career, of how he tricked him into assuming a variant of Trigger the day he burned, which was what lead him to lose control of his Quirk, he could have said he kept on checking on Touya so he knew he survived and lived on his own, actually he could have even said that Touya only believed he came back home but no, he was shown an illusion to break him and make him leave the Todoroki house but no, none of this happened.

AFO just picked up Touya and then, when Touya decided to leave, he let him go and washed his hands clean with the Todorokis only to remember in the middle of a battle that yeah, he had picked Touya up and SAVED HIM. Because with such burns it would have been unlikely Touya would have survived the time it would have taken for Enji to get there, find him and bring him to a hospital.

Burns over 80% of the body are very difficult to survive and Touya had burns over 100% of the body. Hell his jaw detatched from him! (and his legs and arms should have done the same...)

AFO teleported there but Enji didn't have such luxury nor he knew exactly where Touya was.

Really, the way Horikoshi presented the situation is a mess that shows how little he planned and cared about the Todorokis at this point.

Even Enji's oh so tragic past is clearly a late spurn of the moment and brushed over to the point it is completely forgettable.

My fave example is Recovery Girl's Quirk which at the start can heal Midoriya without worring about his low stamina or setting his bones and then... can't anymore because first Horikoshi introduces the idea it needs stamina and than that bones will be set... and also in a way her quirk was presented as a magical fix it all at the start, the explanation why UA can do school exams that risky without students dying, only for her Quirk not being enough to save Nighteye.

Basically her Quirk was retconned along the way to suit the story's needs.

Then, always to suit the story's need, we are introduced to mutant Quirks like Eri's that pop up out of nowhere and to Quirk awakenings.

Plus Quirk powers get nerfed so that the only one who gets almost killed by Touya's intense fire is Touya himself as Hawks, who clearly has no fire resistance, only get some scars, instead than melting here and there.

Should I mention how some of them do not make sense? I mean, enjines in the legs? A rifle in an arm? How would bodies produce mechanisms? But also their power challenges natural laws.

And theres probably more but these are the ones that first came to me.

Horikoshi should have better written the Quirks' rules so, even though it would have been a fictional element, it would have made sense.

In it the only one we can see clearly is the one who will become Natsuo and who looks like Enji and seems bigger than his siblings.

He was probably not already planning to create Dabi at this point so it is possible he wasn't thinking deeply at the siblings, their looks and their backstories. For all we know Natsuo could have looked bigger because originally he was meant to be the oldest.

We see the three of them have white hair, with, at most, some red streaks (no idea why the anime decided to turn Touya's hair red when Horikoshi very clearly made them white... maybe they figured/were told Dabi was Touya and assumed since he was a fire user he had to have red hair... or maybe Horikoshi asked them to retcon his hair... we'll never know).

When he decided to create Dabi though, the fact he already showed Natsuo's face made him no good material to become Dabi, the most mysterious guy of the story. This left him with the kid that was turned from the viewers or, potentially, with the option to create a 4th sibling which didn't appear in the image above.

I also think that Dabi's look was chosen also because it makes a good mirror for Shouto, though, of course, this is just me.

In truth we have no declarations from Horikoshi saying why he chose such look for Touya, there's actually little about him so in the end we can only speculate.