#oquinn53

Detailed Warning: This post contains discussion of suicide-related themes. If you find this topic uncomfortable, please exercise discretion before reading. If you are having suicidal thoughts, there are resources to help you. You may not know how to ask for help, and that’s okay. You don’t have to do it perfectly or on command, but please try to reach out however you can.

Background

I want to give the most context possible for this line before we do anything with it, so here are the panels, the kanji and kana, the romaji, and every important translation I can possibly give you.

Panels:

Kanji/kana:

そんなにヒーローに就きてんなら効率良い方法あるぜ 来世は"個性"が宿ると信じて…屋上からワンチャンダイブ‼︎

Romaji:

Sonna ni HIIROO ni tsukiten nara kouritsuii houhou aru ze Raise wa “kosei” ga yadoru to shinjite...okujou kara WANCHAN DAIBU!!

Viz manga English translation:

You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof!!

Funimation anime English dub:

You know, if you really wanna be a hero that badly, there actually might be another way. Just pray that you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof of the building!!

That covers all the official material I can give you. Now let’s see what literal and contextual information I can provide.

The most literal English translation I can do:

If you want to be a hero that much, there is an efficient method. Believe a quirk dwells in the afterlife...one-chance* dive from the roof!!

The most contextual English translation I would do:

If you want to be a hero that much, there’s an easier way: A dive off the roof believing there’s a chance* you’ll find a quirk in the afterlife!

*Based on the linked explanation, I am translating WANCHAN (“one-chance”) as if it reads: “kanousei ga aru”/“CHANSU ga aru” (「可能性がある」/「チャンスがある」)

Since we have references to afterlife and reincarnation, I should point out that, in Japan, Buddhism is the primary influence on popular beliefs surrounding death. It’s hard for me to find much literature that’s freely available online, but I did find this nice little article that isn’t too long giving a basic overview.

Before we move on, I want to say one important thing:

((TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide should always be taken seriously. If you’re feeling trapped or lost or alone or hopeless, if you’re having suicidal ideation and don’t know what to do, there are resources to help you. You may not know how to ask for help, and that’s okay. You don’t have to do it perfectly or on command, but please try to reach out however you can.

If you find the topic of suicide uncomfortable, please take this message as your final warning. If you’re ready for the discussion, read on.))

There is an extremely important level of nuance that is virtually impossible for me to fully convey regarding the above line of dialogue. I note this with confidence because I spent literal years of my life studying it (albeit many years ago) and witnessed first-hand how difficult this concept is for many people to grasp:

Different cultures have different contexts and attitudes about suicide. My Hero Academia is written and drawn by a Japanese artist for a Japanese audience. If you are a reader raised in a western culture, this scene may come across differently to you than it does to a reader from another culture. That isn’t to say there aren’t important ethical discussions to be had about this scene, but I am going to write about this scene from a purely literary perspective. There will be no discussion of ethics or morality or real-world consequences with relation to the above dialogue. I will be treating this work, its world, its characters, and its dialogue as literary devices for fiction.

The Vestiges as Ghosts or Past-Lives

So, to your question, is there any foreshadowing or cosmic irony to be found in Katsuki’s choice of phrase, particularly any that may have been lost in translation?

My contextual translation:

If you want to be a hero that much, there’s an easier way: A dive off the roof believing there’s a chance you’ll find a quirk in the afterlife!

As you can see, the “dive” and “roof” pieces of the translations did actually come from the original Japanese line. Those bits probably inspired this question, because "swan dive” does seem oddly specific and potentially idiomatic. The line makes no literal reference to being reborn, but it does refer to the afterlife; the Japanese Buddhist afterlife most often ends with reincarnation, so you would be justified in considering the concept of rebirth in your analysis. You could even argue that the “chance [to] find a quirk in the afterlife” is an implicit reference to some version of karma.

I don’t know if people really caught onto this in chapter 304, but the vestiges of One For All are not ghosts, or spirits, or hearts, or past-lives, or even people.

They are quirks. Quirk factors, more specifically.

Those quirk factors give rise to independent consciousnesses. So the real Nana Shimura died many years ago, and she does not continue to live on inside OFA literally. There is a new consciousness in her likeness born as part of her quirk factor. As she retains the memories of the original Nana, she is not aware she isn’t the real Nana until AFO indirectly explains it.

The only exception to this is Yagi Toshinori--All Might--who put a piece of his real consciousness inside OFA. That piece could not arise from a quirk factor because he has none.

You’re going to love what comes next.

My literal translation:

If you want to be a hero that much, there is an efficient method. Believe a quirk dwells in the afterlife...one-chance dive from the roof!!

The word I translated as “dwells” is yadoru (宿る). This word happens to be how Yoichi Shigaraki describes Yagi’s situation in this panel (albeit the verb is conjugated into causative form).

From the first panel:

彼だけがOFAそのものに意識を宿らせていた

Kare dake ga WAN FOO OORU sono mono ni ishiki wo yadoraseteita

“Only he has made his consciousness dwell inside OFA itself.”

So, it looks like Izuku did find a quirk dwelling in some sort of afterlife. Gah, if only I’d written my “Katsuki Bakugou is always right” meta before now so I could link it here!

My thoughts (wait, there’s more?)

Excuse me, sorry, one moment, I just need to cross something off...

Well, we knocked out the foreshadowing part of your question, but I did sneak in the cosmic irony bit just because I can. So buckle up, buttercup.

[deep breath]

Let’s take a look at this series of three mysteriously incomprehensible pages from chapter 285:

It’s funny how many meta essays I’ve read trying to interpret this moment. Everyone has a different idea of what the hell is going through Katsuki’s head right here. Probably the take I’ve seen most often is that Katsuki is thinking, “Even if One For All came from evil, it’s done good,” or, “Even if One For All is connected to All For One, it’s also connected to All Might/Deku/the people I admire,” or something along these lines.

For me, I don’t see how those interpretations lead to feelings that are relevant to this scene.

Here’s how I currently read these pages...

Page 1: Katsuki understands that OFA is many quirks, that all but two of OFA’s users died young, that Shinomori died at age 40, that All Might has withheld Shinomori’s cause of death from him and Izuku. Katsuki’s put the pieces together much like how he figured out the connection between Izuku and All Might so many chapters ago; OFA is dangerous to Izuku, maybe even killing him.

Page 2: Katsuki thinks about All Might rescuing someone. At that age, he admired All Might for winning, not saving. The person who admired All Might for saving people back then was Izuku. This page isn’t about how One For All gave the world All Might and inspired Katsuki in childhood; this is about something new.

Page 3: Katsuki sees that Izuku is fulfilling his promise, that he is no longer the useless Deku of the past, that he is now driven to “[do] his best.” It’s likely Izuku won’t give up this fight until he is either victorious or dead. Throughout the entire sequence for these three pages, Katsuki is frowning hard; I’ve written before about how Katsuki frowns during rescues. He’s rushing in to save Izuku from some perceived threat.

Why is Katsuki so worried about Izuku? Is he feeling guilty for bullying him now that he’s realized the error of his ways? That just feels weak and wrong.

Perhaps...Katsuki feels like he’s the reason Izuku got One For All in the first place, and now Izuku is destined to suffer for it.

Reading these three pages together, I wonder if Katsuki feels that in a sense Izuku took his advice back in middle school, that he really did take a swan dive off a roof and die way back when, that he was reborn with a quirk (multiple, in fact).

Perhaps Katsuki’s thoughts in the chapter 285 pages will end up meaning something like this: