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My Hero Academiawrapped up about a year ago, but fans have been talking about the series to this day, largely due to the side projects that the author dropped, which also include two very special oneshots.
The first one-shot that Horikoshi dropped, which came along with the release ofMy Hero Academia’slast volume, was especially important as it went over the romance between Deku and Ochaco, which fans had been waiting to see for a very long time. Although the ending was quite easy to understand, some fans still had trouble accepting the truth. But now, Horikoshi has finally commented on it, and clarified it once and for all.
My Hero Academia One-shot Proves Izuku Midoriya And Ochaco Are Dating
My Hero Academia fans always knew thatIzuku Midoriya and Ochacowould end up together and that doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. They were built up to be together right from the beginning, but the author never clarified if he intended for them to truly end up together or not. My Hero Academia’s Final chapter, MHA 431, was the chapter where Deku and Ochaco officially started dating. Although they had been separated following the end of the war and didn’t spend as much time together, they still held the same feelings for each other. Following Deku becoming a Hero once again, the two got closer to each other once again.
I wanted to spend some more time with you. — Izuku Midoriya
In the most surprising turn of events, Deku and Ochaco confessed to wanting to spend more time with each other, and while Horikoshi didn’t officially show them dating or getting married in the future, it was quite obvious to most fans what he was going for.
Kohei Horikoshi Wonders If Fans Understood What He Intended
Fans will always want to know what Kohei Horikoshi thinks ofthe romance between Deku and Ochaco, and while he didn’t comment on it fully, he certainly did talk extensively about the last chapter. Here’s what Horikoshi had to say:
Question: Chapter 431 focuses on Deku and Ochako. In My Hero Academia, there wasn’t much focus on romance, was there any reason for that?
Horikoshi: Instead of wanting to portray romance in the story, I just wanted to show the contrastbetween Ochako and Togawith their views on love. Since romance is a very strong stimulus, as soon as you include it in the story, that’s all anyone is going to talk about, so I deliberately avoided adding it to the story.
However, since the setting of the series is at school after all, it would be rather dishonest to completely ignore romance, so it was pretty hard to think of a balance.
Thankfully, since Deku was always doing other things, he was unaware of any romantic feelings, and it turned out to be a good thing for me [since Horikoshi didn’t want to include romance in the main plot].
However, when Chapter 394 came around, the topics [discussed by Toga and Ochako] did touch upon that stimulus called love, so I knew that it would be strange to not follow up on that point later in the story, which is why I chose to write about it.
I never thought that romance would go well with the theme of the story of My Hero Academia, which is “to save and be saved,” nor would it make sense to include it in “the story of how we all became Heroes.” So that’s why I decided to touch upon it in an epilogue, like a postscript of sorts.
However, rather than depicting romance itself, I wanted to depict love in a form as part of something even greater, but I wonder how it turned out?
As is evident, Horikoshi confirms thatMy Hero Academiachapter 431 is romance indeed, and that Deku and Ochaco’s exchange is meant to be romantic. Hopefully, fans will see more of them together later down the line.
The My Hero Academia manga was wrapped up by the mangaka, Horikoshi, in 2024. The story features 430 chapters for fans to read. All these chapters can be found on Manga Plus, as the story used to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump when it was still ongoing.
When it comes to the anime, this series is still awaiting its final season, which will be released later this year. The series can be watched on Crunchyroll.
