My Hero Academia: Deku's relatable nature may have been the main reason behind fans' hatred

With the recent announcement of the final season, the My Hero Academia series is back in discussion among the fandom. While reviewing these discussions, a glaring negative theme has been identified regarding the series' protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, also known as Deku.

A few viewers and fans have started dragging Deku under the negative light as being weak and not up to par compared to other shonen anime protagonists. What's even more frustrating about the discussions is that these viewers have no concrete reasoning behind their statements, and when questioned, resort to calling Deku out for being a "crybaby."

Disclaimer: This article solely reflects the author's opinions and not Sportskeeda as a whole. This article may also contain potential spoilers from the My Hero Academia anime series.

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The fans' hatred for Deku from My Hero Academia comes from being too relatable

Being the protagonist of the shonen anime series, Deku has been the central character of the My Hero Academia series since day one. While the series does expand later, focusing on other characters, the storyline has always revolved around Deku. However, in light of recent discussions among fans, Deku has also fallen victim to one of the shonen protagonists' recent curses.

Similar to how Sung Jinwoo was treated after crying in an episode of Solo Leveling, Deku has also been heavily criticised for his behavior, mostly by his haters rather than the My Hero Academia fans. However, the haters can never truly provide an accurate and logical explanation for their statements, and in most cases, end up with "Deku is a crybaby."

The mangaka Kohei Horikoshi has created Deku's character based on how an actual person feels and functions, rather than an entirely fictional character who cannot show signs of weakness. Unlike several emotionless characters in shonen anime, Deku was born quirkless in a world where quirks meant everything, with a dream of becoming a hero and helping others.

Deku always wanted to be a hero in My Hero Academia (Image via Bones)

While he may have received the most overpowered and strongest quirk in the world, One For All, that didn't change his character roots, and he still was the boy with the dream. Deku understood others' pain, even that of villains, and often acted to help them, rather than just imprisoning or killing them for the sake of justice.

Even during the climax of the My Hero Academia manga, Deku wanted to help Shigaraki Tomura, a person responsible for the destruction and death of many, after understanding what he had been through. That kind of personality always comes with the expectation of emotions, and Deku expressed his feelings like a normal human being would.

Apart from being too emotional and occasionally crying out when unable to hold it in, there are actually no negative peculiarities in Deku's character to be hated. He is a simple boy with a strong quirk who wants to live his dream as a hero and help others in need. In my opinion, Deku is one of the best shonen anime protagonists written and is unnecessarily hated for being too human.

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Final thoughts

Deku is unnecessarily hated for being too relatable (Image via Bones)

Unfortunately, many shonen protagonists have been hated by the fandom under the same reasoning, and My Hero Academia's Deku was no exception. The shonen genre has always appealed to a teenage audience meant to look up to protagonists as role models. Anything other than the stereotype is regarded as flawed by many, and that is an unfortunate reality of the anime and manga verse.

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