My Hero Academia fans are wrong about Bakugo's main character status, and I can prove why

With the massive roster of characters offered by Horikoshi's My Hero Academia series, especially among the hero faction, the fans often confuse the status of many characters. While Izuku Midoriya or Deku is clearly the main protagonist of the series, the status of one of the characters has often been mistaken by the fans to be a side character, when in fact he is one of the main characters.

The character in question here is Katsuki Bakugo, also known by the hero name Explosive Hero: Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. While some fans have stated that Bakugo is a side character in the My Hero Academia series, he is a main character, if not the second most important character in the story thematically, and this article proves why.

Disclaimer: This article reflects the author's opinions and contains spoilers from the My Hero Academia series.

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Bakugo's deserving of the main character status in My Hero Academia, explored and explained

Since the first airing of the My Hero Academia anime series back in 2016, Katsuki Bakugo's introduction in the first episode was met with mixed reactions by the fans, particularly because of his character portrayal as a bully towards Izuku Midoriyam, the main protagonist. However, throughout the series, his character arc has undergone immense development and changes.

Once the fandom starts understanding the story's narrative from Bakugo's point of view, the conflict about whether he is a side character or a main character can be clarified. Firstly, Bakugo plays a significant role in Deku's life. Bakugo is the one who pushed Deku to become better from the very beginning and throughout their time in U.A. High.

In terms of the narrative, Bakugo plays an active and hyper-aware role in the series, contrary to Deku, who is more passive and oblivious. Bakugo also has several things going on for his character arc that are both intriguing and bring a fresh spin to the storyline. While the fans saw his brash and aggressive nature, it was also easy to miss that Bakugo greatly suffered from an inferiority complex.

One of the main motives for him to push himself and become stronger was that he wanted to catch up with Deku, who, after receiving the One For All quirk, also trained hard and started becoming one of the strongest characters of the series. Furthermore, Bakugo's initial portrayal as a bully also started to gradually disappear as he became closer to Deku and the others from Class 1-A.

To create more appeal to Bakugo's character arc, the story also gradually kept providing more information about him, which also helped towards the development of the fans' outlook towards him. While everyone says how Deku was a big fan of All Might, Bakugo also kept a card of All Might in his pocket.

While acting shy and proud to ask for an autograph, he conveyed that with his brashness, to hide his fanboy self from the others. The contrast in Bakugo and Deku's characters is massive, further solidifying Bakugo's character as a main character rather than a side character, conveying a different perspective of the story.

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Final thoughts

While Deku being the protagonist solidifies his role as the main character, Bakugo is also a main character because of the character arc and perspective he brings into the My Hero Academia story's narrative, which also to a greater extent influences Deku and the others' roles, especially during the Final War arc, when he fought against Shigaraki and All for One.

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