My Hero Academia: Is Izuku and Ochako’s relationship canon? Explained

My Hero Academia has plenty of popular ships, but the narrative is seemingly heading towards Izuku Midoriya x Ochako Uraraka.

These U.A. students have been looking out for each other ever since they first met in My Hero Academia. Of course, even a strong friendship can blossom into a romantic pairing. Ochako's romantic interest towards Deku is well documented by this point in the series.

While it's not the most popular ship in the fandom, it does have a lot of followers. The question remains whether Kohei Horikoshi will confirm or deny the speculation, and it all depends on how the story ends in the near future.

Note: This article reflects the writer's personal views. It will also contain major spoilers from the manga.

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Does My Hero Academia series ever confirm that Deku gets with Ochako?

It remains to be seen

My Hero Academia is still an ongoing series. The final arc could potentially end this year, so it remains to be seen if there will be a time skip featuring the main characters getting married. At the moment, the heroes are focused on fighting the villains.

Romance is rarely a main priority in a shonen manga. Weekly Shonen Jump readers mostly expect a lot of action sequences. Their largely male audience is geared towards the genre for that very reason. It's not to be confused with shojo manga, which deals with themes of love on a much larger scale.

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However, the series is strongly leaning toward it

Ochako's crush on Deku is a major subplot that gets a lot of screen time in My Hero Academia. Some may argue that her entire character arc revolves around her unresolved feelings towards him. This has been pointed out by several characters, including Yuga Aoyama, Himiko Toga, and Mina Ashido.

It should be noted that Deku has displayed attraction towards Ochako before. He blushed like a red beet when he ran into her during his first time exploring the U.A. When both students worked together in the Battle Trial arc, Deku was visibly distracted by Ochako's hero costume.

At the very least, if they did end up together in My Hero Academia, there would be some buildup towards it. Most shonen manga have obvious female love interests for the male protagonist.

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What about Deku x Bakugo?

Deku x Bakugo might be the most popular ship in My Hero Academia, based on how they grow as characters alongside each other. With that said, those fans shouldn't get their hopes up. First and foremost, the series is largely heteronormative in terms of how characters are represented.

There is LGBT representation with the likes of Tiger and Magne, but they are very minor characters in the story. Canon gay ships are exceedingly rare for a popular manga, let alone between the main characters. Most importantly, the series doesn't remotely hint at romantic feelings between Deku and Bakugo.

What they have is a strong mutual respect for each other. Horikoshi is also not very subtle with shipping. There is no buildup for Bakugo in the same way there is for Ochako. My Hero Academia fans would have a much easier time arguing that Bakugo is asexual, based on his lack of interest in anybody.

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