it would be very difficult for any anime
character to make a worst first
impression than kotsky baka go he's
introduced as a belligerent unapologetic
borderline sadistic bully who takes joy
in beating up on those weaker than him
the first thing we ever see him do is
brag about how great he is and berate
his entire class especially Deku for
thinking they can even compare to him
and the second thing he does is destroy
Dec whose property and tell him to kill
himself he's reprehensible arrogant
mean-spirited and he's my favorite
character in the series and with the
second fight with Deku having finally
been animated I can at last explain why
also that fight means that my Watson and
Opie for the new ark is officially
spoiler safe so if you've been waiting
to watch that now's the time obviously I
didn't always have this opinion when my
hero academia first started I hated Baku
goes guts and I thought that he was one
of the weakest characters in the story
but as the show and the manga have gone
on exploring his character in greater
depth and allowing him to grow along the
way I've come to absolutely love him and
I'm not alone in Shonen Jump San Ewell
popularity pulls he shot up through the
rankings to first place taking votes
away from Deku and Todoroki in the
second poll the one that gave us that
delightful fantasy au from the third IDI
and pulling in almost twice as many
votes as his rivals who were nearly tied
in the third it's no mean feat to take a
character that much of your audience
straight-up despises and make him the
standout favorite so how did Kohei
horikoshi go about redeeming this
irredeemable bastard there are three
things that you need to do to properly
redeem a bad guy in your story establish
that he has a good side in the first
place demonstrate why from his point of
view his past bad actions seemed
reasonable and make him want to be
better the key to how heroic does this
lies in its use of perspective
throughout the story we see Baku go
mostly as others see him
belligerent short-tempered condescending
aggressive basically a nuisance at the
best of times and a bully at the worst
he's considerably more abrasive than
even your average Shonen rival who tend
to be either brash and stubborn but
good-natured or quiet brooding cool
types and when you lay out
character traits on paper it becomes
clear why that is baku go is proud and
confident and wants everyone in a
three-block radius to know it he's 100%
sure of his own abilities and with good
reason since despite his shortcomings he
has both incredible natural power and a
remarkable mind that lets him take full
advantage of it he's driven to overcome
those he sees as worthy rivals and
hungry for any opportunity he can find
to prove that he's the best his
overbearing personality pushes others
away from him leaving him with few
friends but he's got a strange magnetism
to him and those who do stick with him
become loyal diehard comrades
so he's overconfident loud mouthed
energetic passionate about fighting and
winning obsessed with his rivals and
deep down more than anything he wants to
be the best like no one ever was Baku go
isn't a typical rival character he was
forged from the mold of a stock Shonen
protagonist to be clear Baku go isn't
the first rival character to fit this
mold by a long shot
Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z exists as
essentially a dark mirror of the pride
ambition and thirst for a good fight
that drives Goku but the shown in battle
genre has evolved substantially since
Dragon Ball codified it and Baku goes
characterization is able to account for
those 35 years of development in DBZ
derivatives specifically he's clearly
based on Naruto whose influence can be
seen in his blond spiky puffball hair
his propensity for shouting like a
jackass and his name which is three
syllables long and contains the same
vowel sounds in the same order it's not
a perfect conversion of the Shonan hero
archetype doesn't really seem to care
about the power of friendship and he's
not an underdog at all but on a
fundamental level Baku go is driven by
the same motivations the reason he's not
sympathetic like Naruto is that we can
see him from outside his moped from the
perspective of save the townspeople
whose days are ruined by
running around putting graffiti on
things or the classmates whose
schoolwork is thrown off by him acting
like a jackass people who just see an
ill-tempered misbehaving kid not the
ambitious hero underneath and because
he's not the protagonist in fact he
makes the protagonist life hell were not
inclined to give him the benefit of the
doubt and assume that there's more to
him to be honest he was one of my
biggest complaints about the first
season of my hero he seemed like nothing
but a OneNote cliched bully but it's
that exact complaint that gives him the
potential to really surprise us I think
for most people watching the show that
surprised finally landed this season
when Bach ago was kidnapped by the
League of villains it's a scenario that
anyone familiar with Shonen manga tropes
will immediately connect with the Sasuke
retrieval art from Naruto which creates
a pretty obvious expectation this is the
moment where Baku go like Sasuke before
him we'll pay off the foreshadowing
established by his prior mistakes and
make the transition from established
rival to full-on major antagonists
except that never happens
she gurashi offers to let him join them
even playing on his base desire to win
at all costs but Baku go doesn't bite he
bites back attacking the villains the
very second he gets an opportunity and
adamantly declaring that the only way he
wants to win is by winning like all
night this is a truly heroic moment Baku
go is keeping his ideals so razor 8 and
fighting for them even though it puts
him in harm's way for me reading the
manga this single moment did so much to
turn around my opinion of baka as a
character and to improve my opinion of
the series story as a whole
Heroica has never been shy about toying
with the tropes laid out by it shown in
four bears but here is the moment where
it becomes crystal clear that it's fully
aware of the cliches and willing to
subvert them if it will make for a more
powerful story beat what's really great
about this moment is that it doesn't
suddenly undo the things that made baka
go so despicable in the first place in
fact it shows how his stubborn
shit-talking belligerent attitude can be
a positive thing when pointed in the
right direction admittedly his aim even
after this is pretty scattershot but we
can see that his image of what a hero
the isn't totally misguided and that
single realization turns everything
about this character on its head because
as soon as we realize how much of Baku
goes self-image is tied up in being a
hero we can start seeing him through
that lens and relate his behavior to
heroes we know namely Naruto and I think
this subconscious connection accounts
for a lot of the intensely positive
response that he's gotten following this
moment as reflected by the second poll
which came out shortly after this arc in
the manga the show builds on this in
some really great ways leading into Baku
go second fight with Deku but the
positive impression that it leaves also
makes it really fun to read watch what's
come before and reevaluate cochons past
actions since this isn't the first time
that baku go has proven himself to be
better than you'd give him credit for if
you're paying attention during the
tournament arc when everyone else is
essentially coddling arica baku go gives
their fight his all and openly says that
she's not as fragile as her friends seem
to think she is while he's aggressive
and cocky he always shows respect for
the strength of his opponents possibly
something he learned after his first
narrow loss to Deku in training and
while his anger at Todoroki after the
tournament is a little extreme it comes
from the same place he knows Todoroki is
strong respects him as a rival and he's
angry to not be shown the same respect
back to not have a chance to prove his
strength in a fair fight where he to
dial his response back from this
literally psychotic extreme it would be
understandable even admirable but then
that's kind of always been Baku goes
biggest failing for all his raw power
and fighting ability for all his
intelligence when it comes to analyzing
other people's quirks and strategies he
kind of sucks at people he has a lot of
difficulty both in expressing himself
and understanding others except notably
when it comes to picking apart their
fighting techniques and his main tool
for coping with that is getting mad to
be clear that's not a good coping
strategy and it doesn't justify the way
that he treats others but it does make
him a lot more three-dimensional and a
bit more understandable and I'll admit
as someone who had anger issues and
difficulty socialising when I was
younger it gives me a bit of a soft spot
for him even
though my experience with bullies has
kind of the opposite effect when it
comes to deku Baku goes awful behavior
is also rooted in a fundamental
misunderstanding of our hero's intent
but one a bit more specific than his
general failure to get other people I
don't want to get too armchair
psychologist here but Baku goes
obsession with proving his own
superiority over others is a hallmark of
a classic inferiority complex deep down
Baku go is terrified at the possibility
that he might not live up to the
expectations placed on him by others and
himself for having such a strong quirk
to cope with this and avoid even
admitting the possibility of failure or
being too weak he projects all of his
feelings of inferiority onto the quark
list deku when Deku shows signs of not
knowing his place it threatens Baku gos
self-image so he interprets any attempt
on Dec whose part to help him out or
become a hero as a personal insult hence
all the bullying and naturally because
so much of his self-image is tied up in
this idea of an inherently lesser Deku
when he finds out that Deku has a quirk
he thinks he was just hiding it to [ __ ]
with him which coupled with coming to a
school where many of the students are
just straight-up better than him only
makes him matter again none of this
excuses how Baku go treats Deku but it
does explain it it demonstrates that
he's not just an [ __ ] for no reason
and that if he can understand his own
shortcomings and misunderstandings and
work to his strengths he can become a
better person all he really needs is a
moment of clarity and the will to do it
and his fight with Deku provides exactly
that now there's a lot in this fight to
break down and I'll probably touch on it
in greater depth in a future anime leh
because I'm really impressed with how
bones took the layouts from the manga
which were already incredible and
translated them into animation but this
fight reveals a few really important
steps in Baku gos character arc first
off he confesses that he's been wracked
with guilt over the fact that all might
was forced into retirement because of
him in his eyes this happened because he
was weak and he's wrong it happened
because she gerak II misjudged him it's
not his fault but that doesn't really
matter what matters is that for the
first time in the entire
series back ago is showing real
vulnerability and opening up to another
person deku no less even if it is by
lashing out this also highlights
something vital to understanding PACU go
deep down under all his bravado and
aggressive behavior he's just a socially
inept little kid who has no idea what
he's doing a kid who is rightfully
scared and confused after a traumatic
ordeal and who feels responsible for
what it costs to save him
lots of heck I'd say most kids are
shitty being decent is something they
have to be taught and baka NGO has an
opportunity to be taught that now in
service of that lesson realizing that
Deku was chosen as all might successor
means Bach ago is faced with a difficult
truth
Deku has something something that was
recognized by the person they both
admire most
that baka go just does it and though his
way of figuring out what that is kicking
the crap out of each other isn't exactly
mature the fact that he can acknowledge
that he's lacking anything at all is in
itself a huge step for him and the
question that he's asking is fundamental
to both his and Dec whose character
growth is the vision of all might that
he aspires to emulate the hero who
always wins in some way wrong to make a
long story short yes but so is Dec whose
image of a hero who saves everyone no
matter what his self-sacrificing break
all my limbs but loo is a little less
than the other guy model of heroics
might cost other people less than baka
goes but it's equally flawed what both
Deku and baka go take away from this
fight with all mites help is that they
both need to learn from each other if
they want to grow up to be like their
hero and the funny thing is just because
baku go doesn't have one for all that
doesn't mean that he can't carry on all
Knights legacy in the fight with all for
one all might effectively gave up his
powers in order to secure Baku goes
future as a hero the same symbolic
gesture that he made in passing one for
all down to Deku effectively marking
Baku go as a worthy successor to his
legacy in the process and by bringing
him in on his and Deku secret all might
essentially confirms him in that role
and gives him something tangible to live
up to he's got a long
to be the hero that he needs and wants
to be but the very next day we can see
him inching in the right direction
holding a polite but terse conversation
with Deku for the first time in years
baka goes still not a great person and
he still needs to make up for telling
Deku to kill himself but that's exactly
what makes him a great character
he's a flawed person trying to be better
and he comes by both his bad traits and
his good ones naturally well I'm sure
some people out there can relate to him
I think the real reason that hero acha
fans love baku go so much is that he has
a fascinating organic character arc that
takes advantages of all the series
biggest strengths Kohei horikoshi has a
knack for making bad people sympathetic
and interesting without diminishing
their faults and he's also really good
at portraying cheerful optimism so it's
really fun to see him transform a strong
example of the one into maybe something
resembling the other also baku goes
growth Spurs the growth of Deku and vice
versa so the strong writing in his arc
ends up bleeding into the rest of the
series and improving it as a whole
he also crucially plays with the same
enjoyable Shonen tropes that serve as
the foundation of Heroica success but
I'll be talking about that in greater
depth in a few weeks when I discuss
what's so great about my hero academia
and finally bring my discussions of this
show to a close until I don't know the
next season comes out speaking of
greatness today's sponsor book Walker
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adorable men droids I honestly can't
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what are you waiting for get praising
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promo code basement for a 600 yen
discount when you check out let me know
in the comments below who your favorite
character from my hero academia is and
while you're down there don't forget to
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i'm jeff thew professional shitbags
signing out from my mother's basement