The Foudations For Heros

A person’s values and morals often shape who people are, and affects how they grow up and mature. In Horikoshi’s anime and manga series, My Hero Academia (MHA), the values of each character drastically affect the kinds of decisions they make on their way to becoming professional heroes. These values determine what kind of hero they become, and how they will inspire people in the future. This will also directly affect the future in how they transition their own values onto the people that they inspire, depending on if they become a hero that is looked up to by many. Multiple characters in the story have been influenced by the number one hero, All Might. All Might was, in essence, the very definition of a hero: courageous, admirable, strong. Two character specifically, hold many of the same values inspired by All Might: Izuku Midoriya, and Katsuki Bakugo.

The difference in their upbringings is portrayed by how the two display self-sacrifice in their lives, and how their values affect those around them. In My Hero Academia, self-sacrifice is the most important value of being a hero. Throughout the show, sacrifice is a recurring theme, and it is said by All Might himself that, “The most important qualification for being a superhero is the spirit of self-sacrifice.” ( Start Line, All Might). However self-sacrifice and sacrifice have different meanings based on whether someone is a normal person or a hero. For most normal people, they define sacrifice the way that Marshall does in his book The Lakota Way, “To give of oneself, an offering.”. To most people this would mean that they would either have to sacrifice their time to help others, such in the case of parents working in order to provide for their children.

However to hero’s the definition of sacrifice means much more than just “To give of oneself.” To hero’s, sacrifice means risking everything they have in order to protect others.”in cases of direct harm, sacrificing the self…is just an extreme form…”(Sonya Sachdeva) This definition of sacrifice is what applies to heroes, taking normal sacrifice to an extreme of sacrificing yourself for the well being of others. This is shown in MHA by the hero Lumillion. During a mission, he jumps in front of a quirk erasing bullet, to protect a girl who would have been shot otherwise. This is the drastic difference between the sacrifice of a normal person, and the sacrifice of a hero. Hero’s will do whatever it takes in order to help another. Izuku and Bakugo know this difference very well, however because of their origins, both show sacrifice in different manners.

The main protagonist of My Hero Academia, Izuku Midoryia, grew up admiring the number one hero All Might, and as a result always looked to him as a role model. As a child, Izuku idolized All Might, to a point where his room was decorated with All Might merchandise and, more importantly, he began to role play as All Might himself. This was very important for his development. He was acting like the person he admired most, and by doing so was developing the same morals/values. Susan Dwyer explains how this happens, “ it is the pattern of our experiencing… that provides shape and content to our concept of moral responsibility… with which they are typically associated (e.g., praising)…” (Dwyer). Izuku slowly took on the qualities of All Might. However Izuku was told he was quirkless or super powerless in a world where roughly 80 percent of the population had super powers. Because he was quirkless, Izuku was bullied constantly for being too weak to become a hero, “ Even though you’re quirkless, you’re still pretending to be a hero?” (Izuku Midoryia: Origin, Bakugo).

Being quirkless in this world meant that Izuku would have no special powers, much less the power to fight off a villain. However, being quirkless made his drive to become a hero even stronger. Instead of giving up, the way his mother had suggested he do, Izuku decided to persevere, and decided that regardless he too would become a hero. This was his turning point and deciding factor that would solidify his moral foundation. He later received the power of All Might himself due to his inspiring acts, “He was powerless, but more heroic than anyone else” (Deku versus Kacchan Part 2, All Might) All Might saw that Izuku had what it takes to become a hero, his determination and perseverance to save people. Once All Might saw that, he decided to entrust Izuku with his power. Izuku’s determination and perseverance comes from his struggle of still wanting to be a hero. Even after he has been told by everyone that it would be impossible, and doing everything that he can to make that a reality.

Izuku’s perseverance and determination are shown when he is training with All Might. “I have to work harder than anyone else to make it! I’ll never catch up otherwise!”(Roaring Muscle, Izuku) Izuku knows that he is behind the other heroes in training, and needs to catch up. Going through any hardship in order to catch up to everyone else. His perseverance and determination lead to his strong will of sacrifice. Always wanting to save people from harm, and being able to go through any hardship to achieve his goals makes him the ideal hero. Despite Izuku’s resolve to become a hero, his childhood “friend” Bakugo, was often the one to bully him about being quirkless. Similar to Izuku Midorya, Katsuki Bakugo grew up admiring the hero All Might, also looking to him as a role model. Despite having similar foundations for values as Izuku, Bakugo had a very different development of these values. He was born with a very powerful quirk, which gained him much praise and as a result, he became extremely prideful. The praising of his general and ordinary work caused his ego to inflate.

His mother even commented on how he grew up, “ Bakugo’s reckless and really good at everything…so he had other people fawning over him all the time.”(End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End, Mitsuki Bakugo) Always being praised for insignificant achievements as a child caused Katuski to develop a mentality where he was better than everyone else. This along with his admiration for All Might, became his drive for self improvement. All of these factors lead to the creation of what Bakugo values. He was very prideful, arrogant, and had a sense of superiority, which drove him to value being strong and unflinching above all else. His pridefulness and arrogance come from his childhood of him thinking that he is superior to everyone else, “I’m just awesome, and everyone else just isn’t!” (Izuku Midoryia: Origin Bakugo) This scene was after he developed his quirk, boosting his arrogance even more. This laid the foundation for his values. He held himself to a higher standard than other people, and often thought that they were beneath him, specifically Izuku was beneath him.

He would often bully Izuku, because of his superiority. Horiokshi himself said that this was the design of the character, “ Bakugo has always been the bully… you were able to see Bakugo’s humanity, that he was just a short-tempered kid.”(Horikoshi)This also lead to his sense of superiority, and the mind set that he does not need help from anyone else in order to grow. This is seen in a scene where Bakugo has fallen off a bridge and into water. While he is completely fine, Izuku offers his hand to help Bakugo up. This causes Bakugo to become very annoyed since in his mind he didn’t need help. “ I was just fine on my own Deku, I didn’t need your stupid help”(Deku versus Kacchan )With the foundation of pride, arrogance and superiority, while having the same role model as Izuku, the way the two of them portray sacrifice differs because of their foundations.

Throughout the story, there are many moments when Izuku needs to make sacrifices for another. Due to the lack of control with his inherited power, Izuku often broke the bones in his body in order to protect others. He has a clear understanding of sacrifice, especially from a hero’s perspective. Due to his childhood and upbringing, he understands when some people are helpless, and because of his admiration for All Might, he wants to be able to help them regardless of what may happen to him. This is exemplified when Izuku is fighting against a villain while protecting a young boy. During the fight with the villain, Izuku says, before breaking both of his arms in the process, “It’s not a matter of whether or not I can do it! A hero’s job is to risk his life…” (My Hero, Izuku) From this alone, Izuku shows what his understanding of being a hero is. That is, sacrificing one’s self for the protection of others, regardless of what may happen or what his limits are. This is based off of his upbringing. Since he was inspired by All Might, he had a firm sense of what a hero should do. Another time when Izuku sacrificed himself to save someone was when he was fighting against his classmate Todoroki, who has the power to use both fire and ice.

In this scenario, Izuku isn’t saving him from danger, but instead, saving Todoroki from himself and helping him to overcome his internal struggles and find his own values instead of what others had forced upon him. Todoroki was abused by his father, and because of that refused to use his fire quirk, since it was from his father. During the fight, Izuku forces Todoroki to use his powers against him by explaining that Todoroki’s powers are his own, not purely his father’s. While doing this, Izuku gives up his chance to win the fight, and also breaks both of his arms, his leg and fingers while fighting. Todoroki even says, “ Even though you want to win, to help your enemy…” (Shoto Todoroki: Origin, Todoroki). Izuku shows how the definition of sacrifice applies to a hero. Regardless of what kind of trouble someone may be in, he is willing to sacrifice his own body in order to help save someone. His drive to become a great hero helped in this situation. Despite Todoroki not being in physical harm’s way, he was still in danger mentally and emotionally, and despite breaking many different parts of his body, Izuku’s strong foundation of perseverance and empathy was able to help him save Todoroki from himself.

Katsuki, similar to most heroes, exemplifies self-sacrifice. However the ways that he shows self-sacrifice more often than not comes off to others as acting obnoxious or difficult. As such, Bakugo often speaks arrogantly because of his sense of superiority and intimidating strength. During a training session, him and his class of heroes in training are attacked by a villian. During this attack, Bakugo steps up to fight the villain alone. While doing this he instructs the class to run while he fights the villain, “ Don’t just stand there! Make those weaklings run away!” (Save! Rescue Training, Bakugo). This quote shows exactly how Bakugo’s values transition into how he acts as a hero. Instead of assuring everyone that it will be fine, he simply tells them to run away like the weaklings they are. However, when this scene is examined more closely, Bakugo is sacrificing himself so that the rest of the class could escape. This is the way that Bakugo portrays self-sacrifice. Instead of being like Izuku and understanding what the victims are feeling, he simply assures them that he is the strongest and that they should escape so that he can fight the battle.

His pride and arrogance applies itself over his sense of self-sacrifice. Although he is sacrificing his life for everyone else to escape, he isn’t willing to accept help from any one else, he is simply doing what he needs to do in order to save as many people as possible. This is acknowledged by the only person who understands what Bakugo is trying to actually do, Izuku: “ He’s not the kind to not think… He is just doing what he must, like he always does.” (Save! Rescue Training, Izuku). Having the same foundations as Izuku, Bakugo has a strong sense of justice and self-sacrifice since his role model was also All Might. However due to the way he was raised, and because of how much praise he received throughout his life, his arrogance and pride conflict with his self-sacrifice, which causes him to sacrifice for others in his own unique way. The two boys show time and again that they sacrifice themselves for others.

However their actions are acknowledged by others as well, and inspire them to want to do better. This is stated by their teacher Aizawa “They might not have realized it, but there are two people in Class 1-A whose presence has a big affect… their passion spread to the rest of the class… their presence raises the standard for the whole class ”(Shiketsu High Lurking, Aizawa) Aizawa talks about how the two boys inspire the rest of their class to do better simply by being in the class. Their passions for being heros and their values spread to the rest of the class and make them all want to perform better. Other times the two inspired others to do better, were during the sports festival. During the round robin match, one of their classmates was inspired by Izuku to continue fighting despite being badly damaged, “ If it were Deku he wouldn’t give up.”(Bakugo vs. Uraraka) Uraraka started to share Izuku’s values of determination and perseverance, which allowed her to keep fighting despite how badly she was hurt.

Bakugo has also inspired others, despite being more abrasive than Izuku. For example he inspired Izuku with how strong he was, and this caused Izuku’s goal of victory to be portrayed as Bakugo. “I saw vividly all the amazing things you could do… the image of ‘victory’ I have inside me is of you”(Deku versus Kaachan Part 2, Izuku). When they were younger, Izuku saw how amazing Bakugo was, and how everyone else always fawned over him and praised him for everything he did. This gave Izuku the image victory being Bakugo. Since his image of victory was inspired by Bakugo, Izuku always had a reason to keep improving so that he could be as strong as Bakugo and reach his version of victory.

The development of values, and the environment they are nurtured in, have a strong influence on how people will act. In My Hero Academia, Bakugo and Izuku had the same foundation for their values, however since they were raised differently, and under different conditions, the way that they portray their values changes dramatically. One shows a more traditional way to be a hero, while the other has a unique style only fitted to him. The development and nurturing of values is important, in order for people to truly show what values they are representing and how it will inspire those around them to act differently.