Question Is Deku Boring?

[Sonicsucks20]

I noticed that his character, isn't as invested to being a reactive character like the others, his personality is passive and self reflecting. It comes of bland and makes it feel like the author doesn't want him to be more enjoyable. Now that Bakugou is the most popular character, do you think the author has plans in making have a main protagonist role in areas sorta like a Getbackers type of thing where he does stuff only he can do and Izuku does stuff only he can do.

 

[ShenGao]

Deku has been bland since the beginning. That's what Horikoshi intended with him.

Spoiler

And popularity poll results don't matter. Mineta placed bad in the first poll, even worse in the second one, but Horikoshi is still using him for dirty jokes.

 

[Aonori]

Deku is made boring because he´s the protagonist, so he can have more room to develop, the same logic is applied to Shigaraki, being a manchildren, compared to cartoonish villains, so we as viewers can watch both grow as characters.

 

[ChocoBar9]

I noticed that his character, isn't as invested to being a reactive character like the others, his personality is passive and self reflecting. It comes of bland and makes it feel like the author doesn't want him to be more enjoyable. Now that Bakugou is the most popular character, do you think the author has plans in making have a main protagonist role in areas sorta like a Getbackers type of thing where he does stuff only he can do and Izuku does stuff only he can do.

Considering how he put Bakugou on a bus since the year started I don't think he takes popularity polls seriously or makes them disrupt the flow of the story. And given how popularity tends to change every year or so its silly to think its going to stay the same given how most Jump popularity polls are never consistent so to base your story around them seem more detrimental than beneficial.

 

[Arata]

I noticed that his character, isn't as invested to being a reactive character like the others, his personality is passive and self reflecting. It comes of bland and makes it feel like the author doesn't want him to be more enjoyable. Now that Bakugou is the most popular character, do you think the author has plans in making have a main protagonist role in areas sorta like a Getbackers type of thing where he does stuff only he can do and Izuku does stuff only he can do.

Mineta will always receive a lot of screen time, and Ochako is currently having some development.
Btw, do most characters have their niches already? Like Ochako or Sero still does what Izuku can't do in the License Exam

 

[Calbalacrab]

I like Deku. I think he is different from lots of mangas protagonist. Most of them are naive and such, but Deku is a hard worker and good strategist. If he weren't the main character, I believe he would be more popular

 

[Demonspeed]

I don't find Deku particularly interesting overall but it's not like he wasn't popular. He was first in the first poll and second in the most recent one. Bakugou got 1st place in the last poll but it's not as if he was unpopular before(3rd place in the first poll). And he is not universally liked either.

 

[kkck]

Yeah, overall deku is pretty plain. Though I never took all that much issue with that specifically. More than plain, he seems pretty normal. Unlike bakugo who is deranged or todoroki who in real life would have a fight with someone every 5 minutes given his shitty attitude towards people. Bakugo would have fights but he would most likely just scare people away from him...

Anyways, my biggest issue with deku right now is how his abilities develop... The manga pretends his ability are so complex and have so much nuisance to them which ends up making deku look like an actual idiot. His most recent breakthrough was figuring out he had other limbs he could use with OFA for crying out loud... and that coming from a guy whose main thing when fighting is having as much knowledge as possible and quickly figuring out the most effective plans.

 

[Aonori]

Yeah, overall deku is pretty plain. Though I never took all that much issue with that specifically. More than plain, he seems pretty normal. Unlike bakugo who is deranged or todoroki who in real life would have a fight with someone every 5 minutes given his shitty attitude towards people. Bakugo would have fights but he would most likely just scare people away from him...

Anyways, my biggest issue with deku right now is how his abilities develop... The manga pretends his ability are so complex and have so much nuisance to them which ends up making deku look like an actual idiot. His most recent breakthrough was figuring out he had other limbs he could use with OFA for crying out loud... and that coming from a guy whose main thing when fighting is having as much knowledge as possible and quickly figuring out the most effective plans.

Deku isnt very smart pratical wise, he overthinks a lot and loses his cool easy, thats why tsuyu is above deku in brains. Though to be fair his main problem is wanting to be a straight All Might like hero which is impossible for him to currently do and as other characters told him (like nighteye) there's more to being a hero than just acting, prep is also important, among other things, what he needs is learning how to adapt and try to be his own type of hero and not a All Might copycat

 

[kkck]

Deku isnt very smart pratical wise, he overthinks a lot and loses his cool easy, thats why tsuyu is above deku in brains. Though to be fair his main problem is wanting to be a straight All Might like hero which is impossible for him to currently do and as other characters told him (like nighteye) there's more to being a hero than just acting, prep is also important, among other things, what he needs is learning how to adapt and try to be his own type of hero and not a All Might copycat

When has tsuyu ever done anything that shows brains? I am not saying she is dumb or anything but she hasn't had a chance to show anything in that regard yet. As for deku overthinking things... when has that been an issue? Sure, we have seen him overthinking stuff before but when it counts he always has a plan to pull through. And even then most of the overthinking we have seen him done is when he is studying or observing other heroes which is.... well, perfectly fine.

 

[Aonori]

When has tsuyu ever done anything that shows brains? I am not saying she is dumb or anything but she hasn't had a chance to show anything in that regard yet. As for deku overthinking things... when has that been an issue? Sure, we have seen him overthinking stuff before but when it counts he always has a plan to pull through. And even then most of the overthinking we have seen him done is when he is studying or observing other heroes which is.... well, perfectly fine.

But she shown it on panel in her physical test by the way she and tokoyami outplayed ectoplasm she was one of the few students who actually got the assigned teacher handcuffed.

Not saying Deku doesnt have good reasons for thinking like he does (All Might adoration, lack of quirk user experience, etc...), but he still has a lot to learn though I do agree that later in the series he will have less problems planning things out in good conjuction with OFA, but he still needs to bloom as a character per say, Ochako, Bakugou, Todoroki, among many other characters also have other inner issues they need to fix to reach that point as well so it's not that bad this series isnt a series about perfect roleplaying heroes but flawed human beings with super powers adapting to the role of a superhero.

But serious when it comes to brain levels on class A the highest goes to tsuyu, then momo then deku and then comes all the rest, deku being 3rd isnt that bad and momo only would get above him brain wise because of her rich upbringing more need to use her brains highly in conjuntion to her quirk.

 

[ShenGao]

But she shown it on panel in her physical test by the way she and tokoyami outplayed ectoplasm she was one of the few students who actually got the assigned teacher handcuffed.

Not saying Deku doesnt have good reasons for thinking like he does (All Might adoration, lack of quirk user experience, etc...), but he still has a lot to learn though I do agree that later in the series he will have less problems planning things out in good conjuction with OFA, but he still needs to bloom as a character per say, Ochako, Bakugou, Todoroki, among many other characters also have other inner issues they need to fix to reach that point as well so it's not that bad this series isnt a series about perfect roleplaying heroes but flawed human beings with super powers adapting to the role of a superhero.

But serious when it comes to brain levels on class A the highest goes to tsuyu, then momo then deku and then comes all the rest, deku being 3rd isnt that bad and momo only would get above him brain wise because of her rich upbringing more need to use her brains highly in conjuntion to her quirk.

3 teams handcuffed their targets: Todoroki and Momo, Uraraka and Aoyama, Tsuyu and Tokoyami.
Going by the written entrance exam ranking the intelligence rank is: Momo, then Iida, then Bakugou, then Deku, then Todoroki, and then Tsuyu.
Tsuyu is intelligent, but she isn't a brainiac.

 

[Junior]

Deku is ALMOST insufferable at times. I love his analytical outlook, I love the fact that's he's not you're "typical" main character.

..but I'm dying for some character growth. We need a training arc or a time skip or something. I just count the chapters until he overloads his limbs again turns his bones into scattered spurs. I WANT Deku to be great. I'm rooting for him but holy crap. Get with the program.

 

[SilverLugia345]

I find Deku's character to actually be quite interesting especially on how he has developed as the protagonist from the first chapter to where the manga is now. The reason for this is because of how it basically is showing how Deku began out as a hero. At the beginning it really showed a glimpse of what kind of hope that he held onto even though he didn't have a quirk. It was almost like no matter what he tried to see the good in everything. Now this was probably never considered a quirk but at the beginning to me Deku did show some special qualities (that maybe weren't on a quirk level). One of those qualities would be his level of observation. He takes time to think of the situation and yes that does lead him to overthinking many things but at the same time I think it also benefits him to figure out battle strategies and solutions.

He is that one character that starts off at a low point, but from there has time to build up his unique character and give a title to himself. His character developing might not happen promptly or as quickly as other characters but I think that is what makes him a unique protagonist. Instead of just jumping right in and giving Deku a stage to stand on, the creator wanted to show how Deku rose and created that stage for himself. There is so much emotion that is built into a character that struggles and strives to prove himself, while reaching towards a goal that he has laid out in front of him.

 

[Godhand95]

He's supposed to be boring.

That's how the author made him.

I like deku. He's not your typical hot-headed shonen protagonist that runs around hyped 24/7, wanting to do insanely stupid stuff, and yells about friendship all the time.

He's smart, analytical, and rather timid. I like watching him develop as a hero, and see how his personality changes as the story goes on, and especially after All Might dies(because you know he's still going to eventually).

 

[GodOfDestruction]

Deku is a character I hope we never see in future media. After Naruto, I hope no more underdog stories come out. Because it tells the author that they can just make someone weak, naive, and saddening so they can say they made a "good, relatable character"
It pisses me off.

And it's funny how we get someone like Deku (weak, naive, saddening. Who we can truly enjoy when he is put down)
Then someone like Meliodas from Seven Deadly Sins(strong, brave, entertaining in every level) gets puts down because he's OP. (I mean you would be too if you've lived for 3000 years)

I have a few questions.
How would you think of the story if....

Deku beat Todoroki?
Deku beat Stain?
Deku won the sports festival?
If he didn't get OFA?
And most importantly
If he was born with a quirk?

 

[LordOTaco]

I kinda like Deku. Sure his design is bland but from what I know the author intended for this. My biggest draw to him is that even though he is a cookie cutter underdog he doesn't necessarily follow the "goku/luffy/naruto" main shonen protagonist trope to a T. He doesn't eat alot for the sake of it, he's not a blatant idiot just for the cheap comedic effect sure he over analyzes at times but it comes off as somewhat compelling, and he actually loses quite a bit and it makes sense he would with his quirk and learning to use it. I think he is a character that will be great to see how he develops.

 

[Koi Kage]

In my opinion, yes Deku is a boring character, but not in the sense of design more of just how he's been written. I'm okay with a character having self-doubt in a series it actually adds a sense of realism to the character, but with how often it's been brought to the for front of Deku's character is boring. I don't want a constantly whining character that puts themselves down when they are compared to other characters in the series and who feels the need to constantly thank everyone for something, every once in a while is fine, but it shouldn't be a reacquiring thing. Also this is just me I'm tired of hearing that Deku being analytic is something he always does that is in fact only partially true when it's in an arc that focuses on the school then yes he's analytic, but when out in the "field" there's no real time to think about what would be the best course of action to a villain the only type of analysis he might get is what there quirk is but that's about it and even that much isn't really of much help or much to go off of either. Him being analytic in a confrontation with a villain is also kind of a mute point to bring up in regards to him having OFA because at a certain point in the series he'll just be fast and strong enough to power through almost every quirk and knock out the villain before they get to react, that is to say power scaling stay where it's at and not head down the Naruto path of power scaling.
On a similar vain of thinking, I think that Deku receiving OFA makes him a bad character in its own right because once he mastered the "hard" aspects of holding back the power to a manipulable amount which actually makes training kind of pointless at that point because the more he uses it the amount usable increases so why argue thats a great thing for his character, especially considering he could've mitigated the copious amount of chapters struggling to learn to control it if he actually watched All Might's body go from his injured form to his prime form when as well as listen to explanation on how to activate it yes he may still have over did it and caused himself injury but not for nearly as long as the story seemed to make it out to be. If Horikoshi really wanted to show Deku's struggle I think he should've been left quirkless.

 

[Lula]

I have a few questions.
How would you think of the story if....

Deku beat Todoroki?
Deku beat Stain?
Deku won the sports festival?
If he didn't get OFA?
And most importantly
If he was born with a quirk?

Unlikely but predictable because protagonist, more unlikely but predictable, predictable, without OFA I don't think we would have got a story about him?, and for the last question, there is the spin-off "Vigilante" that, even if I didn't read it, I think Deku would have become if he had a normal/weak quirk.

The reason why I think stories with "underdogs" will always be popular is exactly because that character is relateble, and it is a good thing; I honestly can't feel empathetic towards someone OP who lived for 3000 years because I know they will succeed. Meanwhile is not because Deku has a shitty writing that we enjoy when he fails, but because we can see our own failures and it will be all the sweeter when he'll finally win because actual growth can be seen. The fact that Deku fails is realistic, and your first three question are what kept me reading the manga, because for once I was "Wow! this character is not receiving all the things he didn't have at the beginning, he is still struggling, but he is improving even if it's not clear to the whole world". Sure, we know that one way or another he will still succeed, Horikoshi made it clear from the beginning and honestly it was a smart move, because it's not a false "Will our hero do the thing? OOH HOW UNPREDICTABLE HE DID IT" but a "He will do the thing! Watch his journey and his growth!". This is to say that Deku and Naruto don't really have something in common, the latter fits the sterotipical shonen protag meanwhile, as someone already said, Deku does not.
I'm not head over heels for Deku but I like him because I don't think he's boring, he just has some character traits we are not accustomed to see in the main character, and this is surely a good thing.

 

[LordOTaco]

I want to kinda pitch an idea here...even though Midoriya has OFA and All Might has shown that it easily makes one capable of being the number one hero what if Midoriya does not become the No 1 hero. A common theme I see in MHA is that while the heroes are indeed helping people and fighting crime they are engrossed in publicity, endorsements, and money this is reflected in ones like Mt Lady. Deku represents the ideal that heroes simply help people because its the right thing to do and to inspire others etc. That was the real meaning behind the Hero Killer arc. In this way I could see Deku either dying in martyr way to save everyone else to include the Heroes from themselves. Additionally, I could see him shying away from the publicity this is a difference between him and All Might. While All Might is fine with being in front of people as the symbol of peace and with the publicity I could see Deku shying away from it all simply being a hero on his own until it was time to choose the next user of OFA which

Spoiler

as we know once OFA is passed on the original user gradually loses their power as the embers go out as seen in All Mights last fight against AFO.