'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Whether one is a fan of My Hero Academia's Katsuki Bakugo, his characterization and development are a point of division and contention that have continued well into My Hero Academia's final arc. Some fans find him tolerable at best, some have loved him since day one, and others hate him for his fiery intensity.
Yet for all the rough edges Bakugo may have, a few fans and critics suggest his character isn't as extreme as other examples of rivals in popular shonen anime like Naruto or Dragon Ball Z, among others. This list will highlight popular anime rivals who are better fleshed out and those who Bakugo outperforms owing to poor characterization.
Disclaimer: This list will contain My Hero Academia spoilers, up to and including manga spoilers for the final war arc. It will also contain spoilers for other Shonen anime. All opinions are exclusive to the author.
Trending
5 anime rivals whose development outshines My Hero Academia's Bakugo
1) Kazuma Kuwabara (Yu Yu Hakusho)
On the surface, Kuwabara and Bakugo appear to be the same type of characters in that they are loud, rude, and delinquent. Nevertheless, Kuwabara's attitude is less extreme than Bakugo's. Not only that, but Kuwabara is also a significantly better rival and friend to Yusuke than Bakugo is to Deku throughout My Hero Academia.
While Bakugo and Kuwabara have fought their adversaries on more than one occasion, Kuwabara is quicker to warm up to Yusuke in the aftermath of his death and revival. Kuwabara showed up at Yusuke's funeral and cried his eyes out. He helped save Keiko when Yusuke's apartment was burning, cared for kittens, teamed up better with Yusuke, and even surpassed him in terms of spiritual energy mastery for a time.
Although the two are roughly the same age throughout their respective series, Kuwabara's temper flares up less than My Hero Academia's Bakugo does. This is not to diminish Bakugo's character growth or heroic moments, but Kuwabara was constantly more honorable and heroic than Bakugo.
2) Killua Zoldyck (Hunter X Hunter)
Despite Killua of Hunter X Hunter fame being an assassin, he displays a greater range of maturity than My Hero Academia's Bakugo does. What sets Killua apart from Bakugo is his dueling ideologies of being a killer with bloodlust and his desire to be a normal kid with Gon. He's naturally kind and can keep his rationality and anger in check when things get harrowing.
This range of maturity and good-hearted nature is rare in anime rivals, particularly shonen rivals. Despite enduring torture from his family, despite being hounded by one of his older brothers and brainwashed into running away, Killua never once desplays the same arrogance or loud attitude that Bakugo does.
It's especially jarring that he ends up being the nicer one when Gon gives into his rage in the Chimera Ant arc. There's no bullying to get over, no baggage between him and Gon—just two kids who are great friends. It takes Bakugo and Deku a long time to reach that point in My Hero Academia, whereas Killua and Gon hit it off nearly right away.
3) Satsuki Kiriyuin (Kill la Kill)
On the surface, Satsuki Kiriyuin seems worse than Bakugo in a lot of ways. In the first half of Kill la Kill, Satsuki runs Honno Town with a dictatorial iron fist. Here, the weak are trampled on and the strong survive. The flip side of the coin, however, is explored in the latter half of Kill la Kill.
In summary, Satsuki was using her position to plot against her tyrannical mother, Ragyo Kiriyuin, to eventually backstab her and free humanity from the tyranny of Life Fibers. As explained in the series proper Satsuki's methods resulted in people hating her, and trying to fight alone resulted in her getting thrashed.
The reason why Satsuki is better as a rival, despite her start as a despot, is simple: the audience is let into more moments of vulnerability with her than they are with Bakugo. Satsuki is beaten by Ragyo, forced to be humble, and is given more explicitly empathetic moments than Bakugo in My Hero Academia.
4) Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood)
Despite being Edward Elric's superior, Roy Mustang and Ed's relationship demonstrates that they have numerous issues with one another. The titualar Fullmetal Alchemist and Flame Alchemist's arguments are often heated exchanges, with both insulting each other. Roy's surface demeanor is a little better than Bakugo's arrogant, shallow self.
Prone to exploding at people, later fans learn that this is a facade to hide his real personality: a man filled with regret trying to lead a country into a better dawn by taking down corruption. While My Hero Academia's Bakugo and Mustang have fiery tempers and are stubborn and filled with pride to equal Vegeta, the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood character has the narrative keep him better in check, and characters like Riza Hawkeye serve that purpose.
Mustang's regrets over his actions in the Ishvalen Civil War, along with his determination to make things right, elevated him above Bakugo in many ways. He also had a better time making things right in the end, as he was able to take power following the demise of King Bradley.
5) Griffith (Berserk)
Griffith from Berserk is one of the most famous and best-written examples of a rival turning villain. The character's role in Berserk can best be described as what happens when a dream is the only thing one focuses on to the exclusion of everything else, including their friends, health, or sanity—a lot like My Hero Academia's Dark Hero Arc, but on a grander scale.
Griffith's life is one of pain, starting in poverty but rising to become the leader of the Band of the Hawk mercenary band. His dream is to own a kingdom, fueled by a fortune teller from his youth who predicts his global conquest. He had no qualms about achieving this goal: assassination, torture, and other heinous techniques, such as burning his political opponents alive, were not beyond his imagination.
The white-haired character's descent into villainy with The Eclipse and everything that follows as Femto is a slow and real-time degradation of a hero into something monstrous. Griffith's character has a greater depth than Bakugo's due to the development and the slower, more intense writing style.
5 anime rivals that My Hero Academia's Bakugo is better developed then
1) Vegeta (Dragon Ball Z)
Starting with one of the most beloved villain-to-anti-hero shonen rivals, Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z started as an antagonist when he debuted in the Saiyan Saga. Vegeta's development progressed further from the Frieza Saga, where he remained a self-centered, selfish person, until Dragon Ball Super.
Vegeta's arc from villain to anti-hero to hero takes the entirety of Dragon Ball Z and a couple of arcs into Super. His selfishness made things worse for the heroes. Firstly, he let Cell get to his Perfect Form and got badly beaten as a result despite having multiple opportunities to kill Semi-Perfect Cell. He also allowed himself to be brainwashed by Babidi, killed a stadium full of people, and unleashed Majin Buu. Vegeta also killed several Namiekians and intended to betray Gohan and Krillin on Namek. His motive for killing the Androids and going Super Saiyan was all to satiate his ego.
My Hero Academia's Bakugo never started as a villain, nor did he ever become one. He even told the League of Villains he would fight them all to escape when he was captured during the Hideout Raid arc. Bakugo matured faster than Vegeta, showing more humility and consideration of others. The latter took years and multiple massacres, whereas Bakugo took months or a year and never killed anyone.
In My Hero Academia's final arc, Bakugo landed the critical killing blows on the main villain, All for One, a feat that Vegeta was never able to do with any main Dragon Ball Z or Super villain.
2) Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)
A lot of anime fans, particularly Naruto fans who couldn't stand Sasuke, started referring to My Hero Academia's Bakugo as "the new Sasuke" for many reasons. The only problem with that sentiment is that Bakugo never sank to the depths that Sasuke did in the name of revenge or gaining power.
Bakugo telling Deku early on in My Hero Academia to go kill himself was never glorified, and all the bullying Bakugo put Deku under as My Hero Academia progressed was condemned as well. Sasuke attempted to kill Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and other teammates like Karin on numerous occasions, and he betrayed his friends and village by going with Orochimaru during the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.
Bakugo's critics treat him as if he's the worst shonen rival to exist while omitting the times he helped Deku and others. Although arrogant in some cases, Bakugo outshone himself constantly, warned Deku about going alone, and saved his life by taking a near-lethal shot from Shigaraki in My Hero Academia season 6.
All of this is better than Sasuke never truly being challenged or taking any advice, backlash, or doing any introspection until the end of Naruto. His actions, including trying to kill all of the Kage following Kaguya being sealed, very nearly resulted in a life sentence in prison if not for Naruto's arguments swaying the court.
3) Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
Seto Kaiba and Bakugo have a few things in common: they both have a grudge against their respective main characters and insult them constantly. Both the characters also have anger issues that fuel their already massive egos. Kaiba's ego eclipses Bakugo's in that he is the CEO of Kaiba Corporation, a weapons developer turned gaming company.
The key difference between the two is that My Hero Academia's Bakugo never tried to kill Deku, despite his threatening language. Seto Kaiba tried to do serious harm to Yugi in the manga via a lethal obstacle course. In addition, Yugi's grandfather Solomon nearly died of heart failure after one intense 3-D card game with Kaiba, and his friends were nearly killed by the villain too.
Seto remains cold and thankless, despite being saved multiple times, and that doesn't change until near the end of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!.
4) Paul (Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl)
One of Ash Ketchum's most hated rivals, both in-universe and in the Pokémon fandom, Paul is what Bakugo could be if he only cared about winning at any cost. Paul abuses his Pokémon with reckless abandon, not only with verbal abuse but with intense training regiments without a break.
Even when Paul loses to a superior gym leader like Cynthia, he doubles down on a lot of the problematic training techniques and abandons his Pokémon to suffer when they inevitably break on him. If not for Paul's return in Pokémon Journeys, showing how he mellowed out and helped Ash, he would've kept his hated rival title.
Paul went through the entirety of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl being as awful as he was. It wasn't until Journeys that he got any better, and that was months after Ash saw him. My Hero Academia's Bakugo at least starts recognizing his flaws and taking his losses to heart, as seen when he has to take remedial courses and help younger kids.
5) Dio Brando (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
Dio Brando's villainy is well-documented. He kicked Jonathan Joestar's dog and subsequently burned it alive, but it got worse from there. Even though Dio was abused by his alcoholic father, this does not excuse the horrific acts he perpetrated in the name of his rivalry with Jonathan for the Joestar fortune.
From forcibly kissing his girlfriend, cheating at boxing, poisoning Jonathan's father to gain his inheritance, and ostracizing Jonathan at school, Dio's villainy knows no measure. This is before he obtained the Stone Mask, became a vampire, converted such people as Jack the Ripper into vampires, and ultimately killed Jonathan after cheating death.
Whatever issues Bakugo had as a person, to underline Vegeta's point, he was already reforming himself since remedial coursework, altering his viewpoint, and standing firm against All For One.
Final thoughts
My Hero Academia's Bakugo never turned to villainy as Deku became more powerful than him, never killed anyone, and role models like All Might and Best Jeanist helped to channel and focus his anger as a tool.
That said, while Bakugo is certainly better than some, he's not the end-all-be-all of anime rivals, as shown in this list. There will doubtlessly be more moments where Bakugo proves himself worthy, as seen as far forward as My Hero Academia's final arc, but it is worth noting that fans will always have their opinions on rival characters and who's better than whom.
A polarizing figure, Bakugo tends to be disliked by the anime community at large for what he did before his change in My Hero Academia. Catching up to the story in the manga would make it clear he's not the same person he was at the start.
