Horikoshi's gift to My Hero Academia VA gives Izuku and Ochako fans hope

Modified Jun 06, 2024 21:37 GMT

Horikoshi's gift to My Hero Academia VA gives Izuku and Ochako fans hope (Image via BONES)

Thursday, June 6, 2024 saw My Hero Academia voice actor Daiki Yamashita, who voices protagonist Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, share an exciting gift he received on X (formerly Twitter). The gift, which comes from series’ creator, author, and illustrator Kohei Horikoshi, and is a mug featuring some Japanese text on it, as well as Deku and his love interest Ochako Uraraka.

It’s unclear what the text on the mug itself says, but it’s presumably a message celebrating the My Hero Academia manga hitting 100 million copies in circulation. This is further supported by the presence of Horikoshi’s author avatar and associated speech bubble being seen below the text, as well as the caption to Yamashita’s tweet.

My Hero Academia fans are particularly excited about the gift, however, as it gives the canonically implied ship of Deku and Uraraka some hope as the series enters its epilogue.

While there haven’t necessarily been any red flags in terms of the ship not happening, fans are nevertheless on the lookout for any soft confirmation they can get on the ship’s canonicity.

My Hero Academia fans ready to call Izuocha canon after Horikoshi’s gift to Deku’s VA Yamashita

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While the mug doesn’t feature any particularly romantic connotations for Midoriya and Uraraka, the inclusion of the two specifically on the mug is extremely telling. Yamashita’s confirmation that the mug will not be reproduced further supports this idea, as Horikoshi could’ve chosen any characters he wanted with no pressure of sales weighing on him.

Fans are likewise celebrating this clearly deliberate choice from Horikoshi, celebrating Horikoshi giving fans a relatively official pairing of the two. This focus on the choice is likely being exacerbated by the fact that the series is progressing through its epilogue, and should likewise see the ship confirmed relatively soon.

Unsurprisingly, there’s not much variety in the reactions from fans here, with a vast majority sticking to a focus on Deku and Uraraka’s inclusion on the mug. Some reactions include:

“WE GOT IZUOCHA MUG,” from one excited netizen.

“WE GOT A CRUMBLE OF THEMM AHH,” shouted another in reference to the pair’s inclusion being a “crumble” of their canonical ship confirmation.

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One pleasant aspect of fans’ reactions to Yamashita’s post is seeing how excited they get despite the mug being a unique, one-of-one gift to Yamashita.

It emphasizes how a vast majority of the series’ fanbase is behind the Izuocha ship and how important of a plot point it is to those fans who are so passionate about it.

Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia manga began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in July 2014, where it is still regularly serialized today. The manga is currently progressing through its epilogue prior to its conclusion sometime this year, pending any unforeseen circumstances.

As of now, 410 of the manga’s 424 chapters have been collected into 40 compilation volumes, 38 of which are available in English. The series’ television anime adaptation is airing its seventh season and is expected to cover a majority of the manga’s final arc (excluding the epilogue).