My Hero Academia came to an end earlier this Summer with a special worldwide popularity poll where fans voted for the series’ best hero, and their choice for number one isn’t exactly a surprise. Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia officially ended its run with Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine this Summer, and the series has been celebrating in big ways ever since. These last few months have been cataloguing votes from fans all over the world for their favorite hero, and the top 100 favorites have now been revealed to celebrate the release of the final volume of the manga hitting shelves in Japan.
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With the launch of My Hero Academia Volume 42 of the manga, the worldwide popularity poll revealed its results and crowned Katsuki Bakugo as the world’s top hero with over 1.6 million votes counted. Then he was followed by Izuku Midoriya’s 1.2 million votes, and then coming in third was Shoto Todoroki with over 630,000 votes. The three are now in another contest to get a statue erected of the most favorite, but it’s likely going to be Bakugo again. And when you look back on the series as a whole, it really wasn’t going to be anyone other than Bakugo.
Bakugo Was Always My Hero Academia’s Most Popular Character
While Deku is most certainly the main hero of My Hero Academia, and was pretty close to nabbing the top spot himself, he was never really the most popular character. Bakugo pretty much dominated from early on. Introducing fans to Deku’s rival who was an outright bully at first, fans saw as Deku found ways to overcome Bakugo. But even then, there was something different about Bakugo that had appealed to fans. Because outside of his prickly personality, he was still very much chasing his dreams of becoming a hero. Further cementing himself as the deuteragonist of the series, this only became clearer later on.
Bakugo began to reveal new sides of himself. As Deku was improving and getting better with his use of One For All, Bakugo watched from the sidelines as the former weakling he picked on was surpassing him in pretty much every way. This shock to his system was what ended up giving Bakugo a fully fledged character arc of his own as he needed to humble himself from not only what he thought of himself in the past, but also how he fits within the wider world of heroes. This is what turned fans from liking Bakugo to outright loving him.
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Deku and Bakugo’s Rivalry Is One of Shonen Jump’s Best
This turn is what helped to make the central rivalry between Deku and Bakugo as one of the best ever seen in Shonen Jump’s history. Bakugo realized his shortcomings and turned it into fuel to surpass Deku, and Deku realized his own shortcomings in not seeing Bakugo for the growing person he was. This pushed the two of them to huge new heights as they directly challenged one another while All For One was changing the hero world around them, and their shared love of All Might (and shared One For All secret) tied them closer than ever before.
It was a constant tug of war between the two of them, but Deku was pushed towards even greater heights as he was the only one who could really fight against Tomura Shigaraki and All For One. Even with all of this, Bakugo stood tall and fought against his own inferiority complex to sacrifice himself when the moment called for it. It was a true sign of the steady growth for his character that fans saw over the course of the series, and truly appreciated him for it. Because Bakugo went from hating Deku’s weakness (because he saw himself in it), and changed to fully respect that part of Deku’s personality. And in turn, Deku became more confident in himself as a hero who was needed to save Japan.
Deku arguably went through the most challenges and changes over the course of My Hero Academia’s run, and arguably had the biggest impact on the rest of the hero society. But it was Bakugo who had what was seen as the more compelling hero’s journey. It wasn’t outward opponents he was facing off against, but himself. Softening his edges to the point where he sees Deku as a true equal when it all comes to an end, and even helping his former rival live out his own hero dreams in the future. It’s a journey that fans loved to see from beginning to end, and it’s why he was ultimately voted as the best hero in the series. He might not have been able to beat Deku in My Hero Academia itself, but Bakugo clinched the final victory here.