Anime and manga of the Shonen trope are often defined by their protagonists, whether it is Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia or Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. Your work is as strong as the character who stands in the center of it all. It is not just limited to Shonen alone, seeing that many formats of entertainment find themselves in a slump because of underwhelming protagonists.
To counter something like that, a powerful supporting cast is needed as balance. For works that come under Shonen, the presence of the main character becomes even more important. Projects like One Piece, Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, etc. wouldn’t have worked if their main characters did not have such a strong presence. In an attempt to make his work different, Horikoshi toyed with Deku’s own sketch.
Kohei Horikoshi Needed Deku to be Different
During an interview with Cinema Today Japan (via Tumblr), Kohei Horikoshi admitted he never wanted to make Izuku Midoriya the average Shonen protagonist. The goal he had in mind was to see him be put through the worst and still come out on top.
I really like stories where the [main] character still tries to move on forward even if it means they will need to crawl desperately on the ground and go through hell. I really wanted to draw a protagonist who would act like that.
Heroes have an image of always standing on their feet. They stand tall, strong, and proud of their own strength. Deku is unlike them. In Horikoshi’s perspective, he was meant to be someone who was put through the toughest times. He wasn’t strong but on the contrary.
Deku wasn’t supposed to be a character who immediately held strength. It wasn’t even about him rising to the top, hitting rock bottom, and then rising again. It was about him being in hell, even below rock bottom and then getting back up.
Kohei Horikoshi’s Plan May Not Have Gone That Well
To put one’s characters through the worst and then watch them grow isn’t a formula that was any new. In fact, hardships and obstacles are one of the key features in coming of age stories for a character’s bildungsroman. Characters like Luffy and Naruto have seen the worst happening to themselves and those they care for. It helps them grow as characters and people. Their lowest feels more sympathetic than anything else. However, for Deku, the case is different.
He doesn’t come off as a character who is pushed past his limit but one who is just weak in general. His strength is overshadowed by those around him and his aura as the main protagonist too is stolen time and again.
Deku isn’t someone many can see being persistent as much as they can see him as someone who is stubborn and desperate. He is put through the worst again and again and the execution of that makes it seem that his perseverance isn’t about getting back up but simply letting it pass on.
