My Hero Academia fans celebrate the IzuOcha moment they've "BEEN WAITING FOR"
My Hero Academia recently released a new final chapter for the last volume of the manga with new content. This confirms the relationship between Izuku "Deku" Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka. After hundreds of chapters and years of being teased, this new ending concluded with the two characters confessing their feelings and starting their relationship, which many fans wanted.
It is common knowledge in the anime community that the My Hero Academia fandom is very passionate about shipping, and Deku's romantic interest led to some heated debates online. However, the vast majority of the fans knew that Uraraka was his main romantic interest and author Kohei Horikoshi confirmed that with this new chapter.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and the people quoted and not Sportskeeda as a publication.
My Hero Academia fans celebrate Izuku and Uraraka's relationship after the new final chapter is released
Author Kohei Horikoshi recently a new chapter to volume 42 of the manga, the last one of the series, and added some new elements. These include greater context for Izuku Midoriya's life as a teacher and the lives of the main cast after the eight-year time-skip. While that was all well and good, what got most of the fandom's attention was the confirmation of the relationship between Deku and Ochaco Uraraka.
Most readers and viewers of the series were always aware that these characters had feelings for each other. However, the original final chapter, 430, which came out months ago, was perceived as a disappointment since it didn't tackle this topic. It seemed at the time that Horikoshi wasn't brave enough to confirm or deny this relationship between Deku and Uraraka, leaving it open-ended in what was viewed as a divisive decision.
However, all of that has come to rest now that this new final chapter ended with a last scene where the two characters meet on the streets and the protagonist reveals his feelings to be with her. Moreover, Uraraka was finally able to move on from her guilt after Himiko Toga's death and embraced the possibility of loving, thus ending the story with these two characters together in a relationship.
More reactions online
The My Hero Academia fandom has a long-standing reputation for being very passionate about shipping and fanfiction, which rose to the surface with this new turn of events. While most fans always knew that Deku and Uraraka had romantic feelings for each other, there was hope in some sections of the fandom that the protagonist wasn't going to go in that direction.
Some claimed that their characters didn't benefit from having romantic feelings for each other while others were shipping Deku with a wide variety of people, the most notably being Katsuki Bakugo, to the shock of many. However, the evidence in the manga was clear and the protagonist's only real romantic endgame was always going to be Uraraka, much to the happiness of most of the community.
"I KNEW MY GOAT GOT GAME LES GO," someone said.
"Not the Toga ghost support. This is just Precious," another person said.
"Toga is canonically an izoucha shipper," someone else said.
Some critics claimed that this moment didn't solidify a relationship since they didn't do anything overly romantic or intimate. However, it is not uncommon for shonen couples to not show those things to the reader, and is also part of the course in Japanese culture, especially because the My Hero Academia author has always stated that hands are a significant symbol of union for him.
"The best part about Izuocha being canon is that these people are finally dropping the act and stopping pretending to care about Ochako as a character and are showing their true colors," someone else said.
"FINALLY IZUOCHA. Finally the big day, the big moment really happened," another person said.
The original My Hero Academia ending with chapter 430 had been extremely divisive but the new content, especially the confession of Uraraka and Deku, has elevated to a much more positive status in recent days.
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