"They Bear Our Marks."

A little comic I drew for my fic We Pick Up the Pieces and Make Ourselves Stronger on AO3. I drew this a bit ago so I am glad to finally post it now I have context. For chapter 28

“Temptation whispers in your ear, be a wise warrior, Diana”

Absolute Wonder Woman is the absolute best thing ever.

Lilith's Red Carpet.

🌃 Izuku wearing the billion dollar suit

Clip Studio Paint | December 23, 2024

Since the manga didn't give me my glorious greatest hero in action..... I'll do it myself and I also have more on the way ☆

I don't really do backgrounds so this was very challenging and had to do a lot of back and forth 😭 had to pull out the ancient texts (spiderverse screenshots)

I have a speedpaint posted if you guys are interested ^^

The cutest girl in the whole world

WHY CHAPTER 431 OF MY HERO ACADEMIA SCREAMS CENSORSHIP

First let's start by the "afterword", the note Horikoshi left after 430 and before the extras, chapter 431.

Original japanese for those who understand.

The best traslation I found and most people are agreeing with.

Key sentences are:

1.The real final chapter is 429, 430 is more like a curtain call.

2. PS: For chapter 431, I turn off the cameras and free the characters from their dramas.

This note being left after 430 and before the extras is so important. . The clarification of "the real final chapter is 429" and 430 is the curtain call is screaming: the show has ended here. This is further stated by "i turn the cameras off" by the man who use to refer himself as the camera man, I leave you with an example.

(They're talking about Vol 37 cover)

And back to point number 2: "and free the characters from their dramas", which could perfectly be understood as "the characters are no longer tied to their previous plots and drama" no longer connected to the main story.

It may seem like a reach until here, we're just trying to convince ourselves that's not canon, right? They´re delusions, right?

The problem is how far away everything about 431 antagonizes the whole story, the characters doesn't feel like themselves, they even regress back all their development, the drawing style looks totally different and there are many irregularities that call for our attention.

Dabi, 431 and by Horikoshi

Toga and Ochaco in 431:

Toga and Ochaco by Horikoshi:

All Might's signature for Katsuki (Horikoshi would never mess this up):

Kirishima with 6 fingers lol, Horikoshi loves drawing hands, he would never.

Katsuki's odd teeth what the fuck. (His hand looks good to me)

Ochaco and Shoto just look, weird. It's clearly not Horikoshi's art style.

And this awful background (center) was the main giveaway.

Horikoshi's backgrounds are so professional:

At this point I'm getting tired since the difference is astounding, don't believe me, just check the manga.

I don't think Horikoshi would've allowed those mistakes had he have a role in the making, maybe he did, there's no saying about that, but clearly if he did his involvement was very low.

Character's development wise now.

Seriously? "Deku"? And Katsuki complaining for picking him up. He cried his eyes out when Izuku lost his quirk and now he's back at season 1?

Izuku would never in a million years turn down that offer. And if he did, it would never be like this, so devoid of emotion and empathy.

430 showed us an Izuku aiming for his dreams again and at 431 this Izuku ¿? It's okay with being a teacher? Ok. And if that's not the problem, why he outright rejects Katsuki out of nowhere? When their rivalry was one of the main points of the plots for 430 chapters and now just um over? Without justification? Ok.

Ok.

Now specifically about that ship canonization and bkdk.

Horikoshi has been doing this for 10 years. The choices he took the whole manga were incredibly intentional, all those romantic tropes given to bkdk, his interviews, all stand in direct opposition to what happened in this last chapter.

I, myself, don't know much about Jump but what I've heard is they end lot of shonens with the same heterosexual formula. I don't think all of this is a coincidence.

Something really important that needs to be adressed to is what happened back in June (I think), when suddenly MHA announced it was ending in 5 chapters could've something to do with this. The manga was suddenly rushed to its ends with unsatisfying resolutions and as if that was not enough, one month later (at most) the same happened to JJK and all of this came accompanied by a switch of one of the heads of Jump.

About 431 again though.

I was just thinking what would I do if I was pressured to write something that ruins the biggest project of my life and goes against everything I was hoping for? Refuse. Tell them to write it themselves. If I can't do anything to stop it and it'll be there, alright, but I WON'T DO IT.

And I think this could be Horikoshi's case.

I've never seen a shonen manga come so close to implying his male protagonist and his male deuteragonist are in love before. Yes, it was not EXPLICIT but it was so fucking clear if you knew how to read, all the way up to 430. All those cliches tropes he gave them, he knew, we know.

I thought I'll die trying to explaineverything that seems wrong with this with nothing to back me up but the fact that he added that note is clear for me. I'm surprised they allowed him to publish it, I thought we wouldn't even have that.

PS:

It's interesting this being posted the same day 431 comes out. Also "heroaca is pretty dark, huh?"

I'll not go into this anyways because it's kind of a reach but the conclusion is: I think it's a "soft" censorship and Horikoshi did his best to relay his message given what he had.

Thanks for reading!

So I have a vigilante Deku fic I have been posting on AO3 for a bit. Decided to share one of the drawings I did for it :)

alwqys grabbing each other

To add onto the Kalego thing :')

In the anime (I'm getting through the manga rn) there's a handful of times where Kalego is like ???? Why WOULDN'T you summon me? In a very 'you SHOULD' have summoned me way.

Then him picking out the mentors for the harvest festival.

THEN Iruma finally popping up with the seed of beginnings and him being like !! I don't care about the plant! Are you hurt? Are you going to forefit? It gives worried dad energy then 😩

Man I just love Kalego, I think

Right?! I just love how he goes from so against the idea of being Iruma's familiar to getting genuinely annoyed when he isn't used as a familiar. And the small moments that show he worried, like the harvest festival 😭 I also just really love him

I’m saying this AS a deku stan. my literal favorite character in the whole goddamn world. what HAPPENED to him?

where is the "kacchan and everyone else" deku…

"what would kacchan do?"

"in the heat of battle I can't help but mimic you because you're my image of victory"

"all might was my hero, but you were the one actually in my life"

“I always chased after you”

"I can't imagine a world in which kacchan doesn't exist"

the "control your heart" deku.

the deku that only ever looked at katsuki with an awestricken, admirable expression. the deku that was so obsessed with katsuki.

katsuki was deliberately targeted by the villains because of this… I liked that deku was flawed in this way. that he prioritized someone in his life that was awful to him in the past. it’s one of the things that made him so interesting! that he was SO hopeful and so determined to be friends with katsuki again. (it added a comedic contrast to their dynamic too. like ‘wow he still wants this guy in his life so badly despite the bullying?’ YES.)

deku fans, deku haters, EVERYONE used to have something to say about his katsuki obsession. it was a repeated, central discussion for YEARS. even in parodies by non-shippers, deku’s katsuki obsession was constantly poked fun at. even if you hated bkdk you couldn’t deny how dedicated deku was to katsuki.

WHAT HAPPENED????