Boku No Hero Imagines — Just A Thing About Bakugo's Name

just a thing about Bakugo’s name

I love kanji, studying it in my free time is what I do when I’m not writing or making crappy fan art because boy do I need to get better at writing it, but while going through my manga a few minutes ago, I came across something that made me simultaneously angry and giggly.

The kanji for Bakugo’s name is 爆豪勝己 lit: explosion powerful victory self, which just totally gives away his character and quirk right off the bat, since his quirk is 爆破, explosion.

When his parents are introduced, we find out their names are Mitsuki and Masaru. And while this means nothing to someone reading the manga in English, for those of us who read it in Japanese (friendly neighborhood admin does the nihongo) the kanji used for their names are interesting, and this is where I was like *growls with anger while trying not to laugh*

Katsuki’s mother’s name, Mitsuki uses these kanji: 光己 lit: light self. It’s a pretty name, but she shares the same last kanji in her name as her son, Katsuki, the same 己

So, when I saw Katsuki’s father’s name, Masaru, I wanted to punch a wall because this kid’s name is literally just his dad’s name + the second half of his mom’s name I’m so f*cking mad rn

Masaru Bakugo’s name is written as 爆豪勝 lit: explosion powerful victory, but instead of being read as かつ (Katsu) like Katsuki’s name, it’s the nanori (a special reading for a kanji when used as a name) Masaru.

Bakugo’s parents decided that they were going to name their kid after themselves. Not only is he Winning Dude McPowerfulExplosion, his parents just combined their names! He’s My Parents Really Wanted To Name Me After Them Wining Dude McPowerfulExplosion. And I thought we’d seen it all when it came to Horikoshi’s naming of his characters being redundant. Katsuki was actually the first character whose name I got irrationally upset about when he was first shown.

A lot of the characters in the series suffer similarly cruel fates for their names, like my boy Tetsutetsu (鉄哲徹鐵, lit: iron intelligent/wise/sagely piercing iron, with the last kanji being an archaic kanji for iron); his name is composed of all different kanji with the same reading, but it’s so damn redundant it’s painful for me every time I see it. At least the only part of Izuku’s name that gets beaten over your head is the Deku reading that Katsuki points out when they’re little kids…

Just thought other people might find this interesting, though I’m sure someone has probably already pointed this out before at some point.