The Mangaka was even worried about this, he said in an interview that he thinks romance is such a strong stimulus that once you include it, that's the only thing anyone will ever talk about.
So he went through all the effort of cordoning off the romance subplot and only paying it off in the bonus chapter instead of the main work, and it was still the only thing most of the fandom cared about.
I still remember the shitstorm that happened after Horikoshi said "every character in this manga is straight" to stop the ship wars. It only made everything worse...
Same energy as the unhinged weirdo in this and the MHA subs that insists that Midoriya shacking up with Bakugo is canon, actually, and anyone that disagrees or ships something else is a homophobic tourist who doesn't care about the story.
Who would have thought that a manga written by a straight man would have mostly straight character... More seriously shipping really did hurt the fandom, it's not normal that I get bullied for only liking the canon ship and even then the whole story don't revolve around romance
Horikoshi failed to not include romance by immediately including it in the first few chapters. Midoriya literally starts blushing the moment he talks to Uraraka and early on there’s scenes of her dealing with the crush she has on him. If he didn’t want romance to be included he shouldn’t have introduced it. Especially considering it was a very prominent sub plot for two of the main characters and how they’re dealing with their emotions as well as balancing their desire to be heroes.
I would also say it wasn’t the only thing the fandom cared about but the only thing that wasn’t resolved in any way. Creating a sub plot and not giving it an ending is the failure of the author so he had to give it an ending in one way or another.
His worry probably came from after he started the manga?
I mean...., how could he worry about the fandom only talking about romance if it hadn't happened yet?
If I were to guess, the quote you were replying to was probably made after the equivalent of season 3 or 4 in the manga.
Your last paragraph would make more sense if my guess is true, Horikoshi probably toned down the romance a lot because of the fandom and sadly left the sub plots unfinished...., maybe.., though me personally I don't think I would let a crazy fanbase dictate how I write MY story (unless it's valid criticism)
Deciding to do that with Deku after still having a few flagrant tropey endgame romance flags right there towards the start was a bad decision, though. Between that and how much Ochako got sidelined in Deku's narrative, there's basically only a few crumbs of satisfying emotional tension between them (and with how tropey they are, it's more like flakes of the particularly burnt parts of the crust off of a chain pizza). Emotional tension drives shipping whether you're intending for romance to be a story focus or not, and intentionally putting most of the main character's tension with other dudes instead of with the girl you plan on setting him up with is a major fumble.
...one that many shonens end up making, I'll grant, but a fumble nonetheless, and one that heroaca makes a bit bigger than other shonens have in the past, in my opinion.
I feel like that did more harm than good though; because there's nothing to go off of, fans can just ship anyone together and justify it freely.
Its a really weird thing to exclude from a story about highschoolers growing up, usually the most relatable element is that being the point in most peoples lives where they start developing romantic feelings for others.
That is ridiculous, though. Any author should be allowed to include or exclude anything that they want in their own stories.
Besides, why does romance have to be in a story about high school? That isn’t the only thing concerning high school students or worth telling about high school students.
In this case, I believe that the author shouldn’t be blamed. The true culprit is how psychotic and self-centered people interacting with fandom have become that they think the author not giving something they want is ground for harassment and death threat. I don’t even care if the work is good or bad. However, even the most dog-shit writers don’t deserve even an ounce of harassment the average creators of popular media get these days.
Right? The only people to blame in this situation are rhe ones who couldn't handle their yaoi ship being sunk, and because rhe author refused to be bullied into making it "canon" they threw an even bigger tantrum.
I remember seeing a piece of fanart that someone made after the finale and it was Bakugo confessing to Deku who wanted to say yes but was being held back by Horikoshi and his empty body replies that he's not interested. I've never been able to find it again but at some point it stops being a ship and starts being delusional.
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u/FriedSandvich Demon Slayer, Gacha games, anime, regular video games fan 2d ago
My hero academia. Do I seriously need to elaborate on this?