Obsessive My Hero Academia shippers recently flooded mangaka Kohei Horikoshi’s Instagram page demanding that a particular ship be made canon in the series.
On May 16th, 2019, Horikoshi shared an image of three then-newly created Deku, Uraraka, and Tsuyu statues. These were produced as a part of Bellfine’s My Hero Academia 1:8 scale statue series, as you’ll see below.
At the time, the image received the usual set of Instagram comments. They ranged from praise, to questions about the series, to the usual fan requests for additional scenes and characters.
However, in July of 2020, the photo saw a resurgence in fan engagement. This resurgence saw the post’s comments section begin to be flooded by fans making demands that Horikoshi officially canonize various ‘fan ships’ within the pages of the manga.
The ships being demanded for canonization include the ‘Bakudeku’, ‘Kiribaku’, and ‘Todomomo’ pairings. You can see some examples below:
YouTuber Hero Hei also documented a number of shippers demanding their ships be made canon by Horikoshi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hz9HNN-ncE&feature=youtu.be
Despite the masses of demanding, ‘ship’ related posts, many other My Hero Academia fans pushed back against the overwhelming aggressive fandom shippers.
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No punches were held back. One fan requested that “yall 13 year olds stop commenting about your weird ass ship on the literal author’s page and just enjoy the manga.”
Another came to the defense of Kohei Horikoshi writing, “he’ll canon any ship he wants to be canon stop spamming please, spread love to the show and manga you like.”
They added, “Horikoshi-sensei [will] do whatever HE wants about HIS manga.”
User Lynxiio made a pointed statement that not only defended Horikoshi, but called out the shippers.
Lynxiio wrote, “To everyone saying: PLEASE MAKE THIS SHIP CANON. please stop you are making this community toxic just ship whatever you want stop forcing horikoshi, he left social media for a while cause of everyone bullying him into doing things.”
They added, “Just wait and see what he makes canon its not your choice. have a good day/night ty”:
Another user, _yehet_squish_, was also direct with their statement against the shippers, “Kiribaju tododeku bakudeku Will never be canon. Stop harassing him bruh. People like this are really toxic I swear.”
Many fans of Horikoshi know that the creator is no stranger to the outrageous actions of the more vocal and entitled side of the My Hero Academia fandom on social media.
Last year, fans circulated a known mistranslation of a panel from a My Hero Academia fan translation as proof that the series icon All Might was bisexual.
Earlier this year, Horikoshi changed the name of a recently introduced villain after Chinese and Korean fans perceived the name as a purposeful reference to Japanese war crimes committed during World War II.
Related: Artist Fred Benes Shows Off Pinups of My Hero Academia’s Mirko, Mt. Lady, And Uraraka
Horikoshi is not the only creator to be targeted by rabid fans. Japanese pop-idol Haruka Kaki was harassed into taking down a picture of herself posing with a photo of Shoto Todoroki by Chinese fans. This was again based on their perception that the series intentionally referenced Japanese war crimes.
What do you make of these shippers demands for My Hero Academia? Do you think Horikoshi will even think about putting these ships into canon?