Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku

Katsuki Bakugou/Midoriya Izuku, known widely as Bakudeku or Dekubaku, is generally one of the most popular ships, and the most popular slash ship, in the fandom Boku no Hero Academia. It centers around the main character of the story, Midoriya Izuku and his childhood friend, turned bully, turned rival, Bakugou Katsuki; which has caused quite a lot of controversy between BNHA fans.
They are currently the most popular ship of the fandom in AO3, with over 34,000 stories.
==Canon==
Midoriya and Bakugou are childhood best friends. However when Bakugou manifests a particularly strong and powerful quirk, he begins bullying Midoriya for being quirkless and weak. This leads Bakugou to give Midoriya the mocking nickname "Deku," which is a play on the kanji (出久) that make up Midoriya's first name and a common insult in Japanese that's roughly equivalent to the English blockhead. Iseli, Marcel. . Linguaholic blog, published 10 January 2019. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. In doing so, Bakugou enforces the societal view that Midoriya cannot succeed in his dream of becoming a Pro Hero because he has no quirk. Midoriya calls Bakugou by his childhood nickname, Kacchan (かっちゃん, Katchan), which can be seen as extremely cutesy and girly.. Posted 8 April 2018. Accessed 10 Nov 2019.
In the very beginning of canon, despite Bakugou having earlier told him to kill himself, Midoriya risks his life to save Bakugou from a villain attack and receives the One for All quirk from All Might. Because of this, Bakugou believes that Midoriya had lied to him about being quirkless when they begin attending U.A. and becomes angry with him. Midoriya attempts to explain that his Quirk was given to him, but is unable to elaborate beyond that without breaking the confidence of All Might. Bakugou doesn't believe Midoriya, and the lack of a proper explanation leads to him cementing his fear that Midoriya had secretly been looking down on him for their entire lives.
After a climactic fight in which Bakugou reveals these misconceptions and confides his own insecurities about his role in pushing All Might into retirement,Deku Vs. Kacchan part 2 the two finally clear the air once and for all, and develop a mutually respectful rivalry.
After, Bakugo starts helping Midoriya trainBNHA manga 284, Catch-a-Kacchan to learn to control the many quirks that come with One For All and starts changing towards atonement for bullying Midoriya, getting himself impaled to save Midoriya's life and finally apologizing profusely to him. From then on, he started calling Midoriya by his first name, becoming the only character, apart from Midoriya's mom, to use his name instead of "Deku."
Because of their tumultuous history, Bakugo is both the person who knows Midoriya the bestBNHA manga chapter 319 and Midoriya's closest bond.Shigafo to Bakugo, BNHA manga 367 They see each other as inspiration, striving to surpass the other, with Midoriya even calling Bakugo his "image of victory"BNHA chapter 119 Deku vs Kacchan 2; and Bakugo thinking about "catching up" to Midoriya while in a life and death situation.BNHA manga 362
==Fandom==
BakuDeku is the most popular ship in the Eastern BNHA fandom, and one of the most popular ships in the Western fandom. According to fandometrics on Tumblr, in 2018 Bakudeku was #16 on the most popular ships list. Fandom on Tumblr. Posted 28 November 2018. There are over 34,000 works for the pairing on AO3,Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku tag on AO3. Archive.org Snapshot saved 25 September 2022 showing 33638 works in the tag. This does not include works that are log-in locked and therefore not viewable from a public backup. and it has become the most tagged BNHA ship on the site, overtaking the similarly popular ships of Tododeku and Kiribaku.僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia tag on AO3. Archive Snapshot from 26 September 2022.
===Common Tropes & Fanon===
In canon fanfiction, it was common for the stories to include some sort of redemption arc for Bakugou in which he apologizes for his past behavior. This is especially true of early BakuDeku fic, which was written at a time when Midoriya and Bakugou's relationship was far more antagonistic. Now that the two are on better terms, there has been an increasing focus in canon fic on mutual character development and growth, as well as aged up explorations of their lives as Pro Heros, domestic fic, quirk accident and canon divergence stories.
As far as AU fic go, A/B/O is by far the most common trope for the pairing along with the canon-specific au "no quirks". They are also frequently portrayed as soulmates, with fic often capitalizing on Bakugou and Midoriya's complementary personalities and ideals., posted to Tumblr by pikahlua, 7 August 2021.
==Controversies==
The largest controversy in BNHA fandom is over the acceptability of BakuDeku as a ship. Some fans disapprove of shipping Midoriya with his childhood bully and label the ship as "abusive.". Tumblr post by obsessionic. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. This controversy is largely related to mixed opinions about Bakugou and his attitude, cultural nuances lost in translation, and fanon misconceptions about the extent of the ship's antagonistic history.. Tumblr post by osakakitty. Posted 27 March 2018. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. Many viewers and readers are repulsed by the ship in the first chapter alone, in which Bakugou tells Midoriya he'll never be able to go to UA and suggests Midoriya throw himself off the school's roof. 
The major problem with the controversy around Bakugou and Midoriya's relationship is that there is a distinct cultural difference between Japan's perception of bullying and Western perception of bullying. In many Eastern cultures, individualism is actively discouraged in favor of blending into the crowd leading to a disconnect between the "me" culture of the West and the "us" culture of Japan.Branding 'me' in a 'we' culture. Posted 25 July 2012. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. Because of this difference, bullying is considered a personal matter in Japan, and therefore the apparent lack of repercussions in canon is because what Bakugou does to Midoriya isn't necessarily interpreted as bullying in the context of Japanese culture.. Blog post by E. on This is Japanese Life. Posted 12 Jun 2013. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. That isn't to say what he does cannot be interpreted as bullying or that it isn't bullying, merely that the issue of whether or not their relationship is "healthy" for them is purely a Western issue with the canon. Bakugou's aggression is also not a big issue in Japan, because while he seems like a perfect example of toxic masculinity through a Western lens, Japanese perception of masculinity can be quite different. Posted 16 Feb 2015. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. as best shown by Kirishima Eijiro's comments on "manliness" which tend to have less to do with actual qualities one might see as "manly" and more to do with being honorable and respectable.
Although the Anti BakuDeku subset of the fandom is relatively small, this vocal minority has lead some shippers to feel wary of people who do not ship BakuDeku, particularly those who ship popular "competitor" ships, such as KiriBaku and IzuOcha. The ship’s overall reputation within fandom is mixed, but appears to be slightly on the negative side. Fans of the ship have frequently been accused of "romanticizing" or excusing Bakugo's years of bullying towards Midoriya. Posted July 15 2021. Accessed on April 7 2023
This has caused some shippers to get defensive and lash out against critics, souring their reputation in the fandom. This behavior is especially prevalent on Tumblr and Twitter, where they will comment on critical metas.. Tumblr posts by gontagokuhara, hananokuzu14, and endeavorphobic. An example of a BakuDeku shipper commenting on a critical post. Tweets by sapphicdkbk, LegitTayj1. Posted 22 September 2022. Another example of a BakuDeku shipper commenting on anti-BakuDeku posts.
In August 2018, a blocklist made by and for BakuDeku shippers began circulating on Tumblr. The list consisted of well-known Antis, sorted into four tiers of "Yikes.". Posted 21 Sept 2018. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. Reaction to the list was mixed, with some of the users on the list taking it as a source of pride and turning it into a meme.. Posted 21 Sept 2018. Accessed 10 Nov 2019. Other fans pointed out that users who had not partaken in any form of harassment were in the top tier, well above known "pedophiles" and transphobes. Overall, the blocklist has not helped the BakuDeku fandom's reputation.
In July 2022, a "DekuBaku manifesto" was posted to the AO3, immediately sparking controversy over t/b ship dynamics, which is already a constant point of debate on Twitter. While obvious bait, the piece was disguised as "opinion based" and compiled a bunch of data that "proved" fandom was shifting towards DekuBaku (top Deku, bottom Baku), that DekuBaku had more content than BakuDeku (top Baku, bottom Deku) on the AO3 and Twitter, and that people who preferred BakuDeku were mischaracterizing both Bakugo and Midoriya, homophobic and perpetuating heteronormative tropes. The piece did it's job on starting a fan war in the AO3 comments and on Twitter, with some people speculating about who had written and shared the piece and then attacking users they thought responsible or who were only mentioned in passing on the work itself.
==Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
====Explicit====
* Bluebird by EtherealBeing
* Blood Moon by lalazee
* briar roses (and hundred years of sleep) by vannral
* Before Midnight by DriftingGlass
* Quiet Rapture by lalazee
* We Wear Chains on the Weekend by surveycorpsjean
====Mature====
* In A Sky Of A Million Stars (Who Cares If One More Light Goes Out?) by Stringlish
* DEADICATION by DoodleJoops
====Teen====
* May I take your order, dipshit? by supercrunch
* Sugar Stardust by milkcandie
* The Way You Used To Do by edema_ruh
* Prodigal by writerllofllworlds
* landscape after cruelty by ohwickedsoul
* @Deku WRONG CHAT by katyastark
===Fanart & Fancomics===
*art by FilthyFaize (March 2020) - CW: Breastfeeding, Lactation Kink, MPreg
*Villain Waifu Deku by Kimbapchan
* by kamuiyamato, 2017
===Zine===
* Akogare (zine)
* The Song of Birds and Flowers (charity zine)
* , BKDK Fantasy AU
* , theme of childhood friends and New Years
* , Festival theme
* For more, see List of Boku no Hero Academia Zines
===Meta===
* by punkbakugo, 2017.
* by kiraelric, December 2017.
* by OsakaKitty, March 2018
* by sacred-stoner, March 2018.
* KatsuDeku Bothers the F*** Outta Me Part 1 and Part 2 by i-write-shit, January 2017
* by Jay Moss, July 2019
* by verdantmoontruther
==Communities & Resources==
* Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku works on AO3
* explodo-smash, a tumblr dedicated to the ship
==References==
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Boku no Hero Academia Relationships