Izuku Midoriya

**Izuku Midoriya** also known as **Deku**, is the main protagonist of My Hero Academia. He fought Ruby Rose from RWBY in episode 12 of Mini Rumble Season 2.

## Description

Midoriya was one of the 20 percent of people on Earth to be born without a Quirk, a natural superpower that is a basic biological function in the modern society, earning him endless amounts of torment and bullying in school.

Even still, he dreamed of becoming an amazing hero like his lifelong idol All Might, the No. 1 Hero of his country. That impossible dream became a reality after a chance meeting with All Might, who granted Deku his Quirk. Now on his path to becoming the greatest hero, Deku battles nefarious villains, endless schoolwork, and his inner demons to become a worthy successor to the Symbol of Peace.

## Quotes

### Riot Rumble: the Comic #1: Felicia vs Spiderman

* O-Oh my god! Th-th-the original Spider-Man!! (Did I say
* (Did I say that out loud? Hope it didn't bother Miles...
* Wow, I never thought I's see him in person... I've read up on all of the feats he's done in this world. They don't call him "amazing" for nothing.
* Sorry, I'll pass.

### Genos vs Bakugo

* Kacchan, can you like, st-
* Bakugou, stop please! That's Genos! One of the high rank heroes around.
* Kacchan, please stop!
* I'm soory, Genos. He gets like this a lot...
* Kacchan!
* I'm gonna assume that was Kaachan... I should go on ahead... Is this? I gotta get back to genos and Kacchan!

## Trivia

* Izuku was originally planned to be an adult, as seen in the one-shot *My Hero*.
	+ In the early concept stages of *My Hero Academia*, Izuku was known as "Mikumo Akatani." He had a longer and curlier hairdo, with bangs blocking one of his eyes. He was Quirkless in this concept, relying more on makeshift gadgets and luck to deal with obstacles. His hero costume was also slightly more intimidating. The costume was shown in a sketch having an orange color scheme.
	+ Kohei Horikoshi once commented that he was unsatisfied with Mikumo's design, especially his hair. This made Horikoshi think up the current design with slightly shorter hair. He also received suggestions from editors to give the protagonist an actual superpower, so he wouldn't naturally fade into the background.
* According to Izuku's profile in Volume 1:
	+ His favorite food is Katsudon.
	+ He was deliberately designed to look plain.
* Regarding Izuku's academic life and performance, his U.A. data is as follows.
	+ Student No. 18 in Class 1-A.
	+ Ranked seventh during the U.A. Entrance Exam.
	+ Ranked twentieth (last) for the Quirk Apprehension Test.
		- His fifty-meter dash record is 7.02 seconds. His previous record was 7.49 in middle school.
		- His grip strength record is 56 kilograms (123.459 pounds). His previous record was 40 kilograms (88.185 pounds) in middle school.
		- His softball throw record is 705.3 meters. Without his Quirk, it's 46 meters.
	+ Ranked fourth in Class 1-A's mid-term grades.
	+ Ranked in the Top 8 of the U.A. Sports Festival First-Year Stage.
		- Izuku received only one nomination from Gran Torino for his U.A. Sports Festival performance, technically making him the tenth most nominated Class 1-A student.
	+ Scored seventy-one in the Provisional Hero License Exam.
* Izuku's surname contains the kanji for "green" (緑 *midori***?**) and "valley" (谷 *ya***?**), and his given name contains "coming out/being from a certain place, one's turn to go on" (出 *izu***?**) and "long ago, old story" (久 *ku***?**).
	+ "久" is also homophonous to "nine" (九**?** usually read as *kyū*), which refers to him being the ninth user of One For All.
* "Deku" (デク**?**) is another reading of his first name, Izuku (出久**?**). Written with different kanji, it can refer to a wooden figure or puppet ( *deku***?**), which is a term often used as an insult for someone who can't do or achieve anything.
	+ Izuku's nickname, "Deku," was given to him by Katsuki when they were children as an insult.
	+ According to Kohei Horikoshi, the inspiration for the name Deku was from Kenji Miyazawa's poem "Ame ni mo Makezu" (Be Not Defeated by the Rain).
	+ Later, Ochaco finds the nickname inspiring and says that "Deku" gives off a feeling of "I can do it" (る *ganbaru***?**), because of its similarity to the word meaning "to be able to do" (できる *dekiru***?**).
	+ In the Funimation dub, both Katsuki and Izuku indicate that his nickname is an abbreviation of a different nickname: "**De**fenseless Izu**ku**," hence **Deku**.
* Izuku's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows;
	+ Izuku ranked first in the first Popularity Poll.
	+ Izuku ranked second in the second, third, fifth, and sixth Popularity Polls.
	+ Izuku ranked third in the fourth Popularity Poll.
* Izuku is the seventh oldest in his class, with his birthday taking place on July 15.
	+ He also shares his birthday with Mirio Togata.
* His Quirk is listed as "Super-Power" (超パワー *Chō Pawā***?**) in public records, in order to protect the secret about One For All.
* Izuku's alpha costume cost only ¥40,380 ($370.53 U.S. dollars) to make.
	+ Izuku's later costumes share the same designer as Shoto's.
* Izuku's Japanese voice actor for when he was a child, Akeno Watanabe, also voices Nemuri Kayama and Mika Jiro.
* Izuku is one of three characters (along with Nine and Gigantomachia) with the third most amount of Quirks, possessing a total of seven Quirks, though he does not have access to one of these Quirks yet.

### XVX

* Midoriya and Eri are the first MHA characters to appear in the series.
* Midoriya's one of the first characters to appear in Riot Rumble: The Comic, along with Uraraka, Blake, Kanna, Earthworm Jim, Peter Parker, Miles Morales and Felicia.