Anime: My Hero Academia May Have Revealed That Mineta Is LGBTQ
This week the My Hero Academia manga caused an uproar in anime twitter by revealing that Mineta may (or may not) be in love love with Deku.
My Hero Academia has made itself newsworthy a few times over the last year. A new season and an upcoming movie have had fans chatting, but this week the manga went viral in a way that nobody saw coming thanks to most of the fandom’s least favorite teenage hero, Mineta.
If you’re not familiar with Mineta Minoru, you’re probably at least passingly familiar with his character. The smallest member of Class 1-A is easily one of the most recognizable with his distinct “grapes being lovingly served to you out of a diaper” costume choice. His quirk, Pop Off, let’s him produce and pluck off purple spheres from his head and have them be sticky. It’s a power that’s only terribly useful in high volume, but if he plucks too many off his head has a history of leaving him with a bleeding scalp. But mediocre power aside, the thing Mineta is most known for being Class 1-A’s most infamous pervert.
Utilizing a surprisingly 90’s trope, Mineta is My Hero Academia’s token pervert, often letting lewd comments slip in regards to his female classmates and taking every opportunity to sneak an uninvited peek. So fans were understandably surprised and maybe a little confused when chapter 321 of the manga featured Mineta seemingly confessing his love for Deku.
The phrase “I fell for you” certainly has romantic connotations, but it could be a bit of a fandom driven stretch or even a mistranslation from Japanese. Mineta’s line reads, “オイラが惚れたおめあは 冷や汗ダラダラで！プルプル震えて！一緒に道を切り拓いた— あん時のおまえだ.” specifically with the phrase “惚れた” or “horeta,” which does translate out to “fell in love with” or possibly “be charmed by.” But again, it’s definitely still a phrase with a notably romantic implication.
If that is indeed what the mangaka was going for, this could mean a canonically LBGT character in My Hero Academia in the form of Mineta, but the fandom seems pretty split on whether they want to see this direction for the character at all. On one hand, representation in media is often a good thing and LGBT characters should exist because LGBT people do. On the other, there’s another questionable anime trope of introducing the most problematic and predatory characters and declaring them LGBT.
The elders of questionable LGBTQ anime rep #BNHA #mineta #MHA321 pic.twitter.com/gXkyEK4sv9
— Oofyboi (@Oofyboi4) August 2, 2021
Personally, we’re pretty sure that Mineta’s pervy nature and total lack of boundaries would make it impossible for him to be romantically attracted to Deku for more than 300 chapters without being completely inappropriate. That “horeta” is still looming heavily in the manga, but being charmed or enamored by someone who you have the upmost admiration for is a possible – albeit rare – translation for the line so Mineta’s romantic leanings will just be an unsolved anime mystery for at least another chapter.
Do you think Mineta meant that he had romantic feelings for Deku, or just looked up to him platonically? How would you feel about Mineta being confirmed as canonically LGBT in a future chapter? How would you feel about Mineta being written out of My Hero Academia forever or fired from a canon into the sun? Let us know in the comments!
Ja Ne, Adventurers!
