From Izuku To Katsuki, Chapter 119.

From Izuku to Katsuki, chapter 119.

I really love this little quite done by Izuku. To me it shows that despite being bullied by Katsuki from kindergarten all the way to their first year at high school, he still admires Katsuki. In my eyes it's so Izuku that I love it. He himself stated int he very same chapter, just a few panels before this: "As and as your bad side was... your strengths were just as impressive,"

He knows Katsuki has a bad side (and all to well sadly) but he seemed to focus slightly more on Katsuki's strengths which he called impressive. Basically, admiration.

Another example of Izuku's admiration for Katsuki is in the final exam mini arc where Izuku and Katsuki were paired up to fight All Might. There was this mini flashback of Katsuki standing for himself against two seniors at the age of 6.

Izuku is seen admiring Katsuki's bravery behind a near by tree, admiring at how Katsuki, like All Might, always wins at the end. Again, he had said that he could only admire All Might from a distance, but Izuku is is here admiring Katsuki just behind a nearby tree.

Izuku's admiration had stirred somewhere around the age of 4 a deepened later on. How I can conclude this, is because, there was another flashback where, the two of them were in a forest, Izuku telling Katsuki how amazing his Katsuki's quirk is. Once again I repeat, admiring Katsuki. I feel that Izuku's admiration shall never stop and that even when Izuku becomes the No.1 hero, all while Katsuki is the No.2 hero, he will still find something amazing about Katsuki.

So you can see how much Izuku admires Katsuki and how significant Katsuki is in Izuku's life, so when in the infamous chapter 362, Katsuki seemingly dies, you can see the impact it brings upon Izuku.

See how his eyes change? From how the light in his eyes slowly but surely disappears as he sees a dead corpse on the floor, and how his pupils vanish the moment he realizes it's Katsuki. He doesn't believe that the person he admires just as much or possibly even more than All Might, is dead. Because he admires Katsuki for Katsuki's bravery, and sprit of always winning. Hence, Izuku's image of victory being Katsuki.

Katsuki has come a really long way as well. From bullying Izuku to 'admiring/accepting' Izuku. I feel his biggest change as a character towards Izuku was when he apologized in the rain, and for the first time in ten years or so calling Izuku by his given name.

How Horikoshi draws and depicts their development by drawing the two of them when they were toddlers, to middle school, then high school, to the moment where he's apologizing, brings forth a mountain of indescribable feelings and emotions. How Katsuki said he looked down on Izuku because Izuku was quirkless, and therefore thought that Izuku was meant to be classified as beneath him.

But even so, he always felt that Izuku was above him, and he hated that. So Katsuki bullied Izuku, to keep Izuku at arm's length,but Izuku kept running and chasing after him, as I have said, because of how much Izuku admires Katsuki. He tried to act all superior by rejecting Izuku, but as he says, he kept losing that fight if trying to act superior. And through out the whole first year at UA, he was forced to realize Izuku's strengths and his weaknesses. And he apologizes, along with saying Izuku's name in front of all his classmates.

For Katsuki to show even some sort of weakness is hard enough but the fact that he willingly and ooenly shows his weakness in front of at least 20 people, is a lot to say on its own. And Katsuki continues by saying how he and everyone else will be there to help Izuku when Izuku can't handle everything on his own.

His apology to Izuku was one of the final pieces needed to bring back Izuku to UA, the efforts of Ochako, Tenya and everyone else in 1A will not go unnoticed. And as Izuku falls from exhaustion, all his emotions starting to cave in, we can how fast Katsuki runs to just catch Izuku from falling.

You can't even see the remainder of Katsuki's leg due to the speed he was running at to catch Izuku from falling, while muttering how he and everyone else in 1A gets how Izuku feels. From how Katsuki used to bully Izuku to now 'admiring/accepting' Izuku shows how far Katsuki has come, and there are still others out there stating how Katsuki has zero character development.

And another thing I should point out is how Katsuki is trying to change his habit of calling Izuku, Deku. Katsuki is trying to make the effort of calling Izuku by his given name, instead of a nickname he had made up that meant how useless Izuku was. Why he stops calling Izuku by his given name was due to him saying, "Deku-Izuku," And Izuku had replied, telling Katsuki that if calling him by his given name was too hard, then he doesn't want Katsuki to force himself to call him Izuku.

And Katsuki took that as a rejection. Therefore, he stopped calling Izuku, well... Izuku, anymore. Until of course the last few moments before Shigaraki crushed his heart, and killing Katsuki.

His final thoughts were about Izuku, his final words were also about Izuku. Katsuki has come a long way from bullying to 'admiration/acceptance' While Izuku has continued to admire Katsuki despite the consistent bullying.

"So Izuku... can I... still catch up to you?"

~Bakugou Katsuki, chapter 362.

This is just my thoughts by the way, I was just merely reading chapter 119 again, and Deku's single sentence just prompted a whole analysis in my mind. It's more of a focus on Katsuki and Izuku's friendship-rivalry than actual bkdk.