My Hero Academia: Why Uraraka Deserves Better

In any series with a cast as large as My Hero Academia's, some characters inevitably will fall by the wayside. Usually, side characters suffer this fate, but sometimes, more interesting or relevant characters don't get the attention they deserve. My Hero Academia's Ochaco Uraraka, the closest thing to a female lead, often suffers from this, despite having a promising start and an important role in the store.

Who Uraraka Is

First, it's important to establish who Uraraka is and why she's so important.

She's one of the first U.A. students introduced apart from Midoriya and his childhood friend Bakugo, with Midoriya meeting her at the entrance exam. She quickly makes an impression on him, and is one of the students Midoriya is closest to, along with Bakugo, Iida and Todoroki. She actually likes Midoriya's previously insulting nickname "Deku," and leads to him adopting it as his hero name.

As time goes on, it's revealed that Uraraka has a relatively selfish but understandable motive for wanting to become a hero- to earn money to provide for her struggling parents. Uraraka is embarrassed to admit this, but Midoriya finds it more grounded in reality than his desire to become a hero. This goes to show that Uraraka is a good person at heart and tries to do what she believes is right, but is far from perfect.

Uraraka is also a rather kindhearted and selfless person. After Midoriya saves her life during the U.A. entrance exam, she asks if she can give some of her points to him as a reward (since the robot Midoriya destroyed to save her wasn't worth any points), before hearing that test takers were being given points for rescuing other examinees.

Uraraka also has an interesting Quirk- the ability to make whatever she touches(herself included) weightless and to reverse that process at a moment's notice- that has a variety of uses, from saving others to attacking her foes. This may seem like a minor concern, but in shonen manga, characters' utility in battle often determines how often they get fight scenes.

As you can see, Uraraka has a lot of potential as likeable and reasonably complex character, so it's a shame that it isn't put to greater use.

How Uraraka Was Shortchanged

Unfortunately, while Uraraka is established as an important character, she gradually fades out of the spotlight over time. Let's look at Uraraka arc-by-arc.

The start of the series, from Midoriya's arrival at U.A. to the chapters introducing the Sports Festival, has already been covered, since it establishes Uraraka's character. In the Sports Festival itself, Uraraka passes the first phase along with the rest of her class and manages to play a significant role as Midoriya's teammate in the Cavalry Battle. As a result of her efforts, she manages to gain a spot as one of the sixteen students who participate in the final tournament, an honor not everyone manages to earn, and not all of the sixteen feel they deserve.

Uraraka's first opponent is Bakugo, the eventual winner of the tournament. She politely declines Midoriya's offer of help against his old friend, saying that if she accepted, she'd be relying on Midoriya too much. She adds that Iida might have had the right idea when he refused to team up with Midoriya in the Cavalry Battle, due to seeing Midoriya as a rival.

Despite putting in a valiant effort, Uraraka ultimately loses to Bakugo. Her final gambit- planning on dropping debris on Bakugo after distracting him- fails, and she soon collapses. Having her fail in spite of her best efforts isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's disappointed that out of the six female students who qualified for the final tournament- Uraraka, Ashido, Yaoyorozu, Ashido, Shiozaki and Hatsume- only Ashido and Shiozaki defeated their male opponents to win (both of whom were relatively pathetic), and neither advanced to the next round.

Uraraka doesn't play much of a role in the Work Study arc, since she's working under Gunhead, far from the action in Hosu, and only talks on the phone with Midoriya after his fight with Stain. That said, this is hardly surprising, since only Midoriya, Iida and Todoroki played significant roles in that arc, with the latter two being characters who were deeply impacted by family-related developments in the Sports Festival. During this time, Uraraka manages to learn Gunhead Martial Arts, which she uses in her final exam to help Aoyama defeat Thirteen (although she and Aoyama are the closest to failing apart from the five who actually did). She thus has to work especially hard to hone her abilities in the training camp.

Uraraka and Tsuyu, paired for the test of courage, end up fighting Himiko when the League of Villains attack, a battle that ends with the League escaping with Bakugo. Uraraka doesn't participate in the mission to save Bakugo(the team consists of the three who fought Stain, Kirishima and Yaoyorozu), unwilling to break the rules to save Bakugo when he doesn't want a rescue. She later helps Tsuyu reconcile with the rescue team. While her decision not to join the rescue mission is in character, it's clear that she's starting to fall by the wayside.

Uraraka trains to further improve herself, and eventually participates in the Provisional Hero License Exam. She passes, which, while impressive (less than 10 percent of the applicants made it to the second phase), isn't all that notable compared to her peers. In fact, the people who didn't pass are more noteworthy- namely Todoroki and Bakugo. Despite being two of the more promising students, their personality flaws ended up being their undoing. Some of her peers tease her about her obvious crush on Midoriya, but Uraraka resolves not to act on it (more on that later)

The Internship Arc, unfortunately, is a low point for Uraraka. Despite interning for Ryukyu, one of the top 10 heroes, alongside Tsuyu, Uraraka hardly does anything. She and Tsuyu fight Rikiya Katsukame outside the compound, and aren't seen again until they smash their way through to where Midoriya is fighting Overhaul. Unlike Tamaki's fight with the Garbage Trio, Kirishima and Fat Gum's fight with Rappa and Tengai, and Midoriya, Nighteye and Mirio's fight with Overhaul and his men, none of the girls get any significant character development during that fight.

Uraraka continues to play a supporting role in the next few arcs, although the Pro Hero arc didn't prominently feature anyone besides the Todoroki family. She gets a little better in the last battle of the Pro Hero arc, but she's changed less than other characters. By comparison, Iida has a new technique, Tokoyami reveals a little about working under Hawks, Todoroki becomes willing to learn about his fire Quirk from his father, and Shinso is taking another step toward joining the Hero course.

The Meta Liberation Army arc focuses on the villains, so Uraraka's only contribution is indirect; Himiko uses Uraraka's Quirk to kill MLA officer Curious. The following arc, which focuses on Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki interning under Endeavor, is also a missed opportunity to show more of Uraraka and the others, apart from briefly hinting at Uraraka's interest in Midoriya.

As of this writing, Uraraka is taking part in the war against the Paranormal Liberation Front, but she has yet to fight Shigaraki or Gigantomachia. Time will tell what role she plays, or where the story will go once this arc concludes, but as you can see from previous arcs, I'm not optimistic that she will have much more of a role.

Uraraka's Character Arc

One other shortcoming of how Uraraka is written relates to her character arc. She isn't a bad character, but the story doesn't seem to have much of a plan for her development.

First, let's look at her reasons for becoming a hero, which, while a character flaw, don't often seem to adversely affect her. Not only is her desire to support her parents understandable, but she never does anything less-than-heroic for the sake of that goal. Compare Iida, who'd been so preoccupied with getting points by destroying robots in the entrance exam that he didn't consider saving Uraraka, and who sought out Stain for the sake of avenging his brother, rather than saving the hero Stain was about to kill. While Iida is also underutilized, his flaw has a better impact on his character. As for Uraraka, while her gradual shift to wanting to become a hero to save others during the Internship Arc is admirable, it doesn't seem to fundamentally change who she is or what she does.

There's also her crush on Midoriya. Her bond with him is the most significant relationship she has in Class 1-A, since while she's close friends with Tsuyu and initially spent a lot of time with Iida, she's clearly closest to Midoriya. Her character is complex enough that she doesn't cease to be interesting if Midoriya is taken out of the picture, but she's closer to Midoriya than he is to her, leading some to believe that Midoriya doesn't return her feelings. Still other believe, perhaps not unjustifiably, that Horikoshi is yet another manga artist who struggles to make female characters relevant to the plot except as love interests. Putting it that way would be a disservice to Uraraka as a character, but it's hard to contest considering how Horikoshi has used Uraraka.

Even apart from concerns about how Uraraka's relationship with Midoriya affects her character, there's also the progress on this front, or lack thereof.  Uraraka spends the period between her work study and the preparations for the provisional license exam wrestling with her feelings for Midoriya, only to decide that they are a distraction she can't afford during the exam. As a result, her character can come off as relatively stagnant and slow to progress.

What Now?

One thing that Uraraka lacks is an arc focusing on her. Most of the other characters get significant focus at one point or another, but Uraraka has barely managed more than a supporting role in most arcs. That might have been remedied if she'd had more of a chance to shine in the Internship Arc, but perhaps we'll have to wait for whatever comes after the war with the Paranormal Liberation Front.

Once again, Uraraka is by no means a bad character, but she's nowhere near realizing her full potential. She deserves better than what she's getting right now, and I'm sure that Horikoshi is skilled enough to find a role for Uraraka that will help her character grow and bring out her potential.