BakuJirou

BakuJirou is the het ship between Katsuki Bakugou and Kyoka Jiro from the My Hero Academia fandom.

USJ Arc
On the bus to the USJ, it’s seen Katsuki and Kyoka seated next to one another, thanks to their close seating in class. Kyoka scrolls idly through her phone, while Katsuki stares out the window, until Denki comments that he has the personality of a “steamed turd”, causing him to erupt in a yelling fit, typical of him. Unlike the majority, who usually seem to take Katsuki’s attitude as a threat, or find it fearful, Kyoka seems to tolerate it as nothing more than a simple annoyance.

In the OVA (original video animation) ‘Training of the Dead’, the students are made to spar in groups. Kyoka, alongside others (Denki, Minoru, Yuga as a few) team up against Katsuki in hopes to take him down. Kyoka plugs her earphone-jacks into the ground in an attempt to listen for Katsuki and his explosions, but Katsuki proves to be aware of her quirk, and how she uses it, by detonating an explosion directly to the ground, the vibrations of which affect, and defeat Kyoka as planned.

Provisional Hero License Exam Arc
The trio of Katsuki, Eijiro and Denki, who’d split from the class at the start of their exam, complete their exam and regroup with their classmates rather late, as compared to most/many. Kyoka teases by saying that she would’ve expected Katsuki to arrive earlier, but only didn’t as he had Denki acting on him as a dead weight of sorts.

U.A Festival Arc
After Eraserhead announces the upcoming (school) festival to the students, he leaves it up to them to decide what they want to contribute to it as a class. They soon come to the decision of a concert, more specifically, a live performance with Kyoka’s instruments- and musical teachings. Word soon spreads through the school of this. After school, Katsuki overhears two students from the general department (boy with large chin, girl with pigtails) speaking of their concert, calling it a conceited way for 1-A to draw even more attention to themselves. He frowns darkly at this. Later, Kyoka starts to find and assign players for the main band, starting with a drummer. At this, Denki mentions that Katsuki had mentioned taking drum lessons in the past, and could likely fill this role. After a bit of coaxing, he gives a sample of his playing skill, which turns out to be perfect, as stated by Kyoka. However, he refuses to partake, and begins to exit the room. Before he can leave, Kyoka chases him, saying that if he played, their concert would turn out really well. He yells back, “Like hell it will!”, and reveals his refusal to be rooted back (partially) from the conversation he heard from the general students. As the concert was for the non-hero students, as a way to allow them to shine, he didn’t want to play for them or to please them. He goes on to say that if the class were going to perform a concert, they had to do it right, not do it for anyone other than themselves, and if he were to drum, everyone else would have to help him to “kill everyone with sound(!)” Kyoka, with a blush, grins at this, and tells him she’ll do her best. (The band ends up composed of Kyoka on vocals, Katsuki on drumset, Momo on keyboard, and both Fumikage and Denki on guitar.)

During the time-lapse/skip of preparation leading up to the concert, which was one month away from its Eraserhead-given announcement, Kyoka is briefly shown as she tells Katsuki not to give any weird ‘ad-libbing’ at the concert. Katsuki simply responds with a “Hah?” Kyoka clarifies for him, by telling him she didn’t want anyone to be confused by his brash way of speaking.

The day of the festival, the students are shown as they make their final preparations for the(ir) concert. Kyoka tells Katsuki to put on his custom-made band shirt. Katsuki makes a face at this, but the shirt is eventually thrown on him by Denki, which Kyoka, in turn, makes a face at. Later, during the performance, the two are seen atop the stage; Katsuki and his drumset, borrowed from Kyoka, are stood behind Kyoka, who sings. As Kyoka reaches the arc of her song, Katsuki notices his previous offenders truly enjoying themselves. He thinks, ‘hypocrites’, as he continues to play. After the great success of the performance, Katsuki’s ‘offenders’ apologize before running away in embarrassment. Katsuki wears a smug, self-satisfied grin at this, having ‘won’ thanks to the band.

Joint Battle Arc
The sense of teamwork Katsuki gained from not only drumming, but playing in the band proved to carry on, and be highlighted in the Joint Battle training(s), in which 4-5 person groups from either class (A and B, with the addition of Hitoshi) were pit to fight against one another for a victor. Katsuki and Kyoka are assigned the same team, alongside Rikido and Hanta to compete in the fourth set/round of the matches (against Bondo, Tokage, Togaru and Yosetsu). Katsuki leads the match by ordering the others to follow his directions, to their annoyance. However, Kyoka mentions to the others as they grumble, that Katsuki does seem to be willing to work alongside them, if not a little. (A flashback is shown with more detailed directions from Katsuki, who tells Kyoka [he addresses her as ‘Ears’] to pick up on the sounds he couldn’t, in hopes to scout out the enemy.) They soon encounter their opposers. At this, Katsuki yells “EARS!!” in reference to Kyoka, before asking her to begin searching for the exact location of the others, but Kyoka finds, and tells Katsuki that the sounds are jumbled (by Tokage, who’d used her quirk to split her body and rattle the pieces everywhere), before realizing said sounds as a trap.

Before they can escape, Togaru attempts to pull a sneak-attack on Kyoka with his blades extended, but before he can hit her, Katsuki jumps in front of her, and kicks her back to push her away. He blocks the hit for her with an explosion. The scene then cuts to Eijiro, who proudly explains that that was the first he’d seen Katsuki rescue someone. Soon after, Kyoka is shown thanking Katsuki, who tells her to continue searching for their enemies, who’d escaped in the midst of his rescue. He goes on to add that he wanted a perfect, 4-0 victory, to which Kyoka determinedly smiles at. It’s not long after that the four manage to achieve their perfect victory. They walk out of the arena together, with Katsuki near Kyoka’s right.

BNHA SMASH (Manga Spin-Off)

 * In one chapter taking place during the Sports Festival, the students are paired up to perform a quick dance. Similar to Izuku and Ochako, or Shoto and Momo, Katsuki and Kyoka are partnered. As they dance, Katsuki’s hands crackle with small sparks, mildly harming Kyoka. Katsuki directly apologizes for this with a rare "sorry". Since Katsuki usually has such remarkable control over his Explosion, Kyoka begins to wonder if it’s going of because he’s nervous to be dancing, or rather, is nervous to be dancing with her. She begins to blush at this, but Katsuki mumbles that he’d trained hard before coming to the Festival as he thought it’d get straight to the fights. Kyoka makes a disappointed face at this.
 * Kyoka is shown to find Katsuki’s vulgar behavior amusing, and voices over several of his conversations, placing him in rather compromising situations with several of their male classmates, such as Shoto or Tenya. She holds no fear of “repenting” whatsoever.
 * After Eijiro drags him to a class outing, Kyoka blushes, and teases Katsuki about him being a “masochist”.

BNHA: School Briefs (Light Novel Spin-Off)

 * In one bonus novel, titled “Cultural Festival Wrap-Up Party”, the students of 1-A hold an after-party to celebrate their success at the Festival. A group of 1-A’s students go shopping; everyone keeps screwing around, and throwing unnecessary items into the cart before Katsuki scolds them, and gathers snacks he deems proper. As he does so, Kyoka tells him he acts like ‘a very capable mom’
 * Later, after preparations are complete, the class views a recording of their performance. Eijiro compliments Katsuki on his drumming, but Katsuki replies that it’s just average. Kyoka butts in to tell him he’s remarkable.

Moments
Shie Hassaikai Arc
 * While Kaminari and Mina were being scolded by Katsuki, due to them discussing about he and Todoroki's internships and their wounds, Kyoka is seen worriedly gazing at Katsuki.

Tartarus Escapees Arc
 * As Class 1-A return to their dorm building and rest after their battle with Deku, Kyoka suggests an idea to soothe and make people smile after the war, while tugs on Katsuki shirt's back-piping and pulls him to join her and their bandmates in the scene.

Fanon
Due to the limited interactions Katsuki and Kyoka shared at the beginning, the ship hasn’t been able to gain as much traction as other ships, although its popularity is steadily climbing from rare-pair territory. Another reason it struggles slightly is the traction of already popular ships, the largest ones being KiriBaku and Kacchako for Katsuki, and KamiJirou and MomoJirou for Kyoka. Regardless of this, the ship has still managed to gain a relatively decent number of fanworks, especially fanart.

A popular trope amongst the two are their similar aesthetics and likings; both seem to carry a fondness for “punk-rock”, or “emo” type goods. Many fans portray them as bonding over emo or gothic culture and style, or in other cases music.

The ship’s popularity rose originally from the way Kyoka handles Katsuki’s loud personality, not with insults or chides, but just, letting it slide off her back in an incredibly chill manner. As of late, many fans, especially fans of Katsuki have come to acknowledge Katsuki's efforts for his friends outside of Eijiro and Denki, or more specifically Kyoka.

Many fans of BakuJirou like to crack (harmless) jokes over the chest sizes of the two, claiming that Katsuki’s chest is larger than Kyoka’s, which is a rather amusing thing to consider.

Due to the sudden flood of interactions between Katsuki and Kyoka, Some BakuJirou shippers have theorized that this ship could perhaps be one that only becomes apparent towards the end of the series. Katsuki’s character especially has a long way to go, even from where he is now and Horikoshi could easily, slowly build up their relationship as production makes it way.

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Trivia

 * In an official “Valentine’s Day” artwork, Kyoka, Momo, and Ochako are shown holding/preparing valentines treats. On the opposing side, Izuku, Katsuki and Shoto are shown having received said gifts. Izuku and Shoto got theirs from Ochako and Momo respectively, and Katsuki received his from Kyoka.
 * Both Katsuki and Kyoka are noted to resemble their mothers to an embarrassing extent, even carrying their respective personalities!
 * Katsuki appears to be gazing at Kyoka on the cover of “School Briefs: Vol. 4”.
 * Kyoka and Katsuki are seatmates, and thus, are commonly seen sitting or standing together. However, there were times when the two were next to each other, without the school making them.
 * In a vol. 20 omake, Class 1-A (and some teachers) were shown with swapped hairstyles. Kyoka’s hair was swapped for Katsuki’s.

Variations

 * BakuKamiJirou refers to the ship between the two and Denki Kaminari
 * BakuJirIida refers to the ship between the two and Tenya Iida
 * BakuJirouMina refers to the ship between the two and Mina Ashido
 * BakuMomoKamiJirou refers to the ship between the two, Denki Kaminari and Momo Yaoyorozu
 * BakuSeroJirou refers to the ship between the two and Hanta Sero
 * Bakusquad refers to the ship between the two, Hanta Sero, Mina Ashido, Denki Kaminari and Eijiro Kirishima
 * KiriBakuJirou refers to the ship between the two and Eijiro Kirishima
 * KyoKacchako refers to the ship between the two and Ochako Uraraka
 * KyoKatsuDeku refers to the ship between the two and Izuku Midoriya
 * KyoKatsuyu refers to the ship between the two and Tsuyu Asui
 * KyoKiriKacchako refers to the ship between the two, Eijiro Kirishima and Ochako Uraraka
 * MomoBakuJirou refers to the ship between the two and Momo Yaoyorozu
 * ShinBakuJirou refers to the ship between the two and Hitoshi Shinso
 * ShinJirouBakuKami refers to the ship between the two, Hitoshi Shinso and Denki Kaminari
 * TodoBakuJirou refers to the ship between the two and Shoto Todoroki