IzuOcha

IzuOcha is the het ship between Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka from the My Hero Academia fandom.

Canon
Deku and Ochako first met at the entrance exam to enrol at U.A. High School. The two have since become close friends and class-mates and have developed deep admiration and respect for each other. They also appear to have feelings for one another, with Ochako being very apparent about her feelings whilst Deku is a little more subtle.

They are both very similar in nature. They are kind, polite and can be easily overwhelmed. As such, the two get on very well and have developed a high amount of respect for each other. Ochako admires Deku’s determination to help others and sees it as a true quality to be a hero. She has taken great inspiration from Deku and wishes to become more like him, such as during her match with Bakugo, and uses him as a key drive for her to become a hero. This resulted in her trying to play a key role in getting him admitted into the school by giving up some of her own points she scored in the exam to Deku so he would pass. Such is her admiration, she even voted for him to be class president. Later, during the Hero Licence Exam, she is awestruck by Deku’s performance in saving a mock civilian. Deku admires how much hard work she puts in to become stronger and overcome the difficult challenges she faces. After she had been defeated by Bakugo in the tournament, he stood up for her to his long time bully and explained that Ochako giving him a difficult time in their match was of her own ability and not because he had helped her. He also praised her for her clever idea in the Cavalry Battle, but only to himself.



They are often concerned for one another and will try to protect each other. Shortly after they first met, Deku, with little to no experience using his new found powers, chose to save her when she was stuck to the ground and about to be trampled by a giant robot during the entrance exam. Ochako then saved a falling and severely injured Deku using her powers. Deku also wished to aid her in her upcoming fight against Bakugo, as he fully understands his strength and weaknesses, but Ochako declines his help as she wishes to win on her own merit, something Deku admires. Following her defeat to Bakugo, he goes to check on her to see how she is doing and is pleasantly surprised that she is taking the loss well. However, he soon after overhears her breaking down in tears on the phone to her parents because she lost and Deku, himself, tears up at the anguish she is feeling. After her encounter with Toga, Deku finds her and the two exchange concerns for each other’s well-being before he asks her to join him as they escort Bakugo. Ochako was notably horrified when Sir Nighteye told her that Overhaul would try to kill Deku and was frustrated she could not help him. When he loses control of his Black Whip quirk Ochako leaps towards Deku and hugs him to try and calm him down. She then tells Hitoshi Shinso to brainwash him so he can regain control. After she wakes him up they share a brief moment before they are forced to continue with their joint training session.



It becomes apparent early on that Deku is attracted to Ochako. He sometimes can become flustered in her presence, especially when she talks to him. Just talking to her on the phone causes him to become overwhelmed at the experience. Furthermore, seeing her in a skin tight outfit caused him to blush. On numerous occasions, if she stands too close to him he will become nervous and flustered. Deku was also willing to let her call him “Deku”, even though it is not his real name, and was touched when she changed the meaning of this nickname, which was originally a derogative name given to him by Bakugo, to something positive. Explaining that, to her, it means he will never give up. This eventually leads to him choosing it as his hero name. Deku’s closeness to Ochako allowed him to see right through Toga’s attempt to impersonate her with her quirk, and deduced she was not the real Ochako. It seems that Minoru Mineta, a pervert, has picked up on how close Deku is with Ochako as he can be seen being devastated when the two shared a close moment.

Ochako, herself, is very fond of Deku and has developed sincere feelings for him. More so than anyone else, she tends to ask where he is if he isn’t around and thinks about him frequently. She can become flustered in his presence and even jealous when other girls take an interest in him, especially with Mei Hatsume, who has had close physical interactions with Deku that has left her irritated. When he praises Mei, instead of her, during the Cavalry Battle she becomes jealous, not aware that Deku actually was impressed with her performance. She also becomes upset when she overhears that Deku had apparently seen Camie naked as well and finds her feelings difficult to understand, not knowing why she feels so bad about it. Ochako also found herself feeling jealous of how much time Deku had spent with Melissa Shield. Later, she becomes embarrassed, but happy, when he compliments her dress. After Aoyama had questioned her about her feelings regarding Deku, she starts to become more self-aware of them. Although, this realisation caused her to run away from Deku when she was alone with him at the mall. Even so, she tried to find him again whilst struggling to accept that she wanted to spend all day with him. Her feelings for Deku almost got the better of her during the Hero Licence Exam, as she struggled to deal with them, and has to snap herself back into focus to keep them under control, but fully accepts that she does have feelings for him.



Numerous people have picked up on Ochako’s feelings for Deku, such as when she contacted him after his encounter with Killer Stain to check if he is well and gets teased by Gunhead regarding her love for him, causing her to become embarrassed and nervous. When she is questioned by Yuga if she has feelings for Deku she immediately blushes and accidentally lets go of the handrail she was holding on to. Toga, a villain, pinned Ochako down and quickly could tell that she was crushing on someone and she desires to be like that person. When they encountered each other again she tells Ochako that Deku trusts her a lot. Mina, one of their classmates, is a big supporter of Ochako’s feelings for Deku and teases her whenever the opportunity arrises. She blurts out to the other girls that Ochaco is in love which causes her to become embarrassed and accidentally makes herself float upside down. As she blushes over the reality she is in love she looks out the window to see Deku training and watches him. Mina also teased Ochako later on about how tightly she hugged Deku when he lost control of his Black Whip quirk and caused her to blush. Once more, Mina teased Ochaco over her All Might keychain that was gifted to her by Deku at Christmas. This time, however, after becoming slightly nervous, Ochako happily blushes at her comments. When the two shared a touching moment, after the join training programme, Mina becomes overjoyed for them.

Fanon
The BNHA fandom share a wide and varied shipping community, with many characters being shipped with alternative characters and gaining popularity. As a result, IzuOcha, although exceptionally popular, also frequently clashes with many other ship pairings that involve either Deku or Ochako.

BNHA has never had a particularly strong emphasis on romance, therefore it is noteworthy that the supposed crush that both Deku and Ochako share for each other is technically the first confirmation of romantic feelings between any of the characters within the franchise. At the moment, this ship remains the only pairing within the show of this kind, which is especially emphasized against the background of other het ships that has a large number of ship teases, such as TodoMomo.

On AO3, IzuOcha is the third most written ship for Izuku and the most written ship for Ochako. It is the eighth most written ship within the My Hero Academia tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Izuku/Ochako tag on FanFiction.net
 * Izuku/Ochako tag on FanFiction.net

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