The strong, female lead is a constantly evolving and growing role in modern Shonen. My Hero Academia currently stands as one of the most well-tested Shonen series today, and even it follows the trend with characters like Yaoyorozu Momo, Kyoka Jiro, and, of course, Uraraka Ochaco. Ochaco has been a beloved staple of My Hero Academia ever since her inception.
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Her bubbly attitude and perseverance never fail to entertain, and her arc as a hero has been a fun one. However, no character is ever perfect, and Ochaco has a few things over the years that have had people scratching their heads. This list will take a peak at a few of those aspects, as it breaks down a few things about Ochaco that make no sense.
10 Quirk
With her Quirk, "Zero Gravity," Ochaco is able to weaken the gravitational pull of anything that she touches within a 3 ton weight limit. This has manifested plenty of interesting scenes, fun both in visuals and concept, but that doesn't make the idea any less confusing.
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Zero gravity technically doesn't exist, so are the objects just being pulled by something else or is Ochaco weakening the gravitational pull from every object? Is this done telekinetic-ally or do Ochaco's paw pads have some sort of reverse magnets? If something she touches carries another item, does that count against her weight limit?
9 Nausea
Coming up with drawbacks to powers can be hard. Super powers certainly don't fall in line with real world physics or biology, but there needs to be some grounding within a narrative to keep the audience invested and stakes high. However, every now and then, a writer can come up with limitations to a magic system that can seem even more convoluted than the actual power. Ochaco falls within those lines.
While it would be easy enough to say that Ochaco just can't float items above a 3 ton limit, Horikoshi Kohei had to go the extra mile and give Ochaco nausea for some reason. At some point, Kohei-sensei drew a line between gravity and nausea, and everyone just took his word, despite the intent being pretty arbitrary. That restraint has even predominated some aspects of Ochaco's character, such as how most pieces of her hero costume are just meant to compensate for that nausea.
8 Pads
Adding on to Horikoshi Kohei's arbitrary definitions, Ochaco's Quirk is also tied to pads on her fingers. These are admittedly a cute feature, but they rarely come up in actual conversation in the series. No one is exactly worrying if Ochaco's pads are getting hurt, and villains have yet to actually target them.
Kohei-sensei can forget to include them in a few chapters, and no one would really notice. Much like how a majority of characters' Quirks, such as Shigaraki's Decay, Todoroki's Ice, or Cementoss' Cement, are activated by just touch, Ochaco could've just done the same and would've lost nothing. Between being an arbitrary design choice and just hard to see as a whole, the pads are just there.
7 Working For Her Family
During the Sports Festival Arc, Ochaco revealed that her major goal as a hero is to earn a lot of money. As it turns out, her family's construction business has been seeing some hard times; and instead of letting her help with a Quirk practically designed for construction work, her father still encourages her to follow her dreams.
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This is a sincere moment for her and an honorable gesture on her father's part. However, given how hard times can be, can't Ochaco help around the construction site just a little? There isn't much reason for Ochaco to not try doing both, especially since helping with construction jobs can even help strengthen her Quirk. If she can keep below her Quirks' limits, Ochaco can even help with minimal effort and allow workers to move machinery or carry debris with ease.
6 NoGadgets
As someone whose Quirk seems pretty apt for throwing things, Ochaco is surprisingly barren in the whole gadget department. Aside from her own costume pieces, Ochaco doesn't really carry any other equipment. She just seems to jump into the battlefield, ready to either just use what's there or her own fists.
While the attitude is enjoyable, Ochaco's character seems a little out of place without some cool gadgets to accentuate her Quirk. She could throw projectiles with greater force, float messages across a battlefield, or even carry a retractable board that she can use to sky surf. As someone whose Quirk is literally reliant on other objects, Ochaco is oddly empty handed.
5 Fight Training
After Class 1-A's first round of internships, Ochaco came back as a tough and disciplined fighter. It was a neat gag in addition to being a cool way of reinforcing Ochaco's character. Few female, Shonen characters, even within My Hero Academia, get fight scenes these days, and it's nice to see Ochaco prepped for one. Unfortunately, this hasn't really popped up that much.
Aside from a cool but all too quick sequence against Himiko Toga, Ochaco's only other major use of "Gunhead Martial Arts" is in a comedic take down of Thirteen.Said fight training seems to only propel either comedic stunts or plain deus ex machina take downs to protect Ochaco. In an odd and ironic twist, her internship has somehow facilitated less fighting than before.
4 Training Under Gunhead
This entry isn't so much a dissection of Ochaco, as it is a humorous look at her training. Gunhead is obviously a well-respected hero, known for his combat and action. However, isn't it funny to know that Ochaco learned hand-to-hand combat from a guy called "Gunhead"? One would think that there would be more armed lessons within the regimen, but the inherently range-themed character is apparently a good teacher of close combat.
3 Passing The Midterms
As mentioned earlier, Ochaco was able to take down her teacher, Thirteen, a in a comedic bit. During the Midterm Exams, she and Aoyama had to go up against Thirteen in a battle. However, they just spent most of their time just hiding behind some cover, while Thirteen was closing in.
In a funny twist, Horikoshi Kohei decided to give these two the win, when Ochaco, flustered by Aoyama calling out her crush on Deku, accidentally found herself being sucked in by Thirteen's black hole but, with Gunhead Martial Arts, was able to use a surprise throw to defeat Thirteen. While this is a nice scene, it just seems like Ochaco (and especially Aoyama) passed this part by near accident.Given that Ochaco didn't prove or learn much, one would think that she'd at least have to review this test.
2 Becoming A Love Interest
One of the most unfortunate things that can happen to a strong, female lead is having their character diluted to just being a love interest. Unfortunately for Ochaco, this is apparently the case. Ochaco can really stand as a character on her own. She has a sweet and sincere attitude, some genuine stakes in the world, and plenty of gumption proven through some killer action sequences.
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However, as the series has gone on, her character has lost direct involvement with most arcs, and every other scene with her just has her gawking over Deku. Love is a fine theme, but it's been a near total and jarring character change forsomeone like Ochaco.
1 Usage
Building from that, one of the weirdest things to have happened to Ochaco over her run in the series was a stark, decrease in screen time. When she started in the series, she was a rising hero within her own right, a consistent partner to deku, and a core character to most arcs.
Now, several arcs have passed without her explicit involvement, with characters like Todoroki, Bakugou, Iida, Jirou, and even Kaminari getting major story beats. At the moment, it's a little odd to consider Ochaco the series' leading girl, when the story has hardly done anything with her.
NEXT:My Hero Academia: 5 Times Momo Yaoyorozu Was An Overrated Class 1-A Student (& 5 She Was Underrated)
