The perhaps

not-so
accidental
gay-coding of
Kirishima
Eijirou
A presentation by Blackdeku
Feat. Thetownlybomb
Explanation
Okay so basically there’s a lot evidence that
Kirishima is Gay and honestly this is me dumping it
all out bc It drives me insane everyday thinking
about this even though it’s like really unlikely. So
this presentation is showing off all of the evidence.
 Okay, So in BNHA smash, It sorta like a running thing where kirishima
Before we get does seem like he’s crushing on guys or that are just sorta
affectionate towards the same gender. I don’t know how to explain this
started... other than he acts gay lol. (if you need proof that all the stuff I put into
this presentation isn’t from a doujin or is fanmade you can check the
bnha smash author’s twitter and you’ll find lots of in between pages
he’s posted that prove these actually happened in smash, also if you
find out anything didn’t happen contact me please.) I also had a nice
conversation with Tumblr user, Thetownlybomb, A bnha fan blogger on
tumblr who had been to japan before in their teen years, who I found
from their comment about Kirishima being gay.

Note: Before I start, I’m going to be mentioning Bakugou a lot in this

presentation, because he’s also sorta coded in the sense that he’s
really close to Kirishima and hasn’t shown any attraction to girls yet.
Also because Kirishima being gay changes the context of their
relationship and interactions. As well as the fact Kirishima acts like
he’s crushing on bakugou all the time.
 I’d also like to mention that I am not saying
Before we get
Kirishima is canonically gay nor am I trying to
started... push for Bakugou and Kirshima in any way.

This presentation is for arguing that

Kirishima is gay CODED. Coding is when a
character is implied to be of minority (by
sexuality, race, etc.) It doesn't mean the
character is outright stated to be and isnt
the entire same as canonically being.
Examples from BNHA Smash
Kiri is ← This one
clearly
blushing at is Self
Inasa explanatory.
Here →

According to aitaikimochi the

translation of what’s in the pic above
is “who’s that hunk?!”. And if you have
more than one brain cell, I think you
can tell that implies Kirishima is
attracted to Inasa.

← I’m not sure how to explain this heterosexually because like just some
bros,,,dressing up in couple costumes,,,Idk if thats like a jokey thing in japanese
culture. This was Horikoshi’s twitter banner for a while Apparently.
Cont.

Kirishima getting
jealous of todoroki
clinging to
Bakugou and biting
him. (They were
turned into animals
during this
← Kirishima taking care Kirishima is the
of a sick bakugou. I have dog and Todoroki is
no idea how to explain the koala) →
this other than this might
be normal in japan I
suppose???
Cont 2.

Kirishima flirting
with Bakugou
(who was put
under spell that
made him flirt
with everybody
→ Kirishima
gushing over
bakugou
←
 Oh and Bakugou said this lmao (I just wanted to
include it) →

Note: You have to cut off

my hands to have been
able to stop me from
putting in this
unnecessary tidbit
Cont 3.
I finally have more to add on to Kirishima not
liking girls! Apparently Jirou had a temporary
crush on him in BNHA Smash and he rejects
Jirou for Bakugou. Not only that beforehand,
he says something about girls which he then
leads into talking about guys. I think that’s
kinda funny because Jirou took it as a
compliment but it sorta ended up as “you’re
not a guy tho lol.”

Thanks Totally-not-corrupt.tumblr.com for giving me this information. Source:

http://lovemeteorstrike.tumblr.com/post/152815466060/took-the-liberty-to-translate-thes
e-bnha-smash
Cont. 4

I just think its funny he wasn’t

paired up with a girl also his
reaction to being hit is quite
strange in itself. Its sorta a reach
for me but it is quite funny.
Cont. 5
A new BNHA Smash comic features
Kirishima remarking about how
Bakugou smells nice and him inviting
Bakugou to go out to eat with him.
Also don’t worry Deku is about tell
Bakugou he got ice cream on his
shirt lol that’s the reason he smells
nice.
Lmao and yea I know BNHA Smash isn’t canon
material
But Horikoshi looks over Bnha smash and has to approve everything.
Secondly, Displaying Kirishima’s sexuality as a joke might be the only safe
way he can really discuss it or tell us. Also the joke has been used so many
times now it’s a little suspicious, and only with Kirishima.

Unlike one of Hori and Hiro’s favorite jokes which is men acting girly/dressing
girly, which has been used on All Might, Satou, Bakugou, Kirishima, Tiger, and
Selkie.
Examples Kirishima’s has had lot of opportunity
to show attraction to girls, yet he never DON’T
from the really takes that chance which I find
very weird since even Tokoyami has
SKIP
BNHA manga been shown to be a pervert lmao. THAT
You can read more about it LINK!
and general here!

Kirishima’s lack of interest in girls

makes another reappearance when
Kirishima shows off his room to his
peers and tooru makes a comment
about it being unattractive and he
gives her an unconcerned reply unlike
all the other guys who wanted the girls
to say their room was cool.
And to expand
on this room
thing...The dorm
room scenes in the
anime seem to make
this situation a lot more
suspicious since His reaction
to the girls
Kirishima really does saying his
not seem to care about room is
what the girls think. unattractive
→
Con 2.
In the manga, it isn’t as blatant and you have to pay more attention to things.

← I think it’s really

interesting to note
that Kirishima’s
profile was
officially translated
to say tough guys
are one of his
favorite things just
like how Mineta
has girl listed in his
profile →
Which leads us to some cultural evidence...
Okay this Kirishima having men as one of his favorite
things is also super Important for many other reasons.
First of all, This isn’t a fan translation, the person who
translated this knew what they were doing. Second
According to Townly, there’s kanji in Kirishima’s omake
profile that refers to him as a “Kouha”, which is a type of
japanese school delinquent who’s into men.
It literally translates as hard-liner into english. I
tried to look up the meaning of that a long time
ago and couldn't find anything lmao. Kouha
when translated into english means the hard
school, however that term is used to refer to the
old japanese political ideology, so it makes
sense the Viz translators put hard liners instead.
Also,
If you look further into the tough guys thing by searching the kanji used in his
profile, the only results that come up are things about what a tough guy is or
what’s it like to date a tough guy. Also looking into the characteristics of a tough
guy, all of them are very specific and happen to line up perfectly with Bakugou.
Cont. 1
According, to Townly's own experiences in
Japan in their teen years, a guy who acted
like Kirishima would receive many side-eyes
from as peers and most definitely be seen as
gay. They told me that the thing that would
lead to this suspicion is being overly
masculine and nice. I find this really funny
because there’s a panel in bnha smash that
jokes about how Kirishima is so nice that it’s a
part of his quirk or at least could be read that
way. →
Cont 2.
Townly told me is that the thing sets Kirishima apart from
other tough guy stereotypes in SJ manga, is that
Kirishima lacks the “delinquent” part of him. This would
make sense that something was off in a guy who’s maly
and friendly since most manly men are delinquents and
sorta mean. We already know that Kirishima is based off
of delinquents from the fact that his role model Crimson
Riot’s has this as his hero theme.
 Townly is 3 years older than Horikoshi
Kouhei. There’s a good chance that the
two had a similar high school
experience. Which is why it isn’t unlikely
that he’d put these stereotypes in his

Cont. 3 (Just in manga.

And yes Kouha is an old old subculture

case you have in Japan that some may argue is
outdated but id also like to further
your doubts) emphasis that most ppl associated with
just the tough side of kouha arent nice
which is why gay coding is like to
Kirishima as well as the other pieces in
this slide.
There’s also this slightly awkward
panel from the official viz translation of
the chapter 172, I think,where
Kirishima is singing about seizing
brotherhood. I find this very weird
since the original japanese panel
Kirishima is singing about a boat.
Which begs the question why did Viz
even throw this in lol
Extra Fact

I asked, Japanese fan, Aitaikimochi,

what the eastern fans thought about all
of the Kiribaku stuff and they thought it
was weird as well! They too are
wondering if they’re being baited or not.
 Okay so BNHA already has some LGBT
coded characters, two of them aren't coded
and are actually confirmed to be transgender.
Which would be Yawara Chatora aka Tiger of
the Pussycats and Magne! There’s also toga
who seems kinda Bi coded, 13 who doesn’t
have a confirmed gender which im p sure is
on purpose. These things are probably arent
Indirect/overall blatant since Shonen Jump is pretty scared of
evidence that tackling LGBT characters. (like Alluka from
HxH)
makes Gay
Kirishima
possible
Cont 1.
Magne is confirmed to be a transgender woman.
Even though her and Tiger are quite offensive.
Horikoshi is actually trying. In the one of the newest
chapters Twice corrects Overhaul after
misgendering her. Even though this looks bad
because magne is a villain, it actually helps
because we now have a trans hero and villain which
doesn’t feed into the creepy, trans woman
stereotype. Or at least feeds into less.
Cont 2.

And if you were perhaps

thinking Toga being bi was
a stretch, it was revealed in
her official concepts that
she doesn’t care whether
her partner is a girl or guy.
Since it was in her
concepts it’s still a lil iffy
but judging by the way she
interacted with Tsuyu in the
summer training arc, it
seems very likely they’re
still there.
 It’s a also on her character sheet
that one of her favorite things is
Cont. 3 lilies. In japanese the kanji, can
be read as yuri, which as you
know is used to refer to wlw
It also seems we have a relationships.
another character that
could be interpreted as gay
as well. Two actually. This
being Neijire and Yuyu.
Nejire and Yuyu have a This can also be read as a play on
close friendship and Yuyu words for her quirk too. Much like
Kirishima. Some people also don’t
seems to be the reason for find the idea of Neijire and Yuyu
some of Nejire actions. On being gay weird judging by Yuyu’s
Yuyu’s wikia page, it’s even almost gender neutral appearance.
pointed out the two may
have matching bracelets.
Bakugou and Kirishima’s friendship
Another thing Townly notes, that I wanted to put more mention onto past updates. Is
Bakugou and Kirishima studying. They told me that it’s funny that they choose to study
together because during their school days, Students wouldn’t normally study in a group of
two unless they wanted to mess around with their Boyfriend/Girlfriend in private (they
couldn’t go home or to a restaurant since there would be no privacy). I’d also like to note
there’s multiple different versions of the studying scene. I should also note that Kirishima
could have totally studied with Momo.
Bakugou and Kirishima’s
friendship cont.

A card from one of the BNHA games that

show Bakugou and Kirishima mountain
climbing together during Golden Week. The
kanji on the card implies that both of them
together are an entity and tells us that
Bakugou never goes out during the
holidays with anybody yet he invited
Kirishima out with him alone. Which goes to
show how close they are.

Apparently there’s a lot more cards like this,

and similar ones with het ships such as
kamijirou, todomomo, and izuocha.
And even more There’s apparently a scene from the BNHA light novels that comes with the
DVD, that tells about Deku, Todoroki and Iida going to an arcade and seeing
about Bakugou Bakugou and Kirishima there together, According to the post I got this
and Kirishima information from there’s speculations or perhaps even confirmation.
doing things
In the actual BNHA Light Novels, There's even more things besides them
together...
studying together such as Kirishima helping Bakugou move into his dorm,
Kirishima gushing about Bakugou to Fatgum and Tamaki while they just
smiled at him.
Extra I wanted to add a little detail that was in both the manga and the anime
that many people find suspicious?? Or just interesting but there a little
part after the Kamino arc handgrab scene where all the kids are now
safely in the crowd with civilians watching the all might fight and Kirishima
reaches for Bakugous hand and Bakugou pulls away. This scene rings as
interesting to me bc not only was it such a small detail in the manga and
not cut from the anime there many excuses as to why kirishima was
reaching for his hand since Bakugou wasn't holding anything and he was
close by.

Very funny how this little detail makes the anime when a couple episodes
before they cut out a pervy joke about momo
The BNHA So, Anybody who’s heard about or seen the BNHA movie, knows that it was
heavily packed with Bakugou and Kirishima moments and that the too were
Movie! basically together the whole movie.

Event 1.
So the first arguable Bakushima moment is when the crew, basically meets
up with Bakugou and Kirishima and Kirishima explains that Bakugou invited
him to the island as his plus one. At the end of this scene, Kirishima is trying
to stop Bakugou from fighting Deku and he has arms around him pressing
him against his chest to restrain him.
Cont. 2 Event 2.
The next scene is Bakugou laying down on the bed in him and Kirishima’s
shared hotel room, talking about how he doesnt wanna go to the party.
Kirishima is changing out of his hero and costume and trying to convince him
to go. Bakugou finally agrees when Kirishima reveals that he brought them
both suits for the party.

Event 3.
The next event is quite small but its a scene of Bakugou and Kirishima trying
to find their way to the party. But Kirishima has forgotten his phone and the
two end up being lost for quite some time.
Cont. 4 Event 4.
The next scene is when all of the students are hiding from the villains on the 80th floor, and
Bakugou and Kirishima run into the villains after coming out of the elevator. Bakugou and
the enemy have an unpleasant exchange and Kirishima senses conflict so he places his
hand on Bakugou’s chest and tells him “he’s got this” and then proceeds to tell the villains
that he and Bakugou had gotten lost and where looking for the party. The villains don’t
believe this and say “you expect us to believe that?!”. Mineta also says “Who the hell gets
lost on the 80th floor??”. This exchange I find the most strange of all because this to me
looks like a basic “we caught you guys trying to be alone/romantic” or “relationship reveal”
trope to me. Because why would Bakugou and Kirishima lie about what they were doing, if
it wasn’t embarrassing or anything along those lines of romantic.
 Continuing this scene further, The villains attack Kirishima and we get a quick view of
Cont. 5 Bakugou’s worried expression as he tries to warn Kirishima and step in to save him but is
interrupted by Todoroki blocking the attack with an ice wall. Kirishima falls down and
Bakugou rushes over to him.

Later in this scene, One of the villains tries to sneak attack Bakugou and Kirishima blocks
it before he can get hurt which causes him to fly back and hit an ice pillar. Bakugou once
again worried about Kirishima shouts his name.

After the fight, Bakugou screams his name again and he and Todoroki check on Kirishima,
Todoroki tells Kirishima he’s glad he’s okay and Kiri says “yea I’m glad you guys are too”
and looks at Bakugou. Bakugou then turns around and says “Thanks” in a soft tone.
Kirishima blushes a little and says “that’s so unlike you! Don’t worry about it!” and Bakugou
yells “I wasn’t worried!”
Things from BNHA promotional
materials and Extras
As a before note, some of these I realize could be the
doings of animators n people who arent Horikoshi but I’m
adding this category anyway bc i find on top of the
actually canon evidence its kinda funny how every part of
the bnha franchise seems to be in on this joke or idea of
Kirishima being gay or romantic towards Bakugou
The Bnha Stage Play
In the Bnha stage play theres two scenes in particular that i find funny,

One of which being a scene where Kirishima teasingly makes a heart at

Bakugou when hes walking down the aisle of the theatre to which
Bakugou swats away

Another scene where the boys are changing in the locker room when
Bakugou and Kirshima are both change and Bakugou is looking Kirishima
up and down to which he notices and flexes which makes Bakugou
flustered and he looks away.
Voice Actor Shenanigans
Both the English VA’s and the Japanese VA’s like to make jokes about Bakushima and imply things
in canon. Bakugou’s JP Voice actor has been on record saying things such as “Kirishima is the
only one for Bakugou” and was even the one who didnt mind Todorokis VA pointing out Kirishima
knowing Bakugous chest measurements in the movie, Him and Kirishima’s VA like to play around
with jokes about Bakushima at live readings. Whiles Bakugous English VA is someone on record
saying “Kirishima will get Bakugous love soon enough. “

And again I get that very well this could be bait just from the VA’s n really mean nothing at all its
just very funny how much of the Bnha management really love to be on the joke of them being
romantic and its very funny how the when Horikoshi actually works together with the studio to
make the movie nothing about that changes
The
sharing/matching
clothes theory
I totally thought Bakugou and
Kirishima sharing clothes was a
reach but it turns out it’s not too
much of one. They have shared
clothes and matched before on
occasion. The picture on the side is a
little theory from twitter that those are
the same shirt
The shirt/print
makes another
reappearance in
one of Horikoshi’s
latest drawings.
And Kirishima
wears the same
shirt again, I’ only
putting this one in
as a receipt so
you can see the
shirts are actually
the same color
A similar pattern making
yet another appearance
on Bakugou’s bandana in
some bnha merch.
Cont. 1 (Sorry the image is blurry)
I thought this was a
reach when I first Matching Flames on
saw it bc the flame clothing.
pattern weren’t the
same. But I failed
And again this
to notice the over
wouldn't be the first
all color
time they had
coordination.
matching outfits in
canon:

Black sandals
to go with Kiri’s
shirt and red
sandals to go
with Bakugou’s
outfit.
Update!

Lmao after actually

seeing what was put
in the magazine, I can
tell you for sure that it
was on purpose lmao.
Another thing, that feeds into this theory….
A while ago a friend of mine pointed out that
on one of the bnha fantasy merch artworks,
that Kirishima’s “man skirt” was just a torn
piece of fabric from Bakugou’s cape. Now
excuse me while I analyze fictional clothing
once again.

if weren’t the same fabric it would most likely

be a different color. The thing that made me
think this was plausible wasn’t just the color.
If you look at how the bottom of BK’s cape Same fucking
looks it looks like it might have actually been color.
torn off and If you look at the way the bottom
of Kirishima’s skirt looks it looks like how the
bottom BK’s cape might actually have
looked if it wasn’t torn off.
Now let’s get into some reachy evidence
that’s kinda solid
1 out of 5
A while ago twitter user, aitaikimochii,
tweeted about how the Kirishima and
Bakugou bromides merch art fit perfectly
when they were photoshopped together.
The thing that made me believe this was
solid was because it took me a while to
realize the picture was photoshopped and
from the fact that when you look at
everyone else’s merch poses they don’t
look similar or like they could fit together the
same way. Go to the next slide to see.
1 out of 5 cont.
Everyone else is in
a complex pose
where they are
keeping to
themselves or too
busy holding
something.
However, again,
this is more likely to
be a reach because
it could be a
coincidence.
2 out of 5
Mineta has questioned Bakugou’s sexuality before. I know this presentation is
about Kirishima but once again, Bakugou is coded in his own aspect and that’s
really important when discussing Kirishima’s coding since you know the main thing
that makes us suspect he’s gay is their relationship.
3 out of 5
You guys have already heard me talk about this one but in some bnha christmas
art that was released, everyone was paired up and Bakushima was one of the
pairs in the picture, along with like a billion other het ships.
3 out of 5 cont.
I’d like to expand on the importance of this poster as well because I failed to realized something that was pointed out earlier
in this presentation.

And Bakushima happens to be paired with multiple het pairings that are believed to be endgame or do have some type of
canon moment going for them (I. E. Izuocha, Todomomo, Kamijiro, etc.) It also wouldn’t be the first time Bakushima ended
up in a situation where it was or looked like it was being compared to a het ship. Not only does it just happen with merch
some people say that it also happens kind of often with the bnha smash tap cards.
4 out of 5
One of the counter arguments for gay Kirishima, the scene where we can see
Kirishima’s face when Momo gets stuck in the wall was removed from the anime. I
find this really funny since it really should have been included if it was a really
funny perverted scene and all. Also since Momo was still suck in the wall
Kirishima’s face was just cut entirely which I guess could signify it wasn’t important
at all or maybe even ruined the scene.
5 out of 5
This part is also kind of indirect so it could work as a bit of a reach in some cases
but I noticed that some of the main counter arguments about BNHA having a gay
coded or even gay character is that Shonen Jump is targeted at young boys and
that some people at SJ HQ may find this inappropriate for them. However, a
japanese fan, Aitaikimochi, who has been credited a lot during this slide made a
whole twitter thread pointing out the flaws in that claim. Also adding to this,
Horikoshi has stated in a couple of interviews before that he doesn’t like letting the
gender of his characters decide their roles in the story.
Also: this is all stuff fujoshis would use as evidence. I
decided to include it here just in case some of it
seemed solid after knowing all the other stuff

● Kirishima is the person 1a turns to whenever they wanna know something

Some other
about bakugou
stuff that you ● Kirishima has shown that he doesn’t like Mineta in BNHA Smash and the
might consider actual manga, which might be because he respects women (lmaoooo) bc
he’s not attracted to them
as valid
● Kirishima and Bakugou have a longer analysis on their relationship than
evidence Ochako and Izuku do and a whole category dedicated to them on the TV
tropes hoyay page. The Ochako and Izuku thing is really funny to me since
they’re like a blatantly romantic couple.
● Bakugou and Kirishima share a fuck ton of Merch together. They’re normally
right beside each other when Kirishima is included on said merch.
● Their study date reads just like a fanfiction lol
● Kirishima is also the Dragon that Bakugou rides around on in the fantasy AU
● There’s an unexplained rainbow that appears around Kirishima in the anime
opening, the rainbow become brighter and more noticeable in episode 6 of
S3
 ● There’s a scene in BNHA smash where Kirishima drinks after Bakugou,
Some other
people claimed he wanted an indirect kiss but I never actually looked into it
stuff that you ● Bakugou and Kirishima have a number of smash cards together alongside
might consider other het ships like Kamijirou, Ochadeku and Todomomo
as valid
evidence pt. 2
 It’s also still really important to mention
that horikoshi could ignore all hints he’s
dropped so far regardless of how many
there are because of various factors I'm

Okay that’s it sure you are aware of. So again this

presentation in no way confirms canon

thanks for but more puts the idea on the table.

See ya next update!

listening!
Could you please fill out this two
question survey so I know what you
think?
 Oh lmao you’re here for extension aren’t you?

➔ The perhaps Gay Coding of Bakugou Katsuki