The hit anime My Hero Academia is just that: the story of a boy, Izuku Midoriya, who attends Japan's top heroics high school in the hope of becoming a true superhero one day. He was born without a quirk, but then the great hero All Might gave him One For All, and Izuku's career began. He met many new classmates who also aspire to become heroes, including the zero-gravity girl, Ochaco Uraraka.
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While Ochaco is not the top student in hero class 1-A, just getting into UA says a lot about her potential as a superhero, and like her friend Izuku, she is growing fast and never takes her eyes off the goal. What are then essential things to know about this hero-in-training?
10 Humble Origins
Pictured are Ochaco's parents. As with some other well-developed characters in My Hero Academia, Ochaco's personal background is explored in detail. While Shoto struggled with his tyrannical father, Ochaco gets along well with her parents, and they are immensely proud of her.
But the Uraraka family is only scraping by, as they find it tough to get enough paying work in the construction business. Ochaco doesn't have a smartphone like her classmates do, and bonus art suggests that her family doesn't use an air conditioner during summer.
9 Breadwinner Girl
Let's discuss Ochaco's family some more. Ochaco has, in fact, two reasons to graduate UA and become a regular superhero. One is to save people and become a symbol of hope, and the other is to support her family with her earnings. Heroes are paid for their work, and Ochaco is looking forward to those paychecks.
Not to buy a fancy car with, though! Being a humble and kind girl, she's planning on funneling her earnings straight back to her family and support them. It's clear that her mother and father aren't about to launch their own heroics career, so Ochaco took it upon herself to do that.
8 She's Wholesome
Ochaco has a stellar personality, unlike the abrasive Katsuki Bakugo or the bitter Neito Monoma. Not only is Ochaco a kind and cooperative girl (good traits for a hero), but she doesn't have a mean bone in her body.
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Overall, Ochaco has proven herself above petty gossip or teasing, and never will she put anyone down or abandon a friend in need. For any problem, small or serious, she's there for a friend. And when Izuku nervously approached the school on the first day, it was Ochaco who gave him a warm welcome (and demonstrated her quirk, too).
7 Her Competitive Side
Don't be tempted to think that Ochaco's gentle personality and goofy cheer make her a pushover in combat! She lags behind some of her classmates in dueling skills, but Ochaco is giving it her all to become a powerful hero and prove her worth.
Grit and courage are always admirable traits in a character, and Ochaco showed extraordinary toughness when she dueled Bakugo and pushed him pretty far. She also devised a clever battle plan to levitate all of the rubble from Bakugo's attacks and create a meteor shower. Ochaco took it hard when she lost, but her competitive spirit is still burning bright.
6 She Can Stand Alone
Part of what makes Ochaco an impressive hero-in-training is that she is both a team player (more on that soon) and a lone fighter, too. Ochaco likes to fight alongside her allies, but she doesn't have to, which is vital since she ended up in the vicious Sports Festival tournament.
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Some supporting characters in action series (often girls) fall to pieces if they are alone, or they are otherwise vulnerable. Not Ochaco, who is tougher than that. All by herself, she devised a plan that nearly worked against the almighty Katsuki Bakugo, and let's not forget that time she outmaneuvered Himiko Toga with a move that Gunhead taught her.
5 Part Of The Team
Now for the other half of the equation. Ochaco is tough, but she's not conceited or reckless enough to always go and fight on her own, like Shoto and Bakugo often do. A hero is someone who can fight as a team, and even seasoned pros typically operate in improvised squads.
Each UA student has a metric for their cooperativeness, and Ochaco's is pretty high, like Izuku's is. She didn't mind at all that Izuku was a prime target during the cavalry battle, and Izuku was delighted by her offer. Ochaco also puts her zero-gravity quirk to excellent use as a support quirk in battle, or to help remove rubble and rescue victims trapped inside. She's got your back!
4 She Gets Jealous
Like her classmates, Ochaco is only human, and she's a teenager on top of that. It's called "Academia" for a reason, and there's plenty of high school hijinks going on. Ochaco is very attached to Izuku (in a healthy way), and they are best friends.
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Ochaco gets a little defensive when she has to share Izuku's attention with someone else, though, such as Mei Hatsume. Izuku needs help with his quirk, and Mei gave him some excellent gear while also fondling his body a bit (Ochaco was not pleased). She was also annoyed when Izuku credited his cavalry team's success to Mei's inventions, while Ochaco's quirk was equally helpful. Give the girl some credit already, all right?
3 She Was Going To Be Mt. Lady
Like any work of fiction, My Hero Academia had to go through some changes and revisions during the development process. Early concept art for the major character is all over the place, and that includes Ochaco. In fact, she was going to be Yu Takeyama, a girl who can grow huge thanks to her quirk.
Goodness knows that this character ended up as the pro hero Mount Lady instead, and she's one of the first heroes we ever meet, along with Kamui Woods. According to the author, it would have been a real hassle to keep drawing a major character who changes size so dramatically, and that's a fair point. We like zero-gravity Ochaco better.
2 Melee Training
It was mentioned earlier that Ochaco received training at the hands of the pro hero Gun Head (pictured). There's a good reason for that: after her defeat at the UA Sports Festival, Ochaco resolved to address one of the deficiencies in her abilities: melee combat.
She was a good student, and after her internship with Gun Head, Ochaco was a totally new kind of hero. This is what allowed her to nearly escape the deadly villain Himiko Toga, and we're sure that Ochaco will battle her way out of another sticky situation soon with those skills.
1 She's Not Unlike Himiko Toga
During the forest training story, Ochaco and Tsuyu came face to face with the villain girl Himiko Toga, an acrobatic girl with a blood-sucking, shapeshifting quirk. Toga got the better of Tsuyu, and she battles Ochaco to a standstill. During that time, Himiko had a few things to say.
Ochaco denied it, but as Himiko pointed out, these girls aren't so different after all! Both of them have someone they love and look up to, and their passion leads them to try and emulate that person. But while Himiko is a monster who wants to be like Stain, Ochaco is a hero who sometimes follows the steps of her good friend Izuku Midoriya. More than once, Ochaco has reminded herself of Izuku's courage or asked herself what he would do in a bad situation. Himiko told her "You're a maiden in love, like me," and darn it all, she wasn't wrong.
NEXT: My Hero Academia: 10 Weakest Quirks (so far)
