Boku no Hero Academia continues with its manga, and its latest chapter has its fandom in a controversy.
This is Mineta, the resident pervert of Kohei Horikoshi’s play, who stands as a humorous supporting character who is often the center of criticism for the show. However, this time the situation is different.
A peculiarly translated panel in the Manga Plus Western edition of a Mineta line has left the most detailed fans completely speechless. The situation is that the hero manifests that he is in love with a man.
Many users raised the idea that this statement manifested their bisexual bias, something that is important when considering the drought of sex-diverse characters in Horikoshi’s work.
The reaction has been particular in LGBTQIA + spaces, when it has been pointed out that he is not exactly one of the characters that would be consistent with this type of representation. At least not at the current level of the character.
Insiders from Japan have pointed out that this is a mistake, since the original expression involves a feeling of admiration that, combined with the usual drama of the character, remains a special moment of expression for Mineta.
What is striking about this situation is the exaltation of the fandom for this event. The issue is not Mineta or how Boku no Hero Academia specifically handles issues such as diversity and representation.
The issue is how minority communities continue to do the work of taking minimal elements as evidence of representation in the most popular works of the mainstream, settling for the crumbs of these decisions of the authors.
The world of fan-created content will always have enough material for those who have an idea of what their favorite characters should look like, it’s just not fair to keep waiting for the canon to reach this level.