My Hero Academia Ending Controversy / Quirkless Deku

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for MY HERO ACADEMIA; read at your own caution.

About

My Hero Academia Ending Controversy, and the conversation surrounding Quirkless Deku, revolves around the final chapter of the manga My Hero Academia and the fate of its main character Deku. Since early leaks of the chapter hit the internet in mid-2024, conversation back and forth has been created with many trashing the ending for what it did to the character and the rest of the cast. Jokes about Deku Working at McDonald's occurred online amid the viral discourse.

Origin

The manga My Hero Academia had its first chapter released on July 7th, 2014, and was winding down with its announced final chapter coming on August 5th, 2024.

As usual for a manga, leaks of the chapter began to circulate early ahead of the August 2024 debut, with people having spoilers of the final chapter circulating online as early as July 31st, 2024. On that day, X / Twitter user @King__Naruto^[1] posted his reaction to the spoilers being released, mocking the way that it ends and pointing out some things in the plot that still did not have resolution. The post received over 120,000 views and 1,500 likes in roughly a week (shown below).

Spread

On August 1st, 2024, actual panels from the final chapter began to leak online, with people being able to see for themselves how the ending unfolded. Due to the plot resolution, which included Deku not regaining his powers, a time skip, no relationships occurring between the characters, and rephrasing the main story tagline from volume one, many fans of the series began to attack the ending.

That same day, X user @CEOofChefRinze^[2] uploaded two manga panels, one from the ending of Naruto featuring Kaguya (which was a plot point many fans were unhappy with at the end) compared to one of the panels from the last chapter of My Hero Academia, saying that My Hero Academia's ending is as bad as Naruto's was (shown below). The post received over 269,000 views and 600 likes in four days.

After the chapter had officially been released and circulated, more people began to pile onto their disdain for the ending. The main focal point of contention is that Deku, who remained quirkless at the end of the series, seemed to lose his friends and for the duration of the time-skip was seen as "falling off" by many. This was represented online by people posting art and memes depicting Deku as a wagie who was unable to join the hero society.

For example, on August 4th, 2024, TikToker Hoohdidit1^[3] uploaded a TikTok in which Deku, working at McDonald's, runs into Bakugo (shown below). The meme edit received over 152,000 likes, 28,800 shares and 1,170 comments in one day.

Related Memes

Deku Working At McDonald's

Deku Working at McDonald's, also known as McDonald's Deku or Deku McDonald's, refers to a series of memes and videos depicting Deku losing his quirk and then working at the fast-food restaurant McDonald's as a cashier, which is based on the controversial ending of the manga series in mid-2024. Many of the memes referenced the Just Put My Fires in the Bag Bro saying and the slang term "cu*k" to refer to Deku. McDonald's Deku memes surfaced across TikTok, Twitter / X and Reddit, among other platforms in 2024, manifesting in fan art and voiceover videos.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References