What Does Deku Mean? A Dive into Japanese Language and Anime

Although, you wouldn’t call this form of puppetry ‘deku’, as that would likely be disrespectful to the cultural significance of bunraku. In its origin, deku would have been a word used to describe the kind of wooden puppets that were produced for the masses, rather than the arts.

The more modern use of the word deku is a term to imply that someone is “a good for nothing”, has a “block head”, or is a “useless, boring person”. Which makes a little more sense as we think about Midoriya’s character in My Hero Academia.

In My Hero Academia, a world of superheroes and supervillains, the main protagonists, Midoriya and Bakugo, are frenemies. Izuku Midoriya is shy and innocent, whereas his frenemy, Katsuki Bakugo is more abrasive. Bakugo calls Midoriya ‘Deku’, because he’s using it mockingly in the modern sense of the word, implying that Midoriya is a “good for nothing”.

In the series, the characters give deku a further meaning, adding to its etymological evolution. Supporting character Ochako Uraraka tells Midoriya, “Deku gives off a feeling of “I can do it”. I like the nickname.” This is because she abbreviates the word dekiru, an affirmative verb used to express one’s ability to do be able to do/achieve something, to give a new meaning to deku. As a result, Midoriya reclaims the word under its new, positive connotation.

‘Deku’s Japanese meaning in kanji

But how does Bakugo derive ‘deku’ from ‘Midoriya’ in the first place? To grasp this transition, we need to understand the characters used to write Izuku’s name, and the sounds they produce.

The Japanese word ‘deku’ is written using two kanji symbols (‘kanji’ is the Japanese word for traditional Chinese characters): 

木偶

[DE-KU]

The first character ‘木’ means “tree” or “wood”. The second character ‘偶’ is a little more complicated, as it has a number of different meanings, such as “man and wife”, “even number”, or “accidentally”. But, when following ‘木’, ‘偶’ means “puppet”.

However, the nature and pronunciation of these kanji characters is even less straightforward than ‘偶’s multiple meanings. Let’s take Izuku Midoriya’s first name, for example. In written Japanese, an individual’s last name will come before their first name; to represent that this person belongs to this particular family lineage. So, his name will appear like this: