Shonen Showdown: Bleach’s Yoruichi Vs. My Hero Academia’s Bakugo – Who Would Win?

Bleach and My Hero Academia are both mainstay shonen titles, and their classic shonen protagonists are supported with equally impressive secondary characters, such as the explosive Katsuku Bakugo and the rogue Soul Reaper Yoruichi Shihoin. These characters are smart and powerful enough to be the heroes of their own spin-off series, and they can handle themselves in a fight.

Suppose these secondary characters really did come face to face in mortal combat? Bakugo will accept any challenge, and Yoruichi Shihoin knows just how to tease her opponents and goad them into attacking her. For the sake of argument, suppose Bakugo could see and hear Yoruichi, a spiritual entity, and challenged her. Could he take her on?

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Yoruichi Shihoin's Skills & Powers

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Yoruichi Shihoin was born many years ago in the Soul Society, and she grew up as a noblewoman in the great Shihoin house (ranking even above her friend, Kukaku Shiba). From an early age, Yoruichi was trained in the ways of martial arts, stealth and assassination, and she was on the fast track to Captaincy. By the late 1800s or so, she was the Captain of squad 2, and she was training a student of her own, the young Soi Fon. It was Yoruichi who used her elite stealth skills and speed to rescue her friend Kisuke Urahara from twisted justice and helped him escape to the world of the living, in Karakura Town. Yoruichi had to give up her post, but to her, it was worth it.

Although Yoruichi has a zanpakuto like all Soul Reapers do, she hardly ever draws it. Instead, she is a master at bare-handed combat or hakuda, and she has agility, speed and technique that can leave most opponents in the dust. Yoruichi is much stronger than her petite frame would suggest, and she is known to deliver knockout kicks that can even topple a mighty Espada, such as Yammy Llargo.

Yoruichi is also an expert in stealth, being able to bypass wary guards or ambush an opponent and dispatch them before they know what's happening. And if Yoruichi ends up in a straight fight with a mighty foe, she can activate shunko, a technique of her own invention. It combines kido with martial arts, greatly boosting Yoruichi's combat abilities while cloaking her in electric spiritual energy. On a side note, Soi Fon can use shunko, too.

Katsuki Bakugo's Skills & Powers

Katsuki Bakugo is one of the strongest students in class 1-A, which is saying a lot, since he's keeping company with the likes of Shoto Todoroki, Fumikage Tokoyami and the protagonist himself, Izuku Midoriya. Bakugo inherited a combustion Quirk from his father and a nitroglycerin Quirk from his mother, meaning he can sweat nitroglycerin fuel and blow it up with sparks that he can generate from his palms. This means that Bakugo can create explosions from his palms at any time, and the longer he fights in a battle, the more he sweats, and the stronger his Quirk will become.

The light, heat and concussive powers of his explosions are formidable, and this Quirk allowed Bakugo to win the U.A. sports festival tournament (though it may be noted that Shoto had failed to use the full extent of his own Quirk). Meanwhile, Bakugo has realized that he can point his palms behind him and set off gentler but constant explosions, propelling him forward like a rocket. He can even launch himself into the air this way.

Despite this, Bakugo isn't all brawn and no brains. He is also among the craftiest students in U.A., being able to quickly assess his enemy's strengths and weaknesses and adjust his strategy accordingly. He doesn't keep a notebook on his person as Izuku does, but still, his insights can rival Izuku's own at times, and his good grades in school are also rather promising. Bakugo tends to be reckless and hotheaded in battle, but he's not a mindless berserker. There's a lot of deliberation in everything Bakugo does, and he often takes his enemies off-guard with his sharp tactics. Then, his explosions can finish the job.

Yoruichi Vs. Katsuki Bakugo - Who Wins?

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If Yoruichi can get the jump on Katsuki Bakugo and attack him from an unexpected angle, she might win the fight with the very first blow. After all, Yoruichi can duke it out in a straight fight, but she is a trained assassin, and Bakugo simply lacks the experience, speed and technique necessary to protect him from Yoruichi's skills. Stain the hero killer might be able to match Yoruichi's stealth, but Bakugo cannot, and he'd take a kick to the head and get knocked out.

In a more straightforward battle, Bakugo will last a little longer. His explosions will force Yoruichi to stay on her toes, and Bakugo can launch himself into the air to avoid the worst of Yoruichi's melee skills. Bakugo's explosions will keep scaling up in power, but even if he lands a blow on Yoruichi, she can avoid it with her utsusemi technique (which is like the substitution jutsu).

All the smoke and embers will obscure Bakugo's line of sight, and Yoruichi can use that as cover for her final approach. Once she gets in melee range, she can beat Bakugo down, without even needing shunko. Bakugo might try to block Yoruichi's attacks with his arm-mounted grenades, but that won't be nearly enough.

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