Izuku Midoriya/Relationships

Toshinori Yagi
Izuku has always admired All Might ever since he was a small child and wanted to be a hero just like him. Izuku was very shocked to see All Might's true form and was dismayed when the latter told him being powerless wouldn't help him be a hero. However, Izuku earned All Might's respect after he ran toward the slime monster trying to save Katsuki, a mentor-student relationship bloomed between them and All Might chose him as his successor. While All Might's training on Izuku was rough, the latter continued to give it his all. They grew closer as All Might listened to his resolve of training more than he has to become a great hero, impressing the hero.

All Might is his confidante, mentor, friend in and out of school, and they share a mutual respect for each other's heroism ideals. Izuku's admiration and respect for All Might is so great that he avoided trying to attack All Might during the End of Term Test, and when he had no choice but to attack All Might with Katsuki's Grenade Bracer, Izuku apologized.

At first, Izuku tried to imitate All Might from his style of name and costume design. As he matured later on, Izuku slowly learned to become his own hero and develop his own style.

Katsuki Bakugo
Izuku and Katsuki have known each other since their childhood, but their relationship has deteriorated over the years (though interestingly enough, Izuku continues to call Katsuki by his childhood nickname, "Kacchan"). Ever since failing to develop a Quirk as a child, while Katsuki developed his, the latter has seen Izuku as weak and bullied him relentlessly, giving him the derogatory nickname “Deku,” and even going so far as to use him as suicide bait. It can be assumed that it is largely because of Katsuki's abuse that Izuku has such a skittish nature, stutter, and initially low self-confidence.

Izuku surprised Katsuki by trying to save him from the Sludge Villain. Much later, Katsuki caught up with him and berated him for his actions, calling him a Quirkless failure most likely out if pride. Izuku's heroic act is also what caused All Might to choose him as his successor of One For All, thus making Katsuki indirectly responsible for his acceptance into U.A.

Izuku later stood up to Katsuki and enrolled in U.A. High School. He also revealed his new quirk, with Katsuki reacting in surprise as the latter angrily questioned if Izuku was intentionally hiding his powers for years. In a training battle, Katsuki attacked Izuku but once again Izuku surprised Katsuki by revealing he has been memorizing his moves and knew of ways to counter them as he once possessed a strategy book that detailed Katsuki and other's moves before Katsuki burned it. Finally standing up to Katsuki, Izuku tells him that he is no longer the same kid Katsuki used to bully even stating he will use the nickname Katsuki gave him as inspiration. Enraged by Izuku's bold claims, Katsuki attacked relentlessly to get him to use his quirk which worked but ended with Izuku defeating him for once. After the exercise, Izuku caught up to Katsuki and told him he obtained his powers from someone else but Katsuki does not believe it and swore to defeat him.

Izuku states that Katsuki makes all of Izuku's insecurities about himself bubble to the surface. Despite the two having such a strained relationship, Izuku still admires him for his strong quirk, natural combat capabilities, confidence, and his ability to win. Ever since the end of the Battle Trial Arc, Izuku has not spoken to Katsuki on friendly terms due to Katsuki considering Izuku his arch-rival. Even still, Izuku still has respect for Katsuki and is still shown to care for him, as shown when Katsuki is captured by the Vanguard Action Squad, Izuku used all his strength in an attempt to save him and spiraled into despair after he failed to do so. Directly after, Izuku teams up with Tenya, Ejirou, Shoto, and Momo in an attempt to rescue Katsuki from the League of Villains' hideout.

Back at UA some time later, Katsuki and Izuku take out their stress on each other in an emotional fight, which Katsuki wins. After the fight, Katsuki learned the full truth of Izuku's quirk and his connection to All Might which he seem to understand and kept the secret to himself. Since the fight, the two better understand each other and have become more reminiscent to that of a proper "friendly" rivalry, though they are still at odds due to their clashing personalities and overall shaky history with each other.

Ochaco Uraraka
Ochaco was the first person Izuku interacted with when he first came to U.A. High. The two are best friends; they get along very well and their discussions are always bright and friendly. Ochaco was the one that turned his once demeaning nickname "Deku" into a positive identity for him, when she said it gave her a "never gives up“ vibe. They share similar personalities, which contributes to their friendship.

They mutually respect each other. Izuku defended her to Katsuki Bakugo and Camie, thinking of her as a brave and resourceful person. Ochaco is inspired by him, striving for his level of tenacity and perseverance.

Both have feelings for each other, unbeknownst to the other party, but neither act on them; Izuku due to his extreme timidity, and Ochaco because she knows it would wreck her focus on her dream. Both think it would ruin their friendship and content themselves with good friendship for the time being.

Tenya Iida
In their first meeting, Tenya labeled Izuku's muttering about heroes as a distraction and thought he would be hindrance to the school which earned the latter bad attention from his peers. However, in the entrance tests Izuku surprised Tenya by selflessly going back to save Ochaco Uraraka and using his Quirk to destroy a giant robot in the process.

When they met again in class, Izuku first thought that Tenya was scary and that they wouldn't get along, but was surprised as the latter apologized for his previous treatment him and even considered Izuku better than him in many ways after the entrance course, much to Izuku's shock. Izuku got to know Tenya better, where found out that while he was serious he was also kind and they ended up becoming friends. Izuku and Tenya are usually friendly with each other. However, sometimes their friendship slightly falters such as when Izuku criticized Tenya for seeking revenge against Stain and Tenya punching Izuku in the face for acting recklessly by attempting to save Katsuki.

Despite this, Izuku and Tenya's friendship have rebounded back many times despite these mishaps, mainly because they are only concerned for each other's well being. They are usually seen together having friendly discussions. Izuku resigned as Class President and named Tenya as his successor, knowing that he has better leadership qualities than him. After Tenya was defeated by Shoto, Izuku was saddened to see his friend lose. Since Izuku knew that Tenya has a grudge against Stain, he tries to save him from his death. While recuperating at Hosu General Hospital, both Izuku and Tenya resolve to become stronger together.

Tsuyu Asui
Tsuyu respects Midoriya for his heroic actions as well as his victory against Katsuki. She becomes friendly with Izuku, requesting he call her by her first name.

During the Unforeseen Simulation Joint Arc, she saves him from being attacked underwater and they worked well against their enemies. Izuku also tried to save her from being attacked by Tomura Shigaraki but failed though they were saved by Eraserhead and All Might. In Rescue Trial Arc, she was receptive of Midoriya's plan to subdue the swimming villains, showing not only respect, but also trust. After Shoto defeated Izuku in the Sports Festival, Tsuyu was one of the few who went to Recovery Girl's office to see if he was fine or not.

Minoru Mineta
Izuku is a fellow student of Minoru's in Class 1-A. Izuku, like most of his classmates, is disgusted by Minoru’s perversions, but admires his heroism in difficult times. Minoru has come to admire Izuku for his acts of heroism and for believing in his abilities as a hero, although he is somewhat skeptical at first of Izuku's determination. The two have become friends, particularly following their battle together against the Villain Alliance.

Shoto Todoroki
Shoto saw Izuku as his arch rival due to him having connections with All Might (a person with whom his father has a major rivalry). Izuku, on the other hand, has a lot of respect for Shoto, admitting that he is a far stronger than him. After hearing Shoto's tragic backstory and seeing his sadness, Izuku started to show sympathy for his pain and resolved to help him overcome his dark past by getting him to use his power, telling Shoto that the power is his own and not his father‘s. Although Izuku lost to Shoto while trying to help him, Izuku's actions did have an impact, as Shoto stopped rejecting his power.

Shoto even came to his aid when Izuku and Tenya Iida were attacked by Stain and they worked well together even defeating the infamous hero killer. After the battle, Izuku and Shoto are on friendly terms with each other, with Izuku even laughing at Shoto's expense when he worried that he tends to hurt people's hands.

Shota Aizawa
Shota is Izuku's homeroom teacher. Initially, Izuku did not recognize him until he used his quirk to restrain him, which caused Izuku to remember he was Eraserhead a hero that he respected. Shota did not believe Izuku can be a hero, due to his reckless behavior when using his Quirk as it he would be useless in battle if he kept getting injured. However, Izuku proved to Shota that he has potential and did not expel him. Throughout the series, their relationship can be defined as a rocky, troublesome student-teacher relationship. As his teacher, Izuku listens to Shota's orders and advise in order to improve himself. He has some level of respect towards Shota, but Shota's cold and logical personality conflicts with Izuku's personality and mindset, making it difficult for the two to get along. Out of all his students, Shota appears to antagonize Izuku the most whenever he does something that upsets him, a recurring problem being Izuku overusing his Quirk and breaking his body. As such, Shota refers Izuku as the 'Problem Child'.

However, Shota is still Izuku's teacher and as such, ultimately cares for him. He would offer some level of consolidation and guidance for Izuku when he is upset, and he will make sure Izuku does not do anything dangerous and act upon it. This shows the more caring and inspirational side of Shota helps Izuku get along better with him.

It is possible another reason they do not get along well is because of Izuku's personality and mindset baring similarity to All Might's, who Izuku looks up to. Shota and All Might do not get along, and this is extremely evident in Shota and Izuku’s relationship.

Chiyo Shuuzenji
Recovery Girl is one of the few people who know about Izuku's Quirk. Often, she scolds at Izuku for using his Quirk dangerously, requiring her powers almost constantly.

Hitoshi Shinso
They first met in the fighting tournament of the Sports Festival. Izuku learned much about Shinso's Quirk from Mashirao Ojiro but accidentally played in Shinso's hands though the powers of those who previously wielded One For All freed him from Shinso's control. Shinso tried to control Izuku again by claiming to be jealous of Izuku's Quirk, as it gives him combat efficiency.

On the other hand, Izuku understands Hitoshi's situation as he himself was considered unfavorable due to having no Quirk. Before their battle in the Sports, Hitoshi and Izuku were hostile to each other, but after their battle, Hitoshi seems to have gained respect for Izuku, telling him not to lose too pitifully while Izuku respects Hitoshi's goal to enter the Department of Heroics.

Kota Izumi
Izuku did not get along with Kota due to their different circumstances and ideals. However, after Izuku saved Kota from the Muscle Augmentation villain, Kota respects Izuku more. At first, Kota despised Izuku and Class 1-A for always working so hard to better themselves against fighting villains. Because of his past, he ignored anything that dealt with Heroes and Villains, and even Quirks altogether. Izuku, after finding his secret hideout, tried talking to him only to have him snap at him because he's never gone through what he has. Because of how similar Kota was to him, both being "quirkless" (Izuku not being born with a Quirk and Kota refusing to use his quirk), Izuku took it upon himself to save Kota from the Muscle Augmentation villain at all costs, even going past his limitations. During the battle, Kota used his Quirk out of desperation in an attempt to help Izuku. After the battle, he tells Kota that his parents died to protect him and says he risked his life for him because he wanted his acknowledgement as a Hero. Izuku then tells Kota to help save others just as he helped save him.

Chizome Akaguro
Stain respects Izuku's reasoning to be a Hero and sees worth in letting Izuku live. Izuku, on the other hand, saved Tenya from Stain after intervening in the man's attempt to kill his friend. Izuku impressed Stain with his will to defend his friend and efforts to defeat him, which was something he deemed worthy as a hero. With the help of Tenya and Shoto Todoroki, Izuku managed to defeat the villain.

Also, when Izuku was captured by one of the Noumu-like creatures, Stain was the one who saved him as the latter expressed shock at this act and was scared at Stain's speech before he fell unconscious. While Izuku does not approve of Stain's nihilistic methods, Izuku respects Stain for living according to his ideals and never giving up on achieving his ideal world.

Tomura Shigaraki
Izuku and Tomura mutually despise each other; Tomura despises Izuku for his admiration of All Might (someone he hates) while Izuku doesn't agree with Tomura's villainous actions. During USJ, Izuku saved All Might, which caused Tomura to take an interest in Izuku as shown when he watched Izuku's match during U.A.'s Sports Festival.

Later in Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall (Wookiees), they unintentionally met each other again, so Tomura decided to talk with Izuku about the difference between him and Stain. After hearing Izuku's thoughts on the matter and before leaving the shopping mall, Tomura declared that the next time they met, he would show Izuku no mercy.

Himiko Toga
Himiko first encounters Izuku when the Vanguard Action Squad attacks Classes 1-A and 1-B's field training. Himiko jumps him and briefly introduces herself before she is pushed away by Mezo Shoji. Later unbeknownst to Izuku, the two meet again during the Hero License Exam where Izuku believes her to be Camie, a student from Shiketsu High School. This encounter only raises Himiko's interest in the boy as she notes that their interest in each other seemed to be mutual. Izuku is surprised by her fighting abilities but finds her to be a somewhat scary person the more she interacts with him.

Being saved and carried to safety in a princess carry by her love interest, Himiko found out that the boy would save somebody even if that person was his opponent. Revealing her quirk to him but not her real identity, she was curious about how far his good will reached. During the Second Exam of the Provisional Hero License Exam begun, Izuku acknowledged her wishing of good luck to him.

After the License Exam, Izuku wanted to talk to her again about her stealth techniques but he was disappointed when he found out she had already left.

Later during Eri's rescue operation he ran across her yet again when a disguised Himiko lovingly tried to cut him with her knife. Her quirk was deactivated by Aizawa and her identity revealed giving Izuku a shock as he was saved by his teacher. Putting two and two together, Izuku figured out that Himiko was likely the same girl that he had sparred with during the license exam.

Mirio Togata
At first, Izuku was largely put off by Mirio, due to the unusual nature of their first encounter. Furthermore, Izuku was skeptical of Mirio's status as one of the "Big Three" at U.A., due to Mirio's subpar performance in the sports festival the previous year. This changed after Mirio gave an excellent demonstration and explanation of his quirk and fighting technique, after which Izuku grew to have a great amount of admiration for him, even commenting that Mirio talks just like a Pro Hero already. Izuku's respect grew upon learning that Mirio was one of the original proposed candidates for inheriting One For All. Though sometimes still a bit off-put by Mirio's intense amiability and enthusiasm, Izuku and Mirio get along very well and are very similar in terms of heroic ideals. Mirio put in a good word about Izuku with Sir Nighteye, and the two have been working together in an internship since.

He was visibly disturbed when he learned that Mirio's Quirk was forever lost from Chisaki, and expressed anger towards Chisaki for that.

After Nighteye's death, when Izuku saw how optimistic Mirio was, Izuku went as far as to propose that Mirio could take Izuku's Quirk, indicating how Izuku believes that Mirio is truly the worthier candidate for One for All, like Nighteye had said.

Sir Nighteye
Izuku was very intimidated by Sir Nighteye. The two are mostly at odds due to Sir's cold nature and skepticism of Izuku being the next Symbol of Peace. However, they are both huge fans of All Might, with both having extensive knowledge of him as well as extensive collections of merchandise. Sir hired Izuku as an intern, and Izuku has been working since then to prove his worth to him.

After learning more about All Might's realationship with Nighteye, Izuku wanted to make the two meet so they can reconcile. Though Izuku wasn't able to find the time to bring it up due to the rescue mission for Eri, he got to tell him after the recuse was complete and Nighteye was taken to the hospital.

Izuku was horrified when he learned that Nighteye was going to die, and pleaded to him to keep hanging on, and cried for him as he died but not before Nighteye gave Izuku his blessing as All Might's successor.

Despite how Nighteye praised Izuku for being able to change the future, giving him hope for once, Izuku ultimately believed that Nighteye was right about Mirio being the worthier heir for One for All and even tried to pass it onto Mirio, but was rejected.

Eri
Izuku and Eri never fully interacted, but the short time they had with one another built a powerful bond between the two. When Izuku first encountered Eri, seeing the bandages she had, as well as how fearful she was towards Chisaki, he tried to protect her from Chisaki until he was forced to let her go back. After learning how Eri was being experimented on by having Quirk-erasing bullets manufactured from her body, Izuku was horrified by the act and angered at himself for letting her go back to that. Aizawa even deduced that Izuku was going to act recklessly to try and save her even if he tried to stop him, which Izuku didn't deny.

When they finally reunited in the battle against Chisaki, Izuku immediately followed orders to try and rescue Eri, and even pushed himself to using One for All 20% to protect Eri and defeat Chisaki. Even though he was beaten down by Chisaki afterwards, and Eri came back to Chisaki declaring that Izuku cannot save her, and this was not his business, Izuku declared that because Eri was crying, he would save her no matter what.

After taking Eri from Chisaki, Izuku tells Eri that he will not let go of her again. When he experiences her Quirk being used, and being told how dangerous it is to be with Eri, Izuku still refuses to let Eri go, explaining that because of how her Quirk has reverted the damage he has done to himself using 100% before he could even feel pain, he states that Eri possesses a "kind, gentle Quirk", something that drives Eri to tears. This also makes Izuku go as far to use One For All: Full Cowl - 100%, something that would destroy his entire body at blinding speed, to make use of Eri's Quirk, and asks her to lend him her strength.

After the battle is over and they are in the hospital, despite Izuku being discharged, he wants to stay by Eri's side until she wakes up, but is convinced by Shota to go back.