Who Is Kudo in My Hero Academia and His Link to Bakugo

My Hero Academia Season 8 is booming in the otaku world right now. Thanks to Crunchyroll, fans are feasting on these insane episodes. We all know the show is stuffed with some of the best characters. In fact, it might be the only anime where so many side characters carry their own fandoms.

Even the main character does not top the popularity polls. That alone shows the power of Kohei Horikoshi’s creation.

In Episode 3 of Season 8, we met a mysterious character named Toshitsugu Kudo. Honestly, he looks a lot like Bakugo. But is he actually related? Let us dig into his story.

Who is Kudo Toshitsugu?!

Episode 3 introduced a new face whose name we never knew before. He does not live in the present day, and he is a special hero. His name is Kudo Toshitsugi, a past user of One for All. He ranked among the strongest holders of that power, yet he died young.

Kudo had a best friend called Yoichi, the very first owner of One for All.

Yoichi was also All for One’s younger brother. AFO always craved the power of One for All. Over time, that craving twisted into an obsession with his own brother.

In the end, All for One brutally killed Yoichi while chasing One for All. Poor Kudo was left with his friend’s blood across his face. Yet Yoichi’s will lived on inside him. That is how One for All passed to Kudo, making him its first true inheritor.

Later, AFO fought Kudo and massacred his entire team. That battle cost Kudo his life as well. By then, he had already passed One for All to Bruce, its third user. This enraged AFO even more. So he went on a killing spree and wiped out Kudo’s whole bloodline, every child, woman and man. He wanted that lineage gone for good.

That is why AFO froze when he saw Bakugo in the recent episode. The kid looked exactly like his old enemy Kudo.

Is Bakugo really related to Kudo?

MHA fans now believe Kudo might be related to Katsuki Bakugo. The spiky hair, the facial structure, the badass aura and the smirk all make it feel possible.

But here is the truth about this question.

In reality, the two are not related. AFO wiped out Kudo’s bloodline completely. Still, the resemblance is uncanny, so we cannot blame AFO for staring. Their powers differ too. Bakugo uses Explosion, while Kudo wields Gearshift and One for All.

Both of them hated AFO and set out to end him. Because of that, some fans float a reincarnation theory. AFO himself noticed that Bakugo shares Kudo’s piercing eyes. On top of that, Kudo and Yoichi’s bond mirrors the Bakugo and Deku dynamic. So a reincarnation angle is not impossible.

Kudo always stood his ground against evil. Likewise, Kacchan keeps doing the same as one of UA’s best heroes. You can watch the new episodes of My Hero Academia Season 8 on Crunchyroll. Grab the subscription and go “Plus ULTRAAA!”

My take: The bloodline is gone, so on paper Bakugo and Kudo are not related. Still, I think Horikoshi wants us to feel that echo. The eyes, the fire, the refusal to bow to evil, it all rhymes too neatly to be a coincidence. Call it spiritual succession rather than family, and the scene hits even harder.