Despite his brash personality, Katsuki Bakugo is quite the beloved character in the My Hero Academia fandom. His hero suit has a lot going on and it’s easy to forget why certain adjustments may have been made over time. Some upgrades are seasonal while others are for one-time missions like in the World Heroes Mission movie.
While Bakugo's hero suit doesn't drastically change like Deku's, there are some important upgrades. His hero suit also has a lot of little tidbits that may confuse some viewers. From seasonal changes to specific missions, Bakugo’s hero suit has had a few small changes throughout My Hero Academia.
The Original Suit
Bakugo’s original hero suit from season 1 includes a lot of the average things hero suits have: clunky boots, knee-guards, a tool belt, gloves, and a mask with a fancy headpiece. His suit also includes grenade gauntlets, mini grenades, and a neck piece that has an unknown purpose. His suit is black with green and orange accents in it.
One of the most iconic designs on his suit is the giant orange "X" going across his tank top. At the end of chapter 114 in the manga, Bakugo makes a comment that reads "Bastards had to put in their flair, huh?" The comment is a reference to the two dots on his hero suit, which is a signature of the designer who worked on his and Uraraka's suit. This comment insinuates that he may have had a say in some design decisions with his original suit. Considering his parents are fashion designers, this wouldn't be far-fetched.
If Bakugo did have a say in the original design for his suit, some design choices could be a reference to his idol, All Might. While Deku's hero suit did this in an embarrassingly obvious way, Bakugo's suit is much more subtle. No matter which version of All Might's suit the viewers compare it to, they might notice some similarities.
One of the more obvious similarities is the stripe accents. Lots of heroes have stripes on their suits, but Katsuki's nearly match the placement of All Might's. The garters, which might be there to help hold the baggy pants, are in the same spot as the stripes on All Might's pants. The iconic "X" on Bakugo's shirt also has a similar look to All Might's Young and Golden Age suits. In fact, Katsuki might have chosen colors based on All Might's Bronze Age suit but tried to make it less obvious by using orange instead of red. His regular hero suit doesn't change much, but there are a lot of confusing pieces to it.
Gauntlets and Grenades
To match our hero's explosive quirk, the gauntlets resemble giant grenades. The cool part about the gauntlets is that they actually store Bakugo’s sweat so he can create bigger explosions. Bakugo’s hands produce sweat made of nitroglycerin, which is what makes his quirk work in the first place. Bakugo can create giant explosions without them, as seen in the Hideout Raid Arc when Midoriya, Kirishima, and Iida go to save him, but the gauntlets make that much easier for him to do.
Viewers may have easily missed the smaller grenades on Bakugo's tool belt. It was revealed in the provisional license exam that these grenades actually hold Bakugo's nitroglycerin sweat. This makes it so other people, like Denki Kaminari, can create explosions if Bakugo chooses to give them away. It also gives Bakugo a chance to fight back while building up more sweat.
Gloves and Neckpiece
Bakugo's neck piece seems to be less useful in comparison to many of the other costume pieces. Since his outfit was designed by the same designer as Uraraka's, this could be a signature of that designer. It has also been speculated that the piece may act as a neck brace considering how much recoil he gets from his explosions. On the other hand, his neck piece could simply be another aesthetic choice that is supposed to resemble a missile launcher.
Many heroes have gloves in their costumes, but Bakugo’s gloves are two times more helpful because they create more sweat. While this is a potential downside for other heroes, it's a huge upside for Bakugo’s quirk. The hotter he is in battle, the better. The gloves have a similar use to the next part of Bakugo’s hero suit.
Seasonal Changes
Bakugo’s hero usual hero suit consists of baggy pants and a tank top among the other things mentioned already, but his winter outfit is a bit different. After his internship with Best Jeanist, he modifies his hero outfit to be more suited for the winter. He claimed to vehemently hate his internship, but secretly appreciated it. Since Bakugo's quirk relies so heavily on his sweat, winter can be a tough time for him. The colder it is, the less sweat someone produces.
His winter outfit resembles Best Jeanist’s hero outfit, sporting a turtleneck and long sleeves. It’s quite obvious where he gets the inspiration from. The inspiration of his winter suit seemed obvious to the other characters as well due to their immediate reactions. This outfit also doubles as a way to make Bakugo potentially look less threatening to children, which is a recurring problem during the provisional license exam and extra classes.
World Heroes' Mission Suit
Bakugo’s suit in My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is a bit different from other iterations of his suit, as are Deku and Todoroki’s. The biggest differences in this suit are that it is less flashy and sports a hood rather than a simple headpiece. Since this suit was created for a secret stealth mission, this makes sense. It is also worth noting that this version is more like his winter outfit than his usual hero outfit.
His suit incorporates his iconic explosion headpiece by using an explosion design on the back of his hood. Unlike Deku’s stealth mission suit, his hood doesn’t cover his whole face because he already has an eye mask. The mini grenades and nitroglycerin gauntlets are still there, but they are changed from the usual army green to orange and black respectively. The nitroglycerin gauntlets are also more streamlined into a stealthier, less bulky version. Other than My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, Bakugo’s hero outfit doesn’t change in the movies.
Even though Bakugo's hero suit hasn't changed much throughout the series, it's still, arguably, one of the cooler hero suits from Class 1-A. Since the anime is ongoing, anime only viewers can look forward to when our fiery hero's suit has some major upgrades. Manga readers know how rad these upgrades are and some can't wait to see it animated. In the meantime, anime watchers can watch the season 6 trailers that have come out. Season 6 is set to air in the Fall of 2022.