Omgggg My Hero Academia holding on strong! A BNHA friend of mine actually shared this post with a few of us fans and was like "I know Himiko/Ochako's situation, but do you guys know why Kyouka/Momo might be up recently?"
The Himiko/Ochako is almost definitely downstream effects of some recent shenanigans in the manga... Himiko is a villain, and Ochako is a hero, and for chapters 391-395 (released I think in July/August of this year) they basically got five chapters of fighting/confrontation plus details on Himiko's tragic backstory.
Spoilers for those chapters but here's a summary: Basically there's a huge war between heroes vs. villains going on, and Ochako and Himiko end up confronting each other on the battlefield. Himiko is canonically bi and has expressed attraction to Ochako before. Ochako originally thought Himiko was creepy, but in recent arcs has started to reflect and has been like "Ooh but WHY is she a villain?" and wanting to actually hear Himiko's story and connect with her.
So in this recent battle, basically Ochako keeps being like "Talk to me! I want to connect with you!" as they fight even though Himiko's kind of like "Too fucking late!" (one of her dear friends was killed by a hero for being a villain and she's grieving). However, Ochako keeps pushing and it culminates in HIMIKO STABBING OCHAKO.
However, Ochako still keeps reaching out, and eventually it gets through to Himiko that Ochako really does care and want to listen, and so she shares her feelings, and the two of them legitimately connect. However, Ochako is still very much stabbed and bleeding to death.
So Himiko??? Takes out her needles and transfers her own blood TO OCHAKO.... like on the battlefield.... and functionally seems to be giving up her own life for Ochako's. (After she was the one who stabbed her in the first place) (like "whoops sorry I stabbed u here's my blood) (it's pretty great). Extra points bc part of Himiko's schtick is that her power requires she takes blood from people, so she's often shown desiring/stealing/drinking other people's blood.... so this is a reversal where instead of taking, she's GIVING, all because Ochako showed her some love/understanding.
Anyways that arc ended on a cliffhanger where basically they're lying on the ground cuddling and it's implied that Himiko died in order to revive Ochako. Now the manga has moved on to other various arcs/battles going on in this war and we will probably not get to know if Himiko maybe survived or not until the end of the manga :'(.
Anyways so as you can imagine, this makes some really juicy fodder for fanfiction. Himiko/Ochako HAS been around for a long while, but a lot of the early canon material leaned towards Ochako just being creeped out by Himiko and pretty short interactions. Getting five chapters in a row where Ochako reciprocates some care/love for Himiko while big deadly stakes are happening and Himiko's backstory is elaborated on has revived some sleeping/quiet HimiChako fans while also drawing in new fans who hadn't seen the appeal before. Plus that arc ended on a cliffhanger so I think some people are ficcing to cope. The chapters came out a few months ago, so it could be that's been helping drive the 10 consecutive weeks on the rankings.
Meanwhile Kyouka/Momo.... as far as I know there's nothing in particular driving that. I know they're one of the most popular "background" ships that people tag and add to fanfics, so idk if you have any further techniques that filter that sort of overtagging behavior, but that could be keeping them active. Of course there are actual Kyouka/Momo fans and fics about them that are forging onwards, but there hasn't been particular new stuff for the two of them in canon. If there's some fan event(s) going on for them, I'm not aware of them.
My dearest hope is that when that arc is animated in the anime, perhaps some of the anime-only fans will see the appeal and we will get a second wind of HimiChako fan activity :D (my other dearest hope is that Himiko survives.... please)
no subject
The Himiko/Ochako is almost definitely downstream effects of some recent shenanigans in the manga... Himiko is a villain, and Ochako is a hero, and for chapters 391-395 (released I think in July/August of this year) they basically got five chapters of fighting/confrontation plus details on Himiko's tragic backstory.
So in this recent battle, basically Ochako keeps being like "Talk to me! I want to connect with you!" as they fight even though Himiko's kind of like "Too fucking late!" (one of her dear friends was killed by a hero for being a villain and she's grieving). However, Ochako keeps pushing and it culminates in HIMIKO STABBING OCHAKO.
However, Ochako still keeps reaching out, and eventually it gets through to Himiko that Ochako really does care and want to listen, and so she shares her feelings, and the two of them legitimately connect. However, Ochako is still very much stabbed and bleeding to death.
So Himiko??? Takes out her needles and transfers her own blood TO OCHAKO.... like on the battlefield.... and functionally seems to be giving up her own life for Ochako's. (After she was the one who stabbed her in the first place) (like "whoops sorry I stabbed u here's my blood) (it's pretty great). Extra points bc part of Himiko's schtick is that her power requires she takes blood from people, so she's often shown desiring/stealing/drinking other people's blood.... so this is a reversal where instead of taking, she's GIVING, all because Ochako showed her some love/understanding.
Anyways that arc ended on a cliffhanger where basically they're lying on the ground cuddling and it's implied that Himiko died in order to revive Ochako. Now the manga has moved on to other various arcs/battles going on in this war and we will probably not get to know if Himiko maybe survived or not until the end of the manga :'(.
Anyways so as you can imagine, this makes some really juicy fodder for fanfiction. Himiko/Ochako HAS been around for a long while, but a lot of the early canon material leaned towards Ochako just being creeped out by Himiko and pretty short interactions. Getting five chapters in a row where Ochako reciprocates some care/love for Himiko while big deadly stakes are happening and Himiko's backstory is elaborated on has revived some sleeping/quiet HimiChako fans while also drawing in new fans who hadn't seen the appeal before. Plus that arc ended on a cliffhanger so I think some people are ficcing to cope. The chapters came out a few months ago, so it could be that's been helping drive the 10 consecutive weeks on the rankings.
Meanwhile Kyouka/Momo.... as far as I know there's nothing in particular driving that. I know they're one of the most popular "background" ships that people tag and add to fanfics, so idk if you have any further techniques that filter that sort of overtagging behavior, but that could be keeping them active. Of course there are actual Kyouka/Momo fans and fics about them that are forging onwards, but there hasn't been particular new stuff for the two of them in canon. If there's some fan event(s) going on for them, I'm not aware of them.
My dearest hope is that when that arc is animated in the anime, perhaps some of the anime-only fans will see the appeal and we will get a second wind of HimiChako fan activity :D (my other dearest hope is that Himiko survives.... please)