My Hero Academia Finally Did Justice To One Of Its Best Underrated Characters

Spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 7, Episodes 1 & 2

Summary Star and Stripe's brief but impactful role is enhanced in My Hero Academia's Season 7 adaptation with new scenes, music, and animation quality.

The anime treatment of the Star and Stripe arc is considered an excellent adaptation, adding emotional depth and intensity to the original manga storyline.

Star and Stripe's heroic legacy resonates globally, showcasing the international influence of heroes and setting the stage for an epic final war in Season 7.

The My Hero Academia anime has completed its take on the Star and Stripe arc, and while woefully brief, the adaptation managed to enhance the experience over the manga with new scenes, awesome music, and the kind of quality animation Bones is known for.

Many fans had concerns about the Star and Stripe arc's adaptation; some were worried about censorship, as the arc does get dark with its depictions of Shigaraki and Star's injuries, while others were concerned that the arc would come off as totally pointless in the anime, given its short runtime in animated form and Star's relatively brief role in the story.

Instead, however, the now completed two-episode arc has been regarded as an excellent adaptation of the manga storyline, with the anime treatment enhancing the overall story.

Star and Stripe Deserved More

For a character who only appears in a handful of chapters before her death, Star and Stripe is extremely popular, especially among foreign fans of My Hero Academia (Americans in particular). Her renegade heroism struck a chord with fans, and her incredible Quirk wowed them with its broad applications and creative uses. Her death is heroic and consequential to the events of the series, badly injuring Shigaraki and buying the heroes of Japan some much-needed time. All that comes together to make her a character that's beloved in spite of her relatively small role.

As "Shigaraki" himself says in the episode, he feared the power of Deku's One for All and Star and Stripe's New Order coming together to stand against him, and many fans found themselves wishing they could've seen Deku and Star fighting shoulder-to-shoulder. Some fans came to feel that Star and Stripe's character was wasted, since her appearance is so brief, but unfortunately having an outside party come in and save the day is the literal definition of Deus Ex Machina, a trope that's generally avoided by writers. Star and Stripe's story almost had to end the way it did, as tragic as that is.

Star and Stripe fulfills a very specific role in the series as-is: she shows that All Might's influence on heroes is an international one, not just limited to Japan, and she proves that the heroes of other nations are just as eager to help Japan as they are to help their own people. Star and Stripe could see that All for One posed a danger not just to Japan, but to the entire world, and stopping him then and there was the best chance that they had to end his machinations before they severely impacted other nations.

Star and Stripe Shines in the Anime

Close

The anime added a new scene of Star recruiting her "Bros," who were similarly lamenting the lack of action being taken about Japan's situation. It's a small scene, but it adds to Star's character--she values her pilot friends highly, and they respect her enough to disobey orders and follow her into a dangerous situation, all for the greater good. Given that the pilots do continue to show up in the series after Star's death, adding a little more characterization to them certainly doesn't hurt as well.

The anime also expanded on some scenes, such as the visualization of the skeletal Star and Stripe destroying Quirk factors inside All for One's mental realm. Some fans feared that this scene, along with the scenes of Shigaraki's most severe injuries, would be censored by the anime to tone down the violence, but that absolutely wasn't the case. Shigaraki's injuries are fairly gory, if not outright blood and guts, and the skeletal Star and Stripe who slowly decayed was made to look absolutely terrifying. It may even qualify as one of the more intense moments in the series.

Related My Hero Academia Season 7's Premiere Proves Why the Series Needs More Spin Offs The story of My Hero Academia has introduced a world filled with charming characters and superpowers, but fans have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

The arc in the anime as a whole, however, was probably most strongly influenced by the music. By keeping the epic music playing throughout their fight, changing and shifting along with the tides of battle, Star's actions are made to feel all the more heroic. The music helps maintain a level of intensity that kept fans on the edges of their seats, eager to see how Star and Stripe's actions would play out. Even in the scenes outside of battle, the music helps draw out more emotion, providing these scenes with a greater impact than they had in the manga.

The animation in these two episodes was also of excellent quality. Star's attacks feel as if they have significant power behind them, and Shigaraki's flying and dodging was quite smooth. Particularly disturbing was the animation for Shigaraki's Quirks getting destroyed, as his body bubbled up and exploded in what looked like an extremely painful manner. The hypersonic missile attack was also incredibly well done, delivering powerful destruction.

Season 7 of My Hero Academia is Off to an Incredible Start

These two episodes have gotten season 7 off to a very strong start, kicking things off with an exciting but brutal battle that even manages to tug on the viewer's emotions. If they're any indication of what's to come, My Hero Academia's final war arc ought to look absolutely amazing, as the heroes and villains face off for the last time. It's currently believed that season 7 will have 21 episodes instead of the usual 25, suggesting that Bones is taking its time and budget to get these critical moments exactly right. As epic as Star and Stripe's fight is, the final war should be even more breathtaking.

Star and Stripe may be gone, but her impact on the story will last for quite some time, and her impact on the fandom is sure to be even more noteworthy. Fans of the anime have now gotten to see what America's top hero had to offer, and the presentation of these two episodes has ensured that it was an impressive display. Hopefully, this is just a taste of the awesomeness that's yet to come in season 7, as My Hero Academia closes in on its grand finale.