My Hero Academia fans are right to get angry with Star and Stripe's death, and Horikoshi defenders are wrong

Modified May 14, 2024 13:00 GMT

My Hero Academia fans are right to get angry with Star and Stripe — Star and Stripe as seen in the My Hero Academia anime (Image via BONES)

With the release of My Hero Academia season 7 episode 2, the anime series saw America's No. 1 Hero, Star and Stripe, die at the hands of Shigaraki Tomura. While her efforts certainly impacted the AFO user, fans aren't pleased with the developments and are angry at manga creator Kohei Horikoshi for how he handled her character arc.

Following the war against Shigaraki Tomura and other villains, All Might realized that Shigaraki was only three days away from completely acquiring the All For One quirk. Hence, he asked for help from heroes from other countries. Upon seeing the request, America's No.1 Hero Star and Stripe arrived in Japan to help All Might, the man she addressed as "master."

Why are My Hero Academia fans right to get angry at Horikoshi over Star and Stripe's death?

Star and Stripe, as seen in the My Hero Academia anime (Image via BONES)

My Hero Academia fans aren't really angry with Star and Stripe's death. But they are right to get angry at manga creator Kohei Horikoshi because of the way she was introduced in the series and immediately killed.

While one can understand that the death of America's No. 1 Hero was meant to depict why heroes from other countries did not arrive to help Japan, the hero's entire arc was handled poorly.

As revealed by the My Hero Academia anime, Star and Stripe was America's No.1 Hero and was only second to All Might globally. However, she was never previously mentioned in the series. This is because Kohei Horikoshi may have created her character as a plot device.

All Might, as seen in My Hero Academia anime (Image via BONES)

While her fight with Shigaraki gave the heroes an extension for the final battle, the manga creator could have delayed the final battle through some other story elements. Hence, it is apparent that Horikoshi only introduced Star and Stripe to get her killed and give fans some sense of loss.

However, considering that the character was only introduced a short while before her death, fans weren't as connected to her, leaving her death with a small impact on fans and other characters. Fans had also started to like the character and wished to see more of her in the series' future. Unfortunately, the character was introduced and killed in only a handful of chapters.

How fans reacted to Star and Stripe's death

Star and Stripe, as seen in the anime (Image via BONES)

Fans were very vocal about the issues with Star and Stripe's death as it was evident that she was just cannon fodder, a character that was introduced to just be killed.

"I think the main issue is introducing new characters to just be cannon fodder," a fan said.

Other fans were really disappointed in Kohei Horikoshi. They believe the manga creator could have killed any other character that fans and characters had already become connected to, like Aizawa. That would have had a much bigger impact than what was seen during Star and Stripe's death.

"I think what they want is for her to at least live an arc or two, and for Hori to kill someone like Eraserhead," one fan said.

Fans even hated how her character was introduced to get Shigaraki Tomura nerfed.

"She was just introduced to nerf shigaraki and it was done poorly, also she lost just cuz she ain't the mc, not even once she was mentioned before, and supposedly she's the strongest hero after AM," another fan said.

"Or maybe those accusations wouldn't exist if he didn't kill her right in her first appearance, she's literally a plot device," other fan shared.

Even if fans were to ignore that, the entire story arc was handled very poorly, especially because the anime addressed her as the strongest hero after All Might. Thus, it made no sense for Star and Stripe to die so soon.

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Edited by Shreya Das