My Hero Academia Finally Brings Hero Killer Stain’s Origin to Anime

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes continues to prove that it’s a big spinoff that fans of the original My Hero Academia anime need to watch, and that’s more true than ever before as the newest episode has shockingly revealed Hero Killer Stain’s bloody origins. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is a much darker take on the hero world seen in the main series as it takes place years before Izuku Midoriya and the others enroll in U.A. Academy. Heroes aren’t as widespread as they are later, so this new series gets to explore that transitional period as crime gets more intense and heroes become even more necessary.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes took a deadly turn when the previous episode saw a deadly new vigilante named Stendhal save Koichi by killing the attacking villain. As the newest episode brought Stendhal more into the spotlight as he faced off against Koichi directly, it turned out that Stendhal was actually the prototype version of who Hero Killer Stain would eventually become. Not only do we see what happened to Stain’s nose in this episode, but also see why he’s inspired to kill who he saw as fake heroes in the main My Hero Academia anime.

My Hero Academia Turns Stendhal Into Stain

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 6 brings Stendhal more into the spotlight, and it turns out that he’s working with Kuin to find villainous targets to eliminate. He’s only working with her due to the connections she has with the underworld, but he’s out to serve his own needs and pass his own version of judgment. He quickly kills some Yakuza members with his own quirk, Bloodcurdle, which stalls everyone in place once he licks their blood, and it’s immediately clear that he’s actually the Stain we’d come to meet later. But this comes to a head when Stendhal starts to seek out Soga, and Koichi happens to catch them in the middle of their fight.

When Koichi gets involved and cut by Stendhal, Knuckleduster soon joins the fight. The two of them have a rather honorable battle in which Stendhal tries to explain that the two of them are the same, but Knuckleduster doesn’t want to hear any of that. Noting that someone like Stendhal could never have the true resolve to be a hero thanks to hiding behind their mask, Knuckleduster defeats Stendhal by decking him so hard that he gives Stendhal a very bloody and damaged nose. Even if he lost, however, Stendhal is inspired by Knuckleduster’s words.

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How Stain Becomes Stain in My Hero Academia

Stendhal then becomes inspired by Knuckleduster and realizes that resolve is what makes someone a true hero. Heading back to his hideout, he continues to mumble to himself about what that means and decides that his new journey is to fully realize his own resolve. Casting away his masked self and cutting off his nose (leading to his final look in the main My Hero Academia series), Stendhal declares that he won’t be holding himself back any more.

Declaring that he has become the faceless ideology that will be changing the world, Stain then becomes the full villain we know from the main series. As for the name, his final words in the episode help bring that full circle as he gives a very ominous speech, “Action without existence. A color that dyes the world. The blood I shed, the blood I bleed, is proof of its importance. Behind me, a path remains. Indelible bloodstains that show the way.”