My Hero Academia Needs to Overhaul One of Its Arcs in the Anime

My Hero Academia‘s anime (like so many before it) has the unique benefit 20/20 hindsight. And it needs to use that power wisely when it reaches the mess of these final arcs the manga has been trying to weave together. The criticisms of My Hero Academia’s pacing and scattered storytelling are now commonplace – but there’s one arc that fans seem to agree was a total waste of time the way it was handled in the manga – and think the anime should do some course correction on it. 

There’s an entire (increasingly popular) Reddit thread dedicated to the view that the Star and Stripe arc of My Hero Academia was “utterly pointless.” The core argument is that the main reason for Star and Stripes to fight Tomura Shigaraki was to depower the villain: Star and Stripe got her quirk stolen by AFO-Shigaraki, but used her reality-warping power like a Trojan Horse to infect the AFO-Shigaraki with a quirk that essentially consumed many of the other quirks the villain had stolen over the years. At first, it seemed like a much-needed nerfing to an overpowered main villain that Izuku Midoriya couldn’t hope to beat.  

However, the Final War Arc of My Hero Academia has quickly made it clear that AFO-Shigaraki is still just as overpowered as he ever was. After nearly being killed by Star and Stripe, AFO-Shigaraki completed the power boosted process from Dr. Garaki that not only maxed out his quirk powers but also enhanced his body to an insane degree. Even with pro heroes and top students working together in epic teams to suppress and contain Shigaraki, the villain’s body alone (no powers) is too much of a threat, with Shigaraki going full Akira and thrashing those around him. That’s not the only threat: All For One’s main body is on a different battlefield and poses its own monumental threat. 

With that all on the table, the Star and Stripe arc of My Hero Academia really does seem like it was little more than a stall tactic – a way for Kohei Horikoshi to keep putting out weekly manga chapters while still trying to figure out the big final battle of the series, on the side. We get that need when working at the break-neck pace of a mangaka, but an anime studio can (and should) spot these dips in the storytelling and raise them up. 

Perhaps Star and Stripe’s battle with Shigaraki can be condensed to a single side story episode; perhaps the nature of her quirk or how she uses it in her final moments can be tweaked to better explain why her sacrifice makes a true difference – as well as pays back the Karma of All Might once saving her family, a scene that was only part of the anime. Star and Stripe’s fall could also be better highlighted for the reason why the international hero community ultimately leaves Japan to a sort of “No Man’s Land” fate of villain takeover. Just some suggestions. 

My Hero Academia Season 6 is in development.