SPOILERS for My Hero Academia Chapter 333
While the major battle between My Hero Academia‘s Star and Stripe and Tomura Shigaraki has come to a dramatic end in the manga, fans have kept the imagery alive with some incredible fan art that acts as a mock-up for the next volume of the series.
The battle between the woman following in All Might’s footsteps and his archnemesis ended with climactic flair in chapter 333. While Shigaraki (as possessed by All for One) manages to touch Star and Stripe in an attempt to steal her quirk and destroy her, Star had one last secret trick: setting her quirk to revolt against its new owner by rejecting coexistence with other quirks. Unfortunately, this self-sacrificing move may have saved her friends and allies, but it didn’t help her odds of survival at all, and America’s number one hero became another casualty of All for One’s selfish crusade.
Despite only appearing in 5 chapters prior to this, All Might’s female counterpart and former protege quickly gained fans, and while the fight seemed to be going poorly for her from the start, many found themselves cheering for her survival. Star and Stripe became the subject of cosplays and fan art, including this new piece, originally posted to Instagram by artist @Mikeyartbook. The piece is done in the style of the covers of collected volumes, which are often a bit more metaphorical and action-oriented than a mere character concept. The posted artwork was also accompanied by a video showing the drafting and drawing process.
The cover image depicts Star and Stripe looming large, a reference to her “Keraunos” ability, which creates a giant being made of air in her image. Before her is Shigaraki, riding the massive flying Nomu he’s seen using in the fight. Aside from the direct references to the book’s content, as is typical for a cover, the size disparity also highlights the surprising fact that, throughout the fight, Shigaraki was actually the underdog. He even states that New Order, Star’s quirk, was one of the hero abilities that he expected to pose the most trouble for him, although this is definitely one scenario where fans weren’t hoping for the underdog to win.
While the My Hero Academia volume containing these fights is still a ways from being released, with at least one other volume due before then, hopefully Star and Stripe will be able to grace the cover of at least one volume, in spite of her short but critical role in the story.