Episodes 139 & 140 Recap and Reaction
A little more than a year after the final episode of the 6th Season of My Hero Academia aired, its seventh iteration began with much anticipation. Considering the first two episodes of this season are a direct continuation of one another, it made sense to this author to recap and react to both of them in one article. The beginning of season 7 picks up almost immediately where the conclusion of the prior season left off; with the United States #1 Hero, Star and Stripe, departing with a dozen Stealth Bombers in her company. Upon her arrival to Japan, she is greeted by a rejuvenated and disconnected Shigaraki Tomura, on top of his winged Nomu. An epic battle ensues that rivals some of MHA’s best fights thus far. To put my review succinctly, I have mixed emotions after these episodes conclusion: Great action, an intriguing plot twist that leads to the disappointing early departure of a new character, and supreme plot armor given to a titular antagonist. That’s the best way I can describe it without spoiling the events, which are in detail below.
America’s #1 Hero makes a grandiose entrance and departure
The seventh season starts with a brief introduction of Cathleen Bates, aka Star and Stripe, who is America’s number one hero. Like so many characters in the series, her inspiration to become a hero derived from All Might, who is ironically the first character to appear to start the season via a poster on Midorya’s wall. While her introduction and back-story was ultimately curt, I felt that it was enough to give me an adequate feel for her character. Upon first glance at her with her crew of “bros” (i.e. pilots), she gave me the immediate impression of a female version of Guile from famed fighting game Street Fighter. From her flashback scenes taking place at the “Brightman” air force base (which is a play on the famed Whiteman AFB, the largest in America), to her overall appearance of her normal attire, the resemblance is uncanny: the rippling biceps, tank top with cargo pants and combat boots along with golden blonde hair; the only thing missing was the patented Mohawk.
The inspiration for Star and Stripe is abundantly clear
Also interesting is that the audience learns that the U.S. was the birth place of heroes, and that Star is considered the strongest hero currently in the world. With such a claim, she would need to have a powerful quirk, which she does. Her ability, New Order, allows her to alter the conditions of both her self and anything in her immediate environment that she can touch. This in turn, created the conditions for a compelling fight with Shigaraki: She created a vacuum in the immediate airspace to suffocate Tomuru, used the air around her to create a mammoth sized avatar of herself, controlled projectile laser beams from her crew of stealth bombers that had the equivalent power to that of Endeavor’s Prominence Burn, and even the power to command Shigaraki’s heart to stop if he moved an inch; which would have worked if he didn’t have an “identity crisis” or as I like to put it, plot armor.
Yes, plot armor is the best way to describe what saves Shigaraki. Right before he is hit with the barrage of Tiamat missiles (whose scale of destruction is as grand as a nuclear explosion), he burrows under the sea-floor using decay, and sends the nomu as a decoy to get blasted by the missiles; all in split second. He then manages to steal Star and Stripe’s quirk while simultaneously killing her with decay. Her body slowly dissipates and her remains fall into the ocean like shining confetti, as the Maverick from the West exits the show with as much grandeur as she entered. I was really disappointed with this development as I could see Cassie becoming a new favorite character of mines, while also looking forward to future team ups with her and other of Japan’s heroes, namely Deku.
A Team-up and a reunion we will never be able to witness :’-(
The sting of this development was slightly lessened with the plot twist that the transfer of her quirk subsequently caused the deletion of Tomoru’s other quirks, causing his body to explode from the inside. However, another layer of plot armor saves him, as he managed to duplicate the wing and emp quirk with the nomu, who then generates an emp pulse to stall the planes from following; even though they were previously coated with the emp shield. Also, how the hell is the Nomu still alive after getting hit with the barrage of missiles? The impact would have been enough to kill Shigaraki flat out, but not the Nomu?!?! Complete nonsense!
Of course Shigaraki has an indefinite amount of quirks in his body that are destroyed instead of his big hitters (i.e. super recovery, flight, emp, pulse, search, decay). One is left to presume that once new order was transferred to one of the jail breakers he encountered, it was then destroyed as a result. I am aware that there is plenty of story left and that the main antagonist could not be defeated in the season’s opening stanza. I just wish that the writing in this was cleaner and that we got to see more of Star and Stripe.
Other noteworthy Takeaways
While the first two episodes of Season 7 primarily focused on the battle between Star and Strip and Shigaraki, there were other notable developments that are worth exploring. Spinner should be taking a big step up in screen time, as All for One encourages him to leave his side and “spin” (as in rally) the remaining sympathizers to their cause. Ditto for Toga Himiko, is she is still wandering the desolate streets after her encounter with Ochaco and Froppy, appearing to suffer from a moral conundrum.
The season 7 opening also appears to have some revelations, giving us the viewers, an expectation as to what we’ll see going forward. New and altered costumes tell us that some of the characters will have developed quirks and new moves. This much is said after Class 1-A reveals to All Might that they have already been training while he and Deku were temporarily away. There is also some hints to new team-ups, as scenes showing Endeavor with the likes of Hawks, Blaze, Mirko and UA’s Big Three; Gang Orca, Ryukyu and the Pussycats; and a recovered Lady Nagant with some unrecognizable characters working in the shadows. However, the coolest reveal to me was that we will finally be able to see Invisible Girl’s true form. She also seems to be getting more screen time, as the trailer for episode three shows her in the woods in what seems to be an independent mission away from the rest of the class.
Disagreements aside from the direction of the plot and the quick death of a promising new character, I was still entertained, engaged and overall pleased with the start of the latest season. I am already counting down the days till next Saturday morning, waiting with great anticipation for the release of episode three!
