My Hero Academia: Vigilantes episode one will be available to stream on Crunchyroll from April 7, 2025.
Synopsis
Koichi Haimawari is a dull college student who aspires to be a hero but has given up on his dream. Although 80% of the world’s population has superhuman powers called Quirks, few are chosen to become heroes and protect people. Everything changes for Koichi when he and Pop☆Step are saved by the vigilante Knuckleduster and get recruited to become vigilantes themselves!
Review
To say I have waited years for an adaptation of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes to be made would be an understatement. I have been a huge fan of My Hero Academia since the first episode dropped back in 2016 and went on to read the manga, keeping up with it across all available forms of media. So, when I had caught up to the manga and found myself waiting each week for the latest chapter, I came across this spin-off title, Vigilantes.
With its first chapter dropping in 2016, it offered readers an alternate view of the world of MHA from the perspective of people outside of the Hero education system.
Focused primarily on protagonist Koichi Haimawari, the story is set five years before the events of the mainline story with Izuku “Deku” Midoriya. Koichi, much like Deku, idolizes Heroes, and specifically the legendary All Might, going so far as to wear All Might-themed hoodies and having a vast collection of them. While not possessing a Hero License, meaning he is unable to legally use his Quirk in public, his desire to help people causes him to moonlight as a Vigilante. Mainly offering directions, picking up rubbish, and helping drunks get the last train home, until one fateful night where he crosses paths with some thugs and joins a more violent, older vigilante called Knuckleduster to save a young pop idol named Pop Step. This chance encounter sets the trio on a grand path to proving Vigilantes have a place in this world and can do what the Heroes of this world cannot!
The animation style is slightly different than in its mainline show, with more of a comic vibe added, including onomatopoeia shown to pay homage to its manga roots, while also at times using thicker lines and more vibrant colours than My Hero Academia does.
Verdict
As someone who has read the manga in full twice (and am currently working my way through it a third time), I am extremely excited to see this story get animated and the praise it deserves. Fans of the My Hero Academia anime who are previously unaware of this story should definitely check it out too. While I will refrain from dropping spoilers for later in the story, the way it ties into events we later witness unfold in the mainline story is fantastic to see and fleshes out some second or even third-tier characters we briefly met in MHA and with the mainline anime kicking off its final season later this year, the Vigilantes will step up to fill in that ‘superhero anime’ gap for years to come!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
