It is easy to forget that in the age of streaming, anime still primarily follows traditional broadcast structure. Such is the case with My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2. This episode is clearly the missing piece the premiere so desperately needs. The series has the time slot it has in Japan, so the show must make the choices it can within that slot. Had these two episodes been released together, they would have been one satisfying introduction. Instead, they’re two halves of that satisfying whole. This half is the better one, nonetheless.
Believe it or not, Eraserhead is my most spiritual reference
Even with the critiques of episode 1, jumping right in with familiar face Eraserhead (Junichi Suwabe) works. He’s one of the handy exposition characters in Hero Aca, so it makes perfect sense to use him to reveal Knuckleduster’s secret. Eraserhead also gets to shine physically in their little brawl. The visual sound effects this series uses do him a lot of favors as he dexterously dodges Knuckleduster’s swings.
Additionally, Vigilantes is working with characters at a much lower power level than MHA proper. These are the characters who don’t get into the Hero program or are recruited into villain orgs. They’re in the margins, and a more low to the ground character like Aizawa fits right in between these two series. Basically, he’s a treat that lets Vigilantes stay focused on the ground level despite being in a world where All Might and Endeavor exist.
The Crawler rises
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2 also starts to fill in the blanks on Koichi’s character. He’s still pretty straightforward, but it suits the aforementioned smaller scale. Like Deku, he just wants to be a hero, but unlike Deku that chance never came for him. We don’t have the full backstory, but it’s not necessary in the same way as Deku’s is to his character. With Deku, it was important to understand his life as a Quirkless person in society. By comparison, Koichi is a textbook “normal” person.
Koichi’s powers aren’t Class 1-A material, so he’s claiming his own heroism on his own terms. It is a motivation that’s well aligned with the themes of this spin off. At least, until his rationalizations kick in. He still lacks a lot of confidence. Look forward to this being a critical part of his character growth in the coming season. In any case, the idea of criminal heroism — or even Kuckleduster’s concerning “hit them first” ideology — is something worth exploring as a different angle of MHA’s society.
Cruller works too
But this is wrapped up in an episode that bolts on another small separate story that’s basically the sign off a first episode would get. Either truncating the first episode and blending these two or going for a full hour block would allow for better pacing. Even so, The Crawler/Cruller joke is an all timer; possibly even funnier now with audio than the manga. Ultimately, you have to work with what you get and with these two episodes, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is off to a good enough start.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes airs Mondays on Crunchyroll.
Featured image © H. Furuhashi, BETTEN. C, K. Horikoshi/SHUEISHA, Vigilante Project
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‘MY HERO ACADEMIA: VIGILANTES’ - “TAKEOFF” - 8/10
8/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
