Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals

Living in a superhuman society, it is hard to feel special. Even more so when the spotlight only shines on professional heroes, those legally authorized to use their special powers known as Quirks in public for the greater good.

Kouichi Haimawari grew up aspiring to be a hero, but with a mediocre Quirk like "sliding" that ties him to the ground, he soon came to the conclusion that he could only ever ire them from below. Despite this, Kouichi finds contentment in using his Quirk to carry out day-to-day good deeds, such as returning lost items and helping the elderly cross the street.

However, Kouichi's tame life takes a swing into the turbulent when he is rescued from a back alley brawl by Vigilante, or illegal hero, Knuckleduster. Seeing hero potential in Kouichi, Knuckleduster enlists his help in tracking down the source of a dangerous drug known as Trigger that boosts the 's Quirk at the expense of their rationality.

Set in a time before the events of the original story, Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals follows Kouichi as he chooses to don the reputation of a villain and become a Vigilante, operating in the shadow of the law to prevent crimes from taking to the surface.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haimawari, Kouichi Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Haneyama, Kazuho Main

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Knuckleduster Main

Mamiya, Yasuhiro Japanese

Midoriya, Izuku ing

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

All Might ing

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Aizawa, Shouta ing

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Iida, Tenya ing

Todoroki, Enji ing

Akaguro, Chizome ing

Inoue, Gou Japanese

Yamada, Hizashi ing

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Suzuki, Kenichi Director

Mima, Masafumi Sound Director

Kuroda, Yousuke Script, Series Composition

Kocchi no Kento Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Apr 21, 2025

ZeroMajor12

Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

Most of the viewers coming to watch this spinoff of MHA have already seen the original story, I'm here to tell you that I'm part of the minority who have heard of MHA and watched a few episodes but never attempted to catch up to it, because there were a lot of things that I found annoying about MHA, like this Deku, that Deku, and yes, last but definitely not least, Deku. It might be one of the only anime where I couldn't even finish a single season because I can't handle a second of watching the biggest mediocre villain come to life versus the ... wimpiest main character made for mainstream. In Vigilantes, it's a bit different.

It introduces three different characters into the setting of MHA, and by different, I mean introducing a Batman without the brain, Spiderman without the uncle, and a random high-school girl dressed up in a kinky way, because you need your weekly dose of fanservice. There's also the main plot being the usual implication of a bigger bad doing something behind the scenes without bringing any thought into the lore for it to stand out. Yeah, it's not the most original, but the appeal comes because of the name Vigilantes stampled in its title, so you get heroes acting faster than usual or like superhumans brute forcing their way through the scene. A lot of their action scenes shows them not doing herolike things while also being a bit brutal and niche. But they are all acceptable things that I can follow without it feeling forced. And yes, because there is no Deku to be found.

Since it is still a spinoff of MHA, so you're still going to find a lot of familiar characters that have appeared in the original story, however thanks to the timeline of this anime being set before the original story, the story can still have time to get its own identity while being set in the MHA Universe, without overrelying on the original cast of MHA. Unlike MHA, who feeds its main story with implications of masterminds playing behind the scenes, Vigilantes does the same thing, except it's a lot faster and straightforward to it, so you get to see some growth in between character development and plot tensioning. But the best part? There's no Deku in here.

The theme the anime decides to do is to follow a comic book like format, and it does that somewhat decently, it shows sound effects as you would commonly see for an serialized superhero comic book, with each impact being followed up by a romanized sound effect that is complemented by the production's sound quality. The anime looks good too, although it doesn't leave a strong impression of what MHA is known for, those little bursts of ember that carried the entirety of MHA whenever everything aligned together for one epic moment after another. Also there is no Deku, so you get to see a lot of better scenes.

I'd like to say that Vigilante is a decent show, not because of its story, its characters, its nuances, its music, its design, or any of that schtick I just mentioned. It's not by far the best product you could find for a spinoff of MHA, when it's handled by a subdivision of Bones, and it's lacking some talent you'd usually find in the main story. But I can say that Vigilante is worth the watch because it's a bit more straightforward and has no Deku in it. So there you have it. Whatever you just read, it may not be the best, but I hope you get my point.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 21, 2025

Shadow654

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (3/13 eps)

Story and Characters: MHA Vigilantes takes place 6 years before the main series, before the main crew (Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, etc) ever went to UA. It focuses on "illegal heroes" who either don't have quirks or whose quirks aren't strong enough to be ed as official heroes. These vigilantes, despite not being ed, are trying their best to help out society in the ways they can, whether its defeating villains that would otherwise go under the radar of the pro heroes, or just doing regular good deeds. Although it is a different perspective, at the end of the day its still same old MHA. The ... main characters feel like carbon copies of the MHA cast (weak guy with a good heart, discount All Might, and damsel in distress) - almost exactly one for one with the main series. For now I feel zero emotional attachment to the main cast of Vigilantes as it feels like they just ripped off from the main series, and added zero creativity and originality to their cast. On top of that, the story so far is very much villain of the week style, where each week a new big bad guy shows up and our guys have to defeat them - a formula which I am not a fan of. Overall, the story is bland, basic and not interesting at all. By far the weakest aspect of this show for me.

Score: 4/10

Animation: The animation in this show is quite good, but that's not surprising at all because its studio Bones. There are a few clean fight scenes here and there, although considerably less than the main series. This is a shame as they are not able to showcase their fluid fighting choreography to the fullest, which is an area where MHA tends to shine.

Score: 8/10

Soundtrack: The OST in this show is good, but after all it's Yuki Hayashi, so this is to be fully expected. It gets you hyped and hits you in the feels when it needs to.

Score: 7/10

OP & ED: Both the op and ed are extremely weak for MHA standards. While the visuals are pretty, the songs are generic and almost put me to sleep because of how boring they are.

OP score: 5.5/10
ED score: 6/10
Mean score: 6/10

Voice Acting: The voice acting in this show is good. Although the VAs for the main cast are lesser known, they portray their characters well and get the vibe down of each of them quite accurately. The voice work in this show won't blow you away, but it gets the job done.

Score: 7/10

Overall, MHA Vigilantes is a disappointing addition to the series. As it stands, it is "fine". Not terrible, but doesn't stand out among all of the heavy hitter series that come out each season. Considering how much manga readers had been hyping this up, praising the writing quality and saying how much better it is than main MHA, I fail to see where all this praise comes from. Maybe the story will get better and maybe the characters will start to feel less one dimensional as we move forward, but as of right now, I can't recommend it to anyone other than die hard MHA fans (and even then the main series is still better, since it was good from ep 1). As someone who has been following MHA since 2018 and who has seen every season and every movie, this new addition for now has very little to offer. Ultimately, although MHA vigilantes is visually appealing, it lacks direction, focus and substance.

Overall score: 6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 30, 2025

mbarseru

Not Recommended

Preliminary (4/13 eps)

My Hero Academia: Recycled Content

You know, in many ways, I kept trying to ask myself what exactly was there that I did not like about the main character of this anime, that I like so much about Midoriya. As I kept watching the show, and I kept trying to understand it, it finally clicked.

It's because this dude isn't irable, nor relatable, nor likeable

For this review, I decided to rewatch the first episode of my hero, and it perfectly sets up and explains what did All Might see in Midoriya that day.

Midoriya had lived his life being picked on by everybody, and worst of all, ... he kept getting assaulted by the very person alongside whom he had grown up.

Since childhood, Midoriya had to live knowing that his biggest dream, his biggest ion since he was 4, would never come to fruition. And yet even still, as a child, he couldn't tear himself away at his idle, at the one icon he believed in no matter what, even at the time of being practically guaranteed to stay average for the rest of his days, while the very person who has been bullying him his entire life, will thrive simply by having been lucky to have been born with a quirk.

And yet, no matter all of this, what does he do?

When he sees all-might, he clings onto him like glue, and does not let go

THAT, is when I became invested in Midoriya

THAT, was when he had proven he had shown me reason to care

CLEARLY, even All Might, in all his time being a super hero, had never encountered somebody that was actually willing to have gun as far as to cling onto him.

And what happens next?

He meets the true all-might, the face under the smile, and what he hears that day ends up being some of the ugliest truth he could ever ask for. He had lived his entire life, and clearly, when given the chance, was given the opportunity to seek out his idols approval, and yet what did that idol do? He did the right thing

He told Midoriya the truth

Hero work isn't a joke, this isn't a game, this is no musical where everybody gets their happy ending.

Unless you have a quirk, you will DIE out there, and the last thing all might of all people is going to do, is inspire somebody to seek out that death and carry the guilt of that sin on his mind, more than he has had to have done for long enough as it is.

And what happens next, was when I was sold

Midoriya abandon's all hope, he abadon's his idle, his parents, his life, all of it

To save the same prick that had burnt his cherished notebook and had detered him from becoming a hero all his life.

He let go of all his hate, fear and joy, and just ran at the impossible head on, same way he had clung to all might prior to the fight.

THIS was when I was HOOKED. Midoriya, a helpless loser, was given every reason to give up, and yet he didn't.

He didn't let his hope die, which ultimately allowed him to inherit his true key to achieving his goals


Now, with all of this, all this that you are most likely familiar with, what exactly does Vigilantes do?


We see slider-boy
- being born with a quirk he doesn't develop
- skip his entire childhood exposition, hence removing any significant trauma that may have been a catalyst for his wanting to be a hero
- provide no showing of potential, besides him having a quirk
- him doing community service at night, while playing dress-up and pretending to be a hero
- gets bullied by the same gang of thugs... thrice...

But ok, maybe I am being too harsh, maybe his moment of glory is when we see the true reason behind why we should care about this guy.

Ok, the girl that clearly showed appreciation in his community service, shows him some affection, what does he do?

- Disregard her playful comments
- Gets flustered over what he does
- Walks away

Like bro, if you truly do understand how deep at the bottom of the barrel you are, you must at least appreciate the consideration of somebody as popular as a literal pop-star, going out of her way to show their appreciation for what you do, despite how trivial it may truly be.

What happens next?

That same person who had showed him hints of affection and sincerity is getting assaulted by the same thugs that were bullying him earlier. And by god all mighty, if this shit didn't make my head 10% balder from how much balding I experienced in this scene, I would be the lucky party walking out of this nightmare.

"Um Pardon?" owo

"Wait, that's too far, stop it" >w<

ARE YOU JOKING? THATS IT? CRY FOR HELP, WHALE LIKE A PIG AND BEG THEM TO LET HER GO, DO SOMETHING?????

DUDE THEY"RE LITERALLY ASSAULTING HER, SHE IS GENUINELY ONE MASK TEAR AWAY FROM GETTING VIOLATED, WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOINGGGG. YELL, SCREAM, ATTACK, DO SOMETHING....

Bandit: "Oh, is it? And who are you to tell us what to do?"
Bandit: "Scram with that lame hood"

"Hey, its not lame!" VwV

...what.....

WHAT....

ARE YOU SERIOUS, THIS PERSON IS GETTING ASSAULTED AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS YOUR POSER ASS FUCKING HOODIE? I bet all-might would have ground slammed you into the pavement had he seen that you care about his hoodie over doing what he stands for. GET UP AND CALL THE COPS YOU SPINELESS EGUANA

Bandit: "SHUT UP"

Him: "Yeah, youre right, its not my business, sorry to bother you"

Well, I hope that you at least catch a reason to run around the corner and call the cops and....

*catches glimpse of the girl getting assaulted

Him: "No my hoodie isn't lame..."

I genuinely don't care that you had your revelation that you have some sort of orbs down your pants
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will save this god forsaken dogshit character from being salvagable.

Are you kidding me.

YOUR REASON TO ENTER BACK INTO THE FIGHT, IS CATALISTIZED BASED ON THE INSULT OF YOUR FUCKING HOODIE???

I'm done

You're done

This is over

We are done here.

Knuckle Duster, while being a sick character, is just a batman rip off that is more off the rocket and is portrayed as much older and poorer than batman ever were.

Pop-fart is just a dumbass idol girl that does nothing, doesn't strive to be a hero, and yet clearly follows the two main characters because she wants to be one.

And the main character, well, you heard enough of him already as is.
He is a whiny little baby, that does the equivalent of cleaning army toilets and yet thinks that he is ready to shoot a gun.

The only reason knuckle duster has picket up this loser, is out of desperation, rather than actual interest or promise within him. He works above the law, and as such, is not picky about partners, especially ones that he can easily manipulate.

Together, they make the: RECYCLED SQUAD

This entire show, is just recycled content, concepts and character art, built around the world of MHA, which occasionally runs into real MHA characters, to make you vaguely think that you are watching something actually good, when the reality couldn't be further from the truth.


They definitely decided to drop this series now because:
Season 7 was genuine peak, and the publishing company is trying to milk the series before it ends after S8. With considering how Season 7 ended, and following similar trends in all other media, with the climactic end of a series, it is certainly hard to pull off a sequel series, as it ends up having to compete with the quality comparison of the finished work. (IE - Marvel burnout after endgame).

Add more fuel to the fire by adding those feelings of "Oh hey, thats that one character from the other show, ITS ALL CONNECTED". Finally, most obviously, try to milk a series they know is doomed to fail because it is literally using recycled content and concepts, so may as well push the toys and merch of this series, while the fab of mass buying my hero content is on the rise.

I actually love My Hero Academia, and despite all the undeserved hate the show gets because of its degenerate fanbase, it still piqued my interest one day. The last two seasons even earned a spot among my 10/10-rated anime. And yet, I couldn't be more disappointed with the vigilante series than it could have been possible.

It's funny that Knuckle Fister teaches the main character to aim for the garbage, as that is precisely where this series belongs

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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