Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals

In a world filled with superpowered Quirk users, college student Kouichi Haimawari's dream is to become a hero just like the ones he so admires. Unfortunately for him, he finds out that there is only so much he can do with a sliding ability that gives him about as much speed as a bicycle. Thus, he is drawn to extra-legal, simpler work and takes on various local tasks beyond the grasp of the police and licensed heroes.

However, a chance encounter with two misfits, a brash brawler vigilante who goes by Knuckleduster and the online sensation Pop☆Step, gives Kouichi the opportunity he has always dreamed about. With a dangerous new Quirk-enhancing drug turning ordinary people into instant villains, Kouichi finds himself accompanying the two in a quest to stop the drug from spreading. As the trio tries to get to the bottom of the case, the chaotic team looks to put a stop to wrongdoers that go overlooked by the law.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haimawari, Kouichi Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Knuckleduster Main

Mamiya, Yasuhiro Japanese

Haneyama, Kazuho Main

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Midoriya, Izuku Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

All Might Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Aizawa, Shouta Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Iida, Tenya Supporting

Todoroki, Enji Supporting

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Akaguro, Chizome Supporting

Inoue, Gou Japanese

Yamada, Hizashi Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Kondou, Anna Producer

Suzuki, Kenichi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi Sound Director

Hori, Motonobu Episode Director

Reviews

Jul 3, 2025

Tite__3

Recommended

This series is not My Hero Academia done right. In fact, as some negative reviews have pointed out, the connections between this spin-off and the main series are mostly superficial. However, that isn’t a flaw — its goal isn’t to serve as a prequel, but rather to complement the original story.

How does it complement the main series?

One of the recurring messages in My Hero Academia is that civilians need heroes. Despite having Quirks, they’re often unable or unwilling to defend themselves, partly due to strict laws prohibiting them from using their powers. This mindset becomes a point of contention in the story’s universe, especially among ... the villains.

There’s a memorable scene — which I vaguely remember — that illustrates this well: when the main villain, Tomura Shigaraki, threatens to carry out a massacre in a shopping mall and claims that, even if the people there had the ability to stop him, no one would dare do anything until a hero arrived. People had simply grown used to relying on heroes.

Later on, the story starts to build the idea that people should be more self-reliant and depend less on heroes. But this shift is quite abrupt — a sudden change in the status quo. This is where I believe Vigilantes works as a true complement to the main narrative of My Hero Academia.

The story centers on people with less powerful Quirks who still try to protect others and themselves — not as professional heroes, but as individuals who take responsibility for their community. It’s as if this series is showing that the societal shift in My Hero Academia was already happening in the background.

Ignoring this expanded universe aspect, as a standalone work, Vigilantes is average — it doesn’t particularly stand out in a good or bad way. The characters are likable and serve their purpose, but they’re not especially memorable. The plot is also functional and follows a familiar formula. The production is similarly average: it doesn’t reach the best seasons of My Hero Academia, but it’s far from the worst.

For those who have followed or are currently following My Hero Academia, this anime adds to the overall experience. For those who didn’t care for the original series, it’s a generic but competent battle shounen.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 16, 2025

Otaku_Senpai

Mixed Feelings

the show has potential. The main characters have all have limited power and will have to use them efficiently. They don't have the training from a proper school like Hero Academia. So it would make sense if they are not that good at fighting as pro heros.
The vigilantes are not that strong and take on smaller villains. I like that. My favorite character is the buffed dude who doesn't have any quirk but is so tough he is the strongest of the Vigilantes. He has Batman vibes, maybe he was inspired by Batman?
One of my minor gripes with the show is this. {Spoilers} ... During the concert I thought one of the blue haired girls sprained her ankle and was suppose to take the center position as she wouldn't have to move then. Yet at when the concert was live all that plan was forgotten? Did the writer forget?

I am looking forward to more seasons. What I like most about the show is our protagonists are often weaker than the villain's and often need help of pro hero's to save them. They are nowhere near as strong as Deku or Midoriya.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 18, 2025

PaPaJohny

Not Recommended

Preface
Vigilante is five years too late. By the time it arrived, the cultural momentum behind My Hero Academia (MHA) had already begun to wane, and thus instantly lost most of its potential audience. Because, yes, Vigilante was never designed to thrive independently. It was tethered from inception to the popularity of its parent series. Once that tether slackened, its chances of success evaporated.

To make matters worse, Vigilante debuted in the season that had titles like Fire Force and Wind Breaker both of which offered more spectacle for the shonen audience. In contrast, Vigilante leaned heavily into slice-of-life and no-stakes street-level action, making it feel lethargic ... by comparison. It was, in a way, doomed from the outset.

Continuity
Though marketed as a prequel, Vigilante has no meaningful continuity with MHA. Based on what I heard about it, it was supposed to expand on the themes and deepen the worldbuilding of the main series. Watching it quickly made clear that its connections are superficial at best. Aside from a few hero cameos, the events of Vigilante are never referenced in the main story, nor do they appear to have any impact on it.

In fact, the internal logic between the two series is inconsistent. While Deku was harshly reprimanded for using his Quirk without a license, Vigilante casually features pro heroes training civilians and condoning illegal vigilante activities. Deku’s own narrative arc makes less sense in hindsight. Why did he never consider becoming a vigilante, especially while he had no Quirk or after he left the school? Why vigilantes are never mentioned in general? These inconsistencies make clear that Vigilante is a non-canonical spin-off, loosely tied to the franchise but lacking in thematic or narrative integration. The original creator made no effort to unify the storylines, and it shows.

Set up
While Vigilante is more grounded in the gritty realities of street-level crime, it does not offer a more compelling narrative compared to MHA. Deku may have been a pampered self-entitled brat who was handed the most powerful Quirk, and became a hero through nepotism, but he was still receiving constant glow-ups.

Koichi isn’t inherently more appealing just because he lacks such privileges. His battles are low-stakes, his Quirk is underwhelming, his efforts go largely unnoticed, and because he is never mentioned in the parent series we know he never becomes popular. There’s nothing inspirational in his journey. He isn’t offered greatness, nor does the narrative promise any. And while that might seem like a pivot toward realism, it clashes with the very DNA of MHA, which has always been more about bombastic hero worship than grounded social commentary.

At its core, MHA succeeded because it was unabashedly loud and energetic. It had teens with wild powers, dramatic rivalries, and the promise of glory. Vigilante, by comparison, offers none of that. It neither excites nor inspires. And while it may strive to be more introspective or thematically mature, it ultimately lands as a slow, disconnected echo.

Protagonist
At a glance, Koichi is a spiritual cousin to Deku, but where Deku gets constant glow-ups, Koichi remains stuck to the pavement. He is a background character who thinks he is a protagonist. Despite being portrayed as a ‘real’ underdog, someone who receives no miraculous power boost, no blessing from legendary heroes, and no adoring public, he is just an average guy you see on the street. Shonen protagonists are meant to feel larger than life, and Koichi is a featureless rock. He begins his journey where Deku ends: As a depressed wage slave in a world that barely notices him. Alone, unremarkable, living a life that most viewers are trying to escape. It’s uninspiring because it’s mundane. It’s not what shonens are for. MHA captured hearts precisely because it promised the extraordinary. Koichi isn’t even aiming for the middle.

Rival
There is none. This segment of the review is about something that doesn’t exist in Vigilante, and why that is a problem. I am not kidding. MHA had Bakugo, a psychotic counterpart, a bully who eventually became Deku’s gay boyfriend (in most doujins). Everybody loved Bakugo. He even motivated Deku to try harder. Where is someone like him in Vigilante, to push Koichi forward and to give all those poor hentai artists a source of income? Nowhere! There is no one who cares enough to challenge someone as unremarkable as Koichi! If there is nobody to be jealous about, you are not motivated to root for anyone.

Obligatory chick in the team
Pop Step is yet another iteration of what girls are supposed to be in shonen stories. Sexualized platonic girlfriends, existing to orbit the male protagonist and to never shape the story. She has no real agency, she is useless in battle, and she is only used as gooner bait. Like Mount Lady in early MHA, she’s just walking fan service, dressing provocatively and seeking attention through exhibitionism. Why do you think she’s twerking her teenage ass in front of thousands of men? Let me tip you, it isn’t some meaningful commentary on how society treats idols or young women.

She’s not inspirational the way characters like early Uraraka were, who at least began with a clear motivation and agency to support her family through her own strength, instead of becoming a man’s cheerleader. No, right from her earliest scenes, she gets sexually assaulted by thugs and immediately becomes dependent on male saviors. Her character never recovers from this portrayal. She is repeatedly used as sex bait by the other good guys and then just runs away until they save her again. Why would anyone root for her after that? She literally got what she deserved, and does nothing to change her situation.

The mentor
Knuckle Duster is everything All Might is not. He sleeps in trash. He smells like shit. He is always angry and hits people. And that’s exactly why he is the best thing in this show. He never holds back or is constantly weak because of some injury. He’s not here to sell figurines of himself like a corporate sellout, or to deliver sanitized lectures about justice, while himself is just a hypocrite who patronizes and places fame over the greater good. Don’t make me bring up Mirio again.

The guy is not just proactive; he literally carries on his back whatever is good about the show. He confronts the main villain of the season. He has a past connected with her. He still does not hesitate to kick the living daylights out of her. And then he casually saves her life. What a chad! An authentic, no-nonsense representation of what a vigilante should be. All other characters just stumble their way under his boots, where he doesn’t hesitate to stomp.

The plot
Or its lack of one. Although the conflict is about someone spreading Quirk enhancing drugs, most of the time you are just staring at the daily lives of the characters. When the action bits happen, it’s always about random thugs who have no real connection to each other and come off as filler material. It’s as if nobody really tries to find the quirk drug dealer, and spends most of the show running after the nobodies who bought some pot from him. What’s even worse is that nothing comes out of the skirmishes. No matter how many junkies they catch, the vigilantes are never any closer to finding out who is behind this mess.

As for the daily activities, they are as boring and inconsequential as those in MHA. This is a shonen series. We don’t watch it to see the characters having a tour of their rooms, or to go on stage and twerk their teenage asses before thousands of people for attention. Most of you will be skipping scenes, looking for the action.

The action
It’s terrible. MHA never had much of a battle choreography, it was just Deku and Almight going One Punch Man on every single enemy they faced. But it was making the meatheads jizz whenever they were yelling Texas Smash. There is no such thing in Vigilantes, everyone has very basic powers. And despite the attempt to have battle choreography, characters are constantly appearing exactly where they need to be, regardless of previously established limits on their speed or abilities. One moment we’re told someone is slower than a bicycle, and the next they’re breaking the sound barrier to catch a falling civilian. Even when some villains are introduced with some menace, their defeat is often anticlimactic. In many cases, Eraser Head simply arrives and disables their Quirk, robbing the viewer of any meaningful resolution. Battles end not with a dramatic climax, but with a switch being flipped off.

The villain
There is only one villain that matters, and she is a teen prostitute, luring men into using her drugs. There is nothing else worth writing about her. Just like with Pop Step her presentation prioritizes sexualization over personality, and the only difference is the camera constantly zooming on her teenage thighs instead of her teenage ass. Gotta give the gooners some variety, get it? She otherwise doesn’t even have agency, and ends up being some other villain’s henchman. As for the whole teen prostitution thing, yes it’s a bit too much, but at least it fits the setting. She is a villain and therefore she can do whatever the heck she wants at any age and place. You can’t say that for the girls in MHA, who are supposed to be heroes yet constantly objectify themselves, even inside the sanitized environment of the school.

In summary
Vigilante is, at best, crappy fan fiction of a show that lost its popularity many years ago, full of uninspiring characters, dull pacing, stupid action, and teenage girls whoring themselves because this is the only thing they are good for in shonen. If there is one good thing about it, that’s Knuckle Duster, and even he is a piss-smelling hobo, living in a trash bin.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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