My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 1 Review – The worst possible spin-off

The Review Geek

2 days ago

Season 1
Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 1/5
Episode 9 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 11 -| Review Score – 1.5/5
Episode 12 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 13 -| Review Score – 1.5/5
While My Hero Academia focuses on people studying to become the official protectors of their country, its spin-off, Vigilantes, delves into a more shadowy place. Koichi, Knuckleduster, and Pop☆Step work to protect their city without having a legal Hero License. That means not only are the villains out to get them, but also the police and professional heroes too.
This leads them to a new drug, Trigger, which affects citizens' senses and makes them go berserk. Still, these 'instant-villains' appear to be mere pawns in a much bigger game. So, the vigilante group investigates the incidents while clashing and secretly collaborating with heroes.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has a good premise that can distinguish the series from the original show. However, it already fails at this most basic element. What are the differences between heroes and vigilantes? Is it only the legal issue? If so, why is it important that people have a professional license to protect others? This could go on, but it'd be pointless as the anime doesn't answer any of them.
It does go a little in-depth into the history of vigilantism in one episode, which is quite interesting. However, it feels like a passing concern only. The protagonist group only clashes with heroes during one episode, and being vigilantes never actually affects them.
If you didn't start watching it from episode one, you probably wouldn't even know they aren't heroes. It's a real shame the show doesn't explore what could be such an interesting dynamic.
But that's only a taste of how much Vigilantes doesn't care about its premise. The Trigger drug is only a major threat for about two episodes, then it's quickly side-lined. In fact, after a while, it becomes just another unimportant element of the series. It's used for jokes, or we see the instant villains being defeated by unrelated heroes in seconds.
Before even reaching the middle of the first season, the anime's two most important plot points almost completely lose their effect. How is the audience gonna find them interesting, if even the show doesn't do that?
Not to mention, these villains have another problem: a lack of creativity. The drug also affects people's powers, making them more unstable and powerful. It could be the opportunity to show new sides of the powers and transformations, which are always popular among anime fans. Instead, the villains always just become a giant version of their normal selves. It's a disappointing and lazy design work.
In contrast, Knuckleduster's story is handled very well. It's the best thing about MHA: Vigilantes. He doesn't have powers, making us question why he cares so much about helping people. With that alone, his views on justice already become way more interesting.
And he also has an important connection to the Trigger drug, which helps keep us engaged in the plot. He brings all the action, suspense, and even emotion viewers could want from a show like this. Unfortunately, his screen time isn't long enough to save the whole series.
However, more unfortunate than that is knowing we can't say the same thing about the other main characters. Koichi and Pop don't need the same amount of development, as the show can focus on them in later seasons. Still, it barely establishes anything about them besides basic personality traits.
Koichi is the protagonist, but he has almost no highlights in this season. To say more, if you excluded him from the plot, the most important points of the story would still play out similarly.
He wants to be a hero more than anything and has a pure desire to help people. In the first few episodes, we see the lengths he would go to prove that. However, he never goes that far again and becomes sort of a comic relief.
Meanwhile, Pop☆Step has no reason to even be there, and the anime can't convince you she has one. There's one episode in which the citizens talk about each vigilante, and every one of them reduces her to her body or having a revealing outfit (quick reminder that she's about 14, which makes it even worse).
Anime often has problems creating a good female character for trios, and this is true for Vigilantes. However, unlike Naruto or Attack on Titan, only one member of the team can be seen as well-written.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has potential, but it seems it refuses to do anything interesting with it. So, we end up with just another forgettable spin-off that fails at almost everything.