The mainMy Hero Academiastory has been through 6 anime seasons and over 300 manga chapters to date, yet still leaves a lot of things unexplored. The superhuman world ofMHAfeels much bigger than the small lens the story is presented through, and is begging for more exploration.That’s whereMy Hero Academia: Vigilantescomes in.
Vigilantesis a spin-off manga that takes place a few years before the mainMHAstory begins. It also focuses on a new character, Koichi Haimawari, who wants to be a hero, but was unable to enter a hero school. While it has a much smaller scale,Vigilantes’ differences help it even outperform the main series in a few aspects.
7Showing off All Might’s power
Before his retirement, All Might was, without competition, the strongest hero in Japan. While he is able to pull off some amazing feats in the main story,Vigilantesshows him off at a much more active period in his life, and even gives a glimpse into his hero agency.
While still injured, All Might inVigilantesshows up to solve crimes much more often, as he hasn’t yet become a teacher. Not only is he shown neutralizing criminals at breakneck speed, but he even lifts an entire ballroom full of people by himself, after traveling several miles in a flash.
6Stepping Outside of Japan
Like most manga,MHAis extremely Japan-centric. While the later parts of the story acknowledge the rest of the world more often, there is only one arc so far wherea foreign herogets to be properly involved in the conflict.
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InVigilantes,however, a top -anking American hero is one of the recurring characters. Captain Celebrity not only shows up often, but has an entire character arc. Koichi even leaves Japan to go work with him in America. On top of that, Makoto, as Captain Celebrity’s manager, also travels out of Japan on occasion.
5Centring Civilians
Despite being about heroism,MHAsurprisingly spends little time focusing on the civilians that the heroes are saving. As a more down-to-earth story,Vigilantesspends much more time on the streets themselves, portraying the changing lives and opinions of the public.
Many of the recurring characters are civilians whose quirks are barely, if ever, mentioned. They add to the community that builds up around Koichi, so when a villain attacks, the people in danger are more likely to be characters the audience already knows.Vigilantesobviously can’t use them for fights and the like, but it never fails to check in on them between arcs.
4Reforming Villains
Starting around the appearance of Gentle Criminal,MHAstarted to introduce the possibility of some villains getting redemption arcs. While Gentle himself has yet to be revisited,Shigaraki, Toga, and Kurogiri have all been implied to be capable of rehabilitation.
InVigilantes, rehabilitation is the name of the game. Especially since a lot of the villains in the story are somewhatunwilling test subjects, many of them end up finding more productive roles in society. Near the end of the story, there is even a cafe being run mostly by former foes of Koichi. And, as vigilantes, even the “heroes'' of this story don’t always do things in the most moral way.
3Aizawa’s Character
Shota Aizawa is well known as the exhausted teacher of Class 1-A. However, duringVigilantes, he’s yet to become a teacher. As such, he’s much more active as a hero, and is shown off in this role in several fights. He even teams up with Koichi occasionally, giving him much of the same lessons he later gives his students.
He’s presented as just as strict as readers would expect, but similar to All Might, his role in hero society is much better shown off here. There is an entire arc that explores his days as a UA student, and the tragedy of his friendOboro Shirakumo.
2Midnight’s Character
Like Aizawa, Midnight hasn’t yet becomea teacher at UAwhenVigilantestakes place. This means that readers get to see her on the hero beat more often as well, where she’s a bit more fleshed out than her main series incarnation.
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Vigilantesalso expands on the relationship between Midnight and Aizawa, making her a senior friend to him much like Mirio is to Deku. WhileVigilantes’ canonicity is somewhat up in the air, it does also show her schooling days with Aizawa, and the hero she spent her internships with.
1Giving the Quirkless a Chance
At the beginning ofMHA, Deku was famously a quirkless kid, until All Mightpassed his quirkon to him. However, a lot of fans have wondered what things may have been like if Deku stayed quirkless and continued fighting crime, sort of like Batman.
WhileVigilantes’ protagonist Koichi isn’t quirkless, quirkless characters contribute far more often inVigilantes. In particular, Knuckle Duster is a quirkless vigilante that uses his experience, knowledge, and fighting prowess to take down superpowered villains, much like people want to see from Deku.
