Episode 7 – My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

So, we’re finally getting some insight into this society’s history and the definition of a vigilante. It’s nice that the show delivered this exposition via Koichi’s upcoming college course. Even though this information came to us via a character who seems to be a bit more skeptical and open-minded about how society is run, I think it’s appropriate. This is what I wanted a lot more of when the concept of Vigilantes was first pitched at the beginning.

The line between what makes a vigilante and what makes a hero seems somewhat blurry because, at the end of the day, the only thing that legally makes you a hero is a government ID. In the real world, you can stop a criminal as a civil servant and won’t always be reprimanded for it unless you committed crimes while apprehending said criminal. In many ways, you can compare heroes to how cops are. Heroes might not be reprimanded for causing a public disturbance if it’s in the service of catching criminals the same way that a police officer might need to pass a speed limit to capture somebody else who’s breaking the law. Their profession gives them access to forgiveness that an average citizen wouldn’t have.

When we look back to when quirks were first introduced, obviously, there was chaos since everything was unregulated, but the idea that the first heroes were vigilantes, or citizens taking it upon themselves to protect the public order, makes sense. The fact that popularity probably played a massive part in granting these vigilantes that special status while everybody else was labeled as a villain also makes sense. In many ways, it’s surface-level and glosses over the broader, uncomfortable implications of a government entity just casually deciding who is and isn’t a villain. But considering that this is one of the main themes of the original series, I’m curious to see how far Vigilantes will go with that idea.

But honestly, I’m not even sure if I want it to go far with that idea because even when the show talks about interesting things, it still does a bunch of little things that bother me on instinct or, at worst, potentially uproot their internal logic. This episode is about Koichi keeping his identity a secret from somebody actively trying to investigate vigilantes. However, we’ve already established that Koichi does such a bad job hiding his identity because he rarely keeps his mask up. I’m pretty sure it’s implied that many people already know who he is, or at the very least, it’s established that it’s not very hard to figure out who he is. Also, if the whole idea is that you’re not allowed to act as a hero unless you have an official heroes license, then shouldn’t that middle schooler with the Cyclops laser be reprimanded because he uses his quirk to stop a robbery? I know the whole thing was supposed to be a joke, but that feels like a bizarre joke to make when most of your episode is about how you can’t just do whatever you want in this society.

Makoto is a character who seems like a fascinating inclusion, and I’m sure we’re gonna see a lot more of her just by virtue of the fact that she is the younger sister of the officer who has been a recurring character since the mainline series. I don’t know why she’s hiding her identity with green contacts, but I like her outlook on things, and she brings a lot of energy to the screen. Molly Searcy does a fantastic job of playing her, and it makes me want to go check out some of her other roles because I have not paid that much attention to them before. The joke with the thief, whose quirk is just being good at soccer, was hilarious, and I like that Knuckleduster is feeling more like a dad lately when he’s not dressed up to beat people’s faces in. There was a lot to like here and a nice setup for the future, but it feels like in every episode, I still find something that pokes me the wrong way.

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AJ also streams regularly on Twitch as the indie Vtuber Bolts The Mechanic where they talk about and play retro media!

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.