Episode 6 – My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

I guess we got Stain’s backstory. I’m conflicted about this episode, because I’m unsure what it was trying to say. We get a lot of nice character moments, but it feels like things were executed in a very awkward way. Take the spiky thug, for example. I understand what they’re trying to do with his backstory. The idea is that society made him a villain because his quirk is dangerous by default, so everyone just assumed he was a thug and never gave him a chance. However, this episode highlights that he is a decent guy who wants to look after those he cares about. I liked the scene at the hospital where he confirmed with his friends whether or not they wanted to try the drug again before telling the chick that she could shove it. The problem is that the only other time we’ve seen this guy is when he was threatening to sexually harass Pop in episode one. Can the show please stop giving me a reason to think back to everything that happened then, because all it’s doing is negatively affecting things in the present!

I’m not sure what Stain’s plan is at this stage in his life. In the main series, Stain tries to get recruited by the League of Villains, and he tells them to forget it. The Stain we have known has always been devoted to his ideas of killing villains to “clean up filth.” Stain was willing to work with villains to acquire resources to take down others. If the idea is that this is a less experienced Stain, then I could reasonably believe that he would resort to trying to kill poison using poison. What I don’t necessarily like is the fact that it almost feels like he’s using the drug as an excuse to kill people. Why even give the spiky guy a chance to take the drug in the first place? Is it because he wanted a challenge, or is it because he feels more justified in killing villains when they have escalated to a certain level of threat?

I understand that Stain is insane. He’s an extremist in the worst way, even if you could understand where he’s coming from. I like the reason why his face is so messed up is that he wants to wear the twisted nature of his thought process on his face like a living mask. This highlights a bit of a problem that can happen with prequels, sometimes, where they will try to add more to a pre-established character, and yet, all they do is inadvertently over-complicate. If Stain doesn’t come back in Vigilantes, then there’s arguably no reason for him to have been in this series. His fight with Knuckleduster didn’t feel engaging enough for me to reasonably believe that it left a strong enough lasting impact on Stain that would change him into the character we see in the main series. Overall, maybe I overhyped myself with this episode, but it still feels like the show doesn’t know what it’s trying to say.

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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.