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The Review Geek
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 1 Review – The worst possible spin-off
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.
The Review Geek
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes – Episode 12 Recap & Review
Episode 12 With the power out, Midnight is contemplating canceling the event. When Makoto is having a hard time finding a way to get it to happen, Koichi arrives to save the day. The boy brings Pop☆Step's microphone, so she can continue the show while Captain Celebrity returns with emergency generators. But that also means the girl will be responsible for conducting a great part of the show. In the beginning, she's clearly overwhelmed, even saying embarrassing things about herself to the audience. But, as soon as she gets comfortable, she hypes them up with her song. Funnily enough, the song she sings is about the hoodie Koichi gave her when she was younger. Meanwhile, Knuckleduster receives a call from the hospital while chasing Kuin Hachisuka. A nurse says there have been some changes in his wife's situation, to which he answers that the entire family is going there soon. He ambushes Hachisuka, leading her to a dead end. Still, she has one last trick up her sleeve. Before that, she got a bit of the Trigger drug from Teruo's body. And now she's using it to inject herself, making her way stronger. That also makes the bee portion of her brain weaker, meaning Tamao, Knuckleduster's daughter, can come out to the surface. It's their first father-daughter talk in months. Unfortunately, Hachisuka kidnapped Tamo right after the girl and her father had a little fight over her wanting to go to a concert. So, even if Tamao's persona is more 'awake' than before, she's angry at Knuckleduster. However, he expected that. His surprise is seeing that Hachisuka has an electrifying bee as well. Then, the villain stabs Knuckle in his chest and leaves them to bleed in the alley. As she goes away, the man remembers ordering someone that his taser had a plug he could use to wake himself up. At the same time, Pop and the others begin their actual show. She sings a brand-new song with the duo of sisters and the rest of the group, enchanting the audience. That angers Hachisuka, as she's trying her best to stop the show. But things are only getting worse and worse for her, as she sees that Knuckleduster is awake. They start fighting again, but it's much more vicious than before. Hachisuka is utilizing every explosive bee and electrifying attack she can, disregarding the host's body. Despite how dangerous it is, that's what Knuckleduster wants. He punches her gut with the taser with all his might, knocking the villain out. Then, she stops her from recovering, which forces all the bees to come out, including the queen. It's an enormous and disgusting insect that can barely fly. He instantly attracts them with a gas and explodes the bees. The only thing left now is waking up his daughter. He tells the girl they'll see her mother together as he tries to make her heart beat again. You can see the desperation in his eyes and movements. At the same time, the police arrive to arrest Teruo Unagisawa, and Eraser Head talks about the bee he saw. They still don't know much but are sure that everything is related. But it would be better if they learned the villain is closer than they think. One of the officers is giddily talking to himself about gathering data being the best. He uses some kind of high-speed quirk to secretly catch something one of the bees is carrying and goes away. He even talks about 'all' being 'one,' a probable reference to All for One. We're probably seeing the next villain or even the big bad behind it all. The Episode Review Knuckleduster has always been the best part of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and he proves that again here. After a flood of awful episodes, we get the first step in the right direction. He gets almost total focus, so we learn more about his relationship with his daughter and the lengths he would go to save her. He believes that if he's a great father, then he must do everything he can to help her. In return, we also learn a few things about Tamao and Hachisuka. For the most part, it also shows how unimportant Koichi and Pop's plot is. Everything works out in the event, and they successfully sing two songs… and that's basically it for their participation in episode 12. If they were part of the show or not, things would be exactly the same. It's ridiculous that the writer gave so much focus to a situation that only exists to serve as a distraction for the characters. As there's one more episode next week, things still could change. But that seems unlikely. Again, Vigilantes shows that it doesn't know where it should be going. The problem isn't that its slice-of-life stuff is boring (although it mostly is), but that it doesn't commit to anything. Even if Pop's concert were truly amazing, it would be hard to care about it. All of that is clearly a side-plot, and many times it focuses on the wrong elements, like when it explains everything about the venue where it'll happen. The series puts itself in a troublesome situation. It needs to give the other characters more space and development, but if Knuckleduster isn't on screen, it barely has a story. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
Time of India
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5: Release date, where to watch, what to expect and more about the anime
My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5: The spin-off and prequel to Kōhei Horikoshi's manga series My Hero Academia, My Hero Academia Vigilantes has kept fans hooked with its engaging plot and evolving characters. After four episodes that generated significant buzz, it's now time for the fifth one. The upcoming episode will delve into Pop Step's backstory, and we're sure you can't wait to see what the creators have in store. Here's everything you need to know about My Hero Academia Vigilantes Episode 5. My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5 release date and time The fifth episode of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes will air on Monday, May 5, 2025, at 11 a.m. JST. Global release schedule Pacific Daylight Time (PDT): Monday, May 5 at 7:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT): Monday, May 5 at 1:00 AM British Summer Time (BST): Monday, May 5 at 3:00 PM Central European Summer Time (CEST): Monday, May 5 at 4:00 PM Indian Standard Time (IST): Monday, May 5 at 7:30 PM Philippine Standard Time (PST): Monday, May 5 at 10:00 PM Japanese Standard Time (JST): Monday, May 5 at 11:00 AM Australia Central Standard Time (ACST): Monday, May 5 at 11:30 AM Where to watch My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5? Just like other episodes, you can stream My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5 on Crunchyroll. What to expect from My Hero Academia Vigilantes episode 5? Judgement, the fifth episode of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, will explore Pop Step's past and provide an insight into her initial meeting with Koichi Haimawari. As per HT, additionally, an enigmatic stranger with a blood-stained blade is anticipated to step in as the Crawler confronts the menace.
