REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia Vigilantes’ Season 2 Shines In Individual Episodes

There’s a lot to enjoy about My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2, the spinoff series written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Better Court, based on the manga from Kōhei Horikoshi. And, certainly, it’s a series very much worth continuing for a host of reasons. But it’s become a slog to write about because there’s one driving, incessant issue that plagues the enjoyment when examined episode by episode. 

While the series, from the start (and very much like its origin series), has promoted a robust ensemble, it also features a protagonist. And while My Hero Academia understood how to maintain Midoriya (Daiki Yamashita) as the series’s most pivotal driving force while allowing a dense supporting cast their individual moments in the sun, even just two seasons in, My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2 is not finding the same success with Koichi  (Shūichirō Umeda). Koichi, who, in many regards, became a supporting player in his own series. 

We can try and argue as much as we want that this is the intent of the series, but it’s not. The story is meant to be his because he is a version of what Midoriya might’ve become had he not had his run-in with All Might (Kenta Miyake). He is the image of someone with a weak or undesirable Quirk who still demonstrates his capacity for power, change, and heroics despite being told he couldn’t amount to a licensed hero. And he does this with the inverse of All Might, which is Knuckleduster (Yasuhiro Mamiya). 

It’s hard not to be distracted by Koichi’s absence in My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2. 

Yes, the ensemble is pivotal. Made more so by the fact that the series is offering a look at ground-level crime and heroics, opposed to the threats that spell worldwide destruction. The bulk of both Season 1 and 2 deals with drug trafficking and the victims caught up in it, with many former “criminals” becoming reformed citizens who aid Koichi, Tsukauchi (Tokuyoshi Kawashima), or Eraser Head in their efforts. 

And, no doubt, a big part of the fun of My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2 was getting to see more of the pro-heroes from the original series in action. From All Might and Eraser Head (more on him later) to Fat Gum (Kazuyuki Okitsu), Best Jeanist (Hikaru Midorikawa), Mirko (Sayaka Kinoshita), and Midnight (Akeno Watanabe), there’s a lot of charm in getting to see these characters in their less polished forms and before they’re acting as mentors to a horde of teenagers. But, again, that’s meant to be a perk of the series, not the emotional crux. 

And yet so much of the series narrative is shaped by the supporting characters. Knuckleduster had the main connection to both the big bads in Season 1 and Season 2. Captain Celebrity’s  (Toshiyuki Morikawa) story anchored Season 2 (and gave us one of the series’ best episodes despite him initially being a nuisance of a plotting device.) Even Tsukauchi plays a larger role, despite being a relatively personality-less figure who isn’t quite as interesting as Vigilantes seems to think he is. 

The series reaches its peak in Eraser Head’s backstory. 

The best episodes of the show are, hands down, the three-part Eraser Head (Junichi Suwabe) backstory, where we learn the tragic events that shaped who he is as a hero in the present day and who he’ll become as a teacher in the future. It’s not to say that these episodes shouldn’t exist (goodness no.) But it’s a shame that the emotional depth reached in those episodes wasn’t carried through the series. 

Considering where the story leaves off in Season 2, there’s no doubt that Koichi will, ultimately, find his way back as the focal point. Hopefully, this will allow his characterization to strengthen, rather than operating often as a reactionary to the bolder personalities around him.

But his significant absence throughout is hard to look away from, even if some of the episodes focused on others are such highlights. In adapting the source material, Studio Bones might have woven the storylines more effectively for the anime medium, where elements and characters are teased out with greater balance. 

Episodes such as “Balloon Soul” are singular highlights. 

Looking beyond this glaring issue, there’s still plenty to enjoy. “Balloon Soul” is genuinely charming, mainly due to the inclusion of Captain Celebrity’s wife, Pamela (Yū Serizawa), who does a lot to humanize him. But it also shows off some of the series’s softer aesthetics, which gives way to an appreciated playful romanticism uncommon for the franchise. 

But it is, without question, the trifecta of “Rain and Cloud,” “Glass Sky,” and “A Sky with No Rain Left” that leaves the greatest emotional mark. The flashbacks blend the origin series’ more propulsive narrative and musical cues with Vigilantes’ striking visuals, which work together with soft color palettes and a blush-toned atmosphere against harsh, heavy linework, giving it a textured comic book feel.

That, plus the emotional throughline, the tragedy of Shirakumo (Kensho Ono)’s death, and how lovable he is in the moments we know him, and the chill-inducing moment where Eraser Head, in the present day, realizes a depressive fog has lifted. He can see the sun again, which makes it just remarkable work. Junichi Suwabe is always good in this franchise and elsewhere, but he really nailed this line reading. 

My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2 is solid but needs better focus. 

There’s a sturdy confidence to any work Bones puts out. It’s evident in Vigilantes as the series sticks to a familiar style while branching out just enough to distinguish itself as its own entity.

And while there are fewer out-and-out brawls than in Season 1, the action remains energetic and fluid, with a practiced level of precision and cohesion to any big battle. The artists’ competency is no joke, with no episode ever dipping in quality or succumbing to distracting color or flashes meant to mask any shortcuts. 

My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2 works as a series of vignettes rather than a fully realized story. And if Koichi gets sidelined, Pop is nearly forgotten altogether. But it remains worthwhile because, even when they forget the protagonist, the stories are engaging for how they present a well-known world in a different light, expanding the rules and definitions of this universe in a way that actively makes us reconsider what we already knew of it. It’s fun and visually strong; it just needs to hit the gas. 

My Hero Academia Vigilantes Season 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll. 

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