This article is part of a directory: Spring 2025 Anime Season Guide: Previews, Episode Reviews, & Discussions

Summary

The existence of "Illegal Heroes" in MHA: Vigilantes adds depth to the universe and makes it more realistic.
Vigilantes provide new story possibilities by diving into "Quirk politics" and exploring relationships between Heroes and Villains.
MHA: Vigilantes Episode 2 releases on April 14, 2025, and is available on Crunchyroll with English subs and dubs.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (MHA: Vigilantes) is a refreshing story that adds a lot to the plot of the original series. Set a few years before the main story, it serves as an official (and canon) prequel — Koichi Haimawari, the main character, makes an appearance in the final arc of My Hero Academia.

But what makes MHA: Vigilantes such an interesting story? Well, the concept of Vigilantes itself is an amazing way to expand the possibilities of the series, and a very grounded approach to it. Let's take a closer look at what makes this spin-off so exciting.

my hero academia vigilantes all might knuckleduster

My Hero Academia Vigilantes: What's the Difference Between Vigilantes and Heroes?

The law separates the vigilantes and heroes in My Hero Academia Vigilantes.

Posts 1

By Cathlyn Melo

The Existence Of "Illegal Heroes" Makes A Lot of Sense

In My Hero Academia, Quirks appeared as part of the "natural evolution" of humans. While it is still unknown how exactly they appeared, it is believed to be a genetic mutation triggered by a disease spread by mice. Not everyone has a Quirk, but about 80% do when the story begins. The first known Quirk is Spearlike Bones, and it was the mother of All for One and Yoichi Shigaraki who had this superpower, decades prior to the beginning of both MHA: Vigilantes and the original My Hero Academia.

As humans started developing Quirks, the world could easily fall into chaos with people running around with different superpowers. For this reason, laws were enacted to prohibit the use of Quirks in public places — people can, of course, do it in their homes or other private properties, as it would be impossible to regulate them. Only Pro Heroes are allowed to use their Quirks in public, as they are professionals licensed to do so in order to protect civilians.

It Makes This Universe Look More Real

As long as it would likely be natural for laws to emerge to regulate the use of Quirks, especially when Quirks can be used to do harm, it is also natural for some people not to follow those rules.

While there could be many developments for the "Quirk problem" that differ from the route taken by the story, My Hero Academia makes a fairly well-founded choice. And just as it would be natural for some people to think they are powerful enough, and use their Quirks to commit crimes (or even to try to conquer the Earth), it is also natural that there are people out there "playing heroes" without being bound by the laws. In that sense, the existence of Vigilantes makes this universe seem more real.

Vigilantes Open Up Many Possibilities For The Story

picture: queen bee in my hero academia vigilantes trailr.

Precisely because Vigilantes fall into a gray area, they open more possibilities to the story. Instead of reducing Quirks to authorized Heroes and trying to protect people from Villains using their Quirks to commit crimes, there are now even more possibilities.

What separates Vigilantes from Heroes is "only" that they are unauthorized to act as they do (and, thus, criminals). On the other hand, what separates Vigilantes from Villains is that they are acting out of good will.

What's important here is that the franchise expands its possibilities by showing Vigilantes, regular civilians who made up their own minds about what's right and wrong and what they should use their abilities for, regardless of the laws.

In the world of MHA, Quirk regulations exist precisely to avoid this kind of problem: if you let Vigilantes act freely, you open up a legal framework that could serve Villains as well. While they may seem too strict, regulations offer objective standards for deciding what is allowed and what is not allowed, rather than relying on moral and ethical concepts, which are much more open to debate. It does not mean, of course, that laws are necessarily fair or that they are perfect (nor that they are necessarily unfair, but they would hardly be perfect anyway).

The Series Can Dive Even More Into "Quirk Politics"

picture: characters in my hero academia vigilantes episode 2 preview.

Precisely because laws may complicate things in some situations, many Heroes don't see Vigilantes as a problem, and would protect them from legal action, while other Heroes think that Quirk regulations apply to everyone and, thus, Vigilantes should get the same treatment as Villains (because, well, in a legal sense they are both criminals breaking the same laws). And what's cool is that both are right, depending on how you look at the situation.

This allows the series to explore the relationship between Vigilantes and Heroes, the potential relationship between Vigilantes and Villains, and to delve more deeply into the "politics" of this world — be it macro-politics or micro-politics.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2 Release Date

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2 i s set to be released on April 14, 2025. It is available on Crunchyroll in the Americas, African territories, Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand and possibly other regions where the service operates. It is also on Netflix in select Asian countries.

Is MHA Vigilantes Available With An English Dub?

picture: koichi holding pop step in my hero academia vigilantes volume 11.

Crunchyroll is adding the English subs and dub following the Japanese release schedule. It is not that common for anime to get same-day dubs on the service.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is available to stream on Crunchyroll, subbed and dubbed in many languages.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image