My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2 Review: The 2nd episode of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes or Vijirante: Boku no Hīrō Akademia Irīgarusu (ヴィジランテ -僕のヒーローアカデミア ILLEGALS-) was an absolute delight. Let us see how this episode turned out.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Overview
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is a Japanese manga series written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court. A spin-off and prequel to Kōhei Horikoshi’s acclaimed My Hero Academia, the story is set five years before the events of the main series. It follows Koichi Haimawari, an unlicensed hero who uses his Quirk to help others. After a dangerous encounter with thugs, Koichi and street performer Kazuho Haneyama are rescued by the mysterious vigilante Knuckleduster, who later recruits them into a team of underground heroes operating outside the law.
Originally serialized in Jump Giga in August 2016, the manga transitioned to Shueisha’s Shōnen Jump+ in October 2016 and was later compiled into 15 tankōbon volumes.
An anime adaptation was officially announced at Jump Festa ’25 on December 22, 2024. Produced by Bones Film and directed by Kenichi Suzuki, the series features scripts by Yōsuke Kuroda, character designs by Takahiko Yoshida, and music composed by Yuki Hayashi, Shogo Yamashiro, and Yuki Furuhashi. The show premiered on April 7, 2025, airing on Tokyo MX and other networks.
The opening theme is “Kekka Orai” by Kocchi no Kento, while the ending theme is “Speed” by yutori. The anime is streaming on Crunchyroll and has been licensed by Medialink for distribution in South, Southeast Asia, and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) via Ani-One Asia’s YouTube channel.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 2 Review
Today’s episode begins with one of our favorite My Hero Academia characters Erasurehead. He comes thinking Mr Knuckle is actually a villain as he was acting pretty suspiciously. Knuckle also does not care that Erasurehead is a hero and picks a fight with him. Their match quickly takes an intense turn because no one backs down from unleashing their full power. Though Erasurehead is technically off duty, he uses his quirk to weaken his opponent.
However, this is where things get interesting as we find out that Knuckle actually was not using any quirk while fighting him. This means that he is a quirkless regular man who just happens to have some really prominent strength. This is a nice flip from the original plot, where Midoriya was the one with no power, and his teacher had a quirk.
Realising this, Erasurehead decides not to continue the fight, but that is when the situation gets worse. It becomes apparent that the man whom they previously thought innocent was actually a culprit behind the spreading of the drugs. Pop Step thus decides to follow him, and this is where one of the best battles takes place in this episode.
This episode was really fun as it not only gave me a healthy dose of nostalgia but also successfully extended the lore of My Hero Academia. The new characters are very likable, and their handling of the whole quirk thing is also very refreshing. Koichi is definitely someone who can be a reliable hero, and it will be really interesting to see his journey.
Verdict
I absolutely loved today’s episode and think that this anime is going to be one of the best of this season. It is also great to see MHA characters make a debut in this anime, and I would love to catch more known faces. But the highlight of this episode is definitely the fact that we finally get to know the official hero name of our protagonist, which is the Crawler.
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