OP: “Kekka Alright (けっかおーらい)” by Kocchi no Kento (こっちのけんと)

The other half of this season’s big four both premiere today, and it’s a stupidly busy anime day for a Monday. Heroes are very much the theme here, but that tempts me into a little sidebar. Bones really are heroes of the TV anime industry. They stay busy, they produce good material, and they always – always – deliver production quality. The degree of flash and sakuga varies, but you never get a subpar production from Bones. And they know how to adapt faithfully to an extent that’s second only to Pierrot, probably. Manga readers universally rejoice when Bones is announced as the studio for a series they love. That really should tell you something.

That brings us to Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals. There wasn’t much suspense about Bones being the studio here of course – they’re the shepherds of HeroAca in anime form. They’ve put a very good director with no prior BnHA connections in charge here, Suzuki Kenichi (best knows as the recent steward of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise). As you’d expect, the first episode is spot on. It looks great, it nails the manga experience, and the cast is on-point. It is, in short, very much what we expect from a Bones Boku no Hero Academia series.

This isn’t strictly BnHA of course, but a spinoff. Still, that can be a pejorative term and Vigilante is by no means a run-of-the-mill spinoff. In fact it’s close to the Platonic ideal of what a spinoff manga should be, in my view. It resolutely respects the spirit of the original while exploring a side of the mythology mostly unexplored by the parent series. It meaningfully expands and deepens the universe without taking anything away from canon. And it’s stylistically different enough to feel totally fresh. Can’t ask for much more from a spinoff series than that.

That side of the universe is “tweeners”. Not heroes, not villains. They’re quirky but their quirks are nothing special. That manifests itself in various ways but in a society structured like this one, there are going to be a lot of them. The primary focus of interest is Haimawari Kouichi (Umeda Shuuichirou), a 19 year-old college student who lives in a shack on top of a high-rise building. Kouichi drifts through life, admires All Might (as any earnest young man would), and generally tries to avoid trouble. Not always successfully, and that’s a rare instance where his “Slide and Glide” quirk can be useful. It allows him to skate along the ground as long as he has three points of contact – at about the speed of a mamachari.

It’s not much, as quirks go. Some people say he looks like a cockroach. As Kouichi notes, it’s fitting that people have to look down on him to see him use it. By contrast they look up to see Pop☆Step (Hasegawa Izumi) – heretofore referred to as “Pop” as there’s no way I’m typing that symbol every time. Her quirk “Leap” is hardly a powerhouse – she can jump higher than a normal person, especially off a hard surface. But she leverages it into a “freelance idol” identity, and has developed quite a following on the streets. Kouichi likes Pop’s style but worries she’s going to get hassled by the cops for her unlicensed and unannounced concerts.

Kouichi works at a Family Mart Family when he’s not in school. But he has a secret life, borne out of his frustration at his lame quirk and the thoughtlessness of city life. He dons an All Might-inspired hoodie and goes out at night as “Shinsetsu-man” (Mr. Nice Guy) “using his quirk” to do good deeds like throwing away recycling. There could hardly be a more humble sort of heroism than that, right down to the name. But even Mr. Nice Guy gets in trouble, and when a trio of small-time hoods hassles first Kouichi and then Pop too, things get pretty dicey. That’s when Knuckleduster (Mamiya Yasuhiro) makes his entrance.

Knuckleduster is, like Shinsetsu-man, a glorious expression of diminished expectations. He makes his entrance jumping onto a pile of garbage. His power, as best we can tell, is that he punches really hard and uses brass knuckles. He’s the anti-All Might, if anything. But he does, undeniably, save Kouichi and Pop’s asses. That said, he’s mainly pursuing his larger agenda – looking for users of a drug called “Trigger“. We’re familiar with that from the parent series of course – it enhances weak quirks, but extracts a heavy price. What Knuckle is doing seems like a good thing, but his methods are highly questionable to say the least. Which is why Kouichi reluctantly latches onto him, to try and keep his “punch first and ask questions later” excesses in-check.

There are familiar faces here, too. Illegals is in fact technically a prequel series, though not by a lot. It’s poignant to see Toshinori seemingly healthy and in all his glory, and Eraser makes an appearance at the end of the episode. The reality is, All Might was nowhere to be seen when Kouichi and Pop were about to be messed up – because most of the time, there aren’t going to be heroes around. Who’s going to pick up the slack? Hero society doesn’t like to talk about that, for obvious reasons. And that’s why a series like Vigilante exists. Manga writer Furuhashi Hideyuki (Betten Court is the artist) lists Watchmen as one of its influences, and if you know Alan Moore’s masterpiece you’ll definitely see the connections.

There are definitely quirks (pun intended) with this series. The manga finished three years ago, so the timing is interesting – perhaps the plan was to wait until Horikoshi Kouhei finished the parent series. It’s listed at 13 episodes, and the manga is 15 volumes. And unlike with the main series it’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll get a full adaptation, or that it won’t be rushed if we do. Still, it’s glorious to see Vigilante on the screen at long last, in Bones’ supremely capable hands. It’s an outstanding addition to the Boku no Hero Academia universe and deserves the chance to shine.

ED: “Speed (スピード)” by yutori