There’s a “little engine that could” quality to Illegals. It’s just goofy (likes its MCs) and fun in a way the parent series absolutely can but very rarely tries to be. In a sense this is like watching Boku no Hero Academia through one of those cell phone filters that puts dog faces or something on people. It can get dark to be sure, but the ratios are more less the inverse of HeroAca itself. I have no idea whether that was a calculated decision or just letting the mangaka follow their bliss, but it could hardly have worked out better than it did.
This Osaka trip is on-point plot wise – totally relevant – but distinctly a fun excursion for the audience. This may be the most exposure Fatgum has gotten in the entire lexicon (if we even knew he was from Osaka before I’d forgotten) and he carries it well. He and Monica make a great pair – even he says her goofiness is her greatest strength as an undercover cop. And we see her using it here, to get the delivery guys let her inspect the “crabs” about to be shipped out. She’s obviously searching for something else, and it doesn’t take long for her to find it.
An important moment here is when Tsukauchi notes that these traffickers seem to have a “disdain” for profitability. He may not have any idea what their real motive is – the vigilantes are closer to that than the cops or legit heroes – but there’s obviously something bigger going on here. Monica discovers that some of the boxes are marked “D” selection – not one that’s on the manifest. And while the crabs on the inside of the box just look like crabs, it seems as if there are more dry ice packs than there should be.
When Monica is confronted by a deliveryman she doesn’t recognize, the crab is about to hit the fan. The young man (Tashiro Yaku) is soon revealed to have a bolt-shaped scar on his cheek. And soon after, a quirk – some sort of super-speed ability, though its exact nature is elusive. He’s also prepared for his contingency, having rigged the crab suits the loading dock workers wear to come under his control. At his push of a button they go crazy, leaving Fatgum to try and subdue them without injuring the legit workers trapped inside. Worse, they also seem to be rigged to blow up when in close proximity to the goods – a mechanism to destroy the evidence.
The evidence on the truck is indeed destroyed, and the scarred man seems about to escape until Tsukauchi shoots him in the leg. With, in fact, a rubber bullet. Then the true nature of Scarred Man’s ability comes through – he can stop time, or darn close to it. This is a very powerful quirk indeed, and he uses it to thoroughly (though non-lethally) take down his pursuers. There’s a bigger problem, though – there’s another suit, and Pop is stuck inside it surrounded by a room full of exhibitors and customers. Having sussed out the situation Kouichi glides back to the ballroom at his top speed, Fatgum and Monica in hot (if slower) pursuit.
Rescuing Kazuho is a team effort – Fatgum gives everything he’s got to absorb the blast once Kouichi frees her – but Kazuho only has eyes for Kouichi. Not the first time it’s apparent that heroism is not so easily defined. And in fact Kouichi’s actions under fire always seem to end up looking pretty heroic (certainly to Pop). She works up the nerve to thank him on the Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo, only to find he’s passed out after wolfing down another ekiben. Too bad – who knows where that conversation might have led…
There’s another important element to this, which is that Kouichi and Kazuho have now very much caught the attention of the police. The mall manager lets them go home, but they’re witnesses to a crime. And the contact info the manager gives Tsukauchi is Makoto’s, which makes the connection that much more immediate and direct. In the eyes of the law – and the ones in charge of image control for the hero mafia – what people like Pop and The Crawler are doing is a crime, even if they’re fighting the same enemies.
