Manga Review: My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Volume 1 Story by Hideyuki Furuhashi, Art by Betten Court.
The world changed a few generations ago, when human beings started being born with mutations called “Quirks.” Quirks can be just about anything, from minor stuff like “has tail” to massive powers like “shoot out blasts of fire and ice.” Now some eighty percent of the world’s population has some sort of Quirk. In Japan’s regimented society, the laws prohibit the use of Quirks in public unless you are specially licensed to use it for your job or are a professional “hero” who uses powers to fight Quirk-using criminals called “villains.”
But the legal heroes can’t be everywhere protecting everyone all the time. Some problems fall through the cracks. But if you’re lucky, perhaps someone who uses their Quirk illegally for heroism will come along, a “vigilante.”
This spinoff of the popular My Hero Academia manga created by Kohei Horikoshi is a prequel, taking place a few years before the beginning of the story in the main manga.
Our viewpoint character is Koichi Haimawari, a nineteen-year-old college freshman who wanted to become a professional hero but missed his chance and is now trying to get along in life without his dream. In his civilian life, he’s a bit of a doormat. But at night, in his All Might hoodie and lower face mask, Koichi uses his “Slide and Glide” Quirk to become…Mr. Nice Guy! As the neighborhood do-gooder, he picks up trash, gives directions to the lost and makes sure drunks get home safely. He’s popular enough that no one bothers penetrating his very thin disguise. Doing good makes him feel good.
Also operating in the Naruhata area is Pop Step, secretly schoolgirl Kazuho Haneyama. She uses face paint, a scandalously brief costume, and her “Leap” Quirk to facilitate her guerilla performances as a street idol singer. She’s initially not acting as a hero, but her activities are still mildly illegal.
In the first chapter, these two keep running into a trio of low-level hoodlums, until they finally get cornered. At that point, a man drops in from the sky, or so it seems. This is the rough-hewn actual vigilante Knuckleduster, a bulky older man who’s very good at hand-to-hand combat and uses the weapons he’s named after. He seems unduly concerned with the hoodlum’s tongues, as he is primarily looking for people using or selling a certain drug that causes discoloration of the tongue. Knuckleduster more than evens the odds, but Koichi also mans up to help save Pop Step.
Knuckleduster offers to teach Koichi how to administer “true justice” but our young non-violent hero isn’t convinced yet. However, as the hoodlums slink away, they’re offered “medicine” by a shadowy figure.
Second chapter: Knuckleduster has followed Koichi home and explains that he’s been tracking a new drug named “Trigger.” It simultaneously increases the power of any Quirk you have and lowers impulse control, most of those who’ve taken it have grudges against society, so turn into “instant villains.”
Unfortunately, the old fellow’s method of tracking is to go up to suspicious looking people and ask them none too politely to let him examine their tongues. This is causing some issues, and then the pro hero Eraserhead (who’s on his day off) shows up and assumes Knuckleduster is a villain.
Meanwhile, Koichi runs into the hoodlums from last chapter, who are now bulked up on Trigger, and Pop Step runs into their dealer. Things get dicey for a bit, but Knuckleduster and Eraserhead step in to help corral the instant villains. It turns out that Knuckleduster is, in fact, Quirkless, and since he doesn’t have any actual superpowers isn’t Eraserhead’s problem when there are actual villains to turn over to the police. We also see that perhaps Koichi’s powers aren’t as weak as he thinks.
Chapter three: We’re introduced to middle school delinquents Ichimoku Sumatsu and Jubei Namimaru, who are basically kid versions of Cyclops and Wolverine of the X-Men. They first show up having a powered argument, but turn out to be the kind of delinquents that aren’t actually bad boys, they just need better ways to blow off steam. They’re fans of Pop Step and wind up acting as her informants from time to time.
Koichi has taken some advice from Knuckleduster on upgrading his protective gear, and also a new hero name. No longer is he Mr. Nice Guy, but The Crawler! (A running gag is that this English word is hard to pronounce correctly in Japanese, so people keep calling him “the cruller.”) He and Knuckleduster take down an instant villain with a hardening Quirk, with the older vigilante getting a little too enthusiastic with the punching.
At the end of the chapter, a police detective reminds us that whatever good our protagonists may have done, vigilantism is illegal, and if he catches them, they’re going to jail.
Chapter four: Koichi’s apartment is a shack on the top of an abandoned building, but the rent is extremely low for its size. None of his fellow college students want to visit, but it’s great for vigilantes to change costumes and have meetings and such in, even if neither Knuckleduster nor Pop Step asked permission first.
The instant villain this time is an overenthusiastic fan of Pop Step’s who uses his eel powers to get way too up close and personal with his idol. At first it’s suggested she go along with it to calm him down, but he escalates to more and more intimate demands. Ew.
Chapter five: Tsukauchi (the police detective we saw before) and his colleague Tanuma discuss the Trigger incidents. They’ve run into a brick wall with the investigation as eventually each person who’s taken Trigger got it from a stranger with a vague description, who seems to hand it out for free at random. Not the behavior of a pusher who wants to create a market, so what’s this person’s goal?
While doing their own investigation, Koichi and Pop Step run into a fan of hers, a girl with an eyepatch named Kuin Hachisuka, who gets an autograph. Kuin’s actually the next arc villain, Queen Bee. She controls bees created by a Quirk that can be loaded with various poisons…including Trigger.
Kuin sends a bunch of bees out to sting random people, turning them into instant villains. The ensuing rampage brings a herd of pro heroes into the neighborhood, but they’re only there to stop the chaos, not find out why it happened. Knuckleduster spots one of the bees, seems to know what it is, and crushes it. Kuin swears revenge, but since she’s several blocks away, none of our heroes know this.
In between chapters, there’s rough initial sketches of the various characters.
This first volume is fun, and the art is decent. The series is in continuity with the main MHA manga and was used to flesh out some worldbuilding and background material Horikoshi couldn’t fit in. Be aware though that Koichi is very much the protagonist and some of the other characters go out of focus after a while.
Recommended for those who like their superheroes a teensy bit grittier and street-level, but not totally dark.
