Summary
- MHA: Vigilantes is a spin-off set 5 years before MHA, featuring prequel stories of lesser-known characters.
- Vigilantes focuses on unlicensed Heroes acting illegally with Quirks, including All Might in his prime.
- MHA: Vigilantes premieres in Japan in April 2025. Expect it on Crunchyroll, and potentially Netflix in Asia.
While My Hero Academia (MHA) fans wait for the promising Final Season, they will be able to enjoy a new My Hero Academia spin-off. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, also known as Illegals, is one of the strongest premieres set for the Spring 2025 anime season.
Vigilantes is based on the manga of the same name written by Hideyuki Furuhashi, who previously wrote manga adaptations for GoHand's K series, and illustrated by Betten Court (Girlfriend). It ran from 2016 to 2022, with 15 volumes. Probably due to Vigilantes, they later worked together on a Spider-Man manga titled Octo-Girl (or Octopus Girl).
When Does MHA Vigilantes Take Place?
Vigilantes was designed as a prequel to My Hero Academia, taking place five years prior to the start of the main story. Its focus is a bit different though: the main character, Koichi Haimawari, is an unlicensed Hero who, nevertheless, uses his Quirk to help other people.
One day, he and Kazuho Haneyama (a performer also known as Pop Step, or simply Pop) are attacked, but Knuckleduster, a vigilante, saves them and invites both of them to become vigilantes. Haimawari code name as vigilante is The Crawler.
Will Characters from My Hero Academia Be Featured?
As Vigilantes is a prequel to the main story, it features characters from the original series — just not the main MHA characters, like Deku, Bakugo and so on. Instead, fans will get a chance to see All Might in his prime, as well as other Heroes, such as Eraser Head and Midnight.
What Exactly Are Vigilantes?
Vigilantes are people with Quirks who use their abilities to do stuff normally done by Heroes. As Quirks and Heroes are under strict regulations, these people are acting outside the law — thus, they are acting illegally, even though they are generally doing it voluntarily.
My Hero Academia Vigilantes Release Date and Where to Watch
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is set to premiere in Japan on April 7, 2025 at 11:00 pm (JST). While no streaming service has confirmed to air the series internationally yet, it is likely to be available on Crunchyroll, as it already streams the main My Hero Academia anime. Also, since Crunchyroll has dubbed MHA anime and movies, Vigilantes will probably get the same treatment.
Since Netflix usually streams most anime releases in Asia, the series may also be available in select Asian countries.
MHA Vigilantes Main Staff
Studio Bones is handling animation, as usual. Kenichi Suzuki, who has directed all JoJo's Bizarre Adventure seasons by David Production, is the director. Yosuke Kuroda, who has penned all the My Hero Academia seasons (including the upcoming one), is writing the scripts and the series composition. Yuki Hayashi is once again composing the music, this time with Shogo Yamashiro and Yuki Furuhashi.
Is Vigilantes Canon to MHA?
Fans are sometimes wary of considering spin-offs not written by the original author as canon, but in the case of Vigilantes, not only do fans seem to consider it canon, but Kohei Horikoshi has incorporated a few things and characters introduced in Vigilantes into the main story.
My Hero Academia Vigilantes is likely to be streamed and dubbed by Crunchyroll, just like the main MHA series.
In My Hero Academia, Young Deku is born into a world where people commonly have something called quirks, also known as superpowers. He himself is born without any, but circumstances lead to that changing. He enrolls at the UA High School, a prestigious academy where the worlds future heroes learn how to use their powers.
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