Vigilante: My Hero Academia Illegals

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (2025-) is the prequel series to the popular anime My Hero Academia (2016-) and it was awesome.

Positives for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (2025-): I like the idea of seeing what the world was like before we had the heroes of the main series and seeing a group of people who aren't licensed heroes do with their quirks. I like seeing these vigilantes go out and do their thing to protect people from criminals and other individuals with quirks. This show plays it out like the original series, but there are differences between these two shows that make them stand out from one another without having to constantly compare them. The animation looks just as good as it did in the original series. You get some awesome action sequences that are just as good as the original. I also like the interactions with these new characters as you get to spend time to care about them. And finally, this show doesn't do the prequel thing which is answering questions I was asking and giving me answers I don't like, but instead explores the possibilities of what these individuals can do with their quirks and how they want to shape the world in their own ways.

Overall, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (2025-) is an awesome continuation of the My Hero Academia franchise that gives you everything you loved from the original anime while also setting itself apart of the original anime with its own identity and I can't wait for Season 2.

The new animation style gives the show a fresh feel and clearly sets it apart from the main My Hero Academia storyline, while still retaining that classic essence fans know and love. I also like when they add hero comic elements-it gives the show a more balanced tone and keeps things from feeling too heavy or overly dramatic.

The episode itself serves more as a setup, laying the groundwork for what's to come. The pacing feels quite fast, which keeps things engaging, though it might take a bit of getting used to. It gave me nostalgia-the first time I saw Midoriya, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the protagonist grows from here, and how far he can go. There's definitely potential, and I'm excited to watch it unfold.

I'm writing a review in advance because I doubt it will improve.

This spinoff rests almost entirely on the success of Boko no Hero. Neither the story, the fights, the characters, and certainly not the animation (more on that later) come close to the original.

The first few episodes should be particularly compelling, but they're almost boring. The music plods along, the character introductions are amateurish, and the villain designs are questionable and, above all, generic.

The worst part, though, is the animation. Bland backgrounds, no sharpness, continuity errors, sometimes too garish, sometimes too dark-to avoid having to animate details. Sometimes even the animations are repetitive. The only positive thing is the facial expressions.

The voice actors do their best, and I'll keep watching, but I can't recommend it in its current state.

If you didn't like MHA (or didn't watch), that's alright, this is different, and better, not some OP character becoming more OP. Someone who learns to control his abilities (that seem useless at first) and becomes better and better. This is before MHA (prequel) and so far on my 4 episodes, it's much better and more entertaining than MHA was. No 50+ characters you need to focus on, story is more cohesive and focused on 3 main characters, great development. (if you liked MHA and wanted more, this is a great freaking watch, plus can see your favourite MHA heroes when younger)

Suggestion: Watch once the full season is out, I guarantee you will like it.

Just so you know this is a good start for a studio doing a prequel of a popular series, just because the animation isn't top tier doesn't mean it sucks, the studio is juggling a couple big projects. It's like the studio for That one time I got reincarnated as a slime and blue lock where they had two HUGE projects to work on, one needing way higher detail (That One Tine I Got Reincarnated as A Slime) and one who doesn't need much but it's expectations were set SUPER high (Blue Lock S2 and Episode Nagi). They are trying there best like all studios and don't set your expectations at the level One Piece is at, Toei is one of the bigger anime studios and have a lot more workers, besides not all anime's need a glorious fall or some other stuff.-me.