My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2

Episode 18

Daddy's home! It is very refreshing to see Knuckleduster back in the show because he really embodied the core ethos of the vigilante moniker. Dude feels like The Punisher without guns, and his story with his daughter made up the main emotional core of season one. Something definitely felt missing without him, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the minute he comes back, everything feels like it's shifting back into high gear, which is very funny considering that his presence only makes up half of the episode length.

I didn't dislike the first half of the episode; it was kinda nice to see the show's trigger element overlap with the slice-of-life elements. I originally thought Koichi was at the mixer as an agent to help Eraserhead, but it turns out it was just a coincidence. I would feel bad if it weren't for the fact that Koichi, despite being a good guy, really feels like a side character in his own story sometimes. Maybe that's part of the joke? However, while the bait-and-switch was funny, I need to ask: why on earth was Pop brought in for the undercover operation? Isn't she a high schooler with a quirk that can't really do a lot in a closed space like a bar? Wouldn't Makoto have been a better option? I feel like that was a narrative choice meant more to contribute to the comedy of Koichi getting harassed by the girls, which felt kind of lazy.

As far as the larger plot goes, it looks like the use of triggers has shifted compared to before. Originally, it was just used to create mass conflict and hysteria, but now it seems to be used to test potential quirk users, recruit them as soldiers, or kidnap them to steal their abilities. However, despite being weaker than the previous triggers, this one is more readily distributed to people, creating its own brand of chaos. Nice to know that Knuckleduster is still helping out when he can despite the fact that it originally seems like he didn't have much of a personal stake in the situation anymore…but oh boy was I wrong!

I don't know why I didn't see the twist about Knuckleduster's hero identity coming, since it didn't really feel like the show was hiding it, but it was still a very subtle misdirect. The scar on Knuckleduster's face, and the implication that he was quirkless yet still seemed to have some sense of what it meant to be a hero, led me to think he was just retired, or maybe he had stunted his quirk. But no, it turns out he is actually the acceleration hero who has been brought up multiple times in the past couple of episodes, and the former mentor of the guy distributing trigger. Knuckleduster just can't catch a break, can he?

I like this revelation because it also adds significant emotional weight to his relationship with Koichi. Koichi, in many ways, is the pure disciple Knuckleduster took on when Knuckleduster was already jaded and angsty, whereas his former pupil from his hero days ended up becoming an angsty, narcissistic villain who stole his ability. There are a lot of parallels going on there, and it really makes me wonder what's going to happen when Koichi and the speed guy meet up. That is, of course, assuming the show actually gets to that point, because it looks like the show is gonna take a hard pivot next week into Eraserhead's backstory, which is… a choice. I love Eraserhead, and I'm always down for learning more about him, but this just feels like the wrong time to do that unless the show justifies what appears to be some kind of flashback arc going on. I just hope this isn't the show padding itself out by telling me things I should already know.

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My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.