My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2

Episode 25

Wow, they really tried to shove everything into the second-to-last episode of the season. On paper, I liked a lot of things this episode played with, but it highlights the fact that season two of Vigilantes wasn't lacking in material, it just didn't know how to lay all that material out properly. There are so many good emotional moments, and I wish these scenarios were fleshed out better. I won't pretend season one was perfect, but at least it did a better job of slowly building up character relations and twists for the sake of satisfying payoffs during the climax.

At least the show is self-aware by calling All Might's arrival a deus ex machina, even though there was some genuine emotional pathos behind it. I like that Vigilantes has showcased a little bit of the side cast like Naomasa. He's one of All Might's only genuine friends, and unlike a lot of other people in the show, he's a very muted character with a rigid delivery. He doesn't want to take advantage of his close relationship with All Might, which is admirable, but it's nice that he was able to let out all of that emotion to call All Might for help, not for his own safety, but for his sisters. I like All Might's line about how asking for help can sometimes make the difference when it comes to doing impossible feats, because it showcases that All Might defies expectations, as he knows that people rely on him practically and emotionally. It's a little rushed, but I do think that is a solid first half of the episode that carries over into the second.

Number Six's speech about people with absolute power only having two paths to take in life is good foreshadowing. All Might uses his power for absolute good, while All For One uses his powers for absolute evil. This ties into Number Six's ideas of how the power you hold reflects how you are perceived or how you choose to use that. I do like that as a thematic throughline and how it adds a few layers to Six's character. Speaking of character, it's nice to know what this guy's name finally is, although his backstory wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I thought he was Knuckleduster's former sidekick who betrayed him and stole his abilities. But no, turns out this speedster is an experiment. He seems to have been raised in a lab and was shown footage of O'Clock, which led to the obsession with being his successor, even scarring his face in a similar way to Knuckledusters. This backstory still works, although it is a bit less impactful than what I expected. But I feel like this was done so that Knuckleduster could reject him as an apprentice because he already has Koichi, and I like the fact that Knuckleduster sees Koichi as a better successor because Koichi is obsessed with All Might, who embodies a true hero, instead of Knuckleduster, who probably hasn't seen himself as a hero for a very long time.

Obviously, this finale is trying to mirror the end of season one, where Knuckleduster confronts the main villain who he has a personal relationship. It's definitely not as strong as the emotional climax he had with his daughter, especially since I feel like there was more buildup to that, but this works well enough. It feels weird that the show is dumping all of these now when everything could've been fleshed out more throughout the season. Convoluted fight scene aside, with all of the preplanning that Knuckleduster did to plant all of those explosives on the building, it feels like the show is gearing up to Number Six dying or being taken in, which is a shame because if this is the end of his character, I'll feel like I was robbed. You can't just dump all of this emotional intrigue and backstory just to get rid of the character immediately afterwards. It is especially concerning, considering that it looks like next week's episode is going to cover a time skip. I know this isn't the end of the series since there's plenty more manga to cover beyond this season, but it really is a shame that it feels like things only got really good right at the very end.

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