My Hero Academia season 8 will be its last, which means at one of the defining shonen of the past decade is about to end. Or… is it? The beloved anime will be wrapping up this year, but a new adventure in that world is just about to begin.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is a spin-off from and prequel to My Hero Academia, and it’s actually been around for a while. It’s a fully completed manga: it ran in various Shonen Jump publications from 2016 to 2022. Really, the surprise here is less that Vigilantes is get an anime, and more that it took so long to materialize.
The Vigilantes anime was announced at the 2024 Jump Festa. Probably because people knew that, for everyone mourning the end of My Hero, the Vigilantes anime would hopefully help numb the pain. Sure, there will be the odd cameo from beloved characters. The real-life creative team working on the Vigilantes anime are largely the same as the team behind My Hero Academia.
But what is this spin-off, anyway? You can watch the official trailer below.
So what’s My Hero Academia: Vigilantes about?
My Hero Academia has a dark undercurrent throughout which kind of explodes towards the end: the idea that the societal norms which govern hero society exclude people, and those ostracized people become villains. The original series touches on big-name villains—but what about the petty theft type? You’d imagine heroes and law enforcement have their hands full with the big bads, so who takes care of the purse-snatchers?
Through the main character, Deku, we also explore what it’s like to want to be a hero, but to be born with lesser capabilities. Deku, though, gets his lucky break. What happens to the people like Deku who want to be heroes, but simply have mediocre powers? Well, they become vigilantes.
These two grayer, more grounded areas is where Vigilantes takes place. If My Hero Academia is all about the flashiest heroes and scariest villains, Vigilantes takes place closer to the world of the average person. The series follows wannabe-hero Koichi Haimawari, street performer Kazuho Haneyama, and veteran tough guy Knuckleduster through their journeys with vigilantism, taking on the threats which fall through the cracks.
Yes, those threats escalate. Vigilantes isn’t dull. The important thing here is that we’re dealing with people who couldn’t get into UA, and couldn’t become pro heroes.
Who’s in My Hero Academia: Vigilantes cast, anyways?
While the My Hero Academia and Vigilantes mangas were made by different people, the wild thing about the Vigilantes anime adaptation is how much of the creative team is coming over from My Hero Academia.
Vigilantes is being produced by the same studio, bones. The anime will have the same script writer, Yosuke Kuroda. My Hero Academia composer Yuki Hayashi is doing at least some of the music composition, alongside series newcomers Shogo Yamashiro and Yuki Furuhashi. The sound director, Masafumi Mima, will also be on the creative team.
Shuichiro Umeda, who plays my boy Chadley in the Final Fantasy VII remake series, will play the protagonist, Koichi Haimawari. Rounding out the main cast will be Yasuhiro Mamiya (Mask de Masculine in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War) as Knuckleduster and Ikumi Hasegawa (Ikuyo Kita in Bocchi the Rock!) as Kazuho Haneyama. All Might, Eraserhead, and Present Mic will all have the same voice actors as they do in My Hero Academia. The English dub cast has yet to be announced.
We also know the OP song: “Kekka Orai,” by Kocchi no Kento. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because you also got “Hai Yorokonde” stuck in your head last year.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has a release date!
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes will premiere as part of the spring 2025 anime season. The first episode drops on April 7, 2025, with all episodes dropping on subsequent Mondays on Crunchyroll.
Published: Mar 12, 2025 05:01 pm