Discussion Boku no Hero Academia: Vigilantes

[SoulFire]

Ended read about two months ago. For the most part... it wasnt that good.

I find that it gets a lot more praise than it really deserves. Vigilantes was okay, but better than the original--nope!

 

[nectar]

Guess it depends on what you're looking for and your overall enjoyment of both series at that time.

I definitely enjoyed Vigs more by the end more than what was going on concurrently with the main series. But if I had to describe both as a whole… I'd say My Hero Academia overall has the highest highs and lowest lows, while My Hero Vigilantes stayed (mostly) good throughout its entire run.

 

[Felcis]

Vigilantes had a better thematic understanding of heroism, a more likable protagonist (Deku's character really suffered in the last few arcs) and made AFO look much smarter and more interesting than the dull idiot he's been in the main series after his first appearance.

Though as much as I love it, because I usually prefer the smaller scale stories without ridiculus power, it's hard to call the spinoff overall superior than the main series it spun off from. But during the main series' tedious big war arc, the thematically inconsistent "Stinky Deku"-arc and the thoroughly awful "Star and Stripe"-fight, I definitely enjoyed the spin-off more, despite the final fight dragging on for too long.
And lets not forget that the spinoff also had to do some heavy lifting to give context to Aizawa's relationship with Kurogiri by slotting in a backstory-arc that otherwise had nothing to do with the Vigilantes.

 

[Jammin]

I enjoyed Vigilantes much more and largely for the reasons Felcis put out there.

You said it perfectly. When I think of herosim the version in Academia is more structured to the point where it's almost commercialized. Where a hero is like a job. Vigilantes had a more conventional view of it. Where it's more of a personal mission for Koichi, he was a very Peter Parker character in that way. And that just pulled me in way more.

 

[Neala897]

Vigilantes had a better thematic understanding of heroism, a more likable protagonist (Deku's character really suffered in the last few arcs) and made AFO look much smarter and more interesting than the dull idiot he's been in the main series after his first appearance.

I dont get how could anyone say all this about vigilantes. The only time it felt handling heroism more curious than main series was when Makoto gave insight on heroes origins in Usa. Everything above this is just blandish version of main series with more domestic look. Koichi is... well just a good guy. I was waiting for some insight onto him in last arc but dang it was not there. I would say he pretty obviously was based on Deku but couldnt grow to more compelling character even though there were possibilities for this.

I was in Gintama fandom for some time so you can say I too love small scale stories. But the thing is I simply dont think Vigs do it good.

 

[SoulFire]

Not gonna compare Koichi and Midoriya. They are both likable imo (though I prefer Deku). Koichi was an odd duck in ways different than Deku. The fact that he considered marrying Makoto (whom he hardly seemed enamored with) was just strange. Yeah, Knuckle Duster was a cool, crusty mentor but for me he was no All Might.

What I did not enjoy about Vigilantes was the sometimes stupid arcs (Captain Celebrity annoyed me so much that I dropped the title for quite awhile), the simplified style (a lot of the characters look like some sort of lizard, including the pre-nomu things that were explosive) and most of all, the inconsistencies that didn't jibe with MHA:

The prototype nomu were acceptable, but then we have Hood--already shown as a nomu when we see him still in the Doctor's processing tubes in the main title. On top of that we have Kurogiri and super duper villain Six, notably advanced nomu (far advanced over the first ones seen in MHA and even the 'High Ends' of which Hood is a member). Why bother showing the gradual evolution of nomu in MHA when we have superior examples already having been made?

Stuffing character origins into Vigilantes' plot were just out of place (Stain's backstory and how he lost his nose never even made it to MHA at all). The entire Shirakumo story appearing in Vigilantes left MHA flatfooted since little of Aizawa and Mic's past was alluded to until the Kurogiri reveal. Speaking of which, switching a very different character such as Kurogiri into a specialized nomu based on Shirakumo just didn't fly that well for me.

 

[nectar]

Not gonna compare Koichi and Midoriya. They are both likable imo (though I prefer Deku). Koichi was an odd duck in ways different than Deku. The fact that he considered marrying Makoto (whom he hardly seemed enamored with) was just strange. Yeah, Knuckle Duster was a cool, crusty mentor but for me he was no All Might.

What I did not enjoy about Vigilantes was the sometimes stupid arcs (Captain Celebrity annoyed me so much that I dropped the title for quite awhile), the simplified style (a lot of the characters look like some sort of lizard, including the pre-nomu things that were explosive) and most of all, the inconsistencies that didn't jibe with MHA:

The prototype nomu were acceptable, but then we have Hood--already shown as a nomu when we see him still in the Doctor's processing tubes in the main title. On top of that we have Kurogiri and super duper villain Six, notably advanced nomu (far advanced over the first ones seen in MHA and even the 'High Ends' of which Hood is a member). Why bother showing the gradual evolution of nomu in MHA when we have superior examples already having been made?

Stuffing character origins into Vigilantes' plot were just out of place (Stain's backstory and how he lost his nose never even made it to MHA at all). The entire Shirakumo story appearing in Vigilantes left MHA flatfooted since little of Aizawa and Mic's past was alluded to until the Kurogiri reveal. Speaking of which, switching a very different character such as Kurogiri into a specialized nomu based on Shirakumo just didn't fly that well for me.

There is an evolution of nomu, as well as an evolution of their purpose.
-Kurogiri may be the first nomu who has one quirk (even if it's the result of mashing quirks together).
-Number Six, was a living experiment like Nine from the movies and Tomura, who are both more powerful.
-Hood in MHV wasn't nearly as powerful as the Hood we see in the main series (Vigs Hood also still had a more typical human form.). His Vigs fight was basically a test run and in the end was sent back to Ujiko for an upgrade (i.e. becoming a High End).

Even their purpose changed with AFO deciding at the end of MHV to focus mainly on nomu becoming his soldiers, meaning he wants them as multi-quirk bruisers.

As for MHA origins being in MHV, my guess is Horikoshi couldn't (or wouldn't) fit them in the main series and offered them to the spin-off.