Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.
Though the main My Hero Academia anime series is set to end later this year, its gritty prequel is about to make its streaming debut on Crunchyroll.
Today, Crunchyroll announced that it has secured the exclusive, global (outside of Asia) rights to stream studio Toho’s My Hero Academia: Vigilantes from director Kenichi Suzuki (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders). Beginning April 7th, new episodes of Vigilantes will hit the streamer weekly at the same time they first air on Japanese television. In a statement about the series making its Western premiere, Crunchyroll chief content officer Asa Suehira said Vigilantes will give My Hero Academia fans “an exciting new perspective on the world this franchise loves.”
“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Toho and bring this highly anticipated spinoff to audiences around the globe,” Suehira said.
Set five years before the main series, Vigilantes tells the story of Koichi Haimawari (Shuichiro Umeda), a college student who has given up on his dream of becoming a professional superhero. Though Koichi can’t get his pro hero license, he knows that his quirk — which allows him to glide frictionlessly across surfaces — can be used to help protect people.
Koichi does have a knack for helping folks deal with relatively simple tasks. But when he and Kazuho Haneyama (Ikumi Hasegawa), a girl with the power to leap great distances, are attacked by people with more formidable quirks, it’s only because of the quirkless vigilante Knuckleduster’s (Yasuhiro Mamiya) intervention that they’re able to walk away with their lives.
Along with teasing some of how the trio become an unlikely team of (illegal) heroes operating outside of the law, Vigilantes’ new trailer showcases how studio Bones has brought the original manga’s kinetic action to life. The show looks great, and like a more serious return to this world — one that will play directly to My Hero Academia’s fans when it drops next month.
