Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

On July 8, 2020, I started and finished my physical copy of Vigilantes’ Volume 2: “Judgment”. This volume continued the story from where Volume 1 left off, giving us more character background albeit at the expense of any plot movement.

While Volume 1 did an excellent job introducing the characters, it sort-of forgot to tell us the why. Why did they really want to be vigilantes on a daily basis? While Knuckleduster’s backstory is still shrouded in mystery by the end of this volume, we learned why he was determined to become a hero-vigilante through an amazing fight scene.

I’m going to state this for the record right now: Knuckleduster has the best fight scenes in this entire series so far. I absolutely love the artwork for all his fight scenes, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I know it would’ve been easier to move this paragraph with the section about fight scenes, but I’m trying to write this review the way my brain works. You feeling me, manga blog readers?

Back to character backgrounds: Koichi’s flashback about choosing to save someone rather than make it to the Entrance Exam for U.A.—Deku’s Hero School—was very telling about his motive to become a hero. This flashback also tied in nicely with Pop Step and her very personal reasons for sticking around Koichi and Knuckleduster. This volume basically favored the characters over the plot, which was a refreshing change of pace.

How this volume tied to the original series was incredibly well-writing. Two major characters from My Hero Academia made appearances during this volume. Towards the end of the volume, the main characters meet a vigilante named Stendhal—one of the major characters from the main series using a different alias. Unlike Koichi or Knuckleduster, Stendhal shows no restraint and kills every criminal he encounters. Their differences on “What does it mean to be a hero?”—the biggest thought-provoking question of the main series—caused Knuckleduster and Stendal to come to blows.

Knuckleduster’s fight scenes show a lot of his character that isn’t being said outright in the dialogue. Knuckleduster is definitely the Batman to All-Might’s Superman, given his Quirk-less nature and how much of a thrill gets off beating people. Knuckleduster has no powers, but he can beat people like he has super strength. Unlike All Might who fights as the Symbol of Peace, Knuckleduster views his vigilantism as an escape—a guilty pleasure! Their facial expressions are also different. All Might smiles to give the people hope while Knuckleduster smirks, getting himself ready for a good time.

The other major character from the main series was Tensei Iida, the Pro Turbo Hero Ingenium and Tenya Iida’s older brother. Tensei was happily helping Koichi improve his Slide and Glide Quirk’s efficiency. Tensei and Tenya have similar personalities. Reading the “Tensei and Koichi scenes”—knowing Tensei’s story from the main series—made me feel so hurt on the inside. This was such an amazing creative decision with a thought-provoking payoff for fans who read / watched the original series’ “Hero Killer Arc”.

The great dialogue, amazing—out-of-this-world—fight scenes, and well-developed characters made reading this volume so addicting. In conclusion, I highly recommend reading this manga series, especially if you’re fan of the original My Hero Academia series.

back to blog