My Hero Academia Prequel Ends With a Shocking Hero’s Return

My Hero Academia has officially brought its long-running prequel and spin-off series, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, to an end, and with the final chapter brought back one special vigilante for more crimefighting action! The spin-off series first began as a look at Kohei Horikoshi’s original manga franchise from a much different perspective. Taking place years before the events of the main series, it highlighted the young Koichi Haimawari as he began to notice how the pro heroes were skipping over his neighborhood of Naruhata as they fought against bigger villains and stopped more dangerous crimes in the rest of the country.  

He was then inspired to help people around his neighborhood while calling himself the Crawler, but it wasn’t until he was taken under the vigilante Knucklduster’s wing that he actually started to fight crime like a real vigilante hero. With the final arc of the series bringing Knuckleduster closer to death than ever before, and it seeming like he was out of the game for good, the final chapter of the series brings it all full circle and reveals that a vigilante’s work is never truly done as Knuckleduster takes on more criminals on the final page. 

The final chapter of the series reveals that while all of the Naruhata locals have moved on with the rest of their lives, and the neighborhood is improving, Koichi himself has moved to the United States in the meantime because of all of the legal fees and debts incurred over his time as a vigilante during the Naruhata War (and the previous part where he was labeled a full criminal), but things haven’t changed everywhere. In fact, there are still several smaller criminals making their moves over the neighborhood but Knuckleduster is still fighting. 

As the series comes to an end, it’s revealed that Knuckleduster is continuing to fight despite holding himself up with a cane and all of the injuries he’s gotten in the final arc. Still going by the same creed of cleaning up the messes the pros can’t get to (but this time he references Koichi when saying this), Knuckleduster is ready to defend the neighborhood allies in the same way he was when it all began. So while Koichi might be official, there are still vigilantes floating around the hero world. 

What do you think? How do you feel about My Hero Academia: Vigilantes ending with Knuckleduster? What did you think of the final chapter overall? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!