My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 7 Review: The Secret Identity Almost Gets Exposed

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 7 Review: The 7th episode of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes or Vijirante: Boku no Hīrō Akademia Irīgarusu (ヴィジランテ -僕のヒーローアカデミア ILLEGALS-) was much more lighthearted with a new character. Let us see how this episode turned out.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 6 Recap

The episode kicks off with Stendhal ruthlessly taking down a group of Yakuza members, acting on his own rigid sense of justice. His worldview is starkly black and white, he believes that wrongdoers are incapable of change or redemption. At the same time, he’s working with Hachisuka, helping her gather blood samples while eliminating those he deems evil. It quickly becomes clear that both are manipulating each other for their own ends: Stendhal seeks intel on criminals, while Hachisuka uses his power to carry out her plans.

Meanwhile, Soga, the same thug who once harassed Pop Step, appears rattled after seeing his comrades severely hurt due to drug use. He’s also uneasy about Stendhal targeting individuals with questionable reputations. Despite his misgivings, Soga ends up falling into Hachisuka’s trap. She pits him against Stendhal in a fight and injects him with several doses of the Trigger drug, turning him into a berserk monster.

This is when Koichi enters the scene. Shocked by Stendhal’s brutal intent to kill Soga, Koichi steps in to stop him. In doing so, he earns Stendhal’s ire and sustains serious injuries. Thankfully, Knuckleduster arrives just in time to rescue Koichi, leading to a fierce and dramatic showdown between him and Stendhal.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Episode 7 Review

Today’s episode begins with personal problems in Koichi’s life. It is not a secret that he had issues when he tried to make friends in his college. This is also why he doesn’t have anyone ask for help when preparing for his exams, and he’s not having a good time. Thankfully, he gets approached by a very pretty senior called Makoto, and she even promises to help him out if he helps her in return. Later, she goes to Koichi’s house and gives him all the important notes that he might need for his exam.

The concept of vigilante heroes was also addressed in this episode in a very interesting manner when Makoto was explaining it to Koichi. Apparently, the rise of vigilantism happened when people first started to acquire quirks, and society became more restless than ever. This vigilantism then went on to give birth to the hero licencing system while opposing the idea of surveillance at the same time. After that, Makoto asks Koichi to investigate the new-age vigilantes of Naruhata. That means Koichi will now have to investigate his own hidden self while making sure his senior does not find out about him or his friends’ nightly escapades.

Later in the episode, we also get to know that Makoto is actually the sister of the police officer Naomasa, complicating the situation all the more. Things can really go wrong for Koichi if he lets his identity slip in front of her. But, his most difficult challenge is definitely surviving Pop Step’s wrath, who is not at all happy with Makoto’s appearance. We have already seen how Pop Step harbours obvious affection towards Koichi, and her jealousy becomes apparent here.

Verdict

Today’s episode was pretty interesting as we got to see a new character and dive deep into the philosophy of vigilantism in this anime. Here, we also got a small but ample dose of action and witnessed the growth of Koichi as a hero. Hence, I can say that this was another really good and successful depiction of the beloved hero society from the MHA universe.

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