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At Jump Festa 2025, it was announced thatMy Hero Academia’s prequel spinoff story,My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, would be getting an anime in April 2025.Vigilanteshas always been popular with fans, especially those who gradually became more critical of the main series over the years, so it finally getting an anime is great to see.
As great as it is thatMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesis getting an anime, one cause of concern lies in how it handles Endeavor. Endeavor is one of many characters from the original series to play a supporting role inVigilantes, but while most returning characters only have their storiesenhanced by their appearances inVigilantes,My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ handling of Endeavor is arguably off to the point that it can ruin his phenomenal redemption arc in the main series. The issue is more complicated than that, of course, but it’s something the anime needs to avoid, regardless.
Why Endeavor’s Handling In My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Might Be A Problem
What Makes Endeavor’s Role In Vigilantes A Problem
The reason why Endeavor’s handling inMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesmight be a problem is largely because of how off his writing tends to be. While Endeavor tends to be hotheaded and stubborn both before and after his redemption arc,Vigilantestends to greatly exaggerate that part of him to the point of incompetence. A rather infamous example of that is howEndeavor, in a lapse of judgment, used his Quirk on a suicide bomber whose body was a giant bomb, a far cry from the usual intelligence Endeavor is known to act with.
Worse than that, however, is howVigilantesgives Endeavor a very black-and-white view of crime. Not only does Endeavor act like anyone who uses their Quirk illegally needs to be treated as a villain, butMy Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ final arc saw Endeavor try to kill Pop Step when she was brainwashed by the Queen Bee and Koichi when he attempted to defend her, despite people repeatedly telling him he was going too far. It made Endeavor look far more violent than he was supposed to be, and it’s another element that’s hard to defend.
Endeavor’s redemption arc in the main series has seen him evolve into a far more caring and empathetic person while also establishing how complicated he was from his debut, but with how violent and incompetent he’s depicted as inVigilantes,My Hero Academia: Vigilantescan ruinEndeavor’s redemption arcby reminding people of how bad a person he was in such an exaggerated way. Endeavor’s redemption arc has been one of the best parts ofMy Hero Academia, and it would be a tragedy to see it tarnished so close to the anime’s finale.
How My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ Anime Can Fix Endeavor’s Character
What The Vigilantes Anime Can Do To Fix The Manga
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ handling of Endeavor has plenty of problems, but that isn’t to say the anime couldn’t fix them. The biggest issue with how Endeavor is written inVigilantesis that it exaggerates his worst traits and can’t resolve anything due to being a prequel, soMy Hero Academia: Vigilantes’s anime can fix Endeavor’s character by toning down his worst traits to be more in line with the main series. It’s not uncommon for anime to change how certain characters are handled compared to their manga, and it would make sense to see that practice repeated here.
The best part about that idea is that it can work without fundamentally changing anything about Endeavor’s part in the story. Most of Endeavor’s actions inVigilantesare ones he would take in the main series, with the only issue being his personality as he undergoes them, sotheMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesanimecan change Endeavor’s personality without that having a significant effect on the story. All of that is hypothetical, of course, but with how important it is to preserve Endeavor’s redemption arc, it would still be great to see.
Why Endeavor’s Handling In My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Works
Is Vigilantes' Handling Of Endeavor Really That Bad?
Endeavor’s handling inMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesis certainly odd, but it’s not as big a problem as some people might think. For starters, while Endeavor is a consistent player inVigilantes’ story, he doesn’t usually have as big a role as other returning characters like Tsukauchi, Ingenium, Aizawa, or Midnight, with most of his appearances before the final arc amounting to little more than cameos.Endeavor’s handling inMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesisn’t that much of a problem because of how relatively uninvolved with the story he is, so in that regard, it might not be worth criticizing.
Another point to consider is the timeline ofMy Hero Academia: Vigilantes.Vigilantestakes place during the period when Endeavor was at his worst, so even if a lot of his behavior is being exaggerated,My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ depiction of Endeavor works because the story takes place when it would make sense for him to act like that. The way some of his actions are exaggerated is still an issue, but as previously mentioned, that’s easily amendable.
More than that, of course, is howMy Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ depiction of Endeavor can actually work into his redemption arc. While Endeavor’s actions inVigilantescan potentially overshadow his redemption arc, a big part of why it worked as well as it did is that people got to see how much he had to grow as a person and make amends for his past, so if anything,Endeavor’s writing inMy Hero Academia: Vigilantescan help make his redemption arc work better by emphasizing how much he had to change to get to where he is.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Will Be Great To Watch, Regardless Of Endeavor
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Will Be One Of The Best Anime Of 2025
It’s one thing forVigilantesto have much of the same staff asMy Hero Academia, including scriptwriter Yosuke Kuroda and composer Yuki Hayashi, but more than that,My Hero Academia: Vigilanteswill be great to watch because of how well it expands the world ofMy Hero Academiawith interesting lore and an engaging cast, and its handling of Endeavor can’t take that away, no matter how bad it might be. Endeavor’s writing still presents a problem, of course, but overall, it shouldn’t stopMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesfrom being a great anime to watch come spring 2025.
My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a multimedia franchise that follows a young boy named Izuku Midoriya, who dreams of becoming a hero despite being born without superpowers. These superpowers, known as “Quirks” are found in most people after birth, but Izuku wasn’t so lucky - until a fateful encounter with All Might, Japan’s greatest hero, Izuku inherits his Quirk and enrolls in U.A. High School to learn the true meaning of heroism. Alongside his classmates, each endowed with unique abilities, Izuku faces rigorous training and lethal threats from villainous forces.
