Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Vince checks in with “My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes – Chapter 97: Pursuers
Written by Hideyuki Furuhashi
Illustrated by Betten Court
Review by Vince J Ostrowski
This comparison will likely date this review quite a bit, but I couldn’t help but think of Marvel’s recently released “Non-Stop Spider-Man” title while reading chapter 97 of “My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.” Both series feature their protagonists in desperate scrapes and in constant motion from the first panel to the last, aided and abetted by a creative team that intentionally wants to make the entire installment feel kinetic. I think of “Non-Stop Spider-Man”, not because “My Hero Academia” makes its bones off of nodding towards classically American superhero comics, but because I can’t help but think of the influences that manga has had on American comics over the years, especially artistically.
Koichi Haimawari breathlessly flits through the district of Naruhata as a vigilante on the run from the cops, and the Pro Heroes who work with their approval. The kinetic energy of Koichi bouncing through the city, attaching himself to buildings and cars, all while on the lam from authorities and having run-ins with other quirks is so impressively executed by the creative team. Koichi never stops moving, but every conversation and every fight is given weight and a logical exit strategy. Koichi is tasked with protecting fellow vigilante Pop Step, who is on various other characters’ radars with less than noble intent, which provides a clear motivation for him to never stop moving. The weight of that responsibility, as well as the pressures from the people he encounters pulling and pushing him in different directions, are felt in the way the writing melds with the art. When he takes the briefest of pauses to take a cellphone call from Soga, a vigilante ally who tells Koichi he needs to be ready to protect Pop at any moment, you can practically smell the sweat on him.
But it’s not long before he’s on the run again, because someone has sent some of the top heroes in the city after him, with their own self-serving intentions for “saving” Pop Step. Artist Betten Court proves his mettle all along, as the action and the character designs are just as good as any installment of the main “My Hero Academia” title. Classic “My Hero” characters look just as clean as they did in the original, and the continuity of art style is strong, while Betten Court is still able to flex some undeniably strong muscle in making these characters move through the world. A simple panel of Koichi sticking to the side of the building catching a breath while narrowly escaping from Best Jeanist, a fabric-manipulating Pro Hero, is full of cool charisma. I can’t imagine that fans of street-level hero stories wouldn’t be charmed and engaged by it.
At this point, I don’t think anyone is “sleeping” on “My Hero Academia: Vigilantes”, but I do want to impress upon readers how good it is even compared to the undeniable original. It feels more like essential reading than a “spin-off” or something of that nature usually does. To come back around to the Spider-Man comparison, it is perhaps an even better, or at least more focused and pointed, facsimile of American superhero concepts than the original.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – “My Hero Academia: Vigilantes” entertains at every turn, never stops moving, and looks great doing it.
