My Hero Academia Vigilantes may explain the chaotic war arc in the main series

My Hero Academia Vigilantes has recently gained a lot of mainstream attention because of the confirmation of the anime adaptation coming out in April 2025 and it's worth pointing out how this story connects with the original series. It happened a few years before Izuku "Deku" Midoriya met All Might and some events could explain major plot points from the main series, such as the chaotic war arc.

This is exemplified by the fact that the My Hero Academia Vigilantes protagonist, Koichi Haimawari, had to leave Japan after the events of the spinoff, which left a lot of major ramifications in the current state of the heroes and criminals. It was this tension that probably led to the quick rise of Tomura Shigaraki and the League of Villains, Stain's actions, Kai Chisaki's own Yakuza, and a lot more, given the context.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda as a publication.

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Explaining how the My Hero Academia Vigilantes spinoff could have inspired the main conflicts of the series

The main cast of the My Hero Academia Vigilantes manga (Image via Shueisha).

Now that it has been confirmed that Studio Bones has made an anime adaptation of the My Hero Academia Vigilantes manga, which is due to come out in April 2025, there are a lot of questions regarding the story. This has led many people to go back to that series and realize the events here could have had a major impact on the main storyline.

The main focus of the spinoff is how the protagonist, Koichi Haimawari, and his friends are heroes who operate without a Hero License, hence why the title vigilante is in the name of the series. Therefore, this theory suggests that the idea of heroes operating outside of the law could have upped the tension between the official pro heroes and criminals.

This was further emphasized by the rise of people like Stain in the original series, whose motivation to desecrate and kill "fake heroes" was developed by accident thanks to the actions of vigilantes such as Knuckleduster. That could explain how the war arc has better pacing in terms of how it was built when considering My Hero Academia Vigilantes's contributions to the plot.

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More details about this

Knuckleduster as seen in the My Hero Academia Vigilantes (Image via Bones).

Moreover, Koichi's actions throughout the My Hero Academia Vigilantes manga could also explain how the Meta Liberation Army got so many supporters in several cities. Naturally, this organization had resources to make an impact on a social level, but there is also the fact that witnessing a person helping others but suffering punishment from the government could lead to some questions.

When considering how the likes of Re-Destro and Stain could have benefitted from the rise of vigilantes in the spinoff, this would mean that someone like Tomura Shigaraki and the League of Villains probably rose quicker because of this. That angle explains the tension from the beginning of the original series and gives more context to the development of several villains.

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Final thoughts

My Hero Academia Vigilantes is bound to give more context to certain situations in the franchise and also expand the world-building of the story. Moreover, there is a strong argument to be made that the events that happened here could have pushed the conflict of the main storyline.

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