BNHA Observations

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Places

Todoroki Mansion (Part 1: Outside view) Todoroki Mansion (Part 2: Genkan) Todoroki Mansion (Part 3: Training Hall) Todoroki Mansion (Part 4: Dining Room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 5: Bedrooms) Todoroki Mansion (Part 6: TV room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 7: Kitchen) Todoroki Mansion (Part 8: Butsuma room)

Hospitals (Part 1: Fujitani Hospital)

U.A. High School (Part 1: Infirmary)

Aldera Middle School

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - How they're called

How the Todorokis call each other (Part 1) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 2) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 3) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 4)

How would you say “The Todoroki family” in Japanese?

The Todorokis, how they are called and how they call others - Part 1 (Chap. 1-21 & Ep. 1-13)

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Scenes and character histories

Dabi’s way to fight in the manga from the start to chap 363

The first day Tōya burned himself

Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 1) Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 2)

The burned photo in the 4th ending

Height references for the Todoroki family

My two cents about Episode 146 (with spoilers about scenes which will appear in future episodes)

The Todoroki Family: Questions and Anwers

Quirk counseling: canon, the cultural references and what we can guess from this all

‘Remedial course’ arc Vs Uraraka’s quirk counseling program in chap 431

Chap 431 and Touya’s panel

The justice system in BNHA - part 1 (canon terminology, real life japanese institutions, chap 1 to 97) The justice system in BNHA - part 2 (chap. 98 to 193)

General Meta

Ramblings about the Shimura family Ramblings about the Takami family Ramblings about the Himura family Ramblings about the Shigaraki family Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 1: Todoroki Enji’s origin and teenager years Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 2: The back that’s too big, the mountain that can’t be climbed Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 3: The girl who’s like ice, Himura Rei and how she became Todoroki Rei

Touya and Shouto’s fight or why assuming the other is you and baring fangs wasn’t meant to work

Chap 374 and Touya’s resistance

Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 1) Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 2)

Why Tōya and Himiko were saved and yet weren’t

Todoroki Enji’s father’s death and why he feels he’s not a superhuman

My two cents about chap 426

Changing society in BNHA

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

BNHA and Japanese law, aka why Enji and Hawks can't go to jail

BNHA ENDING or how a good plan might become something not so good when written down

When Heroes need protecting who will be there to protect them?

‘Code red’ order in Aldera middle school aka teachers supporing bullying in BNHA

Were really Tenko’s choices not his own?

Was the savior trio really a savior trio?

Who’s to blame when the stakes are missing?

Missed promises

Heroes and human rights

Why Rei called Shōto the family Hero?

Why the Sekoto Peak fire shouldn’t have happened or, how it should have happened DIFFERENTLY from what we were told

Technological progress in BNHA

My Hero Academia Ultra Archive (May 2, 2016)

Prototypes for Todoroki Shōto and Todoroki Enji Main events of the 1st semester

Timelines

The facts taking place during the year that ends with Rei's hospitalization and Tōya's assumed death

The facts taking place during BNHA first year

The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April The facts taking place during BNHA second year: May & June The facts taking place during BNHA second year: July The facts taking place during BNHA second year: August The facts taking place during BNHA second year: September The facts taking place during BNHA second year: October & November The facts taking place during BNHA second year: December The facts taking place during BNHA second year: January, February & March The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April & May

Full “Boku No Hero Academia” Timeline (Last update: 2024-09-28)

Settei

Todoroki family related settei for season 3 Todoroki family related settei for season 5 Todoroki family related settei for season 6

BNHA Observation

Chap 1 [Ep 1-2]

Chap 2-4 [Ep 3-4]

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis in the various volumes

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis (Anime version)

1st series: 1 OP “THE DAY” by Porno Graffitti - Ep. 1 & 4 - Ep. 5 - Ep. 6 - Ep. 7 - Ep. 8 - Ep. 9 - Ep. 10 - Ep. 11 - Ep. 12 - Ep. 13

2nd series: 2 OP “Peace Sign” [ピースサイン PEACE SIGN] by Yonezu Kenshi - Ep. 14 - Ep. 15 - Ep. 16

Fanfics

>What's crazy is that the author could have easily had Touya still have an accident on the mountain, without any need for retcons. He just set everything on fire by accident while practicing with his power, and then goes down to smoke inhalation. You know, the thing he, Enji and Shoto aren't immune to. They resist fire, not carbon emissions. If the fire spread to him while he was unconscious, and they believed him to be dead, we keep the tragic accident. Notably, if he's knocked out, his quirk would turn off and he'd stop spreading fire.

Yes, this would be a possibility but it is also a possibility that, same as the canon one, cuts out any intervention into setting this from AFO. I mean, all the rambling AFO makes about keeping an eye on Enji and then all he did was get lucky because Touya conveniently burned himself but survived long enough for AFO to find out, drop by and swept him away? It feels pretty tame, more of a lucky shoot than AFO doing some solid work. If we compare it to all the work he did with Tenko well, it’s really minimal.

>The Todorokis can't control the fire once it leaves their body. If Endeavor sets something on fire, he can stop shooting fire, but he can't snuff out the existing flames. It'll burn until it's done burning.

I’m not really getting into a debate about what the Todorokis can do with fire and what they can because fire actually does all Horikoshi wants in this story. I mean Touya set to fire the forest and he and the League walk through it comfortably instead than running away like crazy.

When his clone faced Aizawa he tossed a huge flame that… somehow disappeared moments after.

When his other clone attacked the place where Vlad King was in again it tossed a huge flame inside the building that… only burned the door and set nothing else on fire.

When he starts burning the thugs somehow the fire do not spread to the buildings.

When he attacks Enji after the latter fought a Nomu he managed to trace a perfect circle around them, meaning his fire turned but when he disappeared his fire disappeared completely too, without spreading to anything else.

Hell, when he set Hawks to fire the latter only reported some burns instead than getting turned into dust. And the building in which they were fighting previously which he filled with fire? It didn’t became a torch.

So Horikoshi could have done whatever with Touya’s fire on Sekoto because he really has no fixed rules regarding it. Touya’s fire is pure Quirk magic, it works the way Horikoshi wants it to.

And yeah, he could have used it better since he could use it the way he wanted. But he didn’t. He just didn’t plan things thought and the scene became messy.

>It's also more easy to believe AFO could save him from this because by all rights there really shouldn't have been anything left of Touya after his canon accident. Even dousing himself in water should have boiled the water away instantly.

If you ask me I’m of the opinion Touya shouldn’t even have managed to reach the river. If his body was starting to melt to the point his jaw literally felt, the muscles on his legs should have also ended up completely melted to the point he couldn’t move. But again, fire does what Horikoshi wants it to do in this story.

Touya receiving less damage would have surely helped making more believable AFO could save him. I still do not get why Horikoshi decided that Touya, who has some resistance to fire, had to burn so completely while Hawks, who doesn’t have fire resistance only got some scars on his back and some damage to his wings. Horikoshi should have just accepted Hawks had to die.

>This also patches a major canon question of how Endeavor didn't go to jail over this. His son blew up a mountain in canon. Realistically, fire that hot would have turned the place into a glass filled crater. It would have been seen for MILES away. The heat would have altered weather patterns. The public would demand answers. And since the only person in Japan known to have a super powerful fire quirk is Endeavor and his bloodline, the suspicion instantly falls on him. One conversation with his wife or any of his children by an investigator would ruin Endeavor. This would require a police coverup of unimaginable levels and Endeavor would owe the HPSC EVERYTHING. Now, that's not said in the text at all. Endeavor doesn't imply any sort of debt to the government, nor does Hawks reference the sheer number of favors the government would have to call in to keep him out of prison.

I’m not sure why you think Enji should go to jail over this. The police likely knows Touya accidentally set Sekoto Peak on fire and died there. Enji wasn’t there when the mountain took fire. Chap 302 shows the fire was seen from a huge distance and Enji was out in the city and among people when it became visible. We see him screaming among them and moving toward the fire. The people might not have missed the Hero Endeavor was there when the fire took place, so he couldn’t set the mountain on fire.

It’s not know if the public know it was Touya who started the fire but Enji and his family aren’t so suspicious. As said before it is easy to prove Enji wasn’t there and no one knew Touya’s fire was that hot, as his flames has turned blue only recently and he told no one.

Plus not only fire Quirks are canonically common so Enji, Touya and Shouto aren’t the only ones that can be suspected, but fires can start for accident or be started on purpose by Villains and generic criminals or arsonists so there are potentially other candidates.

The police might have asked for legal compensation from Enji but they might have wanted to spare the Todorokis from having their son blamed for it by the public and hid it was Touya who set the mountain on fire, same as they kept hidden it was Midoriya, Shouto and Iida who defeated Stain but still has legally punished Enji, Gran Torino and Manual for how they failed to stop the kids from being involved.

So while I believe Enji had to pay for the damage, unless he had some sort of insurance for accidental damage caused by his children due to loss of control of their Quirk, I doubt any conversation they might have with Rei or the kids could ruin Enji or send him to jail, since in Japan you can leave children younger than Touya without supervision even now, but especially when that story was written and we have no info about other people apart from Touya dying in the fire.

Legally speaking the only thing Enji did to his family that at the time constituted a crime was beating Rei, something over which the Japanese police at the time wasn’t really prone to investigate (preferring to turn a blind eye or just give a quick scolding and urging the parties involved to make up) and that was really, really hard to prove and even when you could prove it judges and laws weren’t really interested in punishing you. Things have improved recently but they are still pretty bad.

Long story short, maybe if something were to come up it would be bad for his PR team as public opinion might not take his side (though if his PR team is good they might even persuade them of the contrary) but jail is definitely out of question.

That is why neither Enji nor Hawks face legal troubles after Touya’s video and why Horikoshi didn’t have Touya reveal in it that Enji beat Rei, which would have been the only thing that could constitute a crime (though again the police would have not investigate unless Rei was interested in pressing charges which she wasn’t, never mentioning she would have lacked what the Japanese law would considered proof good enough to set up a trial over it).

>So the author just expects you not to think about it. But in a timeline where it was just a tragic accident where a kid went and burned down a forest when his dad was at work, people think Touya was trying to go plus ultra and it went bad. Not that Endeavor drove his son to self detonate and take a mountain with him. Endeavor is, of course, still guilty of child neglect given he knew the boy would go up on that mountain and he intentionally ignored him to try to get him to give up. But one scenario by all rights should end with him behind bars and the other would end with him giving a press conference where he holds back tears on TV.

Hum… actually if people think Touya was deliberately using his fire Quirk, then they think Touya was committing a crime as Quirk use is forbidden if you aren’t a Hero. Enji would still not go to jail as the blame would fall on Touya even if he is a minor, but society would likely give him hell for being related to Touya.

On the other side the neglect that caused Touya to set himself on fire by accident wasn’t even remotely considered a crime in Japan at the time and still wasn’t at the end of BNHA and Horikoshi clearly didn’t try to introduce more modern laws in BNHA so Enji would still not be blamed.

I like to think Touya wouldn’t be blamed either as he wasn’t using his Quirk on purpose… though this is up to the police’s decision. In “Team-up missions” this was proved not to matter, at least legally. People just couldn’t use their Quirk, not even if their Quirk escaped their control. On the other side we know from “Vigilantes” that the police might still decide not to press charges so it is really up to them if to hold Touya accountable.

Long story short, while in my country we would hold Enji responsible of child abuse and neglect that caused his son to die which would be a rather serious crime here, in BNHA they can easily shrug off all he did as it didn’t constitute a crime and Enji was just a grieving father who made mistakes in good faith.

>amd honestly touya's relationship with all of his family members are very interesting imo. Not only touya and natsuo but Touya and FuyumI, Touya and Rei.

Yes, I also think so. I do love the Todorokis and their relations and I really wish the story had taken more time to explore them.

>The narrative mostly focuses on Touya and Enji, evem though i love their relationship it would be more interesting if Hori didnt reduce Dabi to just some "culmination of Endeavor's sins" (yikes).

Yeah, it was a poor sentence that objectified Touya and that sadly fits with how Villains are viewed through the story. Touya is offered little sympathy for what he went though (same as Shouto to be honest) and the story might even see claiming he became Dabi due to Endeavor’s sins as a way to ‘express sympathy’ as undoubtedly many of what Enji did pushed Touya toward that path.

>Dabi is his own character, endeavor should repent from his own crimes and dabi his own.

What I dislike about the story is that it wait till the end to give Touya reasons to regret what he did and even then they stood on weak premises. But whatever, I guess this is a discussion for another meta.

>Well wtvr, Sobabrothers relationship is absoulotely my favorite, even though they arguably deserved more screen time in the todoroki family plotline, the potential was insane. I was NOT expecting Dabi to apologize to Shoto internally let me tell you, this moment amd another subtle moment during dabi vs shoto fight when dabi views amd decalres himself as a part of the league /villains, twice, thrice "The limitations of superhuman society thats us (referring to him and the LOV) , also the moment with toga and him, made me realize I was reading dabi's character wrong. There are a lot of sub texts and naunce to him.

Yeah, the relationship between the Soba brothers has so much potential, I’m not sure why it wasn’t used to the fullest.

> But what I am leading into with all this? There are just some things I noticed with how hori writes touya. Thing is, Dabi is the villain who has the least amount inner monolouges among all the villains, its near zero unlike tomura's, toga's, twice's, hell even compress's and spinner's.

Well, part of this is due to how Horikoshi wanted him to stay mysterious. Giving him inner monologues reveal how he feels and break the mystery hence he gets very few.

>He is the only villain, hell not even villain, only CHARACTER, Whose backstory is mostly told by other people. The first half of his backstory was told by his parents, Rei and Enji (who I totally mind you, was NOT being biased 🤭), 2nd part of his backstory is told by Ujiko, yes UJIKO OF ALL POEPLE 😭😭😭. There were some snippets of touya himself in both halves but they were so subtle it didn't really gave us any insight to touya's feelings.

Actually I’ll say his story is narrated by a third person narrator, Horikoshi, with few comments in between from his family, Ujiko and, lastly, him. It’s a quite common technique but it is clear that we aren’t seeing the story from Enji and Rei’s perspective only or from Ujiko’s only.

In chap 301 the second flashback is between Fuyumi and Touya with none of his parents present, just Fuyumi, later we see a flashback of Touya training alone after Shouto had birth, we’ve the flashback of the siblings asking Touya to play, the end of it focusing very much on how Touya looks Shouto and Enji leaving, we’ve the flashback of Touya talking with Natsuo, again we’ve a flashback of Touya training alone and another of him alone at Sekoto Peak when he burns.

As you can see there is plenty of flashbacks without his parents and flashbacks in which not even his siblings are present.

The narration is objective and third person, it is not subjective from Rei and Enji’s point of view and this is even more true in the flashback in chap 350 where Garaki is not present through the entirety of it.

>Now idk what Hori's intention was. Pre reveal I can understand why he didn't let us into touya's mind. But post reavel? during his backstory? it doesnt make sense.

We do see into Touya’s mind in the end… it’s just Horikoshi wasn’t that interested into exploring it much. At the end of the day his belief was that Touya should have just put up with all that had happened to him so why digging more into his misery or into his human side? Why making Enji and society look even worse when he is trying to absolve them instead?

>I am a firm believer that like shoto, Touya should have narrated his own backstory. There alot of scenes implied by touya, we missed (like how touya always cried and crawled to natsuo questioning his existence, more scenes with touya's guilt of attacking infant shoto and his mom etcetc) bcuz his backstory was told from enji's and others prespective, and enji 100% did not see touya's anguish. It would also give us some insight on how touya feels about his mom, sister, natsuo and vice versa. Hence, more exploration of their relationship.

The difference between Touya and Shouto is that Shouto is a main character, while Touya is an antagonist. Plus by making the flashback about the whole of the Todoroki family instead than just about Touya, Horikoshi saves time.

We are shown Touya crying to Natsuo, though Horikoshi used that scene also to show that Natsuo wasn’t willing anymore to listen to Touya anymore, we also saw him feeling guilty attacking baby Shouto and heard him expressing regret for what he told to Rei and the others, hinting he loved them. It’s just it’s all very essential instead than deeply explored but again, in Horikoshi’s books Touya is a minor character compared to Shouto who, credits when is due, also received little exploration the first time his backstory was presented.

BNHA is a shounen and Horikoshi prefers to focus on battles than on the characters’ inner world. Sadly it’s a choice he can make.

>Its kind of funny how the fandom likes to give touya less sympathy than tenko and himiko bcuz he had "more agency", when the author himself doesn't give him that agency, even his ending was grotessuque unlike the other main villains imo

I think it really depends to who you ask in the fandom. With a fandom as large as the one of BNHA you can find people who hate Touya and believe Shouto should have just mercilessly murdered him and people who offer him a lot of sympathy. It really depends.

(Said so I disliked his ending, the whole tube thing was in extremely poor taste)

>Jokes aside, i wonder why touya wasnt allowed his narrative? Its like hori wamted him to be a complex, naunced character but also wamted the majority of the audience to see him in a certain way which he may not be if we were allowed in his mind

Undoubtedly Horikoshi has his own agenda to pursue, but a good writer can pursue it even allowing you to get into the mind of a character because HE IS THE ONE WHO CREATED SAID CHARACTER. Said so, I think Horikoshi let us get into Touya’s mind, but only that much that he deemed necessary for his plot to work and nothing more. After all at the end of the story the moral is that the Villains should have just put up with everything and not rebelled, so of course he couldn’t show us anything that clashed with this view.

It’s a common problem with all the characters, but this is the agenda Horikoshi is pushing forward so I guess it couldn’t be helped.

>I realized from a reread of the series that there some crucial points in Touya's life where if an acceptable intervention happened things could have been different, I am not saying he will grow a fully healthy well adjusted adult but there would at least be no Dabi.

Yes, there were many moments in which Touya’s life could have taken a different turn, you mentioned the three more glaring ones but it could have happened basically at any time in his life had his parents decided to try to help him differently instead than just trying o avoid the issue.

>Or what if touya never found out he was born from a quirk marriage (I dont think this one changes much but the existential crisis would be less imo),

Yeah, I also think this would have changed little, as while it doesn’t help, even if he hadn’t know he would have still had to deal with Enji clearly pushing for a child who could inherit his mantle as Hero and with society pushing forward the idea that child should be Touya and that, if he weren’t, he was flawled.

>These are just some what ifs and canon divergence I thought of for touya,scenarios that prevents the creation of Dabi. There could be more i am missing, I would be more than happy if you fill those up.

There are just too many for me to fill this up, but they all circle around one common point, Touya would find someone to understand, support and help him at any point in his life, be it by helping him find a safe way to become a Hero or by helping him to find another way to self-realize himself.

What Touya was truly lacking was feeling love and accepted. He insists he wanted to make his father proud  he gave birth to him, that he feel other perceive him as a failure, that others do not understand him.

I fear you’re giving me a too tall order asking me to provide you all the scenarios you’re missing and the details needed to go in them as this would be the material for plenty of fanfics and I’m already struggling to end my own.

AO3 will provide you with many wonderful fics dealing with this in details as each scenario requires different interventions.

>I think she gets unfairly criticized by fans for being "manipulative" and "selfish," even though those traits don't fit her personality.

Most of the problems the fandom has with the Todoroki family are also due to how the Todorokis are a traditional Japanese family representing traditional Japanese values and behaviors that might clash with the values and behaviors of other countries so what Fuyumi does might be perceived as wrong by people from different cultures.

>His use of "san" when addressing her may seem cold,

Regarding the whole ‘nē-san’ (姉さん “big sister”) thing, I didn’t mean to say Shouto called Fuyumi as such because he was being cold. Mine was a comparative analysis as this sort of thing change from family to family but I won’t enter into a discussion about this as while Shouto’s choice to be more formal than Natsuo (or Natsuo’s choice to be less formal than Shouto) tells us something, we do not have canon info on why this happens.

>it's likely that Shoto ended up under Fuyumi's care. He was too young (6) when Rei went missing; a child that age can't cook for himself, at the very least.

Also I apologize because maybe I wasn’t clear enough, but Fuyumi couldn’t have cooked for Shouto right after Rei left because canon says they used to have a cook. It was likely up to that person to cook the food for all the 4 remaining Todorokis. Fuyumi AND NATSUO started cooking not when Rei was hospitalized but when this person retired due to back ache. So at almost 6 Shouto didn’t have to cook for himself not because Fuyumi started doing it but because they had a servant doing so.

> Shoto is also known to be a poor cook, so he couldn't cook it himself, but he also didn't eat Natsu's cooking because it was too spicy.

Canon implies Shouto DID ATE Natsuo’s food when the latter was on cooking duty. Natsuo assumed Shouto didn’t because Enji would forbid him since the food was too spicy… but Enji said he had never noticed it was too spicy, so this means he never stopped Shouto from eating it.

>Fuyumi volunteered to help him mend his relationship with his mother and father

…hum, no, she didn’t volunteer to help him mend his relationship with Rei. She actually didn’t believe it was a good idea for Shouto to visit Rei and it was only when everything in that visit went well that she felt happy about it. Also Shouto was never interested in mending his relationship with Enji. It just happened MOSTLY THANKS TO MIDORIYA encouraging Shouto to look at things in a different way and Fuyumi wanted the two to get along so she also tried to encourage it.

>Most likely because she knew that if she tried, Enji could shield her from Shoto just like her mother had.

Hum… I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell here, but if she feared Enji were to react to her protecting Shouto the way he reacted to Rei protecting Shouto, this means she feared she would be beaten as this was what Enji did when Rei got in between them. Rei ended up in a mental hospital solely because she had a break down after being abused many times and hurt Shouto mistaking him for Enji, not because Enji wanted to keep her away from Shouto because she got in the way of Shouto’s training. Canon said she did nothing because she wanted to pretend nothing was happening. She was in denial about the sorry state of her family.

> Fuyumi also didn't leave home like Natsu, perhaps because she didn't want to leave Shoto alone and believed he still needed her support.

Natsuo left the house only when he started university, which took place in the year Shouto started U.A. High, so it is not like Natsuo has been leaving the house by a long time. Likely he is studying in Tokyo so it makes sense he moved there.

Fuyumi is not married and wants to rebuild her birth family so it makes sense she doesn’t leave the house but continues to take care of the house and of everyone living there.

> I'd also like to ask you, what exactly did Fuyumi say to Toya when he was six years old, when he confided his problem to her?

Regarding to Fuyumi and Touya their discussion didn’t take place when Touya was 6 but when Touya was 3 (we know because it is prior to Natsuo’s birth). If they also had a similar discussion when he was 6 well that’s unknown.

In their discussion Touya was basically saying that, contrary to what Enji and Rei were saying, he could train because even if he would get burned a bit he could take it.

Fuyumi’s reply was EXACTLY what Enji and Rei should have told Touya many times, she fundamentally agreed with her parents, protesting she too like them didn’t want him to get hurt.

> She doesn't discourage him or ridicule him

She actually discouraged him, as there is no way Touya could train without getting hurt.

Since she told him she didn’t want him getting hurt, this translated in her telling him she didn’t want him to train. Her intentions were good, she was worried for him, but the implication was she too didn’t believe he could become a Hero because he couldn’t train since he would get hurt doing so.

So yes, she is trying to gently tell him to stop, that she disagrees with his idea he can keep on training even if he gets hurt.

> In theory, she told Toya what his parents should have said.

His parents told him so. Enji specifically pointed out how Touya couldn’t train because he got burned. They didn’t want him to get burned, that’s why they didn’t want him to train AND FUYUMI AGREED WITH THEM.

> Toya was offended by her, but later doesn't blame her.

Touya took this as her not understanding him, how much important for him all this was, for her not having faith in him hence the remark she, same as Rei, is not good (at understanding him). Fuyumi was being concerned because she loves Touya… but she wasn’t being supportive (and in Japan younger siblings are supposed to support the older siblings) and Touya at the time desperately needed support, hence that’s why they argued.

Is Fuyumi at fault?

It was extremely difficult to find a right answer in such situation because Touya needed two contrasting things, he needed someone to support him and have faith in him but also needed someone to care for him and tell him he couldn’t get hurt and a middle way between these two things wasn’t something a child that young could have found.

Touya doesn’t hate her or Rei for this, but he is surely not pleased with them for this.

> For example, he blamed Natsu for refusing to listen to him as an adult.

I’m not sure why you say as an adult Touya blamed Natsuo for not listening him. He did not, he actually commented on how Natsuo was the one to whom he could go crying and, in Ending case, he didn’t send Ending against Natsuo, that was Ending’s idea. Touya only said, when informed by Shouto about how Ending almost killed Natsuo, that if Ending had indeed killed Natsuo that would have hurt Enji.

The only one Touya claims to wants to actively kill as an adult (but he actually never made a move in that direction unless when it was Shouto who put himself in his way) was Shouto.

> Toya, even though he thought she didn't understand, still spent time with her and didn't snap at her the way he did at his mother.

Touya doesn’t resent Rei either, he actually wanted to apologize to her, if he snapped at her it was only because she tried to stop him from training and, again, showed she didn’t understand him.

I’m sure Touya loved his family, but he also was furious with his family because he didn’t feel loved by them.

> even when his father rejected him as not strong enough

Enji NEVER rejected Touya because he wasn’t strong enough, he did the same as Fuyumi did, he didn’t want him to be hurt so he refused to train him. Then, since he believed his presence would still encourage his son to insist in wanting to pursue the Hero career, he avoided him, which only hurt Touya more because he interpreted this as being rejected.

Said all this, Touya loved Fuyumi and she loved him back. They do not understand each other and failed to properly support each other but they were kids in a broken family and Touya ended up breaking down as well so it makes sense he came to believe his whole family didn’t care about him and this lead him to become a Villain. I wish the story had given us the time to see them reconcile but I’m sure they’ll do it because I’m sure they both want to do it.

VOLUME 1

CHAPTER 2

I’ll make some premises.

For start this chapter, which was printed on September 20, 2016, a month after the previous, makes a pair with the previous one (should I also mention they both were printed on Jump Giga, only for the series to be transferred on Shōnen Jump+ starting from chap 3). The foreshadowing scene of chap 1 is meant to be something that happens in this chapter and the cliffhanger of the previous chapter with Sōga and Co getting the medicine continues here so they should have been planned more or less at the same time… however this chapter contains characters do and think a bunch of dumb stuff, some things established here kind of get retconned and overall, while what happened here isn’t erased, the series kind of seem to get a restart from chap 3. Said so it is worth to mention the rest of the chapter is good.

Still let’s go through it.

For start… when does this chapter take place?

During the conversation between Kōichi and Knuckleduster the outside seems to be under daylight, so it supposedly takes place the day after. When they meet Pop the light is dimming, so we are toward the evening and, when Kōichi meets Sōga and Co again it seems to be dark so we can assume it takes place the day after.

Now… in this chapter we get some background info like how Kōichi is at his first year at Hitonami university (仁波大学). Hitonami literally means “wave of humanity/surging crowd” and I honestly couldn’t find any tie between this name and “Star Wars” so evidently Furuhata didn’t took inspiration from it for the name.

On the other side since “Vigilantes” DO TALK about peoples, especially of their ‘honne’ (本音 “true sound”) aka their true feelings and desires and their ‘tatemae’ (建前 “built in front”, “façade”) aka the behavior and opinions they display in public, such name might be more fitting than it looks like.

It is interesting how Horikoshi created an universe in which there are ‘“Kosei”‘ (〝個性〟 ““quirk”“ lit. “individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”) and thought about Quirk discrimination while Furuhata saw that same universe and thought about what one project and what one truly is. Maybe it comes from how he decided to go for Vigilantes, who are Heroes in disguise but we have examples of people showing different faces from who they are in BNHA too (think All Might himself!) and yet this is never a true focus of the story.

As for the first year thing… we kind of have a problem with that. In the previous chapter we were told Kōichi is 19. Why should this be a problem, you might wonder, Natsuo too is 19 and at his 1st year at University.

Well, in order to start their first year at University both Natsuo and Kōichi should have been 18 by the 1st of April. In BNHA we learnt Natsuo is 19 in November, and it makes sense as in July that’s what Natsuo did. However in VIG we have chap 43 saying this arc takes place in spring, so we are short after that date and this is a problem because according to his profile, Kōichi is born in February. If he were 18 by April 1st he would have no time to turn 19 during the time before chapter 1 were to take place.

This should mean somehow Kōichi lost a year of school. I can’t remember the story mentioning Kōichi is a ‘ronin’ (浪人), a slang term for a high school graduate who has failed their university entrance exams and spends a gap year studying to retake them, though he failed to take the exam of U.A. High so it is still possible he lost a year, only this happened when he should have attended high school.

But I’m running ahead, I guess.

For more interesting stuff (which get lost in translation by the way), when Knuckleduster learn Kōichi’s name he claims he’ll call him ‘KŌICHI’ (コーイチ), all in Katakana. It sounds the same as his name in kanji but it reminds me of how Shouto chose his Hero name would be Shouto but written in Katakana, and in fact Kōichi will start to introduce himself as ‘KŌICHI’ (コーイチ) to Pop, with his name in Katakana, so basically the implication is not that Knuckleduster is calling Kōichi by his name, but that KŌICHI is his Vigilante name.

To be honest Knuckleduster asks him if he would prefer to be called ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”), meaning Knuckleduster went with the effort to learn it and is willing to respect Kōichi’s decision to use it if he wants to, which is more than Pop was willing to do at the start.

On the other side Knuckleduster went through Kōichi’s ‘Gakusei-shō’ (学生証 “student I.D.”) and wallet without Kōichi’s permission and it’ll turn out he also self invited to Kōichi’s house and just won’t listen when Kōichi tells him he won’t be his apprentice, so there are parts of him who do not respect Kōichi much.

By the way, Knuckleduster tells him to call him ‘Shishō’ (師匠 “master”), which is how All Might used to call Shimura Nana, even though Kōichi insists he won’t be his ‘deshi’ (弟子 “disciple”).

‘Shishō’ (師匠 “master”) refers to a person who transmits skills and knowledge in academics, martial arts, skills, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, traditional performing arts such as rakugo, and music, etc. It implies respect and the fact this is a person who is going to guide your life.

In Japan the legal drinking age in Japan is 20 years old and this applies to all alcoholic beverages, which is why Kōichi shouldn’t have beer and shouldn’t even be able to buy it as buying it requires to show an I.D. proving he is 20. In 2017 the age of majority was also 20, even though after April 2022 it has been lowered to 18 years old.

I guess it comes from the supermarket he works in but it also proves he is not super respectful of law, even if he insists it’s for his senpai, should they come over.

I take what follow is meant to be a flashback showing what happened to Sōga and Co during their meeting with Kugutsu Mario. We see Rapt and Moyuru immediately try the ‘medicine’ offered to them and enjoy how it makes them feel.

We go back to the present and to Knuckleduster who explains that the drug’s called ‘TRIGGER’ (トリガー) and what it does.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘--DRUG no na wa “TRIGGER”. Shiyōsha no risei o yowame “kosei” o kyokutan-ka (BOST) suru tsumari ippanjin o teki (VILLAIN) ni suru yakubutsuda.’ナックルダスター「――ドラッグの名は“トリガー”。使用者の理性を弱め“個性”を極端化（ブースト）するつまり一般人を敵（ヴィラン）にする薬物だ。」Knuckleduster “--The drug is called "Trigger." It weakens the user's rationality and exaggerates (boosts) their "quirk," essentially turning ordinary people into enemies (villains).”

So what gets lost in translation this time is that ‘risei’ (理性) can be translated as “reason” but also as “rationality” and as “ability to maintain his composure”.

Basically it’s not like its users get more stupid, it’s that they find harder to control themselves… which might cause them to act in a dumber way since they now follow their impulses more than their rationality. And since they follow more their impulses which are likely tied to their ‘honne’ and who takes a drug generally might not have nice intentions. The result is that the drug turns normal people into Villains, as it turns them into people who are more likely to use their Quirks to get what they want, lowering their ability to control themselves, therefore Trigger became the reason why Villains are popping up out of nowhere all over town.

Just in case you’re a little lost a Villain is someone who uses their Quirk to do something against the law. Basically, as long as Sōga was beating Kōichi without using his Quirk he wasn’t a Villain, but if he were to try to use it to beat Kōichi, that would make him a Villain and taking Trigger encourages him to lose inhibitions, use his Quirk and beat Kōichi even harder with it because beating Kōichi is what he wanted to do.

Said so, Trigger is a drug that works well into a story that talks about ‘honne’ (本音 “true feelings”) and ‘tatemae’ (建前 “behavior one should display”) since Trigger makes hard to maintain a ‘tatemae’ and encourages people to pursue their true feelings in a way that can be dangerous/illegal.

Anyway we’ll need to wait till chapter 3 to learn this drug’s full name is Ideo Trigger and more lore about it.

We’ll go back to the flashback and we’ll see Kugutsu has to encourage Sōga to try the drug, as he is hesitating in doing so. I guess Sōga has problems trusting strangers, hence why he didn’t take the drug like the others instead did.

We return to Knuckleduster and to Kōichi who asks why they should go after Trigger users instead than wait fot the Heroes or the police to catch them. Knuckleduster says since ‘Sokuseki teki (VILLAIN)’ (即席敵（ヴィラン） “instant enemy (Villain)”) can emerge from the crowd at any time the police is stuck on playing catch… and honestly it doesn’t seem such a big difference from how Villains normally appear. I mean, a robber, a purse snatcher or even a terrorist do not send you a warning note. It wasn’t like the police would know where Stain or the League would strike after all. This is more because Knuckleduster’s plan is to do what the police can’t do, harass suspicious looking people and force them to allow them to check their tongues to see if they’re regular Trigger users, as due to Trigger use, the tongue of the user change color and turns dark, almost black.

He then plans to beat up the guys with black tongues to force them to reveal who their dealer is so that in this way they can put an end to their drug trade and, if people don’t want to show their tongue they’ll be labeled as suspicious and punched anyway.

Although I can see a touch of Batman style in how Knuckleduster wants to beat cooperation out of people, Knuckleduster is actually worse than Batman as he would beat people way too easily and what he plans to do is VERY ILLEGAL… though I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have managed to pull it out when he was a Hero.

His superfast Quirk as well as the authority of being a Hero would have helped him to force people to show him his tongue and then easily release them were they prove their tongue is normal, also allowing him to be superfast at checking.

Knuckleduster’s method is clearly done to speed things up, he can’t accept he should go at another pace now and so he forces the issue by using violence and chasing people.

Kōichi still tags along and tries to stop Knuckleduster from beating people, trying to mediate between him and the other to no luck. Kazuho sees them and asks what’s going on so she gets some explanation. Her behavior is much better this time, she thanks Knuckleduster, even if she points out she hadn’t forgotten how he was willing to attack Sōga even when he was holding her captive and calls Kōichi ‘Nice Guy’ only to be told that ‘KŌICHI’ is fine and figuring that’s his real name.

Now I said VIG plays along with the concepts of ‘honne’ and ‘tatemae’. “Nice guy” was clearly a reflection of Kōichi’s ‘honne’. It acted freely the way Kōichi wanted to act and Kōichi will keep on doing the things he did as “Nice Guy” even when he’ll start being called The Crawler. Kōichi WAS “Nice Guy” way more than he is KŌICHI. So why did he switch to KŌICHI?

I’ll discuss it later on.

 For now pay attention to how, when Pop asks him why he is doing so, he makes a pause and then says he is doing it just to keep an eye on Knuckleduster, which fits on the theme of Kōichi knowing his place and how he is no Hero material but also, with that pause, reveal us that there’s something more, that the reason he gave is… well linked to his ‘tatemae’ more than to his ‘honne’.

Anyway Kazuho, hearing what they want to do, thinks to a better plan, one Knuckleduster should have thought about as he is actually an experienced Hero had he considered they didn’t need to rush into things. She suggests to check the photos on the net for instant villains to see if they can find some clue from them… and it’s a good plan but Knuckleduster can’t wait and tries to harass another person.

This time he technically hits the jackpot as it is Kugutsu Mario, but considering how many mistakes he did I can’t tell it was his experience talking, just luck.

Now… Kugutsu’s suitcase is knocked down and open and… contains Hero action figures. And this doesn’t make sense because the day before it contained syringes and even if we assume Sōga and Co gave him a head up about Knuckleduster searching for guys with dark tongue (but this is never shown), he shouldn’t have had the time to get toys which could contain it, EVEN IF IT WERE TO BE TRUE HE ACTUALLY WORKS FOR A TOY COMPANY, so it feels like this is more of a retcon to give us some suspense.

Anyway Knuckleduster tries to punch him and he is stopped by Aizawa. I said I don’t like how Vigilantes uses the teachers of U.A. High as his main Heroes but Aizawa was born in Tokyo so it makes sense he might still have his house there and be therefore in Naruhata to buy groceries. We also know that even as he taught he worked as an undercover Hero so again, makes sense.

I’m a lot less fine with how he abruptly becomes a teacher as the series goes on (along with Midnight, Present Mic and the other teachers of U.A. high who previously were being just Heroes). It’s just too many characters dropping from active Hero duty to become teachers all together when in VIG they didn’t show any interest in doing so before the moment they decided doing so.

ERASER HEAD ‘Shūjinkanshi no naka de no bōryoku kōi… odayaka janai na. Chikagoro hayari no `totsupatsusei teki (VILLAIN)’ tte yatsu ka.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「衆人環視の中での暴力行為…穏やかじゃないな。近頃流行りの「突発性敵（ヴィラン）」って奴か。」 Eraser Head “An act of violence in full view of others...that’s not good. Are you one of those “spontaneous enemies (Villains)” that are so common these days?”

First a note, Knuckleduster called the Villains ‘Sokuseki teki (VILLAIN)’ (即席敵（ヴィラン） “instant enemy (Villain)”) but Aizawa goes for ‘totsupatsusei teki (VILLAIN)’  (突発性敵（ヴィラン）”spontaneous enemies (Villains)”). Ultimately they’ll keep this name.

Now, keep this in mind, Aizawa recognized what Knuckleduster was doing as AN ACT OF VIOLENCE. Attacking people in Japan is illegal and I don’t think BNHA revised the law so that if you attack someone with something different from your Quirk is legal. So yeah, Aizawa caught Knuckleduster doing something illegal and thinks he is a Villain.

Knuckleduster, who used to be a Hero, immediately recognizes Aizawa but Kōichi and Kazuho do not and with good reasons as even Hero nerd Midoriya didn’t recognize him immediately… and then attacks him because Knuckleduster is not one who would spend time talking to people.

I do wonder though if he thinks he would have some immunity since he technically is a Hero and has a Hero license, even though he lost his Quirk so he believes no harm would come from attacking Aizawa. Whatever, harms doesn’t come anyway but I’m running ahead.

While Knuckleduster thinks a fight is the solution to everything, Kōichi would want Kugutsu to explain to Aizawa they aren’t the bad guys… which no, it wouldn’t work not even if Kugutsu was innocent because Knuckleduster DID TRY TO ATTACK HIM SO WHY SHOULD HE DEFEND HIM?

Anyway I love Kōichi for trying to find a non violent solution to the problem at hand but Kugutsu escapes and Kazuho recognizes him for a guy who was always present when instant Villains were to appear, encouraging Kōichi to tail him to check his tongue.

Meanwhile Aizawa thinks Knuckleduster has an endurance-enhancing Quirk, which… is weird to say the least, because it implies he believes otherwise Knuckleduster couldn’t put up with him when Aizawa isn’t that strong of a Hero, and his idea is made even weirder by the story itself when it turns out the guy is Quirkless… though actually this makes little sense too because Knuckleduster could have had a Quirk that had nothing to do with his ability to endure a battle. I mean the reasoning is overall dumb and goes as follow:

He can endure my attacks -> he must have an endurance Quirk so let’s use erasure to erase his Quirk ->erasure doesn’t work-> he doesn’t have an endurance Quirk but he somehow can endure my attacks -> if he doesn’t have an endurance Quirk he must be Quirkless.

If having an endurance Quirk was NEVER a prerequisite to endure Aizawa’s attacks why was Aizawa so sure he needed to have an endurance Quirk? And how him not having an endurance Quirk insure he is Quirkless? He could have a Quirk he is not using right now because, let’s say, it’s a lycanthropy Quirk and there is no full moon yet!

We move to Kōichi who is tailing Kugutsu when he ends up crossing path with Sōga and Co which is a coincidence that is way too convenient, especially because, even though Sōga is in a normal state, his friends are clearly under the effects of Trigger, which feels way too convenient.

Their ability to reason also do not seem to be weaker.

Kōichi confirms the meeting with Sōga took place the day before and Sōga inject himself with Trigger which actually is dumb. Kōichi never had any chance against him if not when he were to manage to escape or surprise him.  Sōga should have saved the drug for Knuckleduster.

Whatever, back to Aizawa and Knuckleduster we go.

I said it already more than once but it is worth to repeat it here too.

You can’t hit people in Japan, if your actions do not result in injury, you may still be charged with assault, which carries penalties of up to two years in prison, a fine of up to ¥300,000, or detention and if your actions cause physical harm to the other person, you could face up to 15 years in prison or a fine of up to ¥500,000.

Knuckleduster can’t go around attacking people and, while it is true in Japan is pretty complicate to prove you were victim of assault and the police tends to shrug it off, HE WAS WITNESSED ATTACKING PEOPLE BY AIZAWA, A PRO HERO who has acknowledged it moments ago.

Yet Aizawa will shrug the aggression off because there was no Quirk use, which means Knuckleduster is not a Villain.

ERASER HEAD ‘‘Sumimasen kochira ni gokai ga atta yō desu .”Kosei” no fusei shiyō’ ni ataranai ijō ore ga anata o toraeru riyū wa nai. Tekkiri teki (VILLAIN) no rui ka to omottandesuga.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「すみませんこちらに誤解があったようです。『〝個性〟の不正使用』に当たらない以上俺があなたを捕らえる理由はない。てっきり敵（ヴィラン）の類かと思ったんですが。」Eraser Head “I apologize, it seems there was a misunderstanding on my end. Since it doesn’t constitute “unauthorized use of your quirk”, there is no reason for me to arrest you. I totally thought you were some kind of enemy (villain).”

This really speaks poorly of how seriously Japan takes assault since Aizawa can shrug it off just because the guy couldn’t be considered a Villain and so he didn’t do anything wrong as if it was okay to attack people if you’re Quirkless. I mean this means when Sōga and Co beat Kōichi and harassed Kazuho it was okay for them to do so as long as they weren’t using their Quirk!

That’s a terrible message and here I think Furuhashi messed up because I doubt he (or Horikoshi) meant that but this is how he represented it.

He even has Aizawa repeat it despite Knuckleduster attacking Kugutsu and him as well.

ERASER HEAD ‘Kono bade wa tsumi ni toenai.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「この場では罪に問えない。」Eraser Head “He can’t be held accountable here.”

He still wonders if he should warn the police about him and of course he should. He should report him.

Meanwhile Sōga and Co ARE USING THEIR QUIRKS TO CHAGE AND ATTACK KŌICHI and, for once, there is no Hero in sight… except for Knuckleduster, that’s it who knocks Moyuru down. And okay, Aizawa joins the party and stop Sōga (and also steps over him) while Kōichi is about to call Knuckleduster ‘master’ but then switches to ‘KNUCKLE-san’ (ナックルさん “Mr. Knuckle”) because he is still trying to pretend he doesn’t want to be his apprentice.

Anyway Knuckleduster and Kōichi leave, taling after Kazuho who is tailing after Kugutsu while Rapt is tailing after her.

Previously it was Sōga and Moyuru who were the main responsible behind Kazuho’s aggression so I don’t really get why he leaves his friends alone to deal with Kōichi to tail after her and push her against Kugutsu. Yeah, he can chase her better and Sōga wanted to hurt her so maybe he asked him to chase her. It’s still a little weak but it can work. Anyway he pushes her, she slams against Kugutsu, this causes his dolls to fall out of the suitcase and so he pulls out a very long, very black tongue and decides that’s a good moment to pop away the All Might doll head to reveal the syringe and inject himself with Trigger, basically revealing to the whole world he is turning into a giant sized Villain.

Can I catch this chance to say I do not like tongues in VIG? They just do not seem human tongues.

Trigger apparently doesn’t give addition and it was a lot safer to try to leave behind Kazuho now that she had fallen too than to turn into a Villain so again, not a smart choice. He might totally be dumb though. We’ll never fing out as he won’t have a role after this. On the other side Teruo will said he was told to use Trigger when things weren’t going his way so this might be what Kugutsu does… but it’s still a dumb decision bound to give him more problems.

We see he grabs Kazuho and Rapt and Knuckleduster and Kouchi arrive and starts going on a rampage… or better, to play with a car, Kazuho and Rapt as if they were toys. Actually he squeezes Rapt too hard for no good reason. If he had had more characterization maybe we could have explored the idea that, under stress, he wants to play with his toys and that taking Trigger cut his inhibitions lose and allowed him to do so but still it would have more sense if he had focused on trying to use his Quirk to escape if he really had to use it.

Knuckleduster manages to hit him only to be hit back and fall on the ground… MIRACULOUSLY without breaking any bone and causing him to drop Kazuho.

Kōichi sees Kazuho fall and know that even if Kazuho can look like she knows how to fly thanks to her Quirk, said Quirk is leap, and therefore she needs a foothold to jump or she’ll fall and hit the ground way too hard for her to survive.

And here Kōichi confirms for us what is his ‘honne’. He is doing all this not just out of a sense of duty but also BECAUSE HE WANTS TO BECOME A HERO!

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Sakki ano ko ni ―tte kika retakedo. Kotae wa yappari… ‘HERO ni naritai’ kara mochiron ima kara puro ni nanka nare kkonai son’na koto wa wakatteru. ― Demo hon’no isshunde ī ore datte tobitai nda!! Shikashi…! 1-Byō-go ni wa chō kōkai! Tobenai yatsu ga tobou to suru to… kō naru! Ochiru! Shinu! ! Shikamo oi uchi! Iya…’ 灰廻航一「さっきあの子に―って聞かれたけど。答えはやっぱり…「ヒーローになりたい」から。もちろん今からプロになんかなれっこないそんなことは分かってる。―でもほんの一瞬でいい俺だって飛びたいんだ！！しかし…！1秒後には超後悔！飛べない奴が飛ぼうとすると…こうなる！落ちる!死ぬ！！しかも追いうち！いや…」Haimawari Kōichi “Earlier that girl -she asked me that. My answer is, of course... “Because I want to be a hero.” I know there’s no way I can become a pro now. —But even if it’s just for a moment, I want to fly too!! But...! I’ll regret it terribly in one second! When someone who can’t fly tries to fly... this is what happens! They fall! They die!! And to make matters worse! No...”

And so he moves to save Kazuho. He knows he can’t become a Pro now but it doesn’t matter, he wants to fly! But a second later he is forced to realize since he can’t fly his attempt at doing it anyway is going to cost him his life and… no. It doesn’t have to end like that because Kōichi finds a solution to save his own life. Differently from Midoriya he is not saved by Uraraka slapping him, no, he saves himself. He is not saved as some sort of returning karma, he is just capable to do it. He not only has the heart of a Hero, he also has the ability that can lead him to become a Hero.

This is also something important in VIG, all that Kōichi will reach is thanks to his own abilities and efforts. He doesn’t get a shiny new Quirk, he uses his own ‘lame’ Quirk to its full potential until it’ll turn out it is not so lame after all, that his Quirk, his talent, is as good as the one of any other Hero because he find the way to unlock its potential.

Sure, the one of BNHA, “if you help others, the others will save you in return” is a nice message… but it is also a good message to tell others if they try they can do it, if they try they can save others AND THEMSELVES. You have that power as long as you keep on trying it is not all lost.

Kōichi saves himself as he manages to use his Quirk to first cling to the Villain and then find a soft landing for himself and yes, afterward the Villain, who’ll want to attack him, is stopped by Aizawa so Kōichi gets saved in the end, but that’s not the point, the point was he could fly and the price of flying wouldn’t be his death because he also had the means to safely land. He could save Kazuho without sacrificing himself.

Could he have handled things hadn’t Aizawa showed up? We don’t know, maybe not but that wasn’t the question, the question was if he could try without dying as a price and he could. And this is what truly matters.

Now, two words about Kugutsu’s Quirk.

Chap 94.5 calls it ‘Bundodo’ (ブンドド) which is translated as “playtime” but actually refers to the act of holding miniature figures and models while making voices and sound effects as they fight. It gave him black skin, an extra set of arms and a giant look. In chap 95.4 it is suggested the gigantification effect is due to Trigger so this would leave him only with a Quirk that gives him an extra set of arms and dark skin. As he doesn’t really use that extra set though, they kind of feel redundant and make weird how Trigger do not affect them (as they are his Quirk) but made him big instead. Okay, I get I shouldn’t think to hard at the ‘Quirk magic’ as Quirks do not exist but I’m still annoyed. By the way apparently his Quirk is called as such, not in reference to the characteristics that give to him (dark skin, 4 arms) but due to his liking for playing with figures… unless the Quirk also gave him such liking which… makes zero sense. Besides Aizawa supposedly erased his Quirk… but it worked only for the Gigantification part as he conserved the 4 arms and the black skin and okay, he could have been an Heteromorph only before he didn’t have black skin or 4 arms and had hair so what is the idea, that before he was wearing a disguise? If he did the whole thing gets completely dropped afterward.

Basically Kugutsu is the real weak point of this chapter. He has zero characterization and the little characterization he has makes little sense, never mentioning the whole vials of drugs which are then converted into toys containing drug. He is a drug dealer so he should be relevant into the whole thing and more culpable than your ordinary Trigger users but… at the end of the day he means nothing, capturing him didn’t change the stakes, even the police in chap.5 will handle him as a mere guy who took Trigger and that’s it.

My impression is that they decided to retcon him out of the story, that they didn’t see any potential in him and replaced him with Hachisuka Kuin. The anime will also figure there is no point in betting on Kugutsu and will cut his role as drug dealer, passing it to Number 6 and allowing Kugutsu to merely be a Trigger user. Said all this let’s continue with the story.

Next we see the police arrest Sōga and Co and if we pay attention we can see among the policemen Tsukauchi and Sansa.

Meanwhile Aizawa talks with Knuckleduster and…

ERASER HEAD ‘‘Ma… ichiō go kyōryoku kansha shimasu yo.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「ま…一応ご協力感謝しますよ。」Eraser Head“Well... I suppose I appreciate your cooperation.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Ittarou ore mo “zeni no ichishimin”da. HERO ni kyōryoku suru no wa tōzen no gimu sa.’ ナックルダスター「言ったろう俺も〝善意の一市民〟だ。ヒーローに協力するのは当然の義務さ。」Knuckleduster “I told you, I’m just an ordinary citizen with good intentions. It’s my duty to help heroes.”

ERASER HEAD‘‘Anta-ra no “HERO-gokko” wa zeni to iu ni wa kiken sugimasuga ne. Iro hitona imi de.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「あんたらの〝ヒーローごっこ〟は善意と言うには危険すぎますがね。いろ人な意味で。」Eraser Head“Your “hero game” is far too dangerous to be called well-intentioned. In many ways.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Fufun shokugyō (PRO) HERO ni wa dekinai koto o ore-tachi ga yatte irunda.’ ナックルダスター「ふふん職業（プロ）ヒーローにはできないことを俺たちがやっているんだ。」Knuckleduster “Hmph, we’re doing things that professional heroes can’t do.”

ERASER HEAD‘‘Dekinai koto?’ イレイザー・ヘッド「できないこと？」Eraser Head“What can’t we do?”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Konkai no kyodai teki (VILLAIN) ya CHINPIRA-domo no yōna renchū- -ore-tachi nara yatsura ga waru-sa o suru mae ni buchinomeseru.’ ナックルダスター「今回の巨大敵（ヴィラン）やチンピラどものような連中――俺たちなら奴らが悪さをする前にぶちのめせる。」Knuckleduster “With guys like this big enemy (Villain) and those thugs- -we could beat them up before they could do anything.”

ERASER HEAD‘‘Oioi `nani mo shinai uchi ni buchinomesu’ nante no wa sotchi koso hanzaidaro.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「おいおい『なにもしまいうちにぶちのめす』なんてのはそっちこそ犯罪だろ。」Eraser Head“Hey, “Beating someone up before they do anything”—that’s a real crime on your end, isn’t it?”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Sono rikutsu de iunara oretachi ga tsumi ni towa reru no mo tsuneni `koto o nashita nochi’ to iu koto ni naru na.’ ナックルダスター「その理屈で言うなら俺たちが罪に問われるのも常に「事を成した後」ということになるな。」Knuckleduster “By that logic, we would only ever be held accountable for our crimes “after we’ve committed the crime.”

ERASER HEAD ‘‘‘Yatta mon kachi’ no kakushin-han tte wake ka anta mechamecha tachi warui na.’ イレイザー・ヘッド「「やったもん勝ち」の確信犯ってわけかあんためちゃめちゃタチ悪いな。」Eraser Head “So you’re a deliberate offender who thinks “the one who does it first wins,” huh? You’re incredibly nasty.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Yoku iwa reru.’ ナックルダスター「よく言われる。」Knuckleduster “That’s what people say a lot.”

A couple of things lost in translation.

Knuckleduster mentions it’s his ‘gimu’ (義務 ”duty”) to help Heroes.

The word ‘gimu’ (義務 ”duty”) in Japan is used for more than just an obligation, it is deeply intertwined with concepts like ‘giri’ (義理 “social obligation/reciprocity”), ‘on’ (恩 “indebtedness for favors”), and ‘Ninjō’ (人情 “human feeling/compassion”), shaping everything from family and work to gift-giving, emphasizing harmony, respect, and fulfilling one’s role for the group’s good over individual desires. It’s a complex web of moral duties, social expectations, and legal responsibilities that maintain order and strong interpersonal bonds.

It basically hints at how strongly Knuckleduster feels this, which ties nicely with how he was a Hero before.

Also Aizawa describes Knuckleduster’s way of thinking as ‘yatta mono gachi’ (やったもん勝ち “the one who does it first wins”).

‘Yatta mono gachi’ (やったもん勝ち) is a Japanese expression meaning “the person who takes action or is the first to act will benefit (or win).” It is used to describe a situation where those who act without fear of failure will win, rather than doing nothing.

I want to remark how VIG is again the first to bring on the table the idea that it is the citizens’ duty to support the Heroes.

In BNHA all this will be tackled much, much later under the theme of ‘who helps Heroes when they’re in trouble/suffering in silence?’ that gets translated into citizens having to blindly support what Heroes do while at the same time following the rules, aka no vigilante action allowed, just host them, feed them, give them shirts, bring to them lost kids and so on where VIG do not remark the need for a strict adherence to rules and do not present it as an obligation toward poor Heroes who are sacrificing so much to help people but acknowledges that the Hero system isn’t perfect as Heroes can’t do everything so vigilantes attempts to fill the cracks.

People like Kōichi would have helped people like Jin or Himiko or Touya or Tomura before it were too late, where Heroes, who are usually involved in high profiles case, failed because, for all the talking about extending a helping hand that Midoriya does, most of BNHA prefers to focus more on beating the Villain than saving the person in trouble, equating BEATING with SAVING.

Also again Aizawa states what Knuckleduster does/want to do is a crime… since he do means to attack people before they’ll do something… because honestly, Knuckleduster might mean well, but his methods are still the ones of a Hero, he thinks by using violence he can solve things. Still Aizawa is going to turn his head away from it which is not something I really like.

Meanwhile Kazuho finds Kōichi (and calls him Kōichi all in Katakana because remember, this is also his vigilante name) and asks him how he is. Kōichi answers he is exhausted and then goes and then kind of reminds himself of/acknowledges his place.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iyā… demo narenai koto o suru mon janai ne. HERO kidori de ōtachimawari toka… somosomo GARA ja nai-tte iu ka. Kekkyoku-gen otchitashi… wa wa shinukatoomotta.’ 灰廻航一「いやあ…でも慣れないことをするもんじゃないね。ヒーロー気取りで大立ち回りとか…そもそもガラじゃないっていうか。結局限落っちたし…はは 死ぬかと思った。」Haimawari Kōichi “Well... but I guess I shouldn’t do things I’m not used to. Acting like a hero and putting on a big show... it’s not really my style to begin with. In the end I ended up falling... Haha ​​I thought I was going to die.”

There is a clash between his ‘honne’ and the ‘tatemae’ he thinks he has to embrace and accept as his own identity. He wants to be a Hero and he acts accordingly but the idea he is not suited for it had been beaten inside him and so he still believes he shouldn’t do it and takes the fact he fell, that he couldn’t keep flying, as a proof of this.

Kazuho, who was saved by him (again) and was impressed, hearing him saying so, scolds him for putting himself down, she seems to believe his own is a show of modesty, but Kōichi is genuinely confused because he is trying to bury his ‘honne’ believing the ‘tatemae’ is his truth.

At the start of the chapter Kōichi chose to have people call him ‘KŌICHI’ (コーイチ), all in Katakana, instead than his previous name ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”).

‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”) was an acceptable identity for him, one he acknowledged, as he corrected Kazuho twice when she failed to use it. It’s an identity both his ‘honne’ and his ‘tatemae’ could accept. Kōichi is a genuinely nice guy who wants to help others but, in that identity, he is not doing anything big. He is not really trying to be a Hero. As Kazuho put him, he is being also ‘Mi no hodo MAN’ (身の程マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Know your place-Man”), where ‘Mi no hodo’ (身の程) refers to one’s own social standing, abilities, and capabilities (one’s place in the world) so it means objectively understanding oneself and acting and making judgments that are appropriate to one’s position and it is used with two meaning, ‘to objectively understand one’s own abilities and position’ or ‘to behave appropriately according to one’s social standing and abilities.

‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”) matches with this, it shows that Kōichi understands he is no Hero material and makes him behave accordingly while giving him the chance to do what he wants, use his Quirk to help others.

Kōichi though, went with ‘KŌICHI’ at the start of this chapter and it is never explained why, but it can be that in his heart there were two answers for his choice.

Let’s remember that, when Kazuho asked him why he was playing along with Knucleduster his answer, which he gave after a brief delay, was that he needed to keep an eye on him to avoid he would beat up everyone. This fits with him knowing his place, he is no Hero material, he won’t become Knuckleduster’s disciple but he’ll help to make sure no one gets hurt. And choosing to be called ‘KŌICHI’ might feel to him like he is reminding himself he is just that, ‘Kōichi’, not a Hero with a fancy Hero name, just Kōichi, not even ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”).

On the other side, Kōichi will admit to himself that actually he truly wants to be a Hero, that he wants to fly, that he wants to be more than what he thinks is his place to be. The pause might be there because Kōichi do not feel comfortable admitting he doesn’t want to accept what society thinks it is his place, what he was taught is his place, that he wants to be more. Choosing ‘KŌICHI’ might have also be because a side of him wanted to believe in Knuckleduster turning Kōichi into a Hero instead than just ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”).

But now that he had tried to be a Hero and had almost died… he again thinks he is no Hero material. Heroes are exceptional, special, people at which others look up to, and he couldn’t keep on flying, he fell and almost died. He is not someone who flies, he is someone who crawls so not a Hero.

So his words aren’t an attempt at modesty, they are an attempt at reminding himself of his own place, of how he is no Hero material and shouldn’t have tried doing something Heroic as he might have as well died.

He wanted to fly and was forced to realize he only ended up falling. In his self deprecation he completely misses he has saved Kazuho.

Kazuho’s reaction to his words is confusing to him, as he likely didn’t expect her to consider him Hero material. He expected her to agree with him and remind him of his place. Honestly I do wonder if Furuhata had already planned for Kōichi to have a mother like Shōko or if she was created afterward to explain why Kōichi is the way he is.

Anyway it’s at this point Knuckleduster joins the group to explain Kōichi why he fell.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Kōichi. Omae ga naze ochita ka oshiete yarou. Tonda kara da ato wa chakuchi no mondaida na. Ore ni naratte gomisuteba ni ochita no wa jōdekidaga hoka ni mo omae ga manabubeki koto wa ikurademo aru zo.’ナックルダスター「コーイチ。おまえがなぜ落ちたか教えてやろう。飛んだからだあとは着地の問題だな。俺に倣ってゴミ捨て場に落ちたのは上出来だがほかにもおまえが学ぶべきことはいくらでもあるぞ。」Knuckleduster “Koichi. Let me tell you why you fell. Since you flew, the only remaining issue was the landing. Falling into the garbage dump like me was a good move, but there are plenty of other things you need to learn.”

He turns things around by turning ‘falling’ into ‘landing’. Kōichi flew, he was capable of flying, but then he also needed to know how to land. His plan to follow Knuckleduster example and land into the garbage was good, but he still has place for improvement.

So it’s not that Kōichi fell because he wasn’t Hero material, he fell because that’s what happen when you fly and all Kōichi has to do now is to learn how to do it, the implication being he has to learn it from Knuckleduster.

Kōichi though is still in denial but Knuckleduster is not fooled.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iya. Dakara ore wa deshi toka janaidesu tteba.’ 灰廻航一「いや。だから俺は弟子とかじゃないですってば。」Haimawari Kōichi“No. I’m telling you, I’m not your apprentice or anything like that.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Sakki ore no koto o “shishō” to yondadarou.’ナックルダスター「さっき俺のことを〝師匠〟と呼んだだろう。」Knuckleduster “You just called me “master,” didn’t you?”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iya are wa tte i ukkari. Kikoe teta? “KNUCKLE –san”-tte ii nikuishi.’ 灰廻航一「いやあれはっていうっかり。聞えてた？〝ナックルさん〟って言いにくいし。」Haimawari Kōichi“No, that was just a slip of the tongue. Did you hear me? It’s hard to say “Knuckle-san”.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Dakara koso da.’ナックルダスター「だからこそだ。」Knuckleduster “That’s precisely why.”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘?’ 灰廻航一「？」Haimawari Kōichi“?”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘ “Tsui” tsui toka “tossa” ni deru kotoba ya kōdō tsumari wa sore ga omae no hon’neda. Jikaku shiro “HERO shigan”.’ナックルダスター「つい〟ついとか〝咄嗟〟に出る言葉や行動つまりはそれがおまえの本音だ。自覚しろ〝ヒーロー志願〟。」Knuckleduster “Those words and actions that come out “spontaneously” or “in the heat of the moment” are your true feelings. Be aware of that, “aspiring hero.”“

Knuckleduster sees Kōichi’s ‘honne’ and not only accepts it but helps Kōichi to do so. He doesn’t remind Kōichi of his place, he just sees what Kōichi truly wishes and tells him to run for it and that he’ll support him.

Knuckleduster has many flaws as a person but he is good with Kōichi in this part. Kōichi has given up on what he truly wants because he doesn’t think it is appropriate for him to wish for it, and Knuckleduster instead encourages him to try, he tells him it’s okay to go for it.

Kōichi is still a bit hesitant and it makes sense because when you’ve worked so hard into persuading yourself you can’t do it, it is hard to embrace the opposite idea, but he is starting to warm up to the thing.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iya 〜 sono rikutsu tte… chotto gōin ja naissuka?’ 灰廻航一「いや〜そのリクツって…ちょっと強引じゃないっスか？」Haimawari Kōichi“Well, that logic... isn't it a bit far-fetched?”

The narration will then foreshadow how Kōichi will keep on flying while at the same time not making any grandiose statement like him becoming the greatest Hero. It just tells us that Kōichi will keep on marching forward, will keep on improving. Honestly this is good enough and clever from a narrative point of view. Not only Kōichi couldn’t surpass Midoriya and his grand statement of him becoming the greatest Hero, but such a vague promise it is easier to uphold as the story now is only obliged to continue to have Kōichi improving. That’s enough to keep this starting promise.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘... Ato kara omoikaeseba kore ga saisho no hito tobi. Okkanabikkuri no ririku (TAKEOFF). Soshite ore wa kono rodjiura kara motto motto takaku tobu koto ni naru── ──nodakedo sono hen no hanashi wa matakondo.’ 灰廻航一「...あとから思い返せばこれが最初のひと飛び。おっかなびっくりの離陸（テイクオフ）。そして俺はこの路地裏からもっともっと高く飛ぶことになる── ──のだけどその辺の話はまた今度。」Haimawari Kōichi“Looking back, that was my very first flight. A rather nerve-wracking takeoff. And I would go on to fly much, much higher from this alleyway—but that's a story for another time.”

The anime and its differences with the manga

The anime introduces the idea the beer in Kōichi’s fridge isn’t for him but for his upperclassmen when they come to visit which in the manga will be suggested much later, in chap 4.

It is also worth to note that in the manga it seems Knuckleduster is visiting Kōichi the day after while here he seems to be doing it that same day so what happens to Sōga and Co isn’t a flashback but what is happening as Knuckleduster and Kōichi talk.

By the way dialogues are changed, expanded or moved around for a better and more explicative flow.

The anime also makes clear Sōga tried Trigger along with his companions, where in the manga only Rapt and Moyuru tried it and then Kugutsu insisted for Sōga to try it as well but left unclear if he did so right then, or waited to meet up with Kōichi to try it the first time. Plus the anime also show Sōga’s group scaring people away… and this is not such a great plan as a Hero at that point should have noticed and stopped them, especially if they remained in that state for a whole day, but also if they just went on a rampage that night and the night after it.

The anime cuts Kōichi apologizing to Kugutsu and asking him to explain Aizawa they are not bad guys.

The anime shows Sōga and Co flied to where Kōichi is while the manga is a lot less clear about it. We do not see them fly, we only see Rapt’s wind flapping near Kōichi and then the three of them in front of him. Rapt and Moyuru are crouched down so they might have just landed but Sōga is standing straight so it’s also possible they did not and that encounter was an accident, not due to the three of them flying over the city searching for him.

On a weird note while in the manga it is Kōichi who says they’re the guys from yesterday, here it’s Sōga who claims he wants to settle yesterday’s score. By the way, differently from the other two he is not under Trigger same as in the manga, where he’ll inject himself in front of Kōichi.

While in the manga Aizawa merely steps over Sōga’s body in the anime he seems to press his heel inside his ass. Honestly I didn’t like him much the idea of Aizawa stepping over him, but it could work if it was done to restrain him better. This though, feel distasteful because it feels it’s done purely to humiliate him and while he was being horrible out there, I still do not like the idea of someone who should uphold justice acting like that, especially while they claim they are doing true Hero work.

VOLUME 1

VIG volume 1 was released on April 4, 2017 at the same time in which BNHA volume 13 was released.

Let's start from the title that in Japanese is ‘VIGILANTE -Boku no HERO ACADEMIA ILLEGALS-’ (ヴィジランテ -僕のヒーローアカデミア ILLEGALS- “Vigilantes –My Hero Academia Illegals-) which immediately tells us that the Vigilantes of the story are something that is illegal in the BNHA world, the world of Heroes… but, more importantly, the world Horikoshi created, a world in which Horikoshi put a big emphasis on the importance of respecting rules (to the point he’ll murder his Villains). The fact in this story we’ll talk of someone who acts in an illegal way seems to imply this story is willing to offer us, if not the other side of the medal… well, still a different side.

But let's dig into the volume.

After a cover that is clearly meant to mimic the one of BNHA the volume differentiates to BNHA by offering us a black page with a definition written in white.

[VIGILANTE]

NOUN|VIG-I-LAN-TE

: A MEMBER OF A VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE ORGANIZED TO SUPPRESS AND PUNISH CRIME SUMMARILY (AS WHEN THE PROCESS OF LAW ARE VIEWED AS INADEGUATE) BROADLY: A SELF-APPOINTED DOER OF JUSTICE

The whole thing is more interesting in Japanese, because it makes clear vigilante is a loan word and therefore kind of a ‘foreign concept in Japan’ in fact we see the whole first line written as such

[ヴィジランテ(自警団)]<vigilante>

‘Jikei-dan’ (自警団) the Japanese word that is used for is the short for ‘jichitai keisatsu’ (自治体警察) which means… “municipal police” plus ‘-dan’ (団) which means “group”. So yeah, it is a word that means that they are a squad that maintaining vigilance but with the Japanese word… well, we are more on the legal side here than what the word ‘vigilante’ implies.

And now let’s start with…

CHAPTER 1

I’ve said the volume got released on April 4, 2017 but the first chapter was actually released earlier in August 20, 2016, two days before BNHA chap 103 will be released, meaning in the main series we are at the beginning of the “Provisional Hero license exam arc”.

Now… something that gets lost in translation is that this chapter in English is titled “I’m here” (the volume also is called as such) and this is the sentence people associate to All Might but that here is written slightly differently as All Might usually says “I am here” and not “I’m here”.

What does it matter?

Let’s start with breaking a belief, All Might never said “I am here” in the Japanese version, what he says is ‘Watashi ga kita’ (私が来た) which means “I have arrived”, with ‘watashi’ being the polite/formal way to say “I”.

“I have arrived” though it is not a great catchphrase in English, “I am here” sound better and delivers more or less the same idea, hence the change which, honestly, I think Horikoshi himself approved.

The Japanese title of the first chapter of Vigilante though, has nothing in common with ‘Watashi ga kita’ (私が来た “I have arrived”) as it says ‘Ore ga iru’ (俺がいる) which means “I am/exists (here)”

So yeah, the literal translation of this sentence is closer to our “I am here” than All Might’s catchphrase and, spoiler, it is the catchphrase of Knuckleduster, which in this story is meant to be the main character’s mentor figure which parallels All Might.

But I am running ahead.

Where BNHA started with a statement from Midoriya that implied also that he kind of know how the story will end, here we begin with posing some questions to the readers.

‘HERO to wa! Seifu no ninka no shita umare motta “kosei” (Chikara) o ikashite shakai ni hōshi suru erabareshimono-tachi! Daga kono sekai ni wa sōde wanai HERO mo iru. ‘Erabareru’ koto naku mizukara katsudō suru “higōhō (read: ILLEGAL) HERO”. Karera no seigi to Hana n’na no ka? Somosomo karera o HERO to yoberu nodarou ka…!?’ 『ヒーローとは！政府の認可の下生まれ持った”〝個性〟（ちから）を活かして社会に奉仕する選ばれし者たち！だがこの世界にはそうではないヒーローもいる。「選ばれる」ことなく自ら活動する〝非合法（イリーガル）ヒーロー〟。彼らの正義とはなんなのか？そもそも彼らをヒーローと呼べるのだろうか…！？』 “Who are Heroes? Chosen few, who, under government approval, use their innate “quirks” (read: powers) to serve society! But in this world, there are also Heroes who are not like that. “Illegal heroes” who operate independently without having been “chosen.” What is their sense of justice? Can they even be called heroes...?”

VIG aim to reach older readers compared to BNHA but it is still interesting to see how BNHA seems aimed at telling us what’s right and wrong while VIG wants us to decide for ourselves if its cast can be called Heroes… which ties with the Japanese view of justice… which I’ll discuss later.

Oh, a problem I have with VIG is its choice of which canon Heroes to show in the story.

This chapter was printed around the same time chap 103 of BNHA was (actually chap 103 came out two days after this one) so we are at the Provisional Hero license exam and not many Heroes have appeared yet.

Still, honestly, instead than picking Heroes from U.A. High, I think it would have worked better if VIG had made its own Heroes and used them.

After all we are in Naruhata, Tokyo, and not in Shizuoka so it would make sense to have different Heroes than the ones that work in Shizuoka, besides all those Heroes deciding to become teachers all at the same time and having a place at U.A. High for no reason at all (it’s not like the story tell us some teachers died) just didn’t sit right with me.

Of course I understand this was made because cameos of beloved characters from the main series promote the main series and VIG at the same time but it’s still annoying.

I’m honestly not impressed when I see that of the 8 Heroes behind All Might 6 are U.A. High teachers and two of them are teachers no one cares about like Ectoplasm and Cementoss.

On more interesting notes although Knuckleduster is a violent character, his first action in the story is to pet a kitten with a blid eye, and the ties of his bandana fluttering behind him visually resemble All Might’s two tufts.

After the color spread...

...we then move to the story which starts in media res, with Kōichi falling from a 30 meters building, Knuckleduster unconscious, a monster looming over them and Kōichi praying for help, promising he’ll give up on his idea of becoming a Hero…. which is an interesting contrast with how Midoriya stubbornly clung to his idea of becoming a Hero… but this is just a flash forward of two pages.

So back we go to the start of the story and to Kōichi introducing us again to the world in which he lives.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘...Somosomo yononaka ga ‘“chōjō” ikō’ toka ‘chōjin shakai’ toka iwa reru yō ni natte zuibun tattarashīkedo. ‘Minna tokubetsu’-tte koto wa kekkyoku ‘sore ga FUTSŪ’ na WAKE de. ...Mā YABAI yatsu wa chō YABAI ndakedo. Ore-tachi FUTSŪ no ippanjin ga son’na renchū no aite nante dekiru wakeganai. Hontoni ‘chō’na hito-tte no wa sora tonde kuru toka chikara ga metcha tsuyoi toka SPEED ga sugoi to ka. Egao ga chō Ī to ka. (Iya… kore wa kankeinai ka). Yō suru ni atama no ue no sonzai jibeta kara miage teru dake no ore nanka to wa zenzen chigau. …Nante omottetandakedo──’ 灰廻航一「（...そもそも世の中が「〝超常〟以降」とか「超人社会」とか言われるようになってずいぶん経ったらしいけど。「みんな特別」ってことは結局「それがフツー」なワケで。...まあヤバい奴は超ヤバいんだけど。俺たちフツーの一般人がそんな連中の相手なんてできるワケがない。ほんとに「超」な人ってのは空飛んで来るとか力がめっちゃ強いとかスピードがすごいとか。笑顔が超イイとか。（いや…これは関係ないか）。よーするに頭の上の存在地べたから見上げてるだけの俺なんかとは全然違う。…なんて思ってたんだけど──』 Haimawari Kōichi “...Apparently, it’s been quite a while since the world started being described as “post-(the advent of the) supernatural” or a “superhuman society”. “Everyone being special” in the end came to mean “they’re normal/average.” ...Well, some bad/dangerous guys are just seriously bad/dangerous. There’s no way we normal/average people could compete with those kinds of people. Truly “super” people are those who can fly, have incredible strength, or have incredible speed. Or have super great smiles. (No...that’s irrelevant, isn’t it?) In short, they are beings above our heads, completely different from someone like me who only looks up at them from the ground. ...Or so I thought──”

What is important about this monologue is how Kōichi is basically splitting society in groups.

We have:

the bad guys as interesting enough he do not use Villains but ‘yabai yatsu’ (ヤバい奴), “bad guys”

the ordinary people like him, or better the ‘FUTSU no ippanjin’ (フツーの一般人).  ‘FUTSU’ means “normal/average” and ‘ippanjin’ (フツーの一般人) means “people who do not have special status, social standing, or fame” a word that is generally used as the opposite of celebrities and famous people

the really super people or better the ‘Honto ni ‘chō (read: TOKUBETSU)’ na hito’ (ほんとに「超（トクベツ）」な人) which means the “really super people” but we are told “super” needs to be read as “special”, with “special” written in katakana instead than hiragana to further remark it and again Kōichi do not use the term Hero.

His talk clearly put him down, he is not special he doesn’t stand on equal level with those special people even though he clearly admires them.

We also have another thing that is interesting.

All Might  asks if someone is injured but when the Villain points out to his broken teeth he tells him ‘kimi wa betsu’ (君は別 “you are different”), implying him being hurt doesn’t matter because who cares about Villains’ rights?

We tend to miss it because All Might is always presented in a positive light but All Might’s way to solve thing is NEVER through defusing situation, through mediation, he arrives, beats the bad guy as fast as he can without regards for why the Villain is doing what he is doing and leaves.

He is not the only one, plenty of other Heroes employ this strategy, viewing the mere breaking of law as the ultimate evil and Hawks himself will talk about the importance of defeating Villains as fast as possible.

I want you to remember this as it will get important later on.

Anyway here we are told our main protagonist is Haimawari Kōichi (灰廻航一) 19 years old, someone who is not a high school student like Midoriya but someone who has a work and is late for it (though VIG plays on the parallel of both series starting with the main chara watching Heroes in action… but then reverses it because while Midoriya was basically wished good luck in becoming a Hero, Kōichi implies he is no Hero material).

While in BNHA we were clearly in spring, at the beginning of the new schoolyear, here it is a little harder to say when the story is taking place. There are no blooming sakura so not the beginning of spring but people isn’t dressed lightly either so not summer and they aren’t dressed heavily either so not winter either.

This means we’re either past the beginning of spring or in autumn. Thankfully in chap 43 it is confirmed this arc takes place in spring.

To reach his workplace in time Kōichi decides he’ll uses his Quirk, ‘Kassō’ (滑走 “sliding”) or, if you prefer “Slide and Glide” and… he is stopped by a policeman because who is not a Hero can’t use his Quirk.

Keikan ‘Kimi no sono “kosei” dakedo... Hito no ashimoto toka hashiru to abunaikara mendō demo jitensha tsukai nasai ne. `Kōdō de no “kosei” no shiyō kinshi’ wa hōritsu de kimatte iru nda yo. Wa… wa i… kimi wa `jibun no “kosei” o ikashite nani ga warui’ tte omou kamo shirenaikedo. Iron’na “kosei” no hito ga irukara koso, otagai ni kimochiyoku kurashite iku tame ni wa hitorihitori ga--’ 警官「君のその〝個性〟だけど...人の足下とか走ると危ないから面倒でも自転車使いなさいね。「公道での〝個性〟の使用禁止」は法律で決まっているんだよ。君は「自分の〝個性〟を活かしてなにが悪い」って思うかもしれないけど。いろんな〝個性〟の人がいるからこそ、お互いに気持ちよく暮らしていくためには一人一人が――」 Policeman “That “Quirk” of yours... It’s dangerous to run near people’s feet, so even though it’s a hassle, please use a bicycle. “The using your ‘Quirk’ on public roads prohibition” is mandated by the law. You might think, “What’s wrong with using my ‘Quirk’?” But because there are people with all sorts of “Quirks,” in order for everyone to live together/get along comfortably, each and every one of us needs to—”

Yeah, Kōichi could cause people to trip if he is not careful but it’s not like using a bike doesn’t present dangers for other people if not used carefully but the point is he just shouldn’t use his Quirk as not using it would show his respect for other and help everyone to live in harmony.

While BNHA rambles about respecting laws, here we see an annoyed Kōichi thinking that he was caught by a stickler of a cop.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Kusō… MAJIMEna omawari-san ni mitsukatte shimatta… HANASHI chōgeku.’ 灰廻航一「くそう…マジメなおまわりさんに見つかってしまった…ハナシ長げく。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Damn... I got caught by a serious police officer... and the story is long.”

A ‘majime na omawari-san’ (マジメなおまわりさん) translates to a “serious/diligent police officer”, with ‘MAJIME’ (マジメ/真面目) being a key Japanese concept that means serious, diligent, honest, and hardworking and generally implying that someone is responsible, trustworthy, and respects the rules and ‘omawari-san’ (おまわりさん/ お巡りさん) being a friendly, affectionate, and commonly used term for a police officer or a beat cop. However while this can be used to remark how dedicate and hard working the policeman is, it can also mean he is following the rules too strictly, which is likely what an annoyed Kōichi is going for.

Basically while on surface Kōichi doesn’t challenge the policeman, he clearly disagrees with him. Keep all this in mind because the story is laying the groundwork for one of its themes.

Meanwhile, since using Quirks is dangerous but running apparently is not, Kōichi now is running and predictably he ends up slamming against Kugisaki Sōga and his friends. Literally.

They do not take it well so Kōichi does as they request, bows at them dogeza style.

Dogeza (土下座) is the deepest, most formal Japanese bow, involving kneeling directly on the ground and pressing one’s forehead to the floor to show profound remorse, extreme respect, or a desperate plea. Rooted in historical submission, it is used today for severe apologies, such as major corporate scandals, or very rarely, personal requests.

And here we have a better outlook at bullies than in the whole BNHA.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Dogeza wa tokui.Dakedo omoshiro gatte hito ni dogeza sa seru yōna yatsu wa. Tsuideni fundarikettari shite kurunode. Higi “dogeza de kaihi”. Demo KORE yaru to daitai kō naru node nigeru. Nigeru no wa tokuida.’ 灰廻航一「土下座は得意。だけど面白がって人に土下座させるような奴は。ついでに踏んだり蹴ったりしてくるので。秘技〝土下座で回避〟。でもコレやると大体こうなるので逃げる。逃げるのは得意だ。」 Haimawari Kōichi “I’m good at bowing in apology. But those who make people bow in apology just for fun... They’ll also step on you and kick you. My secret technique: “Avoid with a bow.” But when I do that, this usually happens, so I run away. I’m good at running away.”

Being the best version of yourself won’t please a bully, if you do not react but just submit to them, they will try to kick you even more, because it pleases him to do so, because they get a kick out of being so powerful over you. Kōichi though is aware of this and, before things escalates too far, escapes.

This too won’t please bullies as they take it as defiance and this makes them angry and so they give him chase. To no result.

Once he is safe Kōichi stumbles into one of Pop☆Step’s performances, which is also illegal as she doesn’t have permission to perform and also makes large use of her Quirk during it.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘...Uta wa betsuni umakunai yo ne. Hadena MAKEUP de kao mo yoku wakaranaishi. Demo nanka KIRAKIRA shite mieru no wa― ‘sora tonderu’ kara… janai kana.’ 灰廻航一「...歌は別に上手くないよね。派手なメイクで顔もよくわからないし。でもなんかキラキラして見えるのは―「空飛んでる」から…じゃないかな。」 Haimawari Kōichi “...She’s not particularly good at singing, is she? You can barely see her face with all that heavy makeup. But somehow she seems to sparkle— I think it’s because she’s “flying”...”

Kōichi’s opinion of Pop isn’t generous but still he thinks she is sparkly and assume it’s because she can basically fly. Flying can be associated to freedom as well as having a value as she is high.

Kōichi notices the police coming and, even though he is not a fan of Pop, saves her by warning her, so she can escape and then this is what Kōichi thinks next.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Ningen -tte no wa jibun ga miage teru mono ni akogareru. Gyaku ni mesen ga sagaru to mojidōri hikuku mi rare-gachi to iu ka… Jinsei -tte fukōhei, da yo ne.’ 灰廻航一「人間ってのは自分が見上げてるものに憧れる。逆に目線が下がると文字通り低く見られがちというか…人生って不公平、だよね。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Humans yearn for what they look up to. Conversely, when their gaze is lowered, they tend to literally looked down upon others... Life is unfair, isn’t it?”

For start Kōichi expresses a negative outlook on how things work again as he points out how people look up and look down to people according to their Quirks… or, in other words, to how they look. He’s forced to crawl to move with his Quirk, where Pop seems almost flying. He is aware there is a subtle form of discrimination ongoing, though he sadly thinks it is part of life.

The Japanese word for “Quirk” ‘Kosei’ (〝個性〟) actually means “individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic” hence that’s why the theme of discrimination factors so much in BNHA and, in a way, in VIG too.

It’s evening and we see that Kōichi works at the Family Mort, which is this universe’s version of the Family Mart.

FamilyMart (株式会社ファミリーマート) is Japan’s second-largest convenience store chain (behind 7-Eleven), known for its ubiquitous blue, green, and white branding. Operating over 24,000 stores globally (primarily in Asia), it acts as a mini-supermarket open 24/7, providing ready-to-eat meals, snacks, beverages, and essential daily services.

Not only Kōichi was late so he will be paid less but Sōga and Co get inside the store, recognize him and drags him out to beat him. Because bullies won’t forget of forgive.

No one helps Kōichi, no one calls the police, people either didn’t noticed what was going on or pretended not to. In Japan this is seen as an okay behavior because it would be rude to intrude in Kōichi’s business. Personally I find it also a very convenient behavior because it’s easier to turn your gaze away.

Sōga and Co beat Kouchi and pour a drink on him and no one does something.

It’s worth to say they technically do not use their Quirk, if not to threaten Kōichi at the start, so they technically aren’t Villains. What they do is still wrong and criminal because Japanese law doesn’t allow you to beat people. Still, no one comes to help Kouchi.

Kōichi is angry, rightfully so.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Kusso…nanna no AITSU-ra. Ā iu YAKARA koso keisatsu ga tsukamaerubeki janai no ka yo. Ā muka tsuku. IRAIRA suru.’ 灰廻航一「くっそ…なんなのアイツら。ああいうヤカラこそ警察が捕まえるべきじゃないのかよ。あームカつく。イライラする。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Shit... what’s wrong with those guys? Shouldn’t the police be arresting those kinds of thugs? Ah, it pisses me off. It’s so irritating.”

Kōichi remarks again another failure of their society, the cop who was so quick to scold him for doing something harmless now is nowhere to be seen.

VIG allows his main character to be angry and to criticize society, where Midoriya was just supposed to accept it and extend a helping hand.

Something that is also relevant is how Kōichi has a great copying mechanism for when he feels angry.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Sō tomo hōritsu nante kankeinai. Teatarishidaini yatte yaru!!’ 灰廻航一「そうとも法律なんて関係ない。手当たり次第にやってやる！！」 Haimawari Kōichi “That’s right, the law doesn’t matter. I’ll just do whatever I can!!”

Kōichi plans to use his Quirk… to help people. Helping people makes him feel genuinely better, he doesn’t do it because it’s cool, he does it because it makes him feel better, and he does it using his Quirk even though the law forbids him to use it.

As he does so he goes by the nick of ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy” lit. “Kind-Man”) but this is more than a nick. This is who Kōichi truly is, a nice person who feels better when he is helping out.

Among the people he helps… there is Midoriya Inko and she looks like she does when Midoriya is a teen. She is not her slim version of when Midoriya was a kid. This makes me think originally VIG was meant to take place when Midoriya was in middle school, in fact in chap 3 we see the shadow of a middle school Midoriya. However later on, when including in Vol 4 one of the promotional chapter for VIG, Furuhashi said Midoriya was meant to still be in ‘Shōgakkō’ (小学校 “elementary school”), not in ‘Chūgakkō’ (中学校 “middle school”) during the story.

Either the whole thing was retconned or Betten wasn’t informed about how he should have drawn Midoriya and Inko and knew only that the story would take place before BNHA, hence he assumed Midoriya was a middle schooler. We’ll probably never know the truth.

Anyway Kōichi feels better and now he is approached by Pop who offers him a drink and wants to thank him for having warned her about the police approaching during her concert.

Despite the nice start, Pop☆Step’s personality doesn’t shine for being nice.

She asks him if he is the one picking up the trash (she will complain in another circumstance on how she finds this lame) and calls Kōichi, instead than ‘Shinsetsu MAN’ (親切マン “Nice Guy”), ‘GOKIBURI MAN’  (ゴキブリマン “cockroach guy”). The two don’t even sound the same or similar enough it might have been a genuine mistake, so she is deliberately mocking him.

She also informs him SHE SAW him getting beaten up but she clearly just watched and didn’t call the police or try to help in any other way and then adds insult to injury by commenting on how he was lame because he got beaten by three guys.

Of course Kōichi is annoyed she was watching, though he admits he doesn’t do well with violence.

Meanwhile Kazuho goes on with being rude by mocking his hoodie… asking him if he wants to cosplay All Might despite sucking at fighting.

I love how Kōichi answers that he is being inspired by All Might ‘to be useful to society any way he can’ which doesn’t mean he has to fight. Kōichi takes the core of All Might, helping people, and not the surface, beating the bad guys.

Kazuho goes on mocking his efforts, by remarking at least he knows his place.

Kōichi returns the sentence to her, telling her if she keeps playing on being a pop idol the police will catch her.

This annoys Kazuho, who claims she is not playing, she is the real deal and… starts making demands from Kōichi, while continuing to mock him.

It only annoys him as he rightfully points out how he isn’t her slave and she hadn’t thanked him yet…

So, remember how the policeman told Kōichi using his Quirk was dangerous and this ended up causing Kōichi to run and slam into Sōga and Co.?

Well, Kazuho too runs without using her Quirk and guess what? She slams into Sōga and Co.

Maybe I’m just overreading things but to me this tosses a clear message on how the idea you shouldn’t use your Quirk because it is dangerous A PRIORI is actually an excuse. Everything can be dangerous if not used carefully.

Anyway Sōga and Co as usual do not take well being slammed into, especially because Kazuho also rudely yelled at them.

…and I get Furuhashi and Betten wanted to make her different from Uraraka (they could have spared us with the pick hair then, and a Quirk that keeps her in the air which reminds me of Uraraka’s) but they ended up making Kazuho unpleasant… and making her such a spoiled and entitled brat seems to be done to make readers less sympathetic when she gets attacked, which… is a HORRIBLE narrative choice, really.

Because really, they using the narrative device of the contrappasso, so they had her mock Kōichi when the latter was attacked and she also didn’t help him but just watched and now they are playing her in his position but… honestly I find that the result becomes pretty gross, because it kinds of work as an ‘excuse’ for Sōga’s group to attack her.

There’s more.

Tōchi Moyuru ‘“Ketsu dashi JK” -tte NET yūmeina Ita i onna.’ 灯市燃「〝ケツ出しJK〟ってネット有名なイタい女。」 Tōchi Moyuru “‘The high schooler who shows her butt’ is a notorious, cringeworthy girl on the internet.”

Moyuru calls her the ‘Ketsu dashi JK’ (ケツ出しJK). ‘Ketsudashi’ (ケツ出し) is a vulgar expression referring to the act of exposing one’s buttocks while ‘JK’ is a common Japanese abbreviation for ‘joshi kōsei’ (女子高生),” which translates to “high school girl”.

However later on it will be revealed Kazuho is not a high schooler but a middle schooler. In her last year sure, but she is actually younger than that. Sure, it is possible the idea is just Moyuru was wrong but I think the authors has him say so because they wanted to play safe. The younger a girl is, the more we smell pedophilia if she gets harassed so calling her a high schooler distanced the boys from it.

Something that people might miss at a first reading is that Kazuho’s mask is actually not a mask made with cloth but one made with make up. This is why this is what Moyuru says next.

Tōchi Moyuru ‘Jā sugao (SUPPIN) totte NET sarasu be.’ 灯市燃「じゃあ素顔（スッピン）撮ってネット晒すべ。」 Tōchi Moyuru “Okay then, let’s take a picture of her face without makeup and post it online.”

‘Suppin’ (スッピン) refers to a natural face with absolutely no makeup  which is the same meaning as ‘sugao’ (素顔) so, on the surface, even if they changed the reading of the word, they didn’t change the meaning… but there is actually more as ‘sugao’ can also mean “True Nature”.

While the scene is clearly meant to parallel sexual harassment, they didn’t mean to strip Kazuho at the start, just to remove her make up and reveal her true face on the net.

Mind you, the revealing would have had DISASTROUS consequences for Kazuho on a social level. It’s not just that the police could track her down, Kazuho hides her face because she would be the victim of overwhelming bullying (if not sexual molestation) if it were to turn out she is the girl flashing her backside on the net.

By the way the whole scene is also used to try and parallel what Midoriya did for Bakugou because Kōichi, differently from Kazuho, tries to help her. Mind you, Kazuho wasn’t Kōichi’s bully but she had been overwhelmingly rude when he, instead, had helped her, and had left him to his own devices when he was getting beaten up, so of course the scene works as a parallel. I still don’t like the set up.

Now there are differences between Midoriya and Kōichi, but if I have to look at the main ones we can see where Midoriya at first believed a Hero would come to rescue, Koichi didn’t expect one to come and when he decided to act, he came up with a plan, one he couldn’t execute, but he didn’t just jump into action blindly expecting this would be enough. I guess the idea was this is a more mature behavior as Kōichi is older than Midoriya.

He and Midoriya have in common they jump to action when they see ‘the gaze that asks for help’ but there’s to say Kōichi tried from the start to reason with Sōga and Co and persuade them to let Kazuho go while Midoriya covers his mouth as he thinks it’s his fault the Villain is now free, clearly not wanting anyone else to know about this.

Overall I think Furuhata did a better work than Horikoshi at constructing through the story why his main character is bound to jump into action seeing such a gaze.

Through the whole chapter we saw Kōichi being kind and helpful even when this gave him no reward, just because helping others make him feel good, as he is genuinely a nice guy, but the same space isn’t given to Midoriya’s innate kindness as the chapter only has a scene at the start in which he helps a kid, but the rest of the story discusses how he wants to be the strongest Hero because saving people is cool.

But let’s go back to the story.

Koichi fails to put his plan into action and Sōga attacks him with his Quirk, which places him in Villain territory.

Basically, in front of Kōichi’s defiance, Sōga’s bullying attempt escalates.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘Yoshi kimeta. BOKOru dake ja sumanē. TEMĒ wa ano KONBINI-goto buttsubushite yaru!! Tsuideni kono hentai onna wa HADAKA ni muite sarashite yaru yo!! Yaru koto yattekara na!!’ 釘崎爪牙「よし決めた。ボコるだけじゃ済まねぇ。テメエはあのコンビニごとブッ潰してやる!!ついでにこの変態女はハダカに剥いて晒してやるよ!!やることやってからな!!」 Kugisaki Sōga “Alright, I’ve decided. Just beating you up won’t be enough. I’m going to destroy that convenience store along with you!! Also I’m going to strip this perverted woman naked and expose her too!! After I’ve done what I need to do!!”

The sentence is deliberately done to sound as bad as it can while, at the same time, giving the author the chance to claim it’s not as bad as it sound.

I mean, beating Kōichi and destroying the store are pretty plan. However in regard to Kazuho the ‘Hadaka ni muite’ (ハダカに剥いて “strip her bare”) can refer to ‘undress her’ as the English version suggest but also to ‘remove her make-up’ as it was suggested they wanted to do before and even to ‘reveal her true nature/identity’ which was also something implied before.

The following sentence is also more vague than in the English text.

‘Yaru koto yattekara na!!’ (やることやってからな!!) is used to tell someone (or yourself) to finish their necessary tasks, chores, or work before they can relax or do something fun which is why it is normally translated with “Do what you have to do first,” “Business before pleasure,” or “Take care of your responsibilities first.”

The English version considers that the ‘business’ they have to do before the pleasure of unmasking Kazuho is raping her but it is possible the business is just beating Kōichi and destroying the place he works. Sure the sentence can be suggestive same as the one before that can just refer to unmask Kazuho but can sound as undressing her.

Since the whole thing is heavy, to avoid any possible implication of rape, the anime removed that sentence entirely.

And continuing with better depicting bullies, when Kōichi protests, Sōga shifts the blame on him, saying such thing is happening because Kōichi made him angry. Basically Kōichi should have just bowed to Sōga’s authority and let him do as he pleased.

Note that Sōga had always been escalating things regardless of Kōichi humoring him or not because at the start, when Kōichi apologized Dogeza style as Sōga wanted him to do, Sōga still tried to kick him.

It’s not Kōichi’s fault because he rebelled, it’s just that Sōga is out to search for targets on which to vent his anger and show his power. There is no pleasing him, no reasoning with him and humoring him or being the best version of yourself won’t stop him.

Haimawari Kōichi‘DEKA i jiko toka dai abare suru teki (VILLAIN) toka hadena PINCH ni wa PRO no HERO ga kaketsukete kureru. Dakedo ore-tachi o osou kiken wa sore dake janai. Nichijō no naka ni hisomu bōryoku, bōhatsu suru akui. Tada no GOROTSUKI datte tokiniha hito o korosu.’ 灰廻航一「デカい事故とか大暴れする敵（ヴィラン）とか派手なピンチにはプロのヒーローが駆けつけてくれる。だけど俺たちを襲う危険はそれだけじゃない。日常の中に潜む暴力、暴発する悪意。ただのゴロツキだって時には人を殺す。」 Haimawari Kōichi“During big accidents, rampaging enemies (read: villains) and spectacular crises professional Heroes come to the rescue. But those aren’t the only dangers that threaten us. Violence lurks in everyday life, malice can erupt. Even mere thugs can kill sometimes.”

Kōichi points out the flaw in their Hero society. Heroes are there to save the day in front of big crises but they are in a life threatening situation and yet the problem isn’t big enough for a Hero to appear.

The story will remark this by having Kazuho wanting to call for the police and being told to try with calling a Hero, Rapt and Moyuru do so because they knows no one will come to help Kazuho and Kōichi and they sure as hell aren’t stopping Sōga, wuite the contrary. They enable him.

There is a hole in the safety net Hero culture has created, a hole that in the story will be filled by Vigilantes.

Right off the bat VIG says we need more than Heroes offering a helping hand, we need people to stand up for other people… and they need to do it in a way more meddling than the Hero society would want to allow them to do.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘HERO (ALL MIGHT) datte hima janai. Ima… ore-tachi ga dore dake tasuke o motomete mo. ALL MIGHT ga konna rodjiura no KENKAgotoki ni. Tonde kuru hazu ga ―’ 灰廻航一「ヒーロー（オールマイト）だってヒマじゃない。今…俺たちがどれだけ助けを求めても。オールマイトがこんな路地裏のケンカごときに。飛んで来るはずが―。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Even a hero (All Might) isn’t idle. No matter how much we beg for help right now, All Might wouldn’t get involved in a fight in a back alley like this. Expecting he would come flying in—”

And Knuckleduster comes flying in and lands into the trash. Symbolically it remarks how he is not All Might, All Might he is not going to come, Knuckleduster says so himself. But HE IS HERE…

…and he proceeds to beat Sōga and Co, ask if they use drugs and check their tongues after presenting himself as ‘Tekken Sōjinin KNUCKLEDUSTER’ (鉄拳掃除人ナックルダスター “Janitor of the fist Knuckleduster” lit. “iron fist cleaner Knucklerduster”).

Now Knuckleduster does we same we saw All Might do, he comes and beats the bad guys without wasting time but, even though we will learn in the future he used to be a Hero, currently he lacks the Hero vibe, with the result Kōichi has a reaction rather different from when he watched All Might beat a Villain, even though this guy is saving him and Kazuho. In fact he gets scared as he fear this strange guys would want to beat him as well.

Kōichi doesn’t trust Knuckleduster in the slightest, not even when the latter shows his not aggressive intentions asking him to help and promising him he’ll make him a Hero, in fact he claims of not being interested and wanting to leave.

It’s also worth to note than more than a Pro Hero what Knuckleduster wants to turn Kōichi into is a Vigilante. Still they would fit what Stain considers a Hero more than Pro Heroes.

And it is worth to pay attention to the conversation between Knuckleduster and Kōichi.

In BNHA Midoriya wanted to become a Hero but, at first, All Might tried to discourage him because Midoriya didn’t have a Quirk. Here Knuckleduster encourages Kōichi to become a Hero despite the latter commenting about having a weak Quirk.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Muda tema bakari de shigoto ga susuman na… oi kozō chottokoi.’ ナックルダスター「無駄手間ばかりで仕事が進まんな…おい小僧ちょっと来い。」 Knuckleduster “This is all just wasted effort and no progress on the work... Hey kid, come here for a second.”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘! ? Bo… boku-ra wa KUSURI toka sōiu no wa.’ 灰廻航一「！？ボ…ボクらはクスリとかそういうのは。」 Haimawari Kōichi “!? We...we’re not into drugs or anything like that.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘Kanchigai suru na. Omae wa midokoronoaru yatsuda. Soshite oreniha hitode ga iru. Ore no shigoto o tetsudae. Omae o honmono no HERO ni shiteyaru.’ ナックルダスター「勘違いするな。おまえは見所のある奴だ。そして俺には人手が要る。俺の仕事を手伝え。おまえを本物のヒーローにしてやる。」 Knuckleduster “Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re a promising guy. And I need some help. Help me with my work. I’ll make you a real hero.”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘E…!? A~tsuano… ~tsu. BOKU sōiu no kyōmi nainde ka ~tsu… kaerimasu.’ 灰廻航一「へ…!?あッあの…ッ。ボクそういうの興味ないんでかっ…帰ります。」 Haimawari Kōichi “Huh...!? Uh, um... I’m not interested in that kind of thing... I’m going home.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘… Uso da na. ALL MIGHT o sonkei shi ‘hitodasuke’ o shumi to suru. Sonna omae ga HERO no shigoto ni kyōmi ga naidato?’ ナックルダスター「…嘘だな。オールマイトを尊敬し「人助け」を趣味とする。そんなおまえがヒーローの仕事に興味がないだと？」 Knuckleduster “...That’s a lie. You respect All Might and make “helping people” your hobby. You’re saying you’re not interested in being a Hero?”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Iya demo BOKU no heboi “kosei” ja PRO no shikaku nanka toremasenshi.’ 灰廻航一「いやでもボクのヘボい〝個性〟じゃプロの資格なんか取れませんし。」 Haimawari Kōichi “But with my pathetic “quirk,” I can’t possibly get a professional license.”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘FUN, sore ga dōshita.’ ナックルダスター「フン、それがどうした。」 Knuckleduster “Hmph, so what?”

Haimawari Kōichi ‘Dōshita… -tte…’ 灰廻航一「どうした…って…」 Haimawari Kōichi “So what… he says...?”

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘Kyōryokuna “kosei”‘ ni ‘PRO shikaku’― sonna mono wa shin no seigi ni wa mattaku kankeinai. Nasubeki koto o mae ni shita toki kōdō o okoseru ka hi ka! ! HERO no tamashī ni towareru no wa tada sono ichi-ten nomi!!’ ナックルダスター「「強力な〝個性〟」に「プロ資格」―そんなものは真の正義にはまったく関係ない。成すべきことを前にした時行動を起こせるか否か!!ヒーローの魂に問われるのはただその一点のみ!!」 Knuckleduster ““Powerful ‘quirks’” and “professional qualifications”—those things have absolutely nothing to do with true justice. The only thing that matters to a hero’s soul is whether or not they can take action when faced with something that needs to be done!”

Regarding the things lost in translation previously Kōichi used ‘ore’ (俺) to refer to himself but now he switches to ‘BOKU’ (ボク) all written in katakana. Katakana is used for foreign words but ‘boku’ is clearly not one. In this case katakana is likely used to add emphasis so as to grab the reader’s attention, Not only Kōichi is using the umbler ‘boku’ compared to his usual ‘ore’ but what he says, as well as him being all humble (using ‘boku’ is more humble than using ‘ore’), doesn’t match with what he feels.

Anyway… it’s true that Knuckleduster is advantaged compared to All Might as he had already seen Kōichi in action and knows his heart is in the right place, but still All Might doesn’t believe Midoriya can do something without a Quirk and also his offering isn’t purely selfless. He wants Midoriya to replace him, Midoriya who is a bullied 14 years old boy who idolizes him and doesn’t even tell him the risks Midoriya is going to face since he is not passing him a random Quirk, he is passing him the Quirk AFO is after with the specific duty to oppose to AFO.

Mind you, Knuckleduster’s offer isn’t perfect either as being a Vigilante is a crime and he lied when he said Kōichi he would make him a true Hero, but Kōichi is older, well aware of the risks, not blinded by idolization nor emotionally vulnerable due to bullying and was basically ALREADY being a Vigilante even if he was acting in a way more tamer manner. Knuckleduster actually tried to teach him how to do the job and he did so without overtraining him. The same can’t be said for All Might.

VIG is also a story that talks about justice, justice being helping who’s being wronged, where BNHA was a lot about the respect of rules and enforcing the respect of rules being justice to the point the kids wonder if them breaking the rules to help Bakugou would make the same as Villains.

Through the story we’ll see VIG is a story a lot more prone to discuss and challenge rules than BNHA has ever been.

Said all this at the moment Kōichi’s main concern is that Knuckleduster’s words confirm him the guy doesn’t have a Hero license.

For the ‘lost in translation’ part it is worth to note Kōichi calls Knuckleduster ‘kono ossan’ (このオッサン “this old man/geezer”) which is a slang with a rude nuance that expresses displeasure or mockery towards the other person.

‘Kono’ (この “this”) points to something/someone physically close to or held by the speaker and emphasizes the speaker’s physical, emotional, or situational proximity. It can have three effects:

it can single out someone in the current context, separating them from others, showing either arrogance/confidence or personal involvement. For instance, ‘kono watashi/ore’ (この私/俺) translates to “this very me” to emphasize your personal involvement or qualification and we see that Enji tends to use ‘kono’ when he refers to himself to remark how HE can do something (differently from others) or how HE won’t be troubled by something (differently from others)

it can brings someone closer to the speaker, common when gently addressing a child ‘kono ko’ (この子 “this child”) or a pet, implying intimacy or affection.

In some casual contexts adding it to a pronoun can imply irritation toward that specific person. It’s this case but it’s also the case of how Sōga will refer to Knuckleduster in a moment, calling him ‘Kono KUSO JIJĪ’ (このクソジジイ “this shitty old man”), clearly being way ruder than Kōichi.

 The word ‘ossan’ originates in ‘oji-san’ (おじさん), which means “uncle”, but may also refer to a man of certain age. However ‘ossan’, never means “uncle”, just “old man”. As it is a bastardization of ‘oji-san’, it’s more casual and lacks the level of respect that ‘oji-san’ would have therefore it can be used to either be disrespectful, rude, toward an old man one doesn’t like, who doesn’t deserve respect or it can be used by someone who feels they’re close, buddies, friends, and formalities aren’t necessary. By the way, you can start using it for people after their 30’s. Long story short this is why the official translation went with “this old fart”, though to me it feels more rude and mocking than what Kōichi would have used. Maybe it’s just me.

Meanwhile Sōga has recovered and grabs Kazuho, criticizing Knuckleduster’s idea of justice.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘ZAKE ya gatte… nani ga “seigi”da kono KUSO JIJĪ?’ 釘崎爪牙「ザケやがって…なにが〝正義〟だこのクソジジイ？」 Kugisaki Sōga “You’re kidding me... What kind of “justice” is this, shitty old geezer?”

It is not revealed right now but Sōga’s behavior stems from how, as a kid, he was victim of Quirk discrimination. We can see that Sōga is a perfect result of the ideas behind the “Labeling Theory”.

For who’s not familiar with it the “Labelling Theory” posits that self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. It is associated with the concepts of self-fulfilling prophecy and stereotyping. Labeling theory holds that deviance is not inherent in an act, but instead focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. The theory was prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, and some modified versions of the theory have developed and are still currently popular. Stigma is defined as a powerfully negative label that changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. Labeling theory is closely related to social-construction and symbolic-interaction analysis.

VIG strongly discusses personal identities so of course Sōga’s identity being the result of what the “Labelling Theory” speaks of makes sense (though I’ve no idea if Furuhashi is familiar with this theory).

Anyway, back to Sōga, he makes clear he is not taking Kazuho as a hostage but that he plans to ruin her face with his Quirk as this will be the only satisfaction he’ll get that night.

Kugisaki Sōga ‘Hitojichi nanka ja nē!! Kono onna no tsura (read: TSURA)A ‘SPIKE’ de GUCHAGUCHA ni shite YANda yo! Sō shinēto ore no ki ga osamaranē!!’ 釘崎爪牙「人質なんかじゃねー！！この女の面（ツラ）ア「スパイク」でグチャグチャにしてヤンだよ!そうしねえと俺の気が収まらねえ！！」 Kugisaki Sōga “She’s not a hostage!! I’m gonna smash this woman’s face to shreds with my Spike!! I won’t be satisfied until I do it!”

More ‘lost in translation’. The reading for this kanji 面 is ‘tsura’ (つら), so yes, technically there is no difference between how it is normally read and the reading given in terms of sounds… but writing it in katakana instead than in hiragana is mainly used as slang in spoken language in a way that emphasize the anger of the speaker. I guess they could have said “this woman’s fucking face” if they wanted to add the nuance of how angry Sōga is but it is not a big deal.

Sōga’s next sentence has a nuance that is even more subtle as his ‘I won’t be satisfied unless I do it’ expresses a strong, stubborn determination to take action because your emotions or sense of justice require it. So it ties with Knuckleduster’s talk about justice, Sōga VIEWS HIS ACTIONS AS JUSTICE.

It is worth to mention that in Japan there is the belief justice is not tied to ‘moral absolutism’ (morals exist outside of us and they are absolute rules we should follow, certain actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of context, culture, or personal beliefs) but to ‘moral relativism’ (moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others).

Due to this Sōga can believe his own actions are “justice” and THIS IS WHY THE CHAPTER STARTED ASKING WHICH WAS THE VIGILANTES’ SENSE OF JUSTICE as “justice” isn’t viewed as an absolute.

And this is where, I’ll admit, VIG is brilliant.

As if in answer to Knuckleduster’s statement “The only thing that matters to a hero’s soul is whether or not they can take action when faced with something that needs to be done!” Kōichi jumps into actions to save Kazuho… but he does so WITHOUT USING HIS QUIRK. He just tosses himself at Sōga in order to free Kazuho before the latter could hurt him.

It’s not that a weak Quirk could make him a Hero, the Quirk wasn’t even needed to fit the description, therefore even readers, who clearly have no Quirk, can be heroes as long as they take action. Kōichi can be a Hero with a weak Quirk or with no Quirk at all because all it takes is him doing something to help.

Now that Kazuho is safe, Knuckleduster finishes the job, knocking Sōga out for good and then checking his tongue too. He still writes down their info just in case and then turns his attention to Kōichi insisting on how he’ll teach him to be a Hero.

KNUCKLEDUSTER ‘‘SUKAtto suru zo!! Kozō, korekara omae ni wa HERO to iu shigoto no yarigai o jikkuri oshiete yaru. Akutō o naguru to SUKAtto suru zo!!’ ナックルダスター「スカッとするぞ！！小僧、これからおまえにはヒーローという仕事のやりがいをじっくり教えてやる。悪党を殴るとスカッとするぞ！！」 Knuckleduster “This feels great!! Kid, I’m going to teach you the rewards of being a hero. Punching bad guys feels great!!”

For the lost in translation, Knuckleduster calls Kōichi ‘Kozō’ (小僧) which originally refers to a young Buddhist monk. By extension, it is also used to refer to young apprentices or immature, impudent children or young immature youths who aren’t yet fully competent. Likely in Knuckleduster’s mind, he chose such word because he wanted Kōichi to be his apprendice.

Akutō (悪党) primarily refers to “people who commit evil deeds” that are morally or legally contrary. Interesting enough from an historical point of view this is also how, starting from the late Kamakura period to the Nanboku-cho period, the “anti-establishment forces”, groups of samurai and farmers who rebelled against the ruling system, such as the shogunate and manor lords, were called. Of course the meaning Knuckleduster is going for is the first but it gives you an idea of the relativity of things.

Anyway this sentence defines Knuckleduster and, more or less, the Hero world from which Knuckleduster came (even though we’ll find out about this much later). Knuckleduster feels better when he can beat evildoers/Villains and this is more or less a teaching all the Heroes are passed on. While not all of them are as thrilled as Knuckleduster when beating people, they don’t hold back or search for mediation. They just beat the Villains as soon as they spot them without regards for the damage Villains might suffer.

Knuckleduster adds a sense of pleasure for doing his work that not all the Heroes express so openly or feel so markedly.

Psychologically, his pleasure is partly closely linked to an innate desire for social fairness as seeing someone who broke the rules being defeated provides a sense that balance and justice have been restored to the world, but also to how, with the loss of his own Quirk, he couldn’t be a Hero any longer and this allows him to still feel one. Lastly this also offers him an outlet for his feelings of anger and retaliation. Knuckleduster is a victim of AFO who also lost his own kid and has his wife being hospitalized. He is searching people involved with Trigger in attempt to find his daughter but also who destroyed his family. Sōga and Co weren’t involved in this but they still over him a vicarious release for his own suppressed anger and frustration.

Kōichi might have a Hero spirit in the sense he has the urge to help others but, at the same time, he is the opposite of Knuckleduster as he doesn’t come from a culture of violence, his approach is through mediation or avoidance, not through beating the other party, quite opposite to Knuckleduster but also to Midoriya and Bakugō who wanted to physically beat the Villains, so, seeing Knuckleduster expressing so unabashedly how good it feels to beat the bad guys and how he wants Kōichi to feel the same, Kōichi doesn’t feel drawn to him, he actually thinks the guy is just more dangerous than Sōga and Co.

Haimawari Kōichi ‘(Kono toki... Ore ga omotta no wa `arigatō’ demo `tasukarimashita’de mo naku... Motto yabai no ga kita! ! ...Datta. ) Ze... Zenryoku de jitai shimasu…’ 灰廻航一「（この時...俺が思ったのは「ありがとう」でも「助かりました」でもなく...もっとヤバいのが来た！！...だった。）ぜ...全力で辞退します…」 Haimawari Kōichi “(At that moment... what I was thinking wasn’t “thank you” or “that was a relief” but something even worse has arrived!!) I... I’ll decline with all my might...”

As I said Kōichi is old enough, compared to Midoriya, to see that Knuckleduster’s offer is bad news. He’ll later will let himself get dragged into this mess anyway, but he does so with awareness, not with the blind faith of a kid who believes his Hero is giving him the chance of his life.

The chapter closes with Sōga and Co who are limping their way back home, Sōga still angry and wanting to beat Knuckleduster and Kōichi while Moyuru tells him for their own well being they should just stay away from them when they are approached by someone else.

The guy in a salaryman suit, which we’ll later learn is named Kugutsu Mario, notices their sorry state and claims to have the ‘KUSURI’ (クスリ “medicine”) they need and, saying so, he shows them the content of his suitcase which has 6 vials, which are actually syringes filled with Trigger, which is something VIG invented, though it doesn’t get named yet. Now medicine is usually written 薬 which reads the same. The decision to write it in Katakana emphasize the word itself, hinting at how it is not really a medicine. The chapter ends here, with the promise of new troubles for our Heroes.

The anime and its differences with the manga

So… the anime transposition really changed A LOT, therefore I will list only the big stuff.

We start with the anime trying a lot to take advantage of the popularity of BNHA by having Midoriya of all the people (or better his voice actor) doing the general introduction of the world of VIG right at the start of the story even though Midoriya is not a character in the story but, of course, who is watching VIG because they watched BNHA, would immediately recognize his voice.

It also changes the initial scene as in the start of the manga we were only seeing Knuckleduster walking but here he walks toward Kōichi and Kazuho and then the three of them start walking together, Kōichi leading the way, which basically spoilers how the two of them will become Vigilantes too, as if this wasn’t already hinted clearly enough by the opening theme.

The introduction of the world ends with Midoriya’s voice actor saying that this is the story of Vigilantes who try to become real Heroes before Midoriya went to U.A. school, remarking again how the anime assume viewers are watching VIG due to its connection with BNHA as only people familiar with BNHA would care about this info.

The anime then also cuts the flash forward and starts with All Might’s action.

Maybe in an effort to tame down the violence in anime it seems unclear how All Might actually broke the teeth of the Villain, at most a viewer might notice what seems to be a tooth flying away but they might miss it.

The anime also cuts Kōichi’s thought about the bad guys and the Heroes towering over them.

The anime changes things as Kōichi in the manga is late for work while in the anime he is late for class which shifts slightly the timeline. As Kōichi works and study, the fact he was late for work meant he had already attended lessons and therefore that we were in the afternoon. If instead he still had to go to school, we’re in the morning. The change though isn’t a big deal as it introduces how Kōichi is also going to school… and it probably feels more friendly to young readers, who might feel closer to someone who go to school than to someone who go to work… even though Kōichi’s age doesn’t change.

And now here there’s a big cut in the anime.

In the manga Kōichi originally used his Quirk to leave the place but he was caught by a cop and so he was forced to use his legs to run away and crashes into Sōga as he complains about what the policeman says claiming he doesn’t go around crashing into people… before crashing into Sōga.

The anime instead HAS HIM TO RUN AWAY WITH HIS LEGS, and use his Quirk only to escape to Sōga.

Basically in the anime Kōichi doesn’t break the law using his Quirk on the public street if now when forced by the need to escape and doesn’t complain about the police. We’ll see the anime will often cut everything that can be cut and that works to criticize society.

Also this is minor but in the manga Kōichi slams into Sōga because he turned to look behind himself (as if he were to look at the policeman who scolded him), while in the anime he runs straight against Sōga which seems dumber, at least they could have had him slam into Sōga the moment he turned, which would have explained why he didn’t see him.

On the other side, by placing a vending machine near Sōga, the anime subtly explains why Sōga had a drink with himself, subtly implying he had just bought it.

The anime has Sōga fall on the ground when he fails to kick Kōichi, which seems an attempt at ‘excusing’ Sōga’s anger toward him but it doesn’t speak greatly of Sōga’s balance.

Since it wasn’t done before, in the anime we get NOW an explanation of who Kōichi is and how his Quirk work, done by Present Mic’s voice actor instead than by Kōichi.

In the anime we have a flashforward as from the light the sun is clearly setting when Pop☆Step is having her concert and, at it we can see Ichimoku and Teruo. It makes sense as when the chapter was drawn Furuhata might not have planned them yet but the anime know they are Pop’s fans.

While in the manga Kōichi claims it is dangerous to have a concert because Pop doesn’t have a permission to do it, in the anime he only hopes the police won’t find out, which is a way tamer way to put it.

Kōichi’s quote in the anime is changed so that he seems more appreciative of Pop… which might be the anime’s attempt at trying to place more traction in a potential Kōichi/Kazuho ship. In fact while in the manga Kōichi was aware of his surrounding and that was why he could warns Kazuho the police was coming, in the anime he seemed to have been hypnotized watching her to the point he almost forgot he had to run to work and left only when it dawned to him. In the anime we also see Pop following him with her gaze as he leaves, while in the manga she didn’t pay him attention, not even to thank him for warning her.

Cutting the police coming there to stop Pop somehow tames down the fact what Pop was doing was illegal.

The anime also has Kōichi fall before he says life isn’t fair… which seems to excuse such a bitter statement.

To avoid problems with the copyright the anime calls the place where Kōichi works Family Family instead than Family Mort.

I liked how they placed screen showing All Might in action behind him so as to remark the difference between them.

As basically a full day has gone by when Sōga meets Kōichi again, the fact he is still holding a grudge comes out as worse.

The anime cut how Moyuru poured a drink on Kōichi, showing only Sōga and Rapt kicking him.

In the manga Kōichi complain Sōga and Co should be the ones the police should go after (implying they shouldn’t go after him or Kazuho) while in the anime he only says the police should do something regarding them, which tames down Kōichi’s critique of the police and society.

On another side the anime shows Inko looking as she should have looked when Midoriya was in Elementary School as they are clearly aware of the thing.

The anime has to cut how Kazuho is there to thanks Kōichi for warning her about the police, as that never happened in the anime, and also it cuts how she saw him being beat up by Sōga and Co at the convenient store, calling him lame, to which Kōichi replies he isn’t good with violence. The anime also cut how him having an All Might’s hoodie has nothing to do with fighting. As if all this cutting wasn’t enough, the anime cut Kazuho asking Kōichi to work for her.

All this makes Kazuho way nicer than she was in the manga, Kōichi’s warning against the police less impactful and him ruder for a less valid reason. So yeah, it changes things a lot.

Dulcis in fundo, they changed how Kazuho angered Sōga.

In the manga she was running away from Kōichi and slammed into Sōga, then yelled at him for being in his way, in the anime she moves her arm to slap Kōichi, who had been rude to her, and hits Sōga by mistake, which makes more ‘legitimate’ how he is angry at her as he views the thing not as her slamming into him by accident but as her hitting him.

By the way the whole thing is forced as hell as he had to walk too close to her for her to manage to hit him and even then the hit would have been barely noticeable.

The anime makes more clear how Sōga and Co want to unmask Kazuho by showing them trying to remove her make up clearly trying to tone down the rape vibe.

I’ll say the scene in which Kōichi tries to act is better done as in the manga first we were presented with what he think would happen and then we saw what happened, while in the manga we only see what happened and it’s faster and clearer and more smooth.

The anime cuts part of Kōichi’s monologue about how Heroes save the day only in case of disasters and Villains but life’s troubles aren’t limited to the big stuff, in another attempt to tone down critiques to society.

The anime also cuts Knuckleduster asking Rapt and Moyuru if they are on drugs before hitting them.

In the manga, when Knuckleduster calls him, Kōichi assures him he doesn’t do drugs while in the anime he claims he is not with Sōga and Co. so I guess the anime wanted to remove the mention of drugs as much as possible which, considering the role Trigger has in the story, is kinda difficult.

When Kōichi jumps into action the anime put some focus on his feet as if he were using his Quirk, even though he wasn’t doing it in the manga, and the fact he wasn’t doing it was a plus point so I don’t like how the anime tried to make it look like the opposite was true because, I guess, Quirks are cool.

The anime changes a bit the order of the dialogue as in the manga Kōichi thinks Knuckleduster is dangerous BEFORE the latter told him he would teach him how good it is to beat evildoers, while in the anime he will do it after that is said.

Lastly, since Ep 1 covers a bit of chap 2 they moved scenes so that first we see Knuckleduster at Kōichi’s home, a scene that was in chapter 2, then we go back to what we saw in chapter 1, with the scene of Sōga and Co meeting the drug dealer, only in the anime the drug dealer isn’t Kugutsu Mario but Number 6.

It is not a bad idea as this gives him more space as the main antagonist instead than having us waste time with a minor antagonist. Too bad though since the anime doesn’t have a season 3, Number 6 doesn’t get a proper ending.

The rest of the episode focuses on chapter 2 so I’ll stop here.

...but likely it was because BNHA is so driven by its author's intentions the characters ends up not what it would be logic for them to do but what Horikoshi needs them to do.

Mind you, all the characters in a story do what their author wants them to do but the difference is that normally their author tries to make their moves look logical and their own decision.

As you mentioned when Homura learnt she couldn't rely on her time power she tried other solutions and this is logic and build up on her characterization. It seems a thing she could have chosen to do, one htat made sense for her to do.

On the other side Horikoshi needs Midoriya tohave a Quirk and use it because the editor said so.

Originally Midoriya wasn't meant to get a shiny new Quirk, but then Horikoshi was asked to give him one and so the plot ended up revolving on Midoriya having to learn to use such Quirk, the Quirk hurting him creating drama that then gets undone by Recovery Girl who fixes him back to zero so that Horikoshi can use him for a new adventure the following day instead than have to wait a month for Midoriya to recover.

So Midoriya doesn't think he could also use a capture cloth like Aizawa or something like that until he doesn't get used to his Quirk because he just has to use that Quirk for the plot to work.

Using his Quirk is his only way to be a Hero, the story is clear about this. Until it decides to take it from him and give him a suit, that's it.

At least those are my two cents about it.

And yes, I'm being bitter but the whole 'you can be a Hero only if you have a Quirk' thing is ridicule when in the cast we have people like Hagakure who can only turn invisible but somehow manages to get a better result than Midoriya in the qQuirk apprehension test because Midoriya needed to end last DESPITE using OFA once and therefore getting an amazing result... never mentioning he could have used it also in the last exercise since then the test would end so as to get a better result but nope. We couldn't risk him not ending up in the last place...

What is your opinion in how Horikoshi handled Midoriyas bullying in the manga.

Well, I've been pretty vocal in the past on how I DO NOT LIKE AT ALL how Horikoshi handles Midoriya having suffered bullying in the past to the point I believe he made him someone who had been bullied, merely to ride up on how bullying was trending at the time due to how in 2013, in Japan, it was enacted an anti-bullying act which prohibits bullying, due to a 13-year-boy committing suicide in Otsu due to bullying in October 2011, and its parents suing three former classmates, their parents and the city in February 2012.

Mind you, the way Horikoshi handles bullying is tied to his beliefs that people should just bear abuse, don't give in to negative feeling and continue being the best version of themselves and reach enlightment or something but well, I still don't like it.

Finding the correct way to handle bullies is hard... but just being the best version of yourself won't stop them. AT ALL.

Vigilantes tackles bullies better than BNHA does.

To sum it up:

it conveniently removes a huge part of the reason why Midoriya was bullied/discriminated by others, giving him a shiny Quirk.

it offers Midoriya zero help beyond him receiving a Quirk. All Might knows Midoriya has been bullied and all he thinks Midoriya needs to overcome the trauma of having been bullied is fight with Bakugou. TWICE.

By the way Horikoshi tackles Midoriya's trauma and pain as something Midoriya has to overcome, and then procedes to have him just do so with a minimum effort.

Midoriya's admiration for how strong and determinate Bakugou is overshadows what should have been Midoriya's disgust for Bakugou's negative side. At the start Bakugou wants to be a Hero out of greed and wish for popularity, looks down on everyone, breaks laws by using his Quirk, mistreat people when they don't do as he pleases. He is basically in all but the name a villain but hey, he is strong and determinate and the Heroes aren't setting their eyes on him so he is cool and admirable in Midoriya's eyes.

Midoriya's admiration for Bakugou is handled as something valid and not worrisome at all when often admiration toward your abuser is born due to unhealthy copying mechanisms or from the belief you are abused because you are different/worse and therefore, if you were the same as your abuser, you would be free of abuse

Midoriya's lack of sense of worth is not handled as a negative trait but as a noble one, because, thanks to it, Midoriya sacrifices for others.

Midoriya overcomes his abuse so quickly and so easily he never gets to have a meaningful conversation about it. By the time Bakugou feels sorry for it, Midoriya barely remembers he was mistreated and while he probably apprecciated the apology it doesn't make an impact on him the way it should, it more makes him realize he was being mean telling his classmates they couldn't keep up with him, handling them as extra the same way Bakugou used to do even if for different reasons.

Bakugou comes to the realization Midoriya shouldn't be abused because he is a great person and that he abused him because he was afraid of how great Midoriya was which annoys me the most because no matter Midoriya's worth, no one deserves to be abused. Midoriya could have been a failure of a person and could have remained a failure of a person and he still wouldn't deserve abuse. I'll overlook the whole 'Bakugou abused Midoriya because he was afraid of him' because it is not a recurring reason for abuse but it can be one, but it still feels like propaganda.

There's probably more but I know some of it is cultural (I hate how the oh so awesome class A do not act in face of how things are between Midoriya and Bakugou but in Japan it is considered wrong to act in such private business) so I'll cut it here.

Or what is your opinion on how Midoriya was written in general.

And this question is why I took so long in answering because there are so many things I would want to say but I want to try to keep it brief.

There's an ongoing debate in the fandom which says Horikoshi wrote Midoriya poorly due to lack of love toward Midoriya. I don't think the problem is lack of love.

I think at the start Horikoshi genuinely wanted to see himself in Midoriya, to see in his wish to become a mangaka, Midoriya's wish to become a Hero.

But my problem is... he didn't seem to know what to do with Midoriya and since Midoriya is the main character, all the story's flaws in writing hit him way harder than anyone else.

Horikoshi do believes Heroes easily overcome trauma so Midoriya quickly and easily overcomes the fact he had been bullied by Bakugou, which stripped him of a potential layer of internal complexity as well of an internal struggle... something that foreshadow how he'll recover from having to act alone post the first war thanks to a bath with his friends.

Horikoshi's decision not to criticize society despite it being messed up ends up shutting down Midoriya's abilities of analyzing, criticizing and improving it. All Midoriya will say in the end is that yes, society is complicate so he'll offer a helping hand but that's it. Stain saved him but he never again pondered on that. He figured early on Tomura wasn't saved but... didn't matter. Lady Nagant told him the HPSC used to have her kill Heroes and he... fundamentally doesn't care? His only involvement with the Heteromorph plot is through ordinary woman and he is more concerned with reassuring her that those who had attacked her did so because they were scared than with how she got attacked in the first place or how shelters refused to welcome her. He demands Muscular to tell him why does he rage and if there was no other path for him and.. well, then the discussion dies here. The civilians would want to abandon him out of U.A. High in his time of need and this doesn't spark anything inside him because Uraraka manages to switch their mind. Ultimately Tomura tells him he has to stay a Villain to be a Hero fro Villains and... that's it. This becomes an indrance to his growth, as if he fundamentally accepts a society that is presented as flawed as it is without any interest in criticizing or changing it he becomes a static main character. Offering a helping hand is nice but that's it.

By the way this ends up affecting Midoriya's empathy, which is represented in a messy way, sometimes it's there and pushes him to act to his personal disadvantage, sometimes it's just not there, either because it would be a hindrance to the plot (he had to beat Shinsou even though he realized Shinsou has troubles and he couldn't show an interest in him as it was Aizawa the one who should help him and it has to be Uraraka who makes Quirk counseling so he just... does nothing) or because it would go against the idea that society needs to be accepted as it is, trauma needs to be overcome and everyone should just be the best version of himself. The result is Midoriya comes out more righteous than empathic. We start tame as with Kouta is main concern was persuading Kouta it is okay to want to be Heroes (aka accepting how Hero society works), instead than conforting the kid for his loss and accepting he wasn't ready yet to move on and we get worse when said empathy should be extended to Villains. He tells Overhaul he'll help him solely if he'll apologize to Eri. He moves from wanting to save Tomura to only wanting to know why he acts this way and forces his way through his psyche. He has no sympathy for Touya's pain, claiming he is looking at Endeavor as he tries to be better, when he actually had ignored him for 7 months and he happened to look at him in the last 3 months merely because he was interning under him. Himiko told him he liked him but he expressed no grief when she died, nor felt like he had abandoned her when he chose to go fight Tomura instead.

Horikoshi's liking for surprising twists ends up making Midoriya's choice to become a teacher so not foreshadowed it seems a thing decided last minute even if he actually planned it.

Plot needs also erase all the arc about Midoriya's struggle to control OFA without destroying himself which is just waved away as his arms all of sudden won't break anymore because... they got used to it... and later on when he'll lose them they'll get returned soon enough. Something similar happens with his additional Quirks with he quickly learns to handle to the point they ends up being a boring power up.

And should we mention how, always for plot reasons, we are meant to ignore the fact Midoriya's father is missing or how we are expected to be invested in a love story with Uraraka that Horikoshi himself didn't portray as really interesting and that remained stalled for 8 years?

The result is I do not get interested in Midoriya.

His struggles are solved way too easily, his view clashes with mine, his behavior is not an example I would follow. I don't feel inspired to save others when I watch him punch Tomura into dust.

(sorry for any typos, I'm using a translator).

It’s okay, I’m not a native English speaker myself, I understand how hard it could be to talk a foreign language!

1. At what age did Fuyumi start caring for her younger brothers? I believe there was a nanny before, but Fuyumi doesn't mention her. What did she do with the children and the household? Did Fuyumi help Natsu with his studies and send him to school, but she stayed home herself, presumably to be with Shoto? Did she cook his favorite dish, soba? Did she provide them with emotional or other support?

Well, technically Fuyumi AND TOUYA were probably involved in taking care of Natsuo just after his birth, though it was likely a gradual thing and they weren’t immediately fully entrusted Natsuo but just helped Rei taking care of him.

We know from School Briefs for example that, after Shouto’s birth, Rei, who previously would bathe with Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo, stopped doing so to bathe with Shouto, leaving her other three children to bathe alone, meaning Touya and Fuyumi were helping Natsuo, who was 3, to take his own bath.

Entrusting the older siblings with taking care of the younger siblings, where possible, is pretty common in Japan (and not only there).

In Vol 10 there is a small story about Asui’s family and we see since her parents travelled a lot she was left in charge of taking care of her younger siblings, even cooking for them when she was 13 and who knows if she had started doing so earlier than that.

Long story short, in Japan it wouldn’t be seen as a big deal but a normal responsibility that would fall on the oldest siblings.

We don’t know if there ever was a nanny in the Todoroki house. Japan normally do not use nannies, Chap 302 says Enji hired help after Shouto’s birth but insisted for Rei to look after Touya so said help might have been just for housework (In chap 2459 is said they used to have someone to cook for them), or for looking after Shouto, and not after Natsuo, though School Briefs insists it was Rei that looked after Shouto, with the result she had no time for her other kids.

We see an old woman watching as Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo play but I doubt it’s a nanny as in Japan Touya and Co are old enough to play on their own in the garden of their house without supervision while their parents are there. After all Midoriya and Bakugou, at 4 could go alone to play in a playground that was near their house and we see that Tomura does the same as 5. Really, Japan is pretty lax about children’s supervision, they didn’t need to have a nanny in that moment.

It is also worth to mention there is no nanny that is held accountable for supervising over Touya and his trips at Sekoto Peak, Enji blames just Rei so even more it is unlikely there was someone looking after the kids.

The result is the old woman might have been their grandmother or a servant passing by. We’ll never know.

Touya, Fuyumi and Natsuo likely all went to school together, with Touya and Fuyumi checking over Natsuo and helping him with homework if Rei wasn’t available, though kids are often pushed to handle their homework alone so it’s not like his siblings HAD TO supervise him, they more likely offered help. After Touya’s death I guess all this was done by Fuyumi only.

Fuyumi went on with her studies so she didn’t remain home to supervise Shouto either, and when she stopped studying she started working as a teacher so no, she didn’t have to look after him the way a mother would.

In theory Shouto should have gone to their own same school once he was 6 so Fuyumi and Natsuo should have gone to school with him but since Natsuo apparently had zero interactions with SHouto growing up… who knows. It is more likely a plot hole.

(And no, Enji’s driver wasn’t their home’s driver, Kurumada worked for Enji the Hero not for the Todoroki the family so he likely didn’t carry his kids at school and we have no mention of other drivers. The kids should have gone to school by foot like the rest of the kids of their age.)

We know for a long while the Todoroki had a servant who cooked for them, then she retired and  Fuyumi AND NATSUO started taking turns to cook food. Apparently they never ate with Shouto as Natsuo has no idea if Shouto even ate what he cooked (it really doesn’t make sense as if that wasn’t the case who was cooking for Shouto? Enji? And didn’t Natsuo realized if the food was being tossed away or not?).

From School Briefs we know Fuyumi cooked Soba for the new year, as that is a traditional dish to celebrate it. She probably cooked it in other circumstances as well.

We also know Fuyumi supported Natsuo and became a teacher because she was ashamed she couldn’t help Shouto.

We don’t know how her interaction with Shouto was but, if you ask me, from the little we see it seems she wanted to be supportive and look after him… but Shouto seemed to keep distant in the early chapters and he calls her nee-san instead than nee-chan like Natsuo does, nee-san being a more polite way to say sister that might imply he is not as close to her as Natsuo.

2. How close is Fuyumi to Shoto? The communication ban was lifted after Toya's loss, so does that mean Fuyumi was raising Shoto? Was she like a mother to him? How does Shoto feel about Fuyumi?

We have no idea if the communication ban was ever lifted or if it was formally lifted in the first place but also, after Rei is hospitalized there is no one to supervise them and maintain the ban since Enji works till late most of the days, so it is possible the ban simply went forgotten and they could have talked if they wanted to. It was just that Natsuo was so grief stricken it never dawned on him he could talk with Shouto.

The relationship between the Shouto and Fuyumi is mostly left unexplored and is riddled with plot holes but Shouto doesn’t seem to see Fuyumi as a replacement for his mother. He doesn’t even seem particularly close to her.

We also know Fuyumi took care of Natsuo WHO DIDN’T INTERACT WITH SHOUTO, so Fuyumi couldn’t really split and be there for both. She likely focused on Natsuo because she was used to do so and Natsuo likely asked for her and tried to look after Shouto too who might not have been open to it due to the trauma of losing his mother because she had protected him.

This is speculation though. The truth is we don’t know.

3. Did Fuyumi visit Rei in the hospital before Shoto started visiting his mother in Season 2? What is Rei's relationship with her daughter?

Yes, she did. According to chap 250 apparently Rei only had problems seeing Shouto post Touya’s death (again this is the result of a retcon and things got messed up futher).

Fuyumi and Rei seem to have a good relation. We see them interact in School Briefs too and it is clear Fuyumi is taking care of her mother and supporting her and so she had been doing for years. We don’t know when exactly it started though as in the beginning it could have been done by Rei’s mother or by a servant. Still the two get along well.

4. I'm very interested in Toya and Fuyumi's relationship. Toya called Fuyumi useless as a child and didn't share secrets with her like he did with Natsu. But Toya agreed to play with Fuyumi, didn't attack her like brothers in the future, and continued to call her by the close suffix "chan" and didn't speak ill of her. Does Toya love his sister? How close are they?

We need to look at the contest.

Touya called ALL OF THEM ‘failures’ because that’s how he believed his father saw them.

He also said his mother and sister are no good BECAUSE THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND him. We know Fuyumi sided with her parents, she didn’t want Touya to train because he would get hurt and she was worried for him, and she also didn’t want people to argue in the family so she meekly obeyed to what she was told and pretended everything was all right because she was too scared to act (with good reasons considering how Enji used to beat Rei because she acted).

We see though that she invites Touya to play and worries when he falls and he agrees to play and calls her Fuyumi-chan which is an affectionate way to call her, so it is not that they had a bad relation all the time, it was just Fuyumi couldn’t offer Touya the support he needed… and back. They were just kids after all and that was too big for them. We can’t compare them to adults.

5. Fuyumi is often accused by fans of forcing Natsu and Shoto to reconcile with their father, calling it manipulation and disregard for their feelings. Were Fuyumi's attempts to reconcile her brothers with their father selfish and manipulative? Did she truly neglect her brothers for the sake of a family reconciliation? How was this portrayed in the original? I'd like to explore this further.

Fuyumi is not FORCING anyone. She has a right to say she wants the family to reconcile, she has a right to invite them to family dinner with their father. They have a right to refuse.

The way Natsuo has the right to express his feelings on how he doesn’t want to reconcile, Fuyumi has the right to express her own. They are family and they are siblings, she doesn’t have to keep her feelings secrets same as he doesn’t have to. They have to be honest with each other.

Of course their own problem is that their respective wishes are conflicting and this makes things complicate because Natsuo is so traumatized he is not ready yet to meet her midway.

Still Fuyumi creating chances for reconciliations is not wrong per se if she leaves Natsuo the freedom to reject them.

In School Briefs we see that she warns Natsuo Enji will come back home and Natsuo decides he’ll leave before he’ll be home and she doesn’t stop him. In Japanese culture a reconciliation is something the family SHOULD DO and it is viewed as a good thing for all the members. Japan is big on reconciliation and group harmony.

To give you an idea Bakugou is not part of Midoriya’s family yet because they know each other from childhood he and Midoriya are expected to be friends by society.

As for Shouto, Shouto started seeing Enji after his match with Midoriya and decided to give Enji a chance after the latter decided to atone. Fuyumi didn’t force him to do it all, it was Shouto’s decision and saying it was Fuyumi who forced/manipulated him brings away Shouto’s agency in the matter.

I forgot to ask in the previous message. Was it a bad thing for Fuyumi to give Shoto's phone number to their father without his permission? I constantly see this moment presented as an example of Fuyumi's disregard for Shoto. But maybe she gave his number out of mentality or circumstances? I'd like to know if Fuyumi should really be blamed for this and said to have done something bad? Or is there something else that fans are missing? I love Fuyumi and I'd like to know she's innocent, but if she is guilty, I'd also like to understand that.

It really depends on your culture. In mine a minor cannot independently purchase or register a telephone contract or SIM card. However, they can own and use a telephone if their parents are aware of it and allow it. Basically no minor as a right to have a phone and keep for himself his telephone number. To me it seems ridicule that Enji had to ask because Shouto is a minor and he is just not allowed to that kind of privacy as it is a parent’s duty to check on a minor’s phone and Fuyumi couldn’t buy a phone for him and give it to him without Shouto’s father’s approbation.

But other cultures might feel differently.

For example in Japan Shouto can do all of the above… with Enji’s money as Shouto doesn’t work and has no money of his own. Or yeah, I guess Fuyumi could buy one for him without asking for Enji’s permission. However in Japan parents can—and are strongly urged to—control and monitor their children's mobile devices (they even have a law about it, the Act on Development of an Environment for Safe and Secure Internet Use for Youth).

So the scene more than of Fuyumi violating Shouto’s privacy speaks of Enji’s failure in parenting as he wasn’t controlling Shouto’s mobile device. Fuyumi is not violating Shouto’s privacy in this setting, she is helping Enji to act like a father.

On the whole the scene in chap 203 is meant to be humorous, Enji is making a big deal of gaining something he should have had from the start, and then he proceed to stress Shouto by sending him plenty of messages because Horikoshi is trying to paint him as an helicopter parent instead than an abusive parent.

As I said before though, if in a country a boy of Shouto’s age can have a phone and doesn’t have to have parental control in using it, it might feel like a violation of his privacy. He gave his phone number to Fuyumi and, if Fuyumi didn’t ask Shouto first, the fact she gave Enji his number would be a violation of Shouto’s trust. Since Shouto isn’t surprised to receive messages from Enji I think Fuyumi told/asked him beforehand and then passed the number to Enji, mediating between the two.

The truth though is that we don’t really know how things went, just that Enji had that number thanks to Fuyumi’s help.

Said all this… there are mostly my interpretations. Horikoshi doesn’t really devote much time on the relationships between the Todoroki siblings so we have no canon answers and people is free to disagree with me and come up with their own interpretation.

But how close were they actually? Did touya ever genuinely held affection for him?

According to Fuyumi they were very close because they were always playing together.

Todoroki Fuyumi ‘Natsu wa Tōya nī to totemo nakayoshi de ne… yoku isshoni asondeta.’ 轟冬美「夏は燈矢兄ととても仲良しでね、よく一緒に遊んでた。」 Todoroki Fuyumi “Natsu was very close to Tōya nī… they often played together. ” [Chap. 250]

We also know Touya trusted Natsuo enough to elect him as the person with whom he could confide his misery...

Todoroki Tōya ‘Jibun ga naze sonzai suru no ka wakaranakute mainichi Natsu-kun ni naite sugatteta koto shiranee daro.’ 轟燈矢「自分が何故存在するのか分からなくて毎日夏くんに泣いて縋ってた事知らねぇだろ」 Todoroki Tōya “You didn't know that since I didn't understand why I existed, I cried and clung to Natsu every day.” [Chap. 290]

...the only one who could understand how he felt...

Todoroki Tōya ‘Natsu-kun made ore o tashinameru no ka! ? Yamete kure! Natsu-kun shika rikaidekinai kara hanashi terunoni! ! Wakarudaro ie no on'na wa kai dame damenada!’ 轟燈矢「夏くんまで俺をたしなめるのか！？やめてくれ！夏くんしか理解できないから話してるのに！！わかるだろ家の女は皆だめだめなだ！」 Todoroki Tōya “Are you going to scold me too, Natsu-kun?! Please, stop it! I'm only telling you this because you're the only one who can understand! You know all the women in our family aren't good (at understanding this)!” [Chap. 302]

...which is confirmed by Natsuo as well.

Todoroki Natsuo ‘Uton deta wake janai...? Dattara nani...? Ore wa zutto Tōya nī kara kikasarete kita….’ 轟夏雄「疎んでたわけじゃない...？だったらなに...？俺はずっと燈矢兄から聞かされてきた…」 Todoroki Natsuo “So you weren't shunning us? Then what? I've been hearing about this from Tōya nī all this time...” [Chap. 252]

So I'll say they were close... but being close when referred to children of that age and who do not have a solid support from family isn't exactly the same as being close when one is older and more psychologically all right.

Touya desperately needs Natsuo's support and it crushed him when he believed Natsuo too was turning his back to him, which really doesn't make for a healthy dynamic, especially since Natsuo is fundamentally a kid and can't offer the kind of support Touya needs.

Still, the moment Touya wakes up from coma his thoughts are for his family. He excuses them, he wants to apologize to them.

Todoroki Tōya ‘Ha… sonna matte yo kaeranakya! Otōsan wa shigoto ga haitte ko rare natta dake kamo shirenai kitto……! Shinpai shite…!! Hidoi koto o shitashi… ittashi… okāsan-tachi ni ayamatte… otōsan ni mata mite morawanakya.’ 轟燈矢「は…そんな待ってよ　帰らなきゃ！お父さんは　仕事が入って来られなっただけかもしれない　きっと……！心配して…！！　ひどいことをしたし…言ったし…お母さんたちに謝って…お父さんにまた見てもらわなきゃ。」 Todoroki Tōya “Ah... no, I have to go home! Father might just have had to work and couldn't come, surely...! He must be worried...! I did and said terrible things... I have to apologize to Mother and the others... and I also need to get Father to see me.” [Chap. 302]

This, combined with the trauma of what had happened and the trauma of having to escape from the orphanage, made even worse how he came back home and came to believe no one cared for his supposed dead.

Touya loved his father, mother and siblings, that's why he wants to go back, he wants to apologize, he is making excuses to explain why Enji didn't come, but when he came to believe they didn't care at all about him, love turned to anger. They hurt him, he'll hurt them back as hard as he can.

“Odi et amo. Quare Id faciam,fortasse requiris. Nescio,sed fieri sentio et excrucior.” (I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured.) [Catullo - LXXXV)]

“If you can just stop loving her then you never really loved her at all. Love doesn't work that way. If you ever truly love someone, then it never goes away. It can become something else. There are all different sorts of love. It can even become hate- a thin line and all that- and, really, hate is just another kind of caring.” [Blakney Francis - Someone I Used to Know]

“No one can hate you more than someone who used to love you.” [Rick Riordan - The Blood of Olympus]

Its no doubt Natsuo did.

Natsuo did love Touya, but he loved him like a child can love an older sibling, it's a love selfish, dependant and immature, and then Natsuo idealized Touya as his father's victim, deciding Touya's death was another way had Enji hurt him. He never truly got to know or understand Touya, what lived in him was the pain of the loss as well as, likely, a buried sense of guilt because he couldn't save Touya, because he got bored to listen to him crying.

Natsuo likely doesn't fully remember Touya, because he just was too young and the trauma of his death helped Natsuo to form a certain type of memory of Touya.

Long story short, Natsuo doesn't really know Touya, not even the kid that he had been, he has in his mind an idealized version of him whom he loves very much, to the point that in School Briefs they say he pays more attention to his deceased older brother than to his living younger brother.

How do u think Natsuo reacted knowing Touya almost caused him to die via Ending?

I don't know if Shouto and Enji even informed Natsuo of that. The video which went viral didn't include this info, that was just something Touya told Enji personally, though the scene can seem confuse because the manga and the anime play Touya's dialogue with his father and the video alternating one and the other so that they seem to be a continue flow of dialogue.

Touya might have heard the video playing as he spoke if Skeptic put it in on mode, but I doubt Enji and Shouto did as they were distant and I genuinely doubt Skeptic's pc has such powerful audio, yet sometimes it seems as if the voice of the video is framing them.

The video though was edited and shared BEFORE Touya started talking with his father, so it can't include what Touya says to Enji right then.

Long story short, I doubt Shouto went and told Natsuo about Ending having been set on Enji by Touya so I don't think Natsuo ever had to react to that

I personally think natsuo prolly cut touya from his life as well after ch 426. He didnt even look at Dabi throughout the whole chapter, untill like once when dabi closed his eyes.

Nobody truly knows.

Technically, since Touya can handle conversations only for few minutes each day and Enji promised to be there everyday and Natsuo doesn't want to see Enji ever again, this also offers him a convenient excuse to never see Touya again.

Differently from the rest of his family Natsuo didn't express a wish to talk to Touya, he just went there once and can't truly met his gaze until the end, but Touya doesn't seem to answer them and they are ushered out... until Shouto tries again to talk to his brother and gets an answer.

Maybe Natsuo needs time before being ready to face Touya, maybe he will never get enough time as Touya will die first, we'll never know.

What we know is that Natsuo is also built to stand in opposition to Shouto, to basically underline how Shouto is better because, in the story, Shouto should be the model at which people should get inspired.

So, even though Touya personally tried to kill Shouto and told him hurtful things and Shouto could have spared himself going there as he is not the one to blame for what had happened to Touya, Shouto is there and wants to talk with Touya and connect with him and he is not worried of how Touya, with his actions, had basically ruined them all as Japan isn't kind with people who are related to criminals even if they bear no blame.

Sadly Natsuo in the story was used more as a device, a device to represent and try to win over readers who disliked Enji (that's why at the end of the story Natsuo first sends Enji to fight AFO and then he calls him father for the first time and tell him he is cool) but also to show how amazing Shouto is, the true Hero of the family.

Natsuo gets some space, definitely more than Fuyumi, it is possible to build analysis about him, but he deserved more, especially in his relationship with Touya... but well, we have what we have.