My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 1×8 and 1×9 Review: “Major” and “Mom Descends”

My Hero Academia Vigilantes anime season one episode 8 ‘Major’ and episode 9 ‘Mom Descends’, continued to expand the world while also increasing the threat posed by Trigger.

‘Major’ was a lighthearted episode as it introduced a USA-based superhero named Captain Celebrity coming to Japan to work on his image after causing a whole lot of trouble over in the States. Even though Captain Celebrity, or Christopher Skyline, was a very capable hero with the Quirk of Flight and Superhuman Strength, he’s very concerned about his stardom. He’s got an entire team following him around to record his every move and hype him up in front of the media. There’s even an instance where he delayed fighting a city-destroying Kaiju because he wanted confirmation that the cameras were ready.

The team did assist with First Aid, evacuations, and providing shelter to civilians. But the primary goal was to make Captain Celebrity look good.

Of course, Captain Celebrity’s way of doing heroism rubbed Koichi the wrong way. It was fun to see how our young lead showed his disdain for the celebrity culture surrounding heroes, but was also (understandably) jealous of all the attention Captain Celebrity received.

With Makoto being introduced in episode 7, I was hoping to see more of her in the anime. And I got just that in ‘Major’ and ‘Mom Descends’, which, in a way, were a two-parter even though they aired on the weekly schedule. Makoto played a role in assisting a hesitant Captain Celebrity to transform his image into one that appealed to both men and women. I’m looking forward to seeing if Captain Celebrity will be able to stick with the new PR campaign or not. He did seem very concerned about what his estranged wife Pamela thought of him being all “friendly” with only his female fans.

The reveal of Makoto playing along with Captain Celebrity’s flirty nature while she was continuously in contact with Pamela was funny.

Makoto continued to have screentime going into episode 9, with Koichi asking her to pretend to be his girlfriend due to his mother, named Shoko, showing up for a visit. Shoko wasn’t a fan of Koichi living in a big city. If things weren’t to her liking, she was going to make Koichi return to their hometown.

Shoko instantly seeing through Makoto’s lie made me laugh. Shoko wanted someone like Makoto to be interested in Koichi, but she knew her son wasn’t gaining such kind of attention yet. Also, Shoko’s Quirk being called ‘Fly Swatter’ was such a funny ability to give a mother character. Of course, said Quirk allowed Shoko to swat Koichi without needing to physically touch him. Shoko’s not into heroics, but if she were, her Quirk’s a nice one to use in battle. I don’t know if she manipulated the air around the target or if she sent out energy from her hands. Regardless of how her Quirk worked, it was a nice one. Fly Swatter, in a way, linked to Koichi’s Quirk (which I’ll get to in a bit).

We got to learn about Pop Step and Knuckleduster’s civilian names being Kazuho Haneyama and Takeshi Kuroiwa, respectively. Pop Step continued to be uber shy. Her timid civilian persona compared to her more “out there” hero persona continued to connect to what MHA Vigilantes has been saying about “costumes” allowing people to showcase a side of themselves they might otherwise keep buried.

Takeshi introduced himself to Shoko as a representative of a non-profit focused on monitoring the community, namely helping with patrols and cleanups. I was actually impressed by how Takeshi technically told Shoko the truth about what he and the teens were up to without outright sharing that they were vigilantes. He even printed business cards!

Most of ‘Mom Descends’ dealt with the characters introducing themselves to Shoko, followed by her, Makoto, and Koichi visiting certain tourist spots. Things took a dangerous turn when the tourist bus merged with a cat injected with Trigger. I mean, what the heck?

I thought Trigger operated by aggressively boosting a person’s Quirk and making them lose control. However, the reveal that it could be administered on a stray animal, causing said animal to merge with an inanimate object, considerably raised the stakes. Like, why even go down such a route? Why not keep Trigger limited to people with Quirks? Let’s see what answers we get down the line.

Realizing that Kocihi, Makoto, and Shoko were inside the Monster Cat Bus, Knuckleduster worked with Pop Step to lure the vehicle away from traffic. However, the freeway was still damaged because of the Kaiju attack from episode 8. If not stopped in time, the bus would fall down a broken bridge.

It was nice to see Ingenium and Team Idaten return to save the passengers. We got to learn that Ingenium needed to drink juice as fuel to use his speed Quirk. Also, from what I could understand, reaching his top speed meant he wouldn’t be able to use his Quirk for a bit.

Of course, Makoto’s the only passenger left in the bus, causing Koichi to put his foot down in front of his mother and volunteer to assist Ingenium. Koichi realized his mother was concerned about putting himself in danger, but he couldn’t sit around and do nothing. It was nice to see Shoko finally accepting Koichi as an “adult” and how it was time to let him fly on his own. And by fly, I meant that figuratively and literally.

Yeah, turns out, before baby Koichi learned how to walk, he used to float away by releasing energy from under his feet to push against air. Shoko used to swat baby Koichi down to ensure he didn’t fly out the window. All of the swatting had caused Koichi to stop using that part of his ability. He even forgot he could do that as a baby. I mean, I don’t fault Shoko. Considering the circumstances, she did what she could to prevent her baby from flying away and becoming lost or worse.

Wanting to save Makoto had not only caused Koichi to experience a boost in speed when catching up to the Monster Cat Bus, but he also managed to push against the air again and temporarily fly to stop Makoto and himself from falling to their deaths after the bus fell down the bridge.

The episode concluded with Knuckleduster and Pop Step helping Koichi train to fly again. He’s able to lift himself approximately 30 centimeters from the ground. However, I believe he will get there. Koichi is the type of lead who is all about surprising himself when things become tough.

As for Makoto learning about Koichi being The Crawler, I think she’s smart enough to realize that his friends are Pop Step and Knuckleduster. I doubt she will reveal their identities. But I’m looking forward to seeing how their dynamic will change.

Coming to the Trigger-infused cat, it separated from the bus and got picked up by Kuin. I’m not sure, but I think Kuin’s up to something dark. That cat is likely being taken away for more experiments. 

What did you think of MHA Vigilantes anime episode 8 ‘Major’ and episode 9 ‘Mom Descends’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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