My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 2×09 and 2×10 Review: “Farewell Party!” and “Zero Hour”

My Hero Academia anime season 2 episode 9, titled ‘Farewell Party!”, and episode 10, titled ‘Zero Hour’, focused a lot on Captain Celebrity, who was unaware of an incoming threat.

Even though I continue to enjoy MHA Vigilantes season 2, I have to say that I couldn’t care less about Captain Celebrity. I was ‘Meh!’ about him when he showed up during the first season, and I was ‘Ugh!’ about the narrative suddenly deciding to make him the main focus of the final batch of episodes. I understand why such a pivot occurred, but that doesn’t mean I can’t groan about it. Captain Celebrity isn’t freaking EraserHead.

Captain Celebrity, or Christopher, was introduced to the anime as a US-based superhero who decided to stick around in Japan to try to clean up his image. Even though he’s married, CC was surrounded by numerous accusations in the US for being predatory toward his female fans. Makoto took on the role of acting as CC’s manager, especially due to CC showing guilt over his unfortunate circumstances. Apparantly, he liked flirting with his female fans. However, anything more (which was mentioned in the accusations) was out of the realm of possibility for him. CC is cringe. Not creepy.

‘Farewell Party!’ was about Makoto announcing to PopStep and the rest of the young performers that their current contract with the Marukane Department Store was coming to an end for the year. They earned a well-deserved break. It was nice to see everyone doing their part in setting up a farewell party for Christmas. I couldn’t help but smile at how supportive the Narufest gang became after performing together for months. The initial tensions were gone. There wasn’t any jealousy to outshine a peer. It’s fictional, but it still felt nice. Also, when the store’s manager presented everybody with gift cards… Yay! I wish more bosses were like that. Again fictional. But it sure was nice to see.

With the year coming to a close, CC got news that he could return to the US soon because a bunch of the lawsuits against him had been deemed false. Not only that, but CC’s wife was about to give birth to their child, encouraging CC to become a better husband and father-to-be. As I said, I understood where the narrative was headed, but I just couldn’t make myself care about CC’s character development.

The threat came in the shape of the Yellow Scar dude deciding to target CC for some reason. It could be because he wanted to cause sociopolitical tension between Japan and the US, but the anime didn’t give any explanation other than how the Yellow Scar guy wanted to unveil CC’s weakness. He could have picked any other Top 10 hero in Japan, but I guess he selected CC because he was more “celebrity” than a “hero”, and publicly defeating (or killing) said celebrity would cause more chaos. Again, a better explanation would have been nice. I had to make a lot of assumptions.

CC’s Quirk allowed him superflight, superstrength, and invulnerability. Not only that, but it’s revealed that CC’s invulnerability was due to him creating a durable shield around his body that helped prevent feeling the side effects of flying at high speeds and withstanding incoming enemy attacks. CC could also expand his shield to anyone he was in contact with. This explained how the people he saved didn’t experience any cold or friction when he flew around with them.

Frankly, I had been wondering about that. I know it’s fiction, but it’s always weird to see heroes carrying other people while flying, and those people not complaining about struggling through in-world physics during flight. However, what I wasn’t expecting was how CC’s Quirk allowed him to completely encase someone in his energy shield to make them immune to a strong explosive while leaving him vulnerable to damage.

CC putting his life on the line to save the three little girls was expected when the car the girls were in got picked up by a flying monster. He’s an official hero after all. However, the more intriguing aspect of the storythread, for me, was the Yellow Scar guy analyzing the explosion (of his own making!) to figureout CC’s weakness. He deduced that CC’s energy shield wouldn’t be able to resist three such explosions. I enjoy a smart villain who also has the power to fight heroes head-on if need be.

Another development in ‘Farewell Party!’ dealt with Koichi and PopStep submitting recordings of their vigilante activities to Midnight to be used by the police in the current investigation concerning the Villain Factory. I don’t know about you, but I think having Koichi and PopStep take such a step, which involved risking going to jail due to their vigilantism, should have had more than a couple of minutes of screentime. Having the narrative quickly brush the entire thing away by having Midnight say Koichi and PopStep hadn’t committed actual crimes felt weird for a show that is supposed to be about… drumroll… vigilantism!

With Makoto planning a huge farewell event for CC at the Tokyo Sky Egg, ‘Zero Hour’ had Tsukauchi ask EraserHead to help with a breakthrough in the investigation. The Onomura Pharma Corp was a prime suspect and could possibly be the Villain Factory’s HQ.

Hurry for Monika and Fat Gum making their return. I had been waiting to see them again. Monika and EraserHead going undercover to connect with the right people to gain access to Onomura Pharma Corp made for a fun montage.

I liked how the episode balanced storytelling between two different plots, with the audience knowing that whatever occurred during the raid on Onomura Pharma Corp would directly impact the Sky Egg event. PopStep and the rest of the performers did a good job celebrating CC, and he got into very pubic trouble with his wife after showing a picture of their newborn to millions of people. A whole bunch of other heroes also attended the event. But it was expected that something major was bound to happen very soon.

Even though we know no major hero deaths will occur, I am looking forward to seeing a whole team of heroes working together to ensure civilian safety while being attacked by exploding monsters. CC will have to bear the worst of it, as he’s the primary target. But I highly doubt he will be killed off. MHA Vigilantes has dark themes, and characters have died. However, I think there are certain lines the storytelling can’t cross, especially while serving as a prequel to MHA.

Did you watch My Hero Academia anime season 2 episodes 9 and 10? What did you think of them?

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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