My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 1×11 Review: “The Day Of”

My Hero Academia Vigilantes anime season one episode 11, titled ‘The Day Of’, showed Pop Step practising for the upcoming event while Knuckleduster decided to take Kuin headfirst.

With how the previous episode concluded, showing Knuckleduster having tracked down Kuin, I thought ‘The Day Of’ would showcase the actual local performance Pop Step was going to be a part of, culminating with Kuin releasing a bunch of Trigger bees to cause chaos. However, the latest episode took a more laid-back approach, spending most of the screen time on Pop Step meeting the rest of the performers and then practicing for a week before the event.

A practice montage focusing on hero training? Yeah! But I wasn’t expecting this at all. Having said that, I enjoyed how the writers handled a more “grounded” approach to training with Pop Step improving her singing skills and the vocal duo Miu and Yu (named the Feathers) practicing their dance skills under tutelage from the East Naruhata Dance Squad.

I liked how Makoto encouraged everybody to do their best before the event, especially Pop Step and the Feathers, because the results of their practice sessions would play a role in deciding how Pop Step and the Feathers would be placed on the stage. Makoto initially wanted to place Pop Step in the center, but the Feathers didn’t want to come across as her backup dancers.

Another pleasant surprise was how the montage ended with highlighting Pop Step’s personality. Even though her easily annoyed nature is played up for laughs when interacting with Koichi, at the end of the day, Pop Step is a nice person. Miu sprained her ankle during practice, limiting her movement on stage. Even though Pop Step could still take center stage, she decided against it, instead insisting that Miu be between Yu and her.

Seeing Pop Step being nice and handling the situation in such a manner was quite impactful, especially because Miu and Yu had made snarky comments about Pop Step’s appearance when they first met each other. Furthermore, even though she’s shy, Pop Step clearly had the ability to be professional with her fellow performers and keep the show going.

The montage had a lot of comedy due to Koichi’s continued lack of self-awareness during social interactions. We also got a fun little love-at-first-sight situation between the leader of the dance squad and a member of the rock band called Mad Hatters. I’m actually invested in their budding relationship.

While the episode was very funny, a sense of dread persisted because I knew Kuin was planning something nefarious on the day of the event. With a bunch of heroes showing up at the celebration, Kuin wanted a villain to appear, too. We finally got to see Teruo. The poor kid’s been through obvious experimentation to enhance his Quirk and transform him into an eel-like monster. Even Eraser Head’s Quirk couldn’t bring Teruo back to his original state.

As for Knuckleduster vs Kuin, the big reveal was about how Kuin was actually Knuckleduster’s daughter named Tamao. Like WTF?!!! I’m so here for this!!!

Their interaction was indeed weird, with Knuckleduster talking to Kuin as if she were two different people. From my understanding, Kuin/Tamao wasn’t born with the Queen Bee Quirk. It’s as if the Quirk was controlling Kuin to do her bidding. My theory is that the original Queen Bee Quirk user is out there somewhere, and they used a particular type of bee to take control of Kuin.

Kudos to Knuckleduster for not holding back against Kuin even though she’s his daughter. A lot of times, fictional narratives have parents hesitating to defeat their “bad” children, causing them to lower their guard and get injured. But not Knuckleduster. He was okay with doing damage to protect the city and, hopefully, get Tamao back.

We also got to learn about a significant weakness. Turns out, even though Kuin’s able to create dangerous Bomb Bees, she couldn’t create a whole lot of them. Whatever bee she created, it took a toll on her body, insinuating she had limits. I’ve been wondering how the co-leads would manage to defeat someone as strong as Kuin. So, it’s good to know there’s a weakness they can exploit.

With the fight between Knuckleduser and Kuin continuing and her plan to release Trigger bees at the event, I’m very excited about what will happen next.

What did you think of MHA Vigilantes anime season one episode 11 ‘The Day Of’?

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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