My Hero Academia: Vigilantes 2×02 Review: “Crabtastic Rampage!”

My Hero Academia Vigilantes season 2 episode 2, titled ‘Crabtastic Rampage!’, introduced the audience to a sinister villain while Koichi and PopStep remained in the dark.

Picking up from where the premiere concluded, ‘Crabtastic Rampage!’ featured a flashback with Monika and Fat Gum working with the police to bust a Trigger deal that was supposed to occur during the current mascot event at the SS Mall. A relatively fresh recruit, Monika’s considered an asset to the police force because she’s able to use the bubbly side of her personality to blend into most circumstances.

We saw her do just that to gain access to the supply operation of the frozen crabs at the SS Mall. She’s been working undercover for a while now for the crab supplier, allowing her to become familiar with the company’s staff, including the part-time employees. It’s one of the reasons she’s able to immediately notice a suspicious person, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

During the planning phase, I liked how worried the police force was about the Trigger deal. Apparently, they were tracking down someone who wasn’t concerned with making a profit. The Trigger supply aimed to disrupt socioeconomic systems. As Fat Gum put it, trying to figure out what a person not motivated by greed would do next was tough.

With the rest of her team keeping track via camera feeds, Monika’s able to uncover how the Trigger distribution was taking place. Turns out Trigger wasn’t being hidden inside the crabs. Instead, it was being smuggled by disguising the substance as ice packs and only being moved through higher-grade or expensive orders. All of the crab boxes looked similar, and it was impossible to detect if they contained any amount of Trigger without opening them. Of course, opening a box would mean the crab order had been spoiled, regardless of the ice packs inside containing Trigger or not.

As for the suspicious person who walked up to Monika and introduced himself as a part-time employee, I wasn’t expecting that dude to be a major villain. Even though she aimed her gun at him, the man’s Speed Quirk allowed him to not only steal Monika’s gun from her hand but also the tablet containing the supply evidence.

I liked how the creatives gave the bad guy a tell before he used a burst of speed. He seemed to charge himself up with yellow energy before experiencing a speed boost. Also, he could choose if he wanted to run fast or simply make his fingers operate faster, an example of which we got to see when he sped up just his fingers and then used the tablet to hack into the company’s crab-like machines to attack the police officers.

At first glance, he looked like a villain who could be stopped. It wasn’t going to be easy, but the weakness of needing to charge his Quirk before use could be exploited. However, everything changed when he demonstrated the ability to become so fast that it appeared as if he had drastically slowed down time. The scene where he walked around a bunch of cops and used their guns (containing rubber bullets) to shoot them was impressively done. It reminded me of the Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Our young vigilante Koichi was definitely not fast enough to go up against such a powerful nemesis. I doubt Koichi will ever grow enough to gain such an immense speed boost to his own Quirk. So, it will be interesting to see how he and the other heroes, as well as vigilantes, will figure out how to stop such a threat.

With the bad guy blowing up the evidence inside the crab trucks and escaping the scene, we went inside the mall to see PopStep being held hostage by a runaway crab-like machine. The machine’s directive was to detonate once it reached the crab company’s booth inside the mall. The machine didn’t care if PopStep was still stuck inside it.

Koichi, Monika, and Fat Gum worked together to save PopStep, with Fat Gum needing to expend all of his stored fat to take on the exploding crab-like machine. As expected, even though Fat Gum was able to absorb the initial explosion, he couldn’t contain all of the energy. The expulsion of energy from Fat Gum’s body was drastically weaker than the force the machine would have managed to release if it hadn’t been stopped, but it was still strong enough to shake up the mall and leave Fat Gum in his no-fat form. Seeing Fat Gum in his muscular body after the event reminded me of what happened to Choji from Naruto/Boruto after he used up all his Chakra.

As for Monika’s Quirk, she’s able to cut through almost everything by using her middle and forefinger as scissors. Not only that, but she can also move her legs in the same manner to make larger cuts. After seeing her Quirk in action, it made sense to me why she was all in on the “Snip! Snip!” theme during her introduction in the premiere episode.

I wasn’t expecting to like Monika as much as I did. I hope we get to see her again very soon. She’s on the case to uncover the Villain Factory. So, I guess it’s only a matter of time before Monika pops up in Koichi and PopStep’s neighborhood, especially because those two were witnesses and Koichi did use his Quirk while, somewhat, dressed up in his vigilante costume.

Also, being a police officer, Monika’s not supposed to use her Quirk, especially not on the clock. She’ll need to fill out a lot of paperwork for using her Quirk multiple times during the current mission. But yeah, it was interesting to see the type of anti-Quirk laws existing in the world of MHA and how much official Heroes can get away with.

Koichi and PopStep’s relationship continued to blossom, with Koichi being more than okay with having PopStep ride on his back while he used his Quirk. We did get to see PopStep wanting to thank Koichi for saving her life again, even if it put him in danger. I’m not saying that I want those two to begin a romantic relationship. But I’ll say that MHA Vigilantes ends with a flashforward of some kind, I’ll be more than okay if it’s reavled the two got together in the near future.

Did you watch MHA Vigilantes season 2 episode 2 ‘Crabtastic Rampage!’? What did you think of it?

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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