Vigilante: Boku no Hero Academia Illegals Episode 9 Discussion

A mother with a Fly Swatter quirk is a much worse ability than one with a Flying Slipper, but both do the job. Loved how Kouichi's mom caught his lie about Makoto being his girlfriend the moment she introduced herself.

Knuckleduster (aka Kuroiwa) looked sharp and dashing there, and it was funny how Makoto seemed a little too interested in him, but she almost caught on to him like she did with Kouichi. I just had to add this: in the dub, both Makoto and Kouichi's mom called him "Daddy".

Kouichi couldn't even compliment Kazuho properly, definitely deserved that slap. So you're telling me that even creatures other than humans have quirks?

Didn’t know that Kouichi's ability also allows him to fly, but now that Makoto knows his little secret, how will she treat him? After all, after being saved by him, she did give off the impression that she might be into him now. Looks like Kazuho has a competitor.

I think most animals should have quirks, they just can't use them due to not having enough intelligence or need for. Nezu, the principal in mha, is a mouse, should be a mouse at least and has enough intelligence to use his quirk. So there's that.

Pls don't tell me this really was a one-time moment where Koichi got to fly? I really hope he develops this ability to the fullest in the future.

I think Kouichi’s ability to fly is a bit of an asspull, I mean it would have been really nice if there was any mention of this prior besides his mom saying it right as it was happening lol, but I still think this episode rocked overall. Cat bus chase was awesome (and kinda adorable because of the cat still behaving like a cat as a bus) and Kouichi was pretty epic in helping Ingenium and being the one to save Makoto, it’s unfortunate this means it was a waste of time hiding their vigilante identities from Makoto but at least now she sees the vigilantes in a better light, and maybe Kouichi himself too if that reaction at the end tells us anything lol.

Pop Step/Kazuho was especially cute in this one too, her fit was nice and her reactions to Kouichi’s mom were hilarious, it’s just a shame Kouichi couldn’t stick the landing when complimenting her lol. And looks like some others noticed this too, but Kouichi’s mom really has the perfect quirk for a mom lol, disciplining your kid made easy.

Wow, this was arguably the best episode yet. The first half was a lot of fun, Knuckleduster actually looking like a decent member of society on top of creating the perfect cover for Koichi, Pop, and himself. Pop was so cute in her regular clothes, of course Koichi had to blow it with his "compliment". Koichi's mom's quirk is pretty brutal for a parent, being able to wirelessly hit someone else? Ouch.

The second half was just as good, great to see Ingenium in action again. I like him a lot better than Iida if I'm being honest. My favorite part was by far Koichi's quirk surprise. A few weeks ago I posted about hoping we'd see Koichi's quirk evolve and develop, kind of like how we saw in the original MHA series. But it looks like thanks to his mom, his quirk was actually suppressed, and due to a life or death situation, it manifested back to its original form. Wasn't sure what it was going to look like, but him being able to propel himself through the air is incredibly awesome. It's just too bad Pop wasn't there to see it. But it seems like it left an impression on Makoto. I just find it kind of sad that a quirk that could possibly land Koichi at UA was suppressed so badly due to his mother's abuse that it actually regressed.

Excited to see how this changes things for Koichi and the gang.

Hopefully the captain celebrity clan/cult doesn't attack me this week!

@TheColonel76 I feel like there might've been stuff in the manga that insinuated more uses of his Quirk, the most we got was the training with Ingenium at one point. Even in this episode, we get the evidence that if he pushes his limits, he can exert more of that force from his hands and feet, so it's kind of akin to the superhuman strength people can exert with high stress situations

When did Koichi's quirk this strong, lmao? Also, his mom is a special piece of work.

the love triangle is official

makoto now knows koichi is the crawler too

koichi can fly huh but he have to train more to get used to it

@Ckea Some animals do, such as Principal Nezu. He is a bear.

@Ohayotaku I'm pretty sure Mr. Nezu is a BEAR, not a mouse.

@cristinacke28 It's called Fly Swatter. From what I can tell, it allows her to target something she's looking at (similar to Shota Aizawa's Erasure) and hit it from afar with a slap. Lowkey she could have become a decent hero with something like that up her sleeve.

Oh hey catbus from Totoro after Godzilla appearance from previous episode.

I consider this "near ideal episode"
-Not too serious
-But still a lot of actions and epic moment
-And full of new world-building knowledge
-If this has more fanservice it'd be the real ideal episode

The fact that animal can use quirk is very big news and I'm surprised that you can't find the answer in the main series but only in spin-off.

I also love how there's no narrative introduction on Koichi's mother quirk but the audience can guess from her action. A good use of "show, don't tell" technique.

Only 4 episodes left but I want 40 more!

I am honestly shocked that Koichi’s mom called out his bluff when he asked Makoto to pretend to be his girlfriend by basically telling him that she’s out of his league. Koichi didn’t even attempt to defend himself with that.

Through this we learn that Pop Step’s real name is Kazuho Haneyama and Knuckleduster’s name is Takeshi Kuroiwa and he works for a NPO that helps the local government by helping to clean up the community. He passes off Koichi and Kazuho’s work as part of that (when obviously that’s cap) and it seems that Makoto has quite the attraction to him, and she suspects that he’s a hero of some sort (she likely suspects that he’s Knuckleduster).

Speaking of the Vigilante identities, it seems that despite Koichi, Makoto, and Koichi’s mom just having a regular tour of the Naruhata region, trouble arises when a cat is amplified with Trigger who has the Quirk of Monster Cat, which after the enhancement allows it to take control of their bus.

Knuckleduster has a great idea by redirecting the cat with a makeshift cat toy onto the freeway, and luckily Turbo Hero: Ingenium is here to save the day. I just noticed that unlike Tenya Iida, the new Ingenium, Tensei’s engines are on his arms instead of his legs. I wonder if Tenya’s fighting style that revolves around his legs is one of the main differences between him and how Tensei fought. We haven’t actually seen Tensei go against someone in a fight up to this fight, so we’ll have to see.

The rescue is going fine until Kuin Hachisuka injects the rest of the drug into the cat and things go off the rails. Koichi finally stands up to his mom and goes out to give Ingenium the Grapefruit Juice he needs since his engines are running low.

It’s at this point that Koichi is in a predicament. He and Makoto are about to fall (with Makoto confirming Koichi’s identity as The Crawler most likely), and that’s when we learn that as a child, he was able to fly up in the air using his quirk, without any points of contact. He used to fly up as a baby and his mom used her Fly Swatter to keep him down, but now she’s realized that children will do what they want. You can’t keep them down forever.

Makoto doesn’t rule out the possibility of being Koichi’s actual girlfriend, and she even offers Makoto the opportunity to become her daughter and replace Koichi.

Right now though, it seems that Koichi can only go up 30 cm regularly, so maybe he has to be in a crisis situation before he can use that power again.

I’m looking forward to what’s about to happen next!

Who would have thought that Koichi would be the boy that can fly. I also knew Makoto and Koichi's Mom would be drooling over Knuckleduster because they knew that Daddy's home. Lol. He was quite handsome when he met them.

@KingBaller06 A mouse, but it's a fair mistake when you look at his humanoid form from a certain angle

@KingBaller06 Takeshi Kuroiwa is a modification of his actual name, but we don't learn his given name until later in series, from what I remember. It is similar, using related radicals and even kanji, like Kuroiwa uses the kanji for black and Iwa I think is just the kanji for stone, which is in his first name kanji, just more complicated

anyone knows how far are we into the manga? i wonder i bones is going to animate the whole thing, i wish this concept was the main series tbh its very fun

@KingBaller06 Makes me wonder what the father's Quirk is, unless Koichi had a big mutation that took the element of his mother's Quirk in a different direction

Oh hey catbus from Totoro after Godzilla appearance from previous episode.

I consider this "near ideal episode"
-Not too serious
-But still a lot of actions and epic moment
-And full of new world-building knowledge
-If this has more fanservice it'd be the real ideal episode

The fact that animal can use quirk is very big news and I'm surprised that you can't find the answer in the main series but only in spin-off.

I also love how there's no narrative introduction on Koichi's mother quirk but the audience can guess from her action. A good use of "show, don't tell" technique.

Only 4 episodes left but I want 40 more!

anyone knows how far are we into the manga? i wonder i bones is going to animate the whole thing, i wish this concept was the main series tbh its very fun

WDYM KOICHI CAN FLY!?!?!?!??!!?!?? 🤯🤯🤯🤯 His mom nerfed him so hard as a child that all he can do is crawl now 😭😭😭😭😭

But man, what a way to reveal your secret identity by accident. I wonder how confused Makoto has gotta be, considering he originally passed her lie detector test 😂😂

Anyway, gotta love how Koichi finally learns the real names of Pop Step and his Master! Despite fighting alongside them for so longz he had no idea this entire time lol 😅

Also it's nice that we get to see more of how ordinary people use their quirks in everyday life. Koichi's mom being able to slap her son from afar is a terrifying quirk in any Asian parent's hands tho. Poor Koichi... cannot begin to imagine the amount of EMOTIONAL DAMAGE he had growing up cuz of that 😅😅

His quirk being intelligence is probably why the mouse can talk, the cat's quirk isn't intelligence, hence why it cannot talk.

This is obviously a headcannon, but it genuinely seems like the most accurate explanation.

@holdingnothing A mutation would mean that Koichi's quirk is nothing like either of his parents, just like how Eri's Rewind is a mutation.

@holdingnothing Can you prove that Takeshi Kuroiwa isn't his actual name when he gives a business card with said name? That doesn't logically make sense.

@holdingnothing I can agree with that, I guess really to me it’s a bit of a jump to go from being a human hoverboard to straight up flying, so that’s why it felt kinda out of nowhere to me, but I can forgive it because it was a cool moment, and it’s like you said, it was like a limit break thing in an intense situation.

@holdingnothing No he's a bear.

@KingBaller06 Him giving the business card doesn't mean it was his given name, he likes to maintain secrecy, we know that much. And I think we''ll get his actual name confirmed in the next episode or two, along with some other reveals that were kind of hinted in this episode with Knuckleduster talking to Koichi's mom

Knuckleduster coming in looking like a respectable businessman wasn’t something I expected to see.

The chase sequence was pretty cool, the cat bus reminded me of My Neighbor Totoro.

@holdingnothing What evidence do you have that's not his actual name? People don't just introduce themselves with fake names.

@KingBaller06 They do if they want to keep secrets, which he has and the preview teases stuff that will be revealed. He's not like Koichi and Kazuho, though even they use hero names as a disguise in themselves

Ngl his mom is lowkey abusive. I understand being concerned for your kids' safety and all but belittling their interests/hobbies and physically abusing them won't keep them safe and is inherently counterproductive. I wish the show wouldn't play it off as if it's funny.

And before anyone says crap like "There's nothing wrong with physically disciplining your kids! I was physically disciplined and look how great I turned out!", there is decades of research on the effectiveness of physically disciplining your kids. The results overwhelmingly show that physically disciplining your kids is ineffective and harmful to their health. Even in this show we see for ourselves how ineffective it is. She tried to use physical discipline to dissuade him from doing dangerous things, but he hasn't stopped at all. All it has done is strain their relationship, make him fear her and heavily damage his self-image.

@deg I'd call it more hovering, but it's still a major upgrade, much like Donnie's magic in 4 Knights of the Apocalypse

Did you watch the Eng dub? Because in the sub they clearly saying that "he's handsome" or "a handsome guy".