Koichi is an average college student with a half-rate Quirk that lets him slide around as long as he has three limbs touching the ground. I liked that. A weak MC who's a normal guy, who has to train and use a bit of smarts to get stronger? No BS powerups? No overpowered gifts or hidden talents? Sounds awesome to me.
The Shonen genre is overflowing with "underdog" protagonists who start out weak, but get gifted with extreme power and become really strong. It's not necessarily a bad cliche. Plenty of shonen- Jujutsu Kaisen, Naruto, even MHA itself- make their protagonist interesting, balanced, and flawed even though they're given extraordinary abilities.
But while it isn't a bad idea, it's definitely overused. In fact I can't think of a single battle shonen where the protagonist isn't blessed with crazy powers or talent in some way. However, I thought Vigilante was going to be the manga that would break the mold.
And for a while, the manga followed through on its promise pretty nicely. Over time, Koichi improves his control over his sliding Quirk to use it more efficiently and tactically, making him a better fighter. It was exactly what I wanted.
And then the manga erased Koichi's uniqueness with just one scene.
In Chapter 18, Koichi has to save a friend of his from falling off a bridge. However things go wrong as he fails to make a critical jump, and is about to plummet to certain doom, with no solid surface to use his quirk on- just his friend barely hanging on, and thin air. At this point the manga writer, Mr. Hideyuki, was forced to come to a tough call. How could he make Koichi escape this seemingly impossible situation?
Unfortunately Hideyuki made the shittiest decision he could've made: he gave Koichi the power to fly.
In the middle of falling to his death, Koichi reaches deep into his ass, I mean, subconscious, and pulls out a fancy new ability. "Oh yeah! I could fly all along but completely forgot about it until this super convenient moment. Gee isn't it nice how I just got the power to fly just by thinking really hard! Well, I guess this'll come in handy a lot!" Firing energy in a burst from his feet, Koichi makes a solid landing with his friend in tow, both safe and sound.
This is the stupidest asspull in the history of asspulls.
I guess his quirk name "Slide and Glide" was a bit of a naming accident, because "Slide and Fly in Short Bursts" would be a whole lot more accurate. What happened to Koichi having a limited, grounded Quirk? What happened to the three points of contact required for him to use his ability? Slide and Glide was great because it forced Koichi to think creatively to overcome its limitation. But since he can fly all of a sudden, that limitation went poof.
The sad thing is that Koichi could've easily been given a similar ability but in a way that made actual sense. Imagine if he had, say, a skateboard. (Or any smooth surface large enough for his hands and feet to launch off of. Even a big piece of plywood would do.)
Koichi just needs to prop it up at an angle, use it as a ramp with Slide and Glide activated to go up the ramp at high speed and rocket into the air, essentially jumping across long distances. And if he's about to fall to his death like in Chapter 18? Just use the skateboard as a boost pad. All he'd have to do is put his hands and feet on the board while falling and accelerate off of it to jump to safety.
It's a simple application of his slide ability and doesn't require a bullshit power-up to use.
Unfortunately, Vigilante goes the easy way out by giving him a unnecessary extra ability.
Okay, Koichi rant over. Let's talk about what's GOOD about this manga.
What I like about Vigilante is how it addresses the blurry line that separates good from evil. What exactly makes someone a "hero" and not a "villain?"
Is it their purity? Their moral compass? Their willingness to save people from danger?
...Or is it actually the perception society has of them?
Most of the prominent characters in this manga aren't totally good or totally bad, they're somewhere in between. Some have a twisted sense of justice, or are hungry for attention, or are simply misguided. Even Koichi and his friends are legally considered villains since they operate as vigilantes outside of the official hero system. Vigilante really digs into the gray area between heroes and villains and delivers a refreshingly interesting take on the superhero genre.
While this theme is great and all, it just isn't enough to save the manga, at least for me. Part of why I didn't particularly enjoy it is because it doesn't focus enough on the main plot and goes through a lot of unnecessary story fluff to pad chapters. The American hero, the cat bus monster, all the random fodder villains, these side stories really slowed the pace of the manga.
A big reason for why I dropped Vigilante because the pace was going too slow. There's barely any development in the story for several entire chapters and the main plot involving the bee girl and the drugs isn't as interesting as I hoped it would be. I'm sure it's very interesting later on in the series and I've heard good things about it from my friends but I wish the manga would actually cover the main plot instead of bumbling around with side stories.
The last thing I want to talk about is Koichi's sidekick, Pop Step, one of the main characters of the series. An idol who uses her Quirk for her illegal street performances and becomes an ally to Koichi in his fight against evil. However, even though she's a core member of Koichi's team and has a solid Quirk that lets her jump great distances, she's completely useless. Pop Step never actually fights any villains, all she does is tag along with Koichi and the other member of their trio, Knuckleduster, and make snarky comments. Then at some point Hideyuki realizes how useless she is, and instead of having her learn how to fight, he just turns her into Koichi's love interest. Literally the entire point of her character is that she's head over heels for Koichi but doesn't want to tell him. And Koichi being a classic anime protagonist is completely clueless about how much Pop Step likes him. It's all there is to her character and it feels like a huge waste.
She's easily the most annoying character in Vigilante and I don't like the idea that the female lead's entire motivation and characterization has to revolve around her crush on the main character.
This manga certainly wasn't for me. But while I didn't like it, it's not that bad. There are some great characters, the story is fun and full of action, and the overall theme is good.
Just don't go in expecting anything groundbreaking from Vigilante and you'll enjoy it just fine.
