My Hero Academia: Vigilantes[a] is a Japanese manga series written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court. It is both a spin-off and a prequel to Kōhei Horikoshi's manga series My Hero Academia. It was serialized in Shueisha's Jump GIGA in August 2016, but was transferred to Shueisha's online magazine, Shōnen Jump+, in October of the same year, with its chapters additionally collected into a total of fifteen tankōbon volumes.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes takes place five years before the events of the main series.[1] The story follows Koichi Haimawari, a young man who uses his Quirk to help others despite not being a licensed Hero. After he and the street performer Kazuho Haneyama are attacked by a group of thugs, they are saved by the strong vigilante Knuckleduster, who recruits Koichi and Kazuho to become vigilantes themselves.
Written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes began being published on Jump GIGA on August 20, 2016, but was transferred to Shōnen Jump+ after Jump GIGA ceased publication in October of that year.[2][3][4] The series ended on May 28, 2022.[5]Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on April 4, 2017.[6] As of July 4, 2022, fifteen volumes have been released.[7] The series is licensed for the English-language release in North America by Viz Media.[8]
The first volume of the manga sold 18,909 copies on the weekly Oricon's manga chart;[37] volume 2 sold 21,123 copies in September 2017;[38] volume 3 sold 11,468 copies in February 2018;[39] volume 4 sold 15,725 copies in April;[40] volume 5 sold 16,251 copies in September;[41] and volume 6 sold 16,118 copies in February 2019.[42] In North America, the volumes of the manga were ranked on NPDBookScan's monthly top 20 adult graphic novels list since July 2018,[43] while it was among the top 20 manga graphic novels list in September and October 2018.[44]
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes was chosen as one of the Best Manga in 2018,[45] while it was listed in the "Underrated but Awesome Manga" category in 2019 at the San Diego Comic-Con Best and Worst Manga panel.[46]Barnes & Noble named the series on their list of "Our Favorite Manga of 2018", stating that it may be more entertaining than the original. The website also wrote: "While some of the characters of the original series drop in from time to time, Vigilantes is really a whole new story set in the world of the original, exploiting a different set of possibilities, and completely enjoyable on its own."[47]