My Hero Academia

It's probably just his hoodie burning up as a metaphor for how this is his last hurrah as a Vigilante. That after all this, he's moving on from being a Hero in favor of a normal life. Probably settle down with Kazuho and get a normal job. Though, considering AFO's sudden interest in his Quirk, his normal life won't last long.

That inner monologue of Koichi's makes it pretty clear, and sadly so, that "Being a Hero" in this society appears as something only those "with privilege" have a chance to become and not the "Average Joe" like him, from the feel of it. And that is just sad and wrong, considering how much potential Koichi actually have and how much good he could have done as a Pro-Hero rather than a small-time vigilante, if he had just tried one more time at getting into a Pro-Hero school after failing the first time, due to acting as a real hero, back then. I mena, seriously, the window to become a pro-hero can't be THAT narrow in this society, right?

I mean, the entire premise of the setting is that it's saturated with heroes, so it can't be that hard.

And we know from the first years at U.A that there's a wide arrange of social classes, quirks and personalities (even Shinsho was able to get into the hero course after showing what he could do). And that's the top hero school in the country, you don't even need to try that hard.

So it's kinda hard to believe that there are people who consistently fail to become heroes (unless you're someone like Deku who effectively has a disability). That's something that bothered me about Gentle's backstory too.

It's like... the bar for being a pro hero is so low. People like Mineta and Hagakure are literally top tier hero prospects in the context of the country. How pathetic do you have to be to not even make it in one of the lower tier schools.

Also didn’t Ingenium offer Koishi a place in his agency and Koishi turned him down?

The lesson is more like you achieve none of the shots you don’t take.

If he really gave a monologue claiming he just wasn’t privileged enough to be a hero. I’m going to roll my eyes into orbit. It feels like his major obstacle is his own lack of follow through.

Edited by Bocaj on Jan 22nd 2022 at 10:09:54 AM

Wasn't the only reason Koichi failed the entrance exam because he missed it by accident? Couldn't he just have applied to take it again?

Koichi didn't turn him down. Tensei realized that Koichi is the Crawler and that they'd both be in hot water if the commission learned that Tensei had been supporting a vigilante, so he had to rescind his offer.

He tried once, got distracted when he had to act like a real hero on the way, realized there were no way he would be able to make it to the test in time afterwards, and just went home without even showing up at the place for the test at all.

He didn't "try and failed" to become a hero, he gave up "without even trying once" at all.

Edited by TitanJump on Jan 22nd 2022 at 4:27:20 PM

If you're late for the test you fail. That's kind of the thing with these exams. They're like SATs in Japan. If you're not on time don't come at all.

All I know for a fact that you don’t take the test for a Japanese college at the end of your third year of high school, you missed your shot. Their high schools also have entrance exams, so I’ll assume the same applies there.

Either way, Koichi had to do his first year of high school somewhere, and I don’t think you can transfer from a normal school to a hero school willy-nilly.

I haven’t caught up with the last few chapters of Vigilantes yet but I think the main reason I have trouble getting into Koichi as a main character is that he’s not a very proactive person.

Like, he’d do the heroic things when a situation calls for it (such as saving Young Pop) but in the day-to-day or in regards to the most of the story of the manga he rarely takes initiative if someone’s not pushing him to do so.

I can see the appeal to a character like that: He’s more laid back and down to earth than our hyper-competitive characters from the main series but it’s sometimes frustrating to watch.

All that said, I never got the impression Koichi cared THAT much about being a Pro-Hero. It’s something he though would be cool but for the most part he seemed happy in, “his lane” , so to speak.

Even if it was an option his mother probably would have stopped him.

If I learned anything from love hina and that’s debatable it’s that you can just take entrance exams over and over and over as long as your patience and financial means hold out

I would have assumed that a, for lack of a better term, Act of God is a good enough excuse for missing an exam. Like I would assume they wouldn't expect you to turn up if you've just been hit by a train.

And, especially for a hero exam, stopping to save someone's life also counts.

There's no way that Hero High School is the only path to being a pro-hero. Kamui Wood debuted at age 29.

I have yet to read Vigilantes, but from what you are all saying, Koichi's problem could also be that he doesn't have the personality to be a pro-hero? We have to remember that heroing is a profession in-universe too.

His personality isn’t an issue.

Just to be clear, would reapplying be an actual problem in the Japanese school system? Someone brought up the SA Ts, but my experience (assuming I’m remembering correctly) was that students got 2 tickets to take them and would have need to pay for extras. What more when I was applying for a Specialized High School we were given a main date as well as backup dates in case something happened, you just had to give notice.

Could you define what you mean by personality? I’m sure he could become a Pro-Hero if he really wanted to, his quirk is powerful and he’s shown a lot of talent when the situation called for it but I don’t get the impression he really wants it enough.

Ingenium rescinded his offer to join his agency but I’m pretty sure Koichi could have gotten him take him if he really pushed the issue.

But ultimately Bnha:Vigilantes is about the place of “small scale” or unofficial heroics. Vigilantes are different from Pro-Heroes but they have their own benefit to society - which is a theme I’m sort of mixed on, but it is the point of the series.

Especially considering that he was late because he saved a life. UA might well have passed him on the spot for that, but he didn't even try to plead his case.

That seems to very much be the point with Gentle; he just sucked that hard. But that doesn't really line up with what we're shown in the current time line.

But then you could say it was never his skills with his Quirk that was the issue, he apparently had numerous other issues that instead of actually addressing just figured would work themselves out if he kept on trucking.

Or maybe his teachers absolutely sucked at helping him recognize his full potential. Wouldn't be unreasonable.

And Mienta and Hagakure are the characters best reflective of the term "weak on the surface, powerful in execution" or whatever the hell the phrase is.

Vigilantes are kinda needed in this society. The heroes are too high up and focused on public appearance and bureaucracy over the gritty stuff behind the scene. It's why Aizawa works so well as a bridge between all the groups. Heroes would get in massive PR trouble doing the issues Vigilantes come across and the police need people with strong quirks to handle the problem.

That's unreasonable because the story doesn't imply it at all.

And I don't think either Mineta or Hagakure are supposed to be reflective of that concept. It's been questioned why Mineta wants to be a Hero, but that was because of his personality, not his power. And the story has never question Hagakure's ability to be a Hero. The audience has but that's a separate matter.

The closet thing to something like that would be Ojiro and all the "normal" jokes about him, but even then that's mostly been jokes not serious character stuff or how society looks at "weak" heroes.

Edited by LSBK on Jan 22nd 2022 at 12:46:12 PM

The story doesn't have to hold your hand like it's a Nintendo DS.

If he sucked using his powers in school and got kicked out, but did better in the present and avoided jail and the protege of All Might for some time, it's clear the training he did afterwards was better for him.

I’d say it’s less about them being needed, and more about them being convenient.

Hawks, Nagant, and O’Clock each fell into a gritty area of heroing while maintaining a public image. And there’s also a point that stuff with Villian Factory ended up being personal with Oguro. Note that while Koichi and Kazuho got pulled into it, Oguro himself pretty much cut ties with them after he dealt with Kuin despite continuing on the case. What’s more, despite him voicing pro-vigilante viewpoints the only reason he gave up being a Pro Hero was due to his Quirk being stolen rather than any issues with it.

Edited by Cross on Jan 22nd 2022 at 2:21:09 PM

I’m pretty sure at least one character in a vigilantes claimed to have gotten a hero license ONLINE.

Gentle only started improving once he got slapped with how irrelevant he was, that gave him motivation to put more (or actual) effort into getting better rather than it simply being the school system failing him.

Edited by Cross on Jan 22nd 2022 at 2:39:34 PM