Summary
- My Hero Academia's final arc sets up a way for Koichi Haimawari from My Hero Academia: Vigilantes to finally reappear.
- Koichi's appearance could give Izuku and All For One more development before the series comes to an end.
- Koichi's appearance could also expand the world by legitimizing his spinoff.
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Warning: Contains spoilers for My Hero Academia chapter #422.My Hero Academia’s final arc hasn’t been without its critiques, and a notable one has been the lack of acknowledgment of its spinoff prequel series, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. Despite the various opportunities to bring the characters back, the final arc has entered its climax without even the smallest reference, not even to Vigilantes’ protagonist, Koichi Haimawari, and that’s been nothing but disappointing to fans of the series.
The lack of acknowledgment of Koichi or anyone else from Vigilantes has been a contentious part of My Hero Academia’s final arc, but that might finally be changing. The final battle has everyone teaming up against All For One and doing whatever they can to support Izuku, and during all that, one line of dialogue created the perfect opportunity for My Hero Academia: Vigilantes ’ protagonist to appear in the main series.
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Whether the series will capitalize on that is unknown at the moment, but if Koichi is ever going to appear, this would probably be the last chance for it.
How My Hero Academia Just Set Up A Crossover With Its Spinoff Series
This is Koichi's last chance to be in the main series
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How My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ Koichi might appear in My Hero Academia stems from how Koichi’s story originally ended. After defeating Number Six and putting an end to Operation Anonymous, Koichi, having broken too many laws to be ignored, was about to be thrown in jail when Makoto Tsukauchi and Captain Celebrity suddenly intervened. To keep Koichi out of jail, they declared that Koichi had been made Captain Celebrity’s sidekick, thus retroactively making everything he did legal, but because of that, Koichi had to move to America and become a hero there under the name of The Skycrawler.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is both a spin-off and prequel to My Hero Academia, serialized in Shonen Jump+ between 2016 and 2022, authored by Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes' ending had Koichi becoming a hero in America, and that ties into how he can appear in the main series. In My Hero Academia chapter #422, the President of the United States ordered all of America’s heroes to go to Japan, and with Koichi in America as The Skycrawler, Koichi can be among the American heroes going to Japan to help fight All For One. That would be the most organic way of bringing Koichi into the main series, and even with the final arc winding down, it would be easy enough to see happen.
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Koichi appearing in My Hero Academia might not be so assured, of course. The final battle already being in its climax is one thing, but in previous instances of the manga teasing the appearance of international heroes, Koichi didn’t receive so much as a silhouette, so as far as the manga is concerned, Koichi might not be included among the international heroes in My Hero Academia. That’s an unfortunately easy conclusion to draw that only hurts Koichi’s chances of reappearing, but with any luck, it still isn’t an impossibility.
Koichi’s Return Would Perfectly Close Out All For One’s Story Arc
Koichi was All For One's enemy well before Izuku
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As for why Koichi should make an appearance in My Hero Academia’s final battle, one major reason is that he could do a lot to close out All For One’s story arc. Koichi was the first person since All Might to genuinely infuriate All For One, as Koichi doing everything he did through hard work as opposed to talent completely invalidated All For One’s social Darwinist theories about society. Koichi did all of that without ever actually meeting All For One, so a genuine confrontation between them would be the perfect payoff to their story from My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.
What sells that idea even further is how My Hero Academia is already playing with the core of their conflict. All For One has been repeatedly frustrated by so many people trying everything to stop him and actually succeeding to some extent, so while not explicitly being referenced, My Hero Academia ’s final arc plays into Koichi showing All For One that anyone can be a hero. Overall, it makes plenty of sense for Koichi and All For One to fight each other, and as such, it would be great for Koichi to appear and capitalize on all of that.
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My Hero Academia Can Get A Lot Out Of Putting Its Two Heroes Together
Why Izuku & Koichi need to meet
Another benefit that could be gained from Koichi appearing in My Hero Academia is the potential of a meeting between him and Izuku. While the two of them are very similar on a surface level, Koichi embodies the spirit of an underdog protagonist in a completely different way than Izuku does, with Koichi learning how to maximize a seemingly useless Quirk as opposed to Izuku suddenly being given a powerful one after years of having nothing. That creates an interesting contrast between the two, and as such, there’s a lot that could be gained from an interaction between them.
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Beyond that, a meeting between Koichi and Izuku would simply help legitimize My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ place in the franchise. Despite being canon and a good story in its own right, My Hero Academia has done little to nothing to acknowledge it over the years, and that’s unfortunately made it come across as irrelevant to the franchise to many. However, Koichi and Izuku interacting with each other would do a lot to reaffirm My Hero Academia: Vigilantes ’ place in canon, and that would add a lot to both stories as My Hero Academia's final arc approaches its ultimate conclusion.
My Hero Academia Needs To Keep Its World From Feeling So Small
How My Hero Academia can expand its setting
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The final major reason why it would be good for Koichi to appear in the final arc is that it would help keep the world of My Hero Academia from feeling so small. One criticism of the series has been how despite the world-spanning premise, the focus of My Hero Academia is only ever on Izuku and the characters associated with him, the story even going out of its way to not use its international heroes. It's left things feeling incredibly small, despite the massive scale of the final arc, and it ultimately does a disservice to the story.
The oddly shallow feeling of My Hero Academia’s world has been a problem for years, but an appearance from Koichi could do a lot to fix it. An appearance from Koichi would also remind people that things are going on in the world outside of Izuku’s story, and that, in turn, would easily make My Hero Academia’s world feel less small. There's only so much time left for that, but even so, it's hard to see an appearance from My Hero Academia: Vigilantes’ Koichi as anything other than a positive for the franchise as it comes to a close.
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My Hero Academia (2016)
Action
Superhero
Animation
In My Hero Academia, some humans have superpowers called quirks. Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, is not one of them. Deku has always idolized heroes like the number one hero, All Might, and since he was a child, he has always wanted to be a hero. However, his lack of a quirk has always held him back, but a chance encounter with All Might after discovering a classmate in danger sets Deku on the path to becoming a true hero. My Hero Academia centers around Deku and a class of heroes-in-training at UA. This school shapes young quirk users into future heroes through fake rescue missions, combat training, and other hero-tempering tasks. With young Deku inheriting the "One-For-All" quirk, he will learn what it means to be a true hero while facing off with dastardly supervillains.
- Cast
- Aoi Yuki , Ayane Sakura , Christopher R. Sabat , Yûki Kaji , Nobuhiko Okamoto , Luci Christian , David Matranga , Justin Briner , Kenta Miyake , Clifford Chapin , Daiki Yamashita
- Release Date
- April 3, 2016
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , Crunchyroll
- Franchise
- My Hero Academia
- Production Company
- Bones