The world of My Hero Academia is about to expand in the Spring 2025 anime season with the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes anime, adapting the 15-volume manga of the same name. The Vigilantes storyline may be an optional spinoff adventure, but it still does some impressively heavy lifting with the lore, including arcs for characters like the Symbol of Peace All Might and certainly Shota Aizawa/Eraser Head.
Even if Eraser Head will be a supporting hero rather than a major protagonist in the Vigilantes anime, this will still be a rich opportunity for fans of Eraser Head’s to not only see more of him in action but also fill in the missing pieces of his backstory and personality. In the process, Eraser Head can help rebalance the franchise’s combat system and tone to distance the narrative just enough from Deku-style arcs.
Eraser Head Scales Back Quirk Action Without Being Quirkless
Eraser Head Is a Batman in a World of Supermen
From the very start, Quirks have been the core of My Hero Academia‘s combat system β to the point Quirk firepower is the main way to measure any character’s worthiness as a fighter, whether hero or villain. Factors such as tactical intelligence and teamwork do play a role as well, such as the power of friendship with Deku, or Momo Yaoyorozu’s genius leadership, but overall, Quirk power has been the main yardstick for any character. That trend has reached new heights in My Hero Academia‘s 7th season, such as Endeavor vs All For One and Bakugo vs Tomura Shigaraki, but Vigilantes is a fresh chance to mix up the status quo.
Quirks won’t stop mattering in the Vigilantes anime, but then again, the stakes and power levels are being scaled back enough so Quirk-lite characters like Eraser Head can feel prominent in a big way. In the main series of My Hero Academia, Eraser Head only fought solo in early seasons before he was relegated to support hero status in later seasons, weakening his role. From Season 6 onward, Eraser Head’s main role was to disable the enemy’s Quirks so heroes like Bakugo, Shoto, and Deku could finish the job. That suggested Eraser Head couldn’t finish the job himself, lacking the power to capture villains in such intense, large-scale battles. Fortunately, the Vigilantes anime will dodge that issue and throw Eraser Head into battles and other events where he can save the day alone and not just make room for One For All to land the winning blow.
My Hero Academia’s Epilogue Is Still Controversial 7 Months Later, But Vigilantes Features an Alternate Path Deku Could’ve Taken
Deku being a teacher after the war in My Hero Academia makes sense, but the Vigilantes anime presents a different ending for the Pro Hero.
Not only will Eraser Head get a new chance to fight like a protagonist who can win his own fights, but it will also prove once again how potent his combat style can be when Quirks are largely factored out. Unlike characters like Deku and Yuga Aoyama, Eraser Head was not born Quirkless, and no part of his character arc is based on compensating for having no Quirk. Instead, Eraser Head’s arc is about him making the most of a Quirk that cannot deal damage or create things, a sharp contrast with Hanta Sero’s Tape or Bakugo’s Explosion. When Eraser Head fights, he only uses his Quirk to stifle the enemy’s own, reducing the clash to a physical contest where Aizawa has a variety of advantages. In a way, that’s a narrative adjacent to being Quirkless but without stepping on the toes of characters like Deku and Yuga, or even Knuckleduster for that matter.
That will help mix up the fighting style of Vigilantes, allowing a Quirk-lite hero like Eraser Head to shine and be in his element without All Might, Endeavor, or Hawks overshadowing him. Some of those other Pro Heroes will certainly appear, but not typically as reinforcements for Eraser Head. Thus, Vigilantes will be a long-overdue chance for a My Hero Academia story to partially focus on and glorify a Quirk-lite hero and prove the worthiness of such characters. That will help make Eraser Head cool and impressive all over again, reminding fans why he is one of the most effective Pro Heroes, pound for pound. His Quirk isn’t the strongest out there, but it’s one of the most effective in the right hands β his.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Will Show Eraser Head in His Element
Eraser Head Didn’t Fully Measure Up as a U.A. Teacher
One of the most important factors of Eraser Head’s inclusion in Vigilantes isn’t just his new opportunities to fight, but the fact he is fully in his element. In the original My Hero Academia anime, Eraser Head was entertaining and felt deeper because he had one foot in the Pro Hero world and the other in the academic world. He was an active Pro Hero and a teacher at U.A., similar to the likes of Vlad King and Midnight, but unlike them, Eraser Head never fully took to being a teacher. He did take that role seriously, as his actions and dialogue alike proved, but he was never truly meant to be a teacher or nurturer. Funnily enough, that puts Eraser Head in the same category as All Might himself, even if their personalities and fighting styles are quite different.
My Hero Academia Fans Will Finally Get to Learn More About This Mysterious Pro Hero in Vigilantes
Ingenium, or Tensei Iida, only briefly appeared in the My Hero Academia anime, but the Vigilantes anime will feature the Pro Hero in more detail.
For the sake of comedy and nurturing Class 1-A ‘s students with tough love, My Hero Academia needed Eraser Head to primarily be a teacher, but fans have had their fill of that side of Eraser Head’s character. The overall franchise has made its point with Eraser Head’s teaching arc, and there’s not much more to say in that arena, so Vigilantes will smartly put Eraser Head back in his element.
Being a prequel anime set about 5 years before the main events of My Hero Academia, the Vigilantes anime can neatly steer Eraser Head clear of U.A. by showing his career before he even became a teacher at all. That way, Eraser Head can focus entirely on his Pro Hero work without neglecting his duties as a teacher. It would look bad if Eraser Head ditched his teaching duties or quit that job in MHA to focus entirely on fighting crime, so this is an effective workaround.
During the events of Vigilantes, Eraser Head will have no teacher job to distract him and eat up time, and on top of that, he will be fighting in peak physical shape, long before the dreaded Nomu injured him at U.A. This is Eraser Head before he got his scars and before his Erasure Quirk was weakened, so fans will finally see Eraser Head fighting at 100%. Eraser Head will be in his element as a solo fighter with max power and concentration in Vigilantes, which will be fun to see, but that’s still not all fans should look forward to as Eraser Head returns to the small screen this spring.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Will Complete Eraser Head’s Personal Arc
Eraser Head Will Get Protagonist-Worthy Flashbacks
Newcomers to the Vigilantes spinoff storyline won’t want to be spoiled on the details, but they may still rest assured the Vigilantes anime will do some impressive work to fill in the missing gaps of Eraser Head’s personal life. While it’s fun to see Eraser Head in his element fighting villains with his optimized powers, there is more to him than the what. Superhero stories must also focus on the who, humanizing even the strongest or scariest Pro Heroes or villains to make them realistic, sympathetic, and more memorable. Vigilantes will mainly focus on its own shonen trio of Koichi, Pop Step, and Knuckleduster, as fans probably expected, but Eraser Head will get his chance sooner or later as well.
10 Ways the MHA: Vigilantes Anime Will Be Different Than My Hero Academia
MHA: Vigilantes, set five years before Dekuβs journey, offers fresh perspectives, new heroes, and pro hero cameos in the Quirk-filled universe.
Eraser Head may not be a true spinoff protagonist since Koichi will be the true protagonist, but fans of Eraser Head will still get enough to sate their appetites. The Vigilantes anime will treat fans to a few shonen anime-style flashbacks to fill in the remaining gaps of Eraser Head’s personal arc, all while giving more screen time for younger versions of Present Mic, Midnight, and Oboro Shirakumo, the boy who would eventually become Kurogiri. The main My Hero Academia had a flashback of Eraser Head’s teenage days, but that flashback was rather limited and focused on the origins of his hero name.
The Vigilantes anime will go much further with more heartfelt flashbacks, showing Shota Aizawa the U.A. student with his three friends as they bring out the best in each other, from dreams of the future to rescuing a kitten. That kind of emotional resonance is the kind only the best shonen anime heroes get, most of all protagonists, and it will truly transform Eraser Head from Deku’s curt homeroom teacher to a lovable human being who’s just trying to do the right thing every single day.
