My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2 drops another character-focused detour with episode 21 — a three-episode flashback arc that centers on a younger Aizawa and his relationship with the buoyant Oboro. The episode delivers striking animation and strong voice work, but ultimately raises questions about narrative necessity and emotional payoff. Below I break down what succeeds, what falls flat, and why this side-story might have been better suited as a standalone OVA rather than part of the main season.
Episode 21 Overview: An Atmospheric but Isolated Flashback
Episode 21 leans heavily into metaphor and mood, using weather motifs to visualize Aizawa’s inner turmoil and growth during his high school years. The episode is essentially a self-contained flashback meant to explain a formative loss that informs Aizawa’s later choices. While the episode contains standout set pieces — notably a kaiju-styled battle — the surrounding context and character development struggle to justify devoting multiple broadcast episodes to this detour.
What Worked
1. Visuals and Action
The animation during the flashback peaks in spectacle. The fight choreography and cinematic staging elevate otherwise straightforward scenes, turning metaphors into gripping visuals. When the episode embraces action, it delivers in a way that feels cinematic and memorable.
2. Voice Acting and Emotional Beats
Christopher Wehkamp’s portrayal of a younger Aizawa is a highlight. The performance shifts pitch and tone convincingly, removing the gravelly weathering of the older Aizawa to sell a believable youthfulness. The moment where Aizawa clings to the illusion of hearing Oboro’s voice is genuinely affecting — a demonstration of how strong acting can lift material that is narratively thin.
What Didn’t Work
1. Overreliance on a Single Emotional Pivot
The episode places Oboro at the center of Aizawa’s emotional world, yet Oboro exists almost exclusively to serve Aizawa’s arc. Aside from being supportive and playful, we learn very little about him as an autonomous person. This makes the tragedy feel engineered rather than earned; Oboro feels more like a narrative sun — a symbol — instead of a fully realized character whose loss meaningfully reshapes Aizawa.
2. Sidestepping Established Relationships
The flashback isolates Aizawa and Oboro in a way that weakens existing franchise continuity. Present Mic (Yamada) is an established close friend in the main series, and the show’s choice to keep him mostly absent here reduces the credibility of Aizawa’s isolation. If the episode intended to explore why Aizawa became reclusive, it missed an opportunity to show the trio’s dynamics or present a nuanced explanation for Aizawa’s distancing.
3. Narrative Placement and Pacing
As a multi-episode side story inserted into a season with a ticking main plot, this arc stalls momentum. The show’s pacing suffers because viewers eager for season-defining developments are instead given a detour that feels like it could have been offered as an optional extra — such as an OVA or special episode — without derailing the televised storyline.
Characterization: Aizawa and Oboro
The episode aims to portray Oboro as Aizawa’s emotional anchor — a bright, Sun Wukong–inspired presence who propels Aizawa forward. The symbolism is explicit and occasionally clever, but the execution leaves Oboro underdeveloped. Because the show focuses so tightly on Aizawa, other important relationships are glossed over, making the emotional core narrower and less persuasive than the concept suggests.
Animation and Sound: Technical High Points
Even critics of the episode will agree that the production values are high. The weather-as-mood device is realized well in background art and color grading, and the kaiju-esque battle is a standout set piece. Combined with strong voice acting — particularly in emotionally charged scenes — these technical strengths make the episode entertaining even when the script is treading water.
The Ending and Its Implications
The episode concludes with an ambiguous present-day moment: Aizawa watching and working with delinquents alongside Koichi. The scene is meant to signal some psychological shift — perhaps an ability to move on from past trauma — but it’s not explicit whether this is the turning point that leads to Aizawa’s later career decisions (for example, becoming a teacher). Because the episode wavers between being a character study and a plot-origin revealed, the ending feels uncertain about what it actually wants to say.
Why This Matters for the Season
Placement matters. With only a handful of episodes left in the season, using airtime for this flashback reduces space for major narrative beats. If this arc’s purpose was to deepen Aizawa’s motivation, it only half-succeeds: the episode provides atmosphere and emotional imagery but fails to integrate its revelations cleanly into Aizawa’s broader relationships and trajectory.
Where This Episode Succeeds as a Standalone Piece
If judged on its own merits, episode 21 can be appreciated as a lush, voice-acting-forward vignette that paints a sympathetic portrait of a younger Aizawa. Viewed as an optional bonus — like an OVA — it’s an effective character vignette with gorgeous animation and a few tear-inducing moments.
Final thoughts
Episode 21 of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2 is a technically impressive but narratively conflicted flashback. Strong voice acting and memorable animation elevate an arc that otherwise feels too narrow and too dependent on manufactured emotional beats. The episode’s biggest sin is timing: as part of a season’s broadcast run, this storyline wastes precious momentum when fans are hungry for main plot progression. If the studio had released this as an OVA or special, it would have been easier to admire the craft without resenting the pacing trade-off. Still, when the episode hits — especially the quieter, character-driven moments — it reminds viewers why Aizawa remains one of the franchise’s most compelling figures.
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. For commentary from indie creators, some stream regularly on Twitch, such as Bolts The Mechanic.
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