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TheVigilantesspin-off forMy Hero Academiahas seen a recent drop in popularity in the weekly fan poll from Anime Corner, while the series is still continuing to air. WhileMy Hero Academiaremains a popular anime overall,Vigilantesdropped from the 5th most popular anime to the 7th most popular anime in the Spring 2025 Week 10 anime rankings.
This poll was conducted among over 4,000 international anime fans and might speak to a waning enthusiasm forVigilantesas the final season ofMy Hero Academiagets closer and closer to airing.Vigilantesexperienced the most significant vote drop from among titles in the top ten, getting beaten out byTo Be Hero X,Black Butler,andFire Force,among others. Does this poll match the experience of the larger anime viewing public, and why would support forVigilantesbe waning if it is true?
Vigilantes’ Popularity Over Time
Comparing the My Anime List Numbers
It’s possible thatthis weekly poll from Anime Corneris just measuring a temporary drop in popularity at a moment in time. A couple of weeks into theVigilantes’airing at the end of April,it had garnered an impressive 88,000 members on My Anime List, a number which has increased to over 112,000 at the time of this writing. Its user score, score ranking, and overall popularity ranking have also increased since it first started airing. This suggests that the show has only become more popular as it continues to release episodes, meaning, at the very least, the show is gaining momentum.
However, it’s also possiblethat the rate of popularity gain forVigilantesis simply being outpaced by other shows near it, explaining the drop in the weekly popularity poll in relation to the other series. This makes sense, as the shows in the current top ten have reached somewhat of an equilibrium, with not many shows able to break in from the outside.Vigilantesmanaged to make the top 10nearly every single week of the poll’s release so far, but 5th was the highest it had managed to achieve before falling again recently.
Why Hasn’t Vigilantes Reached Main Series Heights?
The Spin-off Has a Different Appeal
During its airing run,My Hero AcademiaSeason 7 managed to reach #2 as a high in the top ten,though it came in 14th overallfor the entire season’s popularity ratings from Anime Corner. Previous seasons ofMy Hero Academiahave also enjoyed a high popularity thatVigilanteshas so far not been able to replicate.Just why hasVigilantesnot seemed to landwith anime fans like the original series has?
One main reason might be that the spin-off show is not trying to be a copy of the main storyline. While it exists in the same world and acts as a bit of a prequel to the main series, it is a more focused, contained story with fewer characters. This departure from the traditional MHA fair may have turned off some viewers. ManyMy Hero Academiafans were excited to haveVigilantesavailable to tide them over until the final season of the main series airs later this year. However,Vigilantesseems to scratch a different itch.While Koichi and Midoriya are similar enoughprotagonists on the surface, Koichi has a Quirk that he learns to develop over time, while Deku is given the world’s most powerful Quirk and has to learn how to scale back his output. While Koichi and his companions are working towards uncovering a bigger plot, there is much less drama and stakes compared to the main series to keep viewers invested. Koichi and crew mostly deal with low-level crimes, occasionally stumbling into something bigger, but the dynamic of the show never really changes like MHA’s more epic story does.
“Wow, there he goes! Seeing him work in person is something else!” -Koichi watching All Might in Episode 1 of Vigilantes.
One strength of having fewer characters it that each one has an opportunity to get better development, and the story can accommodate them easily by always giving them something to do. However, with fewer characters, there are fewer opportunities to appeal to a wider audience, resulting ina narrower target viewer base forVigilantes. The story forVigilantesis a slow burn, so it will be interesting to see if its popularity picks up when some of the more MHA-like dramatic story beats get adapted to the anime.
My Hero Academia
Cast
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.
