Summary
With the recent release of theMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesanime, viewers around the world finally got to meet its relatable and reliable protagonist,Koichi Haimawari(AKA: The Crawler). Naturally,fans of this franchise have begun comparing him to the protagonist of the mainMy Hero Academiaseries,Izuku Midoriya, something that manga readers have already been doing for years.
In reality, these two main characters are surprisingly similar in a lot of respects (like their humble beginnings, their desire to help people, or their mutual admiration for All Might), but they are also quite different in many others. As a result, there are a lot of things that Deku can’t do, but that Koichi can, with the following seven being the most obvious examples.
1Disobeying The Law (For More Than A Day)
Koichi Is An Illegal Vigilante, While Deku Obtained An Official Hero License
In the world ofMy Hero Academia, being a superhero is an actual career, complete with all the corresponding regulations. Because of this, Deku is a normal citizen who always tries to follow the law, so he entered U.A. High School to become a Pro Heroand even obtained aProvisional Hero Licensethere. There have been a few instances in which he disobeyed the law and illegally worked as a hero (like in the Hideout Raid Arc), but he always got reprimanded for it.
On the other hand, the entire premise ofMy Hero Academia: Vigilantesrevolves around Koichi becoming an illegal vigilante, someone who uses his quirk to help and save people without an official Hero License, and even having to escape from the police and other Pro Heroes while doing it. Needless to say, he is still a very good person, but he had to find a more unconventional way of helping others.
2Talking To Girls Without Problems
Koichi Was More Social Than Deku (In The Beginning, At Least)
Deku spent most of his middle school years being bullied because he was born without a quirk, meaning that he inevitably became a shy and introverted person who very rarely talked to other people his age. Because of this, he often had problems talking to girls when he entered U.A. High School,especially those he found attractive, like Ochaco Uraraka, Mei Hatsume or Nejire Hado. Of course, as he slowly got used to his new life, he had fewer and fewer problems interacting with women.
Needless to say, Koichi is also quite shy, and he didn’t have the best social life, but it’s immediately evident that he never had any problems interacting with members of the opposite gender. After all, he had pretty normal and amicable relationships with Kazuho Haneyama and Makoto Tsukauchi (both of whom would eventually become his romantic interests), but he never made a big deal out of it.
3Using A Quirk Since He Was Little
Unlike Deku, Koichi Was Actually Born With A Quirk
Izuku Midoriya was bornwithout a quirkand believed that he was never going to be able to become a hero, until All Might passed One For All down to him and he became his successor. This is the quintessential underdog story, and while Deku’s life eventually got a lot better, he suffered a lot as a quirkless kid in a society where everyone else gets incredible superpowers at a very young age, dreams of becoming heroes, and even bullies those who were born without one.
Koichi had a much more conventional life as someone who was born with a quirk that, according to his mother, he could use since he was a small baby. Of course, he still deemed Slide and Glide useless, not to mention that Soga and his goons harassed him for it, but at least he didn’t suffer any of the rampant discrimination that Deku did, and he had an easier time fitting into Japan’s hero-centric society until his adult life.
4Flying Without Additional Quirks
Koichi Learned How To Use Slide And Glide To Soar The Skies
When Deku obtained One For All from All Might, he learned how to use his newfound strength to jump long distances, but he couldn’t stay in the air for much longer.He later gained the ability toflywhen he unlocked Nana Shimura’s Float quirk, which was residing inside One For All alongside her vestige.
At one point in the story ofVigilantes, Koichi learned how to use the repulsive forces he could emanate from his hands and feet to fly at high speeds, not to mention that he could also use them to stick to walls and other surfaces. Curiously enough, this is something that Koichi was always able to do: when he was a baby, he often used Slide and Glide to levitate and escape his crib, until his mother conditioned him into never doing it again.
5Shooting Precise Projectiles Without Any Support Items
“Shooty-Go-Blam” Became A Crucial Part Of The Crawler’s Arsenal
At first, Izuku Midoriya’s body couldn’t withstand the immense power of One For All, so he came up with some brilliant applications for it. For example, he was able to shoot impressive gusts of wind at his opponents by flicking his fingers, but theseprojectileslacked a lot of precision and concentrated power. That’s exactly why he later asked Mei Hatsume to build theAir Force Glovesfor him, which allowed him to shoot multiple wind bullets without much effort.
But Koichi’s history with projectile attacks was a lot less complicated.As he kept training his Slide and Glide quirk and finding new ways to use it, he eventually learned how to concentrate the repulsive energy he could generate from his hands to shoot powerful blasts. These projectiles are so precise and powerful that they can easily pierce through small objects like metal cans, and Koichi didn’t even need a special support item to achieve this.
6Fighting Alongside Famous Heroes On Equal Terms
Deku Eventually Became A Great Hero, But His Teachers Always Saw Him As A Kid
While All Might is Deku’s #1 favorite hero and role model, he always held deep admiration for all of Japan’s most famous and belovedPro Heroes, like Eraser Head, Thirteen, Ingenium, Beast Jeanist, Mirko, and more. Fortunately for him, he got the chance to fight alongside all of them during both the Paranormal Liberation War Arc and Final War Arc, but most of them still saw him as a young aspiring hero and/or a teenage student (especially those who were his teachers back in U.A. High School).
Since Koichi never attended U.A. and became an illegal vigilante when he was already an adult, he had a more equal relationship with the Pro Heroes he encountered on his adventures. Of course, their interactions were a bit more tense (seeing as he was technically a criminal),but he was eventually able to become a reliable ally for some heroes who saw him as one of their peers, like Eraser Head, Ingenium, and Captain Celebrity. On top of that, Koichi got the chance to work alongside Iida Tensei and All Might before they retired.
7Becoming An International Hero
Koichi Became A Sidekick In The US, While Deku Barely Left Japan
Weirdly enough, Izuku Midoriya’s story takes place entirely inside Japan.Deku has visited other countries on a few occasions (like in the first and third movies), but his main goal was to become the greatest hero in his home country, defeat One For All, and improve its society. This was undoubtedly a commendable life goal, but it also meant that he sadly never got to interact much with international Pro Heroes and the hero societies of other countries.
Koichi’s scope was a lot smaller than Deku’s, since he spent most of his story in the Naruhata ward, but at the end ofVigilantes,he left Japan to join Captain Celebrity’s agency in the United States,where he became known as The Skycrawler. Of course, he had to leave his home country because his illegal vigilantism made the public see him as a villain or a criminal, but he at least got the chance to become an International Pro Hero because of his unfortunate situation.
