Episode 3 (Vigilantes)

Bee is the third episode of the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes anime.

Summary#

Koichi returns to his Penthouse after a long day of class and finds a stranger helping himself to his food, beer, and television. Before Koichi can do anything, the stranger puts a mask on his face revealing that he is Knuckleduster, which calms Koichi down. The Vigilante explains he swung by the place since he got off work early and entered by punching in the window and unlocking it from the inside, much to Koichi's annoyance.

The student then hears a knock on the door and opens it to find a timid high school girl with bushy, pink hair. She then rushes in without a greeting and starts applying face makeup on herself, revealing her to be Pop☆Step, getting ready for one of her upcoming shows later. As she sets up a curtain to change behind, she starts bickering with Knuckleduster about keeping his coat on "her side" of the room, while Koichi isn't too thrilled at his teammates getting comfortable in his home.

Koichi soon leaves for work, with his shift starting right around the time Pop is doing her show. As she begins the next song, the girl asks the audience to form a line to get a handshake from her. One of her fans, Teruo Unagisawa, tries to crawl up to the front but is swiftly knocked back by another patron for trying to cut. Ichimoku and Jube then walk up to him, and after checking if he's hurt, advises him to wait his turn like everyone else and not be selfish about their shared admiration for the idol.

Ichimoku doesn't take his own advice and fires a Meganetic Blaster into the air that earns him some attention and a compliment from Pop☆Step, which pisses off Jube. Teruo then grows impatient from all the waiting and stabs a Trigger vial into his neck. He then transforms into a large, slimy, eel-like creature and begins chasing Pop with a fanboy-ish craving for his handshake.

Koichi catches the altercation just as his shift ends and immediately suits up as "The Crawler" and chases after them, along with Ichimoku, Jube, and a just arriving Knuckleduster. The Crawler manages to catch up to Teruo and grab his lower body, while Knuckleduster swings down from above to deliver a punch. Their restraint attempts fail, and they fall into a pile of trash, as the slime on Teruo's body prevents them from getting physical with the Instant Villain. While thinking about how to deal with the slime, Knuckleduster notices a nearby udon shop.

Pop☆Step then gets a call from The Crawler and he asks her to lead the young man into an alleyway for a handshake, as he believes it will calm him down since he's a huge fan of hers that seemingly got carried away. While disgusted, Pop agrees and shakes Teruo's transformed hand, which seems to calm him down at first. However, he gets way too excited and begins to coil his body around her to try and steal a kiss from her with his giant, lamprey-like mouth.

The pair are then hit with an avalanche of flour from The Crawler and Knuckleduster, which they borrowed from the udon shop. Since the substance absorbed all the moisture on Teruo's skin, Knuckleduster is able to quickly finish the Instant Villain off with several punches and restrain him.

Same as before with the Hardening user, the Vigilantes are having difficulty identifying him, this time because most Instant Villains shred their clothes and scatter their personal belongings when they take a hit of Trigger. The three then start to leave as they hear the police arriving, as Pop☆Step says she needs to bathe after being caked in slime and flour.

Later that night, back at the Penthouse, a now clean Pop☆Step complains to Koichi about the quality of his shampoo, while Knuckleduster steps out of the bath and expresses his own grievances about the college student being out of beer, even though he was the one who drank it all. Then Pop complains to the old man about his smoking and the fact that he's walking around in only his underwear, although Knuckleduster doesn't care what she thinks.

As Knuckleduster and Pop☆Step continue arguing, Koichi steps out to dry everyone's costumes. Although his dreams of a bustling, fulfilling college life never came true, being stuck with a boring day job and no friends from school, the young man is grateful for his new teammates bringing some color into it.

Up in a police station, Naomasa is conversing with his colleague Eizo Tanuma about all the Instant Villain cases that have been piling up over the last several days. The detective notes that all of these cases have popped up in the same areas: the Naruhata shopping district and the eastern part of the ward. Eizo isn't too surprised considering the area's bad reputation when it comes to crime but says it shouldn't be hard to find leads with the area of reports being so small.

Naomasa isn't too sure, as each of the Instant Villains said they all received their vials of Trigger from the same, unknown source. The detective believes the free distribution is meant to get their users hooked so they can actually spend money on the drug later on, but Eizo doubts it due to Trigger's hefty street cost. Naomasa asks him for any possible motives outside of that, and Eizo spitballs the free distribution being some kind of investment for a much bigger reason, whether it be political, anarchial, or something else entirely.

The next day, Koichi and Pop are relaxing in the former's Penthouse as the girl receives a message from Jube and Ichimoku. Apparently, Teruo was released from police custody, and the two started getting to know him better with the hopes that he'll spill on who specifically gave him his vial of Trigger. After Pop shuts down Koichi's attempt to call Knuckleduster, out of the fear that he'll just assault Teruo again, the pair decided to meet with the middle schoolers on their own to get any new information.

The two get into their costumes and begin walking, with Pop nervously hanging onto The Crawler's arm so she doesn't trip in her platform shoes. They are then spotted by an excited fan who was walking with her friends, Kuin Hachisuka, who asks Pop☆Step to take a picture of her. After taking a picture with the fan, the Vigilantes meet up with Ichimoku near a cafe, who says that Jube and Teruo will be joining them soon, as the pair went off to buy some merch earlier. The two then notice Knuckleduster sitting at the cafe who asks to join them, despite the three's fears that the man will jeopardize their meetup.

Later on, Kuin is still gushing about the photo she took with Pop☆Step while she strolls with her classmates, before the other girls begin to freak out from a bee supposedly buzzing around them. A hornet with an abdomen that looks like a tiny syringe full of Trigger then crawls under Kuin's eyepatch and causes the girl to jolt. She tells her friends that she has to bail on their karaoke plans for a sudden work call and then runs into a secluded alleyway.

Once she's alone, Kuin plucks off her eyepatch as more of those bee-like arthropods begin to flood out of her eye socket, as her "part-time job" is Villain work. Using her Quirk, Queen Bee, she sends the swarm of insects into the Naruhata shopping district, as she uses them to set the town "abuzz". The insects begin stinging random civilians and injecting them with Trigger, causing their Quirks to go haywire and wreak havoc in the area, and both Jube and Teruo to get separated.

In the police station, Sansa gets reports of the situation, as Naomasa calls for his men to send out any Heroes in the areas to deal with the problem. By the time The Crawler and Pop☆Step notice the commotion off in the distance, a slew of Pro Heroes, including Airjet, All Might, Endeavor, Ingenium, and more, swoop in and take out all the Instant Villains in no time flat.

While at the cafe, Knuckleduster notices one of the bees flying alone, and chases it until he manages to catch it. Then he runs into Jube, who was looking for Teruo. He asks the middle schooler if he's seen any suspicious individuals with a "Bee Quirk". To his frustration, the boy says no. Angered by this, the Vigilante crushes the insect in his palms. This causes Kuin to get a headache and blood to trickle out of her obscured eye as she curses the old man for hurting "her girls", apparently recognizing Knuckleduster and that he was the cause of her sudden injury.

Teruo, who met up with her during the attack, asks if she's okay. Kuin cheerily assures the young Pop☆Step fan that she's fine, as she grabs his hand and uses their shared admiration of the teen idol to lure him to an unknown destination inside a dark alley.

Knuckleduster and Jube return to the cafe, along with Koichi, Pop☆Step, and Ichimoku still there. While Jube explains to the others what happened, Knuckleduster looks off to the side, frustrated, mulling over being unable to find the one responsible for the chaos today.

Characters in Order of Appearance#

The Crawler Knuckleduster Pop☆Step Ichimoku Samazu Jube Namimaru Teruo Unagisawa Akira Iwako Soga Kugisaki (Pictured) Rapt Tokage (Pictured) Moyuru Tochi (Pictured) Naomasa Tsukauchi Eizo Tanuma Kuin Hachisuka Sansa Tamagawa Airjet Ingenium Endeavor Midnight Snipe Best Jeanist Eraser Head Present Mic Death Arms Thirteen All Might

Quirks#

Locations#

Battles & Events#

Anime & Manga Differences#

Present Mic explaining "what are vigilantes" is omitted from the anime.
This is replaced with a scene of Koichi in his college class, where the teacher lectures about vigilantes.
The anime doesn't include Koichi leaving a spare key for Knuckleduster to use and telling Pop she can use the bath.
The anime also doesn't include Koichi telling Pop where the bathroom is, which makes her think he has dirty motives, depressing Koichi and making him remember a bad experience with his college classmates.
The flashback in which Koichi first moves into his Penthouse, his attempt to invite his fellow students over one night and becoming ostracized from school as a result is used as the introduction for Episode 5.
In its place in the anime is a scene of Koichi envisioning a "typical college life".
Pop☆Step's full performance during her show is seen in the anime.
In the manga, Pop is showing shaking the hands of fans in the nearby buildings near the end of her first song. In the anime, she stage dives in the crowd while they collectively toss her up and down into the air.
Teruo's interrogation is heard in the manga but only seen in the anime.
Naomasa reads off the names and ages of the Instant Villains in the manga, but only their profiles are shown in the anime.
The visual of Mario being handed the Trigger drugs by a silhouetted figure is not shown in the anime.
Teruo being released from custody, reuniting with Jube and Ichimoku, and Naomasa following him is omitted from the anime.
Because Naomasa following Teruo was removed, in the anime he puts out the emergency call for the Heroes in the police station with Sansa.
Koichi poking fun at the formality of Jube and Ichimoku's message to Pop about Teruo is excluded from the anime.
In the manga, Koichi openly describes what Knuckleduster might do to Teruo if he confronts him again. In the anime, both Pop and Koichi silently imagine the corresponding imagery of the hypothetical confrontation.
The scene of Kuin sending out her swarm into the city is extended in the anime.
In the manga, All Might defeats a Villain with a nondescript Smash. In the anime, he specifically uses a Texas Smash.
In the anime, Teruo is still wearing his Pop☆Step-themed jinbei when he's hanging out with Kuin after the Villain attack.

Arc	Vigilantes Beginnings
Season number	1
Ep number	3
Ep title	Bee
Jp air date	2025-04-21
Dub date	2025-04-21
Adapted from	Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Opening song	Kekka Alright
Ending song	Speed