The new My Hero Academia series, My Hero Academia Vigilantes, features a number of familiar faces to fans, but one of the most prominent is a character who got very little screen time: Ingenium. And no, that's not referring to Tenya Iida, but rather his brother, Tensei.

In My Hero Academia proper, Ingenium was a hero name ed down through the Iida family, bestowed upon Tenya's older brother. However, during the Sports Festival arc, Tenya Iida gets a call from his mother, telling him that Tensei was attacked by the Hero Killer, Stain, and may never be able to perform hero work again. This sparks a quest for revenge in young Tenya, kicking off the Vs. Hero Killer arc, which very nearly gets the boy killed. While Tensei survives, his hero career has ended, and the name Ingenium is ed on to Tenya.

Fans Will Get to See the Original Ingenium In Action for the First Time

Tenya's Brother Had a Strong Career Before Stain

Due to the circumstances of his introduction, fans never actually get to see Tensei doing any hero work prior to his injury. While Tenya speaks highly of his brother, that's all there really is to go on in the original manga. However, the neighborhood where Vigilantes is set, Naruhata, is actually part of Ingenium's jurisdiction, and so Tensei gets to make several appearances in the series while still working as a pro. More than that, fans will get to see "Team IdaTen," Ingenium's sidekicks and staff. There's even a scene where Ingenium films a commercial.

It's certainly interesting to get to see Tenya's brother active as a hero, providing a little more context to his character and showing why his brother looked up to him so much. Tensei is a good-natured sort of guy, and is surprisingly easy on the eponymous vigilantes, recognizing the help they've offered him. Everything that fans learn about Tensei in Vigilantes serves to make his ultimate fate even more tragic, and helps them learn to see him the way Tenya did.

Vigilantes' Use of Ingenium Shows Why the Prequel Works So Well

Fleshing Out Minor Characters is Vigilantes' Bread and Butter

While Ingenium is one of the more exciting pros that Vigilantes will show off, he's far from the only smaller character who will get a shot at the spotlight. My Hero Academia Vigilantes carefully selects characters to show off a new side of them, ranging from villains like Stain to heroes like Best Jeanist. Enhancing the characterization of these heroes and villains not only makes the series worth reading, but it improves upon the original My Hero Academia as well.

With Tensei's casting recently announced (he will be played by Masamichi Riichi in the Japanese version), it's about time for fans to start getting excited at the possibilities that Vigilantes represents. My Hero Academia's prequel offers fans insight into characters they didn't even know they were curious about, and overall makes the world of the series all the richer.