My Hero Academia: Vigilantes takes place several years before the start of Izuku Midoriya’s story in the main My Hero Academia series, during the height of All Might’s active career as the No. 1 Hero.

Where it fits in the timeline

  • It is a prequel set in the “age of All Might,” while he is still publicly strong and active as a full-time hero.
  • Fan timeline breakdowns and contextual clues from the manga place most of Vigilantes roughly 4–6 years before the beginning of the main series, i.e., before Deku meets All Might and enters U.A. High.
  • Community analyses often frame it as taking place between All Might’s big battle with All For One and the year Deku starts at U.A., filling in the gap with underground hero activity and early villain experimentation (Trigger, Nomu, etc.).

Simple way to remember it

If you imagine the main series as “Deku’s era,” then Vigilantes is the pre- Deku street-level era : All Might is still at his peak, pro heroes are established, but Deku hasn’t started his journey yet, and the story focuses on Naruhata’s underground vigilantes instead.

TL;DR: When does My Hero Academia: Vigilantes take place?
It’s a prequel set about 4–6 years before the main My Hero Academia story, in the middle of All Might’s prime, before Deku meets him and enrolls at U.A.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.