To Be Hero X Ep 2 Review: A Hero’s True Face
After that shocking ending in episode 1, we thought we were going to get some insane thriller episode with some mind-blowing trauma and crazy crime investigation, but it turns out the series just rug-pulled us and took the cheap way out. However, this episode focuses on another plotline that is no less interesting and emotional.
False Alarm! For some reason, last episode Lin Ling was seeing a vision of Yueqing lying in a pool of blood. But we got quickly retconned and it turned out to be a…hallucination? a dream? a prophecy? We’re not sure what it is but it is not real…at least not yet. Yueqing is still alive and well in the morning, which relieved Lin Ling. However, he was soon confronted by Yueqing about the real “Nice” – since she probably realized Lin Ling’s true identity last night but didn’t exposed it on TV. And yes, Yueqing is nothing like the pristine image that we were shown in the last episode. She quickly shows herself to be a loud-mouthed, hot-headed and very aggressive young girl. And most important of all, she wants NOTHING to do with Nice. The two were playing boyfriend/girlfriend for the last 3 years, because the public really like those two together. It’s really insane that how the public perceive you will affect your ability. Because the public saw Nice as the perfect gentleman hero, that’s why his fighting style is like a ballerino with super strength. And also due to that, Yueqing ability went from opening portal to anywhere into opening a portal only to Nice’s side. That’s a really insane rule in this world that is both “convenient” to the plot and ultra unrealistic. I’m not sure if they will explain how this “public opinion” thing work or just gloss over it and just treat it as a universal rule.
In addition, the company wanted Nice and Yueqing to continue their “fake” relationship. We don’t know if the previous Nice did like Yueqing or not, but we do know Lin Ling is heads over heels for the girl. However, Yueqing is tired after 3 years of being attached to Nice, and she wanted to just break off the contract and went away. So of course, the manager girl did the sensible thing: follow Japanese’s trope and lock the two of them in the same room for a month. At first, the two was super bored and didn’t know what to do and usually resorted to bickering. But after a while, they kinda mellowed out to each other and began interacting. After a while, the two seems to have accepted their situation and became much closer. However, you can see that while Lin Ling was smitten with love, Yueqing still held onto her original plan of leaving.
In addition, the company wanted Nice and Yueqing to continue their “fake” relationship. We don’t know if the previous Nice did like Yueqing or not, but we do know Lin Ling is heads over heels for the girl. However, Yueqing is tired after 3 years of being attached to Nice, and she wanted to just break off the contract and went away. So of course, the manager girl did the sensible thing: follow Japanese’s trope and lock the two of them in the same room for a month. At first, the two was super bored and didn’t know what to do and usually resorted to bickering. But after a while, they kinda mellowed out to each other and began interacting. After a while, the two seems to have accepted their situation and became much closer. However, you can see that while Lin Ling was smitten with love, Yueqing still held onto her original plan of leaving.
And that’s where the “show” comes in. In order to give Yueqing her freedom while still maintaining the public support for Nice’s relationship. Lin Ling think of a way to give Yueqing her “freedom” back – by orchestrating a hoax wedding in front of the public. A villain will appear and Yueqing will die protecting Nice, therefore giving her the “freedom” to leave. But how could they get a villain to appear? And how could they make sure Yueqing will “die” while protecting Nice and if Nice can sort out the villain after that?
Easy! Just do it like The Boys!
And that means to fake everything. This world seems very happy and bright at first, but slowly but surely, the dystopian side begins to show. It seems that in this world, even villains can be made up, just to give a hero more Trust Value and help them rise among the ranks. Here we are introduced to King of Destruction – Nice’s nemesis, kinda like how Green Goblin is Spiderman’s. However, KoD is actually Nice’s close friend. They used to be roommates and shared their ideals to be heroes together. But as fate would have it, “Nice” would go on to be a hero beloved by many and KoD became a nemesis solely to boost Nice’s value. It’s not like KoD really committed any atrocious crimes since everything was orchestrated and fake. And the manager woman feels really like Ashley from The Boys – but just more conviction. And yes, you can definitely tell KoD’s feelings towards the old Nice isn’t simply friendship. He loves Nice more than anyone in the world, and he went absolutely crazy to find out why Nice isn’t like his old self, which gives us a gorgeous Sakuga.
The combat in this episode is even more mesmerizing in ep 1 – mainly because it takes place in an open space with lots of avenue for imaginative choreographs. Furthermore, with Yueqing joining the fight and utilizing her ability to teleport to Nice’s side very smartly, we get a portal fight that can rival Spiderman versus Thanos in Infinity War. It’s very creative and well done and I must praise the animation team for that. And King of Destruction is no slouch either. Bro is literally a one-man army and has a pretty dope sword that can do the Fafner Mark Sein thing that shoots out omni-directional beam. While some of the fight is in full 3D, a lot of the emotional moments are done in 2D and they have ZERO smear frames whatsoever. Every frame, no matter when you pause or seek frames in the episode, they all look absolutely consistent and perfect. One thing I can criticize is the “impact” doesn’t feel too heavy, but the sound effects are VERY hard. I guess due to the design of the characters being suppppperrrr slender, they don’t want to make it too brawly. Despite making craters left and right and explosions going on every second, it doesn’t feel like their attacks was doing any damage. Kinda like a Superman vs Zod moment.
Easy! Just do it like The Boys!
And that means to fake everything. This world seems very happy and bright at first, but slowly but surely, the dystopian side begins to show. It seems that in this world, even villains can be made up, just to give a hero more Trust Value and help them rise among the ranks. Here we are introduced to King of Destruction – Nice’s nemesis, kinda like how Green Goblin is Spiderman’s. However, KoD is actually Nice’s close friend. They used to be roommates and shared their ideals to be heroes together. But as fate would have it, “Nice” would go on to be a hero beloved by many and KoD became a nemesis solely to boost Nice’s value. It’s not like KoD really committed any atrocious crimes since everything was orchestrated and fake. And the manager woman feels really like Ashley from The Boys – but just more conviction. And yes, you can definitely tell KoD’s feelings towards the old Nice isn’t simply friendship. He loves Nice more than anyone in the world, and he went absolutely crazy to find out why Nice isn’t like his old self, which gives us a gorgeous Sakuga.
The combat in this episode is even more mesmerizing in ep 1 – mainly because it takes place in an open space with lots of avenue for imaginative choreographs. Furthermore, with Yueqing joining the fight and utilizing her ability to teleport to Nice’s side very smartly, we get a portal fight that can rival Spiderman versus Thanos in Infinity War. It’s very creative and well done and I must praise the animation team for that. And King of Destruction is no slouch either. Bro is literally a one-man army and has a pretty dope sword that can do the Fafner Mark Sein thing that shoots out omni-directional beam. While some of the fight is in full 3D, a lot of the emotional moments are done in 2D and they have ZERO smear frames whatsoever. Every frame, no matter when you pause or seek frames in the episode, they all look absolutely consistent and perfect. One thing I can criticize is the “impact” doesn’t feel too heavy, but the sound effects are VERY hard. I guess due to the design of the characters being suppppperrrr slender, they don’t want to make it too brawly. Despite making craters left and right and explosions going on every second, it doesn’t feel like their attacks was doing any damage. Kinda like a Superman vs Zod moment.
In the end, they managed to knock out KoD since he went completely off-script, crazy to find out what happened to the previous Nice. And Yueqing managed to stage a fatal wound and fulfilled the script. However, with KoD fight going off-script still fresh in his mind, Lin Ling actually thought Yueqing was wounded and reacted very emotionally. Even after Yueqing assured him, he still cried because he knew he couldn’t be with her anymore. Even though the entire situation has been fake, his affection for Yueqing is real, and while he can play as Nice in public, he couldn’t mask what he’s truly feeling in his heart. And he even made the manager woman cry because his display of pain and grief is super realistic. It was enough to convince everyone that he truly care for Yueqing. Well, it was real anyway, so it’s not like the audience need convincing. Even I feel something when Lin Ling cried for her.
Soooo….it turns out that faked out in episode 1 didn’t happen after all. I still wonder why they put it in. Probably just for pure shock value to keep the viewers watching, and they didn’t have a good way to deal with it so they just attributed it to hallucinations. Another thing I noticed with Chinese series (at least those that I’ve seen) is that they are super efficient with character building. They only need one or two episode to build up an entire character arc that feels compelling enough to get people to care for them. In this episode, Yueqing and King of Destruction both have a very compelling character development that made us feel like their story isn’t missing or just…unfulfilled. They feel completed as they ended their roles in the series. And this is something Japanese modern writers need to put more into their series. One of the more compelling one-off characters I can really related to is Girard Spriggan from Gundam Age, Black MightGaine from Might Gaine and the Eldora V crew.
The end of the episode also setup the next arc quite well. They converted the knock-off El-Melloi II guy into a full-blown villain. And they revealed the existence of an “evil” organization, so to speak. And Lin Ling has decided to progress further on the hero rankings to fulfill his dreams. However, Yueqing has left to find her freedom after 3 years of being tied to Nice, Lin Ling probably understand that and as much as he wanted to keep her around, he decided to let her go. I’m really excited to get to see some of the other heroes that they advertised, especially E-Soul.
=Aaron=
Soooo….it turns out that faked out in episode 1 didn’t happen after all. I still wonder why they put it in. Probably just for pure shock value to keep the viewers watching, and they didn’t have a good way to deal with it so they just attributed it to hallucinations. Another thing I noticed with Chinese series (at least those that I’ve seen) is that they are super efficient with character building. They only need one or two episode to build up an entire character arc that feels compelling enough to get people to care for them. In this episode, Yueqing and King of Destruction both have a very compelling character development that made us feel like their story isn’t missing or just…unfulfilled. They feel completed as they ended their roles in the series. And this is something Japanese modern writers need to put more into their series. One of the more compelling one-off characters I can really related to is Girard Spriggan from Gundam Age, Black MightGaine from Might Gaine and the Eldora V crew.
The end of the episode also setup the next arc quite well. They converted the knock-off El-Melloi II guy into a full-blown villain. And they revealed the existence of an “evil” organization, so to speak. And Lin Ling has decided to progress further on the hero rankings to fulfill his dreams. However, Yueqing has left to find her freedom after 3 years of being tied to Nice, Lin Ling probably understand that and as much as he wanted to keep her around, he decided to let her go. I’m really excited to get to see some of the other heroes that they advertised, especially E-Soul.
=Aaron=
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