To Be Hero X Ep 13 Review: Ironheart

July 5, 2025Episode Review,  Mecha Discussion,  ,  
What do you call a young girl who built her own power armor and use it to help people, pure of heart and pure of will? Ironheart, no no no, it’s….Loli! This arc’s heroine is Loli (or Luo Li in Chinese – which I think is much nicer btw) – our third main female hero. And her backstory this episode is one that inspire others to strive to become what you want.

We started the episode with an exercising Luo Li – where she displayed impressive strength in a gym thanks to her “Trust Value” and perception. But the moment her face was revealed, everyone in the gym thought she was cute, not “strong” so her physical look decreased instantly. Once again we see the immediate and negative effect of the Trust Value system that are basically forced on the heroes that supposedly defend society from “villains”. It’s been quite a few arc and we haven’t seen any true “villains” for a while – it’s either megacorp pulling the strings behind the scene, or some heroes going bonkers. Makes you wonder if all the villains in the series are just products of society.

Luo Li has been an adorable child since young – aesthetically. She’s very cute with bright pink hair, so anyone who laid their eyes on her will have their hearts melt by her cuteness. However, Luo Li is anything but a cutie pie, rather she is very headstrong and has a strong sense of justice. She’s also very tomboy-ish compared to her appearance. but, as always, preconception seems to be absolute in this world. Her “intent” is always sidelined in favor of her cuteness. But luckily, Luo Li found a way to turn that around.

Not just cute, Luo Li is also an inventor and a genius builder. Thanks to her father being a renown inventor, she has enough resources to make a small Iron Cave in her basement, and she was able to build a fully functional power armor to obscure her face and enhance her strength. And she uses it to save others in need, such as a girl who was being stalked by someone who is much stronger than a normal person – but is definitely not a “hero”.

Luo Li’s suit performance was stellar in this episode. It was durable, agile and contained a lot of clever mechanisms that reminds us of Tony Stark and his suit. The only thing she’s missing is a helper AI. But she makes up for it with a very cute digital display on her helmet. Her fight was very crazy. Her opponent seems to be a random stalker guy but his power was wayyyy over that of a normal person. So he’s definitely being buffed by the “system”. So he’s either a rogue hero or someone who is using ‘fear’ instead of ‘trust’ – which makes sense since the girl is very terrified of him, maybe that gave him some power as well. As for Luo Li, I really like that she fight quite nicely and in-tune with her suit – which shows she has trained with it before, and she has considered various combat situations.

One of the most surprising thing this episode is Luo Li’s father. At first, he seems like a strict father that want to control his daughter, and is seldom home. But it turns out he is actually a fair and (in his own way) cares about her a lot. He saw the potential in his daughter and wanted her to come work in his lab. He also has an eye for talent as evident when he realized his receptionist is actually a skilled person, so he put her into his lab as well. The lesson of this episode is literally “do not judge a book by its cover” – one of the oldest trope in the world even. Probably one of the only “executive type” adults in this show that I can respect (for now probably).

But of course, trouble always comes knocking – and to nobody’s surprise, it’s another “has-been” hero that is looking to start trouble. The hiphop hero DJ Shindig busted into Luo Li’s father’s lab and he obviously isn’t looking for a raise. I wonder what his motivation is? Even so, Luo Li will no doubt go up against him in the next episode. Also, DJ Shindig also hasn’t shown his face in public, so it may be someone Luo Li knows (or maybe not).

As an aside, I think Luo Li’s friend – Da Xiong – is a pretty decent side char – mostly because he’s a mecha fan. Although since he’s a side char, he didn’t build a Gundam or anything, just a gacha-game mech that looks pretty generic lol. But I think it’s good that they aren’t focusing on any romance in this arc – just normal friendship between people.

=Aaron=
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