To Be Hero X Ep 14 Review: Wasted Fear
The 2nd and last episode for Luo Li’s arc has come. And to be frank…I think it’s a bit underwhelming. Just like with Queen that only got 2 episodes, Luo Li’s character arc and development felt a bit…rushed and swept under the rug. We already knew that Luo Li will get two episodes, but we didn’t expect the 2nd one to half be a setup for something bigger, or someone else. Either way, Luo Li did have a good fight this episode.
So…the guy that busted in – DJ Shindig. Turns out he is just a has-been loser that cannot accept the fact that his days are over and is literally just salty and wanted to find something to bring him the spotlight again. But it turns out that he didn’t even know what he was searching for – bit of an irony. Well, different to previous villains like King of Destruction or Uncle Rock, this DJ is just a disposable villain – with a pathetic backstory that is actually not too uncommon in this world. Still, his power is formidable – but still basically a roided-up jockey.
So, with an unserious villain comes a…comedic victim? A wild drunk Nuo Nuo busted into the lab and basically mistook DJ Shindig for her stalker and basically just went off on him. Of course this pissed the hell out of him cause his mind was probably like “who the hell is this crazy woman?”, not knowing he would have to deal with ANOTHER crazy woman. With Nuo Nuo putting herself in harm’s way, Luo Li got no choice but to bust out the good old mecha trope: get the experimental armor out and suit up!
So, with an unserious villain comes a…comedic victim? A wild drunk Nuo Nuo busted into the lab and basically mistook DJ Shindig for her stalker and basically just went off on him. Of course this pissed the hell out of him cause his mind was probably like “who the hell is this crazy woman?”, not knowing he would have to deal with ANOTHER crazy woman. With Nuo Nuo putting herself in harm’s way, Luo Li got no choice but to bust out the good old mecha trope: get the experimental armor out and suit up!
The fight between Luoli and Shindig was…average. I expected more zipping around for Luo Li but since it’s an experimental suit, I can’t blame him too much. However, going from Queen vs Bowa to this was a bit of a downgrade. The 2D animation isn’t as fluid as before, not even on par with Cyan’s arc. I really think they could have done much better with this episode. However, Nuo Nuo summoning the baseball bat is just straight up some Trigger Mecha shit and it was pretty hilarious.
In the end, DJ Shindig just got knocked out – but he hit the tube that was containing the “forbidden liquid” – oooh spooky. Turns out “fear” and “trust” seems to be tangent matter in this world, and you can “extract” and “contain” it. When Yang Cheng get his power, we can also see something blue coursing through his veins – at the time we thought it was E-Soul’s lightning, but maybe it is actually “trust” since it runs from his wrist to his heart. So Trust and Fear in this world are quantifiable and can be used for different purpose – probably to enhance a person’s power.
In the end, DJ Shindig just got knocked out – but he hit the tube that was containing the “forbidden liquid” – oooh spooky. Turns out “fear” and “trust” seems to be tangent matter in this world, and you can “extract” and “contain” it. When Yang Cheng get his power, we can also see something blue coursing through his veins – at the time we thought it was E-Soul’s lightning, but maybe it is actually “trust” since it runs from his wrist to his heart. So Trust and Fear in this world are quantifiable and can be used for different purpose – probably to enhance a person’s power.
And all that just to setup for the “big” reveal in this episode – Luo Li’s father found a freaking alien space ship! Hello? Where the hell does that come from lol? And furthermore, materials from that spaceship are unaffected by Feat and Trust – so it’s a perfect material to harness its power. And only just now that we learn about an alien space ship with that kind of ability? This opens up A LOT of avenues for further plot in the series. However, I don’t think they will go the path of “oh it’s all aliens and they’re bad and the heroes need to stand up to them.”. If they actually went ahead and involve actual aliens into the story, it’d be great.
And we get a bit of a glimpse on Ghostblade this episode – and he technically didn’t do anything. But they also confirmed that Nuo Nuo is his daughter. He’s obviously the social-awkward type and didn’t know how to communicate with his estranged daughter. I really look forward to his arc in the next one. He looks like a pretty interesting guy.
But yeah, Luo Li’s arc ended quite underwhelmingly, with a bit of tease at the end for the “true” villain. But we didn’t get enough “substance” in the episode to really feel an impact. And the animation in the fight scene being much worse than the previous didn’t help either. I really wanted Luo Li to get more screentime and focus since I really like her personality and motif. But with only 2 episodes, it is really hard to flesh out her own arc as well as setting up a bunch of other things.
=Aaron=
And we get a bit of a glimpse on Ghostblade this episode – and he technically didn’t do anything. But they also confirmed that Nuo Nuo is his daughter. He’s obviously the social-awkward type and didn’t know how to communicate with his estranged daughter. I really look forward to his arc in the next one. He looks like a pretty interesting guy.
But yeah, Luo Li’s arc ended quite underwhelmingly, with a bit of tease at the end for the “true” villain. But we didn’t get enough “substance” in the episode to really feel an impact. And the animation in the fight scene being much worse than the previous didn’t help either. I really wanted Luo Li to get more screentime and focus since I really like her personality and motif. But with only 2 episodes, it is really hard to flesh out her own arc as well as setting up a bunch of other things.
=Aaron=
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