To Be Hero X Ep 11 Review: Under the Crown

Ah yes…we started another arc anew with the next hero in the story – or rather, heroine. Two female heroes back-to-back with very close relation with each other is a brilliant move. And we were all foreshadowed in the previous arc, so the event of this episode isn’t all that surprising. To Be Hero X’s chronological order in-universe is a bit unorthodox, however, the actual events are very tightly woven and created an overarching story that feels very connected. I’m sure someone out there on the Internet has made a complete timeline of the series until now.

So…in the last arc from Cyan, we have seen a glimpse of who Queen is – a genius and ambitious young girl who aim to become X as soon as possible and then revamp the Trust system since she believed the system itself is flawed. In this episode, we get to see the extent of her abilities – she graduated from a top university at a super young age, and of course, valedictorian and all that. She is steadfast, headstrong – if not a little impatient. She is the very definition of tunnel vision – whose only focus is the only goal in her life, her very sole purpose – to become “X”. That title basically has a hold over her life, and everything she does in her life revolve around getting her closer to that title.

Her speech at the graduation kinda fall into the trope of “grandiose talk, but ultimately can you back it up?” There is no denying her ability and her drive to become X. However, as usual with these type of characters. They are built up to be extremely talented and powerful, only to be overshadowed by the plot. And this is basically what happened to Queen. Her “quirk” is “Rules” – where she can manipulate reality in a close range around her. Which is very powerful by the way. But it seems that its range is limited, so that’s her only constraints. Where as X – or the mysterious man before he became X – seems to have an unknown ability that can manipulate the entire universe’s reality himself. With just a simple snap of his finger, Queen lay defeated on the ground – as do many others who came before her. X – at this point – is invincible.

But beneath all that facade, she is still a young girl after all. When she wanders around, she run into the Johnnies – another of our “protagonists”, and this is where she was able to let loose a little bit, since there are no adults watching. Furthermore, around her is a manchild funky boy, a cute kouhai girl and a very, very, very cute…uh…unicorn(?), kirin? And of course there is a subtle subversion here where Little Johnny is actually the boy and the cute pet is Big Johnny – which when berserk will transform into a fearsome beast. Queen’s arc will just be used to introduce them to link to their arc later, so they aren’t showing a lot of info on him. Cyan is also here, and this is before her “final battle” commenced so we can get an idea of how she was doing in the mean time.

This episode also has a lot of “girl power” element to it. The previous “X” – Bowa – is a female hero that champions for other heroines to rise up and be more competitive. Queen and Bowa basically paved the way for female heroes. Queen did it with her impressive speech at the university and Bowa tried her hardest to become X. Her battle with Extro was pretty cool. Although it’s a bit creepy how Extro kept smiling like Mirio from MHA but much more sinister lol. I’m sure his “Trust” is making him keep smiling constantly like that. I can’t imagine the strain on his cheek muscle.

We’re slowly making our way through the list of heroes, and slowly revealing more information about X. Lin Ling’s arc didn’t have a lot to do with X, except establishing the title as the ultimate hero. E-Soul’s arc show us the original X’s determination since old E-Soul was the first X. Cyan’s arc show us a glimpse of X’s daily life and mysterious motive, and Queen’s just show us how insanely powerful he is. The series is slated for 24 episodes, so better get your notes and strap in for a long haul.

At the end of the episode, Bowa was shown to be very bitter…but not towards X, but towards Queen instead. She had her investigated and made a remark saying “So you’re his daughter…”. Either that means Queen’s biological father or the reporter guy, but I think it’s the former. Queen’s father must have done something to affect Bowa or her family to warrant some hatred from her. Queen’s arc was actually planned for 2 episodes only, so the next one will be the conclusion, kinda sad since I think she has an interesting personality to dissect. But we’ll see.

=Aaron=

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