To Be Hero X Ep 5 Review: Electrifying Soul
Finally, after 4 episodes, we’re getting to another top 10 major heroes – and first is E-Soul aka Electric Soul. While it absolutely irks me that we don’t immediately see what happened to Lin Ling and Yueqing from the last episode, this episode was an incredible origin story that i can definitely accept it. The story about the mantle of E-Soul is an inspirational one, with all the emotions you can feel: joy, frustration, anger, surprise…and bravery.
Once again, we see in this world that a hero’s “identity” isn’t unique. A “hero name” is simply a mantle that can be carried by someone who follows the same ideology. While the original E-Soul origin story was shown in the PV clip, there are many others who wanted to be E-Soul, and it seems that it is not impossible for them to do so. Other people just needs to “associate” them with the original E-Soul, and they will get his power. Even so, the original E-Soul is still the strongest of them all, since most of them are just performers, cosplayers or just hero trainees.
Our main character in this episode is Yang Cheng – another young and hardworking person. He experienced a tragic past where his parents were murdered by thugs, and when he was just about to be killed, the original E-Soul arrived to save him. Since then on, he had to live in orphanages, enduring hardship and bullies, but he persevered thanks to his admiration of E-Soul. Yang Cheng knows it is possible for him to take on the mantle of E-Soul, so he became a stage performer, cosplaying E-Soul to perform plays for children who are fans of the hero.
Our main character in this episode is Yang Cheng – another young and hardworking person. He experienced a tragic past where his parents were murdered by thugs, and when he was just about to be killed, the original E-Soul arrived to save him. Since then on, he had to live in orphanages, enduring hardship and bullies, but he persevered thanks to his admiration of E-Soul. Yang Cheng knows it is possible for him to take on the mantle of E-Soul, so he became a stage performer, cosplaying E-Soul to perform plays for children who are fans of the hero.
Yang Cheng is your typical hesitant shounen main. He likes a girl in his class, but whenever he wants to confess, another handsome, rich boy appeared out of nowhere to talk to the girl. Kinda like a cruel stroke of fate. And so, he basically told himself that he will do it the next time, but he never succeeded, forever holding his feelings inside his heart. But then he had an opportunity from the heaven, one of the kids who came to see his play is the girl’s brother – talk about a coincidental cliche! The two grew close and he was able to get closer to the girl as well – but only as an “E-Soul” actor. He never took off his mask when interacting with her. Well, he planned to…but of course, things go wrong.
The kid was kidnapped by a pair of thugs, and Yang Cheng luckily spotted it. So he pursued them. The chase sequence gave me Mumen Rider flashback when Yang was on a bike and the other dudes was on a minivan. I guess Mumen’s character and Yang kinda share some similarity – in that they are relatively weak, noone really had high expectation for him, but they still stand up for their own sense of justice. Unfortunately, Yang’s trust value is zero, so he had zilch in terms of abilities. This further shows us that it’s not just the heroes that need Trust Value. Since Trust Value shows you how many people trust you, having a value of zero means you’re truly alone in this world, and others are prone to bully you for it.
But once again, heroism shines through. The original E-Soul made a speech to other E-Souls – talking about his definition of a hero, as well as the mantle he carries. Hikaru Midorikawa delivered an impactful speech using his Gridman’s voice, absolutely ikemen aura right there. And just like a superhero blockbuster, it is interlaced with Yang’s battle against the two thugs. With the kid witnessing him standing up time and time again despite his face getting more and more bloody, Yang finally awakened to the true meaning of what it means to be E-Soul.
The kid was kidnapped by a pair of thugs, and Yang Cheng luckily spotted it. So he pursued them. The chase sequence gave me Mumen Rider flashback when Yang was on a bike and the other dudes was on a minivan. I guess Mumen’s character and Yang kinda share some similarity – in that they are relatively weak, noone really had high expectation for him, but they still stand up for their own sense of justice. Unfortunately, Yang’s trust value is zero, so he had zilch in terms of abilities. This further shows us that it’s not just the heroes that need Trust Value. Since Trust Value shows you how many people trust you, having a value of zero means you’re truly alone in this world, and others are prone to bully you for it.
But once again, heroism shines through. The original E-Soul made a speech to other E-Souls – talking about his definition of a hero, as well as the mantle he carries. Hikaru Midorikawa delivered an impactful speech using his Gridman’s voice, absolutely ikemen aura right there. And just like a superhero blockbuster, it is interlaced with Yang’s battle against the two thugs. With the kid witnessing him standing up time and time again despite his face getting more and more bloody, Yang finally awakened to the true meaning of what it means to be E-Soul.
Witnessing his heroics as well as his incredible hard work to become E-Soul, the kid started to believe. He doesn’t just think Yang can become E-Soul in the future, he has already believed that Yang IS E-Soul. As a fan of E-Soul, Yang tried to emulate him as best as he can, and being another huge fan of E-Soul, the kid can see that effort. So he knows that Yang can be E-Soul. And that’s all it takes. Just one person is enough to awaken your hero power. With the Trust Value of 1, Yang was able to channel a small fraction of E-Soul’s electric power and claim victory. This goes to show that when Lin Ling gained so many Trust Value in the last episode, his power must have been absolutely insane.
This episode has minimal 2D animation, mostly just flashback for Yang. The combat is entirely 3D this time. Maybe they thought it is much better to showcase electrical effects in 3D instead of drawing it like lightning. And I think it’s well done regardless. The sequence where Yang awakened to E-Soul’s power showcased a perfect blend between the 2 styles, extremely well done.
This episode shows us that anyone can be a hero, and not just that, it only takes one person to believe in you. Just like Kamiki Aniki had said: Believe in the me that believe in you! Trust in yourself and trust in others. Keep your sense of justice and never back down. A hero’s blessing will arrive and give you power to protect your loved ones. The ending of this episode gave us another cliffhanger. And I’m not sure if the next episode we’ll continue with E-Soul story or will switch to another hero to tie everything back in in the last arc. I’m absolutely looking forward to the next episode.
=Aaron=
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A forgotten series making its comeback. And it brought us some huge nostalgia for the early 2000s sci-fi-shounens. Gotta give a hand to Mecha-Ude for making it this far!
