Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: To Be Hero X
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1264 |
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This is one of those series that get sabotaged by weird narrative decisions, It would have helped a lot that episode 1 had been an introduction to the world and our MC and then end with Nice's suicide(?).
I know nothing about Nice 2.0's life outside the fact that he really liked Moon and I am not sure if he wants to be a hero or just got trapped in this mess and is going with the current. By episode 3 the narrative is forming around free will, with both Moon and Firm Man asking Nice to make a choice and he choosing to stay, so I suppose that's gonna be the core narrative: Choosing to be famous and give hope or being happy. But time will tell. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4780 |
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I am enjoying this one more than I thought. The thing I'm most curious to know, at least right now, is Moon's apparent death in episode 1. I suppose it's possible that people's belief in the perfect couple prevented it from sticking, but I would think that applied to Nice, and he was able to walk himself off a building. Maybe Lin Ling seeing the act first-hand was enough to make it permanent? Then again, the audience fell for a script well enough to free Moon, but she didn't actually die. Although, Lin and Miss J's crew were all in on it, so perhaps them knowing it was scripted was enough to keep alive?
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jdnation
Posts: 2192 |
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This show is really good thus far! It feels like something Kirkman or Millar would write or Western independent comics would make that are post-modern examinations of the hero genre, but with the Eastern touches and shonen optimism that make things like My Hero Academia successful and more mainstream friendly than the more edgy and depressingly critical Western counterparts.
The decision to imitate the style of studios like Arcane's Fortiche Prod, and Spiderverse's Sony Animation, is excellently executed with several fantastic moments of visual direction that could be pulled from the iconic covers and panels of artists like Alex Ross who embrace the medium and flexing of powers in moments both climactically powerful and mundanely slice of life. This is definitely my highlight of the season! And the English dub is also more fitting. |
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lesterf1020
 Subscriber Posts: 299 Location: Trinidad and Tobago |
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What I am interested in is the interplay between the will of the people and the will of the individual. When Lin Ling powered up in episodes 1 and 2 it wasn't because he got a boost in belief from the audience. It was because he chose to believe in himself. It was only in episode 3 that audience belief gave him the power-up he needed. Also Firm Man's powers only started to fail when he stopped believing in his role. There was no indication that his fans had lost faith in him. So I am interested in seeing just how much belief in yourself and audience belief contribute to being a "hero".
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Glordit
 Posts: 768 |
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Wonder if the original Nice had OCD or if that was brought on by him being this "perfect" person everyone wanted him to be. Moon mentioned that it got worse over time. Right before his death, he had to do his "signature pose" too. It's as if he wasn't in control of himself anymore and just wanted freedom from the prison he was living in. I like to think of the show as a kind of commentary on social media and self-image and how it influences people's lives. Visually it's impressive, the shift between the various styles isn't jarring at all and a treat for the eyes. My only gripe is that the "lip synching" was obviously done for the Chinese voices so other dubs seem to be a bit out of place at times, but it's something I can easily overlook since they tried their best to fit it all in. |
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Nyren
Posts: 728 |
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I personally think that Moon's supposed death was a fakeout by the writers meant to create a cliffhanger, to make sure you show up for the next episode. Because think about it, Episode 1 ends with Nice coming home at night, taking his gear off, and finding Moon quite clearly deceased. And yet the next episode begins with him waking up the morning after, sleeping on the couch. So you're telling me that despite seeing this, he simply still went over to the couch and fell asleep with a dead body in the room? And then immediately scrambled over to where she was in the morning? Nah, that reads like he had a nightmare, and the writers just wanted not only a cliffhanger, but to foreshadow what would need to happen, in some sense, for Moon to be free.
It's also odd to me that Moon's powers only work with the teleportation gun. She's powerless without it. Something similar occurred with Firm Man. His boots were clearly a permanent part of him, preventing his knees from really bending. When they broke, he was freed. So were those two pieces of gear created by the publics perception as well? So they don't just gift powers through their trust and belief, but also can manifest physical objects that adhere to that belief? I'm hoping we get some backstory on Enlighter/God Eye in this next episode because he's had a major stick where the sun don't shine over Nice for no clear reason. Is Wreck just straight up dead? We didn't see a body, but dude fell quite a distance, Nice didn't go to save him, and there was nothing to suggest he could fly. Not only that, but he seemed to have given up on even just living without his best friend. In the first episode it is heavily implied that Ling wanted to be a hero very badly, wanted to be more than a nobody working for an ad company. The ad he made was to encourage people like himself to strive to become heroes. It just so happened that the role of Nice effectively fell into his lap, in a sense achieving his dream, but now he's chasing that top spot. Though it feels almost contradictory for him to be the hero he wanted to be while also being Nice and it's clear he still doesn't feel entirely comfortable living what is effectively a lie. But it's likely that God Eye exposing him could cause a drastic shift. People will no longer believe that he's Nice, and will no longer believe that he's perfection incarnate, so he's likely to lose Nice's powers and his appearance may go back to what it was before. But that also presents an opportunity for him to rebuild a new Hero persona for himself without the baggage of Nice. It also creates a loophole for Moon. It's clear that she developed feelings for Ling even if she didn't fully understand it when she left. She knew that she didn't want to be in a relationship with Nice, so if Ling is no longer Nice, then her criteria for what she doesn't want no longer applies. And since Ling is Ling, even if the people want them to be together, she likely wouldn't have an objection to it this time around. I like the speculation around X's powers. And I mean, if you listen closely, you can hear him snapping his fingers in some instances when the art changes from 3D to 2D, like he's watching from somewhere and having some fun, which ends in a visual treat for us viewers. |
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The Scream Man
 Posts: 200 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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I don't think people would even be able to conceive that Nice would WANT to kill himself, because he's so perfect. I think its so beyond peoples belief that he could get away with it. i wanted to thank Richard in his review for letting me know about the short film with the Hero X, which I hadnt seen or heard of but was awesome. I had also assumed that the guy with white hair in the intro was Nice at some sort of super level, but given that short he seems like a different dude. Anyway so far this is one of my favorite shows this season, and I'm having a blast watching it |
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jdnation
Posts: 2192 |
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There is certainly as aspect of fake theaterics going on. Similar to Go! Go! Loser Ranger! alongside a ranking system of One-Punch Man and others like Solo Leveling and The Boys. Like a pro- wrestling federation with a public relations aspect that is needed to fund the entire affair of full-time heros.
So there is real super-heroing going on alongside scripted "reality" TV drama, which may be required if the hero powers are dependent on public perception to fuel them. I don't think Moon's death that Nice saw was a fake-out. It is probable that he saw a future pre-cognition of what might be if Moon kept doing this with no way out. Or it'd be interesting if he gets visions of strong negativity as a side effect of feeding on positivity. Which may be what led to the original Nice's suicide, or even some time paradox twist where Nice was him all along. |
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Leviathonlx1
Posts: 214 |
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Least give ANN credit in being willing to review this unlike /r/anime which wants to act like the show advertised by Japanese companies, that has a popular Japanese composer, and is easily watchable in Japanese doesn't exist because it's not made in Japan enough (while ignoring how many other anime are outsourced to China).
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The Scream Man
Posts: 200 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Thats an interesting idea. i hadnt thought of a downside to his powers feeding into the original Nice's suicide. |
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