Introduction
To be a Hero X is the third entry into the anthology series To Be Hero, with no relation to previous works. This means that the show consists of “arcs” consisting of 1-4 episodes in a character's point of view before moving to the next one. Each arc centers around a hero and their rise to prominence within the “trust system,” which gives individuals power according to others’ beliefs in them.

Animation/Visual style

One of the show’s biggest assets and largest problems is its split animation style, with it being animated by three studios (Pb Animation, Studio LAN, and Paper Plane). It features a traditional anime-style 2d, common Sharp Featured 3D, and a comic book-inspired dot-shaded 2D aesthetic. At times, the show struggles to integrate these styles with disjointed transitions, but when it pulls off the swap seamlessly, the effect is great. The worst offender in the early episodes is the comic style, which is worse than the others and causes an awkward contrast in quality when cutting back and forth. While it doesn’t come up often in this season due to a smart choice to drop this effect for the characters for which it would be worst, one issue with switching is that character designs are sometimes significantly different between styles. The most notable character in this season is Ahu, who is cute and silly in 2D but gruff and serious in 3D. In future seasons, this may be a larger issue, with the Cyan and Queen designs both feeling strange in 3D. Visually, the combat in the non-dotwork styles is engaging when stakes are properly set, with strong use of lighting and decent flow. However, it rarely wowed me and largely came out as fine-above average in my opinion.

Plot and themes:

The anthology segments within To Be a Hero X range from unconnected to direct lead-ins to each other, with varying success. This style, in theory, provides the opportunity to provide a range of perspectives on the world and give a wide view of how it functions, but the show often fails to deliver upon this. Early disconnected episodes are okay, but struggle to place themselves in the greater context, while later highly connected episodes have issues with washing out character moments, but are overall an improvement. The show functions better as the sum of it’s parts, with character interactions getting better as arcs go on and the overall mystery helping to tie things together.

Regarding the issue of society of the show, despite how much it relies upon it with the trust system, we are rarely given any impression of what it’s like to live in it. The public and civilian characters are one note and insignificant, with them being easily moved by whatever the more important characters tell them to think. There is an implication that villains exist early on, but we are never given a view into how this risk impacts the public and their perception of heroes. This is a massive missed opportunity for a concept so rife for exploring the ways this would change human interactions. This lack of care is consistent throughout the show, with interactions and themes handled simplistically, even when opportunities are given to explore further.

The show struggles to maintain a consistent tone or themes between its segments and sometimes within them. This isn’t unusual for an anthology series, but it can be jarring at times. However, this also acts as a benefit as the rapid fire pace of the anthology segments and fun enough plots make up for these flaws, as if something is shallow or boring, it doesn’t stick around for an extended period of time. The best example of this is the terrible choice to use fakeout cliffhangers early in the show, which thankfully fades into the background in later segments. This change coincides with a transition midway to a larger connected arc, which was where the show started to gain its legs. The show’s tone becomes more refined with comedy segments integrated in a way that doesn’t confuse the viewer. The charecters featured here have the strongest development and feel most human out of the cast with the extra screentime from interactions in other’s arcs. Unfortunately, there are two major exceptions to this, where characters had the majority of their arc sidelined for larger plot developments, and without the ability to make up the time, they are left shallow and undirected.

The overall plot of the story is intentionally kept ambiguous, with the sparse and hard to parse information being dripfed. This is a good choice for the series and creates a mix of time for characters to develop while giving the viewer opportunities to theorize and dig deeper. From what I’ve seen I do worry the overall reveal won’t be as interesting as what people think but that doesn’t impact this season.

Character Design:

Character designs for hero X are hard to discuss as the different studios handled the designs in very different ways, and my impressions are based on the majority screentime. Regardless, most of the designs are well crafted with unique sillohettes and charecter details that reflect their personalities.

In contrast to their visual designs it character's powers aren’t well integrated with how they present themselves or live their lives with the exception of X. This isn’t a requirement for hero shows but I think that having superpowered characters interact with the world in a different way goes far towards making them stand out (a classic example of which is Nightcrawler from X-men) . For the characters, where they choose to mention it, the effect on their psyche makes up for this, but this isn’t the case for all of them.

Character:

Due to the anthology format, many characters end up feeling shallow unless they are one of the core cast who were given development in each other’s episodes. This is, to some degree to be expected and hopefully a second season will improve upon this. Nevertheless there are standouts (that I won’t mention because it’s a spoiler) who I felt were quite compelling even if the cast fell largely flat. Regardless, you gain a good impression of their “core traits,” which is as much as you can hope for with some characters.

Treatment of women:

Possibly due to the large nature of the team, the way the show handles women is very variable.

One unique aspect is that there are three female pov characters who are given full agency. On the other hand, the treatment of female side characters can be strange at times, especially in the first portions of the show. The odd segment in the show is Luo Li’s nickname of “loli” an oestensible refrence to the way people refer to underage or flat chested small girls. It’s never mentioned in the show directly to my knowledge which makes me wonder how intentional it even is despite it being on the promo material. Due to this, it’s a very small aspect of the show and nowhere near as bad as mainstream shounen. Overall, to be a Hero X is a breath of fresh air for this type of animated media, with it being able to have women on screen multiple times without introducing a pervert to grope them or playing boing boing sound effects (demon slayer).

Conclusion:

To be a Hero X is an ambitious project with an interesting premise, and despite it sometimes struggling against its format, it is a breath of fresh air. It deeply wants to make societal commentary, but struggles to do so and suffers from inconsistent quality. In contrast, the show’s best moments are when characters are allowed to shine. To be a Hero X is a 7/10 altogether, but it makes me excited for the future of the Chinese animation industry as a whole and Haoling Li’s future work.

Postscript: - Short thoughts on each anthology segment

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Nice - 5/10 Start of the story, fine and gave an introduction to the world but was simplistic and unable to decide between a comedic and serious tone. Bizarre cliff hangers pull everything down.

E soul 6/10, Simplistic but works at what it’s trying to do improvement from the previous arc.

Lucky cyan 7/10 - Strong character moments and mystery falters at where to take things

Queen 5/10 - Real shame because I like the character but it was a poorly integrated disaster and featured one of the worst episodes of the series

Luo Li 8/10 - Best character moments in the series and leads well into the next arc

Ghost blade 7/10 - Fun and cute character setup, enjoyed this

Johnnies - Didn’t feel like they got an arc of their own honestly but they didn’t suffer for it. Time went to other people

Dragon boy 5/10 on it’s own 7/10 when integrated, Got cut out of his own story, feels like he was only here to pad the roster. Shame because his design and story is kinda cool. Setup good character development for other people

Ahu 8/10 - Great bottle episode, manages to setup emotional stakes quickly and has some of the show’s best animation.