I TOOK ART LESSONS THO!!!1!!1! (semi hiatus)

Let me preface that I am not familiar with the To Be Hero franchise and TBHX is the first time I've ever heard of it. So I will only be discussing my thoughts on TBHX here specifically.

I remember first watching the trailer for the series about two years ago(ish?) I was quite enamored by the dynamic animations, the premise, snazzy guy in a suit, dog in a suit, incredible music - really, what's not to love?

"This is a world where people's belief creates heroes, and the one hero that gains the most belief is acclaimed as X."

And this alone already raises several questions and flags.

I don't need to tell any of you the strength of human belief, you've likely watched enough anime to already know what it can do. But how far does it go? What is the limit? How do you keep it? But most importantly, what does this mean for X?

Now we enter theory territory.

Theory 1) If everyone can be X and X can be anyone, does this mean that X is everyone?

For the sake of simplicity, I will separate X into two categories, X the Hero and X the idea.

X begins less a person and more of an idea. X is what everyone imagines be a powerful hero who is always there, always capable, and never fails to save the day. But the problem is that nobody can decide what X is.

What is X? Well, X has many meanings. An X mark is widely accepted to mean "wrong". It can also stand for the Roman numeral for ten. But more importantly, X is used in mathematics for a variable of unknown value.

"Anyone can be [ X ]."

So what does this mean for X? Where does this suave man in white come from?

Well, my first theory is that X is akin to a tulpa. That X is an all powerful hero manifested from the people's collective belief. I'd say bravo except this doesn't fully explain his appearance. Why does X take the form of a salary man? Because it reinforces X being anyone. It could your next door neighbor, your highschool teacher, an average salary man, it could even be a dog!

... I don't think X has shape shifting powers but if he did I wouldn't be surprised. Or is it surprising that I'm NOT surprised?

I'm getting way ahead of myself and off track.

After watching episode 1 and 2, that theory no longer feels applicable.

We see as early as episode one in these scenes,

that with enough belief, you can be just about anyone. This is something that is especially emphasized with Ahu, but it's in this scene that it is more defined.

(Free gender affirming surgery anyone? No but seriously, I am asking once again, what are the limits of such a reality warping power? What are the effects this has on the greater world?)

And, just as importantly, we're also introduced to the concept of Fear.

Fear is to villains what Trust is to heroes. Which thematically makes sense but now this opens a whole new can of worms.

What separates Fear from Trust? It's easy to trust a hero but for a villain, they are their worst nightmare. I can imagine plenty of villains fearing Dragon Boy and even the likes of Ghostblade provided they live long enough to tell the tale, so where does the line fall? What separates the hero from a villain?

Is it to a scale, if your Trust value is great than your Fear, does this qualify you for the path of heroics? What if you had a healthy balance of Fear and Trust? I refuse to believe that there aren't at least some people who are afraid of X.

And I still get the feeling we've yet to see the full scope of his power.

Which brings me to theory 2:

X is a mascot.

X is meant to represent the ideal hero but what does the ideal hero look like? X is a goalpost, a figurative trophy, for all the other heroes to aim for while disguising the fact that no such hero exists. He's the equivalent of Hello Kitty or Miku deciding "Hey, maybe I don't want to do this anymore." which would also explain his lines about being overworked.

The man is everywhere.

"but what about his powers?" Well that's easy, his powers focuses on the medium. It explains the differing artsyles, why he can so freely move across the world as if he were bending space and time, why he's always staring at the viewer; X is very much aware of his place in the world.

His power of omniscience manifests as breaking of the fourth wall.

His power across space is just the manipulation of the art medium he exists in this fictional world.

He's not a real person, not from our perspective where he's a fictional character, and much less in-world where he's potentially a mascot advertising the ideal hero.

bonus gif of him celebrating i made for funsies :] oh the oblivious bliss...