xxanthias🌸

Some of the things I'm seeing:

"It's full of plot holes; the timeline is fucked up."

Welcome to season 1 of a show. Shocking, I know. Plots are unfinished, truths are not shared... this was the prologue. The introduction. Of course there are missing bits

Time line thing... idk?? Play attention??? Most arcs tell you the year?? Details on the background????? It's not that hard????????????

"Queen arc is misogynistic."

Queen is a narrative pawn in the hands of men. Of course her arc is. She wanted to create more female heroes; congratulations, she did it. But it has a price: the narrative of woman as hero is still controlled by the men in power, who are going to push the woman vs woman narrative, forcing things like Bowa vs Queen fight that is VERY male gaze. BECAUSE IT'S WRITTEN BY MEN, HER BOSS AND HER FATHER

"Ewwww so cringe how Jhonny acts. He's almost 30!"

Being a corporate puppet since the age of 9 makes you maintain your public persona 24/7, even close to your friends, you know? He only drops the act when he's 100% alone. Disney kid, be glad the guy is not doing lines in a bathroom, for God's sake. I don't think he even knows how to act non-cute in front of people.

LJ first motivation at age 9 was REVENGE AND KILLING A MAN. And the world took that chance from him and now he has 0 motivation, depresion and only taking care of BJ keeps him afloat, I think he's one of the characters in line for a pretty bad breakdown

All the npc/extra/side kicks deads

WELCOME TO THE CONCEPT OF PAWNS USED BY A BIGGER SYSTEM

Moon: You get out? You die

Smile: we find a better use for you now. We don't want you/you fit a better narrative? We do that!!!

No one can escape the system; no one can escape the big bad wolf that is ✨capitalism✨

"Lucky Cian's arc is about being free and she ends up trapped again"

In Spanish we have a saying: "From Guatemala to Guatepeor" (from bad to worse). An arc not having a good ending for the character IS NOT A BAD ARC OR LACKING SENSE. IT MAKES SENSE, SEASON 1 PEOPLE. SEASON 1. NO ONE IS IN A FUCKING RIGHT PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do NOT read the wiki. Do NOT check the tag. Go in AS BLIND AS POSSIBLE and just WATCH THE SHOW.

Two friends who had already seen it basically locked me in a voice chat and said "We're watching this now!" after which we proceeded to watch the first 11 episodes over the course of two evenings, and then went through the remaining 13 in A SINGLE NIGHT because I wanted to keep going so badly.

You can watch the first episode for free on Bilibili's YT channel (turn on CC for English subs) to get a taste for it; the rest are available in the same place for channel members, or (in slightly higher resolution) over on Crunchyroll.

THE PITCH

It basically starts with an extremely hot guy flinging himself off a roof because Fuck This Shit I'm Out

One character's superpower is literally just Murder, which is also canonically his autistic hyperfixation

Autistic Murder Hero is nonverbal and 40 years old

Store Brand Hatsune Miku is there and is also Saint Cajetan

Superpowers are gained and lost through a metric that essentially amounts to follower count

This metric can also cause disability based on public perception of the person being awarded said powers

One character's superpower is, arguably, being extremely cunty in 490893406 art styles

The use of 490893406 art styles throughout the series is important to the plot

There are 12 individual protagonists, one of which is a cat(?) and one of which is a dog

All but two protagonists, including the cat(?), are 21 or older by the "present" time

The only protagonist under the age of 18 by the "present" is the dog (who is technically 82 in dog years)

The series is conceptualized, written and directed by Li Haoling, the guy that directed Link Click and the TGCF donghua

I'm reasonably certain that every single person in the main cast is queer to some capacity with the exception of the dog and the cat(?), neither of whom have apparent sexual or romantic preferences, presumably on account of being a dog and a cat(?)

The "main antagonist" is literally the corporate commodification of human connection via parasocial relationships

Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on Titan, PROMARE, Bubble, etc.) worked on parts of the soundtrack, including the opening theme, which is FUCKING PHENOMENAL:

NOTES

Watch it in Chinese, not Japanese. It is originally in Chinese, this is the intended presentation and the line delivery is important. (Chinese is the very last audio option in the menu on Crunchyroll. I do not know why.)

It's anthological with overlapping arcs for each member of a cast of a dozen, so don't look for a "main character." (There is a title character, but that's not the same thing!)

It is non-chronological, starting in the "present" and then working backward and forward again as we go through the roster of characters. (It all comes together eventually, trust me here.)

Both the non-chronological storytelling and the art style shifts are extremely important aspects of the series' presentation.

Season 2 has been confirmed since season 1 dropped, but isn't expected to come out until 2027.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Suicide, violence, blood/gore, abuse of children and animals, ideological grooming, mental and emotional abuse, loss of autonomy, manipulative cults, gaslighting, and some body horror. HEALTH WARNINGS: Flashing lights and eyestrain.

ANYWAY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT THANK YOU GOODBYE

Before watching TBHX, I saw two edits. That was my context. So, I thought the story went like that:

Nice is the main character, and he wants to become Number 1 hero.

Lin Ling becomes his personal assistant, and he helps Nice with promotions to become Number 1.

Lin Ling and Nice are gay.

Wreck is Nice's abusive ex, who desperately wants him back!

Moon is best friend of the gays (NiceLing).

X is Nice's supportive gay dad. Because obviously he changed the artstyle to more colorful and has white hair, so he should be a supportive dad!

All other heroes are basically Nice's nemesis who lowk want to be with him. And Lin Ling needs to fight them (aka Scott Piligrim fighting exes).

Shang De is the main villain, who hates Nice and wants him to fail, because he is homophobic, and he tries to ungay him.

Towards the end, Lin Ling sacrifices himself to save Nice, so it is doomed yaoi. Nice has a crashout after that.

In the end, X, Rock, Zac, and Micky (who has a male wife Lui Zhen) are using a power of gay to defeat Shang De.

Wrice:

3-Soul:

Cyan:

If you havent yet you really really really should go check out To Be Hero X, I dont think Ive been this excited about animation being used as a true medium in and of itself rather than just as visuals to move from one part of the story to the next since Mononoke (the show not the ghibli movie), this show is rewiring my brain

And the plot is SOLID as a rock

God I fuck so hard with nonlinear storytelling

The attention to every little detail across both too

And the music

And general sound composition

Its just

Ough

Each arc has a connection to the previous one and to the next one, so the stories do not feel disconnected. All arcs are so well connected. The adjacent arcs are adding more information to each other, they are adding more context and explanation, more positions of other heroes. And nothing is "for a plot reason", everything actually has a reason. And it feels like all the stories form a web from connection.

The placement of every arc is thought through too! (like imagine watching LL's arc after knowing what happened to Nice. After knowing how much he struggled and how much his mental health suffered from Shang, some random guy appears and quickly makes it to top 10 using his identity.) (Or imagine Ghostblade's arc after Johnnies'. You just watched a story about a guy who lost his family, and then you need to emphasize with the person who killed one of his parents.)

The lore introduced and developed very smoothly. There is no overloading of information, and there are no moments where you feel stupid because nothing is explained.

Also I'm pretty sure that Haoling knew how the hero voting will end up (and every character needed to make a "right" impression to get on the place designed for him). It makes so much story structure sense that Dragonboy is on the last place, and Queen is in the middle. Like I bet that was planned from the start.