To Be Hero X

Episode 15

I think a good number of people watching realized that Ghostblade was the stalker in Loli's pair of episodes. Thus, this episode does two things at once: 1) gives us Ghostblade's origin story and 2) recontextualizes his actions in Loli's.

Ghostblade was one of those kids from a big family who ended up feeling no need to talk. He prized what was most rare to him growing up: silence. Quiet and emotionally detached (and comfortable with killing animals), he dreamed of being an assassin, making the world quiet for just a few moments in the process. Of course, while that ultimately happened, it occurred in a way far different from what he had expected.

Like DJ Shindig, he is one of the first wave of heroes created by the FOMO app, where social media platforms inadvertently created superheroes through posts that went viral. Seen as a silent beauty that's good with a blade, that's exactly what he remains—and so, despite his young-looking face, Ghostblade is by far the oldest of the Top 10 heroes in the modern day. However, like many heroes, Trust is a double-edged sword. While he didn't mind being unable to talk for most of his life, now that he wishes to try and build a relationship with his estranged daughter, it's become a major issue. This ties us back into Loli's story with Nuonuo being said daughter.

Ghostblade is largely antisocial and emotionally stunted. It's only after 18 years that he realizes he not only loves his daughter but wants a relationship with her. This prompts him to try to get to know Nuonuo. The problem is that he is treating the whole ordeal like planning an assassination: following the target and observing them. Worse still, he doesn't see his impact on the situation—that to Nuonuo, he is a stalker who's terrifying her. Instead, he decides that Loli is at fault for the troubles in Nuonuo's life—that she, not he, is the bad influence. Thus, we are left with someone both dense and dangerous—someone who views Loli as an enemy and looks to be spending a lot of time with her.

Last week, I lamented that it felt like Loli got the short end of the stick with her episodes—that not only did she not become a hero by the end, but that her story was co-opted by an 11th-hour twist involving aliens and Trust/Fear nullifying metal. Luckily, it seems that her story will continue in Ghostblade's next episode as he, Loli, Nuonuo, and Loli's father investigate the crashed UFO. It's a situation with not only great lore potential but also personal drama primed to explode at any moment.

While the story told in this episode was good, that doesn't fully offset the elephant in the room: the animation. For some reason, the director of this episode chose to portray all the flashback scenes with a blurry shaky-cam. While it looks fine—great even—in individual still frames, it gave me motion sickness while I was watching. Worse yet, it's not just used for a single scene or two; the majority of the episode is done in that art style. It's so bad I can't believe that no one on the animation team vetoed it right out of the gate. After all, making your viewers sick is a huge misstep, and I'm docking a full star from the score because of it. Thankfully, now that we're caught up to Loli's story in the timeline, there should be no more flashbacks. I'm just lucky I was watching on an empty stomach.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It's crazy, when you think about it. Loli, a girl with Trust in the double digits, fought toe-to-toe with the fourth-ranked hero in the world using a prototype suit she built from spare parts.

• Ghostblade needed therapy badly. It's a shame (for both him and his family) that he never got it.

• So it seems like Ghostblade, Queen, and Lucky Cyan were all present at the time Little Johnny went on his rampage. I guess we'll see that all play out in Johnny's arc.

• So Shang De worked for Uncle Rock at Mighty Glory before founding the Treeman Corporation after the death of his son (who Uncle Rock had killed). Now Mighty Glory has E-Soul, Ghostblade, and Dragon Boy, while Treeman has only one top hero: Lin Ling. Yeah, this is looking messy.

To Be Hero X is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.