To Be Hero X

Episode 21

This first episode of the Dragon Boy arc is the story of three people. The first, unsurprisingly, is Dragon Boy himself. To pick another character from comic books, his powers seem most in line with the X-Men villain Sebastian Shaw—he absorbs the kinetic energy of the attacks made against him and becomes stronger. In other words, punching him directly—especially with super strength—is about the dumbest thing you can do. That doesn't seem to stop people from trying, however.

Of course, Trust powers don't simply appear in this world. They are inspired by some action the person does. Queen gives a world-changing speech about wanting to impose a new order on the world, so her powers allow her localized control over space and time. Little Johnny can soothe a savage beast and so gains the ability to talk to animals. For Dragon Boy, his powers come from the fact that he was able to take a beating, outlast his opponent, and win in the end.

That said, Dragon Boy's real fighting style is psychological. His whole persona—his personality and appearance—is designed to get the most out of his powers. He dresses like a thug to incite contempt. He speaks rudely or simply insults others. It's all a carefully crafted trick to get his opponent to throw that first punch (and all the subsequent ones after that) so he can grow strong enough to overpower them with their own energy. After all, if they don't attack him, he's only as strong as a normal man and can be dealt with accordingly.

But it's not just the clothes and the attitude. Preparation is vitally important for Dragon Boy. He has to get under his opponent's skin—to know some dark secret that can be exploited to drive a person into a rage (or simply imply that he's kidnapped and murdered someone they care about, as is the case in this episode). And that's where Uncle Rock and his information gathering come in.

Yet, the real worrying thing about Dragon Boy is that Uncle Rock wants to make him the new Zero—a hero with the vast majority of Trust and thus powers akin to a god. Dragon Boy seems to view nearly everyone (if not everyone) as trash to be cleaned up. With godlike powers, who's to say Dragon Boy wouldn't simply genocide all of mankind? Uncle Rock clearly has a plan, but he's playing with fire, and every human on Earth could end up burned alongside him.

The next central character is Nice. As was hinted at last episode, Nice is a completely manufactured hero. Shand and his company, Treeman, have used every trick of the PR trade to control public perception. They picked a handsome guy, built his persona as the perfect hero, gave him a love interest, and even secretly created their own villains for him to fight. There is nothing authentic about Nice as a hero. The only true things about him are his friendship (romantic relationship?) with Wrek and his desire to be like Smile, the hero he looked up to as a child.

However, while Nice is a superhero on the outside, that's not what he really is. Rather, he is a tool for revenge, pure and simple. Shand has long since figured out that his son, Shang Chao, was murdered by Uncle Rock. Now he'll stop at nothing to get his vengeance. The first step? To create his own top 10 hero to take down the new E-Soul, the person who was supposedly his son's best friend but sided with his murderer in the end.

Of course, for both Uncle Rock and Shand's grand plans to come to fruition, they both need to get their respective heroes into the Top 10 so that they can participate in the ranking battles. The easiest way to do this? Publicly take down a well-known member of the top 10—in this case, the former number-one hero Smile.

We've only briefly seen Smile before. He was X before Bowa, but during both her time and X's, he's remained in the top 10. Along with Ghostblade, he's the last of the old guard—but unlike Ghostblade, he's not currently in the spotlight like all those who took part in the battle at the alien ship, making him the perfect target for Dragon Boy and Nice.

The thing about Smile is that he seems to be a hero who talks the talk and walks the walk. He's a good man, trying to bring happiness to all those he comes across. While he might not be the strongest hero in an age with X and Queen, he's one you can count on to do the right thing. He's simply a reassuring presence. And while he may have some normal family issues with his daughter, it's clear he loves his family.

But if you want proof of how good a person Smile is, look no further than the fact that he is, to our knowledge, the only person who knows X's secret identity. In a world where everyone is dying to know anything and everything about the top hero, Smile not only sits on this information, but he also goes out of his way to give the man companionship. After all, who knows the weight of the crown more than another person who has worn it?

Of course, in true To Be Hero X fashion, nothing good can last. We are watching the final battle of Smile. With Smile's loss, Dragon Boy will skyrocket to the number 3 position, and Nice will join Lin Ling for their brief moment together on the rooftop. Now all that's left for us is to watch the tragedy unfold.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• With this arc, we are in the year 41 AC—months, if not days, before the start of Lin Ling's arc.

• This episode implies that X is also a bit like the Hulk—that when he's in his superhero form, he has a different personality—and that it may be “The Other Guy” who wanted to be the top hero.

• I'm still clinging to the vain hope that X will appear in the eleventh hour to save his friend. That way, Smile would at least get to keep on living even if he had to retire.

• What if Shand, having lost Nice, killed Moon and made it seem like E-Soul did the deed to manipulate Lin Ling into getting his revenge for him?

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