To Be Hero X

Episode 22

With this episode, we reach the end of the Dragon Boy arc. But while he certainly features heavily in the story, it's not really about him in the end. Rather, it's about Nice.

Over the course of To Be Hero X, Nice has been the character we knew the least about. After all, when Lin Ling became the second Nice, he knew nothing about the man beneath the identity. He only knew about the PR image built around him—an image which Lin Ling himself had helped to create. Little by little, Lin Ling learned the truth (or, at least, a sizable part of it): Nice hadn't been in a loving relationship, his archrival was actually his best friend, he was plagued by OCD, and his powers were the chains that controlled his life. Yet, despite all this information, we never got a picture of Nice on a personal level in the Ling Lin arc—never learned what exactly drove him to suicide.

With the battle at the alien ship, we were reintroduced to Nice—seeing the man he truly was for the first time. And what we saw was anything but a hero. He was revealed to be a completely manufactured creation—Shand's assassin dressed in white and gold with a pretty face. He was arrogant and fake, striving for the approval of a man who clearly didn't care for Nice as a person and saw him only as a tool to be used. Nice was more than willing to help in the murder of dozens of civilians, and then “defeat” the villain he had been working with to raise his reputation. There's a reason Queen glared at him with such disgust upon her arrival at the scene—she could see exactly what kind of scum he was.

To say that Dragon Boy's arc rehabilitates Nice as a character would be overstating things. However, it does add more than a bit of nuance to the character. Simply put, Nice is a man who is in far too deep. While he once was inspired by heroes like Smile, he's almost completely lost sight of his goals and ideals. He's a puppet that's long since stopped trying to pull against his strings—even as they've torn apart his soul. He's surrounded by so much fakeness—so much PR and spin—that it's hard for him to see the superhero community as anything but the farce that it often is.

Yet, there is one brief moment of light in Nice's life. Smile, while obviously not a perfect person, truly is the good man and noble hero he has always appeared to be. In a world of lies, he is the one true thing. This is why, when Nice has the chance to make the right choice, to side with Smile over Dragon Boy, he does so. It might be the end of his top 10 chances, and Shand might very well destroy him, but at least he'll be able to be true to the hero who was true to him.

However, while Nice does the right thing, he does it wrongly. Deep down, part of him is still trying to accomplish Shand's original plan—if only half-heartedly. While he and Smile could have likely subdued Dragon Boy with fists and grapples alone, Nice instead jabs Dragon Boy with the concentrated fear essence syringe—still going with the plan of turning one of the two into a fear monster and then defeating them to gain superhero clout. And the ultimate result? Smile dead, Dragon Boy looking like he defeated a rampaging monster, with Nice standing on the sidelines, and X making both Dragon Boy and Nice look like a total joke.

Having destroyed the one bright thing in his life on top of the hell that is simply being Nice—torn this way and that by his powers, Shand, and the whims of his fans—is it any wonder that the false hero would overhear Lin Ling's rant about him and simply decide in the moment to end it?

Yet, in retrospect, Nice's death may have acted as a karmic atonement. It set into motion the wheels of fate and ended up creating a hero that, for all intents and purposes, seems more like the second coming of Smile than anything else. Lin Ling is a good man trying to do the right thing—and he cares more about that than being a superhero. When the puppet strings tried to pull Lin Ling where he didn't want to go, he did what Nice could never do: cut those strings completely. He willingly took the consequences and lost his powers. In doing so, he managed to become his own hero—not some PR-designed tool of vengeance for a father unable to properly mourn the death of his son, but a man who knows right from wrong and chooses right. And in the end, that, if nothing else, may allow Nice's soul to rest in peace.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• “Enough Nice! No matter how perfect you are right now, one day you, too, will become old and ugly, and be replaced by someone else!”

• I am confused by Dragon Boy's second form. It looks like a Fear transformation (though he is clearly in control), but I'm not sure if it is one or not since he supposedly expelled all the raw Fear essence.

• X completely steals the spotlight this episode—and we learn something vital about his powers in the process. Despite seeming to alter the very fabric of reality with the snap of his fingers, even X can't bring back the dead.

• Uncle Rock is very much the Lex Luthor to X's Superman—and now the Machiavellian genius finally has a clue to X's secret identity.

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