To Be Hero X

Episode 24

Fearing that X may become a god and cause a second Downfall if he wins the tournament for the fourth time, the Commission and the four big hero agencies send their strongest non-top 10 heroes to assassinate him the night before it begins. This results in one, nearly episode-long, action sequence filled with surreal visuals and some killer music. On presentation alone, it's one hell of a season finale—and that's only the start to what we get.

For the most part, this episode of To Be Hero X sets about re-contextualizing the series as a whole, starting with the inciting event of the entire superhero era as we have seen it: the Downfall. Up until now, we had been told that Zero was the world's greatest hero—but when he accidentally killed another hero, the world suddenly came to fear him. Thus, all his accumulated Trust turned to Fear, and he was corrupted by it—and after many deaths, the relatively unknown hero E-Soul was able to land the final blow and save the world.

However, X tells a different story. Rather than Zero being corrupted by Fear, he was bad long before that. Once he gained absolute power, it made him see his idealized world as the correct one—and so he set about turning ours into it. Of course, not everyone agreed with his vision, so he started killing all those heroes who stood in his way. It was only after that that the population started to be afraid of him, and his Trust value turned to Fear.

X also makes the enigmatic comment that Zero is not dead—and this is completely true in a metaphorical sense. Zero's existence has influenced the actions of everyone in the series, be that directly or indirectly. On the direct side of things, we have the Commission. Their fear of Zero dictates their actions—making them do blatantly immoral things in the name of the greater good. Meanwhile, others like Uncle Rock idealize Zero and the world he was trying to create—embodying his philosophy and trying to bring it into reality over four decades later.

On the indirect side of things, we have basically everyone else. From Ghostblade to Lin Ling, Lucky Cyan to Yang Cheng, the environment that formed them into the heroes they are comes from Zero and the Downfall. It's all one big chain reaction, a series of dominoes falling one against another for 42 years. As X tells Ahu, to understand his goals and actions, you need to first see the full chain of events. While his impact on the world started the night he gave Cyan her first coin for performing, the story is far more than his own personal tale, which is why we, the viewers, have been witnesses to it over these past 24 episodes.

And from seeing the whole picture, how each piece on the chess board affects the others across the years, it's like all this was fated to happen—like everyone has no choice but to play their own role in the given narrative. However, thanks to his own powers over time and space, X has seen the big picture and has the knowledge to act in a way that defies his preordained part.

Logically, reacting to the current situation, X should withdraw from the tournament. Those in power know his secret identity and can threaten him and those he cares about. Doing what they want may allow him to escape into obscurity. However, X instead chooses to react in a way that throws this “fate” into the gutter. He joins the tournament, not as X but in his civilian identity—outing himself to the world and removing the Sword of Damocles hanging above his head.

However, this is not a choice without consequences. A man with godlike powers like X only works a 9-to-5, rides public transportation, and eats cheap takeout in a tiny apartment for one reason: because he chooses to. X has done all this to keep himself grounded. He won't become the next Zero because he forces himself to be a normal human despite his powers. He doesn't see himself as above them, as a being able to remake the world as he pleases. However, by revealing himself to the world, he loses this—severs his connection with the ordinary. In trying to make sure X never becomes Zero, the Commission has made him closer to becoming Zero than ever before.

Yet, X has chosen to risk this to stand as the final barrier to each of our puppet masters' goals—be that Micky and his new world order, Uncle Rock and his second coming of Zero, or Shand and his getting revenge for his son. Of course, there's nothing to say that with his reality being powers, X couldn't just make himself a new secret identity in the future. But before that, of course, there's fate to defy—and a tournament to win.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It's implied in previous episodes that Shand has been taking the bodies of dead heroes like Vortex and Phobiaclone, and making them into his fear villain slaves. I'm betting that “Nice” is just the newest of these.

• It looks like Lin Ling and Nice have taken the 9 and 10 spots and knocked E-Soul out of the top 10 (and thus the tournament). On one hand, I bet Ling Ling is mad he won't get a chance at revenge for E-Soul killing Moon. On the other hand, I'm sure Loli has a bat with Nice's name on it.

• The new “opening” hints at both things to come and things in X's past. We've known since episode 12 that NINE (the hero in the flashy coat) was an ally of X's, but we don't know who the tarot card girl is at all. Also, the woman controlling the shadow men was shown as having a relation to X—but no one knows what type of association they have.

• In the new opening, the girl reads X's future with tarot cards. She first draws the Fool (new beginnings, innocence, and potential) for him, but the Chariot (control, willpower, and overcoming obstacles) is stuck to its back. She then flips the card at the end of the line of cards to reveal the Wheel of Fortune (fate, change, and destiny). Later, she holds up a card to represent herself, Heirophant (wisdom, tradition, and knowledge), along with another unrevealed card. Later, NINE has the Devil (materialism, obsession, and fear) placed upon his image.

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