To Be Hero X

Episode 4

These first four episodes have done an excellent job in introducing us to the double-edged sword of what it means to be a superhero in this world—how you gain fame, wealth, and fantastical powers but lose personal freedom to use those things as you'd wish. You become a slave to the ideal you portray—and the fickle whims of the masses.

This has been shown through the story of Lin Ling and him taking over the mantle of Nice after the original's suicide. While forced to do so at first, Lin Ling quickly accepted his new role—it seemed to be everything he ever dreamed of, after all. However, in this episode, at the climax of his character arc, Lin Ling remembers the truth at the core of his being: He didn't want to be Nice. He wanted to be a hero. And that makes all the difference.

The moral of the story here—what Lin Ling both believes in and represents—is the idea that you don't need powers to do the right thing. He cares for Moon, both for how she inspired him as a nobody through her heroic persona and as the girl he got to know when he became the new Nice. He wants nothing more than to save her: so that's what he's going to do, damn the consequences. This is what gets him out the door and on his way to rescue her, despite his powers actively fighting against him.

Believing in yourself is just as important as others believing in you. After all, it is this (and the belief of a single girl) that allowed Firm Man to hold up a collapsing building when he was nothing but a normal firefighter, and what allowed Lin Ling to defeat his boss in the first episode despite Nice's powers not being enough to do the job. As we see in both this episode and the last, with strong enough willpower (or emotional shock like with Firm Man), a hero can override the control their powers have over them. The trick is that, in doing so, you will lose your powers as the identity people believe in is no longer you.

And in the battle with God Eye, as the villain attempts to prove that heroes don't exist—that they are all carefully crafted PR and nothing more—Lin Ling makes himself a true hero. He can show the world his beliefs. If you have a noble goal and the will to fight on even when hopelessly outmatched, anyone can be a hero, with or without superpowers. Witnessing his resolve even when beaten and bloodied, the people watching come to believe as Lin Ling does: that even a normal person can become a hero and win against evil.

The following fight is far from what we've seen from Lin Ling as Nice. All of the grace is gone. After all, Lin Ling is no longer perfection personified. He's a normal guy who's probably never been in a fight. However, he is backed by the belief of thousands of people, and that gives him raw strength far beyond that of mortal men. He can barely seem to land a hit, but the impacts of his punches rock the building and send shock waves through the air. It's an awesome scene, mixing both the normal and comic book animation seen throughout the show to amazing effect.

In the end, this has all been Lin Ling's origin story. But what's truly interesting here is how his new persona interacts with the nature of superpowers in this world. The population believes in Lin Ling, a common guy, rather than a larger-than-life figure. They expect him to act accordingly—to follow his heart. That is his role. This makes him perhaps the only truly “free” superhero in this world—the only one whose actions aren't controlled by public opinion. However, there's nothing to say this is a permanent situation—it may only be a matter of time before “The Commoner” persona takes on a life of its own.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I have… feelings… about ending two different episodes on the same basic cliffhanger—and something tells me that Moon's death isn't going to stick this time either.

• I wonder if we are moving on to a new hero next episode or not? It sure felt like we were up until that last scene. And if we do, it was a super dick move to end on that cliffhanger.

• I love the idea that God Eye's weakness is that when a person has too many weak points, he doesn't know where to attack or how.

• There's also an interesting little mystery hidden in this episode. Who hacked God Eye's signal and played Lin Ling's unreleased commercial from the first episode? Who would even know about it, much less know the effect it would have on Lin Ling? (I somehow missed that Lin Ling's staff randomly chose the video because they needed to play something to break into into God Eye's signal and they had it on hand in their email because Lin Ling sent it to them himself in the first episode. Thanks commentors for pointing that out.)

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