Anime Review: TO BE HERO X does the un-X-pected

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TO BE HERO X
Director: Li Haoling
Producers: Aniplex, bilibili, BeDream
Studios: Pb Animation Co. Ltd., LAN Studio, Paper Plane Animation Studio
Streamer: Crunchyroll
Release Date: April 5, 2025
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, donghua

At long last, Adam and Hilary’s coverage of To Be Hero X has come to a close. What did we think of the final episode? Who is X, and what does he want? Is Ahu truly the best boy? All this and more in our grand finale discussion.

The following write-up contains spoilers for Episode 24 of To Be Hero X. This was originally posted on K-Comics Beat.

x, a man wearing a white suit, red tie and tinted glasses, drinks from a can of branded soda while speaking with a talking dog at a bar.

Roller-coaster ride

ADAM: Well, that’s the end of To Be Hero X for now. To which I have to say: “Huh? That was it?!”

HILARY: I WANT SEASON 2 NOW. IMMEDIATELY.

ADAM: There was no way the show could wrap up everything in one episode, and I didn’t expect it to. It’s clear the team has a second season in mind. Still, I hoped for something closer to Link Click’s first finale—a satisfying climax followed by a cliffhanger. To Be Hero X felt more like set-up for a story we won’t see for a few years.

HILARY: I agree. The staff definitely has a second season in mind, but I can’t help worrying it won’t get announced. After such a roller-coaster ride, I’ll be so disappointed if this is it.

x, in his civilian identity as an ordinary man with rimmed glasses and short black hair, reads a magazine at a corner stand.

One of us! One of us!

HILARY: Going into the finale, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I wanted hero-on-hero battles, and we got some when X fought off heroes ordered to take him out the night before the tournament. But after all the hype around the Hero Tournament, I was disappointed we didn’t see…well, any of it. At least Ahu’s appearance made up for it a little.

ADAM: Same here. I didn’t expect Ahu to play such a big role, but I was pleasantly surprised. His willingness to assassinate X so quickly gave me pause, but the show struck the right balance between his naivety and heroic nature. What you see with Ahu is what you get.

We also learned a lot about X. Outside of hero work, he lives a normal, boring life. He’s so distant from his coworkers that no one even knows his name. Was Smile really his only friend? Watching him set out snacks for Smile at his empty apartment table felt heartbreaking.

HILARY: When X counted down the seconds until he could clock out, I thumped my chest and chanted, “One of us! One of us!” He’s so relatable as a corporate employee. Honestly, if he took a few days off without telling his boss, I don’t think anyone would notice. When one coworker complained about him leaving on time, the boss literally asked, “Who?” X just wants a quiet life.

x, a man wearing a white suit, dodges a hero. x is holding a can in his right hand; the other hero has a crown drawn over their head as well as two X's over their eyes.

A game of chess

HILARY: The Commission treats heroes like pawns in a chess game. Since X hasn’t signed with any agency, they can’t control him, which makes him a threat. But what’s his ultimate goal? He doesn’t seem passionate about being a hero. If he dropped out of the top 10, I doubt he’d claw his way back like Nice.

ADAM: Exactly. X’s comments on fate tie into the whole series. Everyone is boxed in by forces beyond their control. The last thing he wants is to fight, but he has no choice—everyone else, except Smile and maybe Ahu, wants him gone.

My favorite sequence was when half a dozen superheroes hunted him down. Not all of them had memorable designs, but I love how the show throws in a bunch of creative one-off characters just to discard them. It reminded me of Giant Robo’s OVA. Did you have a favorite?

HILARY: Graffiti King stood out to me. He actually gave X a run for his money. I also loved how bored X looked while dealing with everyone—he literally yawned mid-battle!

x, a man wearing a white suit, and ahu, a small brown dog, stare at a statue-like chess piece moving on a huge board.

We’ll have to wait and see

HILARY: This is one of those episodes worth rewatching just to catch how much effort the animators poured in. There are so many moments I loved. Like when X protects Ahu from being killed but still tosses him at an agent leaping out of a helicopter, basically saying, “Now you have to pull your weight.” Or when he uses a coin as a shield that seamlessly transitions into a bar door—that whole sequence was amazing.

ADAM: I wasn’t sure if To Be Hero X could do justice to X’s power set in the finale, but it did. The episode juggles three or four distinct art styles without breaking a sweat, keeps its sense of humor, and shows how X is more likely to run from fights than humiliate his enemies. I also liked the scene where he and Ahu hung out in the bar—the looser, sketchy drawings nailed their characterization as much as the big action scenes.

Once the show shifted to breaking down its timeline, though, I started getting frustrated. X explains a lot we already knew—or could’ve pieced together—about the world of heroes and its history. But he leaves bigger mysteries dangling. For instance, what should we take from his claim that Zero is still alive? Is X Zero? Is Rock Zero? Or is one of Rock’s heroes Zero? What was going on there?

HILARY: The short answer is…we’ll have to wait and see! But I think he’s suggesting Rock wants to create the next Zero. The Commission is so focused on X as a possible Zero that they don’t realize someone is already moving to raise a new hero to that level. The frustration you feel is intentional—they left those threads dangling to make us hungry for Season 2. Whenever it arrives, I hope the staff doesn’t forget these unanswered questions.

x, a man wearing a white suit, and ahu, a small brown dog, walk through a plane of endless staircases.

Fridging the dead

HILARY: Speaking of unresolved plotlines, I’m still miffed that we never got closure on Moon’s murder. It was the show’s very first mystery, and it’s still unsolved by the finale. I was hoping we’d at least get answers about her death. Instead, Moon stays fridged—if that’s even possible.

ADAM: Yeah, Moon’s absence in this episode really bummed me out. The only “resolution” is Lin Ling teaming up with TREEMAN to investigate her case. We still don’t know what E-Soul wanted, or why Moon was the target in the first place. To Be Hero X’s tendency to fridge its female cast remains one of its weakest, most thoughtless habits.

HILARY: On top of that, the alien subplot still feels like a random throwaway just to explain Big Johnny’s backstory. I’m not confident it’ll ever come up again in the next season. I’d love to be proven wrong, though.

ADAM: I don’t mind the aliens as much—I kind of admire how To Be Hero X crams so many bizarre elements into its world. That said, when X transported Ahu to that strange glass arena and promised to reveal “the truth,” I half-expected the big twist to be that the Hero Competition was actually an MMO, Matrix-style. Thankfully, that didn’t happen—so I think we’re safe.

a cut-out photograph of nice, a man with white hair, with red x's over his eyes. in the background is swirly red text reading "DEAD" repeatedly.

Give Nice a break

HILARY: By the way, when are they finally going to give poor Nice a break? The guy deserves some rest.

ADAM: Nice only exists in To Be Hero X to suffer. All I can say is…“Nice.”

HILARY: The cracks spreading across his face make it look like Fear has taken control. You can’t help but feel sorry for him, even with all the awful things he’s done. Taking his own life in the premiere was maybe the one act of agency he had, and he still wasn’t granted a peaceful death. I don’t think this is a fake-out either—his hollow, empty expression feels too much like Nice. But is this Shand’s doing? Rock’s? Someone else’s?

The return of Nice also pushes E-Soul out of the competition, which makes me wonder why. E-Soul and Rock seemed desperate to enter the Hero Tournament, so his absence raises questions. Maybe Rock, not Shand, revived Nice. If that’s the case, then Rock might never have trusted E-Soul’s abilities—adding another tragic layer to Yang Cheng’s story.

ADAM: What grabs me most about these behind-the-scenes twists is how they affect the characters we already know. I’d rather see Nice’s anguish at being cheated out of death than just learn which organization took over his body. Same goes for E-Soul—I’m curious what he’s plotting, sure, but what I really want to know is how he feels. It’s a shame we won’t get those answers anytime soon.

x, a man in a white suit, and ahu, a small brown dog, stare at the hero building. they are rendered in a pop-art style.

A successful X-periment?

ADAM: Is now the time to ask what we thought of To Be Hero X as a whole? Hilary, did the series live up to your expectations?

HILARY: For me, it was a bold experiment in visuals, art styles, animation techniques, and storytelling. Most of the time, I think it worked. Other times, it felt overly ambitious, like it bit off more than it could chew. Still, I commend the team for trying something so fresh. What about you, Adam?

ADAM: I appreciate just how rare it is these days to see an original animated series run for more than twelve episodes. To Be Hero X managed to pack so much into its runtime—comedy, tragedy, music, even aliens. It’s a world that can hold anything, and it kept surprising me from start to finish.

That said, the longer episode count did hurt the pacing. The director’s earlier series Link Click balanced momentum beautifully, with standalone stories building toward a bigger climax. To Be Hero X, on the other hand, leaned into a stop-and-start anthology structure, which made parts of it feel uneven. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where is this train going? Have they lost the plot?”

Thankfully, the show came together once it hit the Ruins episode, which tied all the threads into a satisfying climax. Then it doubled down by devoting the final four episodes to fleshing out Nice as Lin Ling’s dark mirror. This is a smart show that knows what it wants to say and delivers its message in an accessible way. I just wish the ending had been more conclusive.

x, a man wearing a white suit, snaps his fingers. ahu, a small brown dog trapped in a piece of grey concrete, goes flying. in the background are the words "POW!" rendered in yellow against a purple background.

Keep layering

HILARY: I don’t mind cliffhangers, but this finale didn’t fully explain…anything. What I liked about Link Click—and what made its first season so satisfying—was that the finale answered an unexpected question. I was sad when Emma died in the premiere, despite Cheng Xiaoshi’s best efforts, but the story came full circle in the last episode.

To Be Hero X drops questions throughout the series: “Why was Moon killed? What is Rock after? Why must Nice suffer?” The show gives context and background to make us care about the heroes, but it offers little payoff for the larger story. The finale leaves us with almost no new mysteries—except for Nice’s revival.

ADAM: When the second season arrives, I hope they keep building on what they’ve established. I want to see Lin Ling and E-Soul in a room together. Or Loli and E-Soul. How about a rematch between Queen and X? The ending animation hints that the next season could introduce many new characters, but what I really want is resolution for the heroes we’ve already met—including Ahu, his complicated loyalties, and whatever’s happening with Nice.

I also hope they improve the 3D models. The ones we saw at the end for Lucky Cyan and the Johnnies were…something else.

HILARY: Oh…those. Yes, quite something. I’m just grateful that To Be Hero X used 2D animation for most of the series. The lack of fur on Big Johnny reminded me of live-action Pokémon—some things just look better when you don’t try to depict them realistically.

ahu, a small brown dog wearing a bowler hat, stares at his opponent. in the background is an advertisement for dog food bearing his likeness. i t reads, "strong like ahu!"

X-cellent

So far, the characters have remained fairly separated in the present timeline. We see what happened in the past, but not the aftermath. The ending sequence suggests we’ll learn more about X’s past and the overall lore. I don’t think the next season will follow the first season’s character-focused episode format; it seems it will take a more linear approach.

ADAM: Whatever comes next, I’m sure it’ll be full of surprises. That’s To Be Hero X in a nutshell: not always X-cellent, but certainly un-X-pected. Even if the show had flaws, I’d still remember it fondly for our discussions.

HILARY: I had an X-cellent time doing this roundtable with you, Adam. We had some soul-electrifying episodes that were truly X-citing—and some not-so-Nice episodes with disappointing character arcs. Luckily, our one constant remained: our love for Ahu.

To Be Hero X airs in the United States via Crunchyroll.