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[Spoilers] To Be Hero X - Episode 1 Discussion
OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!
ANIME OF THE 2025, NOT KIDDING
animation so beautiful I may cry
The new big thing is here! And it comes straight from China! Well, maybe that's why it ain't big?
Still, with this IP getting it's 3rd anime and massive amount of backing this time around. I can say that my expectations were already pretty big. And yet I got more than I wanted in the first ep. Sure, it's pace was pretty neck breaking and the first impression might have been way more comedic than I expected.
Yet the overall quality and seriousness hidden in the plain sight really managed to grab me in this first EP.
As it really did great job of building up into that last one story beat. Which while pretty expected, still managed to land flawlessly after the rather smooth sailing of the first 20 minutes.(Though maybe it was just my expectations after catching up on certain trainwreck of a manga this week)
Back to the comedy, the jokes never lingered for too long and managed to get me laugh more than few times without getting annoyed at them. As even if something didn't really land, it was off the screen in the next 2-4 seconds. As the anime never waited for me to get bored or to announce my annoyance with something. Akin to Gintama which I've been rewatching.
But the biggest impression was left by the animation itself. It's kinda like Arcane and Spider-man met Donghua.
And I absolutely love it. As not only it looks superb, but is also smooth as butter through out the whole episode.
What's also great is that it doesn't shy away from changing up gears and switching styles mid scenes to highlight certain aspects of the story telling. Like in the example above, or the highlight below:
Add to it perfectly capable soundtrack made by already proved people, and one that also sports Sawano on it's list.
And honestly you can't go wrong with picking up this Donghua as one of your picks for this season of anime. Cuz even if it won't deliver on the story front, it should still be an enjoyable time waster of a show.
Though considering the writing of the first donghua, I would be cautiously optimistic that it will deliver. Especially as the people working on it already did quite a few good shows. And looking at the first EP, they definitely have some tricks up their sleeves.
I actually can't believe how insane that was. Amazing first chapter.
First Impression — Well, well, well.
I’ve had my eye on this for what feels like forever, after seeing one of the slick mixed-style animation trailers way back.
I think this has to be one of the bigger wildcards in recent memory, with what could be an unchained potential to pop-off.
What immediately caught my attention, was the truly mixed use of animation techniques. It was actually uncanny to see the semi-realistic matte-style (a la Arcane) for an anime; but it is looking quite good already. Blending more tranditional 2D anime with the aforementioned 3D style, both separately and overlain together, was unique and pretty cool. With the right balance, this variety, or divergence form the norm, could really set TBHX apart and as something fresh within the medium.
Side-note, I’m not interested in splitting hairs and opening the anime vs. animation debate in this context, because I don’t actually care; it’ll either be enjoyable or not.
It’s still too early to fully grasp the vibes of the show and the narrative, but we do now have a much better idea. Very quickly we are shown a suicide and an imposter situation is introduced, which I wouldn’t have expected, and which is not an entirely a new idea (if that matters), but one I think has legs. So, aside from jokes, there is a degree of seriousness here and it may be we are lead down some dark avenues. I also like the core concept that heroes are not born powerful but rather are sculpted (and presumably obliterated) based on the literal trust of the populace; that’s pretty novel.
So, one episode down, I was thinking ok, pretty solid premiere, slightly safe, but intriguing… Then his girlfriend in bed is just dead. Wtf. Ok, here we go??
Oh, and that OP? Poppin’! When that 80’s beat came in—ooh. Visual were, again, slick and styled.
Really liking what I’ve seen so far; some uncertainty yet I’m optimistic.
I've been looking forward to this show for a while now, and the first episode definitely didn't disappoint me! The animation was so fluid and gorgeous and the story already has me hooked!
The animation was popping OFF. DUDE. The seamlessness between the Arcane 3D style and the 2D style is fantastic. I've been hyped for this ever since I saw the initial music video/teaser, but I was not expecting this. Comedy, action, a potential The Boys style universe, murder mystery? I am all in. This is going to be my hyper-fixation of the season. I'm excited to see more people talk about this.
fluidity of this 3D animation is more like Miraculum rather Arcane XD
But yes I understand that artstyle is similar
yeah, it looks like arcane but animation is straight from ladybug lmao
This needs more popularity , it's insane how good this is !!!!
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First of all let me just say that this episode was one of the best first episodes i've ever watched in anime/donghuas, the animation was seamless,flawless and just perfect. the seamless transition from 3d to 2d is no doubt in my book perfect, the graphic designing aspect of the show is one of the best i've seen in tv shows. that '1 week later' appearing with colorful animation behind the car was so cool to see.
I feel like the show is taking 'the boys' kinda route with some type of link click mystery aspects
the overwhelming sense of realism of what if these heroes were real and i cant help but compare it with the boys but the actual difference is that, in the tv show boys all those characters are just psychopaths whereas i guess this show is going to take a more realistic more complex route with its characters though i could be wrong.I also love the the subtle implication for 'what it means to be a hero?' for ling ling (the new nice) the question 'what it means to be a hero?' was projected at the start of the episode and i think for ling ling at the end of episode it would mean that a hero is a symbol, a peace of mind something like that, because its not really nice that is underneath that clothes its ling ling but now he's nice, no one is able to tell him apart even though nice is so popular and even his own gf couldn't tell him apart from the real nice (though this is just me assuming because she almost had no dialogue in the episode so i could be wrong).
i guess the show will take this question 'what it means to be a hero?' and use it to show different characters and their own particular answer to it, to be honest that is just me making my own fanfic at this point lol and the show might just be a hero villain kinda story. but i wouldn't care i shouldn't put my expectations on a show just because of one episode so let's see what happens. i still love this episode tho.
Certainly, it was a great introduction episode. I am curious to see how Nice's narrative arc will develop in just four episodes, but there's nothing stopping him from appearing in future episodes. I want to see how the development of this arc will be and how the next one will be, in addition to the development of other characters.
This must be some kind of chinese propaganda... CSM had 5% or less cg and the anime community went crazy, now this is mostly dogshit level CG, and everyone acts like this is the best thing ever... what the hell?
you must be taking crazy pills because the cgi is not bad at all, its great you're just hating for no reason
CSM had good CGI, TBHX have spectacular CGI just like Arcane, but with more styles and usability of it.
Do we really need to explain the difference between CGI being inserted on top of another style and an entire show being primarily a consistent style of CGI? One of the main reasons people dislike CGI in anime (and I am one of those people that will 100% drop a show almost immediately based on how poorly it is used) is because of how it tends to clash with both the art style and the frame rates of the surrounding parts of a scene which causes it to significantly stand out, break immersion, and look overall bad (this is particularly subjective though and has the widest range of general quality).
This being all consistent in its styles at any one point (being full CGI OR the full comic like styling they swapped to occasionally, rather than mixing the two) makes it significantly better overall, on top of the CGI style being pretty damn solid itself. My main complaint with it is that the mouth movements feel a little off, otherwise the actual quality of the CGI is really damn good in terms of the style and the animations feeling fluid.
Animation is cool and all but story wise it’s utter garbage.
Explain how you arrived at that conclusion with only 1 episode
The whole premise of this show is literally
“I believe, therefore I am.” What’s more to explain? Sure the beginning and ending added some additional mystery to the show but the overarching premise of the story isn’t changed. Not to mention this first episode had horrible pacing, it honestly felt like I was watching some wish-fulfillment nonsense.Sorry but I disagree, also you're completely wrong about the "I believe therefore I am" premise. It's not that it's about "what does it take to be a hero" and "what it means to be a hero". You can completely see that in the first episode with ling ling answer to this question being a symbol of entertainment for people and I'm sure that's the main premise of the show. It's not they believe so they become powerful it's because other people belief and awareness of a particular person gives them the powers, and you can see that with the boss after he kicks that host, people get scared of him and that's how he gains the power of those letters or whatever and that's how also the hero ling ling gets his power in the final moments when everybody cheers for him. If you would just pay attention to it you would understand, I get that you don't like it and that's fine but misjudging the story's themes and premise on your own when it's not even the actual premise of the show is just completely wrong.
You may be right, but the entire premise you proposed is still a massive ass-pull. The main character didn’t become a hero through his own efforts or anything—he just impersonated some guy who committed suicide, and his little act worked. This series is basically MHA, if MHA were even worse than it already was. Quite literally everything was given to this guy after the original Nice decided to commit suicide, to me it’ll always be a garbage show, regardless of how you spin it.
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Well I can't really change your opinion on it but yeah I completely respect that opinion and I can see where you coming from so yeah I won't really argue much anymore because I guess it's just pointless lmao. Sorry if I might have come across as an asshole trying to put my thoughts on to your tastes, that's my bad. Also that's not the main character you saw, there is no main character in this show. The trailers have made it clear that there is no main character and every 2-3 episodes the perspective would shift to a new character and will follow that character
Direction, cinematography and choreography is amazing, and it looks beautiful. Perfect blend of 2D and 3D. Yes give it to me.
And SHIIIIT what a cliffhanger that was!!!!
i REMEMBER SEEING THE TRAILER YEARS AGO AND IT HELD UP TO ITS NAME
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First Episode Dropped what do we think
TO BE HERO X is ANIME OF THE YEAR. This dogs anything you’ve ever seen before...no cap. It’s like Arcane and Spider-Man had a wild crossover, and then they threw in some insane 2D and 3D mix that makes it straight up peak and stupid pretty too.
It doesn’t sleep on the first episode either! THE WRITTING?? Nah, it best thing in recent years. no ts pmo either.
It was great
Now this is how you use 3D in anime. Japanese studios could really learn from this.
This premiere was amazing! The trailers had already caught my attention, and even though I’m not usually a fan of this kind of animation, it fit like a glove. The blend of 2D and 3D turned out great — not to mention the animation, soundtrack, and choreography were all on point. I thought they’d switch between 3D and 2D more often, but this episode was like 80% 3D and 20% 2D, and I still enjoyed it. I’ll definitely keep watching. That ending hit hard, though — I doubt that’s actually her body, but if it is, that’s just cruel.
Just checked the cast and its gonna be AOTS just from the cast. The animation was spectacular, the art was stellar, and plot was great. What a time to be alive.
Did we watch the same thing?
The episode felt like a trailer of itself, the pacing was all over the place with skipped parts, and a lackluster characterization of the characters.
I would have dropped it if it weren't for the intriguing cliffhanger at the end.
Right now I'm sad that such a nice animation style was wasted on this thing
Was moving too fast for my liking but otherwise this was absolutely an amazing first episode!!!
Interesting concept and insane animation!! I'm excited for this one :)
