Episode Appetizer: To Be Hero X - "Nice" [Episode 1] -

Let’s go first-person player mode for this: You’re watching To Be Hero X, and you’re surprised because the individual character trailers set you up for something else. Still, you’re in a futuristic world with a slice-of-life twist and hyper 3D animation—then suddenly, you’re asking the room: How did Crunchyroll get me again?

As a fan of the Xiao Hei web series and The Legend of Hei, I should have known—bilibili yanks you into a story too easily. True players, for real. This time, they’ve teamed up with Aniplex to deliver something unexpected. With director Li Haolin (The Legend of Hei, Flavors of Youth) at the helm, a collaborative team of B.Cool Studio, BeDream, and Paper Plane Animation Studio, and a stellar voice cast featuring Mamoru Miyano, Kana Hanazawa, Koki Uchiyama, and Yuichi Nakamura, To Be Hero X is the kind of series that’s plotting big things for us.

The first surprise? The animation. It starts with cyberpunk aura, the kind you get while watching the best cutscenes on YouTube. But wait—what’s that? Slowly, as the episode unfolds, you catch glimpses of other animation styles, each distinct and layered into the story. That’s when it clicks: those shifts in animation are more than a stylistic flex. They’re windows into the characters’ interior worlds, peeks into how they see themselves or how their emotions shape reality. The same way songs are used in a good musical. The shifts in animation style are like that. It’s a subtle but smart detail that deepens your understanding of the characters from the start.

But what about the story? Oh yeah, I’m here for you. To Be Hero X drops us into a real-ish future world where faith—yes, faith as in belief—is the power-up juice for heroes. That’s where we meet Lin Ling, a mild-mannered marketing boy, stuck in a high-rise tower where the business of superheroes is all about branding and marketability. His job? Make sure the world’s heroes stay golden and profitable. But the pressure is getting to him. He’s tries so hard and gets so little out of it. But then…

BOOM. Something horrible hits Lin Ling (no spoilers, but trust me it’s bad.) Without warning, the world he’s been looking up at is flipped upside down and the veneer on everything he sells to the masses tarnishes. Even though I can’t tell you what “it” is, it’s a strong inciting incident more than a plot twist. That’s when you realize this is a game. Lin Ling isn’t just your POV character—the two of you are player one, discovering the addictive and dangerously shifting world through his disillusioned perspective. He also has an impossible crush, and we all know what they can do to your blood pressure.

Halfway through the first episode, To Be Hero X starts cooking. The characterizations are intriguing—everyone feels layered and their motives are tangled in a messy, all-too-human way. The Hero World? Bright and bubbly on the surface but with a seam of darkness seething underneath. If wholesome beliefs make you heroic, what do fear, rage, or even entitlement make you? Expect villainy. And the fight scenes? They’re visual adrenaline. Every angle, power explosion, and hit drips with style, and since you’re player one, you can see your life essence draining.

To Be Hero X is what would happen if Arcane got into a situationship with The Boys while cheating on its one true love, Solo Leveling—but shamelessly flirting with a My Hero Academia satire. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, PLOT TWIST. It flips again, dropping us into a crimey-whimey mystery. Yes, friends, it’s also an action-crime drama.

That’s how it got me. And, if I know you, that’s how it’s going to get you too.

Did I mention there’s a superhero tournament coming up? This series has me pondering, predicting, and perilously close to begging for more. If Crunchyroll doesn’t drop new episodes soon, I’m storming their tower—are you coming with me, I’m bringing snacks and megaphones. They can fight us or join us.

“Nice” – To Be Hero X premieres April 5 on Crunchyroll
New episodes stream every Saturday at 8:30PM ET / 5:30 PM PT