アニメの紹介
So I'm very curious to try and understand why the top hero would have that kind of
appearance and image. To whom is that appearance the best hero?
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK! I'm your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese non-otaku, and...
I'm Cisco, an American otaku.
In this podcast, we share our reviews of anime and manga through our distinct perspectives
with commentary on Japanese culture, history, and language.
Cisco.
Yeah.
We started watching a whole new type of hero anime yesterday.
That's true.
It started airing on Fuji TV and now it's streaming online.
Now, this anime took the airing time and day for One Piece.
So it replaced One Piece's usual slot.
One Piece was running for the same spot for 19 years.
My god.
Also, this anime has lots of great seiyuu, so I'm really excited about to talk about it.
All right.
Before we start, make sure to subscribe and follow 2AM OTTACK on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
and Amazon Music, and YouTube too.
ヒーローとしての葛藤
All right, Cisco, could you tell us what To Be Hero X is about?
Sure.
The story follows a young man who's working at an ad company and produces
advertisements featuring heroes in a society that's got a whole bunch of ranked heroes,
kind of One Punch Man style.
And he gets fired and is contemplating suicide when one of the heroes he's just produced an
ad for, a hero named Nice, walks right past him off the ledge and commits suicide first.
So pretty dark opening.
He then gets found by Nice's management team, who insist that he take Nice's place because
they look kind of similar.
And as soon as he starts adopting Nice's role, he actually gets Nice's powers and fits
essentially right in.
There's a scene where he's supposed to be with Nice's girlfriend, who he's already in
love with, who's another superhero.
And they do a sort of dating show that he surprisingly manages to kind of bluff his
way through as Nice.
The guy who's doing the dating show is another hero whose talents are about getting people
to tell the truth.
And that guy suspects he's not really the hero Nice.
So he kind of defeats him by not getting caught in a lie.
And then his boss appears in battle armor powered by fear.
I think mostly fear of getting fired or the company being destroyed.
They have a short battle sequence, he beats up his old boss.
It's pretty satisfying.
And then in the subsequent episodes, he starts living Nice's life, which involves doing
sort of pre scripted battles with other villains and saving the girl.
Eventually, though, she decides she kind of wants out of the hero life.
So they fake her death.
She travels to an island to like live the rest of her life, I guess, like as a regular
person, he starts trying to move up the hero charts.
And the guy he defeated in the first episode by successfully lying about who he was turns
evil gets a bunch of power from fear and comes back to try to expose him as not really nice.
And in the middle of that fight, he admits that he's not in fact the hero Nice and says
he's just a regular guy, but then starts fighting and manages and defeat him anyway.
Sorry, there's a lot of summary.
Okay, thank you.
アニメーションスタイルの議論
So the first thing I noticed was this is 3d computer graphic animation with 2d battle
scenes.
Yeah, not all of the battle scenes are 2d.
And not all of the battle, not all of the 2d parts, they don't cover the whole battle
sequences.
But there are often 2d parts embedded in the 3d animation during the sort of peak of the
fighting.
Yeah, so I'm not familiar with 3d computer graphic animation.
So I felt a little bit strange about it.
Because just because I'm not used to it.
Sure.
And the main character so far is looks like Disney Prince to me.
Yeah, he's definitely definitely influenced by Disney Prince's cape, all white clothing
and hair.
Yeah, so the reminder of a Disney character.
But as we watched four episodes, and as we, you know, watched, I got kind of used to the
3d.
Yeah, it kind of grows on you.
Yeah.
And it's well done, actually.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
Yeah.
And the 2d part is, I still don't know why they decided to make it 2d.
I agree.
The 2d part feels much more cartoony.
It's like American cartoon like.
It has Yeah, I don't know that I would go that far.
But it, it has very, very thick lines.
And it doesn't really look anime style.
It's, it's somewhere in between Japanese animation and American animation.
It's very vibrant colors.
It's a lot of like, sort of whooshy effects and stuff, right?
Yeah, it's, it's a weird choice to transition to traditional 2d animation in those moments,
especially because the 3d animation is so clean.
And then the 2d animation is so like, almost kidsy, for lack of a better way to put it.
Yeah, yeah.
シリーズの概要
So this anime to be hero x is a Chinese Japanese original
Donghua series and third season of the to be hero anthology franchises.
Yeah, so there apparently was a first season of to be hero, which I've only read the plot
summary for but which sounds kind of low key awful.
And then they made a sequel called to be heroine about which I can find almost no information
on the internet.
But which sounds again, if I'm being honest, even worse than the first season.
And they were pretty spaced out.
The first one was 2016.
The second one's 2018.
This third edition is now six years, seven years later, like that's a long time to go
before making a follow up.
And this one seems just from the first four episodes much better than the first two, at
least in terms of its story and seriousness.
So like I said at the beginning, this anime premiered on Fuji television on the and other
channels on April 6 2025.
But before that, before this show aired on Fuji TV, One Piece was on the slot.
Why do we think they moved it?
I googled it and try to find a reason.
I think one reason is that spot Sunday morning 930 to 10.
It's like it's not for all of Japan broadcasting.
Huh?
It's like local some some locals.
Okay.
But One Piece was moved to Sunday like night like 1115 to 1145, which is all Japan broadcasting.
And do you think it's because they feel like the story of One Piece is getting more mature
and they need to like put it late at night or something?
Like a lot of animes broadcast in the night.
That's true.
So that's big.
I think like people who used to watch One Piece on TV every single Sunday on the slot.
Yeah.
Now has to move to another slot and then to be Hero X.
For sure.
Right there.
Yeah.
Also, there's so many like great S rank seiyuu in this anime.
I just like that you're calling them S rank seiyuu.
Right.
I'm trying to be A rank, but not the B rank.
I'm trying to be like Otaku.
Yeah, good.
Good try.
So Nice is the main character so far played by Natsuki Hanae Tanjiro.
声優キャストの魅力
His name is on the bottom of the seiyuu list.
Right.
He's the least famous person.
Not the least, but like I was like, why he's the least?
Because he's a main character so far.
Right.
And the top of the list is X by Miyano Mamoru.
Who's a like Steins Gate guy.
So cool.
Yeah.
And the next one is Queen by Hanazawa Kana.
Who's like Mayushii.
Okay.
Right.
And then...
Hey, anytime you've got Steins Gate voice actors, you know, it's going to be kind of a good thing.
Right.
Those combination.
There are also like Uchiyama Kouki from Jujutsu Kaisen.
Nakamura Yuichi, Badeni.
A lot of other stuff.
Jujutsu Kaisen too, I think.
And Matsuoka Yoshitsugu from Witch Watch.
Ayane Sakura.
She does a lot of ameku or like a lot of stuff.
And Minase Inori from...
I don't know how to say this in English.
Gotoubun no Hanayome.
The quintessential quintuplets.
And Yamadera Koichi, the legend, I always say.
Who's else?
Shimazaki Nobunaga.
Sakamoto Deishin.
Okay.
Yeah.
Hana Enatsuki.
Yeah.
So there are like three Gotoubun no Hanayome voice actors in here.
I mean, anytime you've got like a quintuplet show, you're going to need a bunch of different
famous girl voice actors.
So like, fair enough.
But I think this is a show that's...
We haven't really gotten to this part of the show, but I think it's going to involve a lot
of different heroes.
And so I think they needed a pretty broad seiyuu cast for this.
ヒーローランキングの仕組み
So X is the top-ranked hero in this anime.
Right.
There's a tournament every two years.
Right.
And also how they become hero is from like public faith.
Yeah.
Which is quantified.
Quantified.
Yeah.
Made into a number based on like your social media likes, basically.
Yes.
Yeah.
I think this is the most interesting part of the show for me is that the hero rankings
aren't decided by a hero association that's arbitrarily or maybe not arbitrarily, but
that's like giving people grades.
And it's not...
It doesn't seem to be quite like a fan poll.
It has to do with like their...
Like honestly, like their social media engagement.
It seems so of the moment.
And that their power also comes from what their fans believe they can or can't or should
or shouldn't do.
So that in one of the episodes we've seen so far, particular part, the fans don't want
ヒーローの力と信念
Nice to do a particular action.
And he literally cannot do it because they don't want him to, which is a just a fascinating
idea in terms of like where superheroes get their power.
And it's a little bit comedic too.
Right.
One of the characters we're introduced to new in the show is Mr.
I think his English name is Firm Man.
This hasn't been trans...
Mr. Stand.
Is what he's called.
But the like when he's introduced as a hero in the background, there's a lot of English.
It says Firm Man, which makes him sound like a bad guy from a Mega Man game.
But Firm Man or Mr. Stand, his power is holding things up, which is not that useful power,
really.
But because everyone believes he can stand and that's his name, he literally cannot sit
down or lie down.
And so they show the consequences of this later where he like can't go to the bathroom
and he also can't like lean over very far and he also can't lie down to sleep.
So it's sort of a bizarre world where people's faith in you determines your powers.
社会の競争と批判
But it's a it's an interesting idea.
And the amount of like metaphor for social media that's going on here and sort of the
world of influencing and likes and shares that we currently live in is well-reflected by
this anime in a sort of new and exciting way.
Uh, do you think it's reflecting the Chinese or Japanese society environment history?
So, yeah, I mean, I think the idea of like a ranked list of heroes, which shows up in
both this and One Punch Man and My Hero Academia has is definitely rooted in Asian culture
about like competition.
Yeah, you have to be the best, right?
You must go to like the best college.
You must get the top score like, you know, your worth as a human is directly connected
to this, you know, quantifiable metric of like how good you are at whatever.
Right.
So I think that's a layer that's for sure in there.
And I don't think the show is going to critique that very hard.
It could surprise me and really be like, and this is an unhealthy way for society to be.
And already the show has definitely shown the burnout that comes with that type of society
where many of the people who are in the like rat race to the top like seem to be deeply
unhappy already.
One of the heroes commit suicide the first episode and two others like gratefully abandon
their positions as heroes to live regular lives again.
So there's definitely a little bit of critique going on there.
I don't know if it'll critique the whole system or if it is just a commentary on burnout.
But when it comes to the social media and influencing thing, one thing I should just
disclaim at the beginning here is like I'm really not a China expert.
Like I do feel like on pretty firm ground talking about Japanese culture because it
is what I studied in college and I have been to Japan a lot.
But I'm not an expert in China.
And so I should say that my perspective on what Chinese society like is deeply influenced by
being an American and the American media and what it chooses to report about China.
アニメにおける社会批評
So grain of salt on like everything I say about China.
With that said, one of the one of the lenses that I've been really like using to watch and
try to like think about this anime is that because it's a partially Chinese, like I think
funded and produced show, I wonder a lot about what you know, how much self censorship is
going on, how much the you know, the director, because I think it's the same guy who writes,
produces and directs all of these series.
And the first two seemed like they were comedies.
So I don't think there was a lot of social commentary going on there at all.
Or maybe there I didn't see them, so I can't really say.
But the synopses do not really suggest that unless it's functioning on like a super metal
level that like nobody else was getting.
This one, I wonder, you know, is what's he allowed to sort of say?
What is the show allowed to say?
How much sort of like, you know, is there an attempted critique of Chinese society happening
in the show?
Or is it avoiding politics because that's safer?
And it's really just wants to talk about social or cultural issues.
And I don't know that we have enough like on like the quote, unquote, government yet,
other than they are they're referred to as the dangle, right, the alliance.
And that seems to be like, maybe that was true in some of the earlier ones, too.
But they kind of like avoid that there is a lot of suggestion.
Like, I think one of the other commentaries that the show has is about reality TV, where
the heroes seem to be scripted to some point, like the the alliance or whoever.
And, you know, his his manager and other managers seem to be saying like, here's the
narrative.
Here's the storyline.
This is what we're going to show.
Here's how this fight's going to play out.
Like, these are the sort of lines you have to say, where instead of actually saving the
earth from real threats, it's just kind of a TV show for the masses and all everybody's
popularity is sort of manipulated.
And so it's exploring some of the same territory that Oshinoko did in its first season,
particularly when, you know, who's who's the main character, the main guy?
When Aqua and Akane are dating on the like love show, like it's got a lot of that same
thing of like, you know, what does it feel like to be in a role that's totally produced
and have that be your quote unquote, real life?
You know, what's real?
What's fake?
What are people covering up?
How do you know what happens when somebody tries to expose the truth?
How does that change, you know, people's opinions?
A lot of those questions and thoughts are already in the show.
And so I am curious to see whether those are just convenient plot points or those are
sort of embedded critiques of modern society and or specifically Chinese society.
I don't know how I feel about that as a critique of Japanese society.
I don't have enough of a sense of like Japanese influencers to know whether it seems like
they're putting a lot into this.
And I think the fact that the writer and director is Chinese means this is probably
完璧なヒーローの探求
more of a commentary on China than it is on Japan.
Or at least that's my feeling so far.
Yeah, it was interesting.
The reason why nice can fly is because people believe he can fly.
Well, I mean, he's a sort of cheat character in that he's supposed to be the perfect hero,
right?
They keep saying that over and over again.
So he like notionally can do kind of anything a perfect hero can do.
I do think it's sort of interesting that in whatever world this is, the perfect hero
is basically a ballet dancer.
Like most of his moves are like ballet like moves.
He doesn't shoot laser beams.
He doesn't have like guns.
Like, yeah, he doesn't use weapons.
He's very graceful, like Disney Prince, basically.
Yeah, he's a Disney Prince who can fly and kick things.
But he doesn't use Kung Fu.
He doesn't touch the ground most of the time.
His power set is weird, given that he's the perfect hero.
Like the notion that that's what a perfect hero does is kind of like an interesting.
Yeah, that's right.
I guess he also like manifests gauntlets every once in a while, like things on his arms.
But yeah, just I can't tell what culture exactly is being reflected in his perfect hero-ness.
But he does have a cape.
That's his main accessory and like a weird glowing Iron Man doodad on his chest, right?
So he's a he's sort of a curious character in that way.
Yeah, yeah.
So I wonder how the story is going to go, because now he's so far he's in the 10th
rank hero and he's going to keep fighting or he's not going to be the main character anymore or.
Yeah, is X going to come steal the show?
Right.
I thought he might become X earlier, but that doesn't seem that likely.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
I thought there was going to be like a time skip and he comes back as like X.
X also, we've only seen him in the opening, but he looks like and is like bubble era businessman.
He looks kind of like a bad guy from some other like from like some other show.
He kind of looks like a Yakuza, but he really reminds me of the main character from Yakuza Zero
who, you know, well, not Kiryu, actually, but like he looks like like a character that would
show up out of that game from like the bubble era in Japan who like trade stocks and is like
a billionaire, but is like kind of shady and like really crap towards women.
You know, that's like the vibe I get from X.
So I'm very curious to try and understand why the top hero would have that kind of like
appearance and image.
Yeah.
To whom is that appearance the best hero?
Right.
Right.
So.
So I'm very curious to see where this show is going to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Attack!
Lord of the Day!
Why don't we do A.U.
A.U.?
A.U.
Hero.
Oh, A.U.
Sorry, I thought literally you were saying A and then U.
Is that the cell phone company?
That's true, too.
A.U.
Hero.
Hero.
So there's a couple different ways to say hero in Japanese, or at least there are a number of
different words in Japanese that translate to hero in English.
勇者の定義
Maybe it's because I've been watching Frieden with the anime club, but there the term for hero
is yuusha, literally brave person.
Right.
A.U.
The A is Eien, right?
No, A is English.
Oh, A is the A from England or English.
And it connotes glory.
Meaning?
Meaning is like talented.
Talent.
Smart.
Okay.
And then what about the U?
Means man.
Just man?
Okay.
I mean, we have lots of assumptions that the yuusha is probably a guy with a sword and a
shield, but at least it could be a woman.
It's not written into the characters.
So A.U.
means talented man.
Yeah.
So you don't really say A.U.
referring woman.
Interesting.
What would you say instead?
So you know what?
And I was like, I have no idea how to say heroine in Japanese.
Heroine?
Heroine, sorry.
And I Googled it.
I don't think many people use it.
Joketsu?
I've never heard that word before, ever.
I've never heard of it before.
And it sounds terrible.
Yeah.
Jo is female.
Yeah.
And ketsu?
Yeah.
I can only think of kitsuna, which means butthole.
Have you heard of kessaku?
Like movie, anime, kessaku?
Like epic?
Yeah.
It's like that, ketsu.
But like ketsu sounds so bad.
Yeah.
Like but.
Yes.
So joketsu sounds terrible.
Yeah, that's not.
They should definitely get started on a new word for that.
That's why we call it hero and heroine.
I mean, that's easy for me.
But it also feels like lazy to like not have your own culture's word for hero.
Yeah.
I didn't notice until I Googled today.
I was like, wait, there's no word for heroine.
Yeah.
That's messed up.
But that's how it's written.
Hero is talented man.
Wow.
Wow.
I mean, yuusha is better than, right?
Yuusha doesn't have, yeah, doesn't decide gender, I think.
Brave one.
Yeah, brave one.
What's the...
Yeah, I think like when they do like an isekai and like a bunch of like four people,
like I'm actually thinking of the, you know,
cheat skill in another world with the Nakuten one where he just like buys things on Amazon.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that one in the very, very beginning when he works into that,
he gets like, you know, in the isekai,
there's like three or four other people who come with him.
And like, it's like half boys and girls, and they're all yuusha, I think, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
And he's like, I don't want to be a yuusha.
ヒロインの言葉の探求
I got like the appraisal skill and like also Instacart or whatever.
Like that would be, that's how I would survive in isekai.
You know what, it doesn't have to be.
I can make everything from scratch.
Yeah, exactly.
You would just be like a normal artisan in the isekai world being like, this is cool.
Yeah.
So sustainable.
All right.
Is there anything you'd like to add before we end?
I am really curious to see where the series goes.
Maybe I'm just putting too much into it right now in terms of trying to read like
アニメにおけるキャラクター名称の重要性
additional social commentary on top of what's already there.
But if it keeps going in the direction it's going already,
I feel like it's going to give us lots of really interesting things to say and think about.
And it's making me sad.
I can't read Chinese because I would love to look at what
serious Chinese intellectuals think about what this show is trying to say.
I see.
So we watched this in Japanese, all in Japanese.
Yes.
So the main character's name is Nice.
And I keep wondering what, how it's going to sound like in English or translated English.
Like, are they going to actually use the name Nice?
Yeah.
Because like, when Nice does something bad or unpredictable, people are like, Nice!
I hope they just keep it because it's funny.
It's so funny, right?
Yeah.
But I mean, yeah, I can imagine them naming him just like Nice Guy.
But I wonder what they're going to call Firm Man.
Firm Man sounds like he either works for a law, like, you know,
he's a lawyer or is like a Mega Man bad guy.
But for sure is one of the two.
I don't know like what he helps you do in Mega Man though.
He helps you not be able to crouch anymore.
Like it's like a hard mode thing to like get Firm Man's power.
And now you can't duck or slide.
You've never played Mega Man, huh?
No.
I think it's streaming on Crunchyroll and the other streaming services.
So I'm curious to know what it's like or what it sounds like in English.
You'd have to pay for Crunchyroll to find out.
エピソードの締めくくり
Yeah, please sponsor us.
Then we'll talk about Crunchyroll anime, not just Netflix.
Right.
We are focusing on Netflix.
All right.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
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See you next time for more 2AM Attack.
Peace.
