2025 introduced many great anime, from returning hits to fresh narratives that grew the medium’s popularity, reach, and impact, allowing anime to reach new heights. With so many series vying for viewers’ attention, only a select few truly stand out and become major hits.
Yet, there is one title that not enough anime fans are raving about, despite its unique appeal. To Be Hero X carved out a place among Crunchyroll’s best titles through its experimental storytelling that challenged expectations and showed different ways a series can engage its audience. In doing so, it stands out among Crunchyroll’s exclusives and deserves far more recognition.
To Be Hero X Could Easily Become Anime of the Year
To Be Hero X is a Chinese anime, known as donghua, that centers around the top ten heroes in a world where power is directly tied to public faith, quantified as visible “Trust Values” shown on the inner wrist. The higher the public perception of an individual, the more powerful they become.
The first season consists of 24 episodes, all of which can be streamed exclusively on Crunchyroll. The narrative covers multiple top-ranked heroes in a non-linear format, offering depth, personality, and drive to each character. The heroes are all distinct from one another and possess unique abilities that ensure every new introduction and story feels fresh.
To Be Hero X stands out for its thrilling, gorgeously animated action sequences, its blend of comedy and dramatic tension, and its ability to land strong emotional beats in every character arc. While 2025 has been filled with standout anime, To Be Hero X is easily among the best and caters to a wide variety of fans.
No Other Anime Is as Unique as To Be Hero X
To Be Hero X stands out in comparison to other anime for numerous impressive reasons. Whereas most stories follow a single central protagonist, the first season of To Be Hero X instead jumps between perspectives, timelines, and heroes, slowly piecing together the bigger picture.
Paired with the series’ power system, each character truly possesses unique abilities and qualities that broaden the story’s scope, given the fact that public faith determines both power and constraints. While the higher one’s public faith may be, expectations from fans can hinder the characters in unforeseen ways.
For example, the first character audiences meet is Lin Ling, an ordinary office worker whose life is completely upended when the hero Nice commits suicide, prompting Lin Ling to take his place. However, fans believe that Lin Ling is Nice, a belief that alters his appearance and even causes shifts in his personality to mirror Nice, overwriting his original identity.
Beyond its unique characterization, To Be Hero X is willing to take visual risks by experimenting with both 3D animation and multiple 2D styles, seamlessly switching between them, especially in early episodes. From its nonlinear format, visuals, power system, and character struggles, the series creates a truly immersive and thrilling experience; however, it is groundbreaking in a bold new way.
To Be Hero X Introduced a Groundbreaking Interactive Element
One of To Be Hero X’s most ambitious ideas is to step beyond the screen by introducing a fan-interactive element. During the first season’s release, the series invited audiences to actively participate in shaping the show’s future by voting online for their favorite characters, determining their in-story power and relevance in the next season.
The results determine the character’s Trust Values, seamlessly fitting within the series’ internal logic by turning the power system into a real mechanism that reflects how quickly public perception can affect the heroes, whether positively or negatively.
Rather than centering on defeating villains or a clear central enemy, the series instead focuses on the tension between societal pressure, perceptions, and reality.
The creators of To Be Hero X shared that the ranking would directly impact Season Two; however, early voting results were already felt within Season One’s finale, altering the outcomes and hierarchy of the heroes in tangible ways. This made it clear that audience input was not only taken seriously, but also that the votes carry significant weight.
Looking ahead, this opens the door to new anime to take similar approaches in the future. The high degree of audience interactivity is one of the most experimental aspects of the series, challenging modern storytelling techniques in anime by investing in fresh approaches that hand over a measure of creative control to fans, effectively fostering strong audience investment.
To Be Hero X Has Strong Themes and Complex Characters
Beneath its experimentation, To Be Hero X is ultimately a character-driven series with powerful, thought-provoking themes. By turning public perception into a constant influence over the heroes, both in public and in their personal lives, the story makes the heroes’ power out to be a double-edged sword.
Rather than centering on defeating villains or a clear central enemy, the series instead focuses on the tension between societal pressure, perceptions, and reality. Paired with the commercialization of heroes and corrupt hero agencies, To Be Hero X urges audiences to view heroism in the world as a performative illusion and to focus instead on what lies beneath the heroes’ masks.
The series explores each character with nuance and depth, leading up to the finale, where they all converge to participate in a biannual tournament to determine who will earn the title of X, the strongest hero. Each character has their own motivation to achieve the title, and during their story, must confront a psychological burden that deepens their character arc.
To Be Hero X is proof that anime can endlessly find new ways to demonstrate ambition and innovation through creative, engaging stories. Through its distinctive animation, real-world inclusion, and powerful ensemble, the series earned its place among the best anime titles of 2025 and deserves far more attention for its achievements.
- Release Date
-
April 6, 2025
- Network
-
bilibili
-
Nie Xiying
Wang Nuonuo (voice)
-
