To Be Hero X crafts a reality for you that is impossible to escape. When watching a fantasy anime about heroes wanting to be on top, you most definitely do not want it to place a mirror in front of you. Unfortunately, the anime will force you to reflect on your own life choices and make you question whether where you are in life truly makes you happy or not.

Lily’s arc was one I didn’t have many expectations with, simply because I fell into the very trap the anime intended. I didn’t know much about her to begin with, and with a hero name like Loli, I wasn’t looking forward to it either. The way it proved me wrong brought me that sense of satisfaction I didn’t know I needed.

At this point, it doesn’t surprise me that To Be Hero X can pull off some of the best stories. The serious tones and realistic depictions of life submerge you in a way that makes it impossible for you to see it as fiction. Lily’s story makes one thing clear: you can’t take her as just a cute girl. She won’t cut her pink hair off or present herself as a stereotypical tomboy just to be taken seriously.

Caving to society’s demands means that society wins. The way To Be Hero X plays with these tropes makes you fall in love with it even more. Only one episode into her arc, and I’m already loving every second of it. I didn’t want it to end, and I just kept rooting for her over and over again. It isn’t just breaking tropes that are surrounding her character, but also those outside.

Her dad isn’t just an absentee father but someone who sees her potential. He doesn’t stop her from pursuing her dreams despite being strict and rigid in his ways. This kind of keen eye doesn’t just go to her but also to other women who can’t be seen beyond their beauty. The term beauty with brains is as demeaning a notion as there can be.

It makes it so that a woman who is beautiful and also smart is an anomaly and not the norm. It infuriates me as to just how normalized this has become and is often used as a compliment. Lily’s cuteness and beauty don’t mean that she cannot be smart, and it most definitely doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be taken seriously.

How many times would a girl have heard that it is surprising that she is into superheroes or likes action movies? If I start counting the number of times sexist remarks that I have heard, it would be a list longer than this review itself. This is why Loli’s episode in To Be Hero X felt more personal to me than any other.

Throughout the episode, a creep is following her and her friend, who I do assume is Ghostblade, but hey, we stay quiet for the sake of the narration. She creates her own suit and is constantly trying to fight against the notion that her cuteness is all that she is good for. Which is how her trust value also works. The more that people limit her to her looks, the less her trust value gets.

It is an interesting use of the power system, one that hasn’t been seen before. The unique methods of storytelling for each arc are what help To Be Hero X stand out the most. Loli isn’t just another brick in the wall; she’s a whole building of her own, and she can build it with her own hands, too.

As her story continues, it acts as a classic coming-of-age tale with a twist of science fiction. The way she presents herself and wants to grow on her own two feet isn’t just a testament to her ambition but also to Queen’s speech. The tiny ways in which the anime is showing us how much that speech impacted people make up for how lackluster her arc felt.