October | 2025 | Sakura Sunrise

So earlier today, I watched the new trailer for Daemons of the Shadow Realm, the new Hiromu Arakawa adaptation, and unsurprisingly, it rocked. Though crucially, I don’t believe it’s just because of Arakawa’s namesake. Don’t get me wrong: Fullmetal Alchemist‘s acclaim and staying power in the cultural consciousness are a testament to some wonderful writing, but they’re also inextricably tied to the artistry of Studio Bones. Frankly, if it weren’t Bones – oop sorry, Bones Film – handling this adaptation, I might actually be less excited, if only because few studios can evoke such trust in me by reputation alone.

Like, honey, look at the material. Mob Psycho 100? My Hero Academia? Noragami? Kekkai Sensen? Star Driver? With a resume like this, even something as huge as Fullmetal Alchemist is practically just a blip on the radar. Glazing aside, Daemons of the Shadow Realm‘s anime has only done itself more favors the more that’s been shown, and all from Masahiro Ando, the director of one of the studio’s greatest gems, Sword of the Stranger. Plus, with music by Kenichiro Suehiro of Fire Force and Re:Zero fame, it will probably be one of the best soundtracks of the season.

But none of that is what really caught my eye. I wasn’t even gonna write about it. If anything, I was planning on writing about Gachiakuta and My Hero Academia dominating this season (and I still might). No, what really caught my eye were the final words of the trailer: “Airing for two consecutive cours starting in April 2026”. It’s just a simple detail, practically obligatory, to disclose the release date and whatnot, right? Right… But somehow it felt more like the answer to a prayer. Cause like, has anyone else felt like anime seasons used to be longer?

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[Note: I watched To Be Hero X in Japanese with English subtitles. Any appraisal of vocal performances is made with this frame of reference in mind. However, from what I’ve heard of the English dub, it’s really well done, so if you prefer dubs, you’re in for a treat.]

In a landscape so saturated with superhero media, what does it mean to be truly original? Is it the ideas? The spectacle? Themes? Style? Sure, these can help new projects to stand out in a cluttered marketplace of origin stories and disparate continuities, but amid the genre’s worst lulls, finding originality can feel like a moot point. And frankly, is looking for “true originality” even productive? The foundations of these stories and their messages are timeless for a reason. It’s not about originality so much as nuance, and To Be Hero X might be the best superhero story in years.

And, you know, at the start of 2025, that might have felt like a low bar, especially after such a spineless shitshow like Captain America: Brave New World. Even with Thunderbolts*, Jake Schreier and his team’s commendable commitment to practical stuntwork, strong theming, and heartfelt character drama felt like the exception to the rule. But then we got James Gunn’s Superman, and less than a month later, Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. These two beloved films weren’t just successful, but reignited faith in superhero movies, to say nothing of hope for humanity in general (especially in the case of the former).

So it’s fair to say this has been a strong year for superhero media, which makes my aforementioned take a lot more contentious. However, while I don’t want to undermine the merits of Schreier, Gunn, or Shakman, I genuinely think To Be Hero X clears all of them by *that* much. But what exactly is To Be Hero X? And why does it deserve to be recognized among the genre’s best and brightest?

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