I used to think My Hero Academia was cruel to the heroes until I saw To Be Hero X

My Hero Academia has been the leading anime depicting a hero society for nearly a decade. While the anime did a decent job of showing how cruel the general public could be towards the heroes, the new Spring 2025 anime To Be Hero X took this depiction much further.

Unlike My Hero Academia, in which most people are born with quirks, To Be Hero X sees people manifest varying powers depending on their Trust Value and how people perceive them. Therefore, in the new series, a hero could become stronger or weaker depending on their popularity. This key difference makes To Be Hero X crueler than My Hero Academia.

To Be Hero X's hero society might just be crueler than My Hero Academia's

Yoroi Musha as seen in the My Hero Academia anime (Image via BONES)

As fans must remember, after the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, the hero society antagonized the heroes for failing to protect them when they needed their help the most. The general public no longer trusted the heroes to protect them and wished for them to stay away so they wouldn't draw in villains to their location.

While it is true that heroes had trained to protect people and earned from the same, the expectations the hero society had from them were quite unrealistic. Not only was the threat posed by the villains unanticipated, but several heroes lost their lives while fighting them.

E-Soul as seen in the To Be Hero X anime (Image via Pb Animation Co. Ltd., LAN Studio, Paper Plane Animation Studio)

Overall, it had become quite tough for heroes to do their job wholeheartedly. This hostility grew to such a level that many pro heroes lost hope in their careers and retired to get away from all the negativity. While all this might seem very bad, To Be Hero X took such developments a step further.

As seen in the anime's latest episode, even though E-Soul had served the hero society for 34 years and was the first Hero X and the person who defeated the strongest antagonist Zero, the hero society was prepared to replace him when they learned about the New E-Soul.

New E-Soul as seen in To Be Hero X (Image via Pb Animation Co. Ltd., LAN Studio, Paper Plane Animation Studio)

According to society, E-Soul had grown old and weak. They wished for him to carry on fighting like in his prime. Hence, when he could not keep up with their demands, they stopped viewing him as a hero. This development not only meant that E-Soul lost his popularity but also his powers.

However, it was not just the hero society but also the higher authorities that wished for E-Soul to step down. As seen in the anime, the entire ploy was orchestrated so that the New E-Soul could replace the old one. To their advantage, the society championed Yang Cheng more than E-Soul. So, even if the hero society in My Hero Academia seemed cruel, it was nowhere close to the one in To Be Hero X.

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About the author

Gokul has been an anime writer in Pop Culture division at Sportskeeda since 2022. His love for watching anime and his interest in the ever-growing anime industry inspire Gokul to produce insightful content about the genre on a daily basis. He holds a Master's degree in Communication & Journalism, and has worked for close to 3.5 years in the field.

Gokul likes to thoroughly research about the anime he is writing about and only credits a source after verifying its credibility. He loves the popular Shonen anime, Black Clover, for its memorable characters and their development throughout the story.

When not racking his brain behind his next anime story, Gokul likes to play video games, read manga, and play football.

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Edited by Gokul Chettiyar