[DreamSword]

Episode #11: Menace

I have a love-hate relationship with this episode.

Because half this episode is really engaging with a character who's quickly making himself to be rather likable, and the other half... isn't.

Let's start with the "love" half first. Much of this episode has to do with Agent Hughes' investigation into who exactly the "ghost" of Center City(Heroman) is, and the logic of his deductions.

All throughout, Hughes shows himself to suave, smooth, and most of all, reasonable. He's able to figure out that Minami is up to something at a glance, respects the input of the townsfolk, and even when he sets a trap to see Heroman for himself, he's calm and civil all throughout.

And then we have the "hate" half with another new character: Holly. She's the exact opposite of Hughes in every way. She's bossy, annoying, selfish, obnoxious, rude, all around unpleasant to be around, and worst of all, embodies something I hate in almost every single anime it pops up in: The stock "mean girl idol" tropes found in anime that want to sell soundtrack CDs.

Don't even try to give me that "oh well that just makes for some thematically fitting duality" crap either, because "thematic" or not, the end result is still that every time Holly is on screen I'm tempted to stop watching this show that I otherwise really love. Her being Joey's' sister and making it a point to torment him in increasingly abusive ways doesn't help anything. Infact I dare say it makes everything even worse.

Where I gave up on Holly entirely was at the end of the episode, wherein we get the tired, annoying trope of "Oh well you see, she might be horrible to everyone she talks to, but she can sing well, so deep down she's a beautiful soul and you should like her!" Yeah, I don't care if the very basic pop song she sings sounds nice, that doesn't change the fact that she actively torments not just Joey, but also Psy who is now crippled. Holly is actively the worst thing in Heroman, and you will not read me having any nice thoughts about her during her time on the show. Idol or not, she's trash.