Netflix Dark Spy Anime Turns James Bond Into A Superhero

Hiroyasu Aoki (Hunter x Hunter) was the writer and director for Hero Mask under Studio Pierrot (Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War), which is an original story made specifically for Netflix, though it later was adapted into a manga.

The cast includes Yasuyuki Kase (Naruto: Shippuden) as James Blood, Kentarou Takano (Tonbo!) as Edmond Chandler, Kouki Uchiyama (Buddy Daddies) as Harry Creighton, and Junpei Morita (Kaguya-sama: Love is War) as Lennox Gallagher.

Hero Mask is set in a fictional London. The main character, James Blood, is part of the Special Service of Crime (SSC) division which is part of the police force.

One day, the police station is attacked by a man long thought dead, and a prosecutor passes away from mysterious natural causes. To make sense of what is happening, Blood and Sarah Sinclair, the prosecutor’s co-worker, must team up to learn more about this strange crime and what is giving their enemies supernatural abilities.

Hero Mask, though an anime, takes a lot of influence from the West, and not just with the main character James Blood. The hero is more reminiscent of the behavior and attitude of a classic cop or superhero character found in Hollywood, and there are dramatic car scenes and action sequences.

Though the plot of Hero Mask is interesting and was expected to be a fun take on the famous James Bond character, it wasn’t able to handle the hype, according to fans. The first season ended up with only a 6.28 average score on My Anime List. Despite the lower reviews, a second season was released less than a year later, and only did marginally better with a 6.48.

Part of this could be due to its more action-thriller style, which isn’t often seen in Japanese anime, at least not in this style. However, there were also some notable flaws with the production of Hero Mask, which accounted for at least a part of its lower score.

According to various discussion posts about Hero Mask, flat characters and a slow plot was the series’ downfall. The first scenes are another problem. In a time when fight scenes are an incredibly important part of a story, Hero Mask relied on choppy cuts and very little actual movement to get the point across.

The masks were also reported to be another problem. Though the premise of masks giving people superpowers was an interesting idea, fans reported that only two were ever shown and then that part of the plot was abandoned altogether.

Hero Mask has two seasons, both of which are available to stream on Netflix. Despite the rather negative discussions on the film, it wasn’t entirely disliked, and some found the tropes and storyline to be entertaining, if not amazing, so it could be worth a watch on a particularly boring night.