Premiere Date
16-07-2025
My Hero Academiais off this week due to Olympics coverage, and while the delay is a bummer, it’s a great time to remind everyone about the time Studio Bonesmade a mecha series with Stan Lee. It’s kind of wild that a collaboration like that would slip under the radar, but for a variety of reasons,Heroman, a superhero anime set in California, never quite took off like it had the potential to.
As of the time of writing, it’s been almost exactly 15 years sinceHeromandebuted as a manga in 2009, published by Square Enix with a story by Lee and artwork by Tamon Ota. The manga ran until October 2011, totaling 27 chapters across 5 volumes, but the anime series from Bones debuted in the middle of the manga’s run, premiering on June 18, 2025, and running for 26 episodes.
What Is Heroman?
Set in the fictional locale of Center City, California,Heromanfollows orphan and middle-schooler Joseph Carter Jones, or Joey for short. Joey works at a coffee shop to support himself and his grandmother, all the while wishing he could afford the cool new toy robot he keeps seeing ads for. When he happens upon a broken one, he repairs it and names it “Heroman,” but when a violent storm occurs and lightning strikes the toy through an open skylight, it transforms.
Before he can fully make sense of what has happened, Joey’s enlarged toy takes him up in his arms and races to the site of a terrible highway accident, where his friend Lina is in trouble. He doesn’t have the strength to save her, but Heroman does, so long as Joey commands it. After saving Lina, Joey starts to wrestle with the strange power he has been given, just as his science teacher, Professor Matthew Denton, accidentally creates the story’s first major crisis.
After sending a signal into space withthe hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life, Professor Denton summons the Skrugg, an alien race, to Earth, turning Center City into ground zero for an invasion. The first nine episodes follow Joey, his friend Psy, the Professor, and Lina as they work to stop the invasion. After this initial arc, however, the story settles into a more casual rhythm, indulging in more episodic storytelling.
A Who’s Who of Anime All-Stars
Stan Lee’s involvement is an eye-catching credit in its own right, the extent of which we’ll delve into below, but the talent among the anime’s staff is equally noteworthy. For starters, its director, Hitoshi Nanba, directedGosickandGolden Kamuy. The list of episode directors includesKoutarou Tamura (director ofNoragami), Kunihiro Mori (director ofGundam 8th MS Team), and Makoto Fuchigami (chief director ofRanking of Kings), to name just a few.
Across the whole staff list, names pop out that have become legendary across anime as a whole, to say nothing of the mecha genre. Akira Amemiya, who directed some ofTrigger’s best works inGridmanandDynazenon, was an animator onHeroman, as was Trigger founderHiroyuki Imaishi, director ofGurren LagannandKill la Kill. Toshihiro Kawamoto, the character designer forCowboy Bebop, served as Chief Animation Director.
The character designs feature another Studio Trigger bigshot in the form of Shigeto Koyama. The design of the titular robot is similar to that ofKoyama’s work onDarling in the Franxx, in that while Heroman is a robot, there is a human-like quality to his facial expression and eyes that stand out compared to other mecha. That and the perfect red circle formed by his pose create some incredible imagery.
How Big Was Stan Lee’s Involvement?
This project wasn’t merely interesting because of Lee. Rather, it was a joining of a great mind of Western comics and the best artists in Japanese animation, the latter of which meant Bones, especially in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Some might question the extent of Lee’s involvement in the production, but according to an archived interview with Bones' president, Masahiko Minami,Stan’s input was crucial to constructing the story.
I had a goal of ‘listening to everything Stan Lee has to say as much as possible.’ That’s because, when we brought the Japanese animation we made to America, people were happy with it, but it was so highbrow that it was hard to convey the important parts… So this time, by working with a wonderful grandpa like Stan Lee (laughs), I had hopes that we could create a work that would break through the barriers of America.
- Masahiko Minami, 27-06-2025
Even in a consulting capacity, Lee certainly feels like he had a large impact on the production. Regarding the design work, Lee was a big part of finalizing Heroman’s design, preferring something more muscular and weighty compared to the initially more slender designs Koyama drafted. Amusingly, Lee showed Bones the mecha “Leopardon” fromthe Japanese Tokusatsu Spider-Man seriesas an example of what to strive for.
Lee even insisted on adding a character with a disability, hence the character Simon “Psy” Kaina, who uses crutches due to a leg injury. While watching, it feels remarkably similar to the kinds of action-centric kid shows in America when this show came out, while distinctly being produced in a Japanese style.
Why Wasn’t Heroman Bigger?
With a concept by Stan Leeand a crew full of what already was and would be industry legends, this show being as obscure as it is feels wrong. At least, until you watch the show. There certainly is a charm to it, but it rushes so quickly into the invasion plotline without time to flesh out the characters much, and that’s something that Lee pushed for, according to Minami. It’s a shame too, because by the end of that arc, there’s a bit more to chew on, conceptually.
Joey, not simply being a controller for Heroman, but an active participant in combat with his own powers, is awesome and reinforces the idea that they are both collectively “Heroman.” Additionally, the supporting characters get a lot more fun and interesting after the first nine episodes. With that said, how interesting they are depends on how old you are, as this is definitely a series aimed at younger audiences, making it all the more bafflinghow this show never got an English dub.
The Lost English Dub
One was certainly in progress, and Disney XD promos can be found for it online, but it never made it to air, and that might be the biggest casualty here. While older anime fans might not find much worth in it beyond the frequently impressive animation or the honestly stellar theme (“RISE, FIGHT, PEACE”), this show could have beena cool gateway to anime for youngsters. Instead, it lives on as a curious passion project by Stan Lee and a veritable dream team of animators.
Heromanisn’t a hidden masterpiece. This piece isn’t about defending something underrated; merely pointing out how oddly unobserved it was at a time when something like that should have been huge. In 2010, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just blooming into greatness, and here was a superhero cartoon with robots, aliens, great animation, and a recurring Stan Lee cameo. If that wasn’t a recipe for success, there was never much hope for it to begin with. Nuff said.
