Heroes are well known as valiant warriors praised for dauntlessly fighting evil. Sentenced To Be A Hero, a brand new anime series, provides an intriguing spin on what it means to be a hero.
Produced by Studio Kai, Sentenced To Be A Hero follows Xylo Forbartz, a former knight, accused of killing a goddess, serving as part of a penal unit forced to fight hordes of demons.
In this world, being a hero is a bad thing. “Heroes stand on the frontlines of the battle with the Demon Blight, and are denied even death in this perpetual fight” reads the opening line in the first episode.
That’s right, every time a hero dies, they are resurrected and lose part of their memories and sanity until they are nothing more than a hollow shell.
Watching this 12 episode season was an interesting experience, opening with an hour long prologue. Xylo establishes himself as a fearsome fighter who comes off rather gruff and edgy.
His edgelord personality stands out as he often lividly snaps at his squadmates and dismisses any moping from others. It’s like Resident Evil’s Leon Kennedy minus the corny quips.
Perhaps this anger and aloofness from Xylo stems from how painfully aware he is of being expendable. Xylo’s hardened and cynical character reflects how a hero is not an ideal in his world. But while that personality felt fitting, to me, it felt uninspired.
The supporting cast was as charming as they were sometimes annoying and tropey. Xylo makes a pact with a goddess named Teoritta after his conniving yet cowardly partner Dotta steals her coffin. Teoritta has a bit of a needy and boisterous personality as fiery as her blonde hair that made her both comedic yet nagging.
Teoritta’s constant desire for headpats as praise from Xylo can make her feel childish and insufferable at times. The joke occasionally lands when her childish voice clashes with her eloquent speech, as she usually calls Xylo “my knight” . Despite her exasperating fieriness, Teoritta can still pull through when it matters, usually with a healthy dose of dropping swords from the sky as her blessing.
The story feels painfully uninspired, with little depth to worldbuilding that focuses more on near-constant action instead of creating an intriguing world. Cities feel more like static backdrops in the grand scheme of things while the lore of the Demon Blight is relatively absent up until the last few episodes of the season; they just seem like the bad guys™.
I felt like there was more time with Xylo throwing knives to make up for the mediocre pacing and superficial lore.
Even with all these criticisms, the story does have potential to improve: The visuals and animation are already top notch, so the series can be eye candy. Half way through the hour-long premiere, a big battle highlights Studio Kai’s specialty in spectacle with bombastically yellow explosions as Xylo cleaves through a horde of demons like he’s done so a million times. The story, drawing a striking influence from DC’s Suicide Squad, could be narratively enriched if Studio Kai leans more into the dark fantasy setting.
The voice acting is also rather high quality. I watched the series with the English dub, and both David Mataraga (Xylo) and Emi Lo (Teoritta) nailed it home when it comes to creating a duo that runs hot and cold.
For me, Sentenced To Be A Hero gains an 8 out of 10 rating. While I cannot deny how visually captivating the show and action sequences are, Sentenced To Be A Hero is considerably held back by its lackluster narrative and tropey character design.
