Everyone loves and dreams to be a hero. But what if I tell you that being a hero is one of the worst and if not the most hated jobs in a certain world? And I don’t mean being an anti-hero or one of those entitled otakus over hating the isekai and reincarnated anime tropes. Being given the hero profession means you are a freaking criminal! Eh? What? You did not hear that wrong. I don’t know who messed up the definition but yes, you definitely do not want to be a hero in Yuusha-kei Ni Shosu: Choubatsu Yuusha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku as being one is seen as some sort of punishment. So our hero here is punished to fight and die in the frontlines against demons. Forever. Because in the case you die, you get resurrected and continue your sh*tty job. Forever. As you would also guess, somebody framed him for this and so you bet he is going to also find and take revenge on those who wronged him.
Episode 1
As narrated, it is eternal condemnation to become a hero for a criminal. They are to fight forever in the frontlines. Forever. A group of monster faeries are killing off the holy knights with ease, Dotta Luzulas is running away with all his might and avoids death thanks to comrade Xylo Forbartz coming to his aid. Injured Dotta prefers to die and get resurrected in another body than withstand this pain but Xylo reminds him that would be much worse because each resurrection will make them lose themselves further. So he bears with the pain and gets this nasty wound treated. To Xylo’s dismay, it seems Dotta has stolen a coffin with a corpse! That is faery bait, dimwit! But wait, do corpses look like cute little blonde girls? Xylo knows this is trouble. This is a goddess. Weapons created to fight demons. Xylo leaves her behind as they watch another group of knights being surrounded by faeries and getting picked off one by one. As it is a hero’s job to save them and each knight saved increases their chances of success, the goddess Teoritta wakes up and likes his thinking. He is worthy to become her knight and will assure him victory. All he need to do is praise her and pat her head. However Xylo hates goddesses and will not rely on her. Xylo goes in to kill the faeries while a reluctant Dotta provides support. Teoritta being useless tagging around… When the job is done, the knights realize Xylo is a punished hero and damned they would be saved by the likes of a criminal like him as it would tarnish their pride. Gee, thanks? Worse, they are stumped they have a goddess in his hands and think he stole her from their transportation.
Suddenly a distress call from Venetim Leopool because the holy knights’ main force is heading right into the Demon Blight. They believe they can stop the Demon Lord’s advance from there. It seems Captain Kivia Patausche made this call and all the knights are willing to sacrifice their lives for it. Of course this would not do for Xylo because if more than half of the forces die, the hero unit fails their mission. They get killed off and get resurrected. You bet Xylo doesn’t want to go through something that awful. Xylo has no problem letting people who want to die, die. But doing so gives them a reason to look down on him. Huh?! We see Kivia ordering her men to stand their ground against the invasion of faeries and even trolls. Xylo watching from afar, assessing the situation. He knows they don’t have much ammo for fighting this huge horde. Plus, the knights will be decimated as this Demon Lord is smart and will be flanking them. It is time for Xylo to move in but wait, where’s Dotta? He left a note saying he is going to go looting. So, he chickened out? Xylo jumps into action and confronts Kivia who is not too happy he has Teoritta. He assures he has not made a pact with her and has no interest in doing so. So if Teoritta wants her knight, pick any one of them but him. Spare this petty argument later, because the 47th Demon Lord, Awd Goggie is here.
Xylo will support their retreat and this is when Kivia realizes who he is. She sticks to her guns to have her men stand their ground. All are here to die if it means this mission succeeds. Yeah, how can you when the Demon Lord is making overpowered moves to kill all your men! Xylo’s weapon and luck also run out. Teoritta pleads for him to make a pact or all will die a sad death. Xylo refuses and tells Kivia to do it herself. No response. She could be dead. Teoritta adds even if he hates goddesses. So be it. But she can guarantee him victory. Trauma hits him and he gets desperate. With no choice, he offers his blood to her. Pact completed. Teoritta gives us a glimpse of her awesome powers that could do some pretty brutal damage. She also provides Xylo with endless swords for him to cut down the demons. Even the big bad Demon Lord himself. But that roach isn’t going down easily as Xylo gets injured protecting Teoritta. Just in good timing, Dotta returns with a stolen military loot. In short, it’s an explosive device. Xylo sticks it into the bug boss and boom! In the aftermath, Xylo reluctantly praises Teoritta for surviving. But that is enough for her. Don’t forget the pat too. Kivia interrupts this and accuses him of all the crimes he has done. Despite all, Teoritta believes in her knight. Kivia then reveals the true crime that Xylo was sentenced for: He was a holy knight and summoned a goddess and then killed her!
Flashback shows Xylo being put on a trial before the church for killing the goddess Senerva after summoning her to fight the 11th Demon Lord. The mission also resulted in many of his men dead. Although Xylo claimed he was sent to fight via orders, the church claimed there were no such orders and that everyone who participated in the fight did it on their own volition. Thus Xylo did it all for his own selfish glory. After being accused for killing Senerva, Xylo revealed she was infected with Demons Blight after exhausting all her powers. He was forced to kill her because a weakened goddess will be corrupted by Demon Blight and she will turn into a Demon Lord. The church rejected such statement as their records showed nothing of it. Xylo tried to warn then this is even more dangerous than a Demon Lord because imagine a Demon Lord wielding power of a goddess. Senerva knew that and the corruption in her already begun. The church found Xylo statements to be blasphemous and thus the end of the trial. Forbidden to speak further, he is pinned down and given his punishment. That was when Xylo realized too late this was all a setup. He swore to find all those responsible and kill them.
Episode 2
Even though Teoritta knows of Xylo’s punishment, she still wants to become his knight. He notes a pact can be severed via 2 ways: The goddess’ death or mutual consent. Teoritta makes it clear she will not sever their bond. Venetim calls Xylo for their next mission. Simrid Kormadino hands Kivia her next mission to clear out some tunnels at Zewan Gan the blight has been affecting it. With the slow infection all over, humans have been slowly and steadily losing places to live. Xylo meets up with other heroes for this mission. We have Norgalle Senridge who thinks he is some king of some nation and was penalized because he launched an attack on another nation. Basically others see him as a terrorist. The other is Tatsuya. They don’t know of his background as he has been serving the longest and it is obvious he has lost his mind. So don’t mind him looking and acting like a madman. Arriving at town, the people are in despair that the army has ordered them to leave. A girl approaches Xylo hoping he would save her dad who promised her to come home and celebrate her birthday today. So the heroes now in the tunnels as they start digging and excavating. With Kivia here to check on them, Xylo wants to know what is going on. Why bother let heroes dig this sealed tunnel that is infected with faeries? Normally, this place would be just left alone. He thinks they are trying to use Teoritta for something. Kivia ignores him so the heroes continue their digging, fight a few monsters until they reach the blighted area. As they continue working, they receive a call from Kivia and looks like her knights are engaging with faeries. Make that humans infected and turned into hideous faeries. Teoritta wants to save them but sadly as Xylo explains, humans who turned into this form can never go back. More action as crazy Tatsuya going berserk slicing everything, which is pretty normal by his standards. They see a human cowering nearby and believe a few miners may have survived. As Kivia will not risk losing her men to save them. This doesn’t sit well with Norgalle who wants to rescue his subjects. Xylo looks at Teoritta’s sad face and remembers that girl’s face too. Okay then. He is going to save the miners himself. They’ll just lose a hero, right? He also makes Teoritta stay put because can’t risk having a goddess being buried alive.
Episode 3
Before the miners are doomed, here come the heroes with their timely rescue. As Norgalle prepares limited sacred seals to fight off waves of monsters, Xylo needs the men to help them fight if they’re going to see this through. The first wave is here so everybody goes into action mode. The miners get their motivation seeing their simple pick and shovel can do some damage to the monsters. They rest for a while before getting back up for the next wave. But this time Teoritta joins in the fray. She claims she managed to slip away from the knights. Xylo still refuses her help and has no plans to do so. She wants to know what to do. Don’t die for the sake of others and keep surviving even if you’re useless. That line itself is worthy enough for Teoritta to continue serving him. His opinions of her are useless because as a goddess, she is born to be of use to others. Next wave is here but this time the source of this blight, Demon Lord Lotus is also here. This sends everyone experiencing painful tinnitus and Xylo has to stop some men who are forcefully drawn to the voice (which will corrupt their soul). Tatsuya being the only one not effected, Xylo has Teoritta create more swords for them to use in the attack. The knights are here to help but they too are down from tinnitus. Norgalle sacrifices a leg to destroy the real body and Xylo to set off a chain of reaction to destroy the rest of the roots. Norgalle survives and the miners return to their families. While some still feel uneasy about the heroes, many are thankful that they are the reason they are still alive. And that girl gets to celebrate her birthday with her papa. We know him coming back is the greatest present. She gives Xylo some flowers but Teoritta wants to take some credit too. Kormadino thinks the heroes have broken some rules and will see they get reprimanded. Kivia schools him that unlike him who didn’t do any real fighting, the heroes saved real lives. They deserve at least some praise.
Episode 4
Xylo and co arrive at Mureed Fortress. Unlike Dotta and Venetim enjoying themselves in public, Xylo prefers to hole up in his cell and read poetry. Yes, believe it. He like poetry. Kivia is here to talk to him about the next mission but with Teoritta begging to experience the local culture, I guess a change in pace is needed. While Teoritta is out enjoying herself, Kivia relays her thanks to Xylo for saving her men and even the villagers whom the knights were willing to abandon. She also believes by making a pact with Teoritta, he saved the goddess. When she was discovered in the ruins, there were orders to make a pact with her. A unit was dispatched to handle its operations and transport. But soon conflict arose between the military and church. She still blames him for killing Senerva because it gave the military an idea that if goddesses can be killed, they can be created. Thus Kivia’s unit was assigned to analyse AKA dissect Teoritta. The church opposed by the military won out. Things have changed that have proven Teoritta’s usefulness. This means the military deemed her useless when she was found as there was writings in the ruins that she could summon swords. Different goddesses have different gate patterns and abilities and once they are done, they return to their coffins to sleep. Thus Teoritta was judged based on her abilities to be the weakest among the 12 other goddesses. Xylo deduces that if Teoritta does well here, she won’t get dissected.
Xylo and Venetim see an officer for the next mission. They are to defend this fortress from Demon Blight until they die while the units conserve their strength behind. Once the heroes are dead, a goddess will perform a miracle by delivering poison trap to the fortress that will continuously kill the Demon Lord. So why not just lure the Demon Lord here without involving heroes? Galtuile’s orders. If any one of the heroes try to leave the fortress, a trap will initiate to kill all of them at once. Venetim agrees but wants to make a few revisions. Seeing killing all heroes for the fault of 1 would be inefficient, he suggests killing all only if they all leave. As he also suggests Teoritta to stay behind, the officer has no authority to make that so Xylo will bring Kivia here. Venetim then whispers to Xylo if there is anything he needs because he’ll negotiate for it. Xylo doesn’t trust him to handle it but Venetim notes he was once on the verge in saving the world. Flashback shows Venetim was a conman and got caught. The interrogating officer, Kafzen Dachrome was impressed with all his lies, forgeries and imitations. However the funny thing was, Venetim wasn’t going to be punished for any of his frauds. Showing a fake article he wrote about Demon Blight pretending to be human and have spies infiltrated inside the military and royal family, what is wrong about it? You see, Kafzen didn’t care if he wrote all those lies. He was happy he did all that. But he cannot have Venetim reveal the truth! A shocked Venetim claimed he did not know anything but it was too late, Kafzen sentenced him to be a hero! Xylo and Dotta receive word they will have another hero joining them, Tsav. They think he might be worse than Venetim. Yeah, see this crazy guy cut off a cheating dealer’s hand with no remorse.
Episode 5
Kafzen interrogated Tsav about having no remorse in killing people. Well, morality is not his best thing. He even explained how he chose the kind of easy people to kill and especially those he won’t feel bad about killing. Thus Kafzen thought death will be too good for him and sentenced him to be a hero. Tsav panicking? And now we see Tsav bragging about his kills to Xylo’s group and he just won’t shut up! Enough to drive you nuts. Xylo has Dotta and Tsav take out a few demon scouts. Xylo and Kivia return to the fortress, passing by Hord Clivios and Pelmerry, the goddess whom he formed a pact with. Teoritta is furious Xylo went frolicking with Kivia and b*tches about other goddesses being praised and patted so many times. How many has Xylo given her? None. Stop wasting your breath. He is ignoring you! Xylo is more concerned about being short of men but it seems a few of the miners return to volunteer. Xylo then explains everybody’s role when the attack begins. It is the only way they will all survive. Because they are still short of men, some of the death row prisoners are sent to their aid. They don’t want to cooperate until Tsav kills one of the weaker ones. While it is effective, Xylo warns him not to do it again. Venetim then has a sealed letter from Frenci Mastibolt for Xylo. He is willing to lend troops to him although Xylo clearly doesn’t want it. Other heroes like Jayce and Rhyno refused to participate in this while Dotta is away raising money to hire mercenaries. Venetim then asks his thoughts that there might be a group of humans who want to end humanity. Xylo rubbishes this as one of his nonsensical fake articles. But Venetim adds what if there is really a group out there who worships the Demon Lord and seeking coexistence with them. Then it is not hard to see why there are those taking action to ensure humanity loses this fight. All Xylo can say is that they’re the sh*ttiest scumbags alive. Night fall, the vanguard of the Demon Lord’s army attack the fortress. The heroes and the humans are doing well to keep them at bay. Until the worst possible situation turns up: Humans seen sabotaging them. Defences start falling apart as the dark army tears their way in. Xylo fears all of them will be dead even before the Demon Lord Iblis shows up.
Episode 6
Teoritta has a problem. As a goddess, she cannot fight against humans even if they are aligned with the demons. Xylo tries to confirm from Kivia about those traitors but she cannot tell who they are except they are some noble family’s private army. As Norgalle unleashes the sealed cannons, this is not enough to take out the wave. The only way is to defeat Ibis. This means Xylo has to go confront the Demon Lord. Teoritta poses a question to Xylo of why he fights for others despite barely knowing them. While he gambles with his own life, he tells her not to do the same. Because he is no different than a goddess. She believes he sees himself in them. Xylo is not amused with it but since they have a duty to perform, they’re going to win this battle. Meanwhile traitors have reached the underground sewers in which Venetim and Tatsuya are stationed. However Tatsuya instantly slays them like nothing. This has some of the guards think Tatsuya is not human. Xylo fights through the faeries and wants Teoritta to conserve her energy for Iblis. Worse, he realizes Venetim has lied because Frenci’s troops are on the way here. What could be as worse as that? Dotta running away from mercenaries hot on his tail because he stole their money! Good thing is that this confuses Iblis so this buys enough time for Xylo to activate weathering seal traps he set during scouting.
Although Iblis falls for it, it unleashes a flurry of fangs in its desperate attempt. Xylo saves Teoritta and gets injured. He agrees to her notion that he sees himself as them and hates it. Even so, he wants to win. Teoritta will continue to fight by his side as she is going to summon the ultimate holy sword not from this world. There is nothing it cannot destroy. As she takes time to prepare, Xylo holds his ground as Iblis mounts another attack. Thanks to distractions by Dotta and Tsav, Xylo takes the sword in time to destroy Iblis for good. We did it. Now we can rest. When Xylo wakes up, he is in the infirmary with Kafzen at his side who assures his body is healed up enough that he doesn’t need to visit the repair shop. Xylo is sceptical of this bugger although Kafzen claims they are allies. He views the hero unit as his trump card. Xylo doesn’t believe him and tells him to get out. Kafzen warns that there are people in the military and church who have started to notice what the heroes are doing and it is in his best interest not to disobey too many orders. Because there are powerful people who view him as a thorn on their side. Especially that faction who wants to coexist with Demon Blight. When Teoritta visits, Xylo thought he saw shades of Senerva in her. She gets emotional, telling that it is okay if he doesn’t praise her or pat her head. But if he forgets her, she won’t forgive him. What has a hero got to do but to pat a crying goddess’ head.
Episode 7
Kivia tells Xylo that he and Teoritta are now officially allotted to her squad. This means Xylo must continue protecting Teoritta. But instead of assigning them to the battlefront, they will be staying here at this port city of Ioff. This is more dangerous than the battlefield because there are some heretics expelled from the church who do not accept Teoritta as the goddess and have joined some assassin order to take her out. Xylo is then visited by Jayce who brags that he has taken down more Demon Lords than him so he won the bet. After paying his dues, Teoritta demands to know about this arrogant brat. Jayce went against the military after freeing their dragons. However he comes from a big shot noble family and all the dragons love him so it was hard for authorities to catch him. When Venetim shows up, Xylo beats his ass up for Frenci’s support he never asked. Well, he is here to tell him that Frenci is in town to talk to him. So who is Frenci? Xylo’s ex-fiancee. Why is Teoritta trying so hard to assert that Xylo is no longer human and cannot marry? Like she gives a f*ck. Anyway, she is to remain in Ioff until she locates the Demon Blight. It is believed the Demon Lord Spriggan has disguised itself as a human and infiltrated this city. This could become troublesome. Xylo goes back to his mission to lay a trap to lure out those heretics. He needs someone to act as his bodyguard. Well, looks like the only hero capable of that without all the problems is Tsav. And Kivia. As they are out in town and Xylo buying Teoritta a dagger, he soon notices a couple of shady guys approaching. But as they begin to pounce, Xylo and co anticipate this and kill them. With more heretics showing up, they run to the alley for reinforcements but since no knights show up, they believe they could be aligned with the demons. The gang has a hard time fighting this assassin, Shiji Bau. Boojum tells her she has very low chance to win against a hero but Shiji doesn’t listen and continues attacking Boojum joins in the attack as Teoritta suggests unleashing a rain of swords. Xylo doesn’t want her to reveal her abilities. After all, she can’t hurt a human, right? Soon the whole area is burnt by Jayce and his beloved dragon, Neely. All as planned. Shockingly, Boojum survives and because he has not enough blood, he escapes. As all are shocked by this, Teoritta reveals that she senses something strange about Boojum and that he is not human. He could be Spriggan.
Episode 8
Kivia discusses with some of her knights how a sneak attack took out many of their men. They believe they have a traitor in their midst. Xylo suggests to just be suspicious of everyone. Joining this meeting is Marlen, a church priest who is also Kivia’s uncle. He asks Xylo for his opinion so he opines investigating the middleman like those in the adventurers guild. The man in point is the guild master, Lideo Sodrick whose ancestors founded a private army and took down some pirates. Meanwhile we see Lideo not happy with Shiji’s failure but she blames him that his intel did not match the enemies’ strength. As Lideo found Boojum somewhere and wants Shiji to teach him stuffs and when she threatens him to pay more, Lideo’s sister, Iri comes to his defence. Lideo agrees to pay some money but Shiji this time will call the shots and hire her own people. As part of the plan to infiltrate the guild, Kivia dresses up as a noblewoman. Don’t you dare say she looks manly! But Xylo commends her looking all lovely and she is blushing?! Wondering what quest to ask from the guild, Dotta suggests Kivia as the wife of a cold nobleman and Xylo play her lover. The plot is to hire someone to murder her husband. Flashback shows Dotta being judged before the church. Not really understand the complexity of his charges but it seems the crown prince was in trouble and pleaded to Dotta who was a common thief to help him escape from the castle because there’s something strange going on in the royal family. The church brushed off his ‘lies’. Even though Dotta pleaded for someone to save the prince, the church sentenced him to be a hero.
Xylo asks Kivia about joining the military since she comes from a church family with a large domain. Because she didn’t like them taking bribes, oh sorry, the correct term is benefits and donations, she decided to walk a different path. Only her uncle supported her move. Dotta returns with intel that Lideo is tightly guarded and many of them are kids. Iri reports to Lideo about Xylo coming by with a woman. Lideo notes this is not good for them but if they play their cards right, they will be able to take Xylo alive. Kivia gets pushy at the receptionist, trying to get her to accept her quest to hire someone to murder her someone. Well, her acting certainly sucks and you can see the receptionist consulting her colleague on what to do. Knowing they’ve already been suspicious, they think of stirring up trouble and chaos. However they are ‘saved’ when Frenci is here to accept their quest. They are in the waiting room as Frenci feels she saved them from something worse. The ladies start to argue over Xylo. Xylo feeling tired. He expected them to fight but not like this! Soon the room is under attack by mercenaries and kids. Luckily they are ready to fight them. Xylo sees a whole group of mercenaries waiting outside. He is happy that with the chaos they caused, they can now smoke out Lideo. Only Dotta is not happy at the way things are turning out.
Episode 9
Lideo is burning all the evidence and suggests they use the chaos to hide themselves and get away. They may have to kill Xylo when it comes down to it. Xylo and co fight the mercenaries and make a mess out of the place. Until Teoritta and the other heroes arrive. Great. More damage and bloodshed. Seeing the crazy heroes, the surviving mercenaries surrender like cowards and become their lackeys? As Lideo gets separated from Iri in the crowd, Dotta takes Lideo hostage and won’t kill him if he comes along with them. Iron Whale is disappointed at how things are turning out and wants to leave this place if there is no pay. Boojum wants to go find Lideo since he is indebted to him. But he invites Whale and Shiji to join him on a new mission and he will pay them. Seeing Boojum controls the faeries and kills those who growls at him, Whale agrees to do it for the money. However Shiji is hesitant because this means betraying humanity. Boojum says he has learnt human nature who put themselves before anything else while securing some benefits. Boojum wants them to destroy any evidence that links them to Lideo. Xylo interrogates Lideo and he calls the shots, much to Kivia’s dismay. Lideo will tell all that he knows as long as his siblings’ safety are guaranteed. Lideo’s employer is a coexister. He didn’t had much choice and was forced to cooperate or else he will die. They have spies everywhere to observe you. Because Demon Blight has been steadily expanding their territory, humans are expected to lose. That is why coexisters want to join their side and act as overseers for the humans who would serve as slaves. Thus Lideo was securing his family for such spot. Xylo doesn’t care and wants him to divulge more useful info or the deal is off. Lideo says his employer goes by the name of Mahaeyzel Zelkoff. Kivia finds it preposterous because that’s the name of the saint and he died in the first subjugation war ages ago. But when Kivia realizes something about that name, Whale fires into the place. Everyone scrambles for safety outside and during this chaos, Lideo uses this chance to escape. Lideo reunites with Iri in the sewers. However she kills him off after he hints he may have told his interrogators stuffs. Lideo realizes this is not Iri. This is someone who has killed her and possessing her body. And his other siblings? All dead! Fake Iri now commands Boojum, Shiji and Whale to destroy the city and more importantly kill Teoritta. Shiji asks on how to address her so she gives permission for them to call her Spriggan.
Episode 10
Kivia gives Xylo permission to take Teoritta to town. Just don’t go past the temple. She can’t join them as she claims she is busy. We see Teoritta obliging the kids with her autograph and old women happily giving her their food. Suddenly the bell tolls and this means they are under attack. Kivia finds Venetim sneaking around in the library which is off limits for heroes. He claims he is lost and then leaves. Now we see Xylo meeting up with Rhyno. This is another kooky guy and Teoritta feeling some sort of creeps for him? I am thinking this guy may be gay for Xylo because he claims they used to be ‘partners’. Rhyno is needed for this next mission as the faeries have attacked and occupied this tower called Tui Jia which is a very important coastal defence. As they have a Demon Lord with them, they could taint it. Because Venetim suggests holding out till reinforcements arrive, Xylo is mad that the bigger plan is to abandon this place. Venetim had to reveal that the important people plan to prioritize protecting the inland as that is where all their facilities and important properties are located. Therefore there is no point fighting in this mission and getting hurt. Since other heroes have different ideas, looks like they’re going to stay and fight. As the heroes make camp, Xylo clearly notes of their lack in manpower. Rhyno suggests shooting down this massive wall to flood the inland with faeries. This will force the soldiers to come out and fight, solving their manpower woes. Of course Xylo will not allow such reckless move as he suggests attacking the ships docked at the harbour. Venetim reports to Kivia about the sacred seal vessel is on fire just to get permission to use Jayce and his dragons on this mission. When he sends his regards to Marlen, this hits a nerve in Kivia as she lashes out at him before coming to her senses. With the faeries attacking and the heroes fighting them, there are faeries using lightning staves to fight. Rhyno’s shield protects but he recklessly fires back at them, destroying a good portion of the building. Rhyno claims he too prioritizes in saving people’s lives. Meanwhile, faeries are also making their way from the underground waterways. Knights are there to stop them as Boojum can’t fathom who tipped them off. He transforms into his true form to kill them. When Kivia joins Marlen, she is shocked to see the church and military joining forces. Can Marlen coordinate such a thing? He claims this is not a time to be fighting among themselves as he hopes this bond will bring victory to humans. But Kivia soon starts to have suspicions when Marlen says his prayers that includes Mahaeyzel’s name.
Episode 11
All sides go all out in the offensive. With several humans hiding in the nearby warehouse, Xylo needs to take the fight to the tower and has Rhyno protect the people with Tatsuya. Whale talks to Boojum and is surprised he is not as cruel as a demon he thought he is. Boojum admits that his brethren are but he is not that type as he doesn’t not bear hatred towards humanity. Which is why he feels pity for humans’ impending doom. He also dislikes Spriggan’s methodology on this matter. Boojum hints that even Demon Lords have their own masters. Kivia talks to Rajit about the change in plans. She leaves it to him should something happen to her. As Xylo and Teoritta near the tower, standing in their way is Shiji. Despite backup firepower from Whale, Xylo gets the better of her as he throws her to be burnt by Neely’s flames. Rhyno then fires his artillery into the tower. This shocks Whale as he didn’t expect this. He gets blown off upon impact. However the tower still stands. Xylo and Teoritta now face off with Boojum. Meanwhile Kivia pleads to Frenci for a favour since she has no time to explore other options. Frenci accepts it so as to make Kivia owe her one. But she reminds her that Xylo will soon join the Mastibolt family. Boojum transforms into his true form to fight the duo. Of all lives he has to take, he must kill Teoritta at all cost. Xylo will not allow that and continues fighting until the tower collapses. Boojum refuses to give in and continues fighting. This exhilaration reminds Xylo of how he used to be in his past life. In the end, Xylo destroys Boojum with Teoritta’s ultimate holy sword.
Episode 12
Wow. Xylo truly praising Teoritta for real? Finally she got the praise she deserves. They see Iri pleading for help as she drags Lideo’s corpse. She is about to help when Spriggan shows her true colours and tries to attack her. Thanks to Tsav’s sniping, Spriggan is split in half. Though, she survives and escapes. Frenci returns to Kivia as she reveals her worst suspicions are true. A weakened Spriggan crawls through the sewers, thinking of the need to find a new host. However Rhyno shows up and talks about his crime of killing his own crime. He takes pleasure in it. He is actually a demon named Puck Puca and Rhyno was the original name and body of this human. Spriggan screams in pain as she tries to struggle free but is killed off. Boojum still lives only because the one that died was just a puppet. Kivia sees Marlen who praises her and will promote her. However, she then asks him if this is part of his personnel overhaul plan to fill the position with coexisters. The giveaway was how Lideo said his employer pronounced the Zelkoff name differently. She has also investigated about some unit discovering faeries in the inland district. That unit does not exist. Questioning him why he is working with coexisters, Marlen says it straight that humanity will lose. As such, it is only natural for him to secure his family. All others he does not care. This shocks Kivia as Marlen tells her the need to grow up. He invites her to be a coexister but Kivia is saddened because she cannot abandon strangers. Marlen calls it an abnormal self-righteous way of thinking. As Kivia as Rajit arrest him, Marlen kills him before a devastated Kivia forcing to take him down.
Frenci approaches Xylo and the other heroes bumming around. She relays the shocking truth that the attack here was just a diversion. The Demon Blight has attacked the second capital, Zeyllent and it has fallen. And of course it was Rhyno who leaked that info. Kivia is arrested as the public now hates her for killing Marlen. During interrogation, she tries to tell the truth but none would believe her. She even calls for a trial but they tell her to think about it. As she is sitting in her cell, Kafzen finally visits. He introduces Enfie who is his goddess. She has a book that details all the doings of everybody. Kafzen is here to give Kivia 2 choices: Be executed as a coexister or become a penal hero and continue fighting Demon Blight. I’m surprised Kivia doesn’t know about this penal hero thingy? Kafzen tells a brief history how with cultural differences, people summoned the dead champions to fight demons forever. That is the basis for this penal hero system. As the goddess’ power is not perfect, getting resurrected too many times will result in loss of memories. From what I understand, Enfie takes those memories to remember those memories? Kivia asks if she becomes a hero, will she get out of here. Yes. But she must die. Kivia reflects on her lineage and her knights’ thoughts on her for this. But if this allows her to fight again for strangers, she will gladly become a hero. Kafzen warns her this cannot be rescinded and would like this to be kept a secret. Personally, he didn’t want her to become a hero but respects her will. He gives her a sword as she decapitates herself.
You Either Die A Villain Or Live Forever To See Yourself Become The Hero
Well, guess what? I guess you heroes didn’t do a good or satisfactory job. That’s why you’re all sentenced to continue to become heroes. Read that as we’re going to have another season! Hooray! We can further see how these heroes suffer for the sake of our entertainment. Whoops. I mean, uhm, see how our sentenced heroes continue to save humanity while being mostly hated by many. An unappreciated and thankless job but somebody has got to do it. The real unsung heroes? You decide.
As in my recent taste for dark fantasy animes, I find this series to be interesting despite this season doesn’t really offer much of a storyline. There are lots of mysteries and unknowns as we are just shown bits and pieces of the whole puzzle. That is both good and bad since it piques my intrigue and can’t wait to know more about the lore (I didn’t spoil myself by doing any ‘unnecessary’ Google search) but at the same time it feels frustrated that nothing much has been revealed. From the sneaky church doings to the hero system as well as the Demon Blight who want to run and rule over all of humanity. Thus it all feels like some sort of introduction. In retrospect, I guess this pacing is decent because if they rushed too much and revealed much more stuffs, I would be b*tching that they might have skipped some chapters while trying to fry and confuse my brains with all the rushed development. So yeah. Thank goodness for another season, eh?
I am just very intrigued with this hero system and term they keep using throughout the series. Hero is no longer a word that evokes hope, conviction inspiration and the likes. Instead it has become some sort of taboo and eternal death sentence for those who have been sentenced to become one. So, if heroes are now criminals, what is the term for saviours in this world? Oh, you mean there are none? Makes sense given the impending doom of humanity. It’s like they’re fighting a losing battle and only delaying the inevitable. That is why I am guessing there is no such thing or a profession equivalent to the term hero we all know. Instead, heroes are now more like sacrificial pawns and martyrs and it’s like some sick twisted joke when you tell someone who is recklessly brave and risking their life, “You wanna be a hero?!”. Yeah. That.
Even more intrigued about how this hero system works because if they die, they get revived again. So uhm, why not all the heroes work together and just destroy the church and everybody associated? Sounds easy but I believe it is easier said than done and lacking knowledge of how the system works only serves to ask ‘dumb’ questions. After all, the authorities can’t be so dumb so as to give them eternal life sentence only for the heroes to come kill their asses. There must be some sort of security system that prevents the heroes to go kill their bosses. Like, their heads will explode if they do so? So yeah, looks like everybody has got their minds brainwashed on the term hero. Got to hand it to those folks who manage to redefine the term for those ‘criminals’ who would die and save your asses and still get hated for it.
The characters are quite okay but I feel this season does not fully flesh them out. We are given snippets and short clips of why many of them are sentenced to become heroes. That is all. While all of them reeks of suspicions and foul play (some quite pitiful), I believe there is more than meets the eye. No use crying over spilt milk so just resign to your fate as a hero. So for Xylo, seeing him being a hardened hero is understandable. But being paired up with a goddess once again feels like a blessing in disguise. My guess is that it will help him regain his faith in them or at least not as distrustful as before. This in turn might help him find the masterminds behind his framing. But I am guessing that it has not been that long of a time since Xylo has been punished because assuming his perpetrators are normal humans, they might have died out without Xylo getting his revenge.
Teoritta feels like a joker character because of her lively behaviour. But I suppose she is very much needed to counter the gloom and doom in her group. Xylo already so serious. Kivia already so serious. It’s going to be a damper on the morale if Teoritta also follows the same pattern. That is why she’s such a lively little brat looking like she is out to have fun if she is not helping her knight fight Demon Blight or faeries. After all, the other heroes may be ‘livelier’ than Xylo but each have their own baggage. Venetim reeks of slyness like as though he might be a double agent. Dotta feels like a coward since he is usually not around when the big battle looms (his skills aren’t fitted for it anyway). Norgalle is too busy playing the righteous king. Tsav is too crazy. Jayce is a simp for dragons. Rhyno is a hidden menace. Tatsuya, nobody knows what he’s thinking. So to take away all the gloominess, Teoritta’s liveliness is mostly due to her innocence as a goddess. Her attempts to stay positive at times may make her look like some sort of retard and a joker especially when Xylo ignores her and she starts throwing her kiddie tantrums. But she never gives up. Teoritta, never stop being you. After all, there are more secrets about her than we know at this point.
Kivia I suppose is a character there to tell us that not everyone in the military is rotten to the core. She still has her reservations and biasness but as we see her spending quite a few operations with Xylo and co, you bet she will get to understand him better and all this rotten hero system in place. I’m sure she too has her own problems, especially the corruption that is deeply rooted inside the military and the church. From the final episode, we have seen her being steadfast with her ideals so now she can join Xylo and play hero. I don’t know if I should feel proud of her or just sad. But at least, she has a chance as long as she ‘lives’. An ironic term, don’t you think. With Frenci’s character, I can’t help think there will be some sort of side distraction, women who want to monopolize Xylo. I don’t think it will bog down to some sort of cheesy love polygon and even so, it’s probably as a joke. After all, Teoritta who is seemingly the loudest in vouching Xylo belongs to her, personally I feel she is at the bottom of the pecking order in this aspect. Heh. Try harder. Maybe Xylo will give you more praises and pat your head more next time.
If there is one thing that dark fantasy animes like this should excel in, it would be the fights and action sequences. This series doesn’t disappoint and while I do not want to go so far as to say that they are a masterpiece, they are entertaining in its own right to keep me glued to the screen. After all, when you’re fighting deadly monsters, you need non-conventional methods to fight them. So yeah, there’s lots of blood, gore and magic explosions to keep you entertained in every episode. After all, as said that the Demon Blight are superior races so humans are going to have a tough time defending against their waves of attack, let alone lead a counterattack. While each hero has their own way of fighting, I hope to see more variety and specialty from them in the next season. Yeah, perhaps Teoritta can evolve and pull out more than just swords to give Xylo more choices in his arsenal. Maybe like, machine guns and bazookas! HAHAHA!!! Oh well, I can only dream.
As for the art and animation, I have mixed feelings about it since the general art style feels somewhat raw and unpolished. It is not the best looking series out there as you can see that it is rough around the edges. Sometimes it feels like they’re trying to finish a fast job. My guess is that if the characters and backgrounds are beautifully drawn, they may earn praises from viewers for such highly detailed animation but at the same time it may not be practical as a lot of effort needs to be put into producing high quality animation. Seeing this is a dark fantasy anime where the humans are on the losing side, in a way such unpolished visual style may fit the series since everything feels like apocalyptic. The dark and gritty theme of the series also somewhat helps cover this ‘shortfall’. Also, are we going to go agape in awe if we see those highly detailed blood, gore and all the destruction around? So yeah, maybe this raw style is for this series. Get used to it.
Then there is of course the CGI aspect too. Usually the faeries are given this treatment but as mentioned, the dark theme of this series helps to cover the flaws so the faeries don’t actually turn out looking like some sh*tty CGI product! Instead, they may look menacing and provide some nightmare fuel. Don’t be mistaken by their colourful and neon-like colours because while their designs are also raw, they are also, well, ugly. Good thing I don’t want any of those as a plushie if the management decide to produce them for sale! This anime is done by Studio Kai who did Gaikotsu Kishi-sama Tadaima Isekai E Odekakechuu, Super Cub and Mushikago No Cagaster.
Voice acting is decent as I recognized a handful like Yuuichi Nakamura as Rhyno and Shinichirou Miki as Boojum. However a few misses for me too because I thought Daisuke Ono was behind Xylo (no, it was Youhei Azakami), Akira Ishida as Kafzen (Toshihiko Seki is how you pronounced his name), Tomokazu Sugita as Whale (Jun Kasama, buster!) and get this, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka was behind Tatsuya’s voice?! OMFG IS THAT REALLY HIM?! This guy has no proper dialogue and only huffs, grunts and screams. Even so, I should’ve known it was Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s voice behind. I can’t mistake that Kirito’s voice! And yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed it that Youko Hikasa was also behind a character with no dialogue: Neely. Dragons don’t talk so yeah… Sighs. I must be losing my touch. So sad. But the biggest surprise catching me off guard has got to be DARLING MAMIKO NOTO MAKING HER CAMEO AS ENFEE!!! OMFG YEAH!!! I definitely missed her since her goddess character doesn’t have any dialogue (as of yet) although the credits did list her.
Other casts include Mayu Iizuka as Teoritta, Shizuka Ishigami as Kivia, Shun Horie as Dotta, Shunichi Toki as Venetim, Youji Ueda as Norgalle, Jun Fukushima as Tsav, Shouya Chiba as Jayce, Saori Oonishi as Frenci, Kanehira Yamamoto as Maren, Yuu Sugimoto as Shiji, Kenji Nomura as Lideo, Konomi Kohara as Iri/Spriggan, Yuuya Murakami as Hord and Yurina Amami as Pelmerry. If there is something a bit unique about this series, it is that an episode either only shows the opening theme or the ending theme. Both are the same song anyway, Kill The Noise by Spyair. I guess they want to save some money, huh? Forget the typical standard of having a song for the opening and another for the ending. Some even have multiple songs for different episodes. So I guess less one of those means more action and screen time? Hate it or love this format, you can’t have it both anyway. While I appreciate they want to use a hard rock piece to fit the pace and mood of the series, unfortunately this sounds like more noise than music to me. Yeah, the irony. Kill the noise, dammit! Well, I can really feel it all with the singer going into that hardcore rock scream! Yikes.
Overall, I like this series a lot as it changes the conventional concept of what it means to be a hero unlike as seen in Boku No Hero Academia. Definitely I will be looking forward to the next season. Thanks to my recent taste in dark fantasy animes (Clevatess, Jigokuraku and Omagoto to name a few), you bet I am going to give this a lot of points although the downside is that I have to wait a bit longer for the next season to arrive. As long as they can keep me entertained with all the violence, blood, gore and action, you can bet I don’t care which side wins this war. So long as I am satisfied and entertained! Yeah, I’m the worst kind, even worse than humans and demons. Guilty as charged. I hope I won’t be sentenced to be a hero to watch crappy and sh*tty animes for eternity!
