Yuusha Yamemasu

Not many stories tell of the hero to zero tale. More often it is the opposite. Rags to riches kind of story too. So imagine if a hero one day decides to stop protecting the humanity he has sworn to protect and now has gone over to help the other side. Yes, that is the basic premise for Yuusha Yamemasu. As the title suggests, the hero has somewhat been banished by the people. What a way to get back at them by joining the Demon Lord’s army, huh? Well, I don’t particularly blame him. If you’re not going to be appreciated or even get betrayed in the end, might as well double down and give those motherf*ckers the payback they deserve. After all, it’s the same twisted logic as when you are framed for a murder you did not commit, how do you clear your name? Why, you murder everyone else! Oh yeah. Fight fire with fire da best!

Episode 1
Leo Demonheart the hero (with a name like that?!) makes his way to the castle ruins of Demon Lord Echidna to see her and her 4 generals. Turns out he wants to join their party! He tries to throw in freebies in addition to his great list of achievements if she hires him but I guess when the same hero who defeated you wants to join you now, this has got to be an insult. She rejects him and has her generals throw him out. But soon, the generals are seen having a secret meeting with him since he returned to beg them. So he tries to convince them by detailing how he defeated them? Well, it’s his achievement after all. He first tells us how he is super strong and had he not have useless comrades, he would’ve defeated Echidna quickly! The first general he fought was Edvard and it was a tough fight with this dragonfolk warrior. Had he not been some kind of noble warrior and Leo using tricks other than his sword, he might have lost. Next he faced Mernes who is lightning fast. Leo did not fight him on that level and instead used a devastating spell to blow up the whole area! No wonder the people were mad after he destroyed everything. Next is Lily. She was amnesiac at first and took care of her. But when she got her memories back and attacked, she was actually weak and got defeated in no time! And now she takes a liking for him. Finally, Shutina. Succubus had lots of mana. Too bad he nullified them all and easily bested her in hand to hand combat. Now he explains why he wants to join them. Shortly after defeating Echidna, he returned to the capital and instead of being greeted by cheers, they jeered him instead. The people think he is a monster who cannot roam free. Heck, they send assassins to kill him but what do you think a hero who just defeated the Demon Lord! The king is forced to banish him to quell his people. With no home, he wandered aimlessly until he heard people badmouthing Echidna. He decided to join her because if this world is going to kill him, he’ll kill them first! Evil. Shutina will give him a month’s trial to prove himself and of course he must not let his presence be known to Echidna. Failing which, he will be kicked out. Success would mean they will recommend to Echidna for him to join. You bet Leo won’t disappoint them. Because he too needs to ask Echidna many questions. Like why when she invaded the land, she ordered her demon army not to indiscriminately kill. Also, why does she continue to remain in the human world after her defeat? He’ll join her army to find out.

Episode 2
Looks like Shutina is trying to sleep in. So Leo imitates Echidna’s voice for the greatest wakeup call of her life. Also revealing all the incomplete tasks at hand. Embarrassed, she lets loose several blasts. Echidna thinks she is really stressed up. With Leo here to help lift some load off her shoulders, it seems with a great departure of personnel in the army, somebody has to fill in those jobs and the only one who knows how to do it all is Shutina. Hence she takes it upon herself to do everything herself. He checks her list and notices the mana reactors that need replenishing as the lowest priority. He promises to take care of this one. To move around freely in the castle, he hides underneath an armour and calls himself Black Knight Onyx. After 30 minutes, he returns and claims his job is done. But before Shutina could hand him the next one, he claims he is tired and needs to rest. But an hour passed and he did nothing but loafing around, claiming he needs more time. Just when she has had it and is very disappointed in it, Dianette comes in to report. Long story short, Leo went to buy some amethyst, used it to match Shutina’s wavelength and then had Dianette to replenish it as a talisman. Dianette was also to find other people with similar ability to split up the job. With this job now delegated, Shutina only need to let them handle it and hear their reports. Leo didn’t say anything as he knew she would rush off to check things herself. As for him loafing around, he was actually peeking at Shutina’s job (and boobs!) and has reorganized some tasks that can be delegated. Hence it is her job to teach them how to handle it. Shutina is impressed and apologizes for jumping to conclusions. Leo may have crossed the line as he bugs her for that reward kiss or get into bed with him. Don’t you increase her stress level now that you have got it reduced! Soon, Shutina calls Leo for another help. This time Lily will head to Largo for a logistics mission as food supplies are running low. See this doodle? That’s her plan. Not good. Are we here to have fun or secure food?

Episode 3
First, a bit of history from Largo. 3000 years ago when the previous Demon Lord attacked and failed, many denizens of the demon realm found peace with humanity. They co-existed for a while until one day they became persecuted by humans. Among them is the dragonfolk who still hold a grudge towards humans till this day. Hence the refugees settled on Largo and they’ve become a great ally to Echidna in supplying resources. While it might seem logical to send Edvard, however somebody needs to guard to castle. Besides, he might do everything himself. Hence Leo’s job is to keep an eye on Lily. Of course easier said than done as Lily is having fun getting the supplies and making it hard for others. Leo has to apologize to the citizens since Lily just bulldozed through their land without much thought. Worse, as an intern, he has no authority to assign and reassign the underlings for the right job. In order to make Lily grow, Leo feigns he has been poisoned and the only way is some herbal cure in the mountains. Panicky Lily sets out to get that as she transforms into her true Fenrir wolf form. This is all part of Leo’s plan as he has placed obstacles throughout the path. All Lily need to do is think of the right person to get help and the obstacle is easily overcome. However as we see, Lily does it all by herself. Instead of calling those with magic to destroy a strong boulder, she rams it until it breaks! Then as a chasm is too wide for her to jump over, a minstrel controlled by Leo sings and hints about getting help. She does that but the villagers told her to swim across and climb up! And so Leo’s plan fail as every obstacle, Lily overcomes them herself. Eventually she gets the herbs as she also talks to him about her plan in getting help from others. She admits she is dumb and won’t get it unless someone tells her. This is when he realizes he himself is the bigger fool for assuming the only way to get it through her was forcing her into a situation. Thanks to that, the castle supplies go smoothly without hiccups. As Leo soon returns, Shutina has an urgent message for him: Echidna wants to see Onyx now! Gulp. The gig’s up?

Episode 4
Because Shutina reported that thanks to Onyx, their work has been proceeding smoothly. Leo goes to see her as he thinks she is mad for not showing his face and trying to come up with an excuse. Turns out Echidna wholeheartedly welcomes him and wants him to feast with her alone. Then she forcefully unmasks him! Luckily he manages to change his face slightly so she doesn’t recognize him. Leo then proceeds to do several methods to get himself out of this hell party as soon as possible but only to backfire. Like filling her cup every time until she gets drunk. Too bad she’s a heavy drinker and now drinks straight from the bottle! Looks like the party is going to last till night. Echidna threw this banquet as thanks for helping lessen the load off Shutina. But when Leo asks about the hero and about his prospects joining her army, looks like her mood sours as she starts ranting and complaining about him. Yeah, the irony, right? Echidna blames Leo for defeating her army when they were so close in getting the Philosopher’s Stone. Rumours has it that it could turn wastelands into green fields as well as others like immortality. But Leo knows it is all BS since he used it before but nothing happened. Leo now knows the reason Echidna has not retreated to her realm despite her defeat. It is not conquest on humanity she wants but the Philosopher’s Stone. But why does she want it? You see, her demon world has no sunlight, no vegetation, the air is heavy and the water polluted. The clans fight among each other for the little resources and bloody the land further. Hence she wants that stone to reforge the land from that vast wasteland. Of course she would love to explain it to humans but as expected, they won’t listen. Once her land is reforged, those who supported her side will be given refuge in her land. She doesn’t care about humanity despite not holding a grudge against them. As for her needless killing policy, it is that naivety that cost her the victory. Leo now has a different view on her and finds her a queen who cares for her people. She must be fraught with anxiety whether her actions were right or wrong. Furthermore, she doesn’t blame the hero as it is his job to defend humanity from invaders. This now makes Leo in a dilemma as Echidna has opened her heart to him. Further deception might upset her when he reveals the truth. However after learning her circumstances, he now truly wants to support her. He doesn’t want to lie to her anymore and will tell the truth. As he is about to reveal himself, Shutina and Lily barge in with devastating news. Mernes and Edvard have left letters leaving the army as they claim they have not contributed much. Mernes left on a journey and Edvard wants to take his own life?! WTF?!

Episode 5
While Echidna and the rest go to find Edvard, Leo will track down Mernes. He manages to find him but since Mernes doesn’t talk much, this is going to take a while. Leo is fine if Mernes wants to quit but he doesn’t want him to regret it. Mernes reveals that he has to hold an interview for recruits in 3 days. Since he isn’t good at communication, that’s why he decided to leave to visit villagers in hopes of learning something. But since Leo is here, he wants him to turn him into a good communicator by then. Leo reports this Echidna and the rest. They too report they have found Edvard trying to kill himself but his scales are so hard, normal swords cannot penetrate. Being the stubborn warrior, he thinks this is the only way to die. For now, his daughter, Julietta is keeping an eye on him until he opens up and tells them the real story. Leo will come back to assist them once he is done with Mernes. The best start to learn about communication is to go down to the ground level. Yes, being part of the service industry. The duo are being waters at a mess hall. Oh, Mernes has to cross-dress as a maid? This is because the monsters are more likely to recognize him. Oh, Mernes is scarier when he tries to make a smile! Mernes gets frustrated thinking Leo isn’t teaching him anything. Aside making conversation a group activity, the other is to stay silent and listen. Isn’t that what Mernes always does? Well, he only does it to end the conversation quickly. Besides, it is hard for an assassin to feel empathy as he is trained to get rid of everything! When a rowdy bunch of wolves take their order, they also badmouth Mernes and even trying to get lucky with him. Mernes is patient and polite until they start to step over the line. That is when Mernes beats them up real good. No one matches his speed, right? The wolves should learn their lesson now. It is then the monsters recognize Mernes when they take a closer look. At the end of the day, Leo praises Mernes for handling it well since he did his job and taught those ruffians a lessons the way they should. Of course the day isn’t done yet as Leo wants to practice interviewing him. Mernes then starts off asking him why he wants to join this army. About destroying humanity, that was a lie, right?

Episode 6
Leo is so strong he could actually destroy humanity himself, so why hasn’t he? Leo tries to dodge this but with Mernes getting serious, Leo then learns Mernes really wants to destroy all of humanity. Mernes is half-human and half-demon. Being bought and sold to numerous guilds, he ended up in an assassin guild whereby they thought they could dispose of him on his first job. However Mernes survived and this became his way of living. Therefore when Echidna invaded, he really wanted to see humanity perished and was the one who let them through an invasion. However he was shocked when Echidna did not slaughter the humans and only rounded up the corrupted mayor and nobles. Even more so when Echidna’s generals didn’t see it right to kill humanity just because of a few bad apples. But Mernes was not impressed and decided to join Echidna’s army to achieve his goal. If it comes down to it, he’ll kill her and take over the slaughtering. Things were going fine until a certain hero showed up. When Leo defeated him and instead of killing him like he wanted, he told Mernes to go see the world as himself and not because of his job. Because of this, Mernes finds it hard to believe him that he really wants to destroy humanity. Mernes finds it strange that he doesn’t hate humanity despite being abandoned by them. That is when Leo begins to reveal his true history.

When humanity abandoned him, he was actually happy about it. You see, he came from a world when it was at the height of its technological advancement. Oh sh*t! Is this isekai?! Well… One day, monsters popped up from Tokyo and started decimating the place. Humans tried to fight back but being the weaklings they are, they decided to fight fire with fire and created demons to fight them. They made 12 Demonheart series and Leo is one of them. Yes, he is a living weapon and the only survivor. The moment he was born, he knew nothing except being a hero and to save humanity. Since he was the most durable, he outlived the rest who went down one by one. Leo’s regret is that he missed the chance to die and the more he fought, the stronger he grew and making humans depend on him further. That’s why when they didn’t need him anymore, he felt relieved because it was a chance for him to quit being a hero and do what he wants. And now he can travel and see the world on his own terms. Part of that is joining Echidna’s army. Mernes is further shocked to learn that Leo is that legendary sage who defeated Echidna’s father, Cychreus the previous Demon Lord hundreds of years ago. Yeah, Leo stopped counting his age after surpassing 1000! It doesn’t even matter anymore. Leo finds Echidna and co are actually nice people and that’s why he is willing to work hard for them. So don’t worry, he’ll get the Philosopher’s Stone for them. Leo realizes he told all this perhaps he needed someone to listen to his story. And Mernes is the best candidate for that although he isn’t much of a talker.

Episode 7
Talking to Julietta, Leo learns that Edvard was training the new recruits. But since they failed to even defeat a single chimera, he chastises them for being weak and all. But ultimately holds himself responsible and will kill himself! Like that will make the army stronger… She explains the problem with her father is that she expects everyone to be on the same level as him when it is clearly not. Of course Leo has got a plan. But soon he receives news that he is leaving the army. Actually, he doesn’t see himself fit as the general and will be a footsoldier with the rest. He is going to let Julietta command the troops when a robot golem attacks. This is an artefact unearthed from the mines and Leo knows all about it. This is part of his plan to get Edvard back. Edvard resumes command as he orders his soldiers to attack it. Well, weapons not piercing its thick armour. Then the robot goes out of control and fires a powerful blast that could decimate a mountain. The soldiers run so Edvard is going to deal with it alone. It’s like a suicide mission, no? Leo pops up to help and wants him to follow his orders. Unfortunately Edvard cannot understand all the complicated terms Leo spouts. With Julietta pitching in to help point its weakness, the robot soon stops moving. However it called for reinforcements and more are starting to activate from the mines. How can Leo deal with this? He doesn’t have to because Echidna and the other generals are here to cover his back. With Edvard thanking Leo, Leo instead scolds him that he couldn’t defeat a mere robot. He points out he hasn’t worked hard enough. No matter how Edvard tries to reason, it all seems to reflect he did all this same thing to his men. So they haven’t fought a chimera. Does it make a difference for Edvard who has not fought a robot before? Julietta will not stand Leo insult her father because she thinks he is assuming others know what he can do. But of course, Edvard realizes this important lesson and apologizes to his men for his insensitivity. They continue to be inspired by him and hope he’ll train them more. So I take it, Edvard’s back? Meanwhile Echidna is having a blast blasting all the robots. I guess she needs to take out her stress once in a while…

Episode 8
Shutina talks to Leo that he will be summoned by Echidna soon, probably to promote him alongside them. She also heard from Mernes about his reasons to join them. He assures he won’t betray them. Leo remembers a time during the aftermath destruction of Tokyo. He met an imp named Eibrad who managed to keep a conversation going with Leo to avoid getting killed. This includes telling him valuable info about the sh*tty place the demon world is and that their current ruler, Belial solves everything via violence. Some of the demons don’t want war but when Belial opened a portal to Earth, the aggressive ones started terrorizing the place and soon war broke out. Some tried to run back to the portal but it was closed. Eibrad believed they are left here to die. Leo won’t kill him after all that valuable info. He will accompany him to a protection ward. As they continue walking, Eibrad asked his name and this shocked Leo because no demon did that before. After learning of Leo’s origins, Eibrad feels bad about him and worried for his future. Basically he has been given a specific duty since coming into existence. Hence once war is over, he will have no purpose in life, considering he is an immortal. Leo is more than happy to be on standby until the next war breaks out. That is, if he doesn’t die in this war. To assure Eibrad, he claims he is the weakest among the Demonheart series and that is why he isn’t at the frontlines. Hence he might not live forever. Before they part ways, Eibrad realizes going back to the demon world is impossible. So he decides to dedicate the rest of his life to find ways for humans and demons to coexist in harmony. He hopes Leo can put up a statue of him once he bridges that gap. His last advices to Leo is not to get caught up in this humanity sh*t and if humanity doesn’t need him, it’s the best chance to ditch this job and do as he wishes. Leo doesn’t understand all that in the end but remembered all of Eibrad’s words. Now he that he understands them, he is going to make the big reveal to Echidna.

Episode 9
Echidna is happily awaiting to announce Onyx’s official inclusion into her fold. Suddenly the portal acts up and although a temporary measure is put in place, the portal may not hold up long and the next opening may take a long time. During which the demon realm will suffer. The first option is to disband the army and retreat. The second option is to immediately mobilize their army to attack Renailles. This is risky as their troops are still weak and Echidna despite accepting the risk of her death, she is not willing to bring death to others. Hence her only option is to retreat and she’ll find a way to bring peace to her world. While she is lamenting about this, she doesn’t realize Leo has taken off his helmet as he explains the Philosopher’s Stone is not a wish granting machine and it’s some advanced engine utilizing some micro black hole. In fact there are 2 of such stones and since she needs only 1 to accomplish her goals, this would be ideal for her to create peace between the realms. Echidna is dumbfounded seeing Leo’s unmasked face. He apologies for this deception to earn her trust. His intention to join her army is to see if she is worthy to take the Philosopher’s Stone and he is convinced that she is. Understandably, she is mad and starts blasting him. Back to the old ways of hating the hero, her generals manage to convince and calm her down that Leo has helped their army a lot. Getting straight down to business, Leo points out the other Philosopher’s Stone is at the Seshat Mountains. That is awfully close to here. But it is guarded by a powerful guardian.

As they trek to that mountain, Leo revealing that there is a manual on how to operate the Philosopher’s Stone. However it is lost somewhere in this world. So once she gets it, make peace with humans and find it. Echidna soon learns how old he is and his origins. Although not surprised, had she known how powerful he was, she would’ve avoided him completely. However destiny had them met instead. Then Leo talks about his embedded orders to protect humanity. The irony of him wishing for more wars when peace came. This had him thinking if he would be holding back humanity and forcing himself onto them. Because one day humanity might be strong enough to take down the demon realm themselves and Leo won’t be needed. He will find himself having existential crisis and perhaps will bring chaos to the world just to have a reason to save it. He will rinse and repeat this and become something far worse than the Demon Lord. He hints to Echidna what she must do then. Now they’ve reached the spot, there is no guardian as Leo claims there is none. In fact, the other Philosopher’s Stone is in his heart. So if they want it so badly to save their world, defeat him and rip it out. Come get it and prove yourselves. Leo announces his resignation from Echidna’s army and his new goal is to destroy humanity. So now their roles are switched, eh? The hero has turned into a demon while the demons themselves are going to play the hero to save the world!

Episode 10
When Echidna was young, a bard warned her about a powerful hero defeating their brethren. He warned if she ever became queen, do not fight him. Echidna brushed that off and thought she could beat that jerk down easily. After all, she was also confident she won’t be queen. Now she is left to eat her words as Leo spares no chance in attacking them while they are still confused with this shocking twist. Leo is fine in destroying everything and then starting everything from scratch. Destroy to protect. He is sick of everything especially of his existence as an immortal guardian for humanity. He blames both humans and demons for this. He’s going to destroy them both. Lily tries a bit of conversation of the times they had together. Well, that didn’t work as he stabs her. Which heartless bastard would stab a harmless loli?! Yeah, it’s about time the rest wake up that Leo is really hell bent in killing them. Edvard fights him but even in his true dragon hybrid form, he is still no match. Whatever high level spells Shutina does, Leo breaks out with ease and experiences no damage. Mernes questions Leo’s lies that if he wanted to pick a fight, he wouldn’t have joined their army and got passionate in helping others. Leo shuts him up before he can say what his true goals are. Lily in her wolf form is now forced to fight and stop him. Can she? Leo dares her. Even she falls. Echidna needs Shutina buy her time as she prepares a spell that was specially made to destroy the hero. Flashback shows her father wanted to pass on some royal demon spell to her as part of the tradition. This includes a very dangerous spell specifically to kill the hero. Shutina stalls for time claiming Leo didn’t really kill the rest. Hence he doesn’t really want to destroy the world or humanity but himself. That is why he wants them to kill him while he is still sane and in control. You b*tch done talking? Now die. Leo sure isn’t flinching. Echidna is ready and fires her ultimate spell at Leo which is said to disable his abilities for a brief moment.

Episode 11
Echidna thought she will miss and everything is over. However it seems he didn’t dodge and instead gets hit. A smile and a thank you. Now we see more flashbacks of Leo being the hero. He took pride in his job until long periods of peace made him question his existence. There were on occasions civil wars and invasion from demons but nothing Leo couldn’t handle. When he heard the people commenting how they would love this peace to last forever, part of him felt sad and wanted war. Then he hit an idea to just plunge the world into chaos himself and save it. Hence he went to recreate the Demonheart series again and programmed them to destroy humanity so he can save them. All because he still wanted to live. When demons soon invaded, he realized the err of his ways. He destroyed the Demonheart series, believing he was going to destroy humanity for his own selfishness. Realizing he is worse than the Demon Lord, he needed to leave his Philosopher’s Stone to someone worthy. Then he heard about Echidna and her nonviolent ways of invasion. Talking to her subordinates who vouch that Echidna is a kind ruler, that is when Leo began his final journey as a hero. He fought the generals and Echidna herself to see if they’re worthy and then he would die. Now Leo has been zapped and for the longest time felt in danger of dying because he cannot summon any abilities. At the same time Echidna had her own realization that Leo gave his services to the world and continued to live lonely. Why did he not depend on others or show any weaknesses? Probably nobody will accept him as a hero if he stopped being one. Hence all Leo wanted was for someone to accept for who he was. If the hero was protecting others, who protects the hero? Leo is relieved and believes in Echidna’s capabilities to bridge both humans and demons. The generals pound on Leo and he finally collapses. Everybody looking sad…

Episode 12
Looking relieved that he will soon die, he is glad he got to play the villain with them. Now they have to hurry up and take the Philosopher’s Stone from his heart before the wound heals up in 300 seconds (oh, it’ll be the longest 300 seconds ever for dramatic effect!). Echidna knows Leo has been going soft on them all this while. He could’ve dodged it. Well, they’re losing pretty badly. While Lily is kicking up a tantrum to not kill Leo, Echidna hates to admit that Leo has been playing the hero through the end despite playing the villain. He was never going to kill anyone or destroy the worlds. When Leo says his goodbye, that is when Echidna abuses him and refuses to do his job of bridging both worlds for him. It’s too much of a trouble for her. That is why she won’t let him die and will let him be the ambassador for both worlds instead. After all, who knows better to unite both worlds as for one who has lived for 3000 years. With time running out, Leo panics and hopes Edvard could talk some sense into her. Instead, he would prefer him alive as he has still a lot to learn. Lily? Dumb girl just wants him alive. Mernes as the calm one should think this through, right? Well, he can tell everything he does or says scream he wants to live. So just live, idiot! Shutina his last hope. She points out the contradiction in his words as she forces him to restate why he is doing this. Basically if he is strong enough to develop his own thinking, he should be strong enough to break free from this ironclad order of his. Leo tries to do it but keeps hearing voices spamming to protect humanity. Suddenly it stops. Leo realizes all he needed was just to convince himself for that. So easy?! Echidna now gives him one last chance. If he still wants to die, she’ll kill him. Leo remembers Eibrad’s words. With that, Leo agrees to join Echidna. Welcome back. In the aftermath, everybody parties. Echidna believes the day Leo stepped in to join them, it wasn’t him who was being tested by the army instead. Leo answers her questions that he does not regret a thing since he really wants to help her bring peace to both worlds. He promises her never to play the villain again. Suddenly others barge in as a host of problems start rearing its ugly heads. Oh well, time to get to work. It’s a ton of work and a whole lot more since they have to keep their house in order before even thinking about uniting both worlds. But I guess it’s better than being a hero, right?

OVA 1
Is this a working holiday? But hell yeah, they’re going on a trip to this isolated creepy haunted looking Japanese style inn. Thanks Mernes, for picking such a place. After registering, the innkeeper warns them about ghosts. GHOSTS DON’T EXISTS, RIGHT?! And even if they do, do they have experience to fight them?! So, has Leo lived for 3000 years seen any ghosts? Yup. All just superstitions. As they rest in their room, Echidna hands them animal ears from the innkeeper. It is supposed to ward off ghosts so don’t take them off. Whether you believe it or not, just put them on. Echidna leaves but has not come back since. Then Mernes goes to look for her but he too didn’t come back. Then they notice the picture, DID THE EYES JUST MOVE?! Edvard goes out to look for his comrades but then his scream is heard. Now strange things happen as the lights go out and things start to float around. Then they hear a phone ringing. I suppose nobody knows how to ‘silence’ a rotary phone, eh? Sorry, magic isn’t the answer. As they argue about ghosts and spirits, suddenly Lily gets kidnapped. Echidna then returns. She finds it odd there are nobody else around. Not even the staffs. Like they never existed to begin with. Could it be ghosts? They head out to find their missing comrades.

OVA 2
Arriving at the hotspring area, Leo feels suspicious with the animal ears because he feels his head hurts a bit. Echidna claims they are free size and it is keeping them safe. This makes Leo even more suspicious because it sure didn’t keep those who got kidnapped safe. And then suddenly Shutina is kidnapped right before their eyes. Echidna turning into some zombie face to scare Leo before disappearing. When a ghost appears, Leo chases it to get to the bottom of this. When he catches it, turns out to be Mernes and everyone else congratulating Leo that he got pranked. Later Echidna reveals that the haunting prank was part of the package. She was behind the pranks and slowly roped the rest in one by one to help create more elaborate pranks. The animal ears are some artefact that prevents one from casting magic although it doesn’t work on those intoxicated. Echidna doesn’t regret this prank as it helped strengthen their bonds. If you’re going to argue going too far, then it is just miniscule compared to a certain ex-hero who tried to actually kill them! So yeah, having such an event once in a while isn’t too bad and to top it off, they have their own mini sparklers to play. Yeah, what a cheap thrill we’ve got.

Hataraku Yuusha-sama: I Couldn’t Become A Hero So I Reluctantly Decided To Get A Job At The Demon Lord’s Army
Hope Leo would love his new job and stay there for a long time. Who knows? He might live another 3000 years and outlive the rest and serve a new Demon Lord. Enough time for the tables to turn like for example perhaps the demon side has successfully conquered humanity and now that they don’t need him anymore, it’s Leo going back to the humans and his original goal of protecting them. Good thing he doesn’t see the need to become God and ruler over both worlds. Oh wait. Maybe his systems might develop into that because when you’ve reached immortal status and so bored with life, what else you have got to do? Thankfully, feel free to conjure the rest of such delusions on fan fiction pages. As far as this anime is concerned, Leo is on his way to earn the longest and unbreakable best employee of the month streak. Yeah.

The story is fairly simple and nothing complicated and the way I see it, it is split into 2 main arcs. The first half dedicates to prove Leo’s worth as we see him making tremendous improvements in Echidna’s army. Of course this isn’t a straightforward story of Leo actually just switching allegiance and once the truth of his intentions and past come to light, the second half then focuses on the big decision on whether to kill their best employee of the week/month/year forever. Well, honestly, it was predictable because there was no way the roles would actually be in reversed, right? After all, it was all part of the big drama and plot twist to keep us on the edge of our seats. At least that was how I felt. Yeah, it will predictably get boring if the rest of the series was really about Leo playing HR personnel. They’re trying to confuse us who were the real villains here but from my perspective, everybody is heroes (except for those darn humans of course) because it’s a win-win situation for both Leo and Echidna’s side. Leo doesn’t have to die a pathetic death while Echidna gets to keep him and further use him for the betterment of her army.

From what I’ve seen, obviously Leo was making long roundabout excuses about his life. Having lived so long and despite being artificially created, I don’t think I can consider him as a machine like oh you know, desktop computers, microwave ovens and washing machines. It was really a long roundabout way to create some drama because if he really wanted Echidna to have his Philosopher’s Stone, he would’ve just killed himself and gave it to her on a silver platter. After all, he already deemed her worthy as being the one who can bridge the human and demon divide. So what’s stopping him? Ah, I think he wants attention. So that’s why this weird playing the villain thingy just to crop up some sympathy before he goes out with a bang. I mean, Leo already knows beforehand that he himself is just freaking powerful and nobody comes close in scratching him. So do you think pushing Echidna and her generals would make a difference? Maybe. But it did not. Hence I still do believe that Leo really just wanted some attention and was just confused in the meaning of his own life. Surely, if he could develop and learn from others, would it not be the silliest thing if he himself cannot overcome and rewrite that basic order of protecting humanity forever? That would’ve been the dumbest loophole ever. Sometimes it felt this whole dramatic drama felt was a big waste. Leo sounding he was serious in killing everyone but in the end, trolled everybody and now we’re all here happy together breathing. Yeah. So he wasn’t THAT serious to begin with, huh?

Besides, protecting humanity isn’t a straightforward black and white textbook answer. I mean, Leo has this strict and rigid thinking that by protecting humanity, that means it will only come in the form of wars and conflicts. Bloodshed and damage are inevitable. I mean, has he ever thought of other methods that he could protect humanity without resorting to fighting? Like you know, take up law and defend unscrupulous big tech companies or conglomerates from taking advantage of the consumer! Yeah. Try thinking along the lines of being an economist or a financial advisor too. I think that would also be considered as protecting humanity. If money isn’t his thing, maybe try out conservation of nature or something? Protecting nature and at the same time protecting humanity while finding a way for both to coexist! Hey, another type of world to protect and bridge! So do you see what I am getting here? Leo who has wandered the world for 3000 years and going through several existential crisis, never stopped to think about all this? What was he really doing with all that excessive time? I guess he wasn’t that perfect of a model after all. But I have to admit, Leo is actually being more human than many other natural humans would ever be.

I believe that Eibrad is the turning point in Leo’s life. Whether it was for better or for worse, had Leo not meet this imp, this whole existential crisis may not have exploded and perhaps Leo would not have started to overthink and worry about his future. But if that did not happen, Leo wouldn’t have made his decision to support Echidna (regardless if humans abandoned him or not) and he would have mindlessly continued to play the hero blindly. So is Eibrad is Leo’s saviour of the trigger? It’s a bit strange that the imp seems to know a whole lot more about life. Even if Leo had lived for a very long time, it isn’t considered actually living and mortals like Eibrad knows all about how to make the best of life because of their very limited time. So it might sound strange the rants about living coming from him but it is not very far from the truth either.

But when you start to think about the entire setting of the series, it just feels like the whole timeline just doesn’t make sense. Or at least it feels just unbelievable. Imagine over the span of 3000 years, humanity has gone from being modern age Tokyo-like technology and back to being medieval times! So really, what happened to all the records that we have kept, huh? I know, screw the internet and we shouldn’t be building our lives around it but considering this. Come on, man. Are you serious? Even more so, in current modern times, humanity managed to create artificial life to combat demons! Not one or two, but 12 of them! Somebody has got to be a horoscope fan to name them after those famous constellations. How the f*ck did they have such technology? Anyway, you think humanity would have been decimated by then considering the way they are living and having internal conflicts, but here we are. I can understand why Leo questions himself about this but that’s a different story. I’m glad they didn’t have the plot twist of bringing back one of the dead Demonheart series for the finale. So that Leo and Echidna won’t have to fight each other but take on a third side instead. Phew. Let dead Demonheart series stay dead. I can imagine the conflict that would play out as Leo has to confront his ex-comrade who has deemed him a traitor to mankind and must be eliminated. And Leo fights him to defend his new employer. And eventually manages to make the ex-comrade join them too! Because justice prevails! Wow. Thank goodness I’m not the scriptwriter!

Echidna and her generals aren’t really the bad guys either once you get to know them a little bit more. Each of them has their own flaws and they’re not the aggressive and bloodthirsty beasts that clichés and stereotypes will have you think about them. Maybe it is because we are seeing them in the aftermath of their first war with Leo. Hence they look more like clumsy people, fumbling away as they try to find ways to get back on their feet as soon as possible (I guess that is where most of the so called funny parts come from). Before you know it, you’ll start thinking that Echidna’s army feels a lot like a big corporation and with so many departments altogether, the logistics and management in holding up this giant organization is no simple feat. Who’d knew the Demon Lord army works in almost the exact same manner as how corporations are run in our world? Coincidence? Just that these monsters don’t get paid in wages.

As mentioned, Echidna and her generals aren’t the perfect beings they are and have their imperfections that are relatable to most of us. Like Shutina who basically thought she could shoulder everything herself not because she finds others incompetent, but rather because she thinks she is the only one who can do it and thus thinks it is her duty and responsibility to shoulder everything. Time for Leo to teach her about delegation. Then there is Edvard who is more brawns than brain. You know, strength isn’t everything. Time for Leo to teach him about empathy. Lily oh you silly. How can this cute little girl be part of the generals? I don’t know like I said, strength isn’t everything. But I find it hard to see beyond her as a series’ pet mascot. Can’t hate a furry loli despite being a retard, can we? Time for Leo to teach her, oh wait, Leo has been taught to her not to ASSUME! The quiet ones are the more dangerous ones, right? Well, Mernes might strike a chord with many especially those who are introverts and don’t communicate well. He might not say much but people like him observes the most. They just find it hard to articulate in words. Time for Leo to teach him how to express himself? Last and not least Echidna herself. As a ruler who wants the best for her people, she will find it very hard to find the right balance from her side and the humans. Even more so, a seemingly impossible task she doesn’t want violence or unnecessary deaths. Is that possible in conflicts, assuming humans are dicks and don’t believe in this goodwill of hers. Time for Leo to be her assistant. Essentially, this whole housekeeping business, Leo thought he could teach and improve them but in the meantime, indirectly they too have thought him some invaluable lessons. So it’s really a 2 way thingy.

The art and animation look pretty okay and nothing extraordinary. The colouring and hues look bright and colourful and it had me wonder if this is a show for kids. Though, there are dark and gloomy moments especially flashbacks from Leo’s past. The characters look generic enough and I feel it ticks the list of what a generic group needs. There are a couple of hot smoking babes, a cute little furry mascot loli, brooding hooded character, big muscle brained character and yeah, what’s this about Leo looking like a discount version of Kirito?! And to think Echidna’s outfit is a sexy scarlet gown that one would wear at an evening ball. Like she’s on a date or something. I know she shouldn’t be armoured up from head to toe but I’m just thinking this design is just for fanservice and to distract us viewers. This anime is done by EMT Squared who did Kuma Miko, Cheat Kusushi No Slow Life, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, Nyanko, Days, Urahara and Boku No Tonari Ni Ankoku Hakaishin Ga Imasu. So if you find the kawaii and cuteness trademark of the characters somewhat similar, now you know why.

For the voice acting, I only recognized Shizuka Itou as Shutina. The other casts are Kensho Ono as Leo (Larcade in Fairy Tail), Kaede Hondo as Echidna (titular character in Tejina-senpai), Hitomi Ohwada as Lily (Ryouko in Machikado Mazoku), Yumi Uchiyama as Mernes (Momiji in Binbougami Ga), Tetsu Inada as Edvard (Gamagoori in Kill La Kill) and Hirokazu Hiramatsu as Eibrad (Michael in G-Rei: Zero). The opening theme is Broken Identity by Minori Suzuki. It’s just a dramatic rock piece and not really to my liking. Nao Touyama despite having no voice acting roles in this series, sings both the ending themes. Growing as the first one sounds like your typical happy sunshiny upbeat song. I don’t know, feels like it should be a magical girl series if you ask me. De Messiah as the second ending theme is just freaking weird. Mixing hip hop with some techno music, it tries to sound edgy and contemporary but I just find it too weird for my taste. Personally if you ask me, this is the kind of song that is played as the background music during a flashy product launch. Seriously, I can imagine that right now in my head!

Overall, this series is just pretty average. I read a lot of comments online that they are mostly disappointed with this because as a fantasy genre anime, it didn’t bring anything exciting to the table and the point of an ex-hero trying to help the Demon Lord’s side feels more like a publicity stunt more than anything else. As a human, I just want to tell Echidna that hers is a lost cause. There is no way in hell or a billion years that humans will ever coexist with you demons. This from my experience from watching dozens of similar animes! Even though this anime isn’t all that good, I’d rather give up on my day job than quitting watching anime! Not even if the whole world and the existence of humanity is at stake! Now does that look like true living to life to you, Leo?