So Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 is still a very fresh release, and honestly, after watching the first 6 episodes, I can already tell that this anime did not come to play, wait for it...
First of all, I love how it flips the whole hero idea, in anime being a hero is a big deal, it means power , glory and recognition, alot of people think it is great, but in this series , the heroes are criminals facing punishment.
So Imagine this, you do something and instead of going to jail you have to be a hero and fight in a war. You do not even get to choose if you want to fight or not, the really bad part is that if you get hurt and die you do not even get to stay dead, you come back to life and go back to fight again,
The series calls being a hero a kind of punishment, from that aspect it looks pretty interesting ,the concept alone really got my attention, I mean that concept is what caught my interest from the start when I first say a trailer of the series, that concept is really something that got me hooked.
The story follows Xylo Forbartz, he used to be a respected commander.. Then something crazy happened, he was accused of killing a goddess, That is a big accusation, Now Xylo Forbartz has nothing, he has to be in charge of Penal Hero Unit 9004.
This group is made up of criminals, they are not stable, they are not safe, you never know what they will do, just thinking about it is crazy.
What I like so far in these 6 episodes is the tone of the series, the tone is dark. It does not feel like it is trying too hard to be edgy, the world of the series actually feels like a place. The battles in the series feel brutal and real too. When the characters fight it is not glamorous all. You can see the pain that they are in, the desperation that they feel and the madness that comes from being forced into a war that they cannot escape from.
The resurrection part, that is where it gets really interesting, death does not mean relief, It is just reset and suffer again, the psychological angle of the anime is what makes it stand out for me, the anime is not about swords and magic it is about the punishment and the regret and the survival and questioning the system that made all this possible.
Then there is Teoritta, the Sword Goddess, I will not want to lie, I am still trying to understand Teoritta character ,Teoritta is really interesting and she adds a mysterious feeling to the story of Teoritta and to the other characters. The way Teoritta is connected to Xylo feels like it is important, It feels like there is something happening that we do not know about yet and I think the real surprise, with Teoritta and Xylo has not even started.
The animation is solid. It is not mind-blowing, but it is good enough to carry the action scenes well, The way the characters fight is believable. Some scenes were really surprising, the fight scenes, in the anime have a lot of energy, the music makes them feel even more exciting.
I am really curious to see how they will finish the release, I am halfway through the 12 planned episodes of the new release, the new release has 6 episodes out far and from what I have seen in these 6 episodes of the release it seems like the writers of the new release know what they are doing. The new release does not feel over the place. The new release feels like it is going somewhere on purpose. It seems like everything that is happening now in the release will be important later, in the yet to be released episodes.
I do not think this is a masterpiece yet since It is still early, It definitely promises a strong ending if they keep this momentum going with the story.
The concept of the story is really unique, the characters, in the story are complex, they have ve many layers. The world they created is interesting enough to keep me watching the series.
And for a new anime, that is already a win, and yeah, I will be waiting for the remaining episodes.
Images Gotten From IMDB
Aikay👾