The AnimeJapan 2025 panel for the TV anime adaptation of Rocket Shokai’s Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 light novel series confirmed the anime’s October 2025 premiere. A new promotional video was also released alongside a visual and details on the anime’s staff.
The staff of the Sentenced to Be a Hero anime series includes:
- Anime Director: Hiroyuki Takashima (Studio KAI)
- Assistant Director and Creature Designer: Yoshitake Nakakōji
- Scriptwriter: Kenta Ihara
- Character Designer: Takeshi Noda
- Music Composer: Shunsuke Takizawa
- Worldbuilding: Nobutaka Ike
- Prop Designer: Kouta Sugawa
The cast includes:
- Yōhei Azakami as Xylo Forbartz
- Mayu Iizuka as Teoritta
- Shizuka Ishigami as Patausche Kivia
- Shun Horie as Dotta Luzulas
- Shunichi Toki as Venetim Leopool
Rocket Shokai launched the light novel series on Kadokawa’s Kakuyomu website in October 2020, and Kadokawa publishes the series in print with illustrations by Mephisto. The seventh volume released on January 17. Natsume Inoue launched the manga adaptation in Dengeki Comic Regulus in March 2022. BookWalker Global releases the manga digitally in English.
Here’s an overview of the novel series, via publisher Yen Press:
Heroism—a punishment for only the worst criminals. Those sentenced to the fate of a hero are forced to fight at the front lines against the demon king’s army—and if they die, they can expect to be revived and continue the battle. But when their leader, convicted of killing a goddess, meets another goddess himself, the contract they forge may be enough to change the world…
