Kadokawa announced an early screening of the TV anime adaptation of Rocket Shokai’s Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 light novel series will be held. A screening for the one-hour first episode of Sentenced to Be a Hero will be held at the Lucca Comics & Games 2025 event in Italy on October 30 at 12:00 p.m. local time, and a special stage event will be held at Anime x Game Festival in South Korea on December 7 at 3:30 p.m.
Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 premieres in January 2026. Originally, the anime was initially meant to air in October 2025.
The cast and staff for the anime include:
Cast
- Yōhei Azakami as Xylo Forbartz
- Mayu Iizuka as Teoritta
- Shizuka Ishigami as Patausche Kivia
- Shun Horie as Dotta Luzulas
- Shunichi Toki as Venetim Leopool
- Yōji Ueda as Noragalle Senridge
- Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Tatsuya
- Jun Fukushima as Tsav
- Shōya Chiba as Jayce
- Yōko Hikasa as Neely
Staff
- Director: Hiroyuki Takashima
- Studio: Studio KAI
- Assistant Director: Yoshitake Nakakōji
- Scriptwriter: Kenta Ihara
- Character Designer: Takeshi Noda
- Music Composer: Shunsuke Takizawa
- Worldbuilding: Nobutaka Ike
- Prop Designer: Kouta Sugawa
Rocket Shokai’s hit novel series debuted in October 2020 on Kadokawa’s Kakuyomu site. Since then, Kadokawa publishes the series with illustrations by Mephisto.
Lastly, 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…
