The staff of the television anime of Rocket Shokai’s Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004 (Yūsha-kei ni Shosu: Chōbatsu Yūsha 9004-tai Keimu Kiroku) light novel series revealed the cast for two new characters that appeared in the anime’s seventh episode on Thursday.
Yū Sugimoto as Shiji Bau
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
©2024 Rocket Shokai/KADOKAWA/Project Sentenced to Be a Hero
Shinichirō Miki as Būjamu
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
©2024 Rocket Shokai/KADOKAWA/Project Sentenced to Be a Hero
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
©2024 Rocket Shokai/KADOKAWA/Project Sentenced to Be a Hero
The anime debuted on January 3 at 10:00 p.m. on Tokyo MX, with a first episode 60-minute special. The second episode aired on January 15, with subsequent episodes airing on Thursdays. The anime airs on 28 channels across Japan. Amazon Prime Video in Japan started streaming the series on January 3, and other sites started on January 6. Crunchyroll streams the series as it airs, and also streams a same-day English dub.
The anime was originally scheduled to premiere in October, but was delayed.
The anime stars:
Hiroyuki Takashima (Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation episode director, The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls U149 OVA assistant director) is directing the anime at Studio KAI. Yoshitake Nakakōji is the assistant director, and is also credited as creature designer. Kenta Ihara (Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy-, Ishura, Nukitashi the Animation) is writing and supervising the series’ scripts. Takeshi Noda (DAN DA DAN sub-character designs) is designing the characters. Shunsuke Takizawa is composing the music. Nobutaka Ike is credited for worldbuilding. Kouta Sugawa is the prop designer.
SPYAIR performs the theme song “Kill the Noise.”
Yen Press is releasing the novel series in English, and it describes the story:
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…
Shokai launched the light novel series on Kadokawa’s Kakuyomu site in October 2020, and Kadokawa began publishing the series in print in September 2021 with illustrations by Mephisto. Kadokawa released the eighth volume on January 17.
Natsumi Inoue launched the novel’s manga adaptation on Kadokawa’s Dengeki Comic Regulus website in March 2022. Kadokawa published the manga’s second compiled book volume in April 2024. BookWalker Global is releasing the manga digitally in English. Yen Press will release the manga in English starting in June 2026.
Source: Press release
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
