REVIEW WITH SPOILER

VISUALS and CHARACTERS
One of the anime with the best animation quality every movement is very dynamic and smooth. The character expressions are very noticeable, especially in Teoritta’s scenes. The landscape shots are also well done, and the color tone selection, sometimes dark and sometimes bright, fits perfectly with the mood of each situation. What I really like is the transition from third person to first person perspective during battles, which feels very immersive. The character designs are not monotonous either, especially the central characters and the royal knights, who look very dignified.

STORY and DEVELOPMENT
The anime tells the story of a group of people who committed “major” crimes and were punished by being turned into heroes, an army that will be continuously revived to fight demons forever. The core plot itself isn’t entirely new, there’s a church faction secretly cooperating with demons for the demons’ victory. However, this truth hasn’t been revealed because the church and the kingdom have full control over the people.

What’s interesting is the concept of “heroes” itself. In this anime, the title of _hero _is actually a punishment more humiliating and cruel than death. Society looks at them with disgust, seeing them as unforgivable sinners. Eventually, we learn that those punished as heroes are people who know the truth that humans are siding with demons so they are silenced. This is similar to our main character, Xylo. Even though he was one of the captains of the royal knights, he was punished and turned into a hero after killing Senerva (his contract goddess before Teoritta). In reality, he was forced to do so because Senerva had begun turning into a demon, and he wanted to prevent a demon from being reborn with a goddess’s power.

After realizing he was framed by the church and sentenced as a hero, Xylo (MC) becomes very indifferent and distrustful of both the royal knight and the church. This begins to change when the hero squad and royal knights are pushed back by the Demon Lord’s threat, forcing Xylo (MC) to reopen old wounds and form a new contract with the goddess Teoritta. Then Kivia (The Knight Commander), who monitors Xylo (MC), appears someone who firmly believes in justice and goodness without knowing the full truth.

The development between Xylo (MC) and Kivia (The Knight) is very well done. Xylo (MC) slowly opens up and starts trusting others beyond his hero squad, while Kivia (The Knight) gradually realizes that the hero squad isn’t truly evil and begins investigating the truth. The concept of goddesses in this anime is also interesting, they are ancient artifacts used to defeat demons. These artifacts only activate when someone forms a contract with them. As payment, after helping their partner win the war, they only want to be praised and have their head patted. This is actually quite sad, considering they are sometimes portrayed as demon destroying machines that are overly hungry for praise.

In terms of plot and action, this anime feels very epic. What feels lacking is the “soul” of the story I found it hard to fully connect emotionally. Even though Xylo’s (MC) development and Kivia (The Knight) learning the truth especially discovering that the uncle who raised her supported demons and then being punished as a hero should have been very emotional, it felt too brief, so it didn’t leave a strong impression.

FAVORITE CHARACTER
Every character in this anime is interesting because they each have distinct personalities, like Teoritta (The Goddess), who is very energetic and cheerful even in the middle of war. However, I still choose Kivia (The Knight) as my favorite, because her design, personality, and character development are the most appealing to me.