Sentenced to Be a Hero is not your typical fantasy anime. It’s not hard to see that, really. One look at the novel series of the same name by writer Rocket Shokai, and you can tell that this story is far darker than your usual fantasy. Especially since this fantasy world is a world where the title of “hero” is a prison sentence for heinous crimes. Curious? Well, fortunately, we won’t have to wait that long to see it.

Kadokawa Animation is proud to announce that Sentenced to Be a Hero will soon make its debut worldwide. The official debut date will be sometime in January 2026, although which streaming service will be streaming it is still up in the air at the moment. However, this dark fantasy anime will have an early premiere screening that will take place on December 12, 2025 at Anime Frontier in the Fort Worth Convention Center. You can find the full details of that premiere screening below:

Event Information – Anime Frontier

The dark fantasy gets even darker when the main characters are all part of a penal unit.

Date & Time： December 12（Friday）3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CT

Location： Fort Worth Convention Center – ROOM 202AB

Content： The premiere screening of “Sentenced to Be a Hero” Episode 1 

Sentenced to Be a Hero Premiering in January 2026, and Earlier on December 12, 2025 in Premiere Screening

Sentenced to Be a Hero textless key art 2
Even the key art screams “Dark fantasy!”.

To be honest, Sentenced to Be a Hero seems like a pretty interesting dark fantasy anime. From the looks of the trailer, it looks like the sword and sorcery counterpart to 86, which is another anime with a fairly dark story, but is more of a mecha military science fiction story. If you’re a fan of that kind of dark and dramatic story, then you might be interested in this one.

What do you all think? Are you interested in checking out Sentenced to Be a Hero when it makes its debut? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.