I’m Quitting Heroing: An Anime's Profound Exploration of Identity and Purpose

I’m Quitting Heroing

Have you ever viewed an anime and wondered, "Is this even an anime, or is the developer desperately trying to get help?" Or, better yet, is this anime attempting to strike a nerve by telling Japan's many salarymen and women that there is more to life than work? Could it also subconsciously be pushing for a greater focus on mental health and mental illness in Japan? Maybe I’m overreaching, but don’t be deceived; anime has often addressed abandonment, abuse, neglect, and finding oneself. Some are very overt, and others are not so overt. Such themes frequently find their way into all anime demographics (shojo, shonen, seinen, and Josei) with varying degrees of success. I’m Quitting Heroing is the spring 2022 entry.

I'm Quitting Heroing: Next Gig Is at the Demon Queen's Castle (also known as Yūsha, Yamemasu: Tsugi no Shokuba wa Maōjō) is a Japanese fantasy light novel series written by Quantum and illustrated by Hana Amano. It was serialized online from January to February 2017 on Kadokawa's user-generated novel publishing website, Kakuyomu.

It was later published by Fujimi Shobo in three volumes from December 2017 to October 2018 under their Kadokawa Books imprint. The three volumes were later reprinted by the Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint from February 19 to April 20, 2022. Kadokawa is publishing an English digital release on its BookWalker website.

A manga adaptation with art by Nori Kazato has been serialized online via Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace Up website since May 2018 and has been collected in eight tankōbon volumes. The light novel and manga are licensed in North America by Kadokawa, with Yen Press handling the manga's physical release. An anime television series adaptation produced by EMT Squared aired from April to June 2022.

An anime television series adaptation was announced on October 20, 2021. The series is animated by EMT Squared and directed by Hisashi Ishii (Rainy Cocoa in Hawaii, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear), with Yuu Nobuta serving as chief director. Yuu Nobuta was the director of High School Fleet; one day, I’ll get around to watching and reviewing it. But KanColle is up next. In any case, the scripts for the series were overseen by Shigeru Murakoshi, Yuki Nakano designed the characters, and the music was composed by Kōhei Munemoto. It aired from April 5 to June 21, 2022.

Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series outside of Asia and it is available for viewing on HIDIVE. Medialink has licensed the series in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania, minus Australia and New Zealand. A two-part original video animation was released with the series' Blu-ray/DVD volumes on June 24 and August 24, 2022. Finally, the executives put their heads together and released a complete collection. I'm Quitting Heroing: Complete Collection (Blu-ray) was released on January 24, 2023.

You know all this information we include above, and in many of the articles we write, it is simply for anime heads like myself, and I know that other people like me get very immersed in the details as to who produces, writes, composes, etc. So, if you read all that, leave a comment below, sign up for my email list, and maybe I'll send you a t-shirt or something. Nevertheless, let's get to this story.

“I'm Quitting Heroing" is an action, adventure, comedy, and fantasy anime disguised as an isekai. It has all the usual trappings, such as Demon Lords, Overpowered Protagonists, and a waifu or two, but none of the overblown fanservice that often accompanies such fare.

The story follows Leo Demonheart, a hero, savior of the world, and defeater of the Queen's Army. Hero finds himself in a bit of a pickle, overpowered, and very good at his job. He's fired from the very job he was hired to do, which was to be a hero, defeat the Demon Lord, and protect humanity.

Having seen his great might against the demon lord and her generals, the people mistrust Leo. They do not want to be under his control and view him as someone who might turn on them. There are rumors that Leo might be staring toward the throne next. Leo's popularity and influence also start to make the king uneasy. Kudos to the King for not being afraid of how powerful you are.

Leo feels wounded and shocked at this unanticipated response, even after all his noble acts. Rather than being rewarded, he discovers he is lonely and ostracized. My dude is unemployed, so he seeks out the Queen and makes his case to the four generals: Edvard, Lily, Shutina, and Mernes.

So when all else fails and Facebook fires your ass, I guess you go across the street to Twitter (X) to find another job.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend....

Not entirely, because in his comedic hubris, Queen Echidna burns him, his business wear, and his plans to ash, and rightly so, as he is not in her great graces after defeating her. But what else can a determined hero do besides go behind her back and convince her four generals to allow him the opportunity to prove himself worthy of hire?

After all, your Highness needs to be more organized. Everything is broken down, you have financial problems, and your army is depleted. Because you're on the other side of the human world, you're using humans as troops. Oh, and one more thing: as a side note, this anime has 12 episodes, and from the start to the end, they never fixed the castle; it was always busted up.

Basically, Leo is an intern, as there isn’t any mention of pay, although he refers to himself as a temp. Unless he wants to marry Lily, that may be more work in itself, but that’s the price you pay when you defeat a demi-human.

Going behind the Queen's back, the four generals, also known as the “Elite Four,” with each being defeated by Leo, agree to take him in, and almost immediately, he gets results. Unfortunately, he can't run around getting those results as Leo because if Queen Echidna found out, it would be “trouble trouble” (in my Jamie Foxx voice).

Don't worry; Shutina, one of the four generals, bucks the succubus stereotype and helps Leo remain in disguise. She was the first to be impressed by his abilities. I'm not sure how I missed it the first time, but once Leo realized that Shutina was a succubus, he focused on her, trying to entice her to win a kiss or two for his efforts.

Shigeru Murakoshi, the series composer, does an excellent job organizing the story. Most anime would start with an introduction to the main characters and the backstory of the four generals, and then more about the two main characters, the climax, and the ending, or something to that effect.

Most anime are linear. But Murakoshi goes a different route, weaving in and out of the story, teaching us the ways of the business world while providing enough backstory to make the viewer invest in the characters. For example, I like that once Leo became the Black Onyx Knight, they wasted no time getting him to the queen, which we see in episode 4. Instead of introducing the four generals conventionally and then spending half the anime covering their arc, they threw a wrench into that, which was adequate.

An excellent supporting character can bring the best out of the hero.

Now, the four generals comprise much of the story and are more or less walking tropes, and by tropes, I mean you’ve seen these types of characters portrayed in other anime. But when used in a career context, they represent different workplace lessons, as Leo played the role of mentor due to their handling of various aspects of the Queen’s kingdom, such as assigning the right person to the right job in the case of Shutina.

Forcing someone into the situation as opposed to saying, "Hey, try this," which was the lesson Leo himself was reminded of when working with Lily and “Common knowledge to you but not to me.” That one was Edvard’s lesson, and I don't know if that's what they were going for, but what were they trying to say? Edvard is a boomer, and boomers think everyone should approach work like they did in the good old days.

Of the four, Mernes was the most relatable to me, as he was an introvert, and his work issues were communication and being more sociable. Mernes was more so, as he was a half-human, half-demon, was sold into slavery, and later became an assassin. Of the four generals, he is the only one who, like Leo, joined the Queen’s Army under pretenses, assuming he would have the opportunity to exact revenge on the humans who shunned him.

However, in Leo’s case, this was not quite the story. Mernes, voiced by Yumi Uchiyama, is the most insightful and sees into the depths of Leo’s psyche, even though Leo isn’t precisely human. Maybe they relate this to their androgyny, as Leo isn’t exactly male or female but is acting out his role as a hero.

So, who is Leo if he is neither masculine nor female? Leo has been around for about three millennia, or 3,000 years. He and 11 others were the pinnacle of human creation, with the mission of saving humanity. He is all that remains of their kind. His job became his identity, one that he had difficulty breaking. Despite being stuck in an endless cycle of career hell in 2060, he receives solid advice from Eibrad, a proud Imp from the Dark Valley. Eibrad becomes a legend through time as he believes in the coexistence of demons and humans, a theme that resonates with Queen Echidna. Though he and his subsequent teachings are the story of legend, his words shape her into the noble queen she becomes.

While Eibrad is a minor character, he brings the story full circle. He tells Leo to live as he wants when he is no longer a hero. In some way, Eibrad reminds me of a retiree who wishes they had focused more on what is essential instead of working so much.

Those words have never been more valid because, as time marches on, Leo is slowly breaking down, falling somewhere between burnout and a crisis of existence. It is at this point that Queen Echidna takes center stage. For much of the anime, she has been in Leo’s shadow, though she is in charge, and it is her sacred duty to reassign the lost employee to a position of purpose and direction before the series concludes. A healthy leader-subordinate relationship, "iron sharpens iron," so to speak, and although it may appear that Leo was teaching her, it was her turn to teach him.

Queen Echidna's kindness was the secret sauce to Leo's character development. While EMT Square's animation and art will not win any awards, they support the story and make us feel everything.

Having a large budget, a successful studio, and high expectations are the holy grails of anime, so when everything is working as it should, it's considered a miracle. EMT Square used its funding to its fullest potential to produce this anime. Although the art and animation aren't impressive or groundbreaking, they aren't aesthetically demanding.

What they do have going for them is a knack for enhancing the plot and conveying the characters' emotions. The anime employs this knack ineffectively at times. On occasion, the break in tension is glaring, but on other occasions, such as in episode 9, when Leo is conversing with Echidna, it is expertly executed. Lily stops what they're doing halfway up the slope to announce their success. This stunning animation and artwork feature Lily gazing up at the sky, her eyes meeting the sun. This scene and the accompanying music set the tone for a splendid crescendo.

The opening theme song is "Broken Identity" by Minori Suzuki, while the ending theme song is "Growing" by Nao Tōyama. Initially, I wasn't a fan of the opening theme, but the more I listened to it and read the translated words, the more it grew on me. I like the ending; it fits the anime and shows its light-hearted side.

The second ending, "de messiah" by Nao Tōyama (eps 8-11), was used starting from episode 8. When I first watched this anime in March, everything was building up to the crescendo, and we got to episode 8 when "de messiah" came on. I was like, "Oh snap!" On subsequent watches, I wonder if they should have had it at episode 8 or episode 9. However, it doesn't matter; it's on my Spotify playlist, so there's that. The song is a banger, in my opinion.

With that being said, I could prattle on about this anime. It should be obvious that I liked it, and on subsequent watches, I find more and more things that I may have missed the first time. The pacing moves slowly sometimes, and it doesn't have that immediate aha moment. Still, particular anime make more sense as I get older, especially regarding topics I can relate to, such as being mistreated at work, needing identity, and finding meaning in life. Honestly, the grind has a way of wearing you down to the point of becoming a machine.

If there's one thing I've learned from this anime, it should be that I should learn to live life on my terms, devoid of outside influences, to the best of my ability. I picked up that from the least apparent character—not the imp that Leo met in 2060, but Lily. As sick as it seems, Lily grew on me, becoming one of my favorite characters near the end because she represents Leo's heart and emotions and the innocence Leo lacked. She is what we used to be when work was new; maybe we could become it again.

Definitely not! Because work is terrible, do those things that we find significant outside of work. So, that aside, is this anime worth watching? Well, if you've read to the end, you already know my opinion, so it's up to you to watch the first three episodes and decide for yourself.