Who is the main character of Yuusha, Yamemasu?

I'm Quitting Heroing: Next Gig Is at the Demon Queen's Castle (勇者、辞めます～次の職場は魔王城～, 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 with three volumes from December 2017 to October 2018 under their Kadokawa Books imprint. 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 six tankōbon volumes. Both 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 was announced on October 20, 2021. The series is animated by EMT Squared and directed by Hisashi Ishii, with Yuu Nobuta serving as chief director, Shigeru Murakoshi overseeing the series' scripts, Yuki Nakano designing the characters, and Kōhei Munemoto composing the music. It aired from April 5 to June 21, 2022, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11, and MBS.[1] The opening theme song is "Broken Identity" by Minori Suzuki, while the ending theme song is "Growing" by Nao Tōyama.[21][3] Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series outside of Asia.[22] Medialink has licensed the series in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania minus Australia and New Zealand.[23] A two-part original video animation was released with the series' Blu-ray/DVD volumes on June 24 and August 24, 2022.[24]

Jun 21, 2022

BowlerConspiracy

Not Recommended

"Leo, do you have any regrets?"

-- the following is a brief paragraph or two on my overall thoughts, followed by spoilers about how twists can't always save a show and/or change their predictability. reader discretion advised. --

I have a few regrets in life, I think we all do. As you rack up years and that number since your birth continues to tick upwards linearly, more and more events get stored into your brain as something that could've gone better. The little things and the big things, you can reconcile with those demons later and soften the blow, but they always exist.

My point is that ... I regret watching Yuusha, Yamemasu.

I'm Quitting Heroing is a sub-par fantasy show that continues to bore despite throwing viewers on a makeshift rollercoaster. The want to surprise and stun the audience is there, the passengers may even gasp once and a while and go "I didn't expect that", but when the carts finally stop working halfway through, everyone will remember it more as a hassle than as the experience itself. My analogy may only wring true for myself, but personally, I found I'm Quitting Heroing to be a slog that had a by-the-numbers beginning & end as well as some supposed inversions of the genre that couldn't save it.

The 'inversions' that I'm speaking of is that this is supposed to be our modern world 3000 years in the future. Leo is ACTUALLY a human scientific experiment, the last of a line of artificial human defenders, designed to uphold harmony. Easily the best episode is an exploration of that during Leo's original fight against the demon army. It's a discussion with a demon on co-existence, it sets up a reason for him to find Echidna compelling and a good leader as she reminds him of Eibrad. A quick aside: the best episode of Heroing is still not that good. It also serves as the foundation of Leo's rebirth as he quits being a hero and joins the demon army in true formula form. He resists relationships and trust in an attempt to finally end his life when... he's told to "just disable" his programming that repeats the protection of humanity order... AND IT JUST WORKS! Centuries of existence and, at some point, his 'thought masking' was disabled so he developed an ego and this was the first time this possibility was ever considered. Don't wanna be sad? This is a case where "just don't be sad bro" works. Could've done that day one and we wouldn't have to have all this jazz.

So, the majority of the show is a standard finding one's self story of Leo helping each general with their duties and a slight characterization of Leo to find out his past. He's disguised himself as 'Lord Onyx' in an attempt to show his value to Echidna without her knowing it's actually him as she holds a major distaste for the one who brought her to defeat. There feels to be countless instances of Leo about to reveal who he actually is before being interrupted by arbitrary consequence, dragging out a plot isn't something a 12 episode show should be doing at all. Then, the last few episodes are a fight that showcases each general's ability and how they get absolutely crushed by Leo followed by the turning moment for our MC where he decides to keep living which he's always wanted but that pesky off switch was ever so slightly camouflaged I guess.

A show that I didn't find unique or enjoyable, one that I intend to forget and be reminded of whenever a friend teases me on the shows I've devoted time to.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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Jun 21, 2022

mkzxwing

Not Recommended

Spoiler

*spoilers ahead*

Okay, as usual, when dealing with horrible stories i'll start off with the good, because there's not much of it... The art and sound are decent. That's LITERALLY IT.

"I quit heroing" or "How idiocy isn't cured in even 3000 years" is a story about... Well, many things. So many it completely falls apart with plot holes and lack of internal logics, and on the author/writing level fails to have a reason to focus on all the elements it has to connect together and have each of the elements be important. In other words it has a crippling identity crisis.

With the start it'd have you ... think the hero's mad about being abandoned, feared and hated, or whatever this is. For the main character in the show, who's sole purpose it was (and is) to protect humanity, we sure don't learn ANYTHING about said humanity aside them being kind of assholes to him... Which is soon forgotten, and the show lets it slide and never brings it up again after ep3~. So, what was the reason to bring all that stuff up? No reason.

Next, we have the demon queen and the four generals who he wants to join after defeating them and the whole demon army, without killing anyone... Why is that the case though? And how did they survive as an army for so long? It makes no sense as after the defeat the army collapses, but not due to losses, but due to the chain of supply breaking down... Which is understandable with how incompetent said generals are, in fact, how did it not collapse before the hero even came, all on its own?

First of all you have a fighter bonehead dragonfolk. Dumb as a brick, strong, but useless outside of that. Why is he a commander and not a high ranking soldier instead? The hero helps him learn others aren't as strong and don't know how to fight by default... The next is the same, super strong fighter but stupid, or rather, inexperienced, gullible, and uneducated, which makes sense because she's a CHILD... That's right, a literal loli with no special talents aside being strong put as yet another commander. The hero teaches her about the power of cooperation, because she apparently didn't know that despite working with the others for who knows how long. Said 'wise' hero (again, 3k years of experience, knowledge, built up wisdom, etc) fails at it multiple times too because he apparently doesn't know kids LIKE to learn and he just needs to teach it, not build intricate plans and schemes to have her realize it on her own.

The assassin. Also strong. We're not told much about him, if anything, he's supposedly gathering intel (and maybe doing assassinations but we're not told of that either), but how well he does that, and if he's a good commander..? We're not told. But probably not because he has a problem with communication! The hero helps by teaching him the basics and making him dress like a trap and work a tavern.

Finally, the ONLY semi competent commander, the strong archmage secretary, and forced workaholic. She does an amazing amount of work, heck, nearly ALL the work it seems, magic related, logistics, recruits, otherwise all paperwork and some manual magic work... This is why the army sucks, being managed by pretty much one extremely overworked and frustrated person. She also sucks as a commander... Why? She doesn't seem to know about the concept of the division of labor! The hero teaches it to her and now things are much better.

Finally, the demon queen who we're not told much of as far as her role in the army goes aside maybe general orders... We're just told she's kind and wants to save the demon realm by obtaining the philosopher's stone from the humans, she also doesn't want to cause unnecessary death and misery. She hates the hero and doesn't want him joining but agrees to take him on a trial period...

Now, WHY are those important and take about three quarters of the story along with the hero being rejected by humanity? Well here's the kicker, as i said before, ITS NOT. There is NO REASON for these characters to be there and get focus, because they don't grow or change in any manner, and helping them get over their flaws does absolutely nothing for the main plot!

What's the main plot? The hero. First we're not told much aside some weird scattered flashbacks. Then with the assassin who asks the hero why he joined and if he actually hates humanity, he finally talks about himself. He's a 3 thousand year old idiot bioweapon, in a world that didn't use to be fantasy medieval but much like ours, but then a portal to the demon realm opened and invasions started, so humanity, through some plot hole tech made a black hole generator (aka philosopher's stone) and put it as a heart in human-like bioweapons they created from demon cells and called them the demon heart series (why? their heart is the ONLY part that's NOT demon!)

And so they've been programmed/brainwashed to protect humanity, with Leon, our hero, being the weakest one (of course). All of them possessed a special skill. But all the others died in war or from old age... Except Leon who's power was to copy and level up skills, so after a while he got immune to aging, damage, strong physically and in magic, got all sorts of skills and magic tricks, etc, basically became immortal and insanely overpowered.

At first he tells the assassin he's happy humanity rejected him because he can finally live for himself... Which is bullshit so another pointless thing. Then we're told the story of some oh-so wise demon that Leon met and was concerned about him and foresaw the future because he said his whole existence is based on protecting and war, but what'd he do without it? He'd lose his whole identity (something the oh-so-wise scientists apparently didn't think of, FOR SOME REASON, lol).

This compassionate wise demon trope (much like the noble savage myth) is pretty annoying, considering that to get such wisdom, humanitarianism, compassion, knowledge, our current morals and standards (which many even today only PARTIALLY possess, and not in the whole world either), humanity had to go through thousands of years of collective wisdom, co existence, societies rising and falling, merging together and merging said values, updating and refining them, overthrowing tyrants, etc. Meanwhile in the demon world, he's of the lowest cannon fodder, who are treated like shit, in a world constantly at war, low on resources, and from the sound of it, very uncooperative (until they magically become normal in the demon queen's army).

Anyhow, more time wasted and now the final actual history and plot idea are revealed... He took a liking to the demon queen for caring about both the demons and humans, so he wants to give them the philosopher's stone, but not the one the humans have, but his own... By killing him. He wants to die (or does he?) but is too overpowered for it and apparently all that can kill him is a special spell made 'especially against him' (its also some vague bullshit thought because its said it was made against all of the demonheart series but for some reason carries HIS name) that only the demon queen can use. Which he knows of, SOMEHOW. Okay, like i even care at this point...

Except we see him take damage before, and he probably can damage himself too, why not suicide then? He can apparently also disable his 'heart' on will, and if he takes it out he dies. We're not told of all that until before he's defeated though, because this already shaky clusterfuck story would fall apart completely if we where. Next, why is he set on dying? Well, as the wise demon cannon fodder (lol) said, he felt bad when there was peace, and felt rejuvenated when there was war, or human to human conflict (because he can apparently kill humans despite his 'coding' of protecting them).

It got so bad he eventually decided to copy and recreate the demonheart series, only he'd program them to attack humanity so he can save it again. But there was some conflict that came up before he did, and after satisfying his 'protection addiction' (hah, would be a good mental disease psychological designation for anime protagonists) he realized he's becoming a monster, so he destroyed the project, and went off to seek death from the demons while also helping them by giving them his philosopher stone after which they'd retreat to the demon realm, eventually hoping they'd co-exist with humans.

So that begs the question... WHY did he befriend them? Then, why did he play the villain and beat them half to death which would (and did) hinder their ability to fight and kill him in the short window the demon queen's spell disabled his abilities? It makes NO sense. Being close to death he says he's actually lonely and wanted friends, and doesn't want to die... Then what the fuck, why not think of some other way? Surely with all that time lived you could have come with a better plan and befriend more people? He could even re-create the demonheart project as friends, or just his model if the problem was lifespan (his model is non aging after all)...

So, he just admitted he wants to live to himself, but when asked if he doesn't regret it because he won't have a chance to die in a few thousand years, he apparently "isn't sure"... What the heck? Also regarding the philosopher's stone, he WAS able to make copies of the project, meaning he could also replicate the philosopher stones that came with it... Then WHY not make and give them one of those?! Anyhow, while close to death, through the power of friendship and shitty writing, he's asked about why not try disable the command to protect humanity...

Why'd he not try or think of that before? Because he SUCCECFULLY DID JUST THAT after being given the idea, and more than programming, it was actually brainwashing, or rather, after all those years, self convincing as the show seems to put it... He recovers and they all lived happily ever after. Pure bullshit right there, surely he came across a self help book or two in his 3k year old long life? Or do they not have those in Japan/that world? Speaking of that, all of his knowledge and wisdom that's been gathered for THREE THOUSAND YEARS is worthless, he comes across as someone who's at a level of a wise middle aged man at best, and a well read teen at worst. Guess that's the author's imitated imagination and knowledge speaking.

Another question arises since he still seems interested in protecting humanity - what'd stop ANOTHER portal to open in the world and take it to all out war? Also, why does protecting humanity has nothing to do with ACTUALLY HELPING them? Because currently they live in a medieval-like time, which, let me tell you, is a HORRIBLE time to live in. No extra thought in all this either, as expected.

***

So what's the verdict? NOT worth a watch by any means, only the start was semi interesting, and by that i mean the first episode or two. 4.2/10. And that's coming from someone who came into it with zero expectations and soon had high hopes because the start was rather promising and likable... But don't let that fool you, its a nonsensical pile of unfinished ideas loosely fit together with little thought or sense to it, you won't enjoy it unless you're under 15 and/or don't yet know what's what.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Jun 21, 2022

Stark700

Not Recommended

For those who has a lot of patience and tolerate the type of show with fantasy drama about humans, beasts, and demons, then maybe you've stumbled upon the right place. If not, let's just say that I'm Quitting Heroing is the type of anime that reuses many of the same elements in today's anime market, the very definition of trying the same thing over and expecting different results.

Trust me, with the amount of isekai these days, seeing a protagonist being banished from a party, kingdom, or general population is hardly a rare sight. That's what happened to Leo, the hero who gets banished from their ... kingdom after defeating the Demon Queen Echidna and her army. With the setting taking place in a futuristic timeline, you' expect the world to be celebrating peace and prosperity. No, instead, people still live in fear of another war sparking and also suspicious of Leo himself. The fear stems from an idea that he may one day rise up to become a Demon Lord. In his position, Leo would quit as a hero and ironically decides to help Echidna rebuild her army.

Watching I'm Quitting Heroing gave me the impression that the author planned this show out like a roadmap by injecting story elements related to the past, present, and future. After his exile by the king and the human kingdom, Leo made his decison to help Echidna but at the same time, also makes new alliances such as with the Heavenly Kings. These consist of a group of characters that serves at the top of echelon in Echidna's army - Steina, Lili, Melnes, and Edwald. Rebuilding an army is easier said than done so you can imagine the amount of pressure and responsibility Leo is carrying on his shoulders. The anime does it make clear that Leo is perhaps their most important asset due to the various conflicts among the Hevenly Kings themselves. From the first few episodes, Leo realizes the tremendous task at hand. The anime also makes it clear that the Heavenly Kings each have their own flaws. It's sad because it means Leo would have to carry the rebuilding job himself and he's not even an official member of Echidna's army.

Speaking of which, the Heavenly Kings are filled with nothing but character flaws. Early in the show, we see how incompetent Steina and Lili can be when their plans go wrong. Despite having some natural traits, the anime makes the two characters look like tools. Melnes also gives a unfavorable impression with his shy and introvert-like personality. There's a specific episode reveals more about Melnes' personality but let's just say that he's the lonewolf type who practically lives his role as an assassin. Finally, there's Edwald who I can describe as the 'muscle' of the group. When you combine these characters together, you get an cast of oddballs that will make you roll your eyes.

What about Leo? He quit being a hero but what's his real purpose now? That's a qood question to ask yourself because Leo himself seems to have lost a purpose in life. A main plot element of this show is Leo's personal journey to discover his new purpose. Being feared for his power by the very people he once fought took a toll on his psyche. Let's face it, Leo deserves respect and honor than being banished and feared. Similarly, Echidna herself has a reptuation, at least according to rumors. But upon watching this show and looking closely, it's shown that she's a relaxing character who enjoys food, company with her comrades, and even has a somewhat childish personality. When she later meets Leo, it's shown that the two can get along quite well, almost like friends. Unfortunately, circumstances obviously can't allow them to be best buddies. In later episodes, the anime's story hit its peak with Leo putting his plans into motion, secrets and revelations being revealed, and the story exploding with effects that changes their world forever.

As I said before, the author really seems to have a roadmap planned out from the start. Even the director seems to have known this with the anime adaptation by planning out the first and second half of this 12-episode series. From the buildup, character presentations, and story development, it's actually somewhat clever. However, the anime still falls into a pitfall of lazy writing mostly with the lack of character development and mediocre plot. I'm Quitting Heroing may have taken some risks but it didn't take those risks to reach a level on its own.

Even the animation production qualiy falls short on its feet with its average character designs. Characters looks especially generic and unoriginal with Echidna's scarlet dress and demon horns. Leo has that Kirito-esque look that you've probably seen hundreds of times from light novel adaptations. Likewise, the Heavenly Kings does have some distinctive looks but none speaks for its uniqueness. The most annoying one among the group is Lili with her childish feature and character expressions. However, I will say that one concept of the show with its timeline is mildy interesting dealing with its futuristc medieval-like setting. The anime carefully made backgrounds look like a work of art on some instances even from the beginning. If anything, I do give credit where credit is due there.

I'm Quitting Heroing feels like the type of anime that got adapted because the industry wants another fantasy drama with a banished hero. We get one practically every season now so having one in Spring 2022 is a way to continue the streak. But hey, maybe if you're new to this type of genre, it can be a sweet treat. For me, this was a sight for sore eyes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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Is mernes a girl or boy in yuusha yamemasu?

Is Leo Demonheart the weakest?

Does Echidna love Leo?

How old is Leo in Yuusha Yamemasu?