I’m Quitting Heroing - Reviews

This show is basically two separate stories mashed together in a jarring way. In the first half you have a slapstick/fantasy/daily life combination story with a human hero who is forcefully "retired" and goes to work for the demon army. Then we spend several episodes being introduced to each of the main demon cast and their personal/professional problems.

Up to this point the show is mediocre and a bit cliche, but nothing bad. If this formula had persisted for all twelve episodes, I probably would have rated this a 6.5/10. But that isn't what happens. The author takes a super weird twist into almost Evangelion-esque territory with some weird existential questions including what it means to "be alive" or "have purpose". But the real problem is that the author handles all of these topics extremely poorly.

To kind of sum up the problem with the writing, we can think back to the episode of Dragon Ball where Krillin is fighting Bacterian and is losing due to the overwhelming stench of the villain. All looks dire for Krillin until Goku helpfully shouts out "Krillin, you don't have a nose!" And with that, Krillin realizes the truth, recovers immediately, and easily beats the villain. This kind of scene happens extremely similarly in I'm Qutting Heroing, and it's the climax of the show. You're left dumdfounded by the sheer idiocy since it isn't meant to be comedic in the same way Dragon Ball was. It's the same kind of "just stop being depressed" trope that you see in memes... but in actual storytelling. The show and some of its fans may want you to think it's got some super deep George R.R. Martin level of story but this show is as close to A Song of Ice and Fire as Peppa Pig is.

That anti-climatic climax pretty much sums up everything wrong with the second half of the show. And as such, it drops the score from a 6.5 to a 4. I'd say you could probably stop watching entirely at around episode 7 or 8 and be perfectly content with the story. 

You've been warned.

I never write reviews but I feel the others given just drive people away from an actually decent anime. It's not ground breaking stuff and definitely isn't my favorite anime of all time but I definitely think it's decent (even if it does mostly pick up at the end). This anime deals with the common tropes it uses better than most other anime I've seen. The overpowered protagonist is given an actually interesting reason as to why he's OP. The motives of the MC aren't one dimensional and actually create an interesting twist near the end. (The show isn't finished at the time of writing this; written on episiode 11)

This anime has a high rating from viewers because it's a perfectly fine anime for passing time. There's nothing wrong with the story, art, or whatever else. It's not a masterpiece, but certainly not what could be called "bad".

I don't review often but I'm shocked to see this is averaging 4/5* - if you'll allow me to expand on this, dropped at 9/12 episodes since there is no potential at this point for this series.

While the overall package is low quality, the most critical offender is the story/writing: the cast is decent but the 'plot' is some of the most contrived and predictable BS you can ever view. If you looked at this series hoping for something akin to Maoyuu, this ain't it chief.

The plot revolves around an overpowered MC that already won, gets outcast(?) by the human kingdom, and then on a whim decides to try and join the demon army HE thrashed.

* Interim point: how did a guy that SINGLE-HANDLEDLY destroyed the invasion of demon armies get outcast? He's strong enough to destroy the world at this point, who on earth would even try and defy that? Be real. This point is just accepted by everyone because... because if it didn't happen the story can't exist (problem #1) *

The Demon Lord, a young girl (who also got her ass handed to her by the MC) says he can't join because... because he'd cause problems?

* Interim point: Same as #1, it's just ACCEPTED by the characters that she CAN even reject his offer (because otherwise the plot can't exist) - the same person who is able to destroy everything you hold dear without your consent is offering an alliance/subservience. Again, it's completely nonsensical. *

She says no, he goes 'incognito' and works for her generals (one of which is a literal child and is proven to be so incompetent it really begs the question as to how this is a legitimate story), during which he tries to 'assist' the demon army to try and build trust with the Demon Lord.

* Interim point: His described motive is to understand why this Demon Lord started the war - again, he could have just threatened her to tell him or otherwise. If he did that however, we'd have no story - again.. contrived.

During his espionage, the MC builds rapport with each general before revealing himself to the Demon Lord, who accepts it. During this time we learn that the MC is an ancient superweapon made by the humans who has lived for many years.

* Interim point(s): The ancient humans weren't able to fight off the demon invasions several times even though they had a dozen super OP characters like the MC? and the technology to make them? Somehow humanity 'lost' all their knowledge and became medieval amongst all the demon invasion? Again, it just doesn't add up - but if you don't accept it, the story doesn't work.

After this we're 2/3rds done into the anime cour and the MC tries to do even more dumb and contrived actions that it's just clear there is no redemption for this anime.

Other factors:

* Animation is (Very) Limited Budget Works - not Nanatsu no Taizai's level of bad but don't expect anything that looks good.

* Sound is passable, opening doesn't fit this plot and there are no noticable soundtracks of mention.

* Characters are suprisingly good if you can ignore what the plot says they are, they are not anywhere near competent enough to be called 'generals' but some clearly have their own struggles, growth, and balanced interactions with the MC.

„I’m quitting heroin“ is nickname for the series from the forums, which stuck in my head, but what about the anime itself? In the beginning this seem like typical fantasy with the trope of working for daemon lord army usually as one of the four generals. It’s kind of nice and fun dealing with daemon lord’s faction management, but as the story continues and main protagonist Leo reveals more and more of his motivation and backstory there is shift towards more serious drama arc. Mainly a search for meaning and purpose in life. The story does have action, but it isn’t the main point of the story. It's more tailored for those who enjoy more story about friendship and social interactions moving one further in life and some comedy. Even the settings which seemed as unoriginal have interesting lore [1]. One the side note and just to be clear the part of Leo switching sides short time after he decimated daemon lord and her armies is funny. It’s a good thing to spur interest in viewer.
It has the predictable trope of daemon lord being actually quite nice guy in this case gal. It’s typical for this type of series. It’s also typically dealing only with handful of characters, there isn’t that much wide cast of side characters MC is interacting with. I expected more romcom elements, but there are almost none [2]. The pacing was at moments quite slow. It didn’t build up enough connection with me as viewer so I wouldn’t felt need to skip during moments which were supposed to be emotional [3]. The ending was no surprise [4]. While I think I did enjoy the ride for the most part the series isn’t overall that great for me. It’s slightly above average. It did try to do something interesting, but fell bit flat.

Spoilers

[1] It’s not a generic fantasy world, but earth in distant future after it changed due to daemonic invasion.

[2] Maybe the scene with the Echidna and Leo before the end is a hint, if there is any continuation of the story.

[3] When characters were trying to convince Leo he should live.

[4] Leo forcing his new friends to kill him and nothing changing much the time final credits roll out in the last episode.