Anime series Sentenced to Be a Hero debuted with an impressive 9.4 rating on IMDb last week, and fans couldn’t help but declare it a “lovechild” of two of the most popular anime shows, Solo Leveling and Clevatess.

The first episode, titled Punishment: Kuvunji Forest Withdrawal Support, dropped on Crunchyroll on 3 January with a runtime of 58 minutes. It instantly garnered a 9.4/10 rating on IMDb — this is higher than almost every episode of Solo Leveling.

At the time this report was published, the series had an average rating of five stars and over 20,000 reviews on Crunchyroll.

Soon after the premiere of the anime, fans took to social media to appreciate the animation style and dark fantasy elements.

“Sentenced to be a Hero is the love child of Solo Leveling and Clevatess,” wrote a fan on X.

The protagonist Xylo from Sentenced to be a Hero, a condemned ‘goddess killer’, gets forced into endless loops of fighting and resurrection, similar to how Solo Leveling’s Sung Jinwoo levels up his power constantly in order to provide for his family and find a cure for his ailing mother.

Clevatess, which came out in 2025, strayed away from the generic tropes of the isekai genre and offered a dark fantasy experience on par with Berserk and Claymore. Like Clevatess, Sentenced to Be a Hero features a dark world where heroes take on difficult missions, with a similar 2D, hand-drawn animation style.

“It’s easily one of the best first episodes I’ve seen in a while. It’s actually PEAK,” another fan said. “It’s an hour-long episode that establishes the world & its characters with fantastic pacing, S tier art, engaging voice acting, drama, politics and top tier action. It hit on all cylinders for me. I really don’t have anything to complain about so far,” he added.

An X user called Sentenced to be a Hero “absolute cinema”.

Sentenced to Be a Hero is set in a world where heroism is a punishment. Xylo Forbartz, a condemned goddess killer, battles endless hordes of monstrous abominations as part of Penal Hero Unit 9004. Death is no escape, only a cycle of resurrection and relentless combat. But when Xylo encounters a mysterious new goddess, their unlikely alliance sparks a rebellion that could shatter the chains of eternal punishment.

“I knew Sentenced To Be A Hero is gonna be good when I saw Hiroyuki Takashima taking the helm as director. It's an incredibly EXPLOSIVE premiere. The hype is valid,” came another review from a fan on X.

Some fans of the original light novel series, however, were a bit disappointed with the anime adaptation as the makers censored the design of the character Teoritta.

The second episode of Sentenced to Be a Hero is set to drop on Crunchyroll on 15 January.