The Legendary Hero is Dead falls under one of the more unusual shows I’ve found myself watching.  In this anime the legendary hero is a powerful warrior named Sion who protects the world from demons; however, he sadly falls into a pitfall trap set by Touka Scott to stop demons and dies.  Now the world is left without a hero; however, a necromancer places the soul of Touka into the body of the hero in order for a new hero to emerge.

The premise of this show is so weird and unique and I absolutely love it.  The concept is so bizarre that I’m surprised it even exists and how Sion manages to die is so out there that it’s hilarious.  The story of the hero having to seal the gates of hell to stop the spread of demons is a very common them; however, I feel like that was a smart idea as it gives the show more time to focus on the unique problems faced with being essentially a zombie.  Touka has very unusual pitfalls before him as at times he looks and smells like a corpse and is forced to pretend to be someone he’s not.  It adds to the fact that on the surface Touka and Sion are very different people.  Sion is the textbook hero and has an incredible reputation but Touka is someone that uses underhanded tactics, snide remarks and has a very unhealth obsession with thighs and I’m not talking about chicken.

Touka himself starts off pretty insufferable.  He’s selfish, perverted, greedy, basically all of the traits that you would never expect in a hero.  It was to the point where I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to continue watching the show; however, I’m glad I did because then in later episodes we get to see that Touka is a deceptively complicated character.  He actually comes with a deep and powerful backstory that explains a lot of his traits and shows more traits under the surface that reveal a character that can embody the aspects of a hero even if he takes a different approach to get there.

The humor in this show is amazing.  I didn’t love all of it as some of the jokes got a little too out there for me but those weren’t all that common.  The rest of the humor, jokes and gags are pretty hilarious.   I watched this show in the dub and Ricco Fajardo as Touka was a brilliant touch.  Some of his lines were so incredibly funny that I found myself going back to listen to them again and they come almost out of nowhere so as a viewer I was caught off guard not expecting the sudden shift in tone which worked perfectly. 

The supporting cast of characters are pretty interesting as you have a necromancer, Anri, which is very unusual for a hero’s party and Touka’s childhood friend Yuna.  These characters bounce very well off of each other as Yuna is the more morally grounded but emotionally hot headed character and Anri is surprisingly innocent in nature which curbs Touka’s perversion to a degree.  More characters come and go throughout the season and they tend to fall under one of three categories, useless comic relief, side character with a good back story or an enemy.  Throughout the show I really couldn’t find one character that I thought was just unentertaining.  Though I did find some of the gags a little forced like how one of the enemies is constantly having a runny nose. 

Overall The Legendary Hero is Dead is a show that can be tough to watch in the first few episodes despite it’s unique premise because the lead Touka seems to be as insufferable as possible.  However, that later becomes one of the highlights of the show as you really dive more into this character to find out not only is he amazing but heroic in his own way.  You’ve got some amazing humor in this show combined with characters that work well together.  There is a lot of fanservice in this show and I know it’s not for everyone so if you’re someone that is not a fan of it I believe there is so much of it that you wouldn’t enjoy watching it; however, for those who are fine with that it’s a fun show even if some parts of it were a little much or cringy.