Crunchyroll’s Biggest 2026 Anime Just Revealed It’s Secretly an Isekai

Crunchyroll has been taking over the Winter 2026 anime schedule with a number of major exclusives that anime fans have been loving so far, but it turns out that the biggest standout of this new wave is also secretly an Isekai anime with its latest episode. While there are a ton of great Isekai anime releases that fans are ready to see each new season, something that’s stood out more lately are the Fantasy stories that don’t feature someone else coming from a different world. That’s what Sentenced to Be a Hero was at the outset.

Sentenced to Be a Hero was a major deal with fans as the anime really made waves with its first few episodes, and introduced fans to a dark Fantasy world where the hero was not someone coming from a different world. It was just a brand new world that fans wanted to see explored further, and continues to do so with each episode. But with the newest episode, it turns out that this anime has not exactly stayed away from Isekai elements either as one of its heroes has actually come from another world. It’s an Isekai anime too.

Sentenced to Be a Hero Reveals It’s an Isekai With Episode 4

Sentenced to Be a Hero Episode 5 sees Xylo Forbartz and the other sentenced heroes waiting to hear about their next mission, Kivia further explains how the Goddesses in the world work. It turns out that each Goddess awakens to deal with the threat of a nearby Demon Blight, and each one has a unique power that they can use until the Demon Blight threat has passed. Teoritta, the main goddess in question, has the ability to summon swords for example, and another goddess has the ability to see into the future.

Read Next

Crunchyroll Might Have Found Its Next Solo Leveling to Kick Off 2026

It’s here that Xylo points out that word is that one of the goddesses actually brought the hero Tatsuya there from another world in the past as well. This would mean that Sentenced to Be a Hero, while fans originally loved the fact that it was a Fantasy anime without Isekai elements, it turns out that this series actually is one after all. It’s just that the person brought from another world isn’t the main hero we follow, but also happens to be the most tragic hero in this show overall.

Who Is Tatsuya in Sentenced to Be a Hero?

Sentenced to Be a Hero is based in a world where its heroes are condemned to the worst punishment possible. Those in this world are criminals who are not only forced to fight until they die in missions, but are constantly revived and put back together after their grisly deaths. Each revival sees the person in question lose a bit of themselves in the process, and the worst example of this comes with Tatsuya. He’s a powerful fighter who completely wipes out monsters with ease, but he doesn’t really think.

He’s shown to be completely devoid of any personality or thought about of fighting, and if he’s been brought over from another world it adds a whole new tragic layer to the Isekai side of it all. Definitely one of the worst worlds that this poor kid from Japan had been dragged into. Fighting not for a greater cause, but against demons through an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!