Si Ge Yongzhe

“4 Cut Hero” is what happens when You want to speedrun ¾ of a normal fantasy anime.

Imagine a world that is a wacky amalgamation of a standard, medieval fantasy setting and today’s world. Now imagine a hero that is a similar amalgamation, a OP AF powerhouse with NEET lifestyle and little to no aspirations. You got it. That’s the setup for this show.

One day a Young hero defeats the Dark Lord. Driven not by altruism, not by a higher calling but by… greed. Our hero - Zeed wanted to be rich and to marry a princess after a drunk sage filled with head with ... some “peek of your life” nonsense. So he did. Now he’s out of the job and lives his life like a proper NEET. Playing games and visiting maid cafes. That is until shit hits the fan and he’s dragged into a series of weird events.

There is little to say about the characters. Except Zeed all have very little screen time so we don’t get full backstories. My OCD hates it’s not as annoying as I was expecting it to be.

The whole parody vibe of the show is pretty solid. Not great but I’ll give them a B+ in the subverting expectations department. A lot of tropes You find in a fantasy anime are turned upside down just for a cheap laugh and I liked it. I’m honestly not sure if the show is self aware or the satire is a fluke and I don’t care. It got a laugh out of me a few times. Something that most “comedy” shows aren’t capable of.

So yeah. If You want to see Your favourite fantasy trope gutted and laugh about it. Watch this. Totally worth it, even if the episodes are very, very short.

Amazing screenplay, concept and decent animation ruined by runtime of episodes and lack of an ending.
This is an entertaining comedy, action, fantasy with traces of parody.
Seriously hoping someone animates the remaining part and gives us the animated ending.
The MC is OP without being cocky or awkward or sad about it.
There are stronger characters too.
The source is made as a parody of OP MC in fantasy world genre.
The world is crazy and interesting.

Each episode is just 5 minutes long making it a 45-50 min short film effectively.
If the entire source material was turned into 12 episodes of length 20 mins, it would have been a superhit ... 9/10 series.

Do watch it if you are looking for a casual fun story.

4 Cut Hero is a story of the Hero Jed who defeats the Dark Lord Claudine and rescues the Princess only to get surprised by a Prince. Emotionally traumatized by this experience Jed goes into hiding and becomes a hermit until he reconciles with the defeated former Big Four leaders Jaina and Pag. Together, they fight against the Kingdom and other enemies while uncovering the mysteries surrounding the Dark Lord Claudine's captive Prince.

Story & Character: 6/10
The story is deep enough that it rivals a lot of existing series with only a fraction of the episodic duration. Each episode follows a similar structure with the ... preview before OP, a short canonic explanation of a character or existence and then a scene or two of comedy; Usually the episode ends in a cliffhanger. As it stands this works well with this particular short series because the scope is intentionally small to keep out undelivered ambitions. The story doesn't dwell in a single scene or topic too long which is refreshing to see in conjunction with characters that have lore yet feel mysterious. An example would be the big four who have their own interests outside of being acknowledged as villainous leaders. Both character and storytelling aspects are there but in the current scope of this series it leaves a lot on the table in terms of potential development.

Art & Sound: 6/10
The art and animation is good quality almost a splitting image of existing mid-high budget anime. The quirky over exaggerated moe character expressions and the dark tones mixed together make this series go from comedy to drama very quickly. The art and animation are passable as they are.

I didn't notice too much out of the sound design; Voice acting was good quality and expressions were done satisfactory in Chinese Dub. The sound effects are as you expect for a East Asian donghua, they use some obscure range of sound effects to break the tension once a funny line is said which helps deliver the joke.

Enjoyment & Overall 5/10
I enjoyed this series how it was portrayed to me: A comedy hero series with a hint of a plot brewing up behind the scenes. The only gripe I had with this series was how short it was, there was a lot of potential to go further with each episode but the way it is now is definitely enough for a shallow coverage of the story and characters. I would recommend as a regular viewer but be aware about the Chinese Dubs. If you aren't used to it this might be a jarring viewing experience.