SPYAIR is back on anime opening duty, and this time the band is powering up The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System.
Sony Music has confirmed that SPYAIR will perform the anime’s opening theme, titled “Awake”. For fans who follow anime music closely, this is not a small-name pickup. SPYAIR has long been linked with big, high-energy anime songs, so pairing them with a fantasy series about game knowledge, class builds, and reincarnation strategy feels pretty on-brand.
The anime is set to premiere on July 2, airing on TBS and MBS through the Super Animeism TURBO programming block. In Japan, the broadcast slot is listed at 12:26 a.m. JST, which technically places the TV airing in the early hours of July 3. For Malaysian viewers, that timing works out to roughly 11:26 p.m. MYT on July 2, though actual local viewing will still depend on where the series gets streamed in SEA.
One thing worth noting: this will not be a quick one-cour seasonal drop. The anime is planned for two consecutive cours, meaning it should run for about half a year without taking the usual seasonal break. That gives the story more room to build its world, explain its class system, and hopefully avoid the rushed pacing that sometimes hits fantasy adaptations.
What is The Exiled Heavy Knight about?
The series follows Elma, a 15-year-old born into a prestigious family of Sword Saints. During a Divine Blessing Ceremony, instead of receiving some flashy elite class, he ends up with the Heavy Knight class — a job that everyone around him sees as defective, slow, and basically useless.
Because of that, Elma loses his place as the next head of the Edvan Household and gets exiled. Sounds brutal, but here’s the twist: Elma realises this world is actually based on a game he played in his previous life. And in that game, the so-called bad Heavy Knight class is secretly one of the strongest builds available.
So instead of being stuck as a rejected noble kid, Elma starts using his old game knowledge to min-max his way through the new world. For gamers, especially anyone who has ever abused an “underrated” build before a balance patch catches up, that premise is immediately easy to understand. Bro basically got flamed for picking off-meta, then decided to hard-carry anyway.
Staff and production details
The anime is being produced at GoHands, with Shingo Suzuki as general director and Katsumasa Yokomine directing. Yokomine previously worked on titles including The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today and Momentary Lily.
Takayuki Uchida is handling character designs and is also one of the chief animation directors, alongside Keiji Tani and Makoto Furuta. The production also lists Tetsuichi Yamagishi as chief director, Hiroshi Ōkubo as main animator, Glovision on sound production, Enji Nakajima and Tetsuya Gunji as sound directors, and Ludvig Forssell composing the music.
Why SEA anime fans should keep an eye on it
Malaysia and SEA audiences tend to respond well to fantasy anime with clear systems — levels, classes, builds, hidden meta, all that RPG brainrot we love. The Exiled Heavy Knight sits right in that lane. It has the reincarnation setup, the “trash class is secretly OP” hook, and now a recognisable anime music act attached to the opening.
The big question is execution. If GoHands can make the class mechanics feel satisfying and give Elma’s progression proper weight across two cours, this could become one of those easy weekly watches for fantasy fans. If not, it risks blending into the crowded isekai/fantasy pile.
The original story by Nekoko began on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in April 2021. Kodansha later published the print version with illustrations by Jaian, while Brocco Lee launched the manga adaptation on Kodansha’s Yanmaga website in February 2022. The manga later moved to Young Magazine in September 2024, with its 17th volume released on April 6.
Kodansha also releases the manga in English through its K MANGA service.
Source: Anime News Network