is a Japanese light novel series written by Mato Sato and illustrated by . SB Creative released eleven volumes from July 2019 to March 2025 under its GA Bunko imprint. The series follows Akari, a girl summoned from Japan to another realm who gains the power to control time, and Menou, a young priestess tasked with killing Akari to protect her own world.
A manga adaptation with art by Ryō Mitsuya was serialized in Square Enix's manga magazine Young Gangan from June 2020 to April 2024, with its chapters collected in seven volumes. Both the light novel and manga are licensed in North America by Yen Press. A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by J.C.Staff aired between April and June 2022.
Sato wrote The Executioner and Her Way of Life after deciding to create a story he described as harsh and merciless, using its darker style as a way to challenge himself creatively. He drew inspiration from a wide variety of existing works, such as the anime series Darker than Black, while also deliberately subverting isekai conventions. The subsequent manga and anime adaptations were created with an emphasis on the pacing and visuals of their respective mediums, as well as fidelity to the original work.
The debut light novel volume won a Grand Prize at the 2018 , and by January 2024, the series had over 400,000 copies in circulation. The light novels and manga have been well-received by critics, particularly for their characters, worldbuilding, and approach to the isekai genre. The anime adaptation has also received favorable reviews, with praise for its story and pacing, and was named by several publications as being among the best anime of 2022.
Synopsis In a world parallel to Earth, people built an advanced civilization by summoning Japanese individuals, known as Lost Ones, with powerful abilities called Pure Concepts. However, these Lost Ones eventually lost control of their Pure Concepts, leading to calamity. A thousand years ago, four Lost Ones devastated the world and rendered much of it uninhabitable.
In response, the summoning of Lost Ones has been outlawed by the Church. Among the Church's servants are Executioners, who are secretly tasked to assassinate any Lost Ones who appear. One of these Executioners, Menou, is ordered to eliminate Akari Tokitou, a Lost One summoned by King Grisarika. When her attempt fails, she discovers that Akari possesses the Pure Concept of Time, which allows her to reverse her own death.
Pretending to escort Akari home, Menou sets out on a journey with her across the land while searching for a way to kill her. Along the way, the two face threats from monsters, criminals, and even the Church itself. Meanwhile, as Menou becomes closer with the kind and innocent Akari, she struggles with conflicted feelings about her mission.
Characters
A young priestess who assassinates Lost Ones before their Pure Concepts become a threat. She knows that most of the Lost Ones she kills are innocent, but her training dictates that they cannot be allowed to live. After failing to execute Akari, Menou acts as her escort while searching for a way to kill her. As a child, Menou was the sole survivor of an accident involving a Lost One. The disaster left her soul "bleached" and wiped away her memories and desires. She was discovered by Flare, a top Executioner, and taken on as an apprentice. Menou possesses strong control over her magical Guiding Force and wields a knife and enchanted scripture.
A Japanese high school student summoned to the world by King Grisarika. Her Pure Concept, "Time", gives her the ability to manipulate time, allowing her to instinctively reverse her death. She is naive but kind and innocent, leading her to easily trust Menou out of a belief that their encounter is fate. In truth, Akari has already made the world regress multiple times to prevent Menou's death, erasing her own memories each time and leaving only a deep love for Menou.
A young priestess and Menou's aide. Momo has been in love with Menou ever since they became childhood friends. She grows jealous of Akari as she becomes closer with Menou. She wields a wire saw and prefers to fight physically.
A warrior princess from the Grisarika kingdom. Rash and bold, Ashuna has little regard for noble duties and prefers to seek out strong opponents to battle. Though she dislikes the Church, she is willing to work with Menou and Momo against common enemies. She fights using a greatsword enchanted with flames.
A legendary and ruthless Executioner famed for her incredible skill in magecraft and for killing many Lost Ones. After saving a young Menou from a Lost One, Flare took her in as an apprentice. She has the ability to remember past iterations of the world created by Akari's power and is responsible for killing Menou and Akari if Menou fails to follow through on her mission.
The Archbishop of the Church and Menou's direct superior. She orders Menou to bring Akari to be executed. Menou later discovers that Orwell, having grown disillusioned from her years of service, has been kidnapping young girls to drain their youth and intends to use Akari to reverse time on herself. Her plan fails after Menou uses Akari's Pure Concept to age Orwell to death.
A Japanese high school student summoned to the world with Akari by King Grisarika. His Pure Concept is "Null", which allows him to destroy any object. He is killed by Menou to prevent him from abusing his power.
The daughter of Count Libelle, her father, and a Lost One, her mother. Because she never inherited her mother's powers, people often scorned her, and she began seeking death after her mother was killed by Flare. She leads a subversive group called The Fourth, who aim to tear down the world's class system. While seemingly mild-mannered, she has a penchant for sadistic murder. She is Pandemonium's older sister, though Pandemonium arrived in the world long before her.
A Lost One that came to this world one thousand years ago. She appears like a ten-year-old child. Her Pure Concept is "Evil", allowing her to summon monsters. After losing control of her powers, she became one of the disasters known as the Four Major Human Errors. Having completely lost her sense of self, she wants only to spread chaos. She is Manon's younger sister despite having arrived before her in this world.
A priestess in the city of Libelle who manages the local church. She is initially unfriendly towards Menou, having encountered her mentor Flare in the past, but eventually grows to respect her.
A nun who encounters Menou on her journey. She has known Menou since childhood. Though she betrays Menou out of jealousy for Menou's apprenticeship under Flare, she eventually changes her mind and reluctantly helps her.
Production
Light novels
Development Sato had published two series prior to writing The Executioner and Her Way of Life. He cited Tomihiko Morimi as an influence on his approach to engaging storytelling, as well as an inspiration to creating his stories' atmosphere. Watching the anime series Darker than Black led him to explore a new genre as a personal challenge.
The initial idea for the series came from Sato's desire to write a harsh and merciless story. However, he avoided placing characters in "tragic positions" solely because of this, and instead developed the narrative with conflict he believed they could overcome. In particular, he used the story's dark setting to force Menou, the protagonist, to face conflict and grow as a character. Sato sought to depict characters as incomplete individuals who changed over time, and identified a central theme as being able to accept oneself despite having committed unforgivable acts.
The evolution of magic systems in light novels served as a basis for the story's magic system. Sato explained that early series like Slayers and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen featured spoken spells, whereas more recent works had shifted towards faster-paced incantations. He combined these two elements, later describing his design as "modern steampunk [constructed] in a magical way".
Although the novels draw on established conventions of isekai stories (a genre where characters are transported to another world), Sato aimed to subvert the genre by incorporating his own original elements. In addition, several of the story's aspects were chosen to challenge himself and improve his writing. For instance, he had no prior experience with darker subject matter, but included such themes anyway to "step up as an author". He also included extensive worldbuilding and fight sequences, two other areas in which he had minimal experience. He called the story a "stylish spy action fantasy" with and steampunk elements, which he explained was a "mash-up of [his] interests".
Sato began writing by visualizing several crucial moments, then developing the rest of the plot around them. The first scene that he created was the story's opening sequence in which Menou kills a Lost One, while the second was one where Menou and Akari had an argument. He said that he "had to come up with a story that would let [him] include both these scenes". From there, he focused on deciding each character's role within the plot and developing their personalities and backgrounds. For subsequent volumes, he adopted a more flexible approach; in an afterword to the second book, he remarked that he seemed to "never know the characters' futures until they happen".
Characters Sato believed that the inclusion of a male protagonist would create expectations of heterosexual romance, which he wanted to avoid. By focusing on an all-female main cast, he sought to portray their relationships with greater emotional depth and depict their lives and struggles.
Sato developed the principal characters with an emphasis on clearly defined motivations. Menou was conceived as a character faithful to her duties yet burdened by them. Although she holds herself to strict standards, Sato described her as comparatively lenient with others and a "strong and determined" person. He focused the narrative around her perspective, calling the story a "world with Menou at the center even as it threatens to leave her behind". He felt that Menou was a fragile character, which allowed her to change and grow. To this end, he portrayed Akari with an emphasis on her unconditional kindness towards Menou, which gradually starts to affect her. He cited Akari's lack of self-awareness about her own flaws as one of her most endearing traits.
For the supporting cast, Sato took a differing approach but still strived to portray each character as a fully realized individual. He initially wrote Momo as a simple character but gradually revealed the complexities of her personality, particularly through the use of flashbacks. Sato described her as his favorite character and one he especially enjoyed writing. In contrast, Ashuna was characterized more consistently as a strong and honest individual who becomes involved with the other protagonists against common enemies. Sato considered her distinctive for her personality's constancy.
Release
Sato enjoyed reading web novels and intended the initial volume to follow their "momentum". However, he released his work as a light novel out of a desire to create a "single epic story", rather than relying on "real-time developments" to maintain reader interest.
Sato remarked that the writing process was not difficult, with the first volume taking just two months to write. He submitted the manuscript to the 2018 , a contest hosted by the publishing company SB Creative. To his surprise, he secured publication by winning the Grand Prize, the first time in seven years that it had been awarded. Although he initially planned on a bimonthly release schedule, he decided on a slower pace for subsequent volumes.