Many tech workers have had a secret fantasy: that the day they get fired, everything will collapse. Well, Fired? But I Maintain All the Software! takes that fantasy, gives it a completely different twist, and now it’s getting an anime. Publisher Shufu to Seikatsu Sha confirmed the animated adaptation of the light novel by Yuki Kashirome, though the announcement comes without a studio, cast, or release date.

The protagonist is Ai Sato, an engineer who alone handled the maintenance of all her company’s systems. One day, she’s fired without warning. Instead of being paralyzed, Ai meets an old friend, Kenta Suzuki, who is looking for a partner to start a business. Together, they decide to open a programming school aimed at people who truly need support to change their situation.

What sets the series apart from other workplace or office isekai stories is that its students aren’t background characters. Each comes with their own baggage: a desk worker wanting to improve their family relationships, a woman needing to prove her worth at work, someone unemployed who wants to fulfill a dream for their mother. Ai not only teaches them to program, but helps them regain confidence in a job market that left them behind. Comedy and emotion coexist in that makeshift classroom, and that’s exactly what has given the series its readership base.

About Fired? But I Maintain All the Software!

Fired? But I Maintain All the Software!(E, Shanai System Subete Wanope Shiteiru Watashi wo Kaiko desu ka?) began as a web novel on Shosetsuka ni Naro between November and December 2020, with an epilogue chapter added in July 2022. Shufu to Seikatsu Sha started publishing it as a light novel with illustrations by icchi in May 2021, and it has already reached four volumes. The manga adaptation, illustrated by io, runs in Comic PASH! neo since August 2022 and is up to its fourth compiled volume, with the fifth scheduled for June 5.

Do you find Ai’s story more compelling as an entrepreneur or as a teacher who helps her students rebuild themselves?