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That episode was kind of rough. It is kind of hard to feel good about seeing like a regally dressed old man who thought he was doing what was right, and a young lady being put through public humiliation, torture like pain, an execution, and even forced to have rather crude. Even if that young lady was being put in a lot of pain because she was constantly lying over crimes she had committed. Kind of feels like some more work should have been done to put it in the forefront of damage they caused, not only Malty straight up being exposed of trying to kill her sister, but the terrible consequences of King's actions. It was creating kind of a pit in my stomach. Agitated that it didn't seem like the two of them really understood what they had done.

Regardless, it showed that the queen really showed her amazing stuff as a leader that would do what she had for the authority she represented be held responsible, and care for her nation. But also how it was so hard against the love she still felt for her family despite that. I would hope that perhaps her awesomeness would not be overshadowed by things like a woman forced to be called such a terrible name after pretty much bein put through torture via a lie detector shock collar.

Honestly I was disappointed the scene was tamer than other versions. After all the crap they did what they got wasn't the cathartic enough.

#22

After all the excitement from last week, something more sedate this week. This episode lays it on thick with the game references, but the final arc of this adaptation looks like it'll take place at the hunting ground archipelago that's conveniently at the perfect time for the sub-optimised Heroes.

Naofumi feels like a fool after learning how the other Heroes have life easy when it comes to materials and equipment, but it seems he makes up for being the last to learn by being the first to master everything they were bragging about. It's implied the weapons imparted to each Hero don't treat their wielders equally across the board, so Naofumi figures out the characteristics the other three were bragging about probably should have been taken into consideration altogether to fully maximise the benefits.

A sidetrip, but it was nice seeing Raphtalia visit her birthplace once more and catch up with her fellow inhabitants. It's here that Naofumi meets the last person who has until now always featured in the OP but never in the main storyline. L'Arc seems to be visiting the Archipelago to "win" at something, so with the five of them sharing a room together viewers will hopefully learn a little more about the red-haired Scythe user.

* add the Queen to my, erm Naofumis Harem * Razz

#23

Island excursion this week, conveniently enough Naofumi and company finally have the opportunity to grind for materials and experience just before another wave is going to strike. Timing is too good to be true, but it looks like the last story arc of this adaptation isn't going to fade quietly into the distance, especially with an episode title for next week that hints of Glas making a reappearance.

So Naofumi's two new companions hail from different lands, but because the shield has an auto-translator function the Shield Hero doesn't realise it until Raphtalia reveals the communication problem. They're skilled fighters too, but I'm interested in the lady who actually commissioned Naofumi for his rarely used artificing skills. Not only does she have magic that can communicate with different continents, the power of her summoning spells is dependent on her equipment. I'm not sure what D&D class she'd be, but something between a cleric and equipment-focused class sounds about right.

This week's cliched fanservice due to the island setting doesn't keep the attention for long, especially when the temple the trio swim to looks exactly the one Naofumi saw in his second dream. I have no idea where he got that diving suit from, but he'd make a fortune if he could bring it back to his world considering its capabilities.

What competition were L'Arc and Teris preparing for when they first met Naofumi? They won't partner with him for more than a day, so they probably think they're ready for it. Will the temporary allies clash swords later on in this series before the adaptation comes to a close?

#24

A wild guess, but it turns out the former allies turn enemies this week. No wonder the pair are so strong, they're peers of Glas and have business with Naofumi's world. They hesitated pairing up with him last week because they figured out who he really was.

L'Arc is honourable, which is probably why Iwatani Naofumi isn't comfortable with him since he's been surrounded and done in by schemers since he was summoned. Brutal honesty from anyone aside from his trusted companions is not something he's used to.

From plain monster hunting last week comes this week's final Wave action spectacle. A change of pace from the land and air encounters previously, this time Naofumi and co. are ably supported by the Kingdom's army instead of receiving a simple monetary reward at the end while the soldiers remain interested bystanders.

With next week's episode having the same title as the series itself, it looks like next week will be the grand finale before a future adaptation picks up what appears to be an active series going great guns with the Japanese public. I'm looking forward to see if Naofumi's party of four (one of whom hasn't been doing any adventuring lately) can take on three elite Heroes from another world. For Naofumi to pull off his upset victory, it'll take something special when viewers remember how strong Glas was at the end of the first half of the adaptation.

#25

The final showdown between Glass, her allies and Naofumi's party is shorter than I thought it would be. To top it off, there's no definite conclusion since the time limit which saved Naofumi and co. first time round now kicks into effect saving Glass this time round. Strange how she barely got any stronger whereas Naofumi as per her instructions learnt enough new tricks the second time round to handily trounce her without resorting to his Curse Shield series ( at least until the very end before the Queen's intervention).

Viewers do learn more about the mysterious visitors. It seems they have to actively go Hero Hunting and kill a set quota before the Waves stop for good. Failure to do so simply means they visit again and again until they win or get killed. Rather simplistic, so there has to be some way to break the cycle without either party getting killed.

As for the aftermath, it looks like Naofumi has lost the doubt and hesitation that has prevented him from going all-out in defence of his temporary home. As always, he takes a logical decision: if the other Heroes (despite how little they will change and how much of a hindrance they are) won't change but have a stronger party, he'll just overwhelm them with sheer numbers of slightly inferior quality soldiers. He's even got the feisty old lady who defended an entire village on her own as the martial instructor, so he's got that area covered. All of the other shopkeepers he's dealt with in the past are bending over backwards for him, so all the ingredients he needs to be once again the Guild Master he used to play in his virtual world are back in place.

He's really treating Raphtalia like his foster daughter though. She practically confessed to him and all he could think about was how she used to cry in his arms when she was still new to his team. With Lecia as a new member, she'll not get any further into seducing Naofumi for herself. The Blacksmith has outright said as much, but Naofumi (unlike Motoyasu with his all-female entourage) seems intent on beating back the Waves and helping his companions rather than thinking about trivial things like starting a family.

As for the series, it's been great entertainment. From the first double-header which saw the Shield Hero get dealt the worst possible starting hand ever, he's REALLY worked his way up to a position of respectability at the very minimum. He's had a long journey which has no end in sight, but if this series ever gets a continuation I'll be sure to watch what happens. Not sure how they're going to knock him down further, since his current position looks rock solid and he isn't going to be falsely accused of anything anytime soon.

(Finale)

A nice happy end part, with some questions of morals, as such of the idea that one world may have to die over the other, which would hopefully mean some point in the future could find an answer to the problem, but also him being a happier and kinder person. Although, I was kind of hoping that he might have got Raphtalia the noble title over the land, which a demihuman to have a title over the land could go a way for rights and to stop monster like that other noble to step in. I like the keep building endpoint, with not just strength but possibly some economic ability and infrastructure, just like how I mentioned that I liked the merchant subplot earlier in the series. After everything, I thought that a strength this show could have over similar in the genre, as well as Naofumi compared to his rivals, is an understanding of strength beyond offence and power, with there being the power of the people. I certainly think that this genre of fantasy, or even isekai, is made stronger with an understanding of complex issues and empathy, rather the things this show sets up as villains of ignorance, and power without respect and foresight.

It certainly has been a bit controversial series. From the start that had a false rape accusation as a main piece, and could rub people the wrong way as trying to say that accusers be held against heavy scepticism, which is not always fair, and a little too on the side of Misogynists. It required there to be some careful work to make it not just women hating, and I honestly think it worked well enough, with a number of very strong female characters, not just the group of powerful female characters that joined Naofumi's party, but especially looking at the full picture with the likes of the Queen, who had her eldest daughter categorized as a singular compulsive liar problem child that she had already taken prospects of taking over from. As well as the king having to own responsibility for how he acted, and there were other terrible men like the torture noble. In addition, I want to point out it is kind of great to have an actual flawed character in this type of show. Indeed Naofumi is great and gets the respect of most people who see how great he is, where for large stretches he is unhealthy in how resentful and bitter he is, who needed to grow and see bigger pictures. Not just weakness of saying he is anime protagonist clueless, and becomes a better person with visible changes in his attitude.

A hero deciding to save the world is often the easiest question in these sorts of things, and yet this show allowed that to actually be complex in why this character would want to do that. And the show itself allowed itself to show that treating things too simply, even something that you think should be a turn your mind off for heroes saving the world, you are doing something injustice of missing something important. While also that sometimes treating something as simple as helping others is right, because most people are good and don't deserve to be put into danger, and ultimately acting like an edgelord isn't actually all that cool. Was a little worried if the series might have still thought that acting like an angry teenager is cool, and whether some audience still think so.

Anyway, really enjoyed the series, and would love to see a continuation in the future. I would say that this has joined the ranks of actually good isekai anime, and who knows, maybe Naofumi could join the likes of Ainz, Kazuma, Subaru and Tanya, when they get back together. I give Rising of the Shield Hero a rating of Excellent (9/10).

Eh, I just watched the damn thing and it turned out to be a bit disappointing. It started out well enough, but over time I started to feel like the entire story was build to make Naofumi look cool. The other heroes were laughably incompetent just so that Naofumi could stand on his pedestal thinking how useless they are. King's and Myne's comeuppance moment felt like overly drawn out justice porn. It felt like the show wanted to have its cake and eat it too by having Naofumi "be the good guy" and spare their lives, but still deliver us some justice porn to jerk off to by completely humiliating the King and Myne. I enjoy some justice porn from time to time, I enjoyed watching Game of Thrones villains dying horribly and I often tend to kill the bad guys (or worse if death isn't enough) in video games when given a choice between sparing or killing them. But it just didn't work for me here.

Shield Bro's writing just felt very simplistic. Raphtalia's and Naofumi's relationship could have been far more interesting than it was. Raphtalia mistook Naofumi's general decency and thought of Naofumi as her saviour. While Naofumi unknowingly took advantage of Raphtalia's naivety and let her resign her slave contract. That could have been the moment where Naofumi was secretly relieved that Raphtalia resigned the slave contract while Raphtalia started to realize how bad the slave contract is for her. Instead Raphtalia was stoutly loyal to Naofumi and Naofumi never abused his power over Raphtalia (except at the beginning) and the whole slave thing was swept under the rug. So why was there need to resign the contract then? And why did Filo have to sign one as well?

Also Raphtalia's swimsuit was lame. Minus points for that. I think not liking Shield Bro makes me one of the Cool Kids, I rated it decent though because I did overall find it relatively enjoyable so maybe not.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that the show had an awesome soundtrack at least (the background music I mean not the OPs or EDs which were decent).

Essentially watched the series twice in the span of a month. I speed-watched it by myself, then after finishing it told my gf she'd probably like, and hence the 2nd watching (she did like it).

I've been out of the anime scene for the past couple of years, and aside from some big-name titles I knew about: Jojo's 1-4 (still need to watch 5), Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone (currently re-watching both with gf) and some continuing seasons of other titles I already liked (seasons 2 of One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100), I haven't watched much else. I heard Shield Hero was pretty popular, then I found out it was an isekai title, so that peaked my interest. I also found out it was animated by Kinema Citrus, who did *amazing* work for Made in Abyss, so then I was really on board.

In a nutshell, I liked the series a lot for a few reasons:

1) I see the premise as a kind of parody. In most RPGs these days, especially MMOs, defense is an outcast because it goes against the norm of being able to kill things as quickly as possible. What I love about this show is that takes that trope and flips it around with a lot of subtle details to the character. In addition to being a shield-only wielder, and with the giant stain on his reputation, I found it to be a great psychological approach in how they made him succeed as a real underdog.

2) Speaking of the giant stain on his reputation, I found the social stigma theme to be a very unique quality to the narrative. You don't see this a lot in anime (or at least I haven't, outside of O-PM), and especially to this degree. I've always been fascinated at how a few words can be so helpful or harmful in affecting peoples perceptions. In any case, I think it did wonders in helping build Naofumi's character. He seemed like a bit of a slacker from what little we saw of him in the real world, so the fact that he went from that to hard-ass hero was a pretty cool transition.

3) An important element for any kind of fantasy title, for me, personally, is the world building. The bigger the world feels and the more intricate the detail they put into things like people, architecture, heck, even clothing, I tend to gush over. World building is a big part of why I like Overlord so much, and for a first season, Shield Hero does a really good job of establishing a base of what that world's about.

Production-wise, I love the soundtrack. Kevin Penkin (who also did Abyss) has some really nice themes and motifs that aren't overly used and fit a lot varying moods really well. The art and animation were slightly underwhelming from what I expected compared to Abyss, though with it being double the length of their usual workload, they probably had to stretch out their resources a little more.

I didn't mind that it took a harem approach to a lot of the secondary characters. I generally see harem as more of a comedic element in most anime, but a lot of the female characters in this one felt surprisingly well written. I was also okay with the story painting the other Heroes to be way less worthy than Naofumi. Bow and Sword, at least, progressed a little, but Spear is an idiot. I hope he gets wiser, later. All in all, though, I suppose you can't have them be too cool, 'cause the story is about the Shield Hero and his comrades.

My only real complaint about the show is that it left a couple of loose ends for me, specifically: stuff about past Heroes and why the king hated the previous Shield Hero so much. Sounds like he was probably super manipulative and a piece-of-shit person, like what they initially painted Naofumi to be throughout the series. I hoping they'll at least delve into that with some flashbacks or something. And also, the big reveal at the end: spoiler[ that Glass and her crew are from another world, and that when a Wave hits, it's actually both worlds fighting each other. But why do the worlds have to fight each other in the first place? And is this part of some actual villain's plan? What happens if the Heroes of a world all die, does that world end?] So many questions just from that one event.

I'm looking forward to future seasons. Although, I might read the light novels and manga, just to see if they cut anything out or further explain some of the things I've got questions about (if they don't address that in S2). My rating for S1: Very Good (8/10)

Tony K. wrote:

My only real complaint about the show is that it left a couple of loose ends for me, specifically: stuff about past Heroes and why the king hated the previous Shield Hero so much. Sounds like he was probably super manipulative and a piece-of-shit person, like what they initially painted Naofumi to be throughout the series. I hoping they'll at least delve into that with some flashbacks or something.

I thought that it was implied that a, or the, previous shield made waves in trying to uplift those who were on the bottom of the social pole, the demi-humans that the humans could use to feel more superior. When you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression, so for the nobility to keep their power structure where even low humans could be kept in check by having the demi-humans bellow them, they demonized the shield hero while deifying the other three. Although it is also clear that those at the head of the church (and king) did not really deify the other heroes, rather than just an excuse for their supremacy to have the shield hero kept as a symbol to be looked down on and keep their power.

It certainly would be easy to try and make comparison to more real politics, where a right wing group would demonise a figure that aimed for civil rights of a minority group, because you could more easily control the population. Either they would be third class citizen that they can take what they want from, or happy that they are not that.

DuskyPredator wrote:

I thought that it was implied that a, or the, previous shield made waves in trying to uplift those who were on the bottom of the social pole, the demi-humans that the humans could use to feel more superior. When you are accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression, so for the nobility to keep their power structure where even low humans could be kept in check by having the demi-humans bellow them, they demonized the shield hero while deifying the other three. Although it is also clear that those at the head of the church (and king) did not really deify the other heroes, rather than just an excuse for their supremacy to have the shield hero kept as a symbol to be looked down on and keep their power.

Yeah, for me it was hard to tell how many different Shield Heroes they're mentioning, since they never clearly state which one is which or how long ago they appeared. There are at least 3 different ones I can think of: the one the demi-humans revere (which I don't recall seeing in any kind of flashback interaction, so who knows hold old that one was), the one that raised Fitoria (which might be the furthest back, since she's supposed to be hundreds of years old), and then the one the king hates (the most recent one).

But the way the king acted made it feel like it was something beyond politics and social status. When he's thinking to himself and says "I won't lose my family, again," I thought it was something along the lines of people dying, getting killed, or some kind of physical harm being done, not just a drop in stature. So I'm wondering if they'll ever show us the multiple or one previous Shield, since it sounds like these Legendary Heroes have been around for, at least, multiple generations.

Something I didn’t like about Shield Hero was how hard the show went in insisting Naofumi was in an unwinnable situation. Like, he was told by the king that his actions were deserving of the death penalty, yet nothing could be done to him because of his status as the shield hero. Which means he is effectively above every law. So doesn’t that actually put him in a very cushy situation? The show never explores that and the whole time I felt like I really wasn’t supposed to think about that.

Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Nov 06, 2020 2:07 am; edited 1 time in total

I'm sure a lot of his situations were just literary devices to make him as much of a loser or his journey as difficult as possible, hence his "Rising" stature in the fact that he was able to get past those obstacles and come out of a better/tougher person. It's a pretty common theme for a lot of protagonists in any kind of story, and I like how it turned out in this particular case. But then, despite having the cushion he had from the law by being a Legendary Hero, I think it's especially commendable that he didn't abuse his power or let it go to his head, unlike the other Heroes.

EDIT: Grammar.

Tony K. wrote:

But then, despite having the cushion he had from the law by being a Legendary Hero, I think it's especially commendable that he didn't abuse his power or let it go to his head, unlike the other Heroes.

I think I would have been fine with him abusing his power if it was to oppose unjust laws, like by freeing slaves. The other heroes might have even backed him on that, I think.

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