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The Winter 2019 Anime Preview Guide

The more I read about Shield Hero, the more I want to actively avoid watching it. Not even SAO was that bad, and that had legitimate attempted rape.

If you buy the premise of Shield Hero, which claims that society in that world is matriarchal led, then it stands to reason that false rape would be somewhat more weaponized.

I think the problem is, there is not much evidence yet on display of matriarchy.

Yeah, too bad there’s absolutely no evidence that this world is matriarchal - everyone in charge (including the summoners) have been men. The heroes are men. The women don’t dress or act in any way that implies a matriarchal society in any way.

scowler wrote:

If you buy the premise of Shield Hero, which claims that society in that world is matriarchal led, then it stands to reason that false rape would be somewhat more weaponized. I think the problem is, there is not much evidence yet on display of matriarchy.

Yeah, too bad there’s absolutely no evidence that this world is matriarchal - everyone in charge (including the summoners) have been men. The heroes are men. The women don’t dress or act in any way that implies a matriarchal society in any way.

Speaking as someone who picked up the Shield Hero novels very cautiously and in part just to see what all the controversy is about, I can peacefully say it ends up not being as bad as it sounds. Yes, both the slavery and the false rape accusation are iffy, but this is one of the few isekai novels that actually have convincing first-person writing (even if it means Naofumi quite clearly comes off as emotionally damaged and an unreliable narrator despite being the POV), and it has a surprisingly large and vivid cast of strong, nuanced female characters who actually manage to pass the Bechdel Test.

It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's a very fun read and I was surprised by how much I grew attached to the main party.

Its one single issue actually plays into the "false rape accusation" part - all of the villains in Shield Hero are really super-exaggerated one-note raving lunatics who tend to do really over-the-top gross nonsense all the time so they can be recognized as villains, and the character responsible for the false accusation is included in that list. It basically doesn't have low-key evil. If someone is evil, they're freaking M.Bison levels of evil, complete with exaggerated quotations and maniacal laughter while explosions go off in the background.

If that sort of villain writing easily puts you off, then Shield Hero is not for you. Otherwise it's not nearly as gross or controversial as people make it out to be, and I honestly found it a few miles more feminist than a lot of the genre.

I remember coming by a random volume of the manga in the library, and kind of enjoying it. But then I heard of the anime adaption and then the controversy. Everything has left me very confused. The first episode does sound very trash, and it seems like isekai anime adaptions now do have a habit of spinning things around to suit a certain flavor or different demographic and direction than the LN. Does it seem like that could end up the case here?

Do the novels start pretty well with Naofumi being unreliable and developing? I would hope that if that's the case, the anime follows that example, but I'll at least pick up the manga again if the series does end up better than how it starts.

manapear wrote:

I remember coming by a random volume of the manga in the library, and kind of enjoying it. But then I heard of the anime adaption and then the controversy. Everything has left me very confused. The first episode does sound very trash, and it seems like isekai anime adaptions now do have a habit of spinning things around to suit a certain flavor or different demographic and direction than the LN. Does it seem like that could end up the case here? Do the novels start pretty well with Naofumi being unreliable and developing? I would hope that if that's the case, the anime follows that example, but I'll at least pick up the manga again if the series does end up better than how it starts.

I would say that Naofumi is still an unreliable narrator even as far as the recent volumes. The experience with the false accusation has left him severely emotionally damaged and that consistently colors his perspective of events, as well as forces his companions to dance around his emotional problems.

That aside, Shield Hero does have an unfortunate case where a very particular section of the internet that isn't very famous for critical thinking, latched onto the false rape accusation part of the premise and decided to make a huge deal out of it with the express purpose of misrepresenting the story as "a critique of the #metoo movement" (nevermind that the novel was published six years ago, long before the movement even existed) in order to "piss off the snowflakes and the libtards".

The irony here is that the critique ends up to be one of ultra-conservatism and religious nuttery associated with it, but acknowledging that would involve reading the entire first story arc of the books instead of having a deranged wank over the first eight chapters of it.

Note: it took me three days to read the first four volumes of the book, which comprise the first story arc. It's really not a difficult or a complicated read.

It’s good to see someone ACTUALLY analyse the story fairly and not immediately jump on a bandwagon. The story has its issues and it’s not for everyone, as some of the reviewers have highlighted, but Nick’s is by far one of the worst, reactional hit pieces I’ve seen. Are we seriously gonna pretend that because the author wrote a fictional story, that’s some how an extension of his view of the world? If so, should we go back and retroactively react to movies like Gone Girl? Lmao. Yeah if anything, these reviews are a good indicator as to who’s biased and who isn’t in their writing.

Ashabel wrote:

manapear wrote: I remember coming by a random volume of the manga in the library, and kind of enjoying it. But then I heard of the anime adaption and then the controversy. Everything has left me very confused. The first episode does sound very trash, and it seems like isekai anime adaptions now do have a habit of spinning things around to suit a certain flavor or different demographic and direction than the LN. Does it seem like that could end up the case here? Do the novels start pretty well with Naofumi being unreliable and developing? I would hope that if that's the case, the anime follows that example, but I'll at least pick up the manga again if the series does end up better than how it starts. I would say that Naofumi is still an unreliable narrator even as far as the recent volumes. The experience with the false accusation has left him severely emotionally damaged and that consistently colors his perspective of events, as well as forces his companions to dance around his emotional problems. That aside, Shield Hero does have an unfortunate case where a very particular section of the internet that isn't very famous for critical thinking, latched onto the false rape accusation part of the premise and decided to make a huge deal out of it with the express purpose of misrepresenting the story as "a critique of the #metoo movement" (nevermind that the novel was published six years ago, long before the movement even existed) in order to "piss off the snowflakes and the libtards". The irony here is that the critique ends up to be one of ultra-conservatism and religious nuttery associated with it, but acknowledging that would involve reading the entire first story arc of the books instead of having a deranged wank over the first eight chapters of it. Note: it took me three days to read the first four volumes of the book, which comprise the first story arc. It's really not a difficult or a complicated read.

It’s good to see someone ACTUALLY analyse the story fairly and not immediately jump on a bandwagon. The story has its issues and it’s not for everyone, as some of the reviewers have highlighted, but Nick’s is by far one of the worst, reactional hit pieces I’ve seen. Are we seriously gonna pretend that because the author wrote a fictional story, that’s some how an extension of his view of the world? If so, should we go back and retroactively react to movies like Gone Girl? Lmao. Yeah if anything, these reviews are a good indicator as to who’s biased and who isn’t in their writing.

Speaking as someone who picked up the Shield Hero novels very cautiously and in part just to see what all the controversy is about, I can peacefully say it ends up not being as bad as it sounds. Yes, both the slavery and the false rape accusation are iffy, but this is one of the few isekai novels that actually have convincing first-person writing (even if it means Naofumi quite clearly comes off as emotionally damaged and an unreliable narrator despite being the POV), and it has a surprisingly large and vivid cast of strong, nuanced female characters who actually manage to pass the Bechdel Test.

It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's a very fun read and I was surprised by how much I grew attached to the main party.

Its one single issue actually plays into the "false rape accusation" part - all of the villains in Shield Hero are really super-exaggerated one-note raving lunatics who tend to do really over-the-top gross nonsense all the time so they can be recognized as villains, and the character responsible for the false accusation is included in that list. It basically doesn't have low-key evil. If someone is evil, they're freaking M.Bison levels of evil, complete with exaggerated quotations and maniacal laughter while explosions go off in the background.

If that sort of villain writing easily puts you off, then Shield Hero is not for you. Otherwise it's not nearly as gross or controversial as people make it out to be, and I honestly found it a few miles more feminist than a lot of the genre.

Its not nearly as bad as what the "controversy" says it is(or bad at all IMO). Unless you're just EXTREMELY sensitive to slavery.