Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

Tate no Yuusha is a thundering disappointment for many fans of the isekai genre. And for those who would not have labeled themselves as such, Tate no Yuusha is a testament to their dislike or indifference, being yet another mediocre, soulless title lurching and tossing throughout a tired genre that is swiftly approaching its death throes. In truth, Tate no Yuusha doesn't please much of anybody. If there is a reason Tate no Yuusha ever stood out in the first place, it is because of the protagonist and the appalling situation he is soon forced into. Though isekai anime taking a turn for the dark are hardly rare, the abject betrayal Naofumi faces is not the treatment one would expect for someone abducted from their world and supposedly re-branded a "hero". The corrupt, contemptible society he is forced to fight for is not what you might anticipate from a genre where the setting— the fantasy— is meant to be an escape from the monotony of the real world. Instead, it turns out things in Naofumi's new world may actually be far worse than they ever were in his old one. A fantasy turned nightmare. The whole 'twist', I suppose— if you could call it that— was a success in the eyes of many. It turned another forgettable, run-of-the-mill anime into something a bit more engaging, and gave many a reason for the viewer to empathise with Naofumi, through joining in his hatred for society and his potential quest for revenge. Whether these themes were ever fully realised, or even handled well, may well be a different story entirely. See, Tate no Yuusha never actually takes things further than 'corruption sucks' and 'I'm mad— grr, watch my flames of anger.' The king is inherently evil because of a small grudge. Myne is verminous scum merely because... wait, there is no actual reason. Motoyasu, the spear hero, is a gullible idiot who likes to womanise and that is all there is behind his punch-able little face. Raphtalia is a benevolent mary sue who will not utter or even think a bad thought, her almost immediately (and incomprehensibly) falling in love with Naofumi, thus existing as waifu material for those who like to rescue their damsels from distress. Filo is pure fodder for lolicons and a relentless annoyance for anyone who is not. The list goes on. The only one who still has potential is the Queen, but considering the path the show has trodden thus far, it would be illogical to assume a second season would fare her any better. Tate no Yuusha's characters, though they may initially show promise, are quickly cast aside and made merely to be fanservice or vehicles to drive Naofumi's hatred along, however the writer's whims may fancy. Oh, you wanted to see the anime tackle issues surrounding the slave trade, and Naofumi's moral dilemma of having taken part in an evil system yet saved someone as a direct result of it? Sorry - I have disappointing news. Did you want to see the politics, heck, even geography of the world explored with more than two lines of dialogue? Nope. Not here. Everything in Tate no Yuusha is surface level. It has the facade of maturity, but in reality is about as mature as a 1999 Slipknot album. Any fight scene, no matter how overwhelming and powerful the opponent, can, and will, be prematurely ended by Naofumi's anger turning him Super Saiyan. Whereas anime like JoJo will carefully construct the fights to be based on tactics and cleverness, Tate no Yuusha presents nothing except power levels. You can fast-forward through any climactic fight scene and have lost little to nothing of value, as all you ever need to know is that Naofumi got angry and won. Sure, there is a degree of self-awareness throughout the show, with characters remarking on how this power is essentially him "cheating". But when Naofumi attributes all his success to hard work and yet wins merely because of said mysterious power randomly appearing at the most convenient time— essentially a deus ex machina— you have to wonder what the hell he is even talking about. If all you ever wanted to see was Naofumi take revenge against those who wronged him, then, I am sorry to say, but even that will lead you to much disappointment. On numerous occasions, when he is on the cusp of enacting his long-sought revenge, he takes the high road and proselytizes about how killing a bad person makes you just as bad as them, or whatever— the usual tripe you hear from lame, holier-than-thou anime protagonists. Since when was Naofumi ever supposed to be an idealistic person? Hadn't he lost all his faith in society, or even in morality itself after what he had experienced? Not only does this betray fans of the first several episodes, but it makes his character an inconsistent and incomprehensible mess. He plays hero when it is supposed to sound cool, and villain when it is convenient for him. By the time there actually is some sort of retribution for those who wronged him, it is too little too late, a thumbs-up, an "okay, cool" rather than anything deserving of applause. Tate no Yuusha surely and steadily loses its steam as the episodes blindly trudge by, and once its primary theme is lazily cast aside, there is no reason to care about what happens to a world where saving the day and being a 'hero' never even meant anything in the first place. So there you go. Another trite isekai anime, popular mostly for its gimmicky nature, masquerading itself as mature merely because it has themes that are darker than is usual. Those who aren't fans of the genre will most likely have trusted their instincts and avoided this show, anyway, but for those who sit on the fence, and even for those who generally enjoy these sorts of shows, there is not much to be gained from Tate no Yuusha's feckless affairs. It makes me miss the flawed but ambitious Re:Zero, and Re:Zero is not an anime I had really imagined myself missing all that much. And now I'm all out of words because I realise the next one of these— Arifureta— is down the corner, just a week's time away, with a premise that is almost word-for-word copy-paste of what is found in Tate no Yuusha. It just doesn't end.

We've come to a point in the anime industry where isekai anime are immediately judged just for being isekai. Due to the apparent "overuse" and "unoriginality" of the genre, some individuals will make a big deal about it or not even watch an anime at all simply because of the genre, even if the isekai elements have essentially no bearing on the narrative whatsoever, as is the case with The Rising of the Shield Hero. Yes, Shield Hero is an isekai, but don't let that blind you from seeing the true themes and merit of this show. At its core, this is an anime all about friendship, perseverance, and what it means to truly be a hero. *Notice: Updated thoughts at the bottom* It's also a cleverly disguised loli harem series too. Crazy, right? But I'll save explaining this shocking revelation for later. Oh, the suspense! I know I just started off by saying not to judge Shield Hero just for being an isekai, but it honestly does have a stereotypical fantasy setting. Heroes are summoned to another world that's suspiciously designed just like a video game with the task of saving the world from monsters. Yeah, I've totally never heard that one before! But what really matters is execution, which Shield Hero completely nails. After starting off quite harmless with everything going fine and dandy for Naofumi, the recently dubbed shield hero, things take a dark turn after one of the most controversial occurrences in modern anime goes down. He gets accused of rape. Because of the current state of our real world society, the false rape allocations against Naofumi by the bitchy princess Malty struck a cord with many people and caused lots of heated debates on the topic. I say keep reality and fiction separate, and I personally think that this was a great way to swiftly introduce the central conflict between Naofumi and basically everyone else. Everyone essentially berates and shames the poor dude, leaving him a little broken on the inside. In the span of a single episode, Malty, the king, and the other three heroes summoned to the world are set up to be extremely hatable characters, and it just works. It's honestly as good of an introduction as you can get in a fantasy series. What I love the most about Naofumi is how he deals with the crappy lot in life he ended up with. He transforms from a happy go lucky protagonist to a more cynical guy who only seems to care about personal gain, and I feel like this is a pretty realistic shift considering what he's gone through. He even ends up purchasing a demi-human slave! I thought only bad guys did that! This of course is where the anime starts to really get good, because of how great Shield Hero portrays the relationship between Naofumi and his slave raccoon loli Raphtalia. You can tell that Raphtalia has gone through some pretty messed up stuff, which the anime touches on in later episodes. It seems like Naofumi treats her a bit harshly at first, but you can quickly tell that he's actually giving her some tough love and training her to become stronger and to get over her fears. Heck, she even upgrades from a loli to a woman, that's how effective his training is! And then after Naofumi gets further put down by the kingdom, it's Raphtalia who saves him from completely falling into despair. That's why their relationship is great, because they both help and in some ways even complete each other. Plus it's handled in a completely unconventional way too. You'd think that Naofumi would release Raphtalia from being a slave, but neither of them in fact want that, to the shock of the Spear Hero and others. Of course the writing here can be viewed as dangerous as it seems to present slavery in a positive light, but I think this situation should be kept separate from reality and that the morally grey approach works in the anime's favor. It's little things like this that make Rising of the Shield Hero really stand out. One thing that could weaken your interest in this anime would be how quickly you get annoyed at the constant degradation of Naofumi, because his defamation continues far after Raphtalia saves him, and is the primary conflict in the anime. This isn't a show about a hero fighting against monsters. No, this is an anime about a man fighting against the people who should be his allies. I've seen people say that they've gotten exasperated over how much Naofumi gets put down, but I'd have to disagree. This anime makes you really dislike characters who shouldn't actually be villains at all, yet are set up like it due to their poor choices and actions. And shouldn't a good antagonist be someone that viewers are meant to despise and root for the protagonist to overcome? Shield Hero does just that, and I think that the central conflict is handled and eventually resolved quite well. Of course, there's more going on than just that. Throughout his journey Naofumi encounters two more loli party members. Lucky him. The first is Filo, a cleverly named filolial who Naofumi basically raised from birth after purchasing her as an egg. She has two forms. The first is her angel-like loli form, and the second is her super fluffy giant chicken-like beast form. What can I say, she's absolutely adorable in both forms. She does lots of useful things like draw the wagon, beat up cgi monsters, and kick the Spear Hero in his balls. Also, like Raphtalia, Filo develops a strong bond with Naofumi in which they build off of each other to further evolve as characters. Filo also develops a cute rivalry with Raphtalia over Naofumi's affections, which is pretty humorous. The final girl to complete Naofumi's holy loli triad is Melty, the younger sister of Malty and heir to the throne. Because Naofumi has the most hostility towards royalty, his interaction with Melty sets up an interesting dynamic. They gradually learn to trust and rely on each other, and by consistently helping Melty, we can further see just how much of a hero Naofumi really is. Melty also has my favorite character design in the show, and despite being nobility, Melty's cuteness just makes my heart melt. These characters travel together cleaning up the messes of the other three so called heroes all while being defamed and hunted by the government. Yet despite his annoyance at and mistrust of everyone outside of his party, Naofumi keeps persevering, which is quite admirable. Though you know what I think gives him strength? The lolis. You may have noticed that all three main girls are lolis. "B-But Raphtalia isn't!" Wrong! She may have evolved from her loli body, but she says that she still has the age and mentality of a child. This is a clever technique by the writer to hide the fact that Naofumi has obtained a loli harem. And just like your typical harem, all three girls have a thing for Naofumi and go all blushy blush when they're around him. And just like a harem protagonist, Naofumi seems completely oblivious to their advances. The author knew that he'd be labeled a degenerate for making a loli harem series, so he masqueraded his fantasy as an isekai anime. It's simply brilliant honestly. Or maybe I'm just completely wrong. Yeah, it's probably the latter...but you never know... Madkid was asked to RISE to the occasion and perform both opening theme songs. To be honest, my FAITH in their ability to deliver quality music wasn't too high since I'm personally not a big fan of their style, but they did a good job here. Yes, the show does have its share of flaws. For one, I do feel like episode 21 should have been the season finale, since there was a transition of arcs after it, which to me was a pretty odd design choice considering that the anime only had a few more episodes left. Shield Hero definitely has its share of technical issues as well. In some cases character designs and movements just looked a little sloppy. And the cgi used on some of the creatures just didn't look that good. The Rising of the Shield Hero has a surprisingly decent narrative that touches upon themes that l…

Who are we? Every person ever. And what do we want? Throw shit at Naofumi. And when do we want it? Every second, non-stop, 247. Modern problems require modern solutions. If society humiliates you, lets you down, you get accused of crimes you didn't commit, the general public turns against you, the game is rigged, system corrupted, you are bullied, isolated and alone, you see the worst in people and proceed to turn against the world and enter a safety mode where you become something of the sort of a "cynical little animal." Or that's what I would do.... unless... there was a cute animal-eared waifu and rare-breed loli bird eating up all the negative feelings, ensuring I get healed, fed and mutually respected. This is the life of Naofumi, the shield hero, our main character -- and, unlike most isekai Jesuses, he is not "a big deal." After experiencing the worst, he relies on the worst, buys the cheapest slave he can get and, just like that, their adventure in this world where royalties are meanie wienies, double standards a way of life and the slaver dude the greatest guy -- begins! It's not hard to point out where this show's weaknesses are. The story events are insignificant filler, the isekai core plot hardly more than an excuse for the series, the side-characters solely exist to put our main lead in this unjustified situation where he is treated like garbage, most of the "bad things" have no other purpose in the series than to provoke the audience with injustice; the opposing characters' ignorance is pushed to such extents that when their development finally starts, it is done in a manner that does not convince. The change does not come from within the characters but from the outside, entirely relying on the will of the author. in fact, it is so extreme that it starts to feel like it's driven by anti-government, anti-society and anti-religion agenda. The female casting is waifubaiting and the adventure side could entirely be labelled as wish-fulfillment. It's easy to point the finger here and go "this is the type of shite I am supposed to hate in anime." Finding these flaws annoying and letting them ruin the viewing experience and kill the entertainment value is understandable. But even after all of its issues, the show is not exclusively bad, but has some strong pros as well. However, there where the cons are practically self-explanatory and easy to list down, the pros don't stand out nearly as strongly. First of all, Tate no Yuusha has charm. Anyone can write a coherent backstory which leads to being isekai'd, and it certainly is not much harder to make the side character seem more like decent humans by extending the storyboard with anti-shield-wielder backstory that explains why they are so deeply hated, and how it's all "just politics". These problems could be countered, but that would be side-tracking, like trying to prove that it can be done for the sake of it. But charm is something that is much harder to accomplish, and it was achieved partly because the main focus was most of the time put on Naofumi's party, which is the most relevant thing there is. Secondly, Naofumi is a great character. On the surface level, it's easy to judge him or not even give him a chance, but below the first layer lays much more. He is a genuinely nice guy who has to mask his core personality to survive due to other people being unreasonable. He isn't your average gary stu isekai Jesus who is nice just because he cannot be anything else. Naofumi chooses to help people and decides where his own adventure leads him while, at the same time, ensuring his kindness is not taken for granted so that he won't be used. How many isekai series are there where the character has to take measures and alter his own personality for his own well-being? There aren't. Almost every single one of them rely on being so overpowered that their measures are bs at best, trying to hide the fact that they could destroy the world by simply farting too hard. He doesn't even seek revenge because that would simply make him feel bad. And what is this sentence if not 5000 years worth of human philosophy summed up? Finally a character who chooses this path not because it is "the right thing to do and according to muh morals" but because it benefits him the most. One can easily claim he is the same as your typical isegary, but he has awareness and reasoning that makes perfect sense, and that is what sets him apart from nearly all of the other alternatives. And thirdly, from the main cast department (read;waifu squadron), this is the purest isekai series I have seen. It's not driven by lust and sexual remarks, but by characters who have something decent going on under their skin.../fur/feathers. There is no romantic subplot or sexual tension to keep the audience interested with fanservice or useless feelings pondering. It's just a dude getting comfy'd by bunch of lolis. And with this, I speak of yours truly/the viewer. There is not much more that I have to say. It's isekai, so it's okay to dislike it, of course, but it has heart. It's definitely not a soulless piece, but a genuine anime that has lots of good things going on in the cute, comfy and main cast departments. I almost never felt like it was fake as so many modern anime is, outside two occurrences: 1) episodes 15-17 or so where the 4th loli appeared and I absolutely hated her, and 2) the last few episode where the show has clearly started to lose its way. While the overall pace can be criticized, the episodic flow is smooth, the production is stellar, directing follows a clear vision with consistency, and there is nothing that ruins the fun or makes the series worse from these parts. Outside some CGI, the art rarely stands out for negative reasons. This time, I hardly found the CGI monsters to be a problem either, I acknowledge it exists, end of story. I highly enjoyed watching this series and it deserves some praise from me. It's not the smartest anime you can see, but it is a smart production with nearly as smart execution. I much rather recommend giving it a try than advice not to.

If someone told me that we need a shield hero in some chaotic world filled with corruption and flaws, I’d be laughing. There’s a saying that not all heroes wear capes but now, we have one that wield a shield. Naofumi Iwatani, the present day otaku fits for a typical protagonist and in our modern times, his transportation to a fantasy world is an overused trope. There’s probably a good dozen shows I can think off from the top of my head with similar gimmicks. Naofumi happens to be the oddball armed with a shield than your RPG crafted sword. Watching The Rising of the Shield Hero actually started out as a pleasant experience. Even with the amount of controversy before the first episode aired, I knew what to expect judging from the trailers and promotional content alone. But if we were to talk about controversy, the subject of betrayal and rape accusations comes to mind. It’s a sensible subject in both real world and fiction. However, this is merely a part of the plot that is necessary to adapt into the story for character progression. Either way, people will have strong opinions about that. Have those opinions. Let's instead disregard the controversy and focus more on the characters and storytelling instead? The first few episodes spelled out with the introduction of four main heroes – the shield, sword, spear, and bow hero. As a double length special, it made sense to draw out as much as Naofumi’s character as possible. Initially, he is portrayed as a man with a sense of honor, dignity, and in general, level headed man with an open mind. After being betrayed and falsely accused by Myne, he became a mistrustful individual with a desire for revenge. At one point, he becomes self-loathing to the point where he loses purpose in this fictional world. After meeting the demi-human Raphtalia, he begins to reevaluate himself and find his purpose. Backtracking a few steps, it shouldn’t be hard to identify what kind of person Naofumi is. There are many ways to describe him and to me, he is more of a jaded anti-hero than your noble hero. Throughout the course of the story, Naofumi begins to trusts in others especially his own party consisting of Raphtalia, Firo, and Melty. Out of this group, Raphtalia evolves the most both physically and mentally. Originally, she is portrayed as a weak child with PTSD symptoms. But after coming in contact with Naofumi, she grows into a courageous fighter who manages to overcome her personal demons. All this seems to draw in a lot of interest and honestly, I believe the first half of this show managed to capitalize on them rather effectively. Sure, there are despicable characters like Myne or gullible types such as the spear hero, Motoyasu. However, they didn’t truly make the show unwatchable. If you put yourself into the shoes of the creator, they probably created those two characters with the intention of getting the audience to hate them. I should say that’s no understatement because the bottom line is, there’s nothing likable about either Myne or Motoyasu. If we talk about Myne, she’s easily described as the bitch in sheep’s clothing. In other words, she wears a mask to hide her true nature. Have you ever met someone who pretended to be your friend to take advantage of you? Think of Myne. That’s what she is: a cunning, manipulative, and treacherous sociopath who uses whatever she can get her hands on for herself. Motoyasu isn’t much of a likeable person either with his ignorance and extreme gullibility. When it comes to women, he’s like a child who virtually believes what others tell him. This pretty much becomes a running gag in the show where Myne is able use him like a dog on a leash. It doesn’t help that he display borderline pedophilic tendencies towards characters such as Firo. It makes me want to puke and I don’t think anyone can find his interactions with Firo to be comfortable in any shape or form. At some point in the show, I’m sure viewers will wonder if the other heroes will get any sort of character development. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. This season is called The Rising of the Shield Hero for a reason and most of the attention is focused on his group and party. Characters such as Raphtalia gets their development and background story because they are a central focus in the show. Others such as Ren and Itsuki are just part of the premise. Their background stories are not explored so don’t expect to get attached to them. This is another part where I believe the show suffers in terms of characterization. We don’t really understand their personalities besides what they show on the surface. Unlike Naofumi who finds a purpose in the story, it feels like most of the main supporting cast lacks one. Even characters such as Firo or Melty becomes more and more stale overtime. I mean, how many times do we need to see an oversized chicken pronounce her intentions to eat and fight? Don’t me wrong though, I want to see the main characters to develop but outside of Naofumi and Raphtalia, the others really doesn’t set a bar. To make matters worse, it seems the show loves to inject dialogues during mid-fights to drag out content. This is especially evident in later episodes where the charaters' dialogues are far overstretched than what they should be. That also leads to how character relationships is presented as the storytelling unfolds. In fantasy adventures like this, there’s often times that when a male and female companion develop deeper feelings towards each other. Raphtalia has obvious feelings towards Naofumi for anyone who pays attention to her dialogues. She even shows jealousy towards Firo during their early encounters to see who can earn Naofumi’s attention. While it’s not truly love that Naofumi responds with, he does develop a deep trust for Raphtalia and Firo. Melty is a bit of an oddball in the group as this season shows that Naofumi regards her more of as a companion than a friend. Watching Naofumi’s character interactions within the group can be sometimes heartwarming while other times feel out of space. However, I do give praise to the voice acting talent of the show. They manage to grasp the character personalities in particular Naofumi and even someone as intolerable such as Myne. The Rising of the Shield Hero is more of a dark fantasy so having a studio like Kinema Citrus working on this feels somewhat fitting. I would have preferred Wit Studio known for their more refined resume, but Kinema Citrus manages to work its magic for the adaptation. As a dark fantasy, there’s often violence that displays the cruelty of this parallel world. Character designs are in line with what you can picture from an isekai show. It adapts straight from the light novel (personally, I think the manga version is a poor example for its art style). As the shield hero, Naofumi’s most noticeable design is his character expressions that drastically changes. In the beginning, he is shown smiling with joy but this shifts into a more cynical expression. On the other hand, Raphtalia’s evolution from a child to an adult fighter shows her growth. She takes on an archetype heroine look with demi-human traits such as her ears and tail. Furthermore, characters such as Firo possesses animalistic traits designed to give them a more fantasy look. And finally, I should say the world building of this show does hold value although the anime adaptation only scratches more of the surface of their world. Perhaps the most controversial isekai show of the year aired and we’re not even half way through 2019 yet. Looking at the future lineup will likely have fans talking more about the direction of modern fantasy isekai. For The Rising of the Shield Hero, this could have been an incredible anime for a dark adventure. The first half showed a lot of potential but most of that is weathered down by the repetitive storytelling themes and lack of characterization. There’s still plenty of more in the light novels so this anime only gives a taste f…

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was great. It was a show that brought me back to the isekai train after watching a certain broken heap of an isekai anime from the Summer 18 season that shall not be mentioned. The story was fun and nicely written. The characters were fun and enjoyable especially Rimuru. The visuals were beautiful and the music, as well as voice acting for both languages, were great. It's was the best isekai anime that I watched despite its few faults. Naturally, I decided to check out Shield Hero as I thought it would be the next best iskeai anime that will surpass Slime based on the amazing premise. It had the potential to be the saviour of this tiresome and uninspired genre. Maybe that was my mistake and I expecting too much for an isekai anime at this point. So what exactly went wrong here? The story, characters, themes, world-building, direction all of the above? In order to not immediately begin destroying this contrived mess of a plot, I'll start talking about what I liked and that is the revenge aspect of Shield Hero. One of the main things that made Shield Hero stand out of the isekai crowd is that it was the first true dark isekai anime. You could say that Re:Zero was the first true dark isekai anime however it only had one episode that was truly dark while the rest the show is tamed in comparison. From start to finish as we follow a broken and damaged lead trying to save the world while trying to endure and fight the endless hatred caused by the people he was summoned. This alone really made Shield Hero unique in the story side of things as it ditches most of the story elements that were in other isekai anime in order to introduce new story elements that were not presented in other isekai anime until now with Shield Hero. Shield Hero is a core revenge story. The revenge story may not be as special when it comes to anime but Shield Hero is one of the most fascinating and rewarding revenge stories I have seen in the long while. While it may not be as well written like Skip Beat and Gankustou it was still a fascinating ride I really enjoyed. Seeing Naofumi humiliating and take down the people that caused his reputation to get shattered put a smile on my face as he really went through a lot of things in order to have the will to take them down. This is all thanks to the show's fairly competent writing when it's not being an incompetent pandering feast and that is where our problems begin. While the revenge aspect of the show was strong from start to finish, I cannot say the same thing for the other story elements such as the save the world from the waves. The waves are basically your typical survival arenas that you see in a video game and they are not that interested in the slightest thanks to weak execution. I will give the show credit for trying to make the waves interesting toward the end but by then the show was already over by that point. Another major problem that would later plague the anime is how they make everyone minus the protagonist dumb and contrived. This alone really takes a massive shit of Naofumi's revenge tale as it could have been avoided if the characters just shut up and behave like actual human beings. Furthermore, why did no one in the capital cast a lie detector spell on both Naofumi and Malty chest? Any person with a brain would have put a lie detector spell on someone in case they are lying where they could receive a shock. The fact that the series showcased that the slave crest can also detect lies in episode 21 was infuriating and it really highlights just how contrived and poorly written the series is as it could have been used in episode 1 for Naofumi's trial. Don't get me started with the lacklustre world-building. I will give it Shield Hero credit for least trying to establish it's own world in certain episodes it compared to most other isekai animes but it's still lacklustre as the world at various points feels so lifeless and empty. The UI system is not interesting in the slightest as just another generic UI system that has been done in other isekai anime in the past. Now Shield Hero has a lot of themes yet most of them were poorly executed. My favourite is how the show tackles the topic of slavery. Not only is it handed incredibly poorly due to how preachy it was but the topic of slavery more often gets shafted (especially in the second half) in favour of stupid pandering. By far the biggest problem with Shield Hero is that it doesn't truly know what it wants to be. At first, the show is a dark revenge story, then it's a power fantasy and then it's an adventure series, then it's a harem. This alone really screws up the tone, direction and pacing of the series. The first 4 episodes of Shield Hero is very grim and dark that has a lot of tension and atmosphere thanks to the subject matter of rape and humiliation. Naofumi is portrayed as a cold lead who just wanted to revenge of the people that humiliated him. Unfortunately, episodes 5 and onward the series decided, for the most part, put its revenge plot in the bus just so the series can add generic isekai tropes and cliches for a show that didn't need it in the first place. It's not like the revenge has been shafted the revenge aspect it's but it doesn't appear all the much post-episode 5 as the series decides to waste its time of sick self insert loli pandering. Finally, the final 4 episodes which were without a question one of the most boring and lacklustre final 4 episodes I have seen in 2019 Not only did the series completely jump the shark where it introduced plot threads up its ass but it also lost its purpose. Episode 21 in terms of atmosphere and direction feels like I'm watching a finale of anime and it really shows. The episode after that feels like episode fodder as it's filled with fan-service and plot threads that won't be fleshed out due to the low episode count. I give the final 4 episodes credit for showcasing Naofumi's new powers and abilities then again the show could have ended with a cliffhanger after episode 21/22 The final thing I want to point out is the controversy in the first episode. When Shield Hero first aired it was met with controversy thanks to its offensive content where Malty (aka Bitch) falsely accused Nafoumi of raping her. I can definitely get why people get mad of this messy storytelling as it was done much better in Persona 5 but what I cannot forgive is a bunch of SJW try-hards trying to put down a show just because it deals with more serious themes and topics. This is why I didn't give two shits about the Goblin Slayer controversy as that series was an awful show regardless of the controversy being there or not. The characters aren't much better as all of them minus Nafoumi and Raphtalia ranged from bland, annoying, poorly written or the combination of the three. Let's start with Nafoumi who is easily the best thing about Shield Hero. He starts off as a grumpy individual who doesn't trust people but as the series progresses with the aid of Raphtalia not only does he open up to people he also becomes a proper badass especially towards the final quarter of the series. Another strong aspect of Naofumi is that he's not overpowered as he mostly relies on his partners to take down various enemies. Finally, he is not a bore to watch, which more I can say about iskeai protagonist as they all lifelessly self-insert husks. Nafoumi is tied with Rimuru for being my favourite isekai protagonist. Another character that I really liked is Raphtalia. She may not be as good as Naofumi in terms of development but she's a good character in her own right. I liked her chemistry towards Naofumi. Despite being a loli she will do anything to project Naofumi from falling into darkness. Sadly this is where my praise for the characters ends. The show has a lot of characters yet all of them are clichéd and poorly written to the core. The other heroes are a bunch of soulless character archetypes. They don't…

When I first heard of Shield Hero I was not that impressed. It seemed like the typical isekai designed with elements to shit on the main character and get people riled up because of that. And when I watched the first episode I had some very mixed thoughts. They were dabbling with some touchy subject matter to say the least, and had many elements that I personally found off-putting, however the execution was pretty good. As it turned out the strong execution managed to mitigate the concerns I had with those elements and ended up making what I consider to be a very good show. There is a lot of shit thrown at Naofumi. And at times it can seem quite excessive. A good portion of the show is dedicated to piling as much as it can onto him. And while I'm not the biggest fan of this, I think where the show is able to shine is in the execution of it. Shield Hero does a good job of showing how Naofumi reacts to all of this, and how his heart grew colder in relation to it. It showed the trust issues that happen to come after being falsely accused, and how it can affect his whole character. The show was able to give reasons why everything around him happened, and the whole plan around it rather than just leaving it up in the air, making it easier to understand the predicament that he was in. Since the show went into detail into showing and demonstrating the severe effects of all of this on Naofumi it makes it easy to empathize with him, and to feel for him. It could have easily felt like too much, mainly because it was so close to being too much, but the show being able to clearly show why the characters were doing what they were doing worked well. For example, take the other heroes. While they certainly are a burden for Naofumi, it's not as if they are evil. They are actually a realistic depiction of the typical guy being isekai'd. They are naive and think everything works like a video game. They are unable to think about the consequences and go with whatever they desire. This does create problems but it's understandable why they do what they did. Overall this reaches every misfortune that happens to Naofumi, and so while it can be painful to watch, it all matches up. Ironically it's Naofumi's struggles that make it so understandable why he ends up so OP in the end. While the other heroes were just doing whatever they wanted, Naofumi was struggling through life trying to do whatever he could to survive. Furthermore I think that Naofumi's anti-hero status was quite interesting to watch. While he grew colder there is an arguemnt to make that he didn't turn that cold and rather turned his outside cold, while still caring on the inside. His companions show this well. He clearly cares for Raptalhia despite her being his slave, and her having to do anything that he wants her to do, in theory. In fact even when he's training her and putting her through struggles, he cares about her and gives her the chance to leave. The relationship between Naofumi and Raptalhia is a high point of the show, and I think it demonstrates an interesting part of morality. Having slaves is immoral, and from that lens it'd be easy to see Naofumi as immoral. But because he picked up Raptalhia as a slave, he gives her a much better life just by treating her right, and caring for her. It's very easy to see things in a black and white manner but one thing I liked about the show is looking at these topics with more nuance. And while the show never directly talks about it, I like its able to the positive results to the grey-decisions that Naofumi had to make. The production values are also great and do a really good job of aiding the execution. The visuals look pretty amazing, outside of some CG, and the soundtrack may not match Perkin's Made In Abyss, but it is a great good OST that fits the song well. Furthermore Kinema Citrus manages to bring out great pacing yet again and allows for the time for Naofumi and his group to bond, allowing the audience to bond with them and grow to like them. While the second half's pacing was a lot more questionable, the first half was so good and did a lot to really enhance the show. Overall the show deals with some questionable subject matter but does it well, in a way that allowed at least me to relate and sympathize with the characters, and one that made it feel real and understandable rather than poorly written revenge porn for the sake of revenge porn. I think there's quite a bit to offer in this show and I quite enjoyed watching personally. I'd recommend it to isekai fans as for me it's one of the standouts in the bunch, and while I can't guarantee that everyone will be content with the subject matter that Shield Hero pursues, I can at least vouch and say that the merits of the show were able to mitigate the negatives of them.

We live in a world where the Isekai genre is so overdone. It’s gotten to a point where it becomes very hard to stand out and make a unique series in the Isekai genre. The Rising of the Shield Hero’s first 4 episodes do a very good job at putting the MC into a unique situation not many other isekais have done before. The twist in the first episode is so shocking, infuriating, and it gets the viewer excited to watch how the shield hero will overcome this obstacle. It was looking like The Rising of The Shield Hero was about to become a classic in the Isekai genre, becoming the standard for what a good isekai should look like, but oh boy was I wrong. Remember the twist in episode 1 that sets up the rest of the series, well that doesn’t last for long. The show looses what makes it unique in the first place by the end of the first season. the whole point of the show is the shield hero trying to overcome this obstacle and they ditch it immediately. What’s the point of carrying on then? That’s like if in One Piece, after Luffy becomes pirate king, the Strawhats go on another adventure to defeat a giant tortoise that is terrorizing the north blue. If you want to watch only the good parts of rising of the shield hero then watch episodes 1-21. After that it becomes a standard Isekai harem.

Rising of the Shield Hero? More like rising of the Edgelord Hero! [Warning: Spoilers] Shield Hero is another overrated isekai the fandom overhyped it being "different from other isekai" and to an extent I could see where they’re coming from since it did have a promising start, but then it continuously declined with each episode and devolved into a generic, power fantasy, loli harem isekai. Story (3/10): The story is about 4 otakus who get summoned into this world where they’ve become legendary heroes and have to defeat the succession of waves to save the World in order to go home. However, the show would be over if we fought all the waves so quickly, right? To drag out the story, we follow Naofumi’s party daily lives as they: learn about this world, fight monsters, fulfil side adventures, buy new items/equipment, become merchants and start trading (which comes off as bootleg Spice & Wolf), and most importantly deal with the latest contrived drama Naofumi has gotten himself into. I’ll explain this in more detail later on. Characters (2/10): Naofumi starts out as this misunderstood ‘nice guy’. That’s all I can describe him because he had no personality and we know barely anything about him or his past. He gets played by Myne and is accused of a rape accusation. This is only the first of many acts created to shit on Shield Hero. The show constantly goes out of it’s way to portray the royals, heroes and pretty much everyone in the world as unlikeable assholes to make Naofumi the victim. Naofumi is the “nice guy” who believes he has terrible luck for being chosen as the shield hero, which is seen as the worst class. Myne’s betrays him, steals all his money, he gets a false rape accusation, a bad reputation, ostracised by everyone and because of this Naofumi’s drastically changes into a edgy ‘morally grey’ anti hero- who buys a child slave in order to fight for him. Thus the story how the Edgelord Hero is born! My problem with this is Naofumi at the beginning is a blank slate that isn’t fleshed out enough so his sudden change doesn’t resonate with me. I’m not yearning for Naofumi to go back to his old self because we didn’t spend enough time for me to care about him. Edgelord Hero doesn’t have much of a personality or endearing qualities, he’s just a standoffish, cynical asshole who’s less sociable, has trust issues and asks quest givers money for his help. The amount of forced drama is so poorly written and contrived that it’s emotionally manipulative. The writer wants you to feel sympathetic to Naofumi’s cause and root for him in this ultimate underdog story. Too bad I’ve got none for the Edgelord Hero! For example, why should I be rooting for him Vs Spear Hero to win his duel so he can keep his slave? You want to know what I don’t understand? Is these evil assholes who are hellbent on screwing with Edgelord Hero, [i] need him [/i] to save their world. He has no reason whatsoever to fight for them, so why do they hate him with a passion? Why do they keep handicapping one of their four chosen heroes? For example, the King giving him less starting gold, not giving him information about the hourglass to access the waves, not letting him class upgrade. It makes no sense. We aren’t given a explanation as to why they act the way they do, so unless it’s for the Lolz, it’s to make Edgelord Hero the victim. LN readers are constantly saying “there’s a reason for all this, you just have to wait!” but the writer has dragged this out for 20 episodes with little hints alluding to why (e.g. a history of nefarious shield heroes), while adding more contrived drama to the point where I’m exhausted and desensitised to the whole situation. The reveal after all this buildup was sooooo underwhelming. The consequences was incredibly childish and pathetic, that I will spare you the details and just say it was akin to one of the school playground punishments. Raphtalia is a bland, poorly written heroine (Demi-human) who went from a scared, meek little girl with a tragic backstory of being tortured, in slavery, had PTSD over her parents death, to losing all her flaws and any potential of emotional conflict that could have led to some good character development because of how she changed in a instantaneous, implausible manner e.g. an absurd personality change and rapid aging that happened offscreen after two episodes to gain qualities to make her the “perfect waifu”. Her development is too unrealistic. She remains a static “Naofumi sama” bot for the rest of the show. This may sound sensitive to some, but I have to say, this show romanticizes slavery. It sweeps under the rug the nature of Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia’s master/slave relationship, him buying her out of necessity because Edgelord Hero can’t attack or trust anyone else to party with. Edgelord Hero punishing Raphtalia when she didn’t bend to his orders. It’s worse in the manga where it was stated Edgelord Hero bought her because she’s a girl that looks similar to Myne so he could project his pent up hatred on her. They wasted the opportunity to explore the themes/morality addressed with slavery and their dynamic in detail. For example, Raphtalia essentially was a broken slave who’s lost everyone she’s ever cared about. It’s clear Raphtalia developed stockholm syndrome for Edgelord Hero over a few instances of kindness due how shit her life has been and the story about the legendary Shield Hero who will save the demi humans. Instead of showing how unhealthy their relationship is with both of them depending on each other to “lick each other’s wounds”, leading to some good character development for both of them, it’s portrayed to make Raphtalia the perfect waifu who unconditionally loves Edgelord Hero, who worships the ground he walks on and will stand by him even when everyone in the world’s betrayed him. Doesn’t that sound like a edgy fanfiction to you? They could have slowly developed their relationship into a genuine romance with them gradually growing closer- slowly letting each others walls down, begin to trust each other (despite being ostracised from society) and eventually fall in love. It was hard to watch the scene where Raphtalia was angry that the kingdom freed her from slavery and was defending Edgelord Hero basically saying: “Naofumi sama is kind! He feeds me, bought me a ball, he tortures me when I don’t bend to his will i.e. being scared to fight, but it’s okay because I want to be his slave!” Her level of stockholm syndrome surpasses that of a battered wife. Raphtalia is nothing more than pure waifu bait. Worse of all is Naofumi doesn’t see the problem with slavery, he doesn’t change his perspective with the slave trader and becomes a regular customer, hell he doesn’t even apologise to Raphtalia. This is further evident when Raphtalia wants to go to the slave owner’s shop to get a new slavery mark because she likes being his slave- she wears it as a badge of honour now. Who the hell cares about her years of PTSD when it’s magically cured from a few moments of kindness?! As long as you fed and pet your slave then you can be a great slave owner! Filo is a one-dimensional, generic, cute bird loli with no depth. The only reason she’s a loli is for fan service. I despise Filo because when she joins the party the story goes downhill. It started off deep with a darker tone to it which was interesting, but slowly devolved into a lighthearted, generic harem isekai with loli’s joining one after another. The parental relationship between Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia becomes a competition between Filo and Raphtalia for the Edgelord Hero’s affection, despite him not returning it. Malty gains feelings for him too, because it’s not Isekai if all the girls don’t worship/ fall in love with the self-insert protagonist right? Myne is a one dimensional, spiteful, unlikeable, basic bitch with no depth. I don’t think ever witnessed a character who was created to be as insufferable and hated like her. Her onl…

***Stares at medieval, full-bodied armor*** “I don’t think it’s my style…” — Naofumi Iwatani “Yeah, it will strip Naofumi-sama of all his individuality.” — Raphtalia “Did these mother f—ker’s just insult the Goblin Slayer?!” — Krunchyman Summoned to a world he knows not. By a group of medieval aristocrats, whom wish to avoid a calamitous event known as the “Wave.” Naofumi Iwatani — along with three other “Heroes” — embarks on a quest to refine his skills in preparation for the fateful day when the “Wave” finally arrives. Unfortunately for Naofumi, his role as a “Hero” is starkly different than Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu (the “Sword,” “Bow,” and “Spear Hero,” respectively). Because while their skills are geared toward an offensive mindset, Naofumi’s shield requires him to accept a defensive role that is seen by the majority of the characters as being useless (including himself). Combine this with the betrayal of the bitch — otherwise known as Malty — and you have a recipe to alter the insouciant main character into a dejected, spiteful loner who wanders the countryside with rage in his heart and not a single companion to aid in his adventure. Normally, this would be the part where the metaphorical player would rage quit or reset the game in hopes of gaining more favorable circumstances. But for Naofumi, he is forced to deal with the disadvantaged situation by making concessions (i.e. cheap meals) and buying a sickly slave girl — Raphtalia — to function as his “sword” to hasten his ability to kill more monsters and level up. And, really, that’s all Raphtalia aspires to be throughout the series — faithful slave, whom wishes to please her master (get you head out of the gutter!). As a side note, there has been a considerable amount of controversy regarding the integration of slavery in a modern anime, but given the medieval time period, and the fact that “Amurica” had slaves up until the 19th century, it’s a foolish complaint by “do-gooders” who have entirely too much time on their hands. In terms of Naofumi as a character, he lacks emotion when Raphtalia and him begin to roam the countryside in search for stronger “beasts.” Besides his seething anger for the individuals that wronged him, Naofumi seems relatively vacuous as the main protagonist. It makes sense given the Louis C.K. treatment he’s been subjugated to, but seems obvious that the writer’s intentionally dragged Naofumi down (below the other three “Heroes”) to set the stage of an eventual underdog story. Hence, it was much expected that the level of antipathy directed at Naofumi would dissipate as he methodically gained the trust of those around him. This also entailed a shift in Naofumi’s cynicism and “anti-hero” role toward an idealistic one when his selfless deeds become more well-known. But does this predictability deter from the overall enjoyment?…Yes, yes it does. Most of the monsters were typical run-of-the-mill cannon fodder, only serving to perish in droves to accentuate the skills of the “Heroes.” The characters were quite lacking, with everyone falling into familiar tropes. Also, the show quickly devolved into a harem with the introduction of Filo — Naofumi’s side “chick” — and Melty (the second princess). By the way, not only was Filo a loli and a chocobo, she’s not even ONE—YEAR—OLD. F—k! The art was pedestrian throughout the series, with an abundance of static shots and bland character aesthetics (off model shit and whatnot). Enjoyment wise, Shield Hero was far too predictable and tropey to have any staying power. Relying on the good versus evil dynamic — without further exploration — is just lazy writing. Speaking of which, the whole premise of the show was inane after Naofumi became the strongest, most popular hero in the show. Which makes “The Rising of the Shield Hero” a doppelgänger of the Isekai genre, that is already littered with clones aplenty.

Terrible show about terrible people. Less than typical isekai trash. Story sets itself out to be epic, exciting adventure but stumbles to a crawl by the end of the fourth episode. It's about as dull and meaningless as one can expect. At least other isekai trash put SOME effort into their world-building and plot. Almost everyone in the show is either an idiot or an asshole, with one of the only "good guys" being a slave trader. So that should give you a good idea about what you can expect from the characters. If anyone but Spear Hero brought up the Raphtalia/slavery thing, they would have been right. But because the biggest idiot in the show said it, suddenly everyone else is wrong and slavery is okay. Even worse is how the show goes out of its way to jump through so many hoops in order to defend slavery. Naofumi is a dense idiot (and a bit of an asshole) but at least there's some empathy to give him considering his situation. How ironic that a "blank slate" main character is the best written character in the series. Reminder that Raphtalia is still 10 years old. "bUt ShE mEnTaLLy AgEs aS sHe LeVeLs uP". Yeah and his entire harem is lolis. Doesn't exactly help your point. Only redeeming factor is the fantastic OST, but it doesn't do enough to save this travesty.

The shield hero is a postirony. You can't call it bad, because in fact it is supposed to be bad, and it does its job, therefore, because of its purpose, it is good. The fact is that the main character ends up in a very bad fanfiction book created to pump money. The hero himself says about this that this book is a passerby. You have no right to call this anime bad, because the anime itself says so. Naofumi is a simple anime guy, he's not smart, he's not stupid. However, in the anime, he seems to be the smartest person in the world, as the antagonists here are the dumbest people in the universe, with teenager-level thinking. For some reason, in the world in which the hero fell, there are RPG mechanics, as in an MMORPG. This is strange, because the hero ended up in a book, and not in a game, but it's better not to look for logic in this anime. What is the value of Raphtalia's breasts changing their size, for no apparent reason. I'm sorry. It's a pity. I love the literary device where a character with a normal reputation accidentally loses it and has to restore it. However, the implementation of this in the anime is very poor. It would have been much better if there had been an emphasis on Naofumi and Raphtalia's local adventures while revealing the world. Instead, the anime has a lot of bloody pathos for the sake of pathos, stupid antagonists who rule the world, and in general it's some kind of circus. Isekai stories have potential, but they do not use it, as it is not profitable. This anime is very overrated, but on the other hand, it can entertain for 1 time. I don't know what happens in the continuation of the story, but there are rumors that everything is still 10 times worse. However, thanks for your attention! I wish you enjoy anime.

1) The hook A lot of people were really hyped during the early episodes of this anime because of a little thing called Outrage culture. Just like it happened with Goblin Slayer some seasons before, the touchy premise of fake rape allegations and pro-slavery themes triggered the social justice warriors. This in turn motivated the defenders of the light novel to write long essays for defending the anime. One of the usual excuses any fan says about any show he likes is how it’s a subversion. It ain’t like other isekai! This one is different! These fans were so vocal about it they managed to attract a lot of random people who got curious by the ongoing controversy. Before you know it everyone was watching and talking about the Shield Hero. And as usual what matters the most is the execution and not the initial hook or how popular a show is. Which is actually really funny when you look back at what they were saying and what the show ended up being. The hook of the premise, the same one that lured in so many people with fake rape allegations and pro-slavery themes, managed to enrage a lot and to keep them watching with a promise of justice porn. And by that I mean everyone was waiting impatiently for the protagonist to prove his innocence and make those who were responsible to pay. Something which he eventually does. Pretty easily I must say. And then most of those watchers lost their interest because they got what they wanted and the hook was no more. 2) The degradation of the plot During the initial episodes, the plot was edgy, dark, and kind of depressing in tone. It begins to fall apart after the fourth episode by becoming another generic empowerment fantasy. Up until then nothing was easy and uplifting, but then it turns into a typical isekai full of every cliché in the book. Comic relief, fan service, cockblocking romantic advancements, easy victories, constant ridicule of the opposition, and non-stop ego-stroking. -Naofumi’ shield was supposed to be weak and unable to be used for attack, but soon became able to cast every ability imaginable, and to have enough firepower for blowing up entire mountains. -The girls Naofumi travels with, which were supposed to have depth and mental issues, constantly do typical fan service shenanigans. Going to hot springs, getting molested by tentacle monsters, never shutting up about how awesome Naofumi is, fighting over who gets to be his lover, and constantly yelling about how they can’t live without him. -By the time you get to the half point of the first season Naofumi gets vindicated. His enemies, the vicious nobles who at first were sinister and sneaky in their plan to ruin Naofumi’s reputation, turn to complete idiots who exist to be constantly ridiculed. Their only defining features are being evil and idiots. It’s easy to get bored of them since they come off as incompetent and not as threatening as they did in the first episodes. -The rival heroes who during their introduction were presented as super smart and calculative, quickly turned into complete idiots who can’t even walk without tripping over their own feet. Every single thing they do turns to a disaster and it’s up to Naofumi to clean after their mess. -The world where nobody supports the Shield Hero, is quickly proven to be full of people who are constantly supporting him (peasants in need), wish to enter his team (soldiers during the monster invasion), defend him every time he is accused (queen’s spies), and even plot armor him when he is about to be killed (Fitoria). -The notorious fake rape allegations, the bread and butter when it comes to this show, like it or not, ended up being just dumb people with power incriminating a person THEY summoned for helping them out. It was a cheap shot at victimizing the protagonist for making him sympathetic to the audience. Lots of shows do that and try their best to maintain the victimizing all the way to the end of the story. This anime doesn’t do that. 3) The protagonist The initial impression you were given about the protagonist, was that he was not another overpowered self insert otaku and not everything in his second life in an isekai is rainbows and unicorns. He is not yet another neet otaku loser who gets transported to a different world that works like a generic videogame, gets ultra powerful very fast, and amasses a harem of pretty girls who all love him for being bland. Well, fancy that, he ends up becoming that as the episodes go by. Something you can’t forgive though, even if he is bland, is how he is entirely passive. Not a characteristic you want from any hero in any show. Naofumi is constantly told what to do instead of thinking for himself, and is then praised for doing what he’s told. So it’s basically double standards at play. The author can have him doing whatever he wants for the plot to move in any direction he fancies and is then retroactively proving him right for being passive. The author treats the protagonist’s actions like a heroic feat, when in reality he makes him comes off as a robot following a program imposed by others. -Buying the slaves was not the protagonist’s idea, it was proposed by the slave merchant. -Doing the missions that help the villagers was not his idea, it was the villagers asking for help. -He did not want to be a team with the other heroes, the chocobo queen demanded it or she would kill him. Plus that archbishop dude wanted to kill them. He went as far as revealing his evil plans right in front of them. He became a common enemy of the heroes by wanting to kill them and they automatically became a team in order to take down this enemy. Some elaboration on that last point. What really takes the cake is how besides being passive, the narrative is also constantly using double standards for every little thing he does, thus coming off as hypocritical. Naofumi’s idea of working together as a team comes down to mocking the very people he is supposed to work with as a team. The constant need of the author to provide justice porn contradicts what the protagonist is supposed to be doing. You don’t mock your teammates and then pretend you are a team player. In fact, you are not a team player if you were forced to enter a team. 4) The bad guys The nobles and the clergy are very shallow as bad guys since they did all their evil fake allegations just because they didn’t like Naofumi. When Naofumi eventually gets vindicated he doesn’t even allow them to be punished with public execution. No, he saves their lives just for changing their names into slurs and having them being humiliated for life. That is apparently enough of a punishment if all the viewer cares about is constant humiliation of the protagonist’s enemies. It’s otherwise very childish and done that way for a revenge porn written with the mentality of a ten year old. Haha, let’s change the big baddie’s name to kaka doodoo and call her names all the time, haha! Beyond that, nothing changes in the evil princess’ behavior. After all the crap she did, she remains in the team of the Spear Hero despite humiliating him that way, and she still constantly tries to mess with Naofumi despite having her life spared and being given the chance to turn a new leaf. Then there is the evil clergy which frankly do their best to contradict their very agenda. -The cartoonishly evil religion hates the Shield Hero because the previous heroes of the same class were allied with the furry kingdom. So basically, they hate the current hero for nothing, since he didn’t do something to hurt them. He just belongs in the same class. -The dogma of the cartoonishly evil religion is against the cute furry waifus, thus they seemingly justify their hate. And I say seemingly because they don’t, since the hate came before the Shield Hero had cute furry waifus. They hated him before he even got to have cute furry waifus. -The Shield Hero was normally supposed to be summoned at the furry kingdom. The cartoonishly evil religion cheated and summon…

Do you know the formula for success in the anime industry now? The formula is not like math or physics, but selects all genres and mixes them together. "Isekai" plus "Harem" is the formula that I meant. Is it like that? Of course, it's back to yourself. The opinion I make is just an idea that has no basis and theory. "Isekai" is basically a term for anime with a storyline, where the main character is thrown into another world and lives a new life in that world. Usually the "isekai" genre begins with the death of the main character or through the intermediary of an item, and lives in another world with a new form or just a new ability. Replacing a main potential, how they dispose of potential, and how they replace the lost potential is something that is beyond our reach. The decision is held by the studio, whatever the results, we as the audience can only surrender to the decision. Is that right? This genre that is indeed unique is indeed liked by many people, but there are also many "Hater" who really hate this genre. The "Hater" usually has a reason to hate because it has a storyline that is only "happyness" readers without having a good storyline. It can be likened to the "isekai" genre like a pornographic story that does not have a sex scene in it. The Isekai genre does have a storyline in which the main character, lives a new life in another world. What makes it interesting is the story that develops often, the main character has super powers. This superpowers, not always in the form of physical strength, intelligence that surpasses people in general, and extraordinary patience when problems come. Different from the other four characters, the main characters cannot attack effectively. That forced him to pair up with someone who really could. Does it fulfill the fantasy of the reader (or even the writer?) As mentioned in the previous point. The genre of "Isekai" is indeed very qualified in fulfilling the fantasy of the reader or even the writer. Readers and writers must be eager to get all the happy things. Just like a firework that only looks beautiful at the beginning and when the specified time has reached its limit, it looks only a sadness. At first the main character has a trust and strength but as a result of one incident it just disappears. Is the "Isekai" genre easy for writers to make? Somehow those words crossed my mind. Why not, if you look at every season there is always this genre. Inevitably, a lot of "isekai" doesn't have a strong story. Maybe only a few have a strong storyline in it. The storyline that tends not to be strong, will be more easily made by the author. As long as it meets the market or the readers' desires, there will be more and more "Isekai" genre anime. Unlike the other "isekai" this one has a startling start on how not the betrayal is done so neatly and there are no gaps anywhere, it makes the main character trapped and follows the flow of this endless game. The most important of all is whether everything is full of "waifu?" Each anime has its own female characters ranging from "loli" to "milf". Most of them make character designs as beautiful as possible to attract men's attention. Is this to increase sales figures? Of course, every studio has its own strategy to compete in the market, but there are also those who don't take the risk to take the road and prefer to make it all. Having different characters is also important. No matter how they look as long as they have cute character designs why not? As time goes by, this anime is getting better every time. If you look at the opening theme in the first season, I don't think it's very interesting, but in the end they are aware of their shortcomings and start working hard in the lacking part. The first and second seasons have distinct differences, even though sung by the same singer it's clear that the second season is better. "Faith" it seems that the title is familiar to anyone who has witnessed this spectacle. In every episode, even though it's often displayed, I'm sure you don't miss this one.

I am unsure how I learned of this anime but good lord I am so glad I did. Everything about it is amazing. At first I was a little unsure because I thought it was going to be another stereotypical Isekai anime where the MC has a harem and it end up a trash anime. Oh was I wrong. The MC starts off knowing anything about MMO games or how those worlds work. He never understood what was going on. He also starts off with a shield, what is seen as the weakest of all of the weapons. He is ridiculed and shamed by those around him and, later, the entire country. Everyone spreads rumors and he is lower than rock bottom. He gets conned and robbed and is, basically, thrown to the streets. It is through his hard work and effort that he raises and, oh boy,it is hard for him. Because of his history with the world, he does not trust anyone and is very cynical. It's not until many episodes in that he actually starts trusting his companion. I have never seen an anime with these attributes and I can relate with the MC as well. Seeing this was SO refreshing and I loved every second of it. I watched and listening to the opening and ending for EVERY episode, which I hardly ever do (I will usually watch the first one then skip the rest.) The animation and art was stunning and effects mind blowing. The characters were well developed and I don't think I even saw a cliche anime trope either. Romance is hinted at but never carried out, which, again, seems rare for Isekai animes. I am rooting for a season 2 and will start reading the manga. I want to learn Japanese so I can also read the light novels too. I HIGHLY suggest start watching this if you haven't already! While we wait with anticipation for a season 2 I will be entertaining myself with other works from this director as well as animes similar to it. Another thing to note is I never write reviews for animes so the fact that I spent the time to write this also says how amazing this anime is.

The story seemed great at the beggining but all become into a dumpster fire when more lolis appeared in the show, and that's when I realized the characters have no chemistry between the viewer and the show. I can't feel anything for any of them. Sorrey waifufags but as a woman I can see the things in a more clear way. Okay, besides annoying lolis, this show also has a team rocket, who appeared every fucking episode doing some boring shit like bullies that run away when the good guy solves everything or btfo them. Also the fights were so boring as hell, art was close to zero. I mean okay, iron maiden's appearance was great but the rest of the fights? trash (no, not you trash, the other trash). Moving onto the art, awful awful cgi, the parts that were supposed to look amazing were laughable the most part of the time, I can't believe I loose my time watching this show. Godzilla vs. Giant Bird was the cherry on the cake. The tense got lost and instead it made me laugh so hard and also I felt ashame of watching the show. Characters, ok, I may have a problem, but I DISLIKE Raphtalia's character, unlike people that loves her character just because muh waifu raccon, muh loli, or waifu 1dimensional seasonal bait, I do dislike her. I used to think about her as a meh character when reading the manga and reading some WN spoilers but anime made her dirty specially in her character focus episode. Naofumi, was well, at the begginig I felt pity for his fate and also maybe wanted him to find happiness BUT the show made me change my mind once the show advanced, OP shield? really? OP powers REALLY?! okay man I guess you don't need help much less the help of Raphtalia aka your sword since you have too OP powers, huh? well, have a happy life, you are not interesting anymore since also seems you forgave trash and slut for making your life miserable (at least at the beggining). The rest of the characters are forgettable, I don't even remember well the name of the rest, I guess, I need to reread manga and try to read the LNs...At least the characters were more enjoyable in the manga. The sound, well, I guess is okay. i heard the guy in charge of the ost was the same of MiA, yeah I guess that could be possible but definitely his work here was way too inferior from his work in MiA. To sum up, If you want to loose your time and think watching a raccon girl is worth your time or maybe if you are a furryfag, slavefag, waifufag, etc. This show is for you. You won't be dissapointed. Also, what about taking note of this: That tight raccon girl is a 10 years old girl who also wants to impress her benefactor (her owner) by wearing swimsuits and making sandwiches. (That reminds me of a certain mary sue...)

*Review contains no spoilers* "Great production, loss of focus, lack of good characters" That basically describes Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari. In my opinion, an anime that has excellent production but have nothing more to offer than the production is much worse than an anime that is just bad. Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari had real potential to be a great anime or even better. With good art, great animation, and a fantastic soundtrack, but with a lack of good characters and a plot that is just boring and randomly changing and with rushed pacing. This anime becomes a much worse version of what it could have been. It just saddens me to see all of this good production going to waste. Being bad is far better than being boring. Let us talk about the best part first. The music is Astounding both openings could be easily considered one of the best in the season. The main theme is wonderful. Kansas, Mirrors, Autoroll and many other pieces of the soundtrack are incredible. definitely, a soundtrack that I and many are going to remember and come back for. Other than that there is not much else to say about this anime. The plot was okay in the first 4 episodes I guess, but it just didn't know where it was heading. It felt like every 3 episodes have a completely new direction for the plot. Although an ever-changing plot could be great this one doesn't even come close to that. The pacing is garbage. There are almost no good characters. All of the characters are as generic as it gets. Which in turn makes the plot that has no chance of being developed even less intriguing. I still don't understand what does the sitting of Isekai offer to a story like this. Isekai is an interesting setting when it used for the plot rather than just being a sale tag. For example, an anime like RE: zero uses the setting of an Isekai to have a plot revolving around the concept of "respawning" which made the plot much more interesting, on the other hand in Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari there is just no reason plot-wise to have the story in another world really. To wrap things up. This anime had the potential to be great with its production value but even with all of that, the plot and the generic characters drag this anime down and make it an overall disappointment.

3S review no. 16 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy) Let’s make one thing clear, once you start watching this show you simply can’t stop. You just have to find out how much more worse it can get. You just have to find out how bad can it be, and still get aired, let alone have this much success. It is truly a masterpiece, the best of the best at touching your feelings. While watching it I was constantly either laughing out loud, or being totally angry. Not for the reasons that the show intended to provoke my feelings, but, the result is what matters right? Story is… typical isekai garbage with some extra trashy twists. Four heroes are summoned in another world to fight the waves of monsters. So it’s like a tower defense, wherever they are in the world, doing training or whatever, suddenly when the wave comes they get teleported there and fight. Fascinating. So, each hero has a special weapon, spear, sword, bow and shield. For whatever reason no one likes the shield hero, no one cares about him, they clearly believed they were better off without summoning him, yet the summoned him anyway, because… well no reason really. The shield hero is always someone who has no knowledge about the world he is summoned, yet the other three heroes have always played a game that works exactly the same as the world the got summoned (even if it has a different name because they all come from different worlds? Dimensions? Whatever), and all that happens for… no reason actually other than to push the underdog status on the shield hero even further, like the fact that he is the only one that can’t use an offensive weapon, and no one cares about him isn’t enough. That being said he is clearly overpowered and his shield is totally busted. So, he didn’t already have it bad enough, the kings first daughter, pretends to join his party, just to frame him and accuse him that he tried to rape her. He loses all his starting money and items and what a surprise turns into a (supposedly) badass edgy character to fight fr himself even though everyone hates him. Now, the king’s daughter did all of that for… no reason really, just to force even more adversity towards the MC. All of the adversity is completely fake and forced and makes the viewer (me at least) aggravated and infuriated by its cheapness and stupidity. The show’s writing is terrible, sloppy, boring, and insulting cause it’s cocky and pretentious. Every simple aspect of it, world building, plot, characters. Everything is awful. Example for the world build, towards the end of the season, there is an event that is happening on an island that is perfect for training. IT’S A DOUBLE EXP EVENT! And I am not even joking, it is not a video game though, they are not trapped in a video game, it is a real world, people die, yet it’ so sloppily constructed, so much little thought has been put into it, so you get this dirty, vague world, where nothing makes sense, yet everything makes sense for convenience purposes. Amazing plot example, episode 21, is the end of a major event, the hero party is at the castle, there is a ceremony and some really sad goodbyes and tears of sadness and joy. That’s how the episode ends. And in episode 22, right at the start, they get summoned at the castle and go right back there. And I am not even joking! Zero thought of effort goes behind anything in this show, they just threw in there whatever they thought would make it more sellable and intriguing for the audience. Now, for the characters, there is one, only one good thing I can think of, so let’s get this out of the way. The fox-girl, the second leading character I guess, has the hots for the MC, for what it’s worth, this is justified, she developed her feelings during the show, it’s plausible and completely normal. And that’s about it. Every character in this show is either completely braindead, a total cunt, or in most cases both. Everyone, all of them. I don’t know how can one create such characters even if he tries. Characters example, episode 19, finally the heroes get together at last, the events that led up to that, cleared the constant misunderstandings up to that point and now everything should be crystal clear. AND STILL, MC just goes on a lecturing rampage explaining everything cause all of those clinically dead characters still hadn’t gotten it!!! Even the queen that is supposedly the smart one (have I mentioned that in this world there is matriarchy! So the queen is above the king. And the reason is… well no reason really, but you know, some people would find that interesting no?) is completely dumb. Like she decides to punish the traitors and sentence them to death. On the day of their execution (the execution she decided btw) she was expecting the Shield hero to step up and save them, which he did at the very last moment, otherwise she would have committed sudoku and plead to the hero to spare their lives offering hers in exchange. That makes a lot of sense right? Right… oh, btw, wanna know what was their punishment instead of death? They OFFICIALLY changed their names to Bitch, and Trash(or scum or shit, I can’t remember for sure) and everyone now calls them by that. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING. This shit happens, and you have to accept it with a straight face. And don’t get me started about the rest. Like the spear hero, I’m even amazed that he has survived thus far, and I don’t meant in the world of the show, I mean in the world he was summoned from, it has to be a very lenient world towards the completely braindead. At some point in the show, the hero gets a pet, a chocobo wannabe, a chicken, but ofc it can’t just stay a chicken, even the god damn fat chicken has to transform into a cute little angel girl, there wasn’t enough fan service already apparently. Enough already, cause I’m remembering all this shit and my blood starts boiling. Animation is ok, average. Art style and character design is generic and uninspired. Sound is ok as well, above average. Voice acting is mediocre, nothing stands out. So, is it worth a watch? NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Stay away at all costs. It is infuriatingly bad. At the end of the season, MC states that now is the true beginning and where it all starts. At least you got that right bud, that’s where it all starts because what came before this had absolutely 0 reason of existing and we may as well all pretend it never happened. I would not recommend this show even to my worst enemy, if you really do want just to watch a terrible isekai, you are better off watching Artifureta, at least that’s somehwat entertaining in its horribleness.

'Harem Trash' this word i have seen so many people speaking for this anime. Like hell it is. I would rather say its a very much well developed anime and one of the best. Don't know why people criticize this anime, the story and animation are so good but still people just has to call it a 'Harem Trash' just because there's a guy hanging around with 2-3 girls. They just don't look at the story behind or rather they deliberately choose to call it a 'Harem Trash' even after admitting that story is good. There are 2 more seasons coming so some parts which you didn't understand in this season will be cleared in other seasons or at least i hope so because i haven't read the Novel so can't be sure. But i can tell you this much that Naofumi has great character design and development. And the other characters Are great as well. I will definately recommend watching this anime.

Started off with so much potential, but was sadly wasted with poor execution. Story 6/10 It was actually pretty damn good at the beginning,but it started dipping from a certain point. Half way through, it felt like there was a totally different atmosphere, and the emotions it managed to stir up wasn't there anymore. Things just got repetitive, and it got to the point where I wasn't even excited for the new episode to come out. Art 8/10 Decent, although not a fan of those CGI monsters running around. Sound 7/10 None of the OST is particularly memorable, but the OPs and EDs were always good though. Characters 4/10 Overly rushed development for Naofumi's character and relationship with Raphtalia at the start, leaving the rest of the show devoid of any sort of deep development they could've had. Everyone else, other than Naofumi's crew + Queen, is just straight up annoying af. I know it's the anime's intention to make them like that, but its really exhausting just looking at them and hearing their voices. Enjoyment 6/10 I'd recommend starting this and see how it goes, but I won't promise you'll enjoy it from start to finish. If I wasn't watching this when it was airing, there's a chance I would've dropped or take a long brake from it.

Review contains Spoilers To sum up Tate no Yuusha, it is nothing but a trash revenge story with a cumulation of pointless fillers and an ever-increasing harem – with obvious atrocious writing. The first few initial episodes did a great job of getting my attention. Although it touched sensitive matters like Rape and slavery – it was never a big deal. The anime community is filled with shield hero memes, flaming discussions and constant best girl stuff that it is literally impossible for anyone to ignore it. It starts off as our shut-in NEET teleported to an isekai – resembling another generic RPG based world. The plot is simple – four heroes are summoned from their respective worlds to fight against the waves in order to protect the realm. Our protagonist kun is supposedly the one with the shield while the other three heroes have cooler weapons. While the other three heroes were practically useless during the course of the story and did nothing that qualifies themselves to be called “heroes” while living in delusion that they are playing a game. Starting with an RPG based simple setting – things get darker as our shield bro gets accused of Rape. From then, follows a series of wild accusations towards Naofumi from the Royals. Naofumi is wrongly portrayed as the enemy of the public by the royal family and the heroes follow the bandwagon without any actual evidence and logic. By these turns of events, the shield hero is made more morally grey – added with his personality, an interesting character but is never explored beyond that. There's so much going on to break immersion, especially considering how they bill Naofumi at the start; he's someone who plays fast and loose with things like honor and morals as a response to the world boning him. And yet, we don't get to see that beyond the first few episodes. Everything that is interesting is forgotten in a matter of an episode. The story focuses on corruption and justice at a surface level. The revenge themes presented is one dimensional, inconsistent character writing, obvious pacing and filler problems, and finally turns into a harem. The pacing is atrocious, and I’m not even blowing away the proportions on this one. The whole hot springs episode? It was only there for the jealousy cliché, which was alright but beyond noticeable and could have been dealt with as a side plot rather than a whole episode dedicated to it. There is another beach episode in the latter end of the story. The entire Raphtalia backstory part two wasn’t necessary to the narrative and was literally forced upon in between a side quest. The bad guy was again a bad guy because bad guys are supposed to be bad, nothing else. A cartoonish personification of an evil dude because of money and corruption. The whole backstory stretched itself to around five fucking episodes with barely affecting the story or the characters. The only purpose it served was creating more hatred towards the system (which was against Naofumi) at a one-dimensional layer. Then we get to the pope part – who is another installment of “We have to wipe out the devil of the shield”, which again was boring and without any substance. Also, what the actual fuck was the last episode. Most parts of the final arc was literally filler but the final 5 minutes were so rushed that we got a plot twist which made no sense in accordance to the rules that the anime has already set along with an underwhelming battle and an anti-climactic ending. All they did was throw wine at her and next minute they all leave and the waves over and they have a new person in the party in the span of 3 minutes. I'm still giving it a benefit of doubt considering these would be explored in a supposedly season 2 which I am definitely not watching. The battles in shield hero severely lack dynamics. It’s like the heroes are arguing with each other over a course of a battle and the opponent does nothing. Battles seem flat and formulaic and not to mention – boring. The spell names are so long and stupid, over 5 minutes of a 20 minutes battle content would have been saved if they were shortened or simply, removed. The heroes are supposed to be heroes – the literal meaning yet they have done nothing extraordinary in terms of their talent. When in the rare case of a melee attack, it’s usually either one single weapon slash or a weapons clash, which is followed up by another long conversation. The constant ranged attacks which are literally the same all over are already boring, and now when the former happens, it ends as fast as it started – the whole generic thing with stupid ass convo during a battle. The whole rage/demon shield was supposed to be great if it actually had any negative impact that wasn’t negated by the harem crew simple hugging him every time. Rapthalia’s whole character is based upon loving Naofumi, without any substance. Her character is based upon riding Naofumi’s sword more than being his sword. She is a cheap excuse of being a great waifu for lonely depressed weebs. Naofumi is a classic example of an MC who in real life would be so unlikeable that no one would hang out with him, let alone have girls fawn over him - pandering bait for those who think it is the world’s fault. Filo is just an annoying character with barely any personality. She exists as jailbait for the above context lolicons. Another addition to our shield bro’s harem is another loli, which, unfortunately, wasn’t much rememberable because of her whole character existing within the worst part of the anime. The entire character of the girls revolves around the shield hero– on top of that the same scenes over obsessing shield hero take over the half episode. The “bad” guys in this anime remind me of Romanticism in literature. Back then, characters were walking allegories of singular traits they embodied. A character was so cartoonishly evil because they were the embodiment of... well, evil. Malty is a bitch, well for no reason. The king is inherently evil because of a small grudge, while which is still a better excuse. The spear guy is made into a stupid lolicon, and the other two heroes are just mary sues. It seems to me that everyone is made dumb just to get to the next plot point. The kidnapping plot – with the original assassination attempt, just ignore those two soldiers in the background holding a crystal ball towards you and chuckling evilly while you do nothing about it, then at the mansion, Naofumi is shown suspicious of basically everyone; and while they should keep watch because they’re in danger, he lets the children go wander off unsupervised. And then get surprised anyways. The character writing in this show is so inconsistent even in terms of a power fantasy trash novels. The list on how shield hero’s characters suffer from trash writing is Voluminous. The art style is mediocre and nothing great in particular. To be fair I’ve never liked Kinema Citrus’ work and Kevin’s soundtracks. Kevin’s soundtracks were never rememberable in the anime. I watched the entirety of MiA but I never knew that the soundtracks were considered a masterpiece. Tl;dr the story in shield hero: • every hero is stupid except naofumi. • everyone hates naofumi even though he saves the people every time because they lack common sense. • thousands of fillers and slowly turning into a loli harem. • pacing is bad • the writing is bad. • Inconsistent character writing • Boring fights with no sense of tension • Malty finally gets punishment which wasn't really a punishment • Another beach episode and Raphtalia wanting Naofumi's sword. • Illogical ending. Story/Themes/Pacing (25%): 2/10 Characters (15%): 2/10 Artstyle/Animation/Soundtrack (15%): 6/10 Enjoyment (45%): 2/10 Total: 2.6/10