Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
The Rising of the Shield Hero

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

First review was taken down so figured I would try again.

This is a really good series and I highly recommend it, "why?" because it has unique twist to the transported to another world story that you can’t help but feel drawn to and it has amazing characters that you will appropriately hate or love depending on the authors intention. I can't recommend this enough for I truly love reading this and I feel anybody could pick it up and love it with its high amount of detail and unique twists so hope on the shield hero express and try it out.

Rough outline- A random ... dude is thrown into another world and proclaimed a hero but after a false accusation arises it turns from a dream come true into a nightmare he can’t escape prompting him to change his mind set about trusting others, how will our protagonist survive alone and surrounded by potential enemies?

I have read 150 web novel chapters by this point and rate it a 9.5 out of 10, I would tell you more but I feel you should experience it for yourself.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is something like a mix of akame ga kill, Sword art online/Log horizon, Dungeon Ni Deai Wo Motomeru No Wa Machigatteiru Darou ka and a main character that you can't dislike (almost like in Yahari ore no seishun love comedy wa Machigatteiru). Plot is just like in some other light novels about being sent to another world and that's the part that really grasped my heart, that the main character is just (more or less) like a normal person. You can see that he's not a hero type but yet, he's getting popular with everyone even after being framed and ... mocked of just by living normal way. I said that the hero is the best part of this novel but it is accompanied by a great plot, even if it sometimes seems like a totally cliché copy-paste it can still draw your attention and keep you engrossed for some time. It also has many amusing moments that are motivating to read even more and with each chapter it is getting better. I tried to not spoil much of a plot beacuse it is definitely worth reading (at least novel, beacuse manga skips many moments during his trip, which i do not a prove >.

Tate no Yuusha has become tied with Sword Art Online as my favorite Japanese Light Novel as of writing this review.

The basis behind Tate no Yuusha is fairly simple. Four heroes are summoned from different Japans in order to fight against the invasion of monsters from something called the "Wave." At periodic intervals marked by a special hourglass, the monsters will attack and it is up to the four summoned heroes to defeat the monsters. However, what separates it is the fact that the main character, Naofumi, is rejected as a hero and quickly chooses to become an anti-hero due to circumstances. We also see ... how pride and pre-existing beliefs cause problems. These beliefs are criticized and called into question on multiple occasions. Over time though, he begins to develop some of the more heroic qualities and we see how people change over time, something that a lot of series fail to do properly. Tate no Yuusha does a good job of showing Naofumi's growth and connects events together fairly well.

Since this is a light novel, there's not much art, but the ones that are there are great. They show off the characters at key points in the story and their faces and expressions in these pages contribute greatly to the feeling of the story. Also, they're not always focused on the action sequences, which is a nice break from what other light novels often try to do.

The character development in this series is one of the best by far. The series follows Naofumi and it shows how he goes from someone with good intentions to a complete jerk who only shows traces of the kindness that existed in his heart before. However, he begins to recover over time, and we get to see the events that lead to him slowly becoming a heroic figure that is gradually earning the respect of the people. This limits the number of out of character moments despite being quite a long series so far. Each character also has to deal with the consequences of his or her own actions, and this leads to some interesting moments.

Overall, I recommend this series to people. It does not seem like a lot of people read it, and I believe more people should. It shows how an anti-hero can be created, but how an anti-hero can also become a true hero.

This is probably the most horribly written light novel I have ever had the chance to read. The issue stems from it's extremely strong start, up until volume 4, then the plateau up until volume 8, and then the sharp drop-off in quality as you slowly begin to not only see the faults in this book series, but see them repeated over and over again with absolutely no progression in the story past volume 4, or at least it doesn't feel like there has been any meaningful progression for the past 9 volumes, even if there is it's so weak that it's nearly impossible to ... catch.

Let's start with the biggest offender: action scenes. Almost half of every volume is combat, but unfortunately it's completely terrible. Each enemy is stronger than the last, or the main characters have a stupid curse or something is happening to make them weaker. On top of that, every enemy goes through 3-4 different phases and refuses to give up in the most boring way possible. It's so anime and is absolutely horrible on a written medium. You can skip half of each volume in action scenes and miss absolutely nothing in terms of plot relevance. On top of all this, every action scene plays out the same way, over and over again: Naofumi is kicking ass. Enemy pulls out some item or some technique that makes him weaker. Naofumi's party gets through it. Enemy yells "I'm not done yet!" x3, Naofumi's party hits this guy a billion more times. Finally goes down yippy yay that's the 5th antagonist in 3 volumes that have just been killed off after being introduced not even 50 pages ago!

Second point leads from the first. Antagonists. Either they are dumb as bricks (the other heroes), or so eye-rollingly bland you just can't wait for them to be dealt with. Either that or they're just creepy or maybe they don't even have a personality, like the final antagonist from Volume 13. On top of that, their motives are all completely shallow and are just there for Naofumi and his OP party to beat up after anime-style fighting the same way you've read 50 previous times. Either way, Naofumi's enemies are boring and one-dimensional.

Next up is the MCs group. All character growth has completely stopped, and on top of that all the characters are shallow. Atla, a relatively recently introduced character is consistently violent and just annoying but the author is trying to create some kind of romance rivalry with Raphtalia or something? It's not like either one says anything more than one-liners at any point in time, nor does anyone else. I find myself getting annoyed with the amount of characters and their obnoxious habits or ridiculous behavior. There are also so many characters now that the author doesn't have the skill level to juggle properly, and they are, on top of it, all stereotypes or cliches from Japanese Media. It's just "yandere #11" that you've already seen and there's no progression there. And I don't even want to get started about the actual good characters, like Melty and Filo, that just get abandoned for almost entire volumes and replaced by characters I honestly couldn't care less about but the author seems to want to force them down my throat. It's just awful.

Now we have Naofumi himself. The first person perspective eventually becomes a crutch to get the author out of writing anything complicated, since he uses it as an excuse to ignore important details, entire conversations, or just anything he wants. I'll give it to him, though, it's consistent to the point where it is now an obstacle to the story instead of the good trait it was in the first 4 volumes. Naofumi's personality and obsession with his pet, which literally comes up every 15 pages as a way to relieve his stress with the other characters, is just as infuriating as the characters he's ignoring.

Finally we have plot. Since volume 8 the story has gone into a lull. The author has spent 5 volumes covering about 2 months worth of time in Naofumi's world, and this is where all these problems stick out like a sore thumb. I'm not excited for the rest of the story anymore, if between each big event we have 6 volumes of trash to take care of every time.

So yeah, I thought it was great until it was obviously awful.

Mod Edit: This review may contain spoilers.
--------------

When I first read manga I was mad when read both ch 1,2 and I really hate the king and draughter and three heroes and don’t get me start on spear hero but want get better understanding of why is so good I start read Light Novel first Volume and it’s really good and here’s why

The story start were this four boys summoned to another world to become one of the four heroes stop this great evil that was attacking people. so here we have mc who’s Shield Hero who got along with other three hero’s but when others ... talk and word came about if anyone play rpg games Naofumi never played rpg games before so someone over hears that spread rumours about him when time pair up no one join his side which made him mad tell “if you have problem say it” but Mein Sophia decided join him help and king give more money to Naofumi when off to learn more about his Shield with help of Mein Sophia but on third day Naofumi was betrayed, falsely accused, and robbed said teammate. Shunned by everyone from king to peasants, Naofumi thoughts were filled with nothing but vengeance and hatred. First thoughts was god feel sorry for this guys all by himself unable to use attack all alone no one to trust I was mad as hell about it really does have dark story to this but let’s keep going.
So we found mc Naofumi using low level equipment and training lv up but he can only fight low lv monster so his pissed off he can’t fight demon because of his Shield be a slave selling man offer him deal to sell him lv 75 demi human but he refused he wanted something cheap and it’s not broken so he found Raphtalia raccoon demi human most important for him in Melrormarc the manga cut few good parts about Raphtalia changing form 1st form to 2nd and bounding between Naofumi and Raphtalia and him telling about his passed. My thoughts were it was really cool to see two bound help each other it was really nice to see not lot anime do that anymore like build the relationships slow not from what I know.

Finally battle between Shield hero and spear hero when read Light Novel I was really hoping that Naofumi kick shit spear hero but of course the bitch A.K.A Mein Sophia use her fire spell fuck over Naofumi making him lose match tell everyone Mein Sophia she using spell help out spear but know believe him because she none other draughter of king his was loss for words and slave spell was getting removed spear hero run over Raphtalia only to get slap suck on that petty boy punk move on spear hero dumbfounded look on his face after being hit Raphtalia telling spear hero that Naofumi has never done anything bad to her this were cry little so here listen Raphtalia ran over to me.

"S-stay away!"

This... is hell.
A maliciously created world.
Women - no - everyone in this world scorns me as if to torture me.
If she touches me, then I'll just be reliving those bad memories.
Raphtalia witnesses my condition and again glared at Motoyasu.

"I've heard the rumors... that Naofumi-sama forced himself onto his companion, that he is an awful Hero."
"A-Ah. He's a rapist! As a female slave, you should understand that, right!?"
"Why would I!? Naofumi-sama has never once laid his hands on me!"

Raphtalia then grabbed my hand.

"L-let go!"
"Naofumi-sama... How can I earn your trust?"
"Let go of my hand!"

Everyone in this world accuses me of a crime I didn't commit.

"I didn't do it!"

Pompf...

Something covered my frienzied self.

"Please calm yourself Naofumi-sama. Please hear me out and give me a chance to earn your trust."

"...Eh?!"

"...Or is it that you cannot trust anyone but a slave who can never disobey nor betray you? In that case please let's go to that place where we first met. So you can put a new curse on me. "

"Y-you're lying!... This is another trick to deceive me!"

What was that!? Who?! This voice... these words... how come they managed to force their way into my heart?

"No matter what happens, I will always believe in you, Naofumi-sama"

"Shut up! You people are just going to pin more crimes on me!"

"...I don't believe those rumors. You are a person who would never do such a thing."

Ever since I arrived in this world, it was the first time... that I had heard the words I have been wishing for.

Slowly the darkness that obscured my vision cleared out.
And I could feel the warmth of another person.

"Even if the whole world unites to blame you, Naofumi-sama. I will not... No matter how many time it takes, I will tell them all: Naofumi-sama did not do it."

When I lifted my head, what laid in front of me was not a little girl, but a young woman around the age of seventeen.
While her features looked like those of Raphtalia, she was an unbelievably cute girl.
What should have been dry, cracked skin was now a healthy complexion, with beautiful hair that was slightly dusty in color.
The body that was once all skin and bones was now curvy with a fit, robust figure.
Most prominently, her eyes were no longer filled with hopelessness, but brimmed with a strong will.
I could not recognize a girl like her.

"Naofumi-sama, now let's go and place the curse on me again."
"W-who are you?"
"Eh? What are you saying? It's me, Raphtalia."
"No-no-no, isn't Raphtalia a little girl?"

She claimed to be Raphtalia. Troubled, she tilted her head while trying to convince me.

"Geez, Naofumi-sama is always treating me like a child."

That voice... is definitely the voice of the Raphtalia I remember.
However, her body was completely different.
No-no-no, this is strange even if she was Raphtalia.

"Naofumi-sama, I'll say this due to the circumstances."
"What?"
"When young Demi-humans raise their level, their bodies also mature quickly in order to match their level growth."
"Eh?"
"Demi-humans are not like humans. It is the same with monsters."

Embarrassed, the girl who claimed to be Raphtalia continued.

"Although my... my mind is still that of a child, my body has already become similar to an adult."

While telling me this, Raphtalia once again buried my head into her voluptuous chest.

"Please believe me. I believe that Naofumi-sama has not committed any crimes. You are the great Shield Hero who has saved my life, given me precious medicine, taught me how to survive and how to fight. I am your sword, and I will follow you no matter what hardships we may face."

Those were... the words that I wanted to hear.
The words spoken ever since Raphtalia swore to fight alongside me.

"If you don't believe me, then make me your slave or do whatever you wish with me. I will always stay with you."
"Ku...u....uu...."

From the first kind words that I received since arriving in this world, I unwittingly began to weep.
Although I felt that I shouldn't cry no matter what, I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Uuu..... uuuuuuuuu..."
(;_wink I cry there what i got from that was mother hug feel form that.

so to guys do read light novel i it's really good down side for manga is they didn't really cover lot in light novel if they follow light novel i thing give it 5 out of 5 but here how i score
light novel 4.8/5
manga 3.5/5 the art styles is good but manga really rush everything
guys leave feedback and i be starting my youtube channel soon and it be called Mad Danchi

Update as of 5/2023

Story 8/10
The plot is similar to the famous ( or maybe infamous to some ) Sword Art Online and Log Horizon. Although it is only up to the point wherein the protagonist gets stuck in a different world or gaming world. But the similarities end there. What makes this novel distinguishable is that the flow of the story has the capability to make the reader to read continuously due to its interesting world building potential. Some time transitions made me a little bit uneasy because there were not that much information given in the said transition (or this might just be ... a case of lost in translation). The story peaks a bit too early before transitioning to a plateau consisting of world building, eventual conflict and resolutions. It might get boring sometimes but I think a few comic reliefs had helped.

Character 8/10
The characters are quite enjoyable. Their traits can make one easily attached to them. Their exchange of dialogues and humor were pretty okay. Character development has been quite nice and noticeable especially for the main characters. Main character growth has been pretty much the highlight most of the time, with how the hero and his party reacts to the frame-ups, unfair treatment, etc. It feels quite natural and not overreacting.

So would I recommend this to readers?
As of this updated review, reading this might be a tough task considering a lot of isekai genre are out there and perhaps there are better ones existing. The story at the "revenge phase" might hook readers, but eventually it might get a bit boring. I would suggest going for the anime and/or manga just to help those who haven't read the novel visualize the world. Now if the anime is going too slow or boring, and the manga has been taking ages to get updates, I would suggest to give a chance to read this novel.

This is my first review ever. Also this review is for the light novel (not the web novel). NO SPOILERS.

I started reading the light novel the moment I finished watching the first episode of the rising of the shield hero and all I could say is wow. It was really nice reading the light novel.

Story 10/10 Enjoyment 10/10
The beginning was as usual where the a guy gets summoned into another world, but as it progressed, our imagination will be different from what would happen. We might expect the MC to be the strongest, but that won't be the case, so you can expect a ... hell of a ride when reading this. The level of detail given by the author about the world the MC goes to in words is excellent and also easy to understand. Also the action scenes which happen in the novel is so exciting it makes you want to keep on reading the novel and progress to the next volumes. Some of the wordings in some scenes are really nice that it makes you want to read that scene again sometimes.

Art 9/10
There is not much art in the novel, but each of the art given is really well detailed and really nice to look at.

Character 9/10
There are different characters as you progress through the light novel with unique characteristics which makes it much exciting to read as well. Also the character development overtime is really good.

Overall 10/10
I really loved each and every volume of the light novel. Not even 1 volume was boring. All of it was extremely interesting to read. I have not read the web novel, so I can't tell how it was when compared to the light novel, but upto what I know, the web novel diverges in terms of plot at one point (not sure where exactly), so you can expect a different experience reading the light novel when compared to the web novel. Also if you are new to reading light novel like me, then you can definitely start from this one.

Great story if you one of those people who enjoy mmorpg type of manga. The story begins when the main characters gets traps in this mmorpg type of world in where he becomes the hero of shield, so in order to get out of this world and return to his, the main character need to complete the game. A long the way the main character begins finding new friends and people who will help him or try to defeat him so they can become the hero of this world. The art of this manga is really well made, in where the environment and the characters ... will make you believe that you are fighting or adventuring a long side them. This is a great manga for any casual reader to start off or any hardcore manga fan to read, because this manga will be a really good experience to have and to talk with your friends.

Read the first vol of the Light Novel and didn't continue.
Went and read the manga adaption and fell in love.
DONT READ THE LN! IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, THEN READ THE MANGA

The short version- The writing is abysmal and reads more like a shitty first draft of somebody who has never read an actual novel in their life and only reads manga.
The manga, thankfully, translates the story much better because of this and is overall a much better experience.


The full version-
As I said above, the LN reads like a poor attempt at a script for a manga. Its riddled with tropes unacceptable in the writing ... industry and barely tolerated in the visual medium of Manga. The writing is at the level of a junior high school kid and gave me frequent painful flashbacks to my primary school days of writing short and terrible stories about vampires and angels.
It constantly breaks genre rules (and I don't mean in an innovative or subversive way) and just honestly lacks the grace and experience to execute the relatively good story.
Its hard to quite pin point just what went wrong with this LN. The poor writing, terrible execution of ideas, the clear lack of actual knowledge of books. Maybe its all of it.

But it has potential! And we see that in the premise and eventual adaption by the manga. The mangaka is clearly an experienced artist, and takes the good elements of the story, improves upon them and then translates it into the medium it was really meant to be in. The art is gorgeous like the cover, it forgoes the unnecessary protag introduction (which was frankly so bad, it made the protagonist unlikable from the get-go, which didn't help when the entire story is about feeling bad about him and wanting him to get the better over his enemies), and executes the tropes its diseased with in a decent way.

I understand why people might prefer the LN. It uh for lack of a more polite way to say it, it gets 'to the point' really fast (somuchsoitsrushedcoughcough) and the language is simple/easy to read (meaning you aren't choked by unnecessary prose or flowery writing). The pain the protag is forced to go through is *just* enough to make you sympathise with him and root for his eventual triumph over his enemies.

But. If you actually read books regularly, then you'll likely struggle like I did to get past the frankly insulting standard of writing and execution in this LN.

So, READ THE MANGA.

A power fantasy work, not bad but if you see this kind a lot if you spend some time reading web novels. Old fantasy "goes to another world" trope, the MC getting framed and having multiple summoned heros was a interesting spin, but the writing, character and plot is pretty generic. For example, the king and the princess framing the MC for a really idotic reason (he uses a shield so he must be evil, cause religion lol), and the other heros are incompetent idiots. The supporting characters are either shallow or stupid having little character, and despite the MC suppose to be the underdog ... he eventually becomes more OP than everyone. Angsty teens sure appeals to teens a lot. Anyway, decent time waster if you are interested in this kind of stuff, but only read if you have a lot of time, cause the pacing is pretty bad.

This novel when I read it I loved it, I started to follow it through the anime and then I found myself reading all the volumes of the light novel translated so far (13 in English), this story completely captivated me, I love it and I strongly recommend it, not I can wait until they translate more volumes of the novel I can not wait, I want to know what happens to Naofumi and Raphtalia.

Each character has its charisma, naofumi is the closest thing to the personality that someone would acquire when going through something like betrayal as soon as they reach a place, but ... without a doubt the characters that take the palms in this story are the women in special raphtalia, in fact, can someone not love raphtalia?

Well, so far I can just say that this series is WAY better than what I've watched of the SAO series and if they ever made an anime out of it, I would totally watch it.

Art: The drawings are BEAUTIFUL, I only wish there were more so I could enjoy them on a more constant basis. The writing quality is... well... it's not the best. There are a number of typos (though that may just be the English publishers). But at least it's not unreadable.

Story: The story is fairy average. Some otaku gets dragged into another world, and he's kinda upset about it. Though ... this has an added twist. This otaku (the incredibly lovable and relatable Naofumi Iwatani), instead of being worshipped for his prowess in battle, he gets the worst of the four weapons (the shield), and then gets framed for a crime and turned into an outcast and is basically regarded as a criminal by everyone except his slave, Raphtalia. Though the story is also pretty obviously giving itself the opportunity to go on as long as it wants. With the whole 'we don't know how long these attacks will go on for' thing.

Character: Naofumi is an incredibly relatable and likable protagonist. He's innocent of what he's accused of, but no one will listen to him. His often declarations of hatred of the people who framed him are incredibly realistic and I know that I often think exactly the same way when thinking about people I hate. I also give them mean and offensive nicknames. Raphtalia is an incredibly important character. She's the one who gives Naofumi a reason to keep going and keep trying to protect this world where everyone hates him and thinks he's a criminal, though she starts out as his slave.

Why this is better than SAO: It's NOT A HAREM SERIES!!! Even though we have two main females and one main male and both of these females are 'subservient' to the protagonist, there is no romantic elements so far at all (keep in mind I've only read 43 chapters at the time of this writing). Naofumi repeatedly states that he is attempting to be a parental figure to both Raphtalia and Filo. And also the characters are interesting and not 1 dimensional (I do not judge those who like SAO, this is just my opinion).

I definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes Light Novels or video-game like fantasy series (so, if you like Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? you'll probably like this).

I have slightly updated this review since I have now finished the entire series. It is based on the web series and only contains a couple very minor spoilers that won't ruin anything.


Story???

The protagonist is mysteriously summoned into the world of a book he is reading to be 1 of 4 legendary heroes that will save this other world. Cliche right? Well it takes a an interesting turn almost immediately after he arrives when he finds himself as the hero of the shield, viewed as the weakest of the 4 heroes. He is discriminated against and starts to hate this new world he ... has come to. You watch him go back and forth between being a villain and a hero as he struggles about what to do. All the while this new world is being invaded by an unknown force and battling with various political conflicts.

Setting???

The setting is a time of kings and knights with no modern technology. However, there's magic and the world itself runs like a video game. Very similar to sword art online, the characters learn new skills, earn exp, and level up while fighting monsters and other enemies that appear.

Characters???

There is a wide variety of characters in this novel but it can be summarized quite easily like this:

1) People who hate the hero- People so absurdly stupid that you can't help but hate them.
2) People who like the hero- Interesting and well thought out characters that have good character development

The hero and his circle of companions are really interesting and it's very easy to like them. However, while a couple of the "bad guys" are interesting, the majority of them are so over the top stupid that it can't help but bug you.

Additional Comments???

This is your typical harem where all the heroes companions are girls and fall in love with him. However, they're also all 10-12 years old. Not to mention the hero takes being obvious to the next level. Although it does follow a harem like formula, the heroins aren't over the top so a person who dislikes harems shouldn't have a problem reading.

The first 5-6 volumes of the web series are very good but around volume 7-8, it starts getting way to ridiculous. At one point one of the heroes uses a penis shaped spear and a flock of girls turn their eyes in embarrassment. If you can make it through some of the ridiculous stupidness of these couple volumes then it does get a lot better starting from the end of volume 10. Volume 12-17 are very good but almost feels a tad bit rushed. The last 5 volumes or so is almost nothing but fighting the entire time. Even still, it's pretty good. I strongly suggest suffering through the crappy volumes 7-10 to read the later volumes.

This story though.
So much epic.
The entire story is a bumpy ride of trials, emotions, and survival with no end to the hero's' efforts in fighting along the fine line of right and wrong, good and evil. With comedy thrown in at every turn to go along perfectly with the protagonist.
In this story I don't sit back and think... "what the heck!? This would never happen."... or ... "yeah, right. Sure."
When I consider being summoned to a new world and being loathed from the get go, this author has done a beautiful job of how I imagine it would go. Or at the very least, the ... story has convinced me in believing that this is how it should go.
In this novel, the hero and those around him do not seem indestructible because they aren't. This isn't Game of Thrones in which everyone you love dies, but neither is it some teeny bop story with a writer too worried about losing fans to put the fear of losing a character in their readers' very soul.
"I've been summoned as the hero and in one move I'm going to blow you away because you're in my way," does not exist in this story. Effort is needed for success and effort is given. There IS a harem, but there ISN'T and this is my most favourite part about this story. There are plenty of women to choose from but they're not blatantly drooling over the protagonist like some teenager-going-through-puberty's wet dream.

My complaints: Some characters I had difficulty understanding. I'm not sure if it's just Japanese standard or if it was lost in translation but I feel the author could have done a better job conveying a handful of the characters' personalities, attitudes, or reasoning a bit better. There are scenes with a bit too much dialogue. Other times, I feel quite unintelligent as they explain some mechanic or another of the world which results in being practically unnecessary information later on. That last part might just be because I am unintelligent, but I'd rather think I'm not. There also seemed to be a bit of conflict recycling going on throughout the story to the point where you good expect what was going to happen for the next 5 chapters. But even then, there were still parts of those 5 chapters which kept you reading to avoid risking some growth period for the protagonist and the others in the story.

Sword Art Online introduced me, properly, to the the 'Entering another world' theme which I don't know the proper name for, or if there is one. But Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari has successfully hooked me on the theme with this story and I will eagerly hunt down other stories like it to satisfy my newfound craving.

This is my first review for the The Rising of the Shield Hero (TRotSH) LN. This is also the first LN I've ever read. I'll be updating this review as I progress through all the volumes.

Disclaimer: I've watched the first season of TRotSH anime before getting into the LN, so I'm reviewing this LN mainly to compare it to the anime. If you want my review of the anime, go ahead and click on my profile and read my review.

TRotSH is basically an Arthurian tale of heroism, but set on a parallel world. The synopsis of the LN and the anime should cover the ... basic premise of TRotSH.

The first season of the anime adapts Vol. 1 to 5 of the LN.

From what I've read so far, the anime closely follows the LN with minor changes to certain events. The LNs contain more details as expected. The MC has far more monologues in the LN, which makes the LN version of Naofumi more darker and apathetic than his anime counterpart.

The art pieces, as few as there may be, are beautifully drawn and detailed.

With regards to the dialog, it may be a little difficult to follow who is talking to who because the author sometimes doesn't explicitly mention who the speaker is.

Overall, I'm giving this LN an 8/10 (similar to the anime review score).

An extremely good Isekai novel that stands above the rest.

In a sea of low standard garbage schlock that is the Isekai light novel genre, The Rising of the Shield Hero, stands out by being just genuinely well written. Which after reading and watching a lot of Isekai, I can assure you is very rare. Shield Hero gets pretty much everything right, it does not disrupt the formula, but takes it's to peak.

The characters are for the most, very well written. Every character serves a purpose and shockingly, most of them have character development, the characters actually have arcs and drastically change to unrecognizable states. ... Completely abhorrent villainous characters get actual back story and have reasons as to why they're that way, and a lot of them get redemption and end up becoming very likeable.

The main character is the best of them all. He is not a self insert harem gathering chode that becomes invincible. He is a mature adult who gets thrust into a unworldly situation and tries his best to live his new life. While pretty much every Isekai just completely ignores aspects like " How does the main characters understand this other dimensions language?" The answer? The main character studies it. He realizes it is a massive problem and concludes he needs to be able to read the language in order to live. He needs to study and learn from books to improve his skills with medicinal herbs, with trading, when interacting with people. He does this for several volumes and ends up teaching other people what he studied. He is just genuinely likeable guy who tries his hardest and worked for everything. As the title suggest, he rises up from literally nothing. He slowly but surely gets more powerful by learning and building up an empire of people who will back him up. He does not have any love interests or constantly make inappropriate comments about the girls he finds. He just treats them like people. He makes mistakes and learns from them like anyone else. The author knows how to write a good character as the 3 characters who gets Isekai'd with him are the cliche anime garbage mc schlock that lesser works would include as the main character. The author knows that is bad writing and intentionally wrote those character to contrast with the main character. Characters are actually foreshadow and planned out ahead of time. You'll get a hit of a character and 3 volumes later you're like " wait a minute, is this who I think it is?" Is the entire plot meticulously planned out? No it is not but it still is planned to some degree whereas most Isekai manga don't even have anything resembling a plot.

I've been gushing about the characters because I believe that is the strongest aspect of the series. However that is not to diminish the other aspects of the story. Such as the fantastic world building. In such a wide genre as Isekai, where it is literally a magically fantasy land, series hardly ever take advantage of it. Shield Hero knows this, and makes some wonderful world building. The world is properly defined, with unique creatures, land marks, culture, different countries, different types of magic and weapons, different languages. This is such a simple thing that most authors completely forget about, but Shield hero doesn't. It uses this to create a grandiose adventure through ever changing landscapes and environments. You'll travel around the world with the cast meeting new and interesting things each volume. It keeps everything fresh and well paced. You never feel like you're stuck somewhere boring because something is always happening, the environment is always changing. The main characters is a wandering traveler. He will get his epic moments against impossible obstacles with huge magic spells and protecting countries. However, you'll also get get quaint moments where he does nothing more then wander into a small nameless village, meet people there, solve their problems, and get a nice story arc out of it. It allows us to see much more of the world seeing the extremes of fantasy castles to small poor villagers. Making us understand this places problems as a country. Not something just used to make up a plot for the story.


The only major negative I have is the lack of compelling stakes. In total, over the 20+ volumes, only one important character died. Obviously not everything has to be related to a character dying but there is no real end goal. There is no over arching villain expect some vague evil god introduced 20 volumes in. Characters gets captured and defeated but we all know everything is going to be fine in the end. When the series started with this pessimistic theme where the main character could barely scrape by living through a single day and the entire world was against him, it was interesting to see it would play out. How this evil environment affected this character and how we would survive in this world. Naturally he develops as a characters and gets past that. We are now at the point where the main character journey is practically over. He is the strongest person around, he a cast of invaluable friends he would lose life and limb for, he got past all his major hardships, he learned everything there is know and honed all of his skills, he bought a land built a house and small town where everyone he liked in the past gathers to help him build a peaceful empire, he has the favor of the government and mystical beings. There really is no where for him to go. He completed his hero's journey. The plot has to be sorta of forced on to him for something impactful to actually happen. With no major ever lasting villain or obstacle to over come the latest volumes have become kinda stagnant, a lot of it is just slice of life while something completely random and arbitrary happens to force a plot to happen. IMO it has overstayed it's welcome a bit, honestly with more planning on the story and shifting things around this novel could've ended a few volumes ago. In my opinion at least.

I highly recommended reading it.