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.

[Spoiler Warning]

There are two things I noticed that are problematic with this show: 1.) it shoots its pacing and it ignores good storytelling methods to try to hurry up its narrative to the part it wants to tell and comes off as scared the calibre of its writing is not enough to keep its audience interested so it must rush as hard as it can to immediately show its gimmick; 2.) It’s trying to have its tanuki loli slave cake and eat it too. We’ll naturally go over that over the course of the review.

I want to tackle first its main potential, how it wastes ... it, and what it offers instead in lieu of said wasted potential.

Isekai, at its core, is a fish-out-of-water story taken to the extreme. You have an ordinary person from a decidedly un-magical locale and/or lead drab lives before they are whisked away to a fantastical new world where they live out interesting lives full of adventure and magic.

Most videogame-isekai authors, however, seem more interested in tailoring this brave new world in such a way that it’s the one world where their otaku excels at with his given skillset. They’re not dragging the fish out of water, so to speak. They’re dragging the fish into the water.

Now, to the show's credit, there’s a limitation attached to the main character: he can’t attack effectively. It forces him to pair up with someone who actually can. Then his situation becomes untenable when he’s falsely accused of rape and any chance of him getting a decent companion is out the window. In the end, he has to buy a slave. This is a genuinely nice setup. They now have to learn to work together and grow together if they are to survive, with an added dilemma: this is just some slave he bought. Who knows if she’ll even cooperate with him? And even if she does, is she competent enough when his life is on the line? And then there’s her side. For all she knows, her ownership just simply changed. The guy is nothing to her and he has to earn her trust little by little, as she has to earn his. It has the potential for a character story of both party slowly building the bridge between them brick by brick, replete with setbacks and drawbacks along the way. It’s a setup so rife with possibilities; except that story immediately nukes half of that equation of them having to meet halfway by making the girl basically fall for him. It rids itself of one-half of its character building potential. For what? So it could hurry its shipping along?

Alright, it can still work with just the main character half. Slightly less effective sure, but it’s doable. There’s still a character-building potential of the main character half: where he attempts to find it in him to trust again after the initial betrayal. Except that we have no proper measure of him as a character before the rape accusation so we don’t really know how much of him had changed after that beyond the basic demeanor; by ridding us of the ability to make a more in-depth comparison of the before and after of the main character, it lessens its already reduced impact even more. If we had that, we’d have a better idea of what was lost in him that day and can empathize and sympathize with him.

All we have now is a world dedicated on shitting on the main character and we’re supposed to root for him with full justice boner on just because he’s the main character. And there’s so much bullshit we have to put up with with the contrived way he is being put down. Yes, while I did praise the setup the show arrived at, the way they set that up is contrived. The series as a whole feels contrived.

Thanks to the light novel and web novel readers, I’ve been spoiled to hell and back on the major plot points of how the rape accusation ends and why the main character was singled out (seriously, if you don’t like spoilers, stay away from the episode discussions because a lot of readers there seem incapable of using the BB code for the spoiler tag). And all I can say is that the characters who are not the MC did the absolute stupidest things they can do just to make this plot-point happen. Expect a lot of idiot balls handed to the casts to simply move the story along the lines the author wants it to move without necessarily making logical sense. In fact, the anime seems more intent on telling us what things are and how they work even when things explicitly running counter to what was said runs in the background.

Again, it rushes its narrative to get to what it thinks is the good part: the shipping of the main character and the raccoon girl.

[Insert Street Fighter 1994 M. Bison soundbyte here: “OF COURSE!”]

Sure, why not. Let’s get to the meat of the show then. It’s about a cute raccoon slave loli falling in love with the first guy to ever show her kindness in quite a while. Two words come to mind: Stockholm syndrome. It’s not exactly accurate but you get the idea of how imbalanced the power dynamics in the relationship is. He buys her from an abusive slave owner. He’s kind to her. Boom! Love.

The story even takes care to make sure that there’s no male character that can outshine the male protagonist because then it might be hard to justify her settling for him when there are better options. Other male characters of significant note to the story tend to be written in such a way that they’re usually evil, incompetent, obnoxious, or old enough that the otaku cannot see them viably as a threat. Because when all the otaku has to offer is kindness, a decent respectable male is kinda a step up. Can’t have them buzzing around M’lady.

Oh, and they un-lolify the loli. Not really sure if she is mentally an adult or a child, but you know, she’s not physically loli anymore. Yay~! She's legal. /s

It’s a change I’m guessing was hand-waved in to avoid controversy of having a child-looking humanoid who, we would be given to assume, has underdeveloped mental faculties to make correct decisions fall for her slave owner for the trivial reason that he’s kind to her and no one showed her kindness in a long time (or if ever at all).

*sigh*

If you’re here for the adorable raccoon girl, have at it. If you’re here expecting something better, sorry man. But hey, it has a RACCOON GIRL. And she’s cute. I think. I mean, they keep talking about her in episode discussions.

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 lesser anime in the genre don't even bother to mention. You know, a lot of isekai protagonists tend to act like the three cardinal heroes. They're ecstatic about living in a fantasy world and think everything revolves around them. But Naofumi is different. He keeps getting back up after getting knocked down. He may seem like he takes advantage of others, but he always has everyone's best interests at heart. He genuinely cares about his party. And even if he doesn't get any appreciation for his good deeds, he still always does the right thing. And that's what makes this shield bro a true hero...

*Edit with current thoughts*

...except I don't think that anymore at all haha. Naofumi can go join the ranks of hundreds of other bland isekai protagonists.

I revisited this series and wow, I have to say I'm disappointed. I don't usually do this, but I have to decrease my initial score of the show and disagree with a lot of what I wrote above. Naofumi's character is actually quite bland and he never receives useful development. The revenge plot is really mediocre, hollow, and relies solely on the "shock value" and "big moments". The way that slavery is handled is atrocious, and I'm kinda disappointed in myself for even attempting to defend its usage and execution as adding "depth" to the anime. Yes, it's just fiction, but that doesn't excuse trying to rationalize it as acceptable. The female characters are also painstakingly one note and dedicated to Naofumi with nary a shard of originality. Plus the 2nd half of the anime is a complete snooze fest. All around a mediocre experience.

I'm going to keep what I wrote above since I don't believe in changing one's work. It's how I felt then, so I have to deal with it. Just know that it's a lot more positive of a take then how I feel about Shield Hero now. I'd say the show is a 5/10 right now for me personally. Hope you're still able to enjoy it though!

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.

I’ve never been a fan of the “isekai” genre. It was never alluring for me and neither is it now. The mere fact that a person was “transported” to another world, for me, invalidated everything that happened to the said person in that “another world”. I could never fathom (and I still can’t) why the hero can’t start off as a regular person in the fantasy world instead of being transported there from our world. Originality is lost in this process as the “another world” of most isekai anime are basically the same with similar power system and the same old cliched stereotypes that have ... become quintessential trademark of the isekai genre.

“The Rising of the Shield Hero” overcomes some of the immutable traits of the generic isekai anime and is, not a refreshing take on the genre, but is a good take nonetheless. The story is similar to what you’ve probably seen a billion times - world is in danger; four heroes will appear and save it. That basically summarises the plot. Four “heroes” are summoned to an alternate world to try and stop the dark forces who are trying to eradicate said world. I have heroes in double quotes because they consist of two college students and two high school students, not the kind of people that comes to mind when hearing the word hero.

Here’s my first problem with the show. The four main characters show no confoundment when they are magically transported to a world different than their own. They all adjust to it as easily as adjusting to a new shirt that is ever so short. They simply accept their fate and are ready in minutes to risk their life and save a world with which they have no connection whatsoever. It’s like they’re the most complacent people in the universe. It is not yet explained as to why the heroes need to be summoned from a different world, because to me it seems like there are enough magicians and warriors in their own world who could help cull the demons.

Second problem – the setting. It’s set in medieval times (like the billion other isekai anime), but it doesn’t feel like it (like the billion other isekai anime). There is no atmosphere to encapsulate the feeling of medieval-ness. It basically feels like a village from the past or something.

Our story really starts when the shield hero, our main protagonist Naofumi, is incriminated of sexually assaulting his party member who also happened to be the King’s daughter. Everyone in the world, for some yet to be explained reason, had a deep-seated feeling of aversion for the shield hero from the beginning which is only augmented after hearing the about the harassment of the princess. The shield hero is kicked out of the palace and left alone to conquer his quest while avoiding everyone’s contempt.

The characters in this show are what differentiate it from other of it’s kind. Though there are some cardboard cut outs, the main characters, Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo are all disparate from the characters present in other isekai shows. Pro No.1 – the show eschews fanservice; this really shouldn’t be a pro, but given the current state of anime and fan-service, it is. At first, I perceived Naofumi as a typical insular otaku but there’s more to his character than just that. We see his compassion through his actions and not by monologue. His magnanimity is shown via his action of saving Raphtalia and is not just pushed onto the audience. Raphtalia, another character whose temperament is shown by actions she takes and not by monologue, is also a great character. She was a slave who was orphaned due to a demon Cerberus killing her parents and is rescued by Naofumi. We see this friendship develop between her and Naofumi which feels candid and not just some forced “nakama” shit. The character writing is eloquent and we have new character Filo introduced in episode 5. I hope she gets the same treatment as the rest of the characters and is not some expendable loli. Since we’re only 6 episodes in, other characters don’t get that much focus but that’s to be expected since we’re only 1/4th into the show.

The animation is awesome, the background looks realistic but the character animation is nothing to fawn over. The character animation is pretty untenable and sloppy at times but when it really matters, it gets better.

The music isn’t remarkable and with the exception of the opening, most of the pieces are instantly forgettable. Still, fire OP though.

I binged six episodes in two and a half hours and it was a ride. I’m gonna put this show on hold and binge it once it finishes airing. Overall, it’s a pretty good isekai (never thought I’d ever say this), and I hope the quality doesn’t degrade as the show goes on. I can’t put my finger on the one reason as to why I like this show, I just like it.

The Isekai genre in anime has grown by a large number ever since SAO became popular. Due to it being over popularized, some people have long since gotten sick of it . And if you are one of those people, trust me you are really missing out by not watching this anime.

Tate No Yuusha is another Isekai anime where the Main Protagonist : Iwatani Naofumi gets send to another world along with 3 other male characters. Each of them were summoned to fight The Waves of Calamity in this RPG game liked world, which is a mysterious phenomenon that occur every so often in ... the world and warranting the summoning of the Four Saint Heroes (The Sword Hero, Bow Hero, Spear Hero and Shield Hero) to confront. As you can guess Naofumi became the Shield Hero which is know to be the weakest out of the four, and compared to the other Heroes , and had close to no knowledge of this world. Due to that, when adventurers were asked to join the Heroes' party to aid them in getting stronger, no one was willing enough to join Naofumi's party. Luckily, a lady by the name of Melromarc Malty or Myne was generous enough to join his party. Everything seemed good for Naofumi at first, Myne was able to make up for Naofumi's lack of attacking capability due to him being unable to use a weapon ( The restriction of being the shield hero ) and helped Naofumi gained a better idea of this world. After their tiring day of killing monsters, both of them went ahead to have dinner at a pub where Myne tried to make Naofumi drunk by offering him wine to drink. Naofumi declined her offer and went ahead to his room to sleep early. However, the next day he found his stuff and most of his money missing before getting approached by guards and was forced to go back to the castle. It was then that it was revealed that Myne had accused Naofumi of rape and was apparently deceiving him the whole time to get his stuff and money and give it to the Spear Hero. Naofumi, tho innocent had no evidence at all whereas Myne had planted false evidence leading to everyone believing her instead. Enraged, Naofumi ventured out on a journey alone with the intention of clearing his name and getting revenge on Myne.

STORY : 7

This is one of the Isekais that has managed to distinguish itself from the others in the same genre initially. The main protagonist is not super overpowered from the start and it is really satisfying to see how Naofumi turns the tide around, clearing his name as he sets out on his journey and gain allies along the way. The false rape accusation is very reminiscence to the ones that happen in real life, showing us the perspective of the victim and how he copes with it. This shows us that not everything is what it seems and that we should not trust the rape accuser easily without concrete proof. This is a very interesting storytelling standpoint and I am glad that the author decided to go down this route as it allows for many interesting plot twists and satisfying moments. However as I continue to watch the series there are times where it creates opportunities for many interesting plot points and fails to deliver.

ART : 7

The visuals in this anime is quite good and a good amount of budget can be seen put in the fight scenes so far. This is nowhere near the animation level of shows like Kimi No Nawa or Violet Evergarden but the visuals in this is definitely worth the praise. The art style/character designs are very like that of an normal Isekai anime and any fans of this genre would love this.

SOUND : 8

I mean what can I say? The OP and the ED of this anime is a BANGER. The OP ' RISE ' made by MAD KID is a really good J-pop music and suits the anime perfectly with the hype that it brings. The ED ' Your Name ' produced by Chiai Fujikawa is a soothing music and is a good contrast to the OP of this anime. The voice actor behind Naofumi is the great Ishikawa Kaito who voiced many great anime characters ( Kageyama Tobio from Haikyuu , Sakuta from Bunny Girl Senpai ) and the voice actor behind the lovable Raphtalia is Seto Asami who voiced Sakurajima Mai from Bunny Girl Senpai. You can get some vibes of Bunny Girl Senpai just from Raphtalia's and Naofumi's dialogues sometimes.

CHARACTER : 7

Naofumi's character underwent through an interesting turn. He was seen as your average happy go lucky Otaku that was transported into another world, but his character changed drastically after the false rape accusation and he can be seen taking a much darker tone. However, even with this change in character, deep down he is still a kind and caring person. His companion , Raphtalia is a lovable female demi-human with a great personality resembling that of Rem from Re: Zero. She is one of the few people that truly knows Naofumi as a person and cares for him deeply. She is one of the few reasons why Naofumi is able to withstand against all the hate given by the people in this world due to the false rape accusation. There is also the cute Chicken I mean Philo Rial who can change between her human and Philo Rial form at will and provides many comedic moments for the show.

ENJOYMENT : 8

Personally, I quite enjoyed Tate No Yuusha, however I do understand if people find the story too rushed and cliché, which I can agree with to a certain extent.
And yes, when you tackle topics as sensitive as false rap accusations, there are bound to be controversies surrounding it. All I want to say is that there is no need to look too deep into things, just take it as some form of popcorn entertainment. I mean it is just anime, why not just enjoy it?

OVERALL : 8

It is genuinely a really good show, thou flawed, and deserves all the popularity that it gets. It provides a relatively unique premise for the genre, along with some compelling characters. I would not be surprised if this becomes one of the more well known anime out there.

So should YOU watch this? If you are one of those people who just like Isekai and want to have fun watching anime, YES go ahead. However if you are one of those people who looks for perfection in an anime, this probably would not be your cup of tea.

(Esta reseña también tiene una versión en español más abajo)
This is the typical Isekai of each season that the community says is different but it is the same generic Isekai garbage as always, with an MC that is surrounded by beautiful girls so that people with low self-esteem can self-insert and feel that they are special.
The problems of this Isekai are:

1) The protagonist is the owner of the truth.
Anyone who is against him is the bad guy and everyone who is with him is the good, black and white that simple.
Like any empowerment fantasy, the story makes the protagonist is right in everything he does ... and never puts it as if he was doing something wrong even though he clearly does something wrong.
For example, in episode 1 the protagonist attacks a merchant and the story puts it as if it were fair. THIS IS NOT FAIR, THE PROTAGONIST IS A CRETIN. Put yourself in the merchant's place, you would not treat badly a guy who is said to have raped a girl? Besides, It is a free market, the merchant can put the price he wants, it is perfectly legal but NO, AS HE IS TREATING BAD TO THE PROTAGONIST IS A VILLAIN AND DESERVES TO BE PUNISHED.
Another example in episode 5, When Firo attacks the hero of the spear and puts it as something good when it is not like that. Motoyasu did nothing wrong, why does he deserve to be treated like that? Oh, right, Motoyasu is not on the protagonist's side so it's bad and deserves to be punished. Motoyasu is easy to manipulate and he is fooled by a woman, just like the protagonista in the episode 1 so why is Motoyasu the bad if he is acting the same as the protagonist? This is hypocrisy.
In the battle with Motoyasu, the protagonist cheats and the story does not put this as a bad thing even though the story super-demonizes this action when the princess performs it. I can see hypocrisy. The protagonist deserves to win because he is the protagonist and they treated him badly, typical favoritism of a empowerment fantasy.
The MC buys slaves and forces them to do things they do not want but everything is fine because he is the owner of the truth. You know that slavery is bad, right?
During the first wave of calamity, the MC going to save a town while the other heroes are going to defeat the calamity. Which of these 2 actions is more important? Obviously defeating the calamity is much more important, if the other heroes had not done so, the calamity and its beasts would have dispersed throughout the kingdom and would have attacked more people but No, as the protagonist did not do this then it is wrong and saving villagers is more important than defeating the calamity and preventing it from attacking more villages, or at least that's how the story puts it. (I do not say that saving a village is not important but compared to defeating the villain .....)
No matter what do the protagonist, everything will be put as fair and anyone who opposes him is a villain who deserves to be punished.
If that is not favoritism, I do not know that it is.

2) The protagonist is a GARY STU.
Apart from the fact that he is the owner of the truth, he is surrounded by beautiful woman, has a broken power and does impossible things to do because he is the protagonist.
The protagonist is so perfect that the only way he loses is cheating against him, but even that does not work.
In the race with Motoyasu, the protagonist is able to win with a 2 day old bird against a dragon even though they cheated against him several times. How is that possible? BECAUSE IT IS A GARY STU, no, seriously, there is no other explanation. (Even if they use the excuse of levels, skill or whatever, it is still very convenient and also proves that it is a Gary stu that history favors) If that is not favoritism, I do not know that it is.
The protagonist uses a shield, that is to say that he is not good in combat and he specializes more in the defense but since he is a Gary, this does not matter and it is better fighting melee than the hero of the spear and it is much more useful than other heroes.
"The other 3 heroes do not take that world seriously, Naofumi does take it seriously, that's why it's better than them even though they should know more about the world than him because they've played the game before" ... .. I do not think I have to explain why this excuse is delayed, what kind of person would not take such a situation seriously? This is a forced scenario.
Also, what are the chances of getting a super rare bird in a box of dubious origin on your first attempt? Wow It's as if the protagonist was favored by history or something like that.
The story has a double standard of making the antagonists treat him for the worst but the story itself gives him the best things and treats him as the Gary stu who is.
ALSO HIS POWER IS BROKEN, the shield is capable of doing whatever the plot requires, heal, nullify enemy attacks, grow plants, learn, assimilate, attack, etc. and not to mention the edgy power up of hatred that appears out of nowhere just to make the plot more convenient.

3) Nobody matters apart from the protagonist and his group.
There is a difference between the main focus of the story is the protagonist and that the story not give a shit for the other characters by pure favoritism towards the MC.
History does not try that you care about antagonists or at least the other heroes. The other 3 heroes are just flat archetypes that would not matter if any of them died. The most insulting in how later Raphtalia seems to be stronger and more useful than these heroes although the role of the other 3 heroes "in the story" is hundreds of times more important than hers, because the role of the heroes is SAVING THE FUCKING WORLD, but perhaps you Would you trust them to save it even though they have exactly the same role as the protagonist?
Of course not!
The story does not try to make you see them as the heroes they are or try to make you empathize with they neither with their actions.
History puts them like incompetent idiots just so that the protagonist is better in comparison. It's like putting half-eaten bread next to three pieces of poop in a dump, it's not that the MC is cool or a good character, it's that all the other options that are not him are garbage. This is one of the most pathetic acts I have seen a story do, besides that counts as manipulation.
History makes the spectator DELIBERATELY hate them and support the protagonist.
Everything the protagonist does is correct and anyone who does not have his same point of view is wrong.
If that is not favoritism, I do not know that it is.
AND YES, FAVORITISM IS BAD BECAUSE IT IS DISHONEST, CONVENIENT AND MANIPULATIVE IN TERMS OF SCRIPT.

4) The characterization of the main characters is inconsistent.
The personality of the protagonist is completely rewritten in episode 1, it becomes someone completely different that is anything but an Otaku. That's not development, it's bad writing. If all the characterization of your character is due to a tragic event, then your character is trash. Also, it seems that the protagonist lost masculinity or something like that because he does not pay attention to the 2 beautiful waifus that he has in front. You could say that it is because "he sees them as daughters" but that does not justify such a level of indifference. And even more so when he is an otaku and he has no experience with a woman, they are his slaves and the two are constantly fighting for his affection.)
Similar case with Raphtalia whose personality is also rewritten. Raphtalia, apparently, is able to overcome a TRAUMA only with pretty words and the power of love. Her character is the typical girl without individuality whose world revolves around the MC and she wants it unconditionally so that when the otakus feel that someone wants them when they self-insert in him.
And finally, firo, which is presented as a bird but becomes a loli, sincerely this change in its characterization would not be bad if it had not become a loli just a few days old, this counts as pedophilia, you know? aside it is completely unnecessary and does not add anything to the plot, the change is only to please the fetishes of the audience.

5) Story victimizes the prota.
The story forces you to feel sorry for the protagonist, no matter what the protagonist does, everything will be excused with "he deserves it". The story uses pity to justify every bad action the protagonist does. BAD WRITING.
The story treats the protagonist as a poor puppy who is a victim of circumstances but at the same time is a Gary stu who is surrounded by beautiful waifus. DOUBLE STANDARD.
It is not setting a fair and realistic scenario, it is setting a forced and favoritism scenario.
Not even the reason for victimization makes sense.

6) (SPOILERS) The reason for the betrayal does not make sense.
The reason they are bad with the protagonist is because they hate the hero of the shield (BAD WRITING) and because it can be a threat.
Are you telling me you are making a guy suffer who invoked against his will to save the world for something he did not do? The betrayal is unnecessary, they could manipulate him and make believe that they are their ally to then betray and kill him on the spot, they could see his intentions or have him as an ally and use him as much as possible, but NO, instead they treat him horrible, they gain hatred and they become enemies of the most dangerous hero for stupid and very sadistic reasons. In fact, the reason why the shield hero becomes a threat to the kingdom and the antagonists is because the kingdom was bad with him.

Oh, if I did not talk about the positive points it's because I just could not find any.
THIS ANIME IS TRASH.

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Este es el típico Isekai de cada temporada que la comunidad dice que es diferente pero es la misma basura genérica Isekai de siempre, con un prota sin personalidad que está rodeado de hermosas chicas para que las personas con baja autoestima puedan insertarse en él y sentir que son especiales
Los problemas de este Isekai son:

1) El protagonista es el dueño de la verdad.
Cualquiera que esté en contra de él es el malo y todo aquel que este con él es el bueno, blanco y negro así de simple.
Como toda fantasía de empoderamiento, La historia hace que el protagonista esté en lo correcto en todo lo que hace y nunca lo hace ver como si estuviera haciendo algo incorrecto a pesar de que claramente hace algo malo.
Por ejemplo, en el episodio 1, el protagonista ataca a un comerciante y la historia lo pone como si fuera justo. ESTO NO ES JUSTO, EL PROTAGONISTA ES UN CRETINO. Pónganse en el lugar del comerciante, ¿No trataría mal a un tipo del que se dice violó a una chica? Además, es un mercado libre, el comerciante puede poner el precio que quiera, es perfectamente legal pero NO, COMO TRATA MAL A NUESTRO PROTAGONISTA ES UN VILLANO Y MERECE SER CASTIGADO.
Otro ejemplo, esta vez en el episodio 5, cuando Firo ataca al héroe de la lanza y lo pone como algo bueno o gracioso cuando no es así. Motoyasu no hizo nada malo, ¿Por qué merece ser tratado así? Oh, cierto, Motoyasu no está del lado del protagonista, así que es malo y merece ser castigado. Motoyasu es fácil de manipular y es engañado por una mujer, al igual que el protagonista en el episodio 1, ¿Por qué Motoyasu es el malo si está actuando igual que el protagonista? Esto es hipocresía.
En la batalla con Motoyasu, el protagonista hace trampa y no ponen esto como malo a pesar de que súper-demonizan a la princesa cuando hace la misma acción. Puedo ver la hipocresía. El protagonista merece ganar porque es el protagonista y lo trataron mal, puro favoritismo típico de una fantasía de empoderamiento.
Nuestro protagonista compra esclavas y las obliga a hacer cosas que no quieren, pero todo está bien porque él es el dueño de la verdad. Sabes que la esclavitud es mala, Verdad?
Durante la primera ola de la calamidade, la prota va a salvar una ciudad, mientras que los otros héroes van a derrotar la calamidad ¿Cuál de estas 2 acciones es más importante? Obviamente derrotar la calamidad es mucho más importante, si los otros héroes no lo hubieran hecho, la calamidad y sus bestias se habrían dispersado por todo el reino y habrían atacado a más personas, pero No, como el protagonista no hizo esto, entonces está mal y salvar a los aldeanos es más importante que derrotar la calamidad e impedir que ataque más aldeas, o al menos así es como historia lo pone (No digo que salvar una aldea no es importante, pero comparado con derrotar al villano ...)
No importa lo que haga el protagonista, todo será considerado correcto y justo, cualquiera que se oponga a él será un villano que merece ser castigado.
Si eso no es favoritismo, no sé lo que es.

2) El protagonista es un Gary stu.
Aparte del hecho de que él es el dueño de la verdad, está rodeado de una mujer hermosa, tiene un poder roto y hace cosas imposibles de hacer porque es el protagonista.
El protagonista es tan perfecto que la única forma de que pierda es haciendo trampa contra él, pero incluso eso no funciona.
En la carrera con Motoyasu, el protagonista puede ganar con un ave de 2 días contra un dragón a pesar de que hicieron trampa contra él varias veces. ¿Cómo es eso posible? PORQUE ES UN GARY STU, no, en serio, no hay otra explicación. (Incluso si usan la excusa de niveles, habilidad o lo que sea, sigue siendo muy conveniente y también prueba que es una historia de Gary que favorece la historia). Si eso no es favoritismo, no sé si lo es.
"Los otros 3 héroes no se toman en serio ese mundo, Naofumi sí se lo toma en serio, es por eso que es mejor que ellos a pesar de que deberían saber más del mundo que él porque ya jugaron el juego antes"..... No creo tener que explicar el porqué esta excusa es retardada, ¿Qué clase de persona no se tomaría una situación así en serio? Este es un escenario forzado.
El protagonista utiliza un escudo, es decir, que no es bueno en combate cuerpo a cuerpo y se especializa más en la defensa, pero como es un Gary, esto no importa y es mejor luchar cuerpo a cuerpo que el héroe de la lanza y es Mucho más útil que otros héroes.
Además, ¿cuáles son las posibilidades de obtener un ave súper rara en una caja de dudoso origen en su primer intento? Wow Es como si el protagonista fuera favorecido por la historia o algo así.
La historia tiene un doble estándar de hacer que los antagonistas lo traten de lo peor, pero la historia misma le da las mejores cosas y lo trata como el Gary Stu que es.
TAMBIÉN SU PODER ESTÁ ROTO, el escudo es capaz de hacer cualquier cosa que requiera la trama, sanar, anular ataques enemigos, cultivar plantas, aprender, asimilarse, atacar, etc. y sin mencionar el poder EDGY del odio, el cual también está roto y es conveniente .

3) Nadie importa aparte del protagonista y su grupo.
Hay una diferencia entre que el foco principal de una historia sea el protagonista y que la historia no de un carajo por los otros personajes por puro favoritismo hacia el prota.
La historia no trata de hacer que te interesen los antagonistas o al menos los otros héroes. Los otros 3 héroes son solo arquetipos planos que no importaría si alguno de ellos muriese. Lo más insultante es cómo Raphtalia más tarde parece ser más fuerte y más útil que estos héroes, a pesar de que el papel de los otros 3 héroes "en la historia" es cientos de veces más importante que el de ella, porque el papel de los héroes es SALVAR AL FUCKING MUNDO, ¿Pero acaso tú confiarías en que ellos lo salvarán a pesar de que tienen exactamente el mismo rol que el protagonista?
¡Por supuesto no!
La historia no trata de hacer que los veas como los héroes que son, ni trata de hacer que te identifiques con ellos ni con sus acciones.
La historia los pone como idiotas incompetentes solo para que el prota quede mejor en comparación. Es como poner un pan a medio comer junto a tres pedazos de caca en un basurero, no es que el prota sea cool o un buen personaje, es que todas las otras opciones que no son él, son basura. Esto es uno de los actos más patéticos que he visto a una historia hacer, además de que cuenta como manipulación.
La historia hace que el espectador los odie DELIBERADAMENTE y apoye al protagonista.
Todo lo que hace el protagonista es correcto y cualquiera que no tenga su mismo punto de vista está equivocado.
Si eso no es favoritismo, no sé que lo sea.
Y SÍ, EL FAVORITISMO ES MALO PORQUE ES DESHONESTO, CONVENIENTE Y MANIPULATIVO EN TÉRMINOS DE ESCRITURA.

4) La caracterización de los personajes principales es inconsistente.
La personalidad del protagonista es completamente re-escrita en el episodio 1, se convierte en alguien que es cualquier cosa menos un Otaku. Eso no es desarrollo, es mala escritura. Si toda la caracterización de tu personaje se debe a un evento trágico, entonces tu personaje es basura. También, parece que el protagonista perdió la masculinidad o algo así porque no le presta atención a 2 hermosas mujeres que tiene delante. Se podría decir que es porque "los ve como hijas", pero eso no justifica tal nivel de indiferencia. Y más aún cuando es un otaku, no tiene experiencia con una mujer, son sus esclavas y las dos luchan constantemente por su afecto.
Caso similar con Raphtalia, cuya personalidad también se reescribe. Raphtalia, al parecer, es capaz de superar un TRAUMA solo con palabras bonitas y el poder del amor. Su personaje es la típica chica sin individualidad cuyo mundo gira en torno al prota y lo quiere incondicionalmente para que cuando los otakus sientan que alguien los quiere cuando se auto-inserten en el prota .
Y finalmente, Firo, que se presenta como un pájaro pero se convierte en una loli, sinceramente este cambió en su caracterización no sería malo si no se hubiera convertido en una loli de tan solo unos días de edad, esto cuenta como pedofilia, ¿Saben? Además, es completamente innecesario y no agrega nada a la trama, el cambio es solo para complacer a los fetiches de la audiencia.

5) La historia victimiza al protagonista.
La historia te obliga a sentir pena por el protagonista, no importa lo que haga el protagonista, todo se excusará con "se lo merece". La historia usa la compasión para justificar cada mala acción que el protagonista hace. MALA ESCRITURA.
La historia trata al protagonista como un pobre cachorrito que es víctima de las circunstancias, pero al mismo tiempo es un tío de Gary que está rodeado de hermosas waifus. DOBLE ESTÁNDAR.
No está estableciendo un escenario justo y realista, está estableciendo un escenario forzado e idealizado.
Ni siquiera la razón para que la victimización se de tiene sentido.

6) (SPOILERS) La razón de la traición no tiene sentido.
La razón por la que son malos con el protagonista es porque odian al héroe del escudo (MAL ESCRITURA) y porque puede ser una amenaza.
¿Me están diciendo que hicieron sufrir a un tipo que INVOCARON EN CONTRA DE SU VOLUNTAD PARA SALVAR EL MUNDO POR ALGO QUE NO HIZO? La traición es innecesaria, podrían haberlo manipularlo y hacerle creer que son su aliado para luego traicionarlo y matarlo en el acto, podrían ver sus intenciones o tenerlo como un aliado y usarlo tanto como sea posible, pero NOP, en cambio lo tratan de una forma horrible, ganan su odio y se convierten en enemigos del héroe más peligroso por razones estúpidas y muy sádicas. De hecho, la razón por la que el héroe del escudo se convierte en una amenaza para el reino y los antagonistas es porque el reino fue malo con él en primer lugar.

Oh, si no hablé de los puntos positivos es porque simplemente no pude encontrar ninguno.
ESTE ANIME ES BASURA.

It's amazing how whenever social justice warriors get irrationally angry over a work of fiction, their impotent rage serves as almost a guaranteed stamp of approval that said work of fiction is likely good.

Very few examples of this are as accurate as with Shield Hero. The characters and plot are fantastic, and the emotions shown feel more real than any Isekai in years. Nothing feels forced. Solid writing. I haven't looked forward to the next episode of a series this much in a very long time.

So what made the virtue signalling crowd of harpies so infuriated by this show? Quite simple really, because it ... includes a false rape accusation and in the current climate of political correctness we are apparently supposed to believe this sort of thing never happens in real life. Oh, and anyone who believes otherwise is literally a dude that has been dead since the end of WWII. Regardless of the fact that according to FBI statistics this sort of thing absolutely does happen ( It's actually the most common falsely accused felony ), this is a fantasy series that takes place in an alternative dimension. So what of this matters to you, the anime fan? The person just looking for some solid entertainment? Nothing really. Well, except getting to laugh at people who get offended over trivial drama.

What DOES matter is the question of whether or not this show is good. The answer to that is a solid yes. Very few anime deserve a perfect 10, with that score often being reserved for legendary works from Miyazaki. When deciding to give an anime the perfect 10 you mainly have to compare it to other shows of the same genre. As far as "Isekai" goes, this is really as good as it gets. What makes Shield Hero deserve this score is that it takes everything within the potential for Isekai to craft an interesting world, and does it flawlessly. Sure parts of it are generic. You have your generic loli comrades. Your generic moe moments. But the difference between Tate no Yuush and other Isekai is that Tate has these things in addition to a good story, as opposed to being a distraction from otherwise poor quality.

Rather than crafting a perfect world for otaku to self insert into, Shield Hero does just the opposite and creates a world not so unlike our own in terms of unfairness and corruption. It serves as a mirror image to the real world. Even in a land with might and magic human stupidity and gullibility can ruin everything and result in nothing changing. The true irony of the whole situation is that the reason why this show is good actually comes down to the very thing that the baizuo are complaining about. Tate no Yuusha puts realistic problems in front of the characters, instead of cliche ones such as "A dragon killed my family". This allows for much more effective character development, to the point where there is more character growth in the first episode than there is in the entirety of most of last seasons trash.

Most importantly, Shield Hero is a show that actually has something to say. It isn't trying to capitalize on the "Isekai fad", and despite this it's still the best show of the genre in possibly over a decade.

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 for the audience. If only that taste didn’t turn from honey sweet to bitter sour.

I'm the kind of guy who very rarely reads manga. I rather wait for years sometimes and watch the animation when it's available. Besides titles like One Piece, I never really read the manga of titles that are currently airing so I can have a better experience when watching the anime without knowing what's going to happen.
That being said, after watching only the first episode of Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (aka rising of the shieldbro) I knew something different was coming my way so I went ahead and read the entire manga in one sitting. Yes, it's that good.
It's the kind of anime that ... makes you root so bad for the protagonist that you kind of feel whatever he is feeling too. The character development is that great. You want him to succeed, you want him to be happy.
This anime is doing an amazing job showing the side of humans we don't usually see in animes. The corrupted and disgraceful society that's presented to you almost makes you want to take matters into your own hands and help the wronged.
So far, the anime is also doing an amazing job following the manga and if they keep that up I think it's a serious competitor for the anime of the year reward.
Couldn't recommend it enough. Go watch it and thank me later!

This is your typical lets feel pity for the protagonist just because we say so type anime. The writers go out of their way to try to justify the actions of the protagonist even when the protagonist is clearly in the wrong. Ep 2 he takes a slave girl (Raphtalia) as his companion and the writer justify this by claiming "his a kind master". The slave falls in love with him simply because his kind giving the typical submissive female feel.
Meanwhile the slave being clearly underage the try to justify this bs by saying demi-humans automatically grow to adulthood once they level up.

The ... story is trash and not in-depth whatsoever. Its your standard black and white, protagonist always right and his not will make it fit, "good" vs "evil" scenario.

Overall if you like cute submissive racoon girls and you don't care for story or character development then you might enjoy the show. If you're looking for something with substance however, this anime is not it.

In all honesty, Isekai is a pretty sick genre with unlimited potential, sporting endless thematic possibilities that a normal setting could never offer. Want to tell a story that juxtaposes two different societies outlook on slavery? Your options are make a boring civil war movie or make an isekai were a dude gets transported to a world full of Kanye Wests and Jesse Lee Petersons (this won’t be the last time I mention Kanye in this review). The problem with most isekai’s is that they have a tendency to be lazy in the writing department… and the themes ... department… and pretty much everything else--not to mention that they are usually light novel adaptations. Shield Hero is no exception to this, except for having a few tricks up its sleeves that makes it watchable.

I might as well talk about the show’s biggest strength first--since I want people to actually read this instead of getting salty and closing the page on the second paragraph. This show is aggravating; it is nauseatingly frustrating. This is due to the fact that everything goes wrong for the main character. Episode one was literally every conservatives worst nightmare: having an innocent man’s life ruined just because a woman accused him of harassment without a formal investigation and trial. Just imagine if the Brett Kavanaugh trial went down like this, C-span would’ve gotten more views than the Crunchyroll anime awards. All jokes aside, this show keeps piling own garbage Naofumi (the MC) has to deal with. This makes it very easy to root for him because of how unfair things are for him. It is the same feeling as watching a fighting game and rooting for the guy playing a low tier.

This feeling of vexation did keep me watching; however, the events that lead to such feelings were not all that good. What I mean by that is the show went so far out of its way to demonstrate how Naofumi is less than his peers and the people around him, that it became hard to take it seriously. Take the scene were he and his peers introduce themselves to the king for Example: the king can clearly see that there are four men standing before him, yet he ignores the MC? He has no reason to do that other than to victimize the MC for the audience. To make matters worse, the MC’s reason for being sent to another world is to aid the king in battle, so why would the king be rude to someone sent to help him? Does he want Naofumi's help at all? If his kingdom was truly threatened, he’d take all the help he could get. That is just one example of how the show goes so far to exaggerate the MC’s victimization. I am not even counting how the show makes his abilities out to be worse than Melee Kirby when he is clearly just as capable as his peers, which is demonstrated in episode four.

So basically, the show’s greatest strength is just a feeling that is created via melodrama and arbitrary, contradictory worldbuilding. Since I like offering solutions to go alongside my criticism, I’d suggest that this show desperately needs some subtly. I am not in the Quentin Tarantino cult or anything; regardless, I think it is safe to say this show could’ve taken some notes from his films. In the opening scene of Inglorious Bastards (the only good scene), Tarantino was able to display a difference in power between two characters with just body language and dialogue alone. If Shield Hero stopped exaggerating his lack of strength and took out all the forced dialogue and replace it with more subtle dialogue showcase the MC’s insecurities, the show could be pretty nice. And if the MC’s struggles comes from a place of personal limitations like shyness, the frustrating that will occur when things don’t go his way will come from a place of empathy for a fellow human--rather than pure anger.

The characters in this show are quite bad to say the least. A pet peeve I have is when an Isekai has its MC transported to another world too soon. The Vision of Escaflowne took a full episode to show its main character before she was sent off to another world. Moreover, the sight of Hitomi getting sent off to another world is all the more meaningful after seeing what her life is actually like and what she will be missing. Shield Hero was so lazy that the MC got sent to another world in under three minutes of episode one. The only characterization we got for Naofumi was internal monologue saying that he’s a basic otaku. If a show is this lazy towards its MC’s characterization, then it is safe to assume that the rest of the cast is doomed to be boring talking faces. And they pretty much are so there is really no point in discussing them--not to mention that this show turns into a boring harem.

This show’s themes actually have the potential to be really nuanced and profound. The stuff about him being an underdog is boring and nothing new. Not bad, but not the good stuff. On the other hand, what this show tries to tackle with its depiction of slavery is something else though. I referenced Kanye West in my opening paragraph because of his quote “When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” When I first watched this show, it felt as if Japan felt bad for Kanye’s bad articulation and made an anime to clarify his points. But I digress. Kanye’s views on slavery are actually more nuanced than his poor articulation would lead one to believe. The relationship between Naofumi and his slave Raphtalia perfectly depict what kanye was talking about: Raphtalia adjusted to her life with Naofumi so much to where she saw her slavery as just life rather than slavery. Obviously, real life slavery is not as pleasant as this show makes it out to be, and I am of course not advocated for slavery since I am a liberal. However, the idea that being a slave makes people see it as life rather than slavery is an interesting one to explore nonetheless. If you want to hear more on the topic of slavery, here is a discussion on it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-3in7shk0&t=1888s).

Despite the show having potential for good themes, the stuff they do go over is done in a vary juvenile way. Episodes four and five is where the slave talk reaches its peak.. During these episodes, the morality of slavery is brought into question. The MC argues that he is treating his slave right and giving her food and water; therefore, he is morally alright to keep her the way she is. Fun fact: in ancient Egypt, people at the bottom of society would choose to be slaves for the same basic protections, here are some sources (https://study.com/academy/lesson/facts-about-slaves-in-ancient-egypt-lesson-for-kids.html) (http://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2013/01/voluntary-slavery-ancient-egyptians-paid-a-monthly-fee-to-become-temple-slaves.html). With that tangent aside, the other guy arguing with him literally just brings up the topic of slavery just as an excuse to fight him. And that’s about it. In all honesty, I am a little insulted that a show with interesting themes would waste them just for a lame fight.

Since I am done sounding like a mad man ranting about Kanye in an anime review, I’ll quickly go over some other things about the show and why they’re not good. The world he goes to has this thing called the apocalypse that forces all the main characters together. This is a lazy plot device to bring characters together that would normally have no reason to be together otherwise--so basically like highschool in anime. The show is a harem and not the good kind. The good kind being the girls all have a genuine reason to like the guy. In this show, Naofumi literally hatches an egg and a waifu comes out, and I am supposed to take this show seriously. The animation and sound are bland, not much else to say there. Basically, I could've just said this show is vanilla isekai trash and saved myself a lot of time.

To conclude this, Shield Hero is not good. I mostly used this show as an excuse to share my thoughts Kanye out--because we all know Shield Hero isn’t deep enough to say anything about it. In my book, this show gets a two; it is of no intellectual value, and it gets boring after the frustration leaves and the harem shows up.

If you think I am a jerk for making you read two paragraphs about Kanye just to then give your favorite show a two, then check out my twitch (I have a working link on my MAL profile) and call me out for it. I am surprisingly cordial and am very open to hear what you guys have to say. So if you catch me live, during one of my live anime analysis or melee sessions, ask me anything I'd happily respond. Or if you want to talk in private, (another_Fiend#2240) I got a discord. Have a nice night, hope to hear from you. Peace.

Harem trash. The setup, which at first seems interesting and unusual in the main character's early and severe downfall, soon turns out to just be pretense. The female harem 'characters' (if you can even call them that) don't have personality that extends beyond loving the main character and being excited about food.
Also, it doesn't really seem to matter what kind of animal the main character takes into his party, it is going to magically evolve into a demi-human harem girl. Why, you ask? No reason. Just the writer peddling to otakus who have never had a real conversation with a woman and who like ... to escape into fantasy worlds where girls constantly throw themselves at them just to cuddle their ego.

The main character is slow to adjust and to act in an emotionally intelligent way. He gets by because he magically always has the proper tool at hand to solve whatever situation presents itself in front of him. Yet, he always gets screwed by the evil conspirators messing with him, just for fun. Despite them needing him to save their world.
Sounds nonsensical? That's because it is. The only way to rate this abomination higher than 4/10 is to have no expectations of good writing.

"Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku!"

It's anime like this that make me share Hayao Miyazaki's sentiment. While I wouldn't say that his works are perfect, at least he wrote characters that are realistic, relatable and have feelings and ambitions beyond "I want MC to marry me".

Overview:

I normally dislike writing previews, but Shield Hero is so odd I don't want to wait another few months. Shield Hero is impossible to avoid on social media. Every week it pisses off an entirely new group of people and generates enough controversy that it DEMANDS we rubber neck and bare witness to the train wreck. When you get past the outrage culture it's just kind of a garbage Isekai, but it's provided a wild ride so far!



Le Elephant in the room:


Firstly, let's talk about the initial outrage that boosted Shield Hero to fame. The very first episode features a greedy, gold-digging whore that falsely ... accuses our hero of rape, so she can steal his money. My issue isn't that the plot point is used. The Princess is a villainous character and bad guys do bad stuff. False rape accusations are also a real thing. The FBI estimates somewhere between 2-10 percent of rape claims in the US never happened. The issue is that it doesn't make sense within the show. The Princess is already rich as shit, so why would she create this elaborate plot to steal a small bag of coins that are an absolute pittance to her? The Shield Hero is also prophesized to save her world from the total destruction it currently faces. She's risking the destruction of her world for what? For the Lulz? For a tiny bag of coins that could buy her a few meals? It feels like Shield Hero just wanted to awkwardly insert a hot button issue in order to gain attention. It's borrowing the strategy of trash exploitation from the 70s and 80s that couldn't sell on quality and sold purely on controversy.

Let's look at a better example of storytelling. The game Persona 5 begins with the main hero getting falsely accused of assault. The goal is the same. The writer wants to inspire sympathy for the hero and make you hate the villain. The difference is that it makes sense within the story. Joker is walking down the street late at night and stumbles upon a drunken politician named Shido abusing some call girl. Joker has caught Shido in an embarassing moment of weakness and Shido knows this could threaten his image. Shido is a paranoid authoritarian that like Stalin believes in crushing even the smallest of threats. It makes complete sense that Shido would protect his reputation by destroying Joker's and getting him labeled as a juvenile delinquent. If Shield Hero used a false rape allegation in a way that made sense like that, I would have no issue with it.


Story and characters:

A fantasy world is being threatened and summons 4 otaku from our world to slay the monsters and save them. This sounds like every other Isekai ever made so far. What sets it apart is the lengths it goes to immediately try force us to feel sorry for the Shield Hero and hate everyone else. Everyone immediately starts shitting on our MC because he was chosen to use the shield instead of the bow, sword, or spear. The other otaku claim that defense/support players in MMORPGs are the garbage players and all the people agree. Has this writer ever played a multi-player game of any kind?! Support roles are usually harder to play and require more patient, veteran players. The shittiest players want to cheese damage from a safe distance, so the archer would likely be the low skilled one.

After getting mocked by the entire Kingdom, robbed, and falsely accused of rape, our hero decides to go buy a furry slave girl. Demi-humans, who're part animal and part human are commonly used as slave labor in this kingdom. The Shield Hero initially just sees her as an inanimate tool, but gradually forms a bond with her. Oh and she's a racoon girl because slave...coon...haha laugh at the clever joke. Surely we know where this is going. Shield Hero will learn to recognize her humanity and grant the coon freedom. NOPE! The other otaku are portrayed as "holier than thou" villains for saying slavery is wrong. Shield Hero says that slave masters can be kind or cruel, but slavery isn't inherently evil. Some races like the demi-humans are better off as slaves. The villains cheat in a duel and free the coon from a curse seal that forces her to obey Shield's orders or die. This emotionally devastates poor Shield Hero, but the coon rushes to his side and declares she is happy as his slave because at least she has a purpose. She then has the curse seal put back on despite the fact she apparently serves willingly and doesn't need it. Why? To fucking piss me off of course! It really seems the series doubles down on being tasteless to troll the audience. They know exactly what they're doing. Did I mention the coon suddenly matures physically so we can get some echii shit despite her mentally still being a child? I can't wait for what the writer will come up with next.

Later our hero gains a Chocobo girl and continues to build his harem of furry slave girls while slowly plotting his revenge on Princess Bitch. At least Shield Hero is consistently less boring than Goblin Slayer. For what it lacks in quality it makes up for in jaw dropping moments of stupidity. NO THEY DIDN'T! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!? Shield Hero also has something that Goblin Slayer doesn't...characters. The Shield Hero is capable of being selfish, spiteful, and wallows in self pity. At the same time, he can show moments of kindness and even courage. Goblin Slayer's personality is that he slays goblins and says "I See". It's far better to have a loathsome protagonist than a boring one. A hero doesn't HAVE to be a pure good guy or even likeable to be a great character. Look at Rorschach from Watchmen. He's an ugly homeless dude who smells bad and rants about how everyone is garbage. He kills people and feels no guilt for it. He's openly homophobic. He subscribes to a magazine that defends the KKK and features anti-Semitic cartoons. However, he's completely Kantian in his morality and will never compromise his principles. He'd rather die than accept utilitarianism based on moral relativism. By the end of the comic, Rorschach is a tragic and sympathetic figure that readers get behind. I'm not saying that Shield Hero is a great character and I'm certainly not comparing him to one of the greatest characters in comic history. All I'm saying is that even a pro-slavery asshole like Shield Hero COULD have been compelling and interesting, if this were well written.



Art:

This is the same studio that did "Made in Abyss". This at least looks WAY better than Goblin Slayer and has some impressive action sequences. I really don't have any complaints as far as the art goes. It's not the best I've seen, but it's not bad.


Music:

Hmm...that theme song actually isn't half bad. You know what would be even better though? (plays Dixie's Land)


Overall impressons:

Once you strip away the controversy and some of the more baffling writing decisions, Shield Hero is another substanceless Isekai that exists to serve as a juvenile power fantasy. It's shit and it's happy being shit. That's ok honestly. Not all food has to be an 80 dollar steak. Sometimes you want to eat that greasy double quarter pounder from McDs. I don't intend to cast any kind of judgment on people for enjoying Shield Hero. My favorite anime is an exploitation gorefest with a serial killer lead hero and enough underage nudity to make it illegal in Canada. If you love Shield Hero that's totally cool. I'm going to continue watching it because I'm a masochist and each new episode provides interesting conversations with friends both offline and online.

Try to walk and you may stumble.

Cringe - that's the first word that pops into my mind when thinking of Tate no Yuusha.
It's poorly written, lazy, offers nothing unique or interesting, but at least they kicked the cheese into overdrive.

It starts out as your generic isekai nonsense; some random, average dude gets summoned into wonderland. This is *not* necessarily bad, but it ain't gonna win points for creativity either. But the show immediately begins to crumble. Where other shows take the effort to provide a semblance of explanation as to why MC gets selected and transported, this one says 'no' and skips it ... all.
Standard MC introduction in 5 minutes (or less) and BOOM we're in business.

And once you start falling, it's difficult to regain your balance.

Immediately afterwards we're getting a boatload of cringe. 4 random dudes summoned, of course our Hiro must stand out even then - where the rest of them listen and think, MC starts this "comedic freakout" act and does so with aLOT of enthusiasm.
But the other "heroes" listening and "thinking" isn't an upside, it's no compliment. They calmly state they don't care at all if fairyland is destroyed, not their problem, they want to be sent home -which is cold, but reasonable isn't it? But then they change their minds within a minute when they hear the magic word;
"reward",
and proclaim they'll help *if* they get paid handsomely, with no subtle arrogance I might add. All 3, in unison. Such heroes. And if you think they'll have a hard time believing they've been just summoned into the world of Dungeons and Dragons, then you'd be *very* wrong because apparently, DnD is common knowledge where they come from, (disregard the fact it's still just fairy tales).

In the meanwhile, the show throws quite a few arbitrary rules at us to make things more difficult and unfair for our protagonist first and foremost.
At this point, all my expectations were officially subverted.

Moving on; eventually the 4 heroes get companions because what are RPGs without sidekicks right? But if you think it's the heroes who pick companions, then -PLOT TWIST- no. The companions choose the heroes, not up to debate. Doesn't make sense? Who cares! It creates drama!
Because -ANOTHER PLOT TWIST - MC is chosen by nobody so he throws another "comedic" tantrum.
Who could've foreseen this...
...or the next 5 plot twists within 10 minutes.

So, that must mean it's a comedy like Slime or KonoSuba, yes?
Haha, no.
It's not.
It most definitely is not.

And so you fall and break.

While the premise lacks creativity on every level, and the actions and reactions of characters are just comically absurd, it doesn't render the show terrible by default. Take Spongebob for example, it is just stupid, but herein lies the difference; Spongebob is self-aware. It knows it's stupid and doesn't try to act like grown-ups do. But this show does, and does so eagerly, using every trick in the book.

The misunderstood and mistreated MC is the epitome of goodness yet tries to act like the bad guy (teens, eh?), except when it comes to actually *doing* bad, he backpedals.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Because he's the good main character you're supposed to be rooting for and no, you don't get to decide that.
They made that choice for you, and they'll be damned if they don't force it down your throat every chance they get.
And you'll eat it with a spoon...or give the show a rating of 1 to 3 because the writing is just bloody atrocious.

You see Fashion Emo-kun is suffering over-the-top injustice by pretty much every other character introduced, for no real reason whatsoever. Every single character believes everything other characters say, no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical it sound, they will not have a shed of doubt. But absolutely NOBODY believes the Creep Hero.
Because reasons.
He's looked down upon because of nonsensical prejudice, he's not heard out or believed in because common sense wouldn't generate nearly as much melodrama, he's betrayed off the bat (and who didn't see it coming... I mean, -PLOT TWIST-) to make him the saddest victim of the world, then he's tossed out to fend for himself with nothing to his name but scorn, and even his class, the "shield hero" is holding him back because apparently, in this game "shield slam" is not a skill and all he can do is...shield stuff.
"So why not just grab a sword and stab things?" you ask? Because then he wouldn't be as miserable and that's bad, so -PLOT TWIST- he quite literally can't do that. Poor fella amirite?

I said "no real reason", that's because there's an unreal one; you are supposed to feel sorry for him (I said BE SORRY DAMNIT!!4!44) and they made sure to remind you of that fact every other minute.

Edgy, but least no more awkward humor, right?
...Right?
Oh, look... They actually found a way to put some awkward between the edges...

...yay...

And so the "epic" journey begins. MC's good and anyone who isn't with him (which is pretty much everyone else) hates his guts and tries to screw him over every chance they get, no matter how ridiculous it is, no matter the world's about to end, bullying him takes priority, his suffering is paramount!
So "conveniently" all these cheesy villains took a number and lined up in an orderly fashion.
Openly judging and berating someone based on hearsay? Pretence? Betrayal? Corruption? Blatant abuse of power? Hostages? Bottomless arrogance? Racism? Denial of reason for the sake of melodrama generation?
Say no more, fam, it got you covered!

It's black and white, characters are either angels or demons, and anyone opposing the Cringe Hero is most certainly twisted.

This is what this show's really about. Nonsensical, soap opera level melodrama gift-wrapped in borrowed ideas, rated W for 'worthless', it's for everyone 12 and below. Puts Bollywood to shame.

Bloody 8.4 rating, it's unbelievable.

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 develop as characters whatsoever and they are all incredibly contrived. The bottom dog of the bunch a spear hero who is one of the most contrived and dumbest characters I have seen. His dialogue is painful to listen as he incredibly preachy for the sake of it and he's the main source of the show's major contrivances. In many ways, he's no different Sugou from Sword Art Online thanks to comically evil appearance and dialogue.
Finally, the less I say about his confrontation towards the Shield Hero the better. The same thing can be said for Malty and Filo as they are literally loli trophies that constantly suck of Naofumi hairy crotch for a living.
The villains are garbage. They are all evil for the sake of being evil, especially Malty who is probably the worst female villain I have ever seen in any fictional work. Her motivations are contrived beyond belief and she's overall a slag.
She's comically evil and not even treating in the least. Her contrived motives aren't explained or given any depth whatsoever.
Our villain's ladies and gentlemen.

As for the overall presentation, Shield Hero looks beautiful for the most part. It may not be as colourful as 8bit That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime but it still has that special visual flair that helped it stand out from the crowd of other isekai anime. Character designs for the part were appealing to look at. The background scenery has a lot of attention that is only made better by the use of dark soft colour palette.

The animation is, for the most part, good and fluent. The fight choreography is solid, the movement is smooth and there's rarely any recycled footage.

Unfortunately, Shield Hero visually is not perfect for one. The animation does dip a bit for certain episodes as it messes up the overall good fight choreography of the series. The second and final notable issue was the crappy use of CGI as it was not only ugly to look at it but also didn't blend in with the 2D animation.

Now we have the soundtrack and it's shocking subpar. The series features a dull score of fantasy music that doesn't keep the viewer invested in the scene due to how bland they were.

Sure there were a couple of decent tracks every now and then, but it wasn't enough to save this mediocre soundtrack.

The first opening theme Rise by MADKID is a fantastic opening that not only fits the tone of the series, it also a generally well-produced song that is filled with great vocals that scream hype.
The same cannot be said for the second opening theme FAITH by MADKID. It's still a good opening on its own right but it was missing the intensity that was from the first opening.
I may be the minority when I say this, but I really dislike the ending themes. Everything about them screams generic and lazy with their boring vocals and mediocre ending visuals.
The voice acting is great for both languages. The voice actors for both the dub and sub did a fantastic job with the roles that they were given. Notable performances go to Kaito Ishikawa as Nafoumi (sub), Billy Kametz as Nafoumi (dub), Erica Mendez as Raphtalia (dub) and Rina Hidaka as Filo (sub).

It's honestly sad what happened here. Shield Hero had to be great but it totally blew it.
It has underwhelming characterisation, a shitty executed plot that is only made worse by plot contrivances and a subpar soundtrack.
The only thing that saved this show from being terrible is the visuals and the main two characters. Everything else was a mess.

I honestly thoughtt that Shield Hero and Slime would save the isekai genre for me but I guess Shield Hero was not suitable for the job as it showed its true colours which is being another generic isekai anime.

I hope season 2 and beyond will be better.

Least you tried Shieldbro.

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.

Overrated.

There was a deposit for a good anime at first, but with each episode, the anime scored a stud in its coffin.
This does not mean that it is so bad that it can be dropped immediately, but so weak that it doesn’t cause the experienced animefan to cause the same effect when you don’t think that it is anime, but simply watch the development of the plot with enthusiasm and wait, that very day week, when the series will be released.
at first, primitiveness didn’t trigger so much and there was a certain interest in plot development, but later the anime turns more and more into ... a circus, where every episode the plot revolves around the same thing - he trusts no one and boring, wooden characters try to belittle him.
frankly killed the series, where they staged a race and set traps for each other, looks very ridiculous, given that at first the anime positioned itself as more serious. the series is a solid facepalm, where each series is deja vu (this effect is multiplied for experienced viewers who have experience in watching such an anime subgenre)
I think many of the indignant will still continue to watch, because the anime is produced quite qualitatively. I really respect the studio Kinema Citrus and I do not miss any of their releases, but "you won't build a house out of sand and sticks". You can watch, but preferably in airing. I do not advise anyone to spend time on it when it is completely released, because with a high probability it will be a drop for you. (if you are a beginner anime fan, you are under 16 years old, your favorite anime is Tokyo ghoul then you are welcome)

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.

"Everybody Hates Naofumi" is your obligatory seasonal Isekai that went viral just like its predecessors because it tried to bring something else to the table. This time, its not about time travel but the victimization of our protagonist in the most exaggerated (and almost comical) way imaginable. But before we get to the "twist" that made this show unlike any other Isekai you've seen, let's take a moment to talk about the elephant in the room: the protagonist everybody hates in the story, including me.

Naofumi, your ordinary Otaku, gets summoned to a fantasy world against his will. Instead of actually voicing his opinion on ... the matter, he accepts it instead, unlike the 3 other heroes who immediately frowned after being teleported, or should I say "abducted" at this point. At first, Naofumi seems your typical self-insert protagonist who gets all the waifus and lolis while treating them as they were mere "prizes" he can collect and show off to the viewer, without actually making any move. But then we get to the "twist", which this time is a false rape accusation that was randomly thrown away without any actual context or motive. Apparently, almost all the characters in this show victimize the protagonist and treat him like garbage because of rumors about the "Shield Hero" being a horrible person. Then why exactly did you summon him in the first place? Why not execute him after falsely accusing him without any evidence whatsoever?

Needless to say, Naofumi, who was first presented as an atypical protagonist who doesn't do any of the cliches mentioned previously, becomes your typical protagonist who does ALL of the cliches mentioned previously in just 2 episodes. But this time everything is excused, since he was victimized and everybody who doesn't side with him is immediately labelled as villain. No matter what he says or does, it makes sense to the viewer who immediately sides with him without actually taking his actions and decisions into consideration.

Some of his decisions are questionable as they raise some serious ethical questions, like his idea of buying a loli slave. Why exactly does it have to be a loli? Couldn't be something less pathetic and more adequate for a fantasy world, like an animal companion? Later on, he decides to buy an actual animal as means for transportation. But that exact animal turns into a loli too for no other reason than to pander people's fetishes. There is nothing wrong with having a harem, loli or any other type of fanservice element as long as its relevant to the genre. When I decide to watch a fantasy anime, I'm not exactly expecting constant arguing between the waifus over the protagonist. I'm also not expecting random lolis who add nothing to its story and development. In fact, the only reason why I decided to watch this show in the first place was because everybody was saying how different and refreshing it is. Is it?

As the story progresses, Naofumi begins to feel like any other overpowered, know-it-all protagonist since he never looses, even when the enemy is clearly cheating or way beyond his level. Not to mention the fact that he was presented, from the very first beginning, as the weakest among the heroes since he can only use a shield. Apparently, this shield turns out to be a devastating plot device he can use to heal, damage, trap or block enemies.

Everything and everyone is in Naofumi's favor, since he is the victim in the story for poorly explained reasons. I'm guessing it has something to do with a devilish curse, but it all feels too contrived. From the false accusation to the slave loli to the typical harem.

You might as well call him "Kirito, but this time its more tragic".

The pacing is absurdly fast sometimes, like when Raphtalia turns from a weak, shy and sensitive loli to a tsundure, jealous and badass 20-year old girl in just one episode or when Filo rapidly grows up in just one day. And all of this fast progression is shown using a slideshow of images, which honestly felt more like a PowerPoint presentation to me. Really? That's not character development. Its more of a skipping in order to rush Naofumi's harem.
Other times, the pacing is purposefully dragged out for the sake of fillers. You have a fight between Naofumi and another Hero over who gets to keep the loli, and it is used to victimize Naofumi even further by making EVERY single character in the episode hate him. You have a risky pointless adventure where they go looking for magical crystals just to make a special dress for Filo (She constantly transforms into a loli, remember?).

World building is almost non existent. Everything is presented as a video game even thought it isn't (the protagonist gets summoned after opening a book that describes the fantasy world he's trapped in, and not after playing a video game or something). The protagonist even has an interactive UI at his disposal he can use to upgrade his weapons or view his stats. So it actually is an alternate reality video game after all. Moreover, the world is a copy-paste of what you'd expect to find in any Isekai anime. If I took a random screenshot of this fantasy world and showed it to people next year, they wouldn't be able to tell which Isekai anime it is. In fact, they will probably think its next year's Isekai anime. That's how dull, unimpressive and repetitive the world seems to me.

"Everybody Hates Naofumi" is no different from any other Isekai you've seen for the last 5 years. The only reason you feel like its different and refreshing is because the writer tries his best to convince you that it is, while pouring the exact same elements scavenged from different Isekais over the years into the mixer and calling it a day. He's the perfect example of a seller convincing you to buy a product you already have and seen (OP protagonist and his harem) by telling you its different (victimizing the protagonist for the sake of plot armoring everything and everyone around him). But this victimization which was too exaggerated to the point that it became irritating is more than enough to fool the average viewer into thinking this time its different.

It's not.