Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

*Spoilers ahead*

So what do we have here?

- Malicious characters trying their best to destroy our protagonist for petty reasons.
- Idiotic and extremely retarded characters who believe everything they hear without using their brains -if they have any.
- Many prepubescent children as the harem of our otaku protagonist (pedophile heaven)
- A protagonist who is betrayed by the world and thus he becomes unable to trust anyone. He buys a slave to use as his sword and the slave falls in the love with him from the word Go. He has a *rage mode* where hatred or whatever tries to control him in the ... most superficially contrived bits in this anime. It just felt...empty and forced.
- After our protagonist goes through an unbelievable amount of shit (it was really shitty, believe me, even I felt sorry for him and livid on his behalf), he comes up with an inane punishment to show us the goodness of his heart (sobs uncontrollably).
- Back to the slave, did I mention she is a miss goody two shoes and an excellent waifu candidate? She uses *sama* to address our protagonist and does not seem to have anything going on for her except worshiping her gracious lord, feeling jealous over his interactions with a little girl (another party member), and being anxious over her owner's return to his world (yes, after she was freed from her slavery, she chose to become a slave again...ain't this touching? Why can't real life women be this loyal and obedient?)
- Supposedly Naofomi's shield has so many forms but he ends up using the rage shield every time he finds himself in a tough spot. The rest of the time he alternates between two shields maximum. The fights are not that impressive. In one fight, he activates the rage shield and has some pointless conversation with the dragon about hating the world, and then his girls rush to his aid, reminding him how he was the one who gave their lives meaning (eye roll), and that's it.
- He takes in helpless damsels in distress and little girls only, he becomes their cool lord and they are all in love with him. I'm starting to get really irritated while writing this.

The problem is, this anime had so much potential. Those malicious characters could have done with a bit more depth, the slavery issue and the discrimination against demi-humans could have been expanded upon, the relationship between Naofumi and the Raccoon child/woman could have developed more slowly and believably, and the reconciliation between Naofumi and the other 3 heroes could have been more convincing.

Also, we could have done with adult females who actually had some character. The Queen is an excellent example. Apparently our protagonist cannot handle strong, independent women in close proximity, and apparently we have to provide fan service for many perverts and pedophiles.

If there's one thing I've learned in RPGs, it's to never, and I mean NEVER bash the tank.  They're the literal meat shield that keeps everyone else's sorry asses from- wait that's actually a really good analogy for this series, shit.

Story:

Iwatani Naofumi is a twenty year old man that happens upon a book in a library talking about the Legendary Cardinal Heroes, each of whom who wield a special Spear, Sword, Bow, and Shield.  Upon finding out that the 'Shield' doesn't really have a list of achievements or really anything really in its chapter, Naofumi gets transported into a new world alongside three other individuals ... as the Cardinal Heroes.  As luck would have it, Naofumi is the dreaded 'Shield Hero' which after much initial scorn and hatred from the world he's put in (which is VERY much put into brevity for the sake of not making this intro longer), sets out on a journey to help save a world that doesn't want him.

Based almost solely on the first arc of the series, Shield Hero is something of an exercise in frustration.  For the majority of its runtime, the story chronicles Naofumi's journey of being the detested Shield Hero as every action and mini story thread is devoted to making the man's life even more hell than it already is through through the act of getting in his fucking way all the time with tacked on accusations because 'Fuck you Naofumi'.  In doing so, Shield Hero does the equivalent of shooting itself in the foot and then dropping a cinder block on the injury for good measure.  It's just such a frustrating watch because at several points, the show makes a valid attempt to put in the word of good faith in the protagonist, something that feels honestly earned given how entire episodes are set out to resolve issues that they stumble upon or are created by one of the other idiotic heroes.  But not soon after that, Naofumi's given the middle finger yet again with the fucking whore and her sheeple coming in to mess things up, instantly undoing EVERY bit of good faith the series puts in the protagonist because this is what good writing looks like apparently.

These problems are made even worse when the show makes it abundantly clear that shit is just made up for the sake of demonizing Naofumi, and no good reason is given.  At no point in the series does the show actively provide a proper reason to the major antagonists' motives beyond vague subtext.  Just saying "Not my family again..." doesn't give me any reason to give a damn because there're a number of things it can be, and clear and concise aren't two of them.  As such, even the supposed comeuppance that happens around the twenty-first episode (yes, this charade goes on for that long) doesn't feel as satisfying as it should because it happens almost as quickly as how fast the shit hits the fan for Naofumi in the first episode.  Yeah it's KINDA satisfying, but not worth it enough to slog through a majority of the series to do so.

Aside from that, another problem with Shield Hero I find is consistency.  Now I haven't really touched upon any of the other mediums the story is told through, but from what I have seen, the anime has many differing points to both the manga and light novel both in explanation and how certain scenes are executed.  On its own I think the anime does an ok job at telling its (infuriating) story, but my biggest point of contention is lore explanation.  The setting does use a lot of MMORPG elements like many Isekai do, but a lot of that is severely absent in the anime.  There're a few moments where things just happen (such as what happened with the class up system) and explanations are nowhere to be found in the anime.  While I don't think it detracts from the series too much, it's enough for me to be a bit annoyed since the writing will make these things feel more like Deus Ex Machinas instead of something that makes sense in the series.

As far as the next arc that happens after the Naofumi's entire defamation, personally I find it to be a lot more tolerable and far better written in stark contrast to what came before it.  Unfortunately it opens a lot of doors regarding lore and world explanation that it doesn't really explore that heavily, but it's certainly a nice change of pace by comparison.  However not a lot of time is put into it so pacing's kind of all over the place with an ending that actually ties the story up in the way I wanted the story to be like in the first place.  Regardless, I find story to be one of the series's major banes because of how poorly thought out the first arc was.  I think there was SOME validity to starting the series off like that, but with how far the series took the concept, I just was NOT a fan.

Characters:

Naofumi is a protagonist with the kind of attitude that I can't really blame.  A lot of his screentime paints him as this bitter man who resents the world and largely only helps others for a price.  This largely stems from his inability to fight back almost all of the claims against him to the point that he just stops wasting his breath and becomes whatever people innately see him as.  He's honestly one of the more competent characters the series has on account of his willingness to learn and lack of narcissism that seems to plague a majority of the series's cast.  There's a clear change in attitude especially once the first arc's finished and it definitely shows in his actions and point of view however rushed it is.  He's still not amazing since he's annoyingly stubborn like the other heroes, but he's at least more tolerable than at least ninety percent of the cast.

And now another point of contention...Naofumi's party.  Now, Raphtalia and Filo are the two characters that I regard as one of the series's strongest points given how they are Naofumi's emotional pillars (even if he doesn't want to admit it) even during the series's worst times, and give the series its air of ease during the points the show doesn't decide to kick Naofumi in the balls.  However by the definition of the series...they are technically his slaves.  Both of them have crest marks on their bodies to determine who OWNS them, and their ages are canonically ten and one respectively with Raphtalia's character design still boasting parts of the chains she had when she appeared younger.  (A point made even creepier when Raphtalia's body matures according to her level.)  These facts of the series as such make it REALLY hard to argue whether or not their good characters, so much so to the point that the show just kinda forgets about that fact most of the way through since Naofumi never really acknowledges them or treats them as such and they each get their own mini arcs.  However it's still an uncomfortable detail that's unfortunately still a part of the series and while I think there is some validity in this action...still doesn't sit right with me.

As far as the rest of the cast is concerned, the other three heroes fall with the antagonists for being downright toxic to the series.  So often we're shown how incompetent and narcissistic they are that even other characters and villains in the sidecast question their validity of being the legendary 'Cardinal Heroes'.  Hell, they even made an old woman kick more ass than they do put together!  Spear hero's an idiot, the Bow hero's a sociopath, hell the only one slightly tolerable one is the Sword, but the show took back his one chance of redemption halfway through the series because EVERYONE needs to be against Naofumi.  Like why even try to make him remotely remorseful when you're just gonna take it back anyway?

On a brighter note, the sidecast is primarily a reflection of the setting more so than anything else, filled only a few notable characters with autonomy while the others change and shift in coincidence with what's going on.  Of course this means there's unnecessary scorn from bystanders that know nothing at the beginning, but given Naofumi's actions over the course of the series, the gradual change in public opinion does worm its way through eventually.  I actually like the sidecast a lot more than most of the 'main' characters because the people we do meet following Naofumi's point of view feel like a part of the world and actually seem like decent people.  

Aesthetics:

Kinema Citrus's art is nothing special if you ask me.  If anything, Shield Hero looks pretty standard with very few moments that truly stand out.  The most I can really give the artstyle is how consistent the art looks especially due to how semi-complicated the adventurer characters are designed and how those hand drawn models are constantly moving around with slashes and particle effects emanating from weapons and such, though particles have their featured scenes toned down in brightness for what I assume to be to lower to chance of inducing seizures due to how rapid they are.

Of course I suspect this is the case because of how liberally the show utilizes CGI.  Any of the mobs and monsters that comes from the series's dreaded 'Waves' are all done with CG in order to cut costs, which makes itself abundantly clear when the screen is absolutely covered with these creatures.  And it's not just them as well.  Filo's bird form occasionally uses a CGI model during the moments when the party is traveling by cart, several of Naofumi's abilities, and towards the end of the series, soldiers have CGI models as well.  Personally I'm not a fan since Japanese CGI because it clashes the way it does.

In terms of soundtrack, both OPs of 'Rise' and 'Faith' were done by MADKID, which both boast this really rock heavy song to it with Japanese rap in it.  Personally I think they're alright songs, but my weird gripe with them is how serious and 'edgy' they sound.  It's probably because the series they're tied to makes such the struggle Naofumi faces so serious and drastic that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I digress.

EDs are a DRASTIC contrast to their OP sisters, giving us both "Kimi no Namae" and "Atashi ga Tonari ni Iru Uchi ni" by Chiai Fujikawa for one and two respectively.  Both of them are such heartfelt songs with a drastically softer tone to them.  I suspect they're more in tune with Raphtalia and her story, as well as the rare moments where Naofumi doesn't get flack and actually gets to perform acts of genuine heroism and charity.  Similarly they're good songs but not really all that memorable.  Despite that, I actually prefer them to the OPs and kind of wish they got showcased more.

Personal Enjoyment:

Shield Hero is a series I despise but I can't dismiss because I think it's a series that I think had so much fucking potential.  It's a serious Isekai that doesn't hand the protagonist a completely overpowered macguffin at the beginning and made Naofumi start at rock bottom to make him work his way up to being a hero.  Hell, motherfucker only has a shield and is repeatedly told that he can't really attack; just support and defend.  It's because of these factors that I don't even really mind the whole 'slave' thing when it came into being since I rationalized much of it as: "He literally has no choice because everyone hates him and no one is willing to help out one of the four people that's supposed to save the world".

What I think Shield Hero should've been was a story about comradely and what it means to be a hero, slowly but surely changing the public's opinion of a man down on his luck through small acts of heroism and empathy before revealing the antagonists for the scumbags they are.  Maybe make friends or at the very least get the other heroes to realize that what they're doing is not the way they should be doing things.  WHICH IS WHAT THEY TRIED TO DO...but it's not that.  The show is a conflicting beast, making a drastic attempt to keep the status quo any time there's any form of change that comes its way in order to throw more shit at Naofumi.  And it's just annoying because it's self-sabotage for the sake of being edgy and dramatic even though that's not really the story's direction given how often the show just has the main cast just get along with people.  A real shame because the ending to the anime actually does what I wanted the series to be in the first place, and holy hell is that a payoff I both did not expect and appreciate, yet still isn't worth sitting through a majority of the show.

As such, I strongly find this show to really not be worth recommending.  Shield Hero has so many potentially good facets about itself, but so much of that is wiped away given how poorly written the first arc is, which takes up about twenty one of the show's twenty five episode runtime.  The second arc is much better by comparison (though rushed) since it explores more of the complex aspects of the series's lore, but slogging through what amounts to roughly six to seven hours worth of shaky writing with varying points of quality just doesn't seem all that worth it to me, even with the payout that comes in the last five or so minutes.  The show definitely makes a strong case to root for Naofumi and his party, but it makes way too easy of a case to hate everyone else to the point it's basically torture porn at this point.

A disclaimer: I have not actually read the manga so this anime was a fresh start for me. My only previous experience with the Isekai genre is with No Game No Life.

Let's go category-wise on this anime.

1. Story: This anime has a lot of potential, but unfortunately so far, it doesn't seem to be living up to any of it. It already has plotholes that are glossed over. Not to mention the show is dragging already! I don't feel any tension in the fights and I'm not too attached to the characters because there was really no reason to be. It's okay to ... watch if I just need something to pass the time, but unless it becomes more plotty, I don't see it becoming a good anime.

2. Art: Love the art style! It's pretty and the colour palette seems nice so far. The abundance of lolis is kind of irritating and not at all cute, but what can we do. There's no way to get rid of them.

3. Sound: Opening and Ending songs are okay and there's nothing else that stands out.

4. Character: Holy shit, is there even character development? I still don't know how much the main character changed after coming to the alternate world because we were never introduced to him properly to begin with. All the characters so far seem generic and nothing about them had made them interesting. Maybe we'll get to see some character growth soon? Right now it just feels like he's collecting a harem where no one has personalities. A harem of daughters. Honestly, Naofumi is like everyone's dad and I appreciate it because he's not perving on all the lolis (I'm looking at you Spear Hero).


5. Enjoyment: Like I said, it's alright to pass time with but nothing that I'd obsess over or even remember.

Let's start my review of why I started this show.

It's because I liked bunny girl senpai and the two main characters in this show are voiced by the same voice actors. I knew nothing about it except for who's voicing the characters so I had no expectations beyond good voice acting.

[Setting and Set up]
You can already tell from the description of the anime the mc isn't going to get a strong start. Isekai in general commonly has op protagonists, putting people with unmarketable skills into worlds where their unique skillset is actually useful and often the most important skills to have. So this ... show is original in its first episode, where the main character is given no skills at all both worlds and starts completely useless.

Unfortunately, before we know it, his shield, marketed as the most useless weapon, become incredibly op and was now no longer a real plot point except as a reason he needs a team until he didn't, since his shield ended up becoming so op he could attack with it as well.

Basically, the uniqueness of the story disappeared immediately, but I wouldn't say it made it a bad anime. A show doesn't need complete originality to be good. However, it didn't stand out from the other seasonal animes either.

[Characters]
The characters can be split into four tiers, with almost all of the characters in one tier and pretty much one character each in the other ones.

- The one-dimensional dumbasshole tier
This will include, the king, princess1, head priest, and all the other heroes. These characters do not develop in any way throughout the story. The king and princess1 are defined only by their barely explained a unjustidied prejudices which are needed to set up the story.

Some people might say the heroes changed but they didn't. A character's growth isn't defined by the actions they take but is defined by the perspective. If you learn new things and act based on it using the same thought process you once did, you didn't change, time only passed.

-The traumitised damsel and mary sue at the same time tier
This is only Raphtalia. She's the raccoon waifu and probably the reason most people watched this show. MC buys her as a child soldier slave after no one wants to join his party, so, you know, good start. She becomes an adult after one episode with some weird explanation about how animal waifus grow physically alongside their levels though, I have nothing to say about that.

She does everything, falls in love with the mc, is completely selfless and forgives her old enemies even though she probably shouldn't and it causes more problems for everyone else.

-The hero fanclub tier
This is princess2 and the queen. They like the hero and are on his side. They're the good guys in this show.

-The why does this character exist at all tier
This is the bird child thing the mc has. She is also his slave.

I don't know why she exists at all. She only does things in the filler episodes, which this 24 episode season has for some reason and is otherwise just the loli for the pedophiles watching this show.

tldr
It's a find anime to have on just to pass time but it's not a game changer in any sense. If you want to watch it for the raccoon waifu, go head, but if you're looking for a japanese animated equivalent of a Chekhov play, not only are you an idiot, but in you're in the wrong place, my friend.

this review is Spoilers. I't honestly, more venting my issues with certain points of the series that aren't massive on their own, but put together, build up. I previously posted it as a forum called venting, and you can check that out if you have any thoughts, agreements, disagreements, so on. Please enjoy.

This is all venting, and if some of these issues are corrected in later seasons or something, well, good for them. I genuinely did enjoy the show when I started it, but as time has gone on, these little things have started to bother me. if you like the show, please leave, I'm ... just here to vent, and don't necessarily want to bother anyone. I might pick this show up again depending on how the second and third season are received, but as of right now, I'm not sure at all because of some of these things, some of which were a bit of a stretch I admit.

my little issues:
1) the characters are really bare bones
2) I thought Filo taking the role of the future chicken god was rushed
3) a lot of the pacing in the later episodes is really bad
4) I think it was episode 4 when that emotional moment early on in the series happened, and I really didn't feel much at that point because for comparison, re;zero had a similar scene in episode 19, but that was episode 19, shield hero was episode 4.
5) the king wasn't given a good reason to dislike the shield, to be fair I stopped shortly after Naofumi boarded a boat to go on vacation or something, I just got disinterested at that point, so if the king was given a better reason to be biased against the Shield hero specifically, I don't know.
6) I hate that they introduced the cursed mode, because it makes Naofumi a bit too overpowered, and I feel like it took away the purpose of Raphtalia.
7) the point with Raphtalia was that she was supposed to be the sword to Naofumi's shield, but in the second half, she feels kind of like her role was greatly diminished.
8) I hate that the chicken god blamed Naofumi for what happened to him. She had a point, but also, seriously, sorry to bring up victim blaming, but that's what it feels like, and that's aggravating
9) for people who have played a similar game, the other Heroes are a bit too bad at it. I mean I understand the spear hero and even the sword hero to an extent, but the bow hero comes off as a smart enough guy, and I think he would at least have some kind of tactical knowledge rather than just spamming strong attacks.
10)Naofumi is too overpowered for his level, this is back to the cursed shield, but I know tactics win, but that's not what Naofumi is using, he's using a power up her got that makes him super strong, even though he should be a lot weaker than the other heroes.
11) Naofumi being told to make up with the other heroes felt like it was kind of dropped. They stopped the bad guy, he tried to make up with them, but then failed, so it's back to just not getting along with each other. Maybe their going for the slow burn, which that's fine, but for now, this sub plot, which the chicken god emphasized was pretty important, feels dropped.
12) the church twist came out of left field. They were shown to be shady, but the twist that they were the ones behind everything felt underdeveloped. It's not unbelievable, but with what little presence they had, it felt kind of out of nowhere. there weren't any real clues either other than that they were kind of suspicious.
13) the entire plot when they were on the run kind of dragged for me, in that it just wasn't enjoyable. Myne and the Spear hero were cartoon villains, and I can't find enjoyment of them when you try to make them more serious villains.
14) The spear hero being a pedophile, I know we're supposed to hate him, but really, REALLY, we're going there.
15) they made the other heroes too stupid or too horrible to feel like Naofumi could make up with them, and that really grinds my gears, because of what the chicken god said about how if the heroes aren't united, we're all gonna die.
16) I didn't feel anything with the plot about Raphtalia's village, in part because as mentioned before, the characters are kind of bare bones, I mean look at Isekai Quartet, they don't do much with the shield hero characters, because it's hard to do anything with the shield hero characters. They even find things to do with Tanya's soldiers, and most of the Re;zero cast, but Shield trio gets little to do, beyond Naofumi making one of his killer one remarks, and Filo being cute.
17) I feel like they don't go all the way with Naofumi's meanness, which is more of an issue pf adaptation from what I've heard, but I think they make him too nice, but also-
18) I think the story feels too self indulgent by making him mean. the whole, be mean to everyone because their not nice to you is kind of immature. I have no problems with Naofumi being mean, but he should at least be respectful to someone like the king. If you told a king to kneel before you, you would be killed, no doubt, but Naofumi does it because he can, but really he should be careful not to threaten a guy with that much power, it might not go well for him.
19) the execution scene was painful, just because it felt like the writer giving the audience the sweet revenge they want by having Myne beg while sexualizing her a little bit, it was kind of disgusting honestly, even if Naofumi spared her.
20) the part where Raphtalia let that one guy live was just not a cliche I'm fond of
21) returning the slave mark, which I know they modifed the reason for that choice from the light novel, but still I think it should've stayed gone.
22) last one, I could try to think of more, but I think I've gotten most of it. That episode where they just stood around talking. Like the pope just let them talk it, and I'm like, "ya know this was fine while watching, but now that I think about it, what the heck was that," I know they have to have some kind of meaningful conversion, but please find a way of doing it without forgetting the plot. To be fair, I might remember it wrong, it's been awhile.

Man o man, this anime started out amazing, and followed the recent trend of Isekai anime being good. The pacing was amazing for the first 3 episodes.

Then it all changes into more of a typical harem isekai anime like SAO season 1 which was terrible. The characters in the beginning were fine, and believable enough, but as time progresses, you can only think that the other heroes have bleach in their eyes cause they can't piece together anything of what is going on.

The MC proves his worth and is very pivotal at one point, and still the others would neglect him. As of writing this, ... we still don't know how the world works or any of the villains ulterior motives.

In terms of combat, it also started out amazing, but then it all boils down to a certain "power" the MC obtains and thats all he does later akin to a naruto fox mode "cheat". We ahve no idea how the combat is balanced as a lv20 can stand his ground and even win a lv40.

Overall I can only give this a 5/10 mediocre. It would be lower if not for the beginning and its premise although there was alot of potential here.

This is a quick review of Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari. First, I'm going to explain the story in a simple way so that you will be able to understand everything. My sentiments about the anime will come after.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is another isekai anime which tells the story of Naofumi who got transported to another magical world where four cardinal heroes serve the royal family to fight and defeat evil monsters and atrocious enemies in a sudden phenomenon called "wave" which brings disasters to people and living beings. Unexpectedly, Naofumi is one of the four cardinal heroes and he ... is entitled as the "Shield Hero."

Naofumi has been judged for being weak and betrayed by anybody. Thus, he got depressed, he'd never trust people around him again and decided to get stronger all by himself. He needs to prove that they are all wrong. However, being alone is not a good idea at all, he met many acquaintances and friends that helped him to level up and become stronger.

Now, here is my conviction about it. I'll put it straightforward.

Story: 7/10

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is a generic isekai anime which intends to be in general like others. Isekai animes are popular nowadays but I have had enough of it and it made me sick already. Although, it tends to be unique in every way. First half of the story is awesome but the last three episode or the final arc seems to be fillers. I watched it until the end and it didn't leave me the same impressions about isekai genre. It is still kinda different and I found the story enjoyable and surprising.

Art: 8/10

The art is very good. I love the vibrant colors because they fit the anime so much. The battle scenes are fairly animated. The background animation and key frames are well made as well as the design of the characters are fancy and cute. Even so, I realized the animation during further episodes was dropping and that makes me feel bad now.

Sound: 9/10

The voice actors really did a great job with their roles. I am praising them because I feel their emotions and they reflect the personality of their characters. In extension, the background music in every scenes is perfect. The opening and ending songs are great too.

Characters: 6/10

I don't like the other characters that belong in this show. If you watch it, you will get irritated and hate the bitch princess and trash king. The other cardinal heroes are also disturbing which make them useless. Here, I am telling you that you will only like the people around Naofumi. Don't trust anybody.

Enjoyment: 7/10

I'm so glad that I finished this show. In spite of being mediocre, it is still bearable to watch. If you like watching isekai, maybe this will satisfy yourself.

Overall: 6/10

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is still the same, nothing special about it. It started with a blast and it ended adequately. It's a nice experience for me after all.

Well after watching a high amount of isekai anime and coming to the conclusion that i wasted my time i think i got "isekaiphobia". Shield hero is one of the most popular isekais in the past 10 years. And for unknown reasons. If it just had the first half(ep 1-12) maybe i would give it a 7 or 6 for being entertaining and having an acceptable likeability. But after Anime went on a downfall which many isekai go. That i often call these downfalls "trying to be second coming of the Christ downfall"
But before that keep in mind

*i believe there is no such thing ... as "Objectively" reviewing or giving an opinion on a show/novel/book/movie/manga/game or whatever. I'm not saying it's about taste. Many may like a show that if they think about it come to the conclusion that the show is shit. I'm talking about the point of view.the way someone looks at a show and thinks about it. So being disagree with me or anyone else isn't wrong. Nor strange. That's all*

*when it comes to music everything that i would say is just taste. I just think about like it or not. The music parts are so casually in my reviews. Because i don't know any particular thing about the music*

*i'm not a native English speaker so if someparts have grammar and spelling problems i just can apologize for that*

*I didn't read shield hero's manga and light novel. So I'm only looking at it as an anime only and view this show as an anime not an adaptation. If the manga/LN is better or for the fucks sake has less bullshit pacifism. contradictory and asspuls I don't know. So don't forget this because i don't have any idea about what's the difference between source material and the anime*


[Story: 4]
Trying to be second coming of Christ is a term i use when "a writer tries to do what he/she can't and is unable to handle the story and the characters. Making the story flawed for trying to progress in a way that the writer couldn't handle"
Shield hero starts with the iwatani naofumi who after being betrayed by three other heroes and the kingdom decides to find a way by himself to get back to his own world. Which he meets some other characters. The first parts of the story is where i think was handled okay and made an acceptable isekai to watch and enjoy without trying to be something bigger than that. And don't misunderstand this part I'm not saying trying to surpass the limits is a wrong thing. The wrong thing is to try surpassing them when you can't. First you need to know what you are really going to do. Just wanting to surpass limits doesn't make anything better. The first half is mostly based on the journeys naofumi has with his companions and helping different people making his reputation better bit by bit. The first half doesn't force you to enjoy a badly written story and badly written plot twists. just gives you something that many isekai don't. Normality. The first half isn't something special or anything it is just good. It exists to develop main characters' relationships bit by bit making them a normal group of friends. And that's fine you Don't need to surpass your limits when you can't. And naofumi at least isn't the saint who is there to save the day. he wants money. He is kind like many other isekai characters and is Clichy in many parts even in the first parts of the story but isn't completely mediocre and has one or two good points.but then we have the second part(ep 13-25)
This is the part that the story tried to surpass it's limits and messed up.
The story starts to go for characters backstories and starts to let other three heroes shine too.
The problem is that the other three heroes are just one dimensional characters with nothing in particular and nothing worthy of noting about their characters and the show doesn't give them anything to like them for. It just makes them the typical brainlet strong characters who are unwise and irresponsible. And even doesn't make them anything else. And when it comes to the main characters' backstories it just messed up. Making them completely the typical illogical pacifists that don't have anything else but saying:oh no listen child that is bad this is good don't do bad things just do good things.
I wanted to drop the show after "someone's" shitty pacifism making her even more one dimensional. The problem is the contradictory part with this pacifism and one dimensional characters that the writer tries to give depth to the characters with making them do something that he showed they don't. Killing is bad for That "someone" but it seems there is no problem if another character (don't say to don't spoil anything) kills someone. The first 20 episodes villains were total black and when it comes to punishment for the villains we have another shitty pacifism this time. Writer. You can't justify such things with just one or two dreams and visions. And the last 4 or 5 episodes try to give us better villains by making the situation less black and white but it doesn't give us details just give us basic informations. The last 5 episodes were mostly how they fight with the enemies not why they really fight. Making the why they really fight part so basic. Trying to increase the number of characters with nothing more than one dimensional characters and shitting on the main characters more and more giving bullshit plot twists makes the show so average. Maybe even bad. With high amount of cliché you can ruin everything.

[Characters:4]
At least the first half does a decent character development (for an isekai) and gives you fun characters. You know what i mean? Fun and acceptable for you the viewer. To enjoy their progress in their journey. But we have the same problem. The second half. Coming to show you characters backstories and failing. Raphtalia was an okay character in the first half but in the second half she became the "saint girl who doesn't do bad things she is a good girl" kind of character. Destroying the little amount of realism she had and making her generic pacifist female character. Filo at least i think wasn't butchered like raphtalia. But others were. The three other heroes became just generic irresponsible and arrogant jerks who didn't do anything but after shitting on many peaple they become "good". The problem is that they become "good" without any particular characterization or anything. The first half villains were just black unwise and shitty jerks who were saved by a shitty asspull.
And we have a secondary villain in the middle of anime who is. Am. Om. Ohmmmmmmmm. What the f*********k is this shit. That guy wasn't even an acceptable villain he was most like a filler villain. And we have the "grey" villains that. We don't know anything about them. This part maybe can be fixed in later seasons but what about other problems? Naofumi. Raphtalia. Three shitty heroes. And almost a big cast of characters. The show couldn't stay away from heavy asspulls more than 10 or 12 episodes how is it gonna develop the characters?


[Art:8]
Art isn't bad. It has sometimes shitty CGI but isn't completely shit or frustrating and the designs are good. So i think it's bad. It's good.


[Music:7]
Well i think i don't quite like it's music. It had good tracks but well. I didn't quite enjoyed them(reminder. No reason. Just taste)



[Enjoyment:6]
If it wasn't for the first half i think i just gave this part 2. I absolutely didn't enjoyed the second half and i wanted to drop it. But eventually i forced myself to watch it(AKA forcewatched it)
If you enjoy isekai i think there is plenty of better isekai out there for you. Konosuba mushoku tensei and re:zero for example are my personal favourites. But if you like isekai and enjoy any kind of isekai "and" don't have any other thing to watch then i think it can be a candidate for watching.

Overall maximum score with my taste:4
Overall maximum score:5
Overall minimum score:4

This anime is extremely, like extremely overrated.. I started it with high expectations, but as I watched, nothing happens out of expectations, I mean, what's the point if you watch something you know what gonna happen next? And that's just because it's typical...
I actually have no idea why people like this, and I tried asking around but even got told to keep this 'wrong' opinion to myself lol.

Ok, what's so disappointing about this anime?

1. The whole thing of Myne is an oooold overused idea, I couldn't even hate her because of the lameness of her existence and actions, the author should've ... at least given her some personality depth or something.. she had no reason nor goal for her actions.

2. The slave becoming so loyal to the main character.. getting harem increased every 2 episodes.. and yeah.
No need to note on how the king also has no depth or anything.

3. The way some characters talk are reaaally disgusting.. that green-haired girl with itsuki or fitoria.. way too tacky? forced? cringyyy what do they call it.. why do they still do this? that's too old now already.

4. L'arc and the girl with him.. well, after getting used to watching this anime, a nice guy and girl appear outta nowhere.. and guess what? they're nice! lol
I expected them to turn out evil from the first appearance.. and guess what? they actually were. :c

There are more but I can't remember the rest because I watched the first 20 eps when it was airing, and forced my way to finish it now lol.

Though in short, nothing happens out of expectations, too generic, and you don't enjoy anything because it's all forced...

Naofumi (Shield Hero)'s path and growth was written quite well. How he remained his own version of kind to others even after all the pain, treachery and humiliation people made him go through. The ending with him using his gift from the Queen to rebuild Raphtalia's village was pretty heartwarming too. However I had problems with how the other three heroes were put in this anime. They're supposed to unite (as what Fitoria said), yet to the very end the other three have proven how extremely useless and aggravating they are compared to the 'weakest/lowest' one out of all four. I also feel that they ... don't have enough depth of character. Aside from the Spear Hero filling a sort of antagonist role, they just felt like fillers/backdrop characters and not the main characters I feel should have been. There could have been a better build up of suspense between the four if the main thing they were supposed to achieve was unity to defeat the Waves. Most characters (not just the heroes) were flat and generic. I was also aggravated by how episode 25 did not end with the Final Wave. They had been fighting all this time, Fitoria even said there'll be a time where the Wave demands for the heroes to choose what they fight for, but that climax never came and now I just feel more irritated than empty or disappointed. The Filolials were super cute though. The friendship factor is good too. I just feel like this anime could've been way better if the other three heroes weren't as useless, and that antagonists like Malty and the King were given stronger reasons as to why they had went unbelievable lengths to strip the Shield Hero of his good name. Animation is fine.

Could contain some minor spoilers.

The Rising of the Shield Hero started off on a somehow good premise, with some novelties compared to the classical tropes of the genre, and a protagonist with an interesting personality.
The first couple of episodes were undoubtedly interesting, so much that at first I rated the show with an eight, but that only increased my frustration as it went on: instead of an interesting story of a man that has to deal with a world that does not want him but nevertheless wants to survive and to do so is ready to compromise on his morals we get a half cooked ... furry harem anime with no worldbuilding, ridicule attempts at adding some intrigue, characters that are just outright stupid, a boring and repetitive plot and episodes whose main point seems to be showing a racoon and a bird fight over who gets the attentions of their owner.
The magic system is also not well developed, there is no comedy nor any serious talk about any topic, the action scenes are nothing spectacular, the sound is not bad and the art I would say it's average, the color palette is a bit dim as far as I'm concerned, and here and there there's a bit of cg that feels out of place.

MiNiSoTaN's The Rising of the Shield Hero Review

Introduction:
Hello. My name is Neill or "MiNi." This will be my in depth review of The Rising of the Shield Hero, the 2019 anime adaption of Aneko Yusagi's web novel series. With all my reviews I will score the anime discussed based upon 5 categories that include: Story, Characters, Art, Music, and Personal Enjoyment. Each category will be given a score between 0 and 10. The ending score will be what I determine the show deserves overall. Keep in mind I will be talking about spoilers that occurred during the anime . Now, without further ado, let's get ... into this.
Story (6/10)

Where Shield Hero fails to drive forward most is with its story. The show did begin on the right foot however. The first few episodes did a good job at setting up the plot along with more lore and world building. It was once we reached the conclusion of the first wave that things began to deteriorate. After the introduction of Melty, the show began a downward spiral that it never really recovered from. The story became boring and uninteresting. We never saw an actual set goal in mind for Naofumi and his party. For half of the season they are just wandering around Melromarc with no clear objective in mind. Every event they come across happens by mere chance and it was more divine intervention that they ended up there rather than them actually setting out for the location in the first place.

One of my biggest grievances with this show comes with the faithfulness of the adaptation, or rather the lack there of. After watching the Shield Hero I read through the Manga, Light Novel and Web Novel. I was encouraged to by people on the r/ShieldBro subreddit to do so, so I figured why not. I was astounded to read how well the story is actually written and was wondering if I watched the correct show. Each physical version of Shield Hero is much more gritty with adult themes. The dialogue they use doesn't sound like it is coming from, the school playground. People actually die. Gruesomely. I am by no means advocating that the anime has to be a direct 1:1 adaptation of the Web Novel, or Manga. That isn't a realistic expectation. But what I am trying to get at, is that if they want to truly adapt a good story they have to make the correct decision as to stays faithful and what doesn't. The anime does a very poor job at keeping the monumental moments faithful to the source material. Whether this is because they thought they could do better, or because they believed toning down the brutality of the story would concede a bigger audience, we'll never know. I guess my main take away from the story is that it is unorganized with no clear direction, and it doesn't keep its core tenets faithful to its source material.

One of the most disgusting and unfaithful parts of the show comes from the adaptation of the scene where Raphtalia fights Idol. This is about halfway through the show at this point, and Melty gets captured by Idol who turns out to be Raphtalia's previous slave owner who tortured her and killed her friends. In the manga we get this beautiful scene of poetic justice where the slave becomes the master. Raphtalia has grown and is stronger than Idol now. He begs for mercy, but Raphtalia has none to give. She ends up killing Idol by stabbing him and pushing him out a window. One of if the not the largest character development moments for Raphtalia throughout the entire series. It shows her finally overcoming her fears and putting her past behind her. Once a lost scared little girl is now a brave and courageous soldier.

Now guess what happens in the anime.

NOT FUCKING THIS.

In the anime Raphtalia literally is too scared to kill Idol. She cries to Naofumi how she can't do it. What I loved about Naofumi in the manga is that he doesn't intervene. He let's Raphtalia do what she wants, because he know's she'll make the right choice. He knows she isn't a little girl anymore. He looks at her with approval and satisfaction that she was finally able to do something so brave on her own.

In the anime Naofumi does the whole bullshit speech of "Will killing him give you closure?" She ends up sparing Idol's life because of the whole cliche "If I kill you, I'm not better that you." What a fucking dumb cop out. Actually made me angry when I read the manga and saw what we missed out on. Anyways Idol still falls out the window but it was an accident because he tripped. But PSYCH! He doesn't actually die. He revives a dinosaur that ends up stepping on him.

Keep in mind this is one one of the many difference scenes Shield Hero took their own liberties in terms of changing the story. It doesn't pay off. The only reason I'm giving the story the score it has now is because I know it can be better and I hope that changes with the coming of Seasons 2 and 3.

If you do want to know a little more about some of the other aspects of the story I was unsatisfied with because they portrayed the source material in a poor manner, check out my YouTube Video where I go a bit more in depth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n7gTrWeA_g&

Characters (8/10)

Naofumi For all the story does wrong, it does do right with most of its characters. Naofumi is exceptionally well written. From day 1 he is given absolutely nothing and treated like shit by everyone in the entire country. After the false rape accusation by Malty, he has no one to turn to and no one to trust. I absolutely LOVE this. Far too many times now we get MC's that get beaten up or struggle, but they can turn to their friends for help. Not this time. Naofumi has to build his friends up before he can turn to them. His relationships with Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty flow so smooth together. He goes throughout the entire season always checking his back and being cautious and kind of an ass with everyone he meets. He doesn't want to take any chances with the risk being what happened before. Naofumi is an a great protagonist and I hope to see him further develop through the rest of the rest of the series.

Raphtalia She is arguable the character that changes the most throughout the season. I already explained a lot of it in the 'Story' section of this review so I won't go too much more in depth. I like her as a character. She compliments Naofumi well. She almost acts as his foil where they balance each other well. Naofumi is the bruiting tough act that just wants to get the job done. Raphtalia is the one with compassion and wants to help people because she remembers that is what Naofumi did for her. Although I wish the anime did a better job at adapting some of her more important scenes from the source material, she still remains as a highlight of the show.

Melty Introduced about a quarter into the series, Melty makes her way into Naofumi's party after having the soldiers falsely accuse him of kidnapping her. She is a nice addition to the Shield party. She is much more cautious and headstrong when it comes to decision making, but ultimately trusts Naofumi which is something I admire and respect.

Filo This Sesame Street ripoff of a bootleg big bird was pretty neat throughout the show. We learn that she is the heir to being the queen of her bird race which is pretty cool. Really not too much to add besides that. She's a nice edition.

Characters (cont.) Every other character in the show is pretty minor, and the new major ones are introduced so late into the series they not even worth mentioning in the show because they play so little of a role. What I wish the anime did better was focus a little more on the other heroes. Yes I know the title is "Rising of the Shield Hero" it suppose to focus on the Shield Hero. I'm not saying we need dedicated 24 minute episodes to the spear, bow, and sword heroes. What I wish we got to see what a little more interaction between all four of them. We did get to see them all talking together a few times but it always ended with Naofumi saving everyone or him just leaving because he got annoyed. I'm hoping season 2 delivers more with the side characters.

Art (8/10)

The art and animation the show was actually pretty good. One of the few aspects I was impressed by. For a show being about fighting waves of hundreds of enemies, it does a great job at showing the action scenes. There is a lot of screen time dedicated to fight scenes and they are all (for the most part) very well done, I didn't have too many complaints about the art department as well. Nothing super special, Shield Hero isn't reinventing the wheel here. It goes by the book and does a good job of it. I would be very surprised to find someone who thinks that the art and animation within this show is lacking much less bad. I only give out close to or near perfect scores to areas where I believe the category is done exceptionally well or innovates with something never seen. Shield Hero doesn't do this, but it's not a bash against the show. It follows the formula and it comes out clean. No complaints.

Music (6/10)

It is very difficult for me to actually be moved by a piece of music. The main ending, "Kimi No Namae" moves me. It's a beautiful song that I loved listening to whenever an episode ended. It starts off with a quite but defining chord progression introduced in part by some soft vocals only to explode into a frenzy of instruments backing up the main chorus. The Main ending gets a standing ovation from me.

Music in my opinion is the hardest area for an anime to do well in. Shield Hero unfortunately falls in the same pit of "I don't really care" music. No music during any of the battle scenes or dialogue was particularly memorable to me. Again, I'm not saying the music was bad, it just wasn't memorable, there's a difference. Listening to one piece and enjoying it in them moment is way different than listening to a piece remembering it, and wanting to listen to it again. I didn't want to listen to any of the Shield Hero music again, besides the ending. And I'm sorry but what is up with the Japanese rapping in the OP. Dear god I thought I was listening to a leaked track off an old Evanescence album form 2009. For everything the Ending OP did right, the main OP did wrong.

Personal Enjoyment (6/10)

For the most part I didn't particularly enjoy the show. The times where I did enjoy it however, were very good. All the was really memorable were the battle scenes and introduction to the show. That's about all the fond memories I have of watching this show. If you were disappointed, or wished there was more, READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL. It is 100% better. I'm surprised how poorly you can mess up animating the story when it's given right to you. I hope season 2 and 3 do better.

Final Thoughts and Score
Although Shield Hero didn't particularly impress me, I am hopeful for its future. There's already been a season 2 and 3 announced, so I hope that they can learn from some of the community feed back as to what needs to be changed for the future. Thank all for reading. I hope you enjoyed yourself. I will spitting out some more reviews in the near future. Make sure to follow my page for updates.

Favorite Episdoes
Ep. 1 The Shield Hero
Ep. 2 The Slave Girl
Ep. 20 Battle of Good and Evil
Ep. 22 The Four Heroes Council

Official Scores
Story: (6/10)
Characters: (8/10)
Art: (8/10)
Music: (6/10)
Personal Enjoyment: (6/10)

FINAL SCORE: (6/10)
@MiNiSoTaN

Honestly I've been wanting to share my thoughts on this show for a while now, but every time I say anything even remotely critical on crunchyroll, I get at least 5 downvotes, hopefully I will be able to present my honest thoughts and opinions here without too much backlash.

For this review I think it's best for me to simply walk you all through my memorable experiences whilst watching this show and present my thoughts regarding my fairly low score.

To begin, I think it's safe to say that this show started strong, it had an engaging plot and initially subverted my personal expectations in a very ... interesting way. The fact that the main character, who is supposed to be a hero, is simply shunned and disliked by almost every individual he encounters, was very interesting and that paired with the fact that he seemingly possessed significantly less experience in the world than the other heroes was also very interesting. The name (at least the English translation), 'The Rise of the Shield Hero' certainly seemed to ring true by the end of episode 1 and, as a lover of fantasy in general, I was excited for the coming episodes.

The show all-in-all was adequately enjoyable for me from episodes 1-4, simply because the main character was learning his place in the world, making friends and experiencing significant hardships. It is in episode 5 with the introduction of 'Filo' that my interest in this show truly began to waver. This character is quite simply ridiculous. I mean, it is a giant bird that can turn into an 11 year old girl, who is also really good at fighting for some reason and I believe at one point wanted to 'mate' with the shield hero. I mean what? I get that it's anime and crazy occurrences like this happen all the time, but for me personally this character took all suspension and seriousness out of the show for me. For example when Naofumi uses the 'rage shield' despite that being a fairly exciting moment, every time I saw the giant bird making loud 'attack' noises I was completely draw out the world and reminded that I was watching a guy with a shield being followed by an entourage of young girls (Raphtalia aged, but she was introduced as a young girl). I'll briefly move on from Filo as I could honestly describe my distaste for this character for the remainder of this review and instead move onto Melty. Melty as a character is not actually that bad, my main issue is that she just seemed to help confirm a fact to me, that slowly became more apparent to me with every scene involving Filo. That fact being, whoever the author of this show is, has clearly written this as some sort of fantasy for themselves. Consider Raphtalia, I think it's safe to say she falls in love with the shield hero. What about Filo? Well she said in one episode she wanted 'master' to be her 'mate'. Then consider Melty. She initially didn't have all that much interest in the mc, but as time went on, she blushed whenever he showed any sort of attention to her. This, taken with the fact that both Raphtalia and Filo possess a 'slave seal' that forces them to do whatever the mc wants, honestly just really made me reflect on what I was watching.

The whole story with the 'pope' was also ridiculous. I'm not going to discuss that whole disappointing mess in full, but I specifically remember a scene that actually made me laugh out loud. It was the scene in which the pope was fighting the 4 heroes in that, I guess pit? And he used magic to, I guess put himself into the mirrors of the strange church he made, he then span around the mirrors laughing and waving his weapon. It looked so stupid I couldn't help but laugh.

I have many other issues with this show, but perhaps I am simply not the target audience, I mean I remember at one point a guy summoned a giant dinosaur, that then had a fight with a giant bird, but the bird also turned out to be a small girl like filo, perhaps this show was simply never aimed at me?

I would like to quickly add that I have no issues with female characters of any kind, my main issue is that every single member of the mc's 'party' is either A a young girl, B an animal/human cross that was once his slave, or in some cases it's both. Also, after watching the final episode of the series, it appears that the mc will now be joined by another, you guessed it, girl! But this time with green hair, instead of purple, blonde or brown. Yet again, no issue with the gender, my issues lie with how unvaried and predictable it is, which seems to be a theme throughout the show.

There were of course some redeeming moments and I did genuine enjoy some parts of the show , for example, the early adventures with Raphtalia, the first moment with the rage shield (it started getting a little old later on), the first introduction of glass (and the iron maiden shield) and many other small moments that I think are unnecessary to go into.

All in all I would describe this show with one word, a word that kept coming to mind every time I finished an episode, 'terrible'. Despite some of the redeeming moments, the overarching story and some major characters caused it to suffer too much and I personally would not recommend this show to anyone. I think it's unfair to give it a score lower than 5, as for me any show under 5 would have to be almost unwatchable, but I ultimately elected for 6, just simply because of those interesting earlier episodes.

Thank you for all reading, if you agree or disagree with me I would love to here your thoughts.

Imagine being in the world of your favourite JRPG; living in a world full of anime waifus, with party systems and an ambiguous world full of adventure & mystery. I suppose this anime closely relates to the philosophy of the Dragon Quest series, which was the immediate impression this anime gave me at first (that was put to bed eventually).

Let me start off by saying, I absolutely love watching Shield Hero. The exciting moments make it completely worth the watch.

After the first episode of Shield Hero, I was blown away by how masterful the introduction was. It showed signs of promise that this would be ... an anime that would soar through the 'Top Anime' list, due to how enjoyable & breathtaking this anime was: a 40 minute episode to remove the melancholy of waiting for the second episode, attempting to capture the desire to remain loyal to this series.
In this episode it shows feats of betrayal, despair & isolation, a telltale sign that befitted the name 'The Rising of the Shield Hero'. They had the chance to show how real story-telling prowess, character development and plot progression can make an anime find a home in your heart, rather than a mere 'yeah I love shieldbro, it's sick fam'.
I've never seen a first episode as attractive & as inspiring as the first episode of Shield Hero's, it left me hoping & praying that it would follow through and not stoop down on its wonderful streak of great episodes...

Story (6/10) - Closer to 5 than a 7:
...And of course, it did stoop down. With all this tremendous world building, I suppose it was bound to let something negative slip through the cracks. The shocks, awes, excitement and desire to wait - even watching countdowns to the last second - eventually disappeared. Shield Hero went from being produced by the hands of an artist, to being Fairy Tail but with 3 wizards & 1 protagonist, who completely sacrifices the initial depression that made him so cool.
The story continuity collapses in on itself, despite it getting so exciting & thrilling. It was at a certain point where everything fell short; granted Shield Hero does still produce amazing scenes in every single episode. However, nothing is tying in together & it is so easy to see where it could improve and take more caution.
It's evaporated the feel for adventure, eroded the content between the 4 heroes & made the stunning idea of a JRPG anime (where the player is the character, but also experiences it as both) feel obsolete.
TL;DR: Story has marginal inconsistencies which prolong time between the exciting moments; falls short from the first half of the series.

Art (9/10):
The art, of course, is amazing. It fits the genre of Shield Hero & serves its purpose of giving a platform to its story. There are some moments which outshine others, and only a few moments where I felt the art was out-of-place with the rest of an episode.

Sound (10/10):
Both openings (at the time of writing this) are AMAZING. Not keen on the endings, but the openings definitely make up for that. Prefer the first over the second, but they are excellent & I'm happy that I could download them on Spotify. SFX is nothing special.

Character (4/10):
Disappointing to say the least. How difficult is it to develop characters that supplement the story you're trying to tell about them? Naofumi's character development went from being an enticing one, to being non-existent. In fact, his party members receive more character development than him, but that is marginal. It's always a lack of character development that takes away from the overall entertainment value of a story; it's an adventure anime with very little character development. How do you even achieve that? It's an adventure.
Unlocking skills does not seem important at all, it definitely does not contribute to character development due to how sudden it is. Nor do we ever learn about the other heroes, just that Naofumi is different & isolated from the bunch. There's no other way of putting it: Shield Heroes' character development is garbage.
However, the character designs are amazing & at least they somewhat have personalities. Would have been nice if we could feel something about the other heroes & their backstories, or how they are growing, but apparently that's too much to ask for & pleasing fans with lolis takes priority in an **adventure anime**. If you're gonna rip an idea from Dragon Quest, at least rip the character development and plot devices they use as well.

Enjoyment (8/10):
Despite how pathetic the character development is & how far the story fell, it is still an incredibly enjoyable anime. Definitely takes priority over all the other seasonals I'm watching at this time.
But it is also responsible for me not giving it a 10/10 for enjoyment, due to how scared it is to articulate itself as a gripping story.

Overall (6/10) (tempted to give it a 7):
Shield Hero, but the only thing I need to shield myself from is further disappointment with this anime. It's truly heartbreaking as to how far it has fallen despite, as previously alluded to, the amazing start. The Rising of the Shield Hero now feels more like an accidental fall in the workplace than a rise of any sort; perhaps he should've put that book back on the shelf & opened up the Dragon Quest manga instead to give us an consistent & developed JRPG anime.
Jokes aside, it still does feel like Naofumi is rising & he is stiill finding his place in all of this. The feeling of ambiguity still exists, and it is just a matter of time before the disappointment is replaced with excitement again. I can only hope, as this anime has some 10/10 episodes.

Recommend this anime just because of the first bunch of episodes & the overall enjoyment; if you cannot handle the 'plotholes' that are yet to come, then I don't recommend this anime.

Blunt and fast review.

Its alright, fills that niche of that fantasy show that your young teenage self would gawk over, with a female character in it to "get yo lil' pp hard". Still being edgy enough to be interesting and stay reasonably sharp and grounded without going over the top.

World building is established fast. Very MMO-esque type show, travel to another world trope getting old for me.

A big plus on the characters getting established fast. Pacing is a little off at times, although the side kick is quite lovable.

Its worth a watch it but isn't going to change your life.

Tate no Yuusha starts out strong. You can feel the pain of betrayal and the crushing hopelessness as Naofumi struggles to survive in a world that hates him for reasons he doesn't understand. Yet the show goes downhill in the span of five episodes. (Spoilers from hereon).

Malty starts making up increasingly ridiculous schemes all of which fail. At one point she runs a wacky race around the village and loses it despite sabotaging Naofumi. She goes from a hated traitor to a caricature of a villain that is impossible to take seriously.

The other heroes are complete stooges. Even their power level varies according to the ... needs of the plot. They're higher level than Naofumi and have better weapons? Doesn't matter, they deal zero damage to the raid boss because the show needs to make Naofumi look good. Any development they might get is ignored the very next episode.

Perhaps the best part of the show is Naofumi's relationship with Raphtalia, but that's not saying much. When she was freed from the slave bond yet stayed with him, that was a perfect moment to show his trust in her, yet he goes ahead and enslaves her again the first chance he gets.

Whoever wrote this managed, by some miracle, to create a strong opening, but bungled up everything that followed.

This show isn't bad.. But it's not particularly good either. It's got some good points, decent world building, a main character type you don't seem to see in Iseki too much. But it's got more bad points, the story line feels like it was written by an Eigth grader, a fairly creative and literate one but it shares tons of plot elements with copy and pasted fanfiction I read when I was a kid. For example, 4 heroes are summoned to save the kingdom. Everyone worships the ground 3 of them walk on but constantly disrespect the 4th one (the main character) for no real ... reason. This never gets better and the story revolves around everyone and their mother trying to sabotage him for no reason. Then there's the characters themselves, the main character is by far the best character in this show because he's written decently (by which I mean like ok not well), which still sets him way ahead of every other character in this show. The other 3 heroes are dumb as a bag of hammers and can't see that obviously something shady is going on no matter what happens RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. The side characters (Iseki Harem) are cookie cutter anime characters. More a collection of stereotypical character tropes with a weird slavery fetish than actual characters. They try to characterize them more later but there's no build up to it so it comes off as really awkward and forced. And then the worst part... The villains. This is where the 8th grade fanfiction is actually better. The villains here are so obviously evil in every single way just...cuz. They're all psychopaths who are out to get the Shield hero for no real reason or just do evil stuff cause they feel like it and that's where their character ends. And they're all absolute morons to boot. The only one who might break this mold is the king (still a moron but he seems to have something going on under the hood but who knows with this show) who is so irritating and unlikable that it's not really any better. This show should not be rated so highly it's got absolutely nothing special other than not being a completely generic Iseki. It's fun sometimes when you get far enough into it but if you're not easily entertained you might not want to pick this up.

I want to start this review off by mentioning that i had previously stuck my neck out for this anime to a fellow co-worker. So welcome to my 100% unbiased, objective review.
This anime is a down right scoundrel to me. I am battered and bruised from a constant slew of isekai (which I feel like I always fall sucker to). I remember telling my co worker that I had high hopes for this anime as it seemed "unafraid to address taboos and could have a compelling idea to it". now that Im 23 episodes in I feel pretty safe to say this anime has ... massively betrayed my expectations. As it already seems to be discarding the main hook of the show, for petty isekai thrills like skill levels and monster fights, great, toss another one into the bin. This show rubbed my justice boner hard enough to get me behind kirito 2.0, and of course I would be remiss to not mention raph, her arc generally had me interested and seeing her happy is wonderful and all. Just dont mention the whole "having your cake and eating it" issue if i could phrase it like that. But I cant even be bothered to think about the moral ambiguity of the whole thing.
TL:DR The whole thing is just another isekai but with a more potent hook and supporting castalia. 6/10

I couldn't help but feel so underwhelmed by this anime. Over the years I have grown to hate Isekai anime because, well... they're all the exact same. Enter character from another world, he's OP, he has a harem, and stuff happens but there's either no real effort out of the main character or he barely manages to do it but always succeeds. I was hoping this one would be different, prior to its release it gained a lot of attention and lots of fans bragging about how good it was. In the end, it was basic. The story had 4 heroes who are the "main" ... characters, the whole plot revolves around them but only ever focuses on one. The heroes are Main Character Man (Shield), Sasuke (Sword), Mr. Steal ya Girl (Spear), and Background Character (Bow). The characters are bland and tasteless, there's not really anything special about them but at the same time, they were probably the best part of the show. If they changed the focus to be more of a comedy-action following the interactions between the heroes, the anime would be a lot better.

Rising of the Shield Hero also faced the SAO crisis, in there was a great premise, they could have done so much with what they had but in the end, they did the same thing as everyone else has. Honestly, the only really enjoyable part of the anime was the beginning, it had promise but when episodes kept coming out, I kept getting more and more disappointed with each one. Which I hated, because I wanted to like this anime, it had a lot of potentials, it just squandered it. In the end, it just turned out to be another borderline harem, trapped in another world anime. The main character isn't OP but at the same time, he is? Like he's stronger than everyone but like 1 person and even in the end he manages to win, barely. What really drew me off about this anime, was the side characters, Raphtalia was fine but the others were nothing but annoying and just seemed to really be just thrown in there. I would even say the same about the villains, they just seemed so tasteless, and lackluster. There was also only one villain that I truly enjoyed as a villain and his screen time were barely 2 episodes.

Another problem I had with this anime was the pacing. It was 25 episodes long but it felt like it was 12. So much happened yet at the same time nothing much really happened. When things did happen they just seemed to happen, pretty much just suddenly. There's not really any build-up, no lengthy dialogues to explain stuff, things just happen pretty much for the sake of the plot. Especially the fight scenes, they could have been much much better. The fights were short with not much happening besides the side characters saying how much the main character means to them, I just was so underwhelmed by everything. Even the moments when the main character lost control with his OP but at the same time, not OP shield, it was so so very boring.

The only thing I really enjoyed from this anime was the voice acting which was pretty good but that's not uncommon at all for Isekai anime. All in all, I'm gonna give Rising of the Shield Hero a solid 5/10, basic. That's the best way I can think to describe this anime, basic and wasted potential.

This series has me baffled don't get me wrong at first I had loved this show you know when you just get introduced a new series it seems interesting at first but after seeing how things play out you loose interest and see how bad it really is this show is basically that.
Ok the art and character designs are pretty nice as well as the special effects and the opening is pretty dope but aside from that this show really doesn't have anything going for it no offense to those who might actually like this show but be warned so many stupid moments or misunderstandings ... that could have been dealt with was made even more complicated due to the writers making the characters more dumb than dumb and dumber, 4 Japanese students from different eras of Japan got sent to this world to be hero's but instead of the writer giving these guys some brain he made them dumb asf it's just so frustrating watching these characters interact with one another and the main character isn't exactly brilliant either with his emo faze like yeah I get that a whole kingdom doesn't like you and you've blackmailed but dude just do things that doesn't have to involve you going or dealing with that kingdom etc...

Anyway my enjoyment for this anime was complicated it was just frustrating watching this every week for the level of stupidness these characters show each week gets to me, th CGI isn't too bad either just the characters are really bad and annoying especially the spear hero like come on author/writer at least make your characters likeable cuz it's coming to a point where you just detest these guys so much no matter what you do to make them look likeable later on my detest for them will not go and I'd eventually give up on this series I'm pretty sure some wouldn't but a few would agree also why was everyone getting triggered over a slave in an anime FFS people grow up it's a work of fiction stop getting your bloody panties in a twist there are worser things in real life and worser things in other animes/mangas