Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

Terrible show about terrible people. Less than typical isekai trash. Story sets itself out to be epic, exciting adventure but stumbles to a crawl by the end of the fourth episode. It's about as dull and meaningless as one can expect. At least other isekai trash put SOME effort into their world-building and plot. Almost everyone in the show is either an idiot or an asshole, with one of the only "good guys" being a slave trader. So that should give you a good idea about what you can expect from the characters. If anyone but Spear Hero brought up the Raphtalia/slavery thing, they would ... have been right. But because the biggest idiot in the show said it, suddenly everyone else is wrong and slavery is okay. Even worse is how the show goes out of its way to jump through so many hoops in order to defend slavery. Naofumi is a dense idiot (and a bit of an asshole) but at least there's some empathy to give him considering his situation. How ironic that a "blank slate" main character is the best written character in the series.

Reminder that Raphtalia is still 10 years old. "bUt ShE mEnTaLLy AgEs aS sHe LeVeLs uP". Yeah and his entire harem is lolis. Doesn't exactly help your point.

Only redeeming factor is the fantastic OST, but it doesn't do enough to save this travesty.

I honestly wanted to like it but just couldn't.

The first two episodes had potential. the show is set up as a hero being forced to play the villain in order to succeed in a world that has some unknown grudge against him but the show never took off from there. The hero never fully embraced the edgy "anti-hero" status initially promised and spent nearly every episode wallowing in angst while helping villagers through unimpressive tasks. Most importantly, the combat scenes are underwhelming, especially compared to the quality of those in other shows currently airing. Save yourself the pain and re-watch overlord instead.

Rising of the Shield Hero? More like rising of the Edgelord Hero!

[Warning: Spoilers]

Shield Hero is another overrated isekai the fandom overhyped it being "different from other isekai" and to an extent I could see where they’re coming from since it did have a promising start, but then it continuously declined with each episode and devolved into a generic, power fantasy, loli harem isekai.

Story (3/10):

The story is about 4 otakus who get summoned into this world where they’ve become legendary heroes and have to defeat the succession of waves to save the World in order to go home. However, the show would be over if ... we fought all the waves so quickly, right? To drag out the story, we follow Naofumi’s party daily lives as they: learn about this world, fight monsters, fulfil side adventures, buy new items/equipment, become merchants and start trading (which comes off as bootleg Spice & Wolf), and most importantly deal with the latest contrived drama Naofumi has gotten himself into. I’ll explain this in more detail later on.

Characters (2/10):

Naofumi starts out as this misunderstood ‘nice guy’. That’s all I can describe him because he had no personality and we know barely anything about him or his past. He gets played by Myne and is accused of a rape accusation. This is only the first of many acts created to shit on Shield Hero. The show constantly goes out of it’s way to portray the royals, heroes and pretty much everyone in the world as unlikeable assholes to make Naofumi the victim. Naofumi is the “nice guy” who believes he has terrible luck for being chosen as the shield hero, which is seen as the worst class. Myne’s betrays him, steals all his money, he gets a false rape accusation, a bad reputation, ostracised by everyone and because of this Naofumi’s drastically changes into a edgy ‘morally grey’ anti hero- who buys a child slave in order to fight for him. Thus the story how the Edgelord Hero is born!

My problem with this is Naofumi at the beginning is a blank slate that isn’t fleshed out enough so his sudden change doesn’t resonate with me. I’m not yearning for Naofumi to go back to his old self because we didn’t spend enough time for me to care about him. Edgelord Hero doesn’t have much of a personality or endearing qualities, he’s just a standoffish, cynical asshole who’s less sociable, has trust issues and asks quest givers money for his help.

The amount of forced drama is so poorly written and contrived that it’s emotionally manipulative. The writer wants you to feel sympathetic to Naofumi’s cause and root for him in this ultimate underdog story. Too bad I’ve got none for the Edgelord Hero! For example, why should I be rooting for him Vs Spear Hero to win his duel so he can keep his slave?

You want to know what I don’t understand? Is these evil assholes who are hellbent on screwing with Edgelord Hero, [i] need him [/i] to save their world. He has no reason whatsoever to fight for them, so why do they hate him with a passion? Why do they keep handicapping one of their four chosen heroes? For example, the King giving him less starting gold, not giving him information about the hourglass to access the waves, not letting him class upgrade. It makes no sense.

We aren’t given a explanation as to why they act the way they do, so unless it’s for the Lolz, it’s to make Edgelord Hero the victim. LN readers are constantly saying “there’s a reason for all this, you just have to wait!” but the writer has dragged this out for 20 episodes with little hints alluding to why (e.g. a history of nefarious shield heroes), while adding more contrived drama to the point where I’m exhausted and desensitised to the whole situation. The reveal after all this buildup was sooooo underwhelming. The consequences was incredibly childish and pathetic, that I will spare you the details and just say it was akin to one of the school playground punishments.

Raphtalia is a bland, poorly written heroine (Demi-human) who went from a scared, meek little girl with a tragic backstory of being tortured, in slavery, had PTSD over her parents death, to losing all her flaws and any potential of emotional conflict that could have led to some good character development because of how she changed in a instantaneous, implausible manner e.g. an absurd personality change and rapid aging that happened offscreen after two episodes to gain qualities to make her the “perfect waifu”. Her development is too unrealistic. She remains a static “Naofumi sama” bot for the rest of the show.

This may sound sensitive to some, but I have to say, this show romanticizes slavery. It sweeps under the rug the nature of Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia’s master/slave relationship, him buying her out of necessity because Edgelord Hero can’t attack or trust anyone else to party with. Edgelord Hero punishing Raphtalia when she didn’t bend to his orders. It’s worse in the manga where it was stated Edgelord Hero bought her because she’s a girl that looks similar to Myne so he could project his pent up hatred on her.

They wasted the opportunity to explore the themes/morality addressed with slavery and their dynamic in detail. For example, Raphtalia essentially was a broken slave who’s lost everyone she’s ever cared about. It’s clear Raphtalia developed stockholm syndrome for Edgelord Hero over a few instances of kindness due how shit her life has been and the story about the legendary Shield Hero who will save the demi humans. Instead of showing how unhealthy their relationship is with both of them depending on each other to “lick each other’s wounds”, leading to some good character development for both of them, it’s portrayed to make Raphtalia the perfect waifu who unconditionally loves Edgelord Hero, who worships the ground he walks on and will stand by him even when everyone in the world’s betrayed him. Doesn’t that sound like a edgy fanfiction to you? They could have slowly developed their relationship into a genuine romance with them gradually growing closer- slowly letting each others walls down, begin to trust each other (despite being ostracised from society) and eventually fall in love.

It was hard to watch the scene where Raphtalia was angry that the kingdom freed her from slavery and was defending Edgelord Hero basically saying:

“Naofumi sama is kind! He feeds me, bought me a ball, he tortures me when I don’t bend to his will i.e. being scared to fight, but it’s okay because I want to be his slave!” Her level of stockholm syndrome surpasses that of a battered wife. Raphtalia is nothing more than pure waifu bait. Worse of all is Naofumi doesn’t see the problem with slavery, he doesn’t change his perspective with the slave trader and becomes a regular customer, hell he doesn’t even apologise to Raphtalia. This is further evident when Raphtalia wants to go to the slave owner’s shop to get a new slavery mark because she likes being his slave- she wears it as a badge of honour now. Who the hell cares about her years of PTSD when it’s magically cured from a few moments of kindness?! As long as you fed and pet your slave then you can be a great slave owner!

Filo is a one-dimensional, generic, cute bird loli with no depth. The only reason she’s a loli is for fan service. I despise Filo because when she joins the party the story goes downhill. It started off deep with a darker tone to it which was interesting, but slowly devolved into a lighthearted, generic harem isekai with loli’s joining one after another. The parental relationship between Edgelord Hero and Raphtalia becomes a competition between Filo and Raphtalia for the Edgelord Hero’s affection, despite him not returning it. Malty gains feelings for him too, because it’s not Isekai if all the girls don’t worship/ fall in love with the self-insert protagonist right?

Myne is a one dimensional, spiteful, unlikeable, basic bitch with no depth. I don’t think ever witnessed a character who was created to be as insufferable and hated like her. Her only motivation in life seems to be ruining Edgelord Hero’s life e.g. faking a rape accusation, stealing all his money, lying about Raphtalia being held against her will as a slave, interfering in the Shield/Sword duel while trying to have the King and Pope cover for her. I don’t even hate Myne anymore because that’s what the author wants and won’t give him that satisfaction. I feel sorry for her for being a victim of bad writing. Together with her trusty sidekick Spear Hero they become so comically evil, i can’t take them seriously. There a discount version team rocket because even they have more depth than them.

The king is another one dimensional prick who’s hated the Edgelord Hero since his inception.

The Queen feels like a plot device. She’s isn’t present for the first 15 or so episodes to allow for Naofumi hate conspiracies to continue and when she eventually shows up out of the blue after her Country had gone to shit. She magically solves all of his problems. The Queen’s reason for being away from her Country is absolute BS, since if she really wanted to reprimand the King her little shadow bodyguards could have delivered the message.

The three heroes are one dimensional caricatures. We never follow their journey, view events from their perspective or really learn anything about them:

Motoyasu aka. Spear hero... the guy has the most screentime out of the three and yet he’s a utter moron lacking any brain cells. Seriously, his level of stupidity is unrealistic. For example, who the hell starts a fight in the middle of the city? and when they get called out for damaging the place he gets all pissy about being a hero. The dude was the first to pipe up accusing Naofumi being a sexual offender, all the while trying to molest Filo at every given opportunity. Why is are these hypocrites okay with this? Pedoyasu needs to be castrated because his Filophilla is uncomfortable to watch. Honestly, I’ve given up on Spear Hero. The guy’s either being a brainless pawn or straight up comedic relief.

I literally can’t describe Itsuki aka. Bow Hero, because he has no personality or character besides a hero complex.

Ren aka. Sword Hero (Not Kirito) seems to be the most competent out of the three, too bad he’s still as bland as the others.

The three heroes are more like the three stooges. Everything about them from the lacklustre characterisation, to their dialogue and actions are some of the most lazy, poor written I’ve ever encountered. It’s really annoying that they are continuously portrayed as incompetent morons who can’t do anything right, since their sole purpose is to make Edgelord Hero look good saving the day! I understand it was it meant to be a plot point to portray how they view the world as a game e.g. them not treating the NPCs as real people or not properly completely a quest, however the writer goes out of his way to emphasise the stupidity of these idiots by making the three heroes' attacks always follow the same move of “Meteor shot/thrust/slash" and attack at the same time like when they fought the dimensional spirit it’s simply lazy writing on the writers part. Their development is inconsistent. After Edgelord Hero points out the three heroes flaws and they come to terms with him not being the guy he’s been portrayed as you’d think these guys would grow, but nope. The three heroes are the still the same idiots who antagonise Naofumi, still use the same attacks and treat the world as a game. The heroes (especially Motoyasu) always follow every word Myne says, being gullible to the fact that the Edgelord Hero is being setup at every opportunity for no reason. I think the worse case was when Myne said Edgelord Hero was brainwashing Melty so she tried to kill her sister.

The game mechanics are stupid and unnecessary in this fantasy setting. It’s been proven time and again that levelling means absolutely nothing.

The way how the everyone in the Country is portrayed as unlikeable, cult following assholes who hate Naofumi is beyond unrealistic. None of them behave like real people. Whenever Naofumi points out how obvious it is that everyone is conspiring against him, no one seems to bat an eye? They never believe him, which to be fair he does a shit job at defending his case e.g. The heroes accuse the Edgelord Hero of brainwashing his party and yet they have no evidence to support their claim. Does Edgelord Hero mention this? No. Why doesn’t he show one of the heroes his skill tree to show he doesn’t have a brainwashing shield? Myne states that Melty has been brainwashed and has to be rescued, she then proceeds to try kill her and all the heroes do is stand there like dumbasses as if she didn’t just do what Edgelord Hero was saying. Myne’s whole potryal and evil laugh is like the most generic mustache twirling villain ever.

The pacing was bad. The constant montage sequence to try develop character interactions where they’re bonding isn’t working. It’s a shallow attempt to make me care about them. Another problem is the way it’s chopping scenes together e.g. Edgelord Hero & Raphtalia are waiting for Melty & Filo, the next they’re meeting the Pope.

I really don’t like the rage shield. Not only is it a powerup that focuses on his rage boner, it defeats the purpose of him being a tank. It’s bullshit that the lower level tank is doing more damage to the enemy than the three heroes combined who are higher levelled, got better gear, equipment and are offensive classes. It would have been better if the heroes cooperated and Edgelord played the tank. Not to mention, there’s no real consequence for using the rage shield. Edgelord Hero didn’t need time to learn how to master the shield e.g. he just uses it in the second wave not because his party or the other heroes were defeated and it was his last option, but because it was taking to long to defeat the boss. In fact, there’s no tension in the show. Edgelord Hero is stronger than everyone in the Country who could try to mess with him. His party is loyal to a fault and will never leave him.

Animation (5/10):

The animation is mediocre, the CGI is horrendous. Don’t believe me? Look at the T-Rex. Th action scenes are terrible. Not only are they so static that it reminds of you a Pokemon battle where characters take turns attacking, but the choreography and storytelling is weak.

Conclusion (2/10):

Naofumi is a classic example of a MC who in real life would be so unlikeable that no one would hang out with him, let alone have girls fawn over him. This show panders to the types who want to think it's the worlds fault.

Everything that happens to Edgelord Hero is fuelled to making him the poor misunderstood victim of a revenge story going against the authoritative power (e.g. royalty, legendary heroes), who are the bad guys. The audience is supposed to emphasise with his plight as a underdog trying to free his name/reputation and build towards the satisfying climax where Naofumi sticks his middle finger at the big guy as he finally gets his revenge for all their wrongdoings... The problem here is the execution is appalling.

Shield Hero has the elements to be a good show, such as an interesting story, usage of game mechanics and world building, but the storytelling is badly written, the characters having no substance, the villains have nothing going for themselves and are comically evil- to the point it becomes repetitive and boring. If you need to hammer down the same plot points and themes while sacrificing any potential interesting thematic elements then you’re doing something wrong.

I’ve read the manga to see if it might change my perspective and manga/LN readers kept banging on how much better it was. I’m pleased to inform you, that’s not the case. The anime has been more faithful than most isekai adaptations. They did change a couple of scenes and remove, but that was bound to happen due to time constraints. The anime toned down Naofumi and omitted his inner monologues to make him more of a generic, good guy isekai MC. I don’t see this as much of a problem though, since him being a edgy insufferable twat like his manga counterpart isn’t any better.

The point is the manga isn’t much better than the anime, as it still suffers from the same pitfalls. Shield Hero is shallow, poorly written revenge porn.

***Stares at medieval, full-bodied armor***

“I don’t think it’s my style…” — Naofumi Iwatani

“Yeah, it will strip Naofumi-sama of all his individuality.” — Raphtalia

“Did these mother f—ker’s just insult the Goblin Slayer?!” — Krunchyman

Summoned to a world he knows not. By a group of medieval aristocrats, whom wish to avoid a calamitous event known as the “Wave.” Naofumi Iwatani — along with three other “Heroes” — embarks on a quest to refine his skills in preparation for the fateful day when the “Wave” finally arrives. Unfortunately for Naofumi, his role as a “Hero” is starkly different than Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu (the “Sword,” ... “Bow,” and “Spear Hero,” respectively). Because while their skills are geared toward an offensive mindset, Naofumi’s shield requires him to accept a defensive role that is seen by the majority of the characters as being useless (including himself). Combine this with the betrayal of the bitch — otherwise known as Malty — and you have a recipe to alter the insouciant main character into a dejected, spiteful loner who wanders the countryside with rage in his heart and not a single companion to aid in his adventure.

Normally, this would be the part where the metaphorical player would rage quit or reset the game in hopes of gaining more favorable circumstances. But for Naofumi, he is forced to deal with the disadvantaged situation by making concessions (i.e. cheap meals) and buying a sickly slave girl — Raphtalia — to function as his “sword” to hasten his ability to kill more monsters and level up. And, really, that’s all Raphtalia aspires to be throughout the series — faithful slave, whom wishes to please her master (get you head out of the gutter!). As a side note, there has been a considerable amount of controversy regarding the integration of slavery in a modern anime, but given the medieval time period, and the fact that “Amurica” had slaves up until the 19th century, it’s a foolish complaint by “do-gooders” who have entirely too much time on their hands.

In terms of Naofumi as a character, he lacks emotion when Raphtalia and him begin to roam the countryside in search for stronger “beasts.” Besides his seething anger for the individuals that wronged him, Naofumi seems relatively vacuous as the main protagonist. It makes sense given the Louis C.K. treatment he’s been subjugated to, but seems obvious that the writer’s intentionally dragged Naofumi down (below the other three “Heroes”) to set the stage of an eventual underdog story. Hence, it was much expected that the level of antipathy directed at Naofumi would dissipate as he methodically gained the trust of those around him. This also entailed a shift in Naofumi’s cynicism and “anti-hero” role toward an idealistic one when his selfless deeds become more well-known.

But does this predictability deter from the overall enjoyment?…Yes, yes it does.

Most of the monsters were typical run-of-the-mill cannon fodder, only serving to perish in droves to accentuate the skills of the “Heroes.” The characters were quite lacking, with everyone falling into familiar tropes. Also, the show quickly devolved into a harem with the introduction of Filo — Naofumi’s side “chick” — and Melty (the second princess). By the way, not only was Filo a loli and a chocobo, she’s not even ONE—YEAR—OLD. F—k!

The art was pedestrian throughout the series, with an abundance of static shots and bland character aesthetics (off model shit and whatnot). Enjoyment wise, Shield Hero was far too predictable and tropey to have any staying power. Relying on the good versus evil dynamic — without further exploration — is just lazy writing. Speaking of which, the whole premise of the show was inane after Naofumi became the strongest, most popular hero in the show. Which makes “The Rising of the Shield Hero” a doppelgänger of the Isekai genre, that is already littered with clones aplenty.

I'm not a fan of rating anime as they're airing, in fact I'm actually opposed to it and find it incredibly annoying. But I felt like this time it should be an exception.

Ok first of all I'm going to try to review this anime the best possible way I can without completely going off the rails and insulting it (which I will be doing a lot) but I will rate it professionally and not just based on my bias thoughts on how shitty this anime is.

Well let's start.

This anime sucks, it really does, and no this isn't coming from a point of ... view of hating on something because it's new and trendy. This anime is just plain bad and I wish it wasn't bad.


Story - The story is typical guy that goes into a virtual world and has this fate of making the world better, similar to rezero, slime, and SAO, it's not very creative or new. It's another milk to the genre. Just another typical anime with the same shit, with the same aspirations. The story so far is not interesting at all, it just seems like a combination of all the worst things in anime. The loli, the furry girl who will do everything for you and doesn't have a true independence in her personality. No cool action has happened, nothing cool whatsoever has happened. Except the red haired bitch screwing up the MC and making the viewer angry for obvious reason. The MC developing more and more of a sasuke-like revenge personality. Nothing is new, nothing is creative, in fact it's doing more of the bad things. SAO was at least innovative because it was the first anime to make the genre big.


Characters- Possibly the worst part of the series. Because I understand isekai anime will be isekai anime, it will be about virtual shit. But the characters CAN make up for it. But in this case, they're not giving me anything to work with. Ok raphtalia is cute, and it makes all the fanboys horny. But a badass and independent character who was supposed to grow and create some self worth for herself turned into what? a mindless token to the MC and for fanboys to get boners over? c'mon man. And the thing that really made me lose faith in this anime is when the loli/bird came into the mix. That's just all I needed for me to realize this anime is a fanservice for all the casual fans out there. The MC is not bad, but he's typical, and he looks like sasuke so that shit is already a negative.


I'm sorry if I offend any of you guys that read this but please watch better anime. There's more to an anime than furries, and lolis, watch something like Dororo and not this trash.

3/10 it's trash. Garbagio.

I'm sorry this is my second review and idk how to make it sound professional XD and btw on some parts I wasn't serious XDD
Story:
This story is very well developed. I enjoy the events and feel intrigued each moment. I honestly find no fault here.

Art:
The art is adorable and I LOVE IT! The style is very appealing and even the hard things to draw like anatomy are well done.

Sound:
I love it.

... Character:
The character development of Naofumi is brilliant. It's realistic and keeps him likable. Also, Raphtalia has come so far and I'm so proud.

Enjoyment:
yes

Overall:
I LOVE IT

Do you know the formula for success in the anime industry now? The formula is not like math or physics, but selects all genres and mixes them together. "Isekai" plus "Harem" is the formula that I meant.

Is it like that? Of course, it's back to yourself. The opinion I make is just an idea that has no basis and theory.

"Isekai" is basically a term for anime with a storyline, where the main character is thrown into another world and lives a new life in that world. Usually the "isekai" genre begins with the death of the main character or through ... the intermediary of an item, and lives in another world with a new form or just a new ability.

Replacing a main potential, how they dispose of potential, and how they replace the lost potential is something that is beyond our reach. The decision is held by the studio, whatever the results, we as the audience can only surrender to the decision. Is that right?

This genre that is indeed unique is indeed liked by many people, but there are also many "Hater" who really hate this genre. The "Hater" usually has a reason to hate because it has a storyline that is only "happyness" readers without having a good storyline. It can be likened to the "isekai" genre like a pornographic story that does not have a sex scene in it.

The Isekai genre does have a storyline in which the main character, lives a new life in another world. What makes it interesting is the story that develops often, the main character has super powers. This superpowers, not always in the form of physical strength, intelligence that surpasses people in general, and extraordinary patience when problems come. Different from the other four characters, the main characters cannot attack effectively. That forced him to pair up with someone who really could.

Does it fulfill the fantasy of the reader (or even the writer?) As mentioned in the previous point. The genre of "Isekai" is indeed very qualified in fulfilling the fantasy of the reader or even the writer. Readers and writers must be eager to get all the happy things. Just like a firework that only looks beautiful at the beginning and when the specified time has reached its limit, it looks only a sadness. At first the main character has a trust and strength but as a result of one incident it just disappears.

Is the "Isekai" genre easy for writers to make? Somehow those words crossed my mind. Why not, if you look at every season there is always this genre. Inevitably, a lot of "isekai" doesn't have a strong story. Maybe only a few have a strong storyline in it. The storyline that tends not to be strong, will be more easily made by the author. As long as it meets the market or the readers' desires, there will be more and more "Isekai" genre anime. Unlike the other "isekai" this one has a startling start on how not the betrayal is done so neatly and there are no gaps anywhere, it makes the main character trapped and follows the flow of this endless game.

The most important of all is whether everything is full of "waifu?" Each anime has its own female characters ranging from "loli" to "milf". Most of them make character designs as beautiful as possible to attract men's attention. Is this to increase sales figures? Of course, every studio has its own strategy to compete in the market, but there are also those who don't take the risk to take the road and prefer to make it all. Having different characters is also important. No matter how they look as long as they have cute character designs why not?

As time goes by, this anime is getting better every time. If you look at the opening theme in the first season, I don't think it's very interesting, but in the end they are aware of their shortcomings and start working hard in the lacking part. The first and second seasons have distinct differences, even though sung by the same singer it's clear that the second season is better. "Faith" it seems that the title is familiar to anyone who has witnessed this spectacle. In every episode, even though it's often displayed, I'm sure you don't miss this one.

Alright, so I'm going to explain how Shield Hero endorses slavery, is completely devoid of intellectual or artistic value, and is irredeemable in any/all respects.

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The Setup:

The main character (Shield Zero) is transported to another world and has no good way to fight. He tries to recruit comrades, but the female adventurer that volunteers to accompany him betrays him, steals his equipment, and falsely accuses him of raping her.

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... The Response:

Feeling hurt, Shield Zero vows to exact vengeance on the people that made him look bad and hurt his feelings (no they didn't seriously harm him physically, or really do anything to him; they actually let him go). In order to exact this vengeance, he decides he needs someone to fight for him; he could try to become stronger on his own, but he quickly forfeits that option because that would require effort. Since he can no longer trust anyone (becwuz his feewings are hurt), he decides to purchase a slave.

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The Slavery:

Shield Zero purchases a child animal girl. Through a magical slave contract, he forces this girl to fight for him against her will. He then (unintentionally or not) brainwashes this girl into falling in love with him. This is so severe, that even when she is freed from her slave contract, she insists that Shield Zero reinstate the magical slave contract so that she is once again bound to his will.

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Proof of Slavery Endorsement:

Let's go over the chain of events:

1. Shield Zero arrives in alternate world.
2. Shield Zero acquires comrade in order to fight.
3. Shield Zero loses comrade in betrayal.
4. Shield Zero (supposedly) has no way to fight and is (supposedly) helpless.
5. Slavery is introduced.
6. Shield Zero purchases slave and uses slave to fight.
7. Story continues.

If slavery did not exist in this world, our Shield Zero would be royally screwed (according to his own self-victimizing logic), therefore, the existence of slavery is directly what allowed him to continue his journey and ultimately preserved his life.

Anyone in the show who is shown to criticize his slave ownership is portrayed as being stupid, selfish, and/or ignorant.

There are never any consequences for purchasing and using slaves.

Shield Zero is portrayed as a heroic figure time and time again. For a very short time, he is shown to be vengeful and therefore harsh due to his desire for vengeance, but never evil, and always righteous. He is also portrayed as being very kind, as he feeds and treats his slaves well; not well enough to avoid forcing them into battle, but better than they were being treated before.

His brainwashing of slaves is portrayed as kindness. I'd like to note that slavery is illegal in most of the world despite some people actually desiring to be slaves. It doesn't matter how well slaves are treated or even if they like their predicament. Slavery is unequivocally immoral, and is therefore illegal regardless of circumstances or individual desires.

This is made far worse by the fact that the slaves Shield Zero purchases are children, and are still forced to kill and fight against their will. There is little else in the world more evil than the mental and physical torture of children.

No, it does not matter that these children are okay with being slaves. Brainwashing is something that occurs in real life and is even more effective on children.

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The Message:

Shield Hero very strongly sends the message that slavery is okay, with a caveat: you need to treat your slaves well.

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Refuting Common Defenses:

You will often see people defending this show by saying that Shield Zero improves the lives of his slaves, and therefore, the slavery is justified. IT IS NOT. I cannot stress this enough, slavery is never justified. It is an unbelievably cruel and dehumanizing practice that still occurs in the world today. It's one of the most horrible things in existence and can never, EVER be justified. It is more unsettling to think that Shield Zero is supposed to be a regular Japanese 20 year old from our modern world. His values are supposed to be better than that; there is no excuse.

If you like this show, I'm not going to judge you. We all have our fantasies, but that's all this is: a child slave power fantasy. The artistic merit of Shield Hero is equivalent to that of loli hentai, and it has no intellectual value whatsoever. Keep in mind that the age rating for this show is 13+

I would like to make clear that it is not the depiction of slavery that is so unsettling here, it is the light in which slavery is portrayed that is utterly unsettling.

There are plenty of anime that display slavery; the difference is they do so with tact. Berserk and One Piece are two examples I can think of off the top of my head that handle slavery well. The depiction of slavery in those works is unsettling, yes, but it is not shown in a positive light, and is instead completely rejected and abhorred by their respective protagonists.

On one final note, I need to refute one last argument, because I know there will still be people yelling it at me and saying "HAHA GOTCHYA!!!"

A Real Argument I've Seen:
Just because Shield Zero is a bad guy doesn't make the show bad! Light from Death Note is a bad guy and that show is good, so you just don't like this show and that's why you say it's bad.

The Answer:
Yes... Death Note is good... but Light is portrayed as an absolute psychopath and despite his wishes, is recognized as the villain in his story. Shield HERO is the HERO; this isn't irony, or anything close, he's the hero of the story plain and simple. He's doing evil shit... as the hero who is portrayed in a positive light. That's the difference.

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Conclusion:

The Rising of the Shield Hero blatantly endorses slavery and is by far the most reprehensibly disgusting anime I have ever seen, and I've seen a shitload of anime.

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

1) The hook
A lot of people were really hyped during the early episodes of this anime because of a little thing called Outrage culture. Just like it happened with Goblin Slayer some seasons before, the touchy premise of fake rape allegations and pro-slavery themes triggered the social justice warriors. This in turn motivated the defenders of the light novel to write long essays for defending the anime. One of the usual excuses any fan says about any show he likes is how it’s a subversion. It ain’t like other isekai! This one is different! These fans were so vocal about it they managed to attract ... a lot of random people who got curious by the ongoing controversy. Before you know it everyone was watching and talking about the Shield Hero. And as usual what matters the most is the execution and not the initial hook or how popular a show is. Which is actually really funny when you look back at what they were saying and what the show ended up being. The hook of the premise, the same one that lured in so many people with fake rape allegations and pro-slavery themes, managed to enrage a lot and to keep them watching with a promise of justice porn. And by that I mean everyone was waiting impatiently for the protagonist to prove his innocence and make those who were responsible to pay. Something which he eventually does. Pretty easily I must say. And then most of those watchers lost their interest because they got what they wanted and the hook was no more.

2) The degradation of the plot
During the initial episodes, the plot was edgy, dark, and kind of depressing in tone. It begins to fall apart after the fourth episode by becoming another generic empowerment fantasy. Up until then nothing was easy and uplifting, but then it turns into a typical isekai full of every cliché in the book. Comic relief, fan service, cockblocking romantic advancements, easy victories, constant ridicule of the opposition, and non-stop ego-stroking.
-Naofumi’ shield was supposed to be weak and unable to be used for attack, but soon became able to cast every ability imaginable, and to have enough firepower for blowing up entire mountains.
-The girls Naofumi travels with, which were supposed to have depth and mental issues, constantly do typical fan service shenanigans. Going to hot springs, getting molested by tentacle monsters, never shutting up about how awesome Naofumi is, fighting over who gets to be his lover, and constantly yelling about how they can’t live without him.
-By the time you get to the half point of the first season Naofumi gets vindicated. His enemies, the vicious nobles who at first were sinister and sneaky in their plan to ruin Naofumi’s reputation, turn to complete idiots who exist to be constantly ridiculed. Their only defining features are being evil and idiots. It’s easy to get bored of them since they come off as incompetent and not as threatening as they did in the first episodes.
-The rival heroes who during their introduction were presented as super smart and calculative, quickly turned into complete idiots who can’t even walk without tripping over their own feet. Every single thing they do turns to a disaster and it’s up to Naofumi to clean after their mess.
-The world where nobody supports the Shield Hero, is quickly proven to be full of people who are constantly supporting him (peasants in need), wish to enter his team (soldiers during the monster invasion), defend him every time he is accused (queen’s spies), and even plot armor him when he is about to be killed (Fitoria).
-The notorious fake rape allegations, the bread and butter when it comes to this show, like it or not, ended up being just dumb people with power incriminating a person THEY summoned for helping them out. It was a cheap shot at victimizing the protagonist for making him sympathetic to the audience. Lots of shows do that and try their best to maintain the victimizing all the way to the end of the story. This anime doesn’t do that.

3) The protagonist

The initial impression you were given about the protagonist, was that he was not another overpowered self insert otaku and not everything in his second life in an isekai is rainbows and unicorns. He is not yet another neet otaku loser who gets transported to a different world that works like a generic videogame, gets ultra powerful very fast, and amasses a harem of pretty girls who all love him for being bland. Well, fancy that, he ends up becoming that as the episodes go by. Something you can’t forgive though, even if he is bland, is how he is entirely passive. Not a characteristic you want from any hero in any show. Naofumi is constantly told what to do instead of thinking for himself, and is then praised for doing what he’s told. So it’s basically double standards at play. The author can have him doing whatever he wants for the plot to move in any direction he fancies and is then retroactively proving him right for being passive. The author treats the protagonist’s actions like a heroic feat, when in reality he makes him comes off as a robot following a program imposed by others.
-Buying the slaves was not the protagonist’s idea, it was proposed by the slave merchant.
-Doing the missions that help the villagers was not his idea, it was the villagers asking for help.
-He did not want to be a team with the other heroes, the chocobo queen demanded it or she would kill him. Plus that archbishop dude wanted to kill them. He went as far as revealing his evil plans right in front of them. He became a common enemy of the heroes by wanting to kill them and they automatically became a team in order to take down this enemy.

Some elaboration on that last point. What really takes the cake is how besides being passive, the narrative is also constantly using double standards for every little thing he does, thus coming off as hypocritical. Naofumi’s idea of working together as a team comes down to mocking the very people he is supposed to work with as a team. The constant need of the author to provide justice porn contradicts what the protagonist is supposed to be doing. You don’t mock your teammates and then pretend you are a team player. In fact, you are not a team player if you were forced to enter a team.

4) The bad guys

The nobles and the clergy are very shallow as bad guys since they did all their evil fake allegations just because they didn’t like Naofumi. When Naofumi eventually gets vindicated he doesn’t even allow them to be punished with public execution. No, he saves their lives just for changing their names into slurs and having them being humiliated for life. That is apparently enough of a punishment if all the viewer cares about is constant humiliation of the protagonist’s enemies. It’s otherwise very childish and done that way for a revenge porn written with the mentality of a ten year old. Haha, let’s change the big baddie’s name to kaka doodoo and call her names all the time, haha! Beyond that, nothing changes in the evil princess’ behavior. After all the crap she did, she remains in the team of the Spear Hero despite humiliating him that way, and she still constantly tries to mess with Naofumi despite having her life spared and being given the chance to turn a new leaf.

Then there is the evil clergy which frankly do their best to contradict their very agenda.
-The cartoonishly evil religion hates the Shield Hero because the previous heroes of the same class were allied with the furry kingdom. So basically, they hate the current hero for nothing, since he didn’t do something to hurt them. He just belongs in the same class.
-The dogma of the cartoonishly evil religion is against the cute furry waifus, thus they seemingly justify their hate. And I say seemingly because they don’t, since the hate came before the Shield Hero had cute furry waifus. They hated him before he even got to have cute furry waifus.
-The Shield Hero was normally supposed to be summoned at the furry kingdom. The cartoonishly evil religion cheated and summoned him in their kingdom, so they can hate him. Which means, they have the nerve to blame the guy for forcefully appearing in the place they rigged for him to appear.
-If the cartoonishly evil religion hadn’t framed the Shield Hero, he wouldn’t be forced to buy cute furry waifus as aid in battles. So by framing him they got exactly what they were trying to avoid. And no, this is not smart writing by having a self-fulfilled prophecy. It’s backwards reasoning.
-The cartoonishly evil religion is also suicidal. Before the second monster invasion they had the excuse of not needing the Shield Hero for defeating the monsters. After the second monster invasion they clearly need the Shield Hero, because he’s the only one who is not incompetent. By continuing to slander the only person capable of defeating the monsters they effectively doom everyone, including themselves.
-The cartoonishly evil religion gets completely rewritten into a different organization. At first they needed to resort to slander against Naofumi, because they were unable to kill him directly. And then out of nowhere they have a magic weapon that is as powerful as the four heroes. Why were they accusing the Shield Hero all these months when their plan was to kill him? Everybody believes their lies, so there is no need for all this nonsense. Why didn’t they kill him all this time when they had such a powerful weapon and he was far weaker? Why were they hiding this super weapon and weren’t using it against the monsters? Why did they even need the heroes to save the world when they have weapons and chocobo waifus that are far more powerful than them? Why are the other three heroes considered blessed when they casually decide to kill them? Why do they have monarchy and not theocracy if they can casually kill the royal family in front of a thousand people and get away with it? There is absolutely no consistency.
-In general all villains are one dimensional jerks. They smile smugly, love to torture and kill innocents, and they do it for fun because they can. What a better way to justify your justice porn if not by having sadistic one-dimensional nobles who exist just to make you hate them and wish to see them dead. And obviously, the only one who can stop them is the self-insert protagonist.

5) The slave girls

The slaves in Naofumi’s harem have horribly rushed character progression. The author never gave them more than a single episode for growing up into the forms they maintain throughout the rest of the show. Because why should you spend years on properly nurturing anything? Just skip all the build up and go straight for the outcome. And by outcome I mean seeing them constantly antagonize each other over who gets to have the self-insert’s attention, like in any typical harem. Obviously the protagonist is written to be dense as solid rock and constantly ignores their flirting, since the age rating doesn’t allow to show sex. There’s Redo of Healer for that. By the way, isn’t it strange to have everything growing up so fast on this world, yet their lifestyle is the same one we have in a typical medieval world? Not even the world building feels right because of that.

Adding to that, whether they are slave raccoons, or birds from loot boxes, or random encounters with princesses in the wilderness, the protagonist’s allies are all cute girls who make every other male to be jealous of Naofumi. Did I mention how their ages range from 12 and all the way down to… a few months old? What does that say about the author’s sexual preferences? Let’s not ignore the fetishism of the show as many fans tend to do. It’s about a male slaver saving very young girls from other slavers, who are deliberately written to be one-dimensional evil rapists so the protagonist will be ‘forced’ to protect them by adding them to his harem instead.

6) The antagonists

Whatever issues you might have with slavery you can’t blame the show for having it if it’s doing a decent job at portraying it. But, as I stated several times already, the author keeps using double standards all the time, so everything comes off as disingenuous. Naofumi makes fun of the Spear hero for taking advantage of cute girls for adding them in his team, when his own team also consists of nothing else besides cute girls, whom he also took advantage of by buying as slaves. So basically, it’s ok when he does it and wrong when anyone else does it. Also, very conveniently, Naofumi’s furries do not correct him on this obvious hypocrisy and instead support him, while also making fun of the Spear Hero for doing the exact same thing thus only making the hypocrisy more obvious.

Late in the show, more heroes from a different world appear. They were constantly helping Naofumi and the rest to level up, defeat the monsters, and protect the people. Then all of sudden they want to kill everyone. The reason is so convoluted it becomes impossible to follow. They want to destroy this world, so the world they came from will be spared. It’s a lie, it will be destroyed anyways, but we need some sort of new fake allegations now that the justice porn is over. That aside, they are not fighting with the monsters so the world will be destroyed, they are fighting against the monsters which is the opposite of what they are here to do. So, the ‘logical’ explanation is, they are good people, they don’t want to kill innocents, they only want to kill the four heroes so the monsters will have nobody able to stop them. It’s another lie, because there are a dozen more people far more powerful than the heroes, so the monsters can still be stopped. And also, their sense of justice is so stupid they actually believe that if they only kill the defenders of the world they would totally not be responsible for the deaths of all those innocent people. Also, even if they are here to kill the heroes, they fight the monsters and help the heroes to level up and become harder to kill, although they are here to kill them. The ‘logical’ explanation for that is that they didn’t believe those four were the heroes they came to kill because they were too weak, so they might as well befriend them and help them get stronger, although it doesn’t matter because they are going to die anyways. So basically they befriend people they know they will eventually stab in the back. And obviously they couldn’t simply ask someone to confirm if they are the heroes; that’s too much work, man. It’s not like they are here to find and kill the heroes, thus their first question should be where they can find them. Literally everybody knows who the heroes are besides them. But wait, there is a ‘logical’ explanation even for that. They didn’t ask anyone to tell them where the heroes are because they had to level up first. You see when you cross over from another world the videogame logic of this stupid show dictates that you lose your levels because it’s a different videogame, so they had to grind all over again. Only when they were strong enough they felt like asking if they are the heroes and only then they wanted to kill them. And then they proceed to not kill them and to change their minds in the next season, thus dooming their world and making their trip here completely pointless. Don’t tell me all that are not completely convoluted, because they totally are.

7) Videogame (lack of) logic

The world of the isekai functions like a videogame, which is nothing uncommon, but it’s done in such a way that it makes no sense. The allegations which make up the whole conflict of the show could have instantly been proven false, if anyone had bothered to use a slave crest that forces the target to be truthful. The core conflict had no thought placed behind it since there is a way to fix it in a few seconds. The reason it didn’t happen so soon is because everybody was deliberately not mentioning the ability of the slave crests. The viewer had no idea they could be used that way and not a single character who knew about them pointed it out. The excuse in-story is that they are very expensive to use in a trial. And yet Naofumi used them three times on his waifus with no financial problems. Did you see any villages starving to death because of all the money he spent on drawing a few crests? Of course not, because they don’t exist.

Even the cost excuse falls apart when you take a step back and realize the setting is an oligarchy. The king owns everything in the kingdom, so it wouldn’t cost him a thing if he uses crests in a trial. I mean, he didn’t because that would prove he is a scumbag, but the fact remains. It doesn’t cost a thing to him. As it doesn’t for the queen, who used one in the trial without starving a million children. Essentially, the author had no idea how to prevent everyone from spamming crests and said ‘errr they are expensive I guess’ before allowing everybody to use them whenever it suits the protagonist and without any penalties. More specifically, when he enslaves waifus, and gets his justice porn by placing it on the bitch princess during the trial. Oh, now the cost is not an issue!

The funny part is that they didn’t need magical crests to force the bitch princess into reveal the truth. If they had bothered to ask the guy who sold Naofumi the armor, he would reveal the lies of the princess, since she didn’t find it somewhere and then gifted it to the Spear Hero. It was an armor Naofumi bought from the armorsmith and it’s now right before his eyes!

On top of all this mess, the dreaded videogame logic ruins even the concept of money in general. During the pilot episode, the heroes are given coins to buy their equipment. Why do they have to pay for anything? They were summoned against their will to save the world. Just give them the best available armor so they can save your sorry ass. An excuse could be so they won’t ruin the economy, but what good is money if they are all dead? And it becomes even messier later on, when Naofumi is constantly given stuff for free as thanks for helping people out. Also, turns out the magical weapons can literally clone anything for free. There was literally no need for money since day one, so what was the point of giving them coins? The author had no idea what he was doing, and he definitely did not thought of the economy collapsing because of it.

The videogame logic ruins even the need to have a team and go on missions. There is no need to do any missions, because there is nothing to actually gain from them.
-Some missions give them money, which they don’t need because their weapons can clone anything they want.
-Mundane stuff like food and drinks are free for heroes who are here to save the world.
-Monsters during missions give you experience points for leveling up, but there is no need to bother as there are special events where you can level up like crazy by beating trash mobs.

Dumb action
Despite the videogame terminology, everything constantly comes down to getting power ups in the middle of the battle by triggering a hidden ability, or turning to the power of friendship. What is the point in having rules, if powers come and go depending on what the plot says will happen?
-They try to make it seem like the backlash for using major attacks comes at a cost by losing enough blood to fill a swimming pool. Yet there is a scene where Naofumi casually waits defenseless for 5 minutes, as everyone else around him are busy talking to the queen than saving him, thus making it seem like his injuries are not serious. He can take it like a champ.
-The villains stand still while the heroes talk in the middle of the battle.
-The heroes use mostly long ranged attacks, even when their weapons are short ranged. This makes the battles dull, since they are just standing still and fire projectiles. It also makes the Bow Hero to seem like he got the crappiest weapon, since he is supposed to be the only one using arrows and be useless in close range.
-The three heroes use the exact same one attack all the time, making the battles repetitive on top of dull.

9) Slavery
Regarding the touchy subject of slavery, which caused the controversy and made the show so popular… it’s garbage. Naofumi was accused of owning slaves in a setting where slavery is legal and most nobles own slaves. Hypocrisy, anyone? It never gets any deeper than that, and eventually it’s just an excuse for harem shenanigans. No sir, Naofumi is not forcing cute girls to fight on his side, and is certainly not going to have naughty moments with them at the hot springs. He bought them! Plus, the slave chicks clearly state that they love being slaves. Raphtalia in particular is given her freedom when someone removes the slave tattoo from her body. But she immediately rushes to get another slave tattoo. On her boobs I need to point out, since we need fan service for this garbage to sell. This validates the victimized protagonist by having the cute animal ear waifu proudly stating how she loves being manipulated as a slave. You don’t want to disagree with a cute animal ear waifu, do you now? Look how cute she is and has a tattoo on her boobs, she can’t be wrong. And as simple as that Naofumi once again has the moral high ground to do whatever the hell he wants.

10) Plot armor
There is absolutely no tension in the show. The chocobo waifu plot armors Naofumi from the dinosaur, the spy woman plot armors the 2 heroes from the energy attack, the 2 heroes plot armor Naofumi from the Pope. There is never any sense of death in the show if they can survive all the time like that. And don’t get me started on why the Pope didn’t confirm the death of the 2 heroes before trying to kill the other 2, or how they never show how Sword and Bow survived the explosion. Eventually, even the queen plot armors the heroes from the church, and proves how the allegations were false by using a slave tattoo. Something everyone could have used since day 1. And essentially Naofumi didn’t have to do a thing for clearing his name. He could have sat on a bed for months and just wait for the queen to solve everything. There never was any urgency, there never was any actual threat, and he was plot armored from all sides.

11) Retroactive answers
Most of the illusion of tension in the story comes from the author omitting information from the viewer. Almost every conflict would be easy if we were told how slave crests work or how the weapons can copy everything without the need for money. Even the heroes from the other world would have an easy mission if they had asked who the heroes of this world are. The show constantly hides its problems by basically making everyone too stupid to ask about things that are free and known to most people. Furthermore it provides answers to mysteries that shouldn’t exist in the first place. Why should the way crests and weapons work be kept a secret in the first place? It’s counter-productive for what the heroes aim to achieve. As a literary device it works on people who have no critical thinking, since they will perceive it as a plot twist or a major revelation, instead of bad writing. Thus whatever complains you might have about the show are instantly shut down by the defenders, who will claim ‘you didn’t know that at first and it’s explained later in the story, thus your complaints are moot’. The thing is, nobody was watching the show just to get answers for what is going on with the monster invasion or why the church hates the Shield Hero. Everyone was watching the show for the revengeporn and the pedophilic memes concerning Naofumi’s harem. There was no mystery to solve and therefore late explanations did nothing to save face. Especially when they did not fix any problems and did not make the writing any better.

12) Everyone is dumb
This last point is a culmination of everything that is wrong in the aforementioned points I made. Every single character is dumb as rocks and self sabotages his own goals that way.
-The protagonist not telling the armorsmith to clear his name right away
-The king mentioning money when they are not needed
-The other heroes being morons who cause more trouble with whatever they do
-Raphtalia forgetting she had friends being tortured somewhere until she bumps onto them. Then she refuses to kill the slaver so she won’t be like him (although she is not a slaver so WTH?)
-The church hating the Shield Hero when they can’t survive without him (plus they already had a super weapon)
-In general, the civilian population is a bunch of sheep with no thoughts of their own. Throughout the series they believe everything they are told right away. And before some of you say that’s exactly how the real world is like, people don’t do a 180 in a couple of seconds. One moment they demand to see the ones responsible to be punished, and the immediate next they change their minds and renounce the religion they believed in for centuries just because the validated self insert that is Naofumi said a few mean words against their god.

And that is why the Shield Hero is a dumb show for dumb people that blew in popularity because of all the wrong reasons.

3S review no. 16 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy)

Let’s make one thing clear, once you start watching this show you simply can’t stop. You just have to find out how much more worse it can get. You just have to find out how bad can it be, and still get aired, let alone have this much success. It is truly a masterpiece, the best of the best at touching your feelings. While watching it I was constantly either laughing out loud, or being totally angry. Not for the reasons that the show intended to provoke my feelings, but, the result is what matters right?

Story is… typical ... isekai garbage with some extra trashy twists. Four heroes are summoned in another world to fight the waves of monsters. So it’s like a tower defense, wherever they are in the world, doing training or whatever, suddenly when the wave comes they get teleported there and fight. Fascinating. So, each hero has a special weapon, spear, sword, bow and shield. For whatever reason no one likes the shield hero, no one cares about him, they clearly believed they were better off without summoning him, yet the summoned him anyway, because… well no reason really. The shield hero is always someone who has no knowledge about the world he is summoned, yet the other three heroes have always played a game that works exactly the same as the world the got summoned (even if it has a different name because they all come from different worlds? Dimensions? Whatever), and all that happens for… no reason actually other than to push the underdog status on the shield hero even further, like the fact that he is the only one that can’t use an offensive weapon, and no one cares about him isn’t enough. That being said he is clearly overpowered and his shield is totally busted. So, he didn’t already have it bad enough, the kings first daughter, pretends to join his party, just to frame him and accuse him that he tried to rape her. He loses all his starting money and items and what a surprise turns into a (supposedly) badass edgy character to fight fr himself even though everyone hates him. Now, the king’s daughter did all of that for… no reason really, just to force even more adversity towards the MC. All of the adversity is completely fake and forced and makes the viewer (me at least) aggravated and infuriated by its cheapness and stupidity. The show’s writing is terrible, sloppy, boring, and insulting cause it’s cocky and pretentious. Every simple aspect of it, world building, plot, characters. Everything is awful. Example for the world build, towards the end of the season, there is an event that is happening on an island that is perfect for training. IT’S A DOUBLE EXP EVENT! And I am not even joking, it is not a video game though, they are not trapped in a video game, it is a real world, people die, yet it’ so sloppily constructed, so much little thought has been put into it, so you get this dirty, vague world, where nothing makes sense, yet everything makes sense for convenience purposes. Amazing plot example, episode 21, is the end of a major event, the hero party is at the castle, there is a ceremony and some really sad goodbyes and tears of sadness and joy. That’s how the episode ends. And in episode 22, right at the start, they get summoned at the castle and go right back there. And I am not even joking! Zero thought of effort goes behind anything in this show, they just threw in there whatever they thought would make it more sellable and intriguing for the audience.

Now, for the characters, there is one, only one good thing I can think of, so let’s get this out of the way. The fox-girl, the second leading character I guess, has the hots for the MC, for what it’s worth, this is justified, she developed her feelings during the show, it’s plausible and completely normal. And that’s about it. Every character in this show is either completely braindead, a total cunt, or in most cases both. Everyone, all of them. I don’t know how can one create such characters even if he tries. Characters example, episode 19, finally the heroes get together at last, the events that led up to that, cleared the constant misunderstandings up to that point and now everything should be crystal clear. AND STILL, MC just goes on a lecturing rampage explaining everything cause all of those clinically dead characters still hadn’t gotten it!!! Even the queen that is supposedly the smart one (have I mentioned that in this world there is matriarchy! So the queen is above the king. And the reason is… well no reason really, but you know, some people would find that interesting no?) is completely dumb. Like she decides to punish the traitors and sentence them to death. On the day of their execution (the execution she decided btw) she was expecting the Shield hero to step up and save them, which he did at the very last moment, otherwise she would have committed sudoku and plead to the hero to spare their lives offering hers in exchange. That makes a lot of sense right? Right… oh, btw, wanna know what was their punishment instead of death? They OFFICIALLY changed their names to Bitch, and Trash(or scum or shit, I can’t remember for sure) and everyone now calls them by that. I AM NOT EVEN JOKING. This shit happens, and you have to accept it with a straight face. And don’t get me started about the rest. Like the spear hero, I’m even amazed that he has survived thus far, and I don’t meant in the world of the show, I mean in the world he was summoned from, it has to be a very lenient world towards the completely braindead. At some point in the show, the hero gets a pet, a chocobo wannabe, a chicken, but ofc it can’t just stay a chicken, even the god damn fat chicken has to transform into a cute little angel girl, there wasn’t enough fan service already apparently. Enough already, cause I’m remembering all this shit and my blood starts boiling.

Animation is ok, average. Art style and character design is generic and uninspired.

Sound is ok as well, above average. Voice acting is mediocre, nothing stands out.

So, is it worth a watch? NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! Stay away at all costs. It is infuriatingly bad. At the end of the season, MC states that now is the true beginning and where it all starts. At least you got that right bud, that’s where it all starts because what came before this had absolutely 0 reason of existing and we may as well all pretend it never happened. I would not recommend this show even to my worst enemy, if you really do want just to watch a terrible isekai, you are better off watching Artifureta, at least that’s somehwat entertaining in its horribleness.

The shield hero is a postirony. You can't call it bad, because in fact it is supposed to be bad, and it does its job, therefore, because of its purpose, it is good.
The fact is that the main character ends up in a very bad fanfiction book created to pump money. The hero himself says about this that this book is a passerby. You have no right to call this anime bad, because the anime itself says so.
Naofumi is a simple anime guy, he's not smart, he's not stupid. However, in the anime, he seems to be the smartest person in the world, as the ... antagonists here are the dumbest people in the universe, with teenager-level thinking.
For some reason, in the world in which the hero fell, there are RPG mechanics, as in an MMORPG. This is strange, because the hero ended up in a book, and not in a game, but it's better not to look for logic in this anime. What is the value of Raphtalia's breasts changing their size, for no apparent reason.

I'm sorry. It's a pity.
I love the literary device where a character with a normal reputation accidentally loses it and has to restore it. However, the implementation of this in the anime is very poor.
It would have been much better if there had been an emphasis on Naofumi and Raphtalia's local adventures while revealing the world. Instead, the anime has a lot of bloody pathos for the sake of pathos, stupid antagonists who rule the world, and in general it's some kind of circus. Isekai stories have potential, but they do not use it, as it is not profitable.
This anime is very overrated, but on the other hand, it can entertain for 1 time. I don't know what happens in the continuation of the story, but there are rumors that everything is still 10 times worse.
However, thanks for your attention! I wish you enjoy anime.

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

This show had so much potential when it first aired (I did not read the lite novel) but after a friend nagged me into watching the current 18 episodes. I have found nothing enjoyable about this show apart from the OP (which is actually pretty good).

The "Story": (*SPOILERS*) I put "" around story because this show really doesn't have one. It started off with a good premise. Dude gets put into a game-ish world and gets falsely accused of rape. He is then cast out by his comrades and is rock bottom. Really good stuff for a show called Rising of The Shield Hero, since ... he has to start from bottom and rebuild his reputation. BUT! the show dismisses that after a few episodes like it never even happened. After about episode 4 things go downhill quick. Nothing of any meaning happens at this point. There's no plot or over-arcing story to be seen, Some of the most boring and anti-climatic fight scenes I've seen in any show, BORING characters, It has one or two decent episodes sprinkled in like episode 15 but that's about it.

Art: It's pretty generic, nothing stands out as pretty or anything but that's not a bad thing. It's not painful to look at but It's also not beautiful, just meh

Sound: Again nothing special. The First op is really good but the rest of the score is very generic. Which is sad since it is Kevin Penkin who did the Made in Abyss OST (which is amazing if you didn't know) and the sound of character abilities is boring, they have no oompf to them, forgettable.

Characters: Naofumi is both smart and dumb at the same time. He's a good judge of character one minute and terrible the next. He's okay as far as characters go but he doesn't stand out like other protagonists in other shows. Raphtalia is probably the only decent character in this show. She's also the only character who gets any development (Literally). Filo is annoying but you get used to it. Malty could've been a good character but she just turns into part of the harem girl #3. The other "heroes" are extremely ANNOYING. They are also 100% useless. The Redhead (cant even remember her name) is someone the show wants you to hate but just end up getting annoyed at the sight of her. She will give you a headache. All the other side characters are very forgettable and don't do anything for the "story".

Enjoyment: After the first few episodes and episode 15, I don't see how people get excited to watch this show week after week.

Overall: Skip it, if you want a show like this watch the following instead: Log Horizon (Very similar) Overlord (Very Similar) Sword Art Online... (This but somehow better) Anything else...

As Winter 2019's most popular airing show, it's kind of funny how the isekai genre as generic as people normally think of it can still be entertaining and creative even though the elements that you normally find in it aren't unique and just the common tropes. It's fun to see how the characters react and the resulting outcome as shown by Naofumi against the rest of society.

We're not that far into the story, though the past few episodes have been fairly strong from the start. While some people may see it as melodramatic or a cheap tug on emotions as the frustration from Naofumi gives ... a driving factor against the other heroes and betrayal of an initial companion, I found his actions reasonable since in his current state portrayed by the world's society there isn't much else you can really do.

Following the events after, there's a really nice moment on what happens when someone is being kicked while they're already down. It's not easy to think clearly when you're at a low point and with all the rage and despair at that point, you'd believe that no one is trustworthy. You needed something or someone to help you get back to your senses. That's where his only companion Raphtalia was there to let him know that she would stand by his side and be his sword. Do it for him!

Some may think that there's a set path for character development but just because it doesn't follow the standard doesn't mean it's not meaningful? People overcome their own faults and mistakes, we see Naofumi as in innocent victim but that's our view, we can't expect the other characters not associated with him to see this.

As far as the production quality goes, the art and animation are fairly good, however some dips in quality noticeable from more recent episodes. Music and OSTs are nothing short of spectacular as expected by Kevin Penkin. The overall story progression is fine, albeit considered a bit faster and less detailed than the light novel originally based off of.

If the isekai/game adventure genre is something you dislike then I won't bother recommending it, otherwise if you don't it's a pretty good watch.

(Also quick note that there are bot accounts negatively scoring some of this season's shows and upvoting negative reviews, such as this and Kaguya-sama, easily identifiable from the score stats so please be wary of that!)

Review contains Spoilers



To sum up Tate no Yuusha, it is nothing but a trash revenge story with a cumulation of pointless fillers and an ever-increasing harem – with obvious atrocious writing. The first few initial episodes did a great job of getting my attention. Although it touched sensitive matters like Rape and slavery – it was never a big deal.
The anime community is filled with shield hero memes, flaming discussions and constant best girl stuff that it is literally impossible for anyone to ignore it.


It starts off as our shut-in NEET teleported to an isekai – resembling another generic RPG based world. The ... plot is simple – four heroes are summoned from their respective worlds to fight against the waves in order to protect the realm. Our protagonist kun is supposedly the one with the shield while the other three heroes have cooler weapons. While the other three heroes were practically useless during the course of the story and did nothing that qualifies themselves to be called “heroes” while living in delusion that they are playing a game.
Starting with an RPG based simple setting – things get darker as our shield bro gets accused of Rape. From then, follows a series of wild accusations towards Naofumi from the Royals. Naofumi is wrongly portrayed as the enemy of the public by the royal family and the heroes follow the bandwagon without any actual evidence and logic. By these turns of events, the shield hero is made more morally grey – added with his personality, an interesting character but is never explored beyond that.


There's so much going on to break immersion, especially considering how they bill Naofumi at the start; he's someone who plays fast and loose with things like honor and morals as a response to the world boning him. And yet, we don't get to see that beyond the first few episodes. Everything that is interesting is forgotten in a matter of an episode.

The story focuses on corruption and justice at a surface level. The revenge themes presented is one dimensional, inconsistent character writing, obvious pacing and filler problems, and finally turns into a harem.

The pacing is atrocious, and I’m not even blowing away the proportions on this one. The whole hot springs episode? It was only there for the jealousy cliché, which was alright but beyond noticeable and could have been dealt with as a side plot rather than a whole episode dedicated to it. There is another beach episode in the latter end of the story. The entire Raphtalia backstory part two wasn’t necessary to the narrative and was literally forced upon in between a side quest. The bad guy was again a bad guy because bad guys are supposed to be bad, nothing else. A cartoonish personification of an evil dude because of money and corruption. The whole backstory stretched itself to around five fucking episodes with barely affecting the story or the characters. The only purpose it served was creating more hatred towards the system (which was against Naofumi) at a one-dimensional layer. Then we get to the pope part – who is another installment of “We have to wipe out the devil of the shield”, which again was boring and without any substance.

Also, what the actual fuck was the last episode. Most parts of the final arc was literally filler but the final 5 minutes were so rushed that we got a plot twist which made no sense in accordance to the rules that the anime has already set along with an underwhelming battle and an anti-climactic ending. All they did was throw wine at her and next minute they all leave and the waves over and they have a new person in the party in the span of 3 minutes. I'm still giving it a benefit of doubt considering these would be explored in a supposedly season 2 which I am definitely not watching.


The battles in shield hero severely lack dynamics. It’s like the heroes are arguing with each other over a course of a battle and the opponent does nothing. Battles seem flat and formulaic and not to mention – boring. The spell names are so long and stupid, over 5 minutes of a 20 minutes battle content would have been saved if they were shortened or simply, removed. The heroes are supposed to be heroes – the literal meaning yet they have done nothing extraordinary in terms of their talent. When in the rare case of a melee attack, it’s usually either one single weapon slash or a weapons clash, which is followed up by another long conversation. The constant ranged attacks which are literally the same all over are already boring, and now when the former happens, it ends as fast as it started – the whole generic thing with stupid ass convo during a battle. The whole rage/demon shield was supposed to be great if it actually had any negative impact that wasn’t negated by the harem crew simple hugging him every time.



Rapthalia’s whole character is based upon loving Naofumi, without any substance. Her character is based upon riding Naofumi’s sword more than being his sword. She is a cheap excuse of being a great waifu for lonely depressed weebs. Naofumi is a classic example of an MC who in real life would be so unlikeable that no one would hang out with him, let alone have girls fawn over him - pandering bait for those who think it is the world’s fault. Filo is just an annoying character with barely any personality. She exists as jailbait for the above context lolicons. Another addition to our shield bro’s harem is another loli, which, unfortunately, wasn’t much rememberable because of her whole character existing within the worst part of the anime. The entire character of the girls revolves around the shield hero– on top of that the same scenes over obsessing shield hero take over the half episode.


The “bad” guys in this anime remind me of Romanticism in literature. Back then, characters were walking allegories of singular traits they embodied. A character was so cartoonishly evil because they were the embodiment of... well, evil. Malty is a bitch, well for no reason. The king is inherently evil because of a small grudge, while which is still a better excuse. The spear guy is made into a stupid lolicon, and the other two heroes are just mary sues. It seems to me that everyone is made dumb just to get to the next plot point. The kidnapping plot – with the original assassination attempt, just ignore those two soldiers in the background holding a crystal ball towards you and chuckling evilly while you do nothing about it, then at the mansion, Naofumi is shown suspicious of basically everyone; and while they should keep watch because they’re in danger, he lets the children go wander off unsupervised. And then get surprised anyways. The character writing in this show is so inconsistent even in terms of a power fantasy trash novels. The list on how shield hero’s characters suffer from trash writing is Voluminous.

The art style is mediocre and nothing great in particular. To be fair I’ve never liked Kinema Citrus’ work and Kevin’s soundtracks. Kevin’s soundtracks were never rememberable in the anime. I watched the entirety of MiA but I never knew that the soundtracks were considered a masterpiece.



Tl;dr
the story in shield hero:
• every hero is stupid except naofumi.
• everyone hates naofumi even though he saves the people every time because they lack common sense.
• thousands of fillers and slowly turning into a loli harem.
• pacing is bad
• the writing is bad.
• Inconsistent character writing
• Boring fights with no sense of tension
• Malty finally gets punishment which wasn't really a punishment
• Another beach episode and Raphtalia wanting Naofumi's sword.
• Illogical ending.



Story/Themes/Pacing (25%): 2/10
Characters (15%): 2/10
Artstyle/Animation/Soundtrack (15%): 6/10
Enjoyment (45%): 2/10

Total: 2.6/10

The story seemed great at the beggining but all become into a dumpster fire when more lolis appeared in the show, and that's when I realized the characters have no chemistry between the viewer and the show. I can't feel anything for any of them. Sorrey waifufags but as a woman I can see the things in a more clear way. Okay, besides annoying lolis, this show also has a team rocket, who appeared every fucking episode doing some boring shit like bullies that run away when the good guy solves everything or btfo them. Also the fights were so boring as hell, art was ... close to zero. I mean okay, iron maiden's appearance was great but the rest of the fights? trash (no, not you trash, the other trash).

Moving onto the art, awful awful cgi, the parts that were supposed to look amazing were laughable the most part of the time, I can't believe I loose my time watching this show. Godzilla vs. Giant Bird was the cherry on the cake. The tense got lost and instead it made me laugh so hard and also I felt ashame of watching the show.

Characters, ok, I may have a problem, but I DISLIKE Raphtalia's character, unlike people that loves her character just because muh waifu raccon, muh loli, or waifu 1dimensional seasonal bait, I do dislike her. I used to think about her as a meh character when reading the manga and reading some WN spoilers but anime made her dirty specially in her character focus episode.
Naofumi, was well, at the begginig I felt pity for his fate and also maybe wanted him to find happiness BUT the show made me change my mind once the show advanced, OP shield? really? OP powers REALLY?! okay man I guess you don't need help much less the help of Raphtalia aka your sword since you have too OP powers, huh? well, have a happy life, you are not interesting anymore since also seems you forgave trash and slut for making your life miserable (at least at the beggining).

The rest of the characters are forgettable, I don't even remember well the name of the rest, I guess, I need to reread manga and try to read the LNs...At least the characters were more enjoyable in the manga.

The sound, well, I guess is okay. i heard the guy in charge of the ost was the same of MiA, yeah I guess that could be possible but definitely his work here was way too inferior from his work in MiA.

To sum up, If you want to loose your time and think watching a raccon girl is worth your time or maybe if you are a furryfag, slavefag, waifufag, etc. This show is for you. You won't be dissapointed. Also, what about taking note of this: That tight raccon girl is a 10 years old girl who also wants to impress her benefactor (her owner) by wearing swimsuits and making sandwiches. (That reminds me of a certain mary sue...)

I’m currently watching seven series of this season (winter 2019),tate no yuusha is the second or maybe the best airing right now, it reminds me of something beetween SAO and Re:ZERO.
The story is set in a fantasy world,where four people materialized from Japan.This guys are know as the four heroes that will save the world from wave of calamity. 9/10
The art is really good, not a perfect 9 but I will say an 8.5 that can become a 9 in the next episode.
Character: Naofumi is a really good protagonist(shield hero),Rapthalia is super cute, and they are developing in a good way. The other heroes as ... well. 9/10
I’m really enjoying watching this series, I think it can become even better.
I want to mention in this reviews the opening, oh boy! Madkid did it again, the opening is called "Rise", the rap part is really good. Sound 10/10
I hope that this series will go on being really good as it is now.

*Review contains no spoilers*

"Great production, loss of focus, lack of good characters" That basically describes Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari.

In my opinion, an anime that has excellent production but have nothing more to offer than the production is much worse than an anime that is just bad. Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari had real potential to be a great anime or even better. With good art, great animation, and a fantastic soundtrack, but with a lack of good characters and a plot that is just boring and randomly changing and with rushed pacing. This anime becomes a much worse version of what it could ... have been. It just saddens me to see all of this good production going to waste. Being bad is far better than being boring.

Let us talk about the best part first. The music is Astounding both openings could be easily considered one of the best in the season. The main theme is wonderful. Kansas, Mirrors, Autoroll and many other pieces of the soundtrack are incredible. definitely, a soundtrack that I and many are going to remember and come back for.

Other than that there is not much else to say about this anime. The plot was okay in the first 4 episodes I guess, but it just didn't know where it was heading. It felt like every 3 episodes have a completely new direction for the plot. Although an ever-changing plot could be great this one doesn't even come close to that. The pacing is garbage. There are almost no good characters. All of the characters are as generic as it gets. Which in turn makes the plot that has no chance of being developed even less intriguing.

I still don't understand what does the sitting of Isekai offer to a story like this. Isekai is an interesting setting when it used for the plot rather than just being a sale tag. For example, an anime like RE: zero uses the setting of an Isekai to have a plot revolving around the concept of "respawning" which made the plot much more interesting, on the other hand in Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari there is just no reason plot-wise to have the story in another world really.

To wrap things up. This anime had the potential to be great with its production value but even with all of that, the plot and the generic characters drag this anime down and make it an overall disappointment.

Started off with so much potential, but was sadly wasted with poor execution.

Story 6/10
It was actually pretty damn good at the beginning,but it started dipping from a certain point. Half way through, it felt like there was a totally different atmosphere, and the emotions it managed to stir up wasn't there anymore. Things just got repetitive, and it got to the point where I wasn't even excited for the new episode to come out.

Art 8/10
Decent, although not a fan of those CGI monsters running around.

Sound 7/10
None of the OST is particularly memorable, but the OPs and EDs were always good though.
...
Characters 4/10
Overly rushed development for Naofumi's character and relationship with Raphtalia at the start, leaving the rest of the show devoid of any sort of deep development they could've had. Everyone else, other than Naofumi's crew + Queen, is just straight up annoying af. I know it's the anime's intention to make them like that, but its really exhausting just looking at them and hearing their voices.

Enjoyment 6/10
I'd recommend starting this and see how it goes, but I won't promise you'll enjoy it from start to finish. If I wasn't watching this when it was airing, there's a chance I would've dropped or take a long brake from it.