Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari Season 3

After the absolute disaster that was Tate no Yuusha season 2 was, the only way this franchise could go was up, and luckily it did. Season 3 is an improvement in every way over season 2, and as a massive fan of the books I’d place it over the first season as well. Sadly, it may have been too little too late.

Tate no Yuusha took the anime world by storm in 2019 with a gripping revenge narrative, a cool world, a unique mechanic with the MC only being able to defend, an awesome Kevin Penkin OST and one of the most popular waifus in recent ... memory. The show seemed poised to break into the proverbial stratosphere as one of the mainstays of the anime community. I mean, not only did it get another season, but they announced two at once which was unheard of! This franchise was on top of the world. Then it all came tumbling down with an absolutely God awful adaptation in season 2. The biggest issues being adapting more books than the first season in half the time which inevitably led to awful pacing issues, and horrendous CGI.

Season 3 addressed those shortcomings by only adapting 2 books over 12 episodes, which was actually better pacing than season 1. This allowed for characters to be introduced and fleshed out a lot better than in the last season. The show plays out a lot slower than before as result. We actually get some nice intimate moments with Naofumi and the new characters. For me personally, the books that this season and a potential 4th season are adapting, are my favourite in the series so I’m a little biased here. This is really when this series starts to become peak. Not to mention the best girl(Atla) being introduced. I really enjoyed the instant impact that she and her brother had on the story and how they interact with Naofumi, Raphtalia and the others. And of course, you can’t forget new faces like Shadeena and S’yne.

This season cleaned house from last season and has totally different staff and directors involved. A rather peculiar situation where there’s 3 directors actually. It worked out for the best though, as the direction is noticeably improved, scenes flow better and you have plenty of time to actually understand what’s going on. Unlike in season 2 and 1, it’s apparent that the staff have actually read the books and care about the source material. They know what to emphasise and focus on, and more importantly what scenes are meant to convey. While the season is not as action packed as season 1 for example, I think the characters and world building more than make up for it.

Now, my biggest issue with this season is not really a knock on the anime specifically, but the writing in general of two of the main mini arcs in this one. They’re extremely repetitive and revolve around Malty. By now we’ve all realised what kind of person and character she is, so seeing characters continue to fall for her tricks one after another is a little boring. Luckily those were only a few episodes, but even when reading them didn’t enjoy those parts of the story.

The production values are massively improved on this season 2. There’s only really noticeable CGI during one big fight towards the end of the season, but it was pretty decent. The art and animation generally look amazing, much sharper and more refined than last season. It’s very clear Kinema Citrus put their A team on this and it paid off.

Look, I’m going to be honest. What made this franchise really appealing for a lot of people was Naofumi getting screwed over and going out for revenge. Now that that’s kind of gone, this may not be the story for you anymore. I won’t call it generic, but it’s definitely not the same type of story the first 20 episodes or so of season 1 was, and it’ll never really be that again. I personally enjoy the characters, the world, conflict against the waves and other lore about this story the most, so even without the edgy revenge goal, I’m content.

Here’s to a hopeful 4th season..

Tate no Yuusha gets 8, out of 10

Of all of the nearly limitless isekai out there, Shield Hero always seemed like it stood out from the rest. In hindsight, even early on it did not do all that much differently than other isekai, but it was the first time I saw the revenge subplot executed decent enough. Because the author was able to create such a gripping and interesting story in the first season, I was excited to see what they would be able to cook up in the next seasons when revenge and retribution were no longer the goals of the Shield Hero. Needless to say, the second season was awful, ... but the third season seems to have gotten at least a little bit better.

Before getting into the gripes, it’s important to give credit to Shield Hero where it is due. Compared to the lackluster animation and hilariously bad CGI of Season 2, Season 3 is a breath of fresh air animation-wise. Although definitely different compared to Season 1, the character designs are nice and the overall art style looks great. Kevin Penkin returned to compose music for this season, and although the tracks didn’t have the same effect on me as earlier ones, they were good nonetheless and enhanced the experience.

The main problem with Shield Hero now is the direction of the plot. Ever since the end of the revenge storyline, and more so after travelling to Kizuna’s world in the second season, it does not feel like the story is going anywhere. Naofumi just keeps expanding his slave harem and events in the story just happen for what feels like no reason. There is definitely a trend throughout this season of finding the other heroes and getting them to reform, and I enjoyed seeing that with Ren the Sword Hero, but none of it is going anywhere. There is just this looming threat of some sort of strong Phoenix monster that does not feel threatening at all due to the audience knowing little about it.

The new characters also do not feel important to the story and only serve to detract attention from the pre-established ones. Sadeena felt important, but only for a few episodes. Fohl and Atla seemed like major characters, but Fohl was just shafted to the side and made to be a weakling while the illness-stricken tiger loli Atla was buffed to the max and cemented as another piece of Naofumi’s harem. Oh yeah, and they’re both slaves. This author seems to be unable to introduce characters without making them Naofumi’s slaves, which continues to make the story less enjoyable. Wyndia was important for the fight against the dragon, but ultimately loses her purpose afterwards.

But it wasn’t enough for these new characters to be dull and bland: they also had to take away time from the old ones. This would be fine if the new ones were interesting and developed, but they aren’t, so that makes the lack of screen time from the older characters that much worse. Raphtalia is still here, but more one-dimensional than ever. Filo this season felt like another kid in the village more than a core part of Naofumi’s party. Melty was just… sort of there. Rishia was supposed to get some development this season, but the lack of build-up and actual change we see prior to her big moment makes this feel like it came out of nowhere. One of the only old characters that I felt actually got good development was Ren; his genuine regret at events that happened multiple seasons ago allow for his character to be transformed into a proper hero.

Overall, the third season of Shield Hero was something that exceeded my expectations, but those expectations were so low that this isn't really anything remarkable. Although not quite reaching the same heights as the first season, it was enjoyable and a good apology for the travesty that was Season 2. Hopefully the next season (if we get it) turns out better, as the arc they're set to adapt has an interesting premise.

Second chances are typically so rare in the entertainment industry. This is only natural considering that creative writers are always bidding for the favor of the audience, so massive flops generally turn into IP suicide as audiences are quick to fuck off to the next big thing. However, a rare second chance is precisely why you and I are watching the third season of Shield Hero, and at the end of it all, I can genuinely say that this series thoroughly squandered this opportunity to correct the absolute stinker of the second season.

I’m not even going to pretend that this season is downright ... terrible, in fact, it's actually best described as being just another run-of-the-mill anime in the fantasy genre; a claim that becomes practically damning when you consider that the aforementioned genre is thoroughly oversaturated with anime just like this. You see, this season of Shield Hero primarily focuses on establishing and developing more characters and story elements to be cashed in later on in the series, which is usually a good thing for any anime trying to develop into a higher-quality work. However, in the case of this season of Shield Hero, both the character and story development is ok at best and frankly, shitty at worst.

A small aspect of this is Naofumi, a protagonist who apparently needs little to no character development this season, as he already received all of the development he needed in the first season. This is a fairly annoying trend surrounding the 4 characters from Naofumi’s party that you actually care about. The character development that Naofumi receives essentially turns him into a Christ figure who wants to “free the slaves” and give “prosperity to the entire kingdom” through the exponential growth of his commune for his slaves, friends, and subordinates. This endeavor causes Naofumi to lose a decent amount of impactful screen time: when does receive some, it at times walks back upon the abrasive personality traits that defined him in the first 2 seasons, sort of diluting what made him unique when compared to the standard fantasy protagonists. However, I don’t believe that this hurts this season that much; Naofumi is still the clear bright spot in this series, admittedly dimmed by the shit around him.

Unfortunately, the commune’s new inhabitants don’t really do much for the story. Sadeena and Syne seemingly have some promise, but they spent the majority of the season just chilling around the village, adding flavor text occasionally to remind the audience that they still exist, so they can have a triumphant moment when they eventually land a hit on the raid boss at the end of the season. Additionally, there are also some other recurring demi-human inhabitants that just exist as stock characters for scenes that show the progress that Naofumi’s commune is making.

The only members of the commune that are of any significant narrative importance are Fohl and Atla: demi-humans with “high potential” or something like that makes them stronger and worth training. They do get a small bit of backstory explaining how they were abandoned, which is appreciated, but it would be even more appreciated if their development was more complete. I’ll take what I can get, but this unveils one of the bigger issues with Naofumi’s commune: with such a big character cast (and more characters being introduced throughout the story), these new characters just never had a chance to have any sort of significant development in a fast-paced 12 episode anime. This naturally calls the “fast pace” into question, as it's possible that we could’ve seen some high-quality character development without it, but I digress.

A running theme with the arcs that comprise this season is that all of them sound really interesting on paper, but in reality, they are usually not fully realized, or if they are, it's done in such a way that just screams asspull. For example, the tournament arc was a major aspect of the season’s promotional art, which gave me the inkling that it would be an impactful part of the season. 2 episodes and 1.5 out of 5 meaningful fights later, and I’m left with mild disappointment as I realize this arc was just a poor excuse to establish a group of side characters who are not nearly as impactful to the story as they were made out to be. Another example of the latter is the “Zombie Dragon Arc” where the entire setup for the eventual battle only occurs because Naofumi and all of his subordinates decided to turn off their brains for an afternoon, allowing Mega-Charizard X to wreak havoc.

That description doesn’t nearly do this arc the appropriate justice, as it may have been the dumbest thing I’ve seen throughout this entire anime, which is saying a lot. These arcs range from disappointing to downright stupid, but honestly, they were probably the two arcs I enjoyed the most this season, despite their numerous fuck ups. The arcs concerning the Cardinal Heroes however were completely non-offensive and borderline irredeemable.

This season, the Cardinal Heroes finally receive their long-awaited character developments that elevate them from essentially being clones of each other with slightly different personalities established through their past experiences. The result? A heinous waste of potential and the destruction of all three of them as potentially nuanced and competent characters on the level of Naofumi. First is Motoyasu, who doesn’t actually receive a large extent of character development, instead getting over his Malty-caused funk through the prospect of one day marrying Filo before he mysteriously fucks off from the plot in any meaningful way until its time to fight the Phoenix. Turning Motoyasu into a glorified gag character when he deserves actual character development is an… interesting choice, but I won’t knock it because we have two more Cardinal Heroes to evaluate.

Next, we have Ren, who somehow gets tricked by Malty who preys on his deepest insecurities to manipulate him. Influenced by this, he dons a stupid new antihero getup related to those insecurities and starts attacking people for money. Eventually, he runs into Naofumi and friends, who try to convince him to join their cause. After denying this offer, he gets beat up by a woman who deeply cares about him as established in earlier seasons, receives a bit of character development through a short backstory, and officially joins Naofumi’s team.

Then we have Itsuki, who somehow gets tricked by Malty who preys on his deepest insecurities to manipulate him. Influenced by this, he dons a stupid new antihero getup related to those insecurities and starts attacking people for money. Eventually, he runs into Naofumi and friends, who try to convince him to join their cause. After denying this offer, he gets beat up by a woman who deeply cares about him as established in earlier seasons, receives a bit of character development through a short backstory, and officially joins Naofumi’s team.

If you didn’t notice, those are literally the exact same paragraphs with Itsuki and Ren switched out. I don’t think I have to tell us this, but repeating the exact same character arcs for two very similar characters isn’t a good idea, as it cheapens both characters’ developments while being pretty boring to watch from a viewer's perspective. Overall, the handling of the Cardinal Heroes has an overtly negative impact on the series as a whole. It thoroughly squanders the potential for them to become thoroughly interesting characters. It cheapens Malty as a manipulator, as her success with the other Cardinal Heroes can only be explained by every character besides her being a dog who gets tricked by you holding the ball behind your back, or her having some sort of psychic powers to force you to do whatever she says. Finally, it makes Cardinal Heroes less realistic as people, as each of their insecurities is so over-exaggerated that they genuinely feel like caricatures of the characters that they are actually supposed to be.

Not to mention, these arcs weren’t well written in terms of entertainment, so they also served as some of the most nonsensically boring moments of the show, which isn’t necessarily conducive to a good anime, especially when you consider that it takes up half the season’s screen time. Granted, I will give Itsuki’s sequence credit, as it did give some decent character development to Rishia, a character that sorely needed it. However, overall, the attempted development of the Cardinal Heroes is really the worst aspect of this season, and when you consider that the above complaints all concern different aspects of the season that I consider to be mid to bad, it really calls into question what exactly does this season do right.

For all of the hating that I have done in this review, I can’t deny that all of the aspects pertaining to production were done extremely well. The animation and slightly new art style perfectly fit the anime, the soundtrack, op, and ed were really good, and there were no delays (a fairly impressive achievement in this age of anime). Still, this season of Shield Hero doesn’t reach the peaks necessary to escape the valley created by the second season. While it does have some bright spots, particularly in Rishia’s and Atla’s character development, those are outweighed by the sheer amount of shit it does wrong. It fails to provide meaningful character development to so many deserving characters, in part due to poor pacing. It fails to be competent story-wise, as many of the arcs are nonsensical or boring and monotonous. Finally, The character development provided to the Cardinal Heroes backfires in a way that almost ruins the 4 characters that had the most potential to become actually interesting. At the end of the day, although I almost exclusively spoke negatively about this anime, there were aspects of it that I did enjoy. However, this did not allow it to be comparable to the first season: something that was absolutely mandatory for it to be considered a reversal of the second season’s mistakes. Maybe one day, we’ll get a season that will finally be a return to form, so that the Shield Hero can rise again.



Thank you for reading, and someone please find me some less corny lines to end my reviews with.