Private Entry
March 28th, 2020
Old Reviews
Anime Relations: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
REVIEW: THE RISING OF THE SHIELD HERO
[Intro]
"You've changed, man"
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari promised to be different from all of the other anime in this tired, uninspired genre. From the start, the show made clear that this was going to be a dark tale of a man betrayed. Unfortunately, the only ones who ended up being betrayed were the viewers who, week after week, checked in to an increasingly generic piece of shit anime. To be clear, I really did like this show in the beginning, but after episode 4, the show began to plummet in quality. I've rambled enough, it's time for the professional tirade.
[From Subversion to Tropey Trash]
As I wrote in my now-retired episode 14 review, this show started out on the right foot. The only way that this subversion could have been better is if the synopsis didn't completely spoiled it- but I digress. It wouldn’t have really mattered anyway since the show devolved into boring harem-bait soon after this success. This seems to be the trend in "dark" anime. Ever since Re:Zero popularly turned escapist fodder into nightmare fuel, the industry has been making half-hearted attempts to Re:create that feeling of dread. Unfortunately, these anime don't have the balls (nor specific plot intricacies) to pull off such a move. For example, in Re:Zero, Subaru can respawn at one of his autosaves. This means that the stakes are overall pretty low to the audience, but to Subaru the fear is real. The problem with shows that attempt Dark-Isekai is that the market isn't always there, so the writers don't fully commit just in case. In Shield Hero, the show starts off by killing Naofumi's hope- but then nothing. Naofumi is allowed to run from his problem so instead of creating a constant atmosphere of disdain, Kingdom & Associates just sort of check in on him every now and then. This completely nullifies the power of the inciting incident at the tone's expense.
[Not Art]
What is going on in the anime industry? In 2007, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was graced upon the human race by whatever anime god was watching over us. Now that god is dead and as proof, we have this ugly, piss-poor disgraceful piece of animation. How is it that Gurren Lagann looks better than a show airing in 2019? Please tell me. There are now people on YouTube who show higher animation prowess than these "professionals". Now, to be clear, it's fine for an anime to have static shots. Due to financial constraints, it would be a foolish decision to put an equal amount of effort into every frame, but there is a caveat to this rule: if you don't animate the unimportant frames, you at least have to animate the important ones. Unfortunately, the animation staff for this anime is pocketing their funding and instead creating a slideshow presentation that still receives an 8/10 because the anime community is (r-word).
[Sound]
Nobody watches any OP that isn't JoJos' or Mob Psycho 100's- everybody knows that, don't even try to lie about it. In terms of voice acting, the moe-and-generic-loli characters have grating voices. I would forgive this since, according to her bio, Filo is <1-year-old (some serious "FBI open up" shit) and Melty doesn't talk lest she's assigned exposition duty- but I won't because I hate this show. Yeah, fuck you, I'm biased. This reopens past wounds for me so I will show it no mercy.
[Characters.exe]
There are only three good characters in this show: Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Elhart. All of the other characters are animated incarnations of fantasy tropes. Filo is the essential loli. Melty is the team-switcher. Kingdom & Associates are all assholes, whether misguided or not. It didn't necessarily have to be like this though. It would have been interesting to see at least some character development on the side of the other three heroes, but alas, good writers are hard to come by.
I honestly would still find this anime watchable if I got any insight as to what the other heroes are thinking at any time. I know why they don't swap perspectives though. It's pretty simple: the story would fall apart too soon if that was the case. I mean, if any of the heroes showed introspectivety, the inciting incident would be revealed as a lie too soon for this trash to make its money's worth. It's made obvious in the few encounters with the heroes that they are actually rational truth-seekers, so this would make sense too. The writers falsely believe that if they ignore the topic, so will I. Maybe the general audience of SAO bootlickers will be willing to overlook such a glaring plot hole, but I'm smarter than the average weeb.
[Two-Season Letdown]
I stayed for most of the ride, but now is my time to abandon ship. Hey, maybe it'll be the case that the show gets better by the end, but I seriously doubt it. From what I've seen so far, there is no hope for this anime. It's just another lazy cash grab riding off of the popularity of the Isekai genre. The worst part for me is that I let myself down. For the briefest moment, I let my hype overtake my skepticism and gave credence to the idea that this "maybe one will be different". An industry like this one where ignorant audiences will use exclusivity as an excuse to promote mediocrity will never change. Things are only going to get worse from here on out. We've already seen what happened to OPM2. A masterpiece's reputation is used to make a little dough. Why put effort into something when you can sell mediocrity as the highest standard? It makes sense, though. It's just business after all.
[Intro]
"You've changed, man"
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari promised to be different from all of the other anime in this tired, uninspired genre. From the start, the show made clear that this was going to be a dark tale of a man betrayed. Unfortunately, the only ones who ended up being betrayed were the viewers who, week after week, checked in to an increasingly generic piece of shit anime. To be clear, I really did like this show in the beginning, but after episode 4, the show began to plummet in quality. I've rambled enough, it's time for the professional tirade.
[From Subversion to Tropey Trash]
As I wrote in my now-retired episode 14 review, this show started out on the right foot. The only way that this subversion could have been better is if the synopsis didn't completely spoiled it- but I digress. It wouldn’t have really mattered anyway since the show devolved into boring harem-bait soon after this success. This seems to be the trend in "dark" anime. Ever since Re:Zero popularly turned escapist fodder into nightmare fuel, the industry has been making half-hearted attempts to Re:create that feeling of dread. Unfortunately, these anime don't have the balls (nor specific plot intricacies) to pull off such a move. For example, in Re:Zero, Subaru can respawn at one of his autosaves. This means that the stakes are overall pretty low to the audience, but to Subaru the fear is real. The problem with shows that attempt Dark-Isekai is that the market isn't always there, so the writers don't fully commit just in case. In Shield Hero, the show starts off by killing Naofumi's hope- but then nothing. Naofumi is allowed to run from his problem so instead of creating a constant atmosphere of disdain, Kingdom & Associates just sort of check in on him every now and then. This completely nullifies the power of the inciting incident at the tone's expense.
[Not Art]
What is going on in the anime industry? In 2007, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was graced upon the human race by whatever anime god was watching over us. Now that god is dead and as proof, we have this ugly, piss-poor disgraceful piece of animation. How is it that Gurren Lagann looks better than a show airing in 2019? Please tell me. There are now people on YouTube who show higher animation prowess than these "professionals". Now, to be clear, it's fine for an anime to have static shots. Due to financial constraints, it would be a foolish decision to put an equal amount of effort into every frame, but there is a caveat to this rule: if you don't animate the unimportant frames, you at least have to animate the important ones. Unfortunately, the animation staff for this anime is pocketing their funding and instead creating a slideshow presentation that still receives an 8/10 because the anime community is (r-word).
[Sound]
Nobody watches any OP that isn't JoJos' or Mob Psycho 100's- everybody knows that, don't even try to lie about it. In terms of voice acting, the moe-and-generic-loli characters have grating voices. I would forgive this since, according to her bio, Filo is <1-year-old (some serious "FBI open up" shit) and Melty doesn't talk lest she's assigned exposition duty- but I won't because I hate this show. Yeah, fuck you, I'm biased. This reopens past wounds for me so I will show it no mercy.
[Characters.exe]
There are only three good characters in this show: Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Elhart. All of the other characters are animated incarnations of fantasy tropes. Filo is the essential loli. Melty is the team-switcher. Kingdom & Associates are all assholes, whether misguided or not. It didn't necessarily have to be like this though. It would have been interesting to see at least some character development on the side of the other three heroes, but alas, good writers are hard to come by.
I honestly would still find this anime watchable if I got any insight as to what the other heroes are thinking at any time. I know why they don't swap perspectives though. It's pretty simple: the story would fall apart too soon if that was the case. I mean, if any of the heroes showed introspectivety, the inciting incident would be revealed as a lie too soon for this trash to make its money's worth. It's made obvious in the few encounters with the heroes that they are actually rational truth-seekers, so this would make sense too. The writers falsely believe that if they ignore the topic, so will I. Maybe the general audience of SAO bootlickers will be willing to overlook such a glaring plot hole, but I'm smarter than the average weeb.
[Two-Season Letdown]
I stayed for most of the ride, but now is my time to abandon ship. Hey, maybe it'll be the case that the show gets better by the end, but I seriously doubt it. From what I've seen so far, there is no hope for this anime. It's just another lazy cash grab riding off of the popularity of the Isekai genre. The worst part for me is that I let myself down. For the briefest moment, I let my hype overtake my skepticism and gave credence to the idea that this "maybe one will be different". An industry like this one where ignorant audiences will use exclusivity as an excuse to promote mediocrity will never change. Things are only going to get worse from here on out. We've already seen what happened to OPM2. A masterpiece's reputation is used to make a little dough. Why put effort into something when you can sell mediocrity as the highest standard? It makes sense, though. It's just business after all.
Posted by ShaIIot | Mar 28, 2020 5:18 AM | 0 comments