I might as well talk about the show’s biggest strength first--since I want people to actually read this instead of getting salty and closing the page on the second paragraph. This show is aggravating; it is nauseatingly frustrating. This is due to the fact that everything goes wrong for the main character. Episode one was literally every conservatives worst nightmare: having an innocent man’s life ruined just because a woman accused him of harassment without a formal investigation and trial. Just imagine if the Brett Kavanaugh trial went down like this, C-span would’ve gotten more views than the Crunchyroll anime awards. All jokes aside, this show keeps piling own garbage Naofumi (the MC) has to deal with. This makes it very easy to root for him because of how unfair things are for him. It is the same feeling as watching a fighting game and rooting for the guy playing a low tier.
This feeling of vexation did keep me watching; however, the events that lead to such feelings were not all that good. What I mean by that is the show went so far out of its way to demonstrate how Naofumi is less than his peers and the people around him, that it became hard to take it seriously. Take the scene were he and his peers introduce themselves to the king for Example: the king can clearly see that there are four men standing before him, yet he ignores the MC? He has no reason to do that other than to victimize the MC for the audience. To make matters worse, the MC’s reason for being sent to another world is to aid the king in battle, so why would the king be rude to someone sent to help him? Does he want Naofumi's help at all? If his kingdom was truly threatened, he’d take all the help he could get. That is just one example of how the show goes so far to exaggerate the MC’s victimization. I am not even counting how the show makes his abilities out to be worse than Melee Kirby when he is clearly just as capable as his peers, which is demonstrated in episode four.
So basically, the show’s greatest strength is just a feeling that is created via melodrama and arbitrary, contradictory worldbuilding. Since I like offering solutions to go alongside my criticism, I’d suggest that this show desperately needs some subtly. I am not in the Quentin Tarantino cult or anything; regardless, I think it is safe to say this show could’ve taken some notes from his films. In the opening scene of Inglorious Bastards (the only good scene), Tarantino was able to display a difference in power between two characters with just body language and dialogue alone. If Shield Hero stopped exaggerating his lack of strength and took out all the forced dialogue and replace it with more subtle dialogue showcase the MC’s insecurities, the show could be pretty nice. And if the MC’s struggles comes from a place of personal limitations like shyness, the frustrating that will occur when things don’t go his way will come from a place of empathy for a fellow human--rather than pure anger.
The characters in this show are quite bad to say the least. A pet peeve I have is when an Isekai has its MC transported to another world too soon. The Vision of Escaflowne took a full episode to show its main character before she was sent off to another world. Moreover, the sight of Hitomi getting sent off to another world is all the more meaningful after seeing what her life is actually like and what she will be missing. Shield Hero was so lazy that the MC got sent to another world in under three minutes of episode one. The only characterization we got for Naofumi was internal monologue saying that he’s a basic otaku. If a show is this lazy towards its MC’s characterization, then it is safe to assume that the rest of the cast is doomed to be boring talking faces. And they pretty much are so there is really no point in discussing them--not to mention that this show turns into a boring harem.
This show’s themes actually have the potential to be really nuanced and profound. The stuff about him being an underdog is boring and nothing new. Not bad, but not the good stuff. On the other hand, what this show tries to tackle with its depiction of slavery is something else though. I referenced Kanye West in my opening paragraph because of his quote “When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” When I first watched this show, it felt as if Japan felt bad for Kanye’s bad articulation and made an anime to clarify his points. But I digress. Kanye’s views on slavery are actually more nuanced than his poor articulation would lead one to believe. The relationship between Naofumi and his slave Raphtalia perfectly depict what kanye was talking about: Raphtalia adjusted to her life with Naofumi so much to where she saw her slavery as just life rather than slavery. Obviously, real life slavery is not as pleasant as this show makes it out to be, and I am of course not advocated for slavery since I am a liberal. However, the idea that being a slave makes people see it as life rather than slavery is an interesting one to explore nonetheless. If you want to hear more on the topic of slavery, here is a discussion on it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-3in7shk0&t=1888s).
Despite the show having potential for good themes, the stuff they do go over is done in a vary juvenile way. Episodes four and five is where the slave talk reaches its peak.. During these episodes, the morality of slavery is brought into question. The MC argues that he is treating his slave right and giving her food and water; therefore, he is morally alright to keep her the way she is. Fun fact: in ancient Egypt, people at the bottom of society would choose to be slaves for the same basic protections, here are some sources (https://study.com/academy/lesson/facts-about-slaves-in-ancient-egypt-lesson-for-kids.html) (http://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2013/01/voluntary-slavery-ancient-egyptians-paid-a-monthly-fee-to-become-temple-slaves.html). With that tangent aside, the other guy arguing with him literally just brings up the topic of slavery just as an excuse to fight him. And that’s about it. In all honesty, I am a little insulted that a show with interesting themes would waste them just for a lame fight.
Since I am done sounding like a mad man ranting about Kanye in an anime review, I’ll quickly go over some other things about the show and why they’re not good. The world he goes to has this thing called the apocalypse that forces all the main characters together. This is a lazy plot device to bring characters together that would normally have no reason to be together otherwise--so basically like highschool in anime. The show is a harem and not the good kind. The good kind being the girls all have a genuine reason to like the guy. In this show, Naofumi literally hatches an egg and a waifu comes out, and I am supposed to take this show seriously. The animation and sound are bland, not much else to say there. Basically, I could've just said this show is vanilla isekai trash and saved myself a lot of time.
To conclude this, Shield Hero is not good. I mostly used this show as an excuse to share my thoughts Kanye out--because we all know Shield Hero isn’t deep enough to say anything about it. In my book, this show gets a two; it is of no intellectual value, and it gets boring after the frustration leaves and the harem shows up.
If you think I am a jerk for making you read two paragraphs about Kanye just to then give your favorite show a two, then check out my twitch (I have a working link on my MAL profile) and call me out for it. I am surprisingly cordial and am very open to hear what you guys have to say. So if you catch me live, during one of my live anime analysis or melee sessions, ask me anything I'd happily respond. Or if you want to talk in private, (another_Fiend#2240) I got a discord. Have a nice night, hope to hear from you. Peace.
