Let me start off by saying, I absolutely love watching Shield Hero. The exciting moments make it completely worth the watch.
After the first episode of Shield Hero, I was blown away by how masterful the introduction was. It showed signs of promise that this would be an anime that would soar through the 'Top Anime' list, due to how enjoyable & breathtaking this anime was: a 40 minute episode to remove the melancholy of waiting for the second episode, attempting to capture the desire to remain loyal to this series.
In this episode it shows feats of betrayal, despair & isolation, a telltale sign that befitted the name 'The Rising of the Shield Hero'. They had the chance to show how real story-telling prowess, character development and plot progression can make an anime find a home in your heart, rather than a mere 'yeah I love shieldbro, it's sick fam'.
I've never seen a first episode as attractive & as inspiring as the first episode of Shield Hero's, it left me hoping & praying that it would follow through and not stoop down on its wonderful streak of great episodes...
Story (6/10) - Closer to 5 than a 7:
...And of course, it did stoop down. With all this tremendous world building, I suppose it was bound to let something negative slip through the cracks. The shocks, awes, excitement and desire to wait - even watching countdowns to the last second - eventually disappeared. Shield Hero went from being produced by the hands of an artist, to being Fairy Tail but with 3 wizards & 1 protagonist, who completely sacrifices the initial depression that made him so cool.
The story continuity collapses in on itself, despite it getting so exciting & thrilling. It was at a certain point where everything fell short; granted Shield Hero does still produce amazing scenes in every single episode. However, nothing is tying in together & it is so easy to see where it could improve and take more caution.
It's evaporated the feel for adventure, eroded the content between the 4 heroes & made the stunning idea of a JRPG anime (where the player is the character, but also experiences it as both) feel obsolete.
TL;DR: Story has marginal inconsistencies which prolong time between the exciting moments; falls short from the first half of the series.
Art (9/10):
The art, of course, is amazing. It fits the genre of Shield Hero & serves its purpose of giving a platform to its story. There are some moments which outshine others, and only a few moments where I felt the art was out-of-place with the rest of an episode.
Sound (10/10):
Both openings (at the time of writing this) are AMAZING. Not keen on the endings, but the openings definitely make up for that. Prefer the first over the second, but they are excellent & I'm happy that I could download them on Spotify. SFX is nothing special.
Character (4/10):
Disappointing to say the least. How difficult is it to develop characters that supplement the story you're trying to tell about them? Naofumi's character development went from being an enticing one, to being non-existent. In fact, his party members receive more character development than him, but that is marginal. It's always a lack of character development that takes away from the overall entertainment value of a story; it's an adventure anime with very little character development. How do you even achieve that? It's an adventure.
Unlocking skills does not seem important at all, it definitely does not contribute to character development due to how sudden it is. Nor do we ever learn about the other heroes, just that Naofumi is different & isolated from the bunch. There's no other way of putting it: Shield Heroes' character development is garbage.
However, the character designs are amazing & at least they somewhat have personalities. Would have been nice if we could feel something about the other heroes & their backstories, or how they are growing, but apparently that's too much to ask for & pleasing fans with lolis takes priority in an **adventure anime**. If you're gonna rip an idea from Dragon Quest, at least rip the character development and plot devices they use as well.
Enjoyment (8/10):
Despite how pathetic the character development is & how far the story fell, it is still an incredibly enjoyable anime. Definitely takes priority over all the other seasonals I'm watching at this time.
But it is also responsible for me not giving it a 10/10 for enjoyment, due to how scared it is to articulate itself as a gripping story.
Overall (6/10) (tempted to give it a 7):
Shield Hero, but the only thing I need to shield myself from is further disappointment with this anime. It's truly heartbreaking as to how far it has fallen despite, as previously alluded to, the amazing start. The Rising of the Shield Hero now feels more like an accidental fall in the workplace than a rise of any sort; perhaps he should've put that book back on the shelf & opened up the Dragon Quest manga instead to give us an consistent & developed JRPG anime.
Jokes aside, it still does feel like Naofumi is rising & he is stiill finding his place in all of this. The feeling of ambiguity still exists, and it is just a matter of time before the disappointment is replaced with excitement again. I can only hope, as this anime has some 10/10 episodes.
Recommend this anime just because of the first bunch of episodes & the overall enjoyment; if you cannot handle the 'plotholes' that are yet to come, then I don't recommend this anime.
