Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is another anime where controversy surrounds this anime both about the it's opening premise and even indirectly AND to all that LA says the controversy surrounding the opening premise itself was blown out of proportions, yes the OPENING PREMISE and indirectly, but to say the controversy was kinda dumb in LA's eyes let alone how people sees the opening premise as a sign of being a horrible anime, no, that's just horrible criticism just to keep within their own echo chamber for the sake of one opinion the anime's opening premise gives out.
Ok, dialing it down from the controversy, essentially four heroes are summoned into another world, hello isekai!, and the titular shield hero Naofumi Iwantani voiced by Kaito Ishikawa is wrongly accused and his dignity and pride is utterly stripped from him, after getting a tanuki slave girl by the name of Raphtalia voiced by Asami Seto, now starts from dirt ground bottom. Now this kinda of premise of a hero's dignity being stripped away, razing his emotional and psychological strength away and getting him to start again with almost everyone hating him is actually a VERY interesting premise as an isekai all things considered, thus LA's annoyance with the the poorly made controversy in the first place.
Now Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari's three main strengths comes from it's characters, world building and the hero's "rise" plotline. Yes before LA even starts Naofumi early on is seen as an almost stoic, angry and careful hero but to be honest he does get better over time let alone he kinda has his reasons leading him to be careful and distrust almost everyone. Ok, since we're on the topic of Naofumi, let's continue with it's characters. Naofumi is the most interesting character overall let alone for the fact that he's our narrative focus for obvious reasons. Naofumi at the start is the angry and distrustful hero and the opening premise once again has it's reasons, but it's his "rise" and his redemption plotline that leads into his character growth to open up and trust people again and get to know more of the world so he might be able to go back to his original world. Raphtalia, Naofumi's first party member and is Naofumi's sword to Naofumi's shield who helps immensely with Naofumi's character development as well, as she's an emotional clutch to Naofumi in being in a world where demi-humes are looked down upon and scared at the world with her backstory and Naofumi to Raphtalia as Raphtalia is one of only pillars holding Naofumi's emotional and psychological thread keeping him human. Next is Filo voiced by Rina Hidaka, a Filoial, a transforming Chocobo with the ability to speak and is Naofumi's second party member, though she was a way of fast transport, she does become another combat player in Naofumi's party and is the "kid" of the party and she does get some development in the line of Filo's kind, thus the world building. Lastly in Naofumi's party is Melty voiced by Maaya Uchida, a royal, someone Naofumi doesn't like, but Melty helps with Naofumi in his distrust with royalty...from "her", she has a strong bond and likeness to Filo because fluffy, she's an efficent mage caster and is the ice to "her" fire. Nonetheless outside of Naofumi, Melty and Filo had great chemistry
So uhhh...let's get "her" out of the way shall we?, Myne voiced by Sarah Emi Bridcut is the perpetrator and the main cause of Naofumi's fall of dignity and she's an absolute asshole of a villain and is one of the main obstacles to Naofumi's party. To say that she's one of the "villains" of the anime where you'd want to get her comeuppance is a freakin' understatement for all the vile deeds she does to Naofumi to spiteful levels, not helped that she's a party member of the Spear Hero Motoyasu Kitamura voiced by Makoto Takahashi and the Spear Hero is a blind chad unable to hear reason other than Myne. Now the other heroes, Sword and Bow Hero Ren Amaki and Itsuki Kawasumi voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Yoshitaka Yamaya respectively are skeptical but nonetheless their deeds though not as stupid as the Spear Hero and Myne but they inadvertently cause trouble for Naofumi's party. If Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari managed to do extremely well is make a personal villain aka. Myne and make the audience want her to get her comeuppance and make it sloooow and painful. *ahem* to say that the characters in the anime was strong in character development for different reasons was nonetheless great especially with Naofumi's party.
Supporting cast both allies or villains were implemented well, especially with the world building aspects from Fitoria voiced by Sakura Tange wanting the four heroes to not infight to the Queen voiced by Kikuko Inoue having similar reasons to the King voiced by Yutaka Nakano as being someone similar and has a vendetta against Naofumi much like Myne. Outside of the main cast, the supporting cast do what they were meant to do, either secretly help Naofumi party, or give Naofumi more trouble.
World building of Tate no Yuusha has a setting of a medieval fantasy/MMORPG game world where Naofumi is transported to (even though Naofumi was transported from a book...but errr whatever). Nonetheless as Naofumi goes on a journey to level up and survive the "Waves" gives us alot of small details about the basic MMORPG world that translates onto the setting. For example, Naofumi becomes something like a merchant with the way he travels and helps villages, with being a merchant and finding merchandise, he gathers information in finding materials for him to craft or money, you know the typical MMORPG grinding and crafting, let alone the "Waves" , where the heroes have the kill a large amount of monsters that "spawn" is very much like the same as the typical raid boss with the spawning minion monsters. Yes Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari's game setting is "basic" but how it's implemented and expositioned at was done rather well as a result.
The final strength is Naofumi's redemption plotline and well this mainly adds up from both the characters and the world building LA aforementioned let alone the retribution he gives "HER" (and even after that Myne still an insufferable bitch...there's no saving her). Naofumi's road to redemption and how it's linked to Myne and a bigger conspiracy trying to make Naofumi out to be the devil which isn't helped by his rage which actually becomes a big plot point that culminates even more as not only does it help Naofumi being the voice of reason compared to the rest of the heroes come his development over time as Raphtalia, Filo and Melty all culminates into quell Naofumi's rage and as a result, try to make Naofumi reason with the four heroes.
To this, it makes Naofumi's party of himself, Raphtalia, Filo and latter on Melty all the more great with their character relationships individually as well as them towards Naofumi. Yeah, Naofumi was especially stubborn and kinda jerk but can ya blame him for the transgressions that befelled him just because of his title of "Shield Hero" and accusations he didn't commit?. The character relationship is crucial strength as it does immensely help each other, Naofumi especially and thus the character chemistry and development for Naofumi's party is a focal point and major strength of the anime. Yes, the anime does angle it almost like a harem especially with how Naofumi's part IS setup, but in the end, it's not about the romance as much as Raphtalia and Filo sets it up as, but in the end, Naofumi wants the best for Raphtalia and Filo before Naofumi leaves the world, so it's a pseudo-harem, but with different intentions...as much as the anime teases us.
The animation done by Kinema Citrus was done pretty good in all honesty, from the good character designs of the majority of the characters to the decent backgrounding. CGI does come into effect here and it's....ehhhh "fine", yes there are times it goes into some jank mainly with anything like a large monster (though this includes Chocobo-Filo) and its blatant but nonetheless the battles Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari has is great, from the non-intrusive and slightly slick gaming elements, great and distinct character deisgns, great battles and decent backgrounding. Kinema Citrus's animation was great and huge props at least having consistency throughout, CGI clunky but consistent nonetheless.
The voice cast, well huge props to Naofumi's seiyuu Kaito Ishikawa as well as Asami Seto as Raphtalia and Maaya Uchida as Melty and as much as LA hated Myne as a character, Sarah Emi Bridcut who voiced her nonetheless did an amazing job making such a detestably vile character come to life. The voice cast was utterly amazing, with HUGE props to Kaito Ishikawa, Asami Seto, Maaya Uchida, Rina Hidaka and Sarah Emi Bridcut in their respective roles especially (might as well be the main cast).
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is not without flaws however, though LA's gripes are more towards the plot and it's characters rather than the ideals people are "sooo" worried" about. Firstly is that the villains, mainly of Myne and the King though they are detestable, they are blatant in their villiany and Naofumi and heck even this party members gets tired of Myne's shit and LA wouldn't blame them, nonetheless Myne is a double-edged sword but a detestable villain nonetheless. Again the CGI is a bit iffy especially with it's larger monsters and it's jank like really jank. Next is that the Spear Hero is to say is stupid is kinda an understatement as he believes only and ONLY Myne for the majority of the anime and doesn't consuls anyone else than something might be up. As much as there are flaws in this anime, many of it's flaws are remedied...though the Spear Hero is and will be annoying...but Myne will always be a detestable bitch.
The ending was...well to be expected from a light novel ending, teasing us for more to come and LA would had thought that since Naofumi's plotline with him being casted and Myne being resolved, LA didn't think the anime would keep it going strong until the end, as the finale teases us loose plotlines that were touched upon but not fully going in-depth but this finale gave it and teases us to more world building and mysteries, mainly of the character Glass. Sure the ending still left us hanging and the expected happens for a light novel ending and well...it STILL was a decent and high ended ending, keeping us interested in new developments from it's new villains and world building, great character growth from Naofumi and Raphtalia and it just left on a high note.
Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari ain't your typical lazy isekai anime as right off the bat it makes the main protagonist to be face planted to the dirt and started from there and make a heroes "rise" like the title says and makes it ohhh sooo satisfying, so to say that Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari does something right which it did on multiple fronts, it was also immensely satisfying and a decent way to end things off even for a "read the light novel" ending. Controversial anime or not, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari has a great cast, great world building and a great sense of what the main protagonist goes through, not many isekai's do this and is another great direction and another fresh breathe of air to the over-saturated genre with a concept and have it executed to it's fullest and in going all the way with it.
If ReZero is INSANELY HARD difficulty then Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is on HARD Mode where any hero besides yourself are all useless.
