Reviews

With the popularity of the isekai genre, new entries need to either a gimmick or a slight change to the isekai recipe to get a bump up from "ugh another isekai" to "hey this isekai might be alright" status. With the protagonist being falsely accused of rape, humiliated and given no respect whatsoever the rise of the shield hero showed promise but unfortunately became another Isekai.

Story

We follow Naofumi, a hero who doesn't the respesct he deserve because he wields a shield, which is understandable it's a shield. His heroic exploits include owning slaves and clever use of his shield to defeat foes. You might be wondering how can you defeat your enemy with nothing but a shield? First of all great question, Secondly, Naofumi uses a shield like it's never been used before. I mean that literally he use a shield to burn some of his foes.

As you can guess the story is not as good as it can be. Reminders that Naofumi is a good guy are always delivered in vague lessons of virtue and are always questionable.


Art
If turn the volume off, the only reminder left to to remind you that your watching the rise of the shield hero is the character design. The only commendation I have for the art is the background art.

Sound
Kevin Penkin does it again. with really good soundtrack. To be honest he was the reason I watched this show. I was tempted to listen to the show instead of watching.

The rise of the shield hero was a disappointing anime. There was so much more they could've done with the whole disgraced hero gimmick. Instead they went with your usual isekai crap dominating the anime landscape.