The Rising of the Shield Hero is pretty much your typical isekai. Almost everything about it down to its minuscule details are unoriginal and predictable. Yet, something about it made thundering waves across the anime community with it being one of the most successful anime of the year. After all, season 3 has already been confirmed even though the season 2 release isn’t known yet. That goes to show just how much revenue the anime generated.
I think the only thing that really stands out in RSH is our MC’s immediate plunge into darkness. Right off the bat, we get to see a nonchalant, blank canvas of an MC transform into the hardened, cynical MC that isn’t so common in isekai. However, even with the dark twist of events, RSH still ends up having the same plot as every other action anime out there.
In fact, the plot is rather horrible. The anime follows a cycle of MC “saving” a cute girl and adding to his harem, then fighting the next onslaught of monsters, and repeat. Ep 8 and ep 25 are nearly identical save for some minor character development countless fights that contributed nothing to the plot. The comparison between the world to an MMO game goes to show how lazy the story writers must have been when making this anime. At first, everything was emphasizing how it wasn’t just a game and everything had real consequences. Before long, MC and his crew are out “level-grinding,” “one-shotting,” and talking about a heap ton of other video game stuff.
Not only have we seen the plot countless times in other anime, RSH has the honor of presenting numerous major plot holes. At first, the series does a good job of resolving these problems (his hero abilities allow him to translate languages) but later on, major plot holes and events contradict each other. In addition to the looming plot holes, we get over-convenience reminiscent of a grade schooler’s fantasies. Some of the episodes had a plot so shallow, that it makes one question whether the writers were on shrooms when creating the story. The anime makes no effort to advance the plot past a stereotypical shounen fantasy story.
As far as plot goes, RSH hardly stands above other animes of the action/fantasy/isekai genre. Story aside, let’s look into baffling character interactions RSH presents. RSH’s characters are extremely shallow and based solely on character tropes (chosen one, damsel in distress, feminine fatale, etc). It’s disturbing to see how utterly dense the characters are made to be just to make story writing more convenient. Every character that isn’t part of MC’s party seems to be devoid of brain cells and common sense.
Let’s take Malty/Myne/Bitch for example. Myne is the feminine fatale meaning she uses her sexual charms to take advantage of our MC. She does this immediately and by ep 2, we respect her as a cunning, pathological liar. However, over the course of the next 20 episodes, she loses all of her decency, common sense, and respect from the viewers. This may have been intentional, but to most people, it was probably disgusting to see a character development based on cheap tricks such as exhibiting zero intelligence.
The characters in MC’s parties are barely better. And the relationship between MC and his party mates is borderline fetishistic. His harem consists of enslaved lolis and princesses. It really makes one wonder whether a horny 5th grader was behind the character writing. And while the subject of slavery is touchy, I can complement RSH for not viewing slavery in a positive light but rather the relationships between Raphtalia, Filo, and MC. Although, the entire slave crest thing could have been voided and the anime would have remained the same apart from potential NTR bs.
The characters are unbelievably one-dimensional, yet I have to say that I did enjoy many of their interactions, particularly between Filo and Melty. Although cliche and often cringe, the relationship between Raphtalia and MC is also appreciable, especially towards the beginning.
There’s not much to be said about the art of sound in RSH. Both are well-done but nothing phenomenal. The use of CGI in some parts was interesting and appreciable. The fight scenes were all very well done. Kudos to Kinema Citrus.
Despite RSH’s stereotypical story, horrific characters, and the questionable harem of enslaved lolis, RSH was still very enjoyable. Perhaps it was the isekai/action anime formula that RSH seeming religiously follows that makes the anime enjoyable, despite having seen the same characters and story found across countless other shows. Overall, I did enjoy every episode (some more than others) and I do recommend it to isekai/shounen fans. 7/10
