I can easily say that this is my favourite Isekai anime.
While Isekai anime have been a thing for years now. The Rising of the Shield Hero is the first anime I have watched within the genre. I can easily say that with the well paced narrative, great sound design, high tier animation and the extremely well constructed characters. That this is my favourite Isekai anime.
The Rising of the Shield Hero presents a unique fantasy world that is interesting and complex. The world has its own political structure and history that revolves heavily around the four cardinal heroes. Looking back I find this anime to be very similar to Re:Zero. Both are Isekai anime that focus on a character that was summoned from modern day Earth to a fantasy world. They both have minimal power compared to the rest of their cast and they suffer an extreme amount in a journey to become better. The main focus of the anime in season one is to eliminate Naofumi’s negative reputation. That was falsely created by a corrupt government due to their prejudice views of what his powers could’ve been. The complex world building and narrative intertwine in a way that makes this anime something truely enjoyable.
I do consider this to be my favourite Isekai. But the sound design as a whole is not that good in comparison to other Isekai like Re:Zero. An original soundtrack must feel like it’s apart of the world the anime takes place in, convey the moods of the different scenes, as well as being memorable and unique. The Rising of the Shield Hero does a decent job at hitting these criteria with the soundtrack. However, while it conveys the fantasy setting and the moods of particular scenes. It feels like a generic fantasy soundtrack. What saves the original soundtrack is the two openings created by MADKID. The use of modern Japanese rap music in a fantasy opening didn’t feel out of place and fit the anime perfectly. The sound effects fit the fantasy world as well. Kinema Citrus does a brilliant job at implementing sound effects that make the fantasy world feel like a fantasy world. The voice actors all have brilliant performances, and truely bring out the personality of each character.
Kinema Citrus has created some surprisingly good animation for this anime. Everything from the art style, linework, consistent/realistic body structures, blending characters within the environment, etc. Kinema Citrus demonstrates the talents of their animators. The art style does a great job at both conveying the fantasy setting and the world the series takes place in. The fight scenes have good choreography and the colouring of the different lighting of each setting works extremely well. If they cast are stuck in one of the waves of catastrophe, the colouring will have a red hue. This goes for a lot of different settings but this anime does a surprisingly good job at changing the colour scheme with the lighting. Naofumi’s psyche is conveyed through specific scenes where his character is in a void. Instead of close ups and a voice over. His emotions are visually represented, something that is really cool and should be done more.
The characters in the first half of the series are complex and feel like truely solid characters. I can sympathise with both Naofumi and Raphtalia. Naofumi isn’t a beacon of good and is actually pretty harsh and selfish. But it makes sense as the world he is in has treated him the same way for no reason. Raphtalia serves as a moral compass for Naofumi and the two need each other. Their relationship is complex and is the perfect example of a duo of characters. The spear hero and Malty were characters I could truely hate and feel anger whenever I see them. Considering I felt true anger whenever I even saw them, this is an example of characters that are meant to be hated constructed well. However, in the second half of the series. Naofumi’s character grows weaker, as the allegations against him were proven false. He no longer has a challenge against him. And those characters that I hated, they got pretty minimal punishment that aren’t nearly harsh enough considering the stuff they did.
Despite the few flaws present, I can consider this my favourite Isekai anime. The strong narrative, sound design, animation and characters. Make this a top tier anime, worthy of its popularity.
Overall, I rank this 8/10.
