The Rising of the Shield Hero - Reviews

I'm an amateuriish anime fan and by no means an Otaku or any kind of expert. I watch anime for the story, character development, and overall plotlines.

The first episode was difficult for me to deal with for personal reasons, but once I made it through the first few episodes, I developed a fondness for the overall story. We have another take on the "heroes summoned to another world to defend it" plotline, and the unfolding of the cognitive/social disconnects, a growing awareness of what reality is, and the classic move beyond the simple "good vs evil" paradigm.

As an American, some of the character development and storylines are difficult to swallow. However, the US idolizes the individual instead of the team and lacks the societal emphasis and respect for hierarchy found in many other cultures around the world so I link this to cultural differences more than any kind of sub-par writing.

There is a great deal of character growth and questions on morals and ethics which I find refreshing in the story, an awareness of consequences which is much more nuanced than in many series I've seen.

I have one main criticism which I find across the anime genre. Seriously, the party with females fawning over the male main character is... beyond tiresome, especially females fawning over the main character who seems to be oblivious to it. Is this playing out someone's fantasy, or is this a cultural thing I'm unaware of?

Now despite what others might try to "warn" you against, no, it isn't horribly graphic, unlike the often compared to anime Goblin Slayer. Nor is it "revenge pr0n" like other animes, or tries to coast on by solely on it's "shock factor" like Akame ga kill. There's no torture, nothing explicit and certainly nothing that tries to disgust you with. It deals with things on a mostly mature level, with just a 'hint' of that Japanese standby, harem trope.

Now that being said, the harem trope in this anime/light novel/manga, isn't obnoxious or even disgusting self-indulgent like some other "popular" anime you might have heard about or even watched. But that aside let's break things down for you in hopefully non-spoiler-ish way so that you can take this anime at face value from someone who's watched it several times and most recently watched it with a group of friends.

Story: the story itself might sound a little cliche, but thanks to one false accusation our MC's reputation, much less his life is in ruins and it is a story of someone who has to work his way up from the bottom to being able to stand on his own two feet with little to no help from a kingdom that basically shuns him any chance it gets. The story itself is kind of refreshing, in where it gets you and the MC on the same level, it explores facets of the world and the 'game system' in a way that yes, is a bit cliche, but I had to admit that setting it up in such a way is one of the easier ways to explain something without having to crack open a series rulebook like this was D&D or something.

The story progresses in a way that aside from some minor setbacks with character development, or lackthereof with basically everyone BUT our MC and his group (which I will touch upon in characters), has a satisfying pay off, has wonderful ups and downs and things will have you rooting for any successes our MC can get, no matter how big or small. It gets you invested in the world, in the emotions of the characters (for the most part), action, drama, comedy, it's lovely. There are some things that either explain stuff better or go into better detail that were cut from the anime for time, sadly.

Animation: It's gorgeous!....most of the time. There are moments where the CGI comes off a bit... TOO noticeable and there are some times, during more action oriented scenes where the artist seemingly cut corners and/or rushed certain aspects of the character's design (there are several moments where Naofumi's face is... "warped" in/around fights several times throughout the season). The fight sequences are tight and quite visually impressive, again sometimes the CGI 'can' be a little too noticeable, but otherwise it's quite nice. The backgrounds are wonderful and when they're traveling about the world, you can see the attention to detail that is paid for certain environments and the 'style' of attire matches quite well, almost making one think of a D&D campaign.

Sound: Wonderful! The music often fits the scene they're trying to portray quite well, it never pulls you out of a situation or overpowers it. The action gets you feeling pumped, the traveling/slice of life gets all whimsical and never overstays its welcome.

Characters: Decent. As much as I dislike to admit it, the characters can be.. hit or miss. The main cast is quite wonderful. But a LOT of other people, side characters or even rivals and such, are so.. one note. The rival heroes rarely ever change, even when new information is brought to their attention. They never seem to learn their lesson (and we're excusing the LN and Manga) or really ever improve, they are, at most, two dimensional. The relationship aspect our MC has with the others in his party thankfully isn't cliche or "gross", he has more of a "fatherly" approach (not stepdad, you pervs lol) to his two initial party members and due to incidents involving a certain princess, the idea of romance, much less physical relations is SO far removed from his mind. Though the one thing even my friends and I have a hard time dealing with, is the demi-human's ability to physically mature faster than humans, which gives off SO many awkward conotations. But otherwise, the MC and his friend's personalites and etc are nicely, for the most part (Filo is sadly two dimesional) fleshed out and quite rich, but everyone else is one to two-dimensional at best.

TLDR: It's pretty great! The characters outside Naofumi's group are one to two dimensional at best, music is great, there's only a few "hiccups" with animation during fight scenes though said fight scenes are typically tight, the story gets you involved without relying on the cliches and trappings that most other associated animes (SAO, Goblin Slayer) always seem to try and rely on WAY too much.

Raccoon girl is love, raccoon girl is life. 8/10.

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I really enjoyed this anime and wish it was more well-known than it is because it honestly deserves so much credit in my personal opinion. The first episode is so spectacualar and it gets even better as you watch each episode, I'm so excited for the second season to come out as I know that will also be worth it. My advice is if you are personally considering watching the anime, watch the first episode and maybe the second to get a real feel of the vibe, but I promise you will not regret it.

Someone showed me this anime to watch and I've recommended it to others who I'm currently watching it again with.

As far as what goes on in the anime itself, the story is genuinely amazing and really connects as well as works extremely well for being a first season! The animation is extremely clear and well done which is impressive to me because it is obvious that they spent a lot of time and effort to create it and same thing goes for the sound. Lastly, the characters are really well-developed and work well together with the story line.

I highly recommend!!!

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