The Rising of the Shield Hero

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I watched the 5 eps currently out in a couple days just to catch up, and my overall impression is that the show is alright I suppose. It's watchable certainly. The first episode wasn't great though. It was just an exposition dump with what I felt to be a lazy contrivance that's already been talked about enough.
Everything after was fine I think. I have some issues though.
Immediately after the betrayal I felt Shield Hero got to grips with everything a bit too easily. Other than having to deal with being falsely accused there wasn't much focus on any real struggles. Seemingly everyone just buys that he is guilty, but the blacksmith, who is on the verge of walloping him, looks him in the eye and realises he's innocent? Ok I suppose.
His relationship with his slave could have been developed more before episode 4 for sure. I feel that dramatic scene came too early. I can believe that they'd be close party members after whatever amount of time had passed, but I just don't think we as viewers got to see enough of it. If anything there were literally no consequences of losing that duel to ol' self-righteous spear moron. She clearly was with Shieldy McShields out of her own volition. I get that it was just to set up the drama, but I don't think it was deserved at this stage in the show as previously mentioned.
Also what was the point on re-enslaving herself? As a sign of loyalty? You show loyalty by sticking with him, it's pretty simple. She only needed to be 'commanded' when scared of fighting and what we did see of their time together she's quite obviously gotten past that obstacle.
I'll also make a comment on how it looks. It's certainly well polished, and I haven't noticed many ugly in between shots. There's some CGI but nothing glaring. The animation though is unfortunately unspectacular, most notably during combat. Feels like par for the course for many series though due to a myriad of unfortunate factors.
 
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Episode 5
Myne is really, really annoying. Its also amusing to me that the spear hero will conveniently not pay attention when mysterious holes or he suddenly is faster on his dragon mount because of Myne and friends. Or during the spar the previous episode for that matter. Cant keep a lock on his own party, yet wants to keep Naofumi on check. Sounds like a great dude. Also, the whole re-branding thing, why does she need it? Hrmm..
 
I keep seeing mixed reviews, more or less, from this thread. I'm still on the fence myself, but we are reaching the halfway point for the season. So i'm considering going all in. Ughhh... is it worth it? I'm sure the first episode won't have the exaggerations of Goblin Slayer, and, in general, I'm just not that squeamish.

I generally will watch something simply because it's Isekai, so... I know this show has that going for it. Maybe I should just give the first couple episodes a shot? :<
 
commonxreaction said:
I keep seeing mixed reviews, more or less, from this thread. I'm still on the fence myself, but we are reaching the halfway point for the season. So i'm considering going all in. Ughhh... is it worth it? I'm sure the first episode won't have the exaggerations of Goblin Slayer, and, in general, I'm just not that squeamish.

I generally will watch something simply because it's Isekai, so... I know this show has that going for it. Maybe I should just give the first couple episodes a shot? :<
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The anime is really just kind of meh. If you're hungry for Isekai you could do worse. I'd say watch the first two episodes to get a fairly accurate idea of what the show is like.
 
commonxreaction said:
I keep seeing mixed reviews, more or less, from this thread. I'm still on the fence myself, but we are reaching the halfway point for the season. So i'm considering going all in. Ughhh... is it worth it? I'm sure the first episode won't have the exaggerations of Goblin Slayer, and, in general, I'm just not that squeamish.

I generally will watch something simply because it's Isekai, so... I know this show has that going for it. Maybe I should just give the first couple episodes a shot? :<
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As somebody who loves fantasy related themes in movies, video games, tv shows, cartoons and anime... I find it very hard to recommend this to people. The art is pretty good but nothing about this show flows nicely. The characters just remain underdeveloped and the world itself could be more interesting if we were given the time to enjoy it... but we don't.

The show works through its story telling like a checklist of important moments, it doesn't like to spend any time on anything else that might happen in the show.

I totally agree with @ZetsubouKaiji, try and work your way through 2 episodes and see what you think but you'll probably end up like us... watch it and hope it gets better because there is potential...
 
This started out really well with the edgy MC...and then just sort of got cliche and dull, packed with overused tropes. Hate to say it (sorry, not sorry), but Inuyasha did it better.

The following includes spoilers for the manga (and thus, upcoming anime episodes if it follows the manga).
...and after reading 51 chapters of the manga, I still know just as much about the world as I did in the first episode. Also, there are so many times when I get an Inuyasha/Kagome feel between Naofumi and Raphtalia due to the Shield of Wrath. It was actually painful to watch something badly imitate Inuyasha...so I'm just going to drop the anime here. If three to four waves and 51 chapters can't at least HINT at some of the basics of an overall plot (plot, what plot? A hodgepodge of random ideas), and have characters improve and then lose their development, then I'm done.

Worldbuilding is a major failure, there are about 4-5 "plots" going on in addition to character arcs which are rarely ever explained or resolved before the next one comes in, and it's the same with the characters. The conclusion of Raphtalia's arc was crap in the manga, and due to how poorly the anime fudged the emotional impact of her accepting Naofumi by telling him that she knows he didn't do anything wrong...I'm not looking forward to what will then be an emotionally dead scene.

Started out good, but then degenerated into "a bunch of females following a male lead with stereotypical personalities". Honestly, if Raphtalia was the MC, this probably would have at least been a little better character-wise. Plot-wise, it's all over the place.
 
Episode 6:

Right, an episode about getting clothes for a transforming loli chicken. For the last two episodes this has become a standard isekai. I don't know if that's better or worse than what the show was doing before, but it's certainly more boring. Noafumi does everything a typical harem isekai MC does, but he's more of a dick about it in word if not in action.
 
6

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They got a bird. I... I feel kinship with this and would like to tell you all that this bird is NOT having a good time. It's looking like it's happy to be there with the Shield Hero but it is not. This bird is being threatened on its life and forced to act this way, I can feel it. Look at its fake smile, how nervous it is. Someone save the poor thing
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Ep 6

First of all, how can a bird with a break talk with no lips?

Okay, for this ep we had your standard introduction to the new member, solidification of the "I love master more" trope that will happen later, and some hints at what to expect.....

So the bow and arrow guy is so hidden that no one knows what he's up to. Hmmmmmmmm. Not to mention he started to stick up for Naufumi. Can't be trusted yet.

The other guy, sword?, is going around and took out a dragon. If that's true then he's a lot more powerful than we know. Also a guy who stood up for Naufumi. Still can't be trusted.

Then we have dick-for-brains. He was led on by a pair of tits and is being used. He's the blind and retarded knight in shining armor who's a Playboy. Easy kill for her.

BUT let's take into account how I think he totally fucked up and Naufumi will take the blame.

With the princesses help, he gave a starving village a magical seed to help bring back the food and save them.

Naufumi and gang went into a cave and found an empty chest with an inscription that said this seed has brought nothing but evil.ay it never leave.......

We fuck. Princess got her minions to steal it, probably knowing how bad it is, in hopes to make him seem like he's the good one. Then when shit goes bad she would do something to make him se like he saves the day again or pin it to make the heroes be useless.

Either way I can see naufumi being there to fix it and getting blamed again......yay?
 
ZetsubouKaiji said:
Noafumi does everything a typical harem isekai MC does, but he's more of a dick about it in word if not in action.
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For a show that was supposed to be about him redeeming himself after getting saddled with the sexual predator status in episode one, Shield Hero sure goes out of its way to make him look like such a stunning sex hunk.

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Geesh, if those monsters really do make you hear the last things you want to hear, in the last voices you want to be saying them, then hope this isn't the thing you hear, said in the voice of yagirl. Or yaboi. We live in progressive times, gents, we gotta take all these things into consideration now.

No labor like slave labor, especially if the slave's your own daughter, hey? My, but our angery MC's shaping up to be one heck of a father. Treats his wife like a daughter, and his daughter like a dog - it's the picture-perfect example of the modern dysfunctional family.

This week, I don't even mind that they fell back on their usual trick of using still images to show us those domesticated scenes - at least we didn't have windy thot and that speary guy show up again to tell us who to root for and who to go against. The only downside to all these slice-of-life vignettes is that the story loses all sense of direction and goes all over the place, just like that phat bird our angery MC likes to ride on so much.

Take this episode, for instance, where shield dude attempts to clear his reputation by shopping around to clothe his bird. For fuck's sake. This is stupid, but I'm relieved things were only this level of stupid, you feel me?
 
crazyviking said:
Amazing Story! It funny there is outrage from the West over this amazing story!
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I don't know what show you're watching but the story is certainly not amazing. The reason it gets heat from the West is because the anime does alot of shady cliche things. The writers try to make it seem like the MC is never wrong when he clearly his and keep pushing the typical "Thank you master" "I love you master" harem on viewers. The MC can't get a girl in real life so his only option to buy a slave girl in different world. His a lame. Its obvious the slave girl is underage and we are just suppose to be cool with it. When the "antagonist" calls him out for owning a slave girl, the viewers were left in a awkward position because the MC is pro slave. The world had potential to be pretty cool but the writers also ruined that too. It's the typical black and white anime, either you're with the MC or you're the bad guy. Not worth watching if you're looking for something with substance.
 
i disagree wholeheartedly it shows the perspective of a man who's been outcast prejudiced and forsaken he does bad things but you understand why he does them its meant to be dark and as far as the whole master harem thing goes there's nothing sexual going on aside from the fact that you can tell Raphtalia has feelings for him however he sees her as almost a daughter up until episode 5 when shes become a woman and even then he doesn't seem to share her affinity. he got her as a slave out of necessity but he took care of her protected her fed her and loved her she was given a better life than she could have gotten with anyone else and the reason he cant get a normal girl is because of the lies that have been spread about him his credibility is shot. i don't see how the writers ruined the world either i think its a very interesting concept that's well implemented and with much more potential to be filled in the future.

-Fockingjay
 
Fockingjay said:
he does bad things
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What bad things has he done though? He's always helping people, but he grumbles about it a bit. He asks for payment for his help, but he's willing to compromise and accept whatever a person can afford to offer. The anime goes out of its way to always make him the good guy including making sure anyone he goes against is some cartoon-ish villain.
 
ZetsubouKaiji said:
What bad things has he done though? He's always helping people, but he grumbles about it a bit. He asks for payment for his help, but he's willing to compromise and accept whatever a person can afford to offer. The anime goes out of its way to always make him the good guy including making sure anyone he goes against is some cartoon-ish villain.
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I agree with this mostly. People tell me he's supposed to be an arsehole, but as you say the show only really shows him in a positive light albeit with the occasional mean demeanour. He really only seemed anti-hero-y in the first episode immediately after the silly 'trial' scene.
Maybe he can be dickish, but compared to his rivals he's the nicest guy in the world. I feel that speaks more to how the show tries too hard to make said rivals unlikable though.
The only thing I find a bit weird is that he allows his companion to re-enslave herself which is an entirely pointless gesture, and worse still he places a slave crest on his filiolial companion.
 
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