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Rising of the Shield Hero season 2 is a major disappointment.

When I originally watched this show I had watched only the anime, but season 2 was so basic and unpolished that I started reading the Light Novels which by the way are in no way perfect but are well above average and a very enjoyable read.

If you are an anime only viewer and have come here after season 1, I highly advise you read the manga instead. Start at around chapter 33 to get a better grip of the pacing, this is well before season 1 ends, because some major changes were made to the ... ending. Shield Hero tells a very good story which is heavily character focused and if you ain't interested in reading Light Novels the manga is stellar and much better use of your time. I recommend it and this review has nothing to do with the source material.

Back to the anime, season 2 has many problems but there are 3 major ones I would like to focus on without comparing it to the Light Novel:

1. Character development is removed in favor of fanservice and shounen stuff.

Compared to the previous season it quickly becomes apparent that they tried to wrap some loose ends due to anime plot changes instead of embracing them. You end up with 2 episodes of monologues and very mundane interactions, which looking back at how basic the other heroes were portrayed in season 1 might not seem too bad but quickly piles on. We're jumping from an action sequence to an info dump until the very end of the season. Raphtalia gets more screen time than she should and animation improves when she is being cute but major plot lines have been reduced to a few lines of extremely basic dialog, which is barely enough to set a tone or describe what is going on. The priority was to showcase specific flashy events, yet major characters like Raphtalia are reduced to sidekicks from "Eminence in Shadow" or plain simps.

2. It is very clear major plot points were cut.

Season 1 was not perfect but it was extremely coherent, yes changes were made from the source material including major cuts and tone shifts but the show flowed nicely and an anime only viewer could rarely get lost or in a situation where they couldn't figure stuff out. Every arc felt like it had decent dept, something to chew on. This is not the same in season 2, characters just high five each other and become best friends. Villains have nothing going for them except maniacal laughter. New lands are discovered every episode and forgotten by the end of it. It's like a crossover between "Eminence in Shadow" and "Shield Hero" where we got all the one-liners from Eminence and the crappy animation from Shieldbro.

3. The animation is horribly inconsistent.

Many might remember the dinosaur fight in season 1 and laugh at how choppy the 3D was. Hold your breath, because this was miles better than almost every fight in season 2. Choppy 3D is now the norm, intermixed with stills and basic Sony Vegas AMV effects. The shading is also much worse, I dunno if they changed the person in charge or they had so little time but some scenes look absolutely mortifying.