Apr 13, 2019
The Rising of the Shield Hero is a frustrating show to watch.
When Winter 2019 rolled around and there was a bountiful amount of good anime to watch, this one caught my eye in the same vein that Goblin Slayer did. ie: controversy.
Its honestly strange, considering the "controversy" in this show is hardly worth writing home about.
Regardless, I was curious, and picked up the anime to see if it was good and could live past its initial premise. It surprisingly managed to keep my interest for some time, with the basic premise of main character Naofumi Iwatani being shit on by the world having excellent catharsis
...
value. This is best shown in a certain fight in episode 4 which was emotionally satisfying as hell.
And that was the peak.
Shield Hero didn't drop in quality immediately afterwards, but it wasn't able to capture that magic again, not for some time at least. Between episode 5 and episode 12, Shield Hero became astonishingly mediocre, but I'd say the truest point of anger-inducing frustration came after a certain point in the story where Naofumi acquires a certain ability based on something that happens (nailed that spoiler dodging).
The entire point of Shield Hero seemed to be that Naofumi was not overpowered, or at least he had to work incredibly hard to get to a point of being strong. Having caught up with the manga, this is much more clearly conveyed, but in the anime, Naofumi very quickly curries favor with almost everyone in Melromarc with the exception of the royalty, the three heroes, and the church. The former two practically being relegated to "Team Rocket" status and the church staying in the background.
The anime noticeably sands down a lot of the edges that made reading Shield Hero that much better. People warmed up to Naofumi much quicker in the anime and Naofumi's personality is less "trauma induced asshole" and more "moody isekaitagonist". And this clashes heavily when Naofumi is seemingly doing great in the world, but his demeanor is treating his situation as if he's still the same "down on his luck" kind of guy when he's very clearly prospering. Which I had stopped feeling by the time he had obtained (AND CONTROLLED) that certain power he had.
At this point in the story, Shield Hero was a 5, maybe even a 4.
But those ol' bastards are hooking me in again. Episode 13 and 14 have helped soothe some of the burns I had received watching the frustrating mess that was the second wave and the fight with you-know-who. They've been doing a lot of things that had originally gotten me hooked in the first place. Placing new restrictions on Naofumi and giving the antagonists more of a presence. There are several other little details that changed in the anime that I really really liked.
But I'm still worried that it's going to go back to the way it was, and I really don't want that.
This anime is currently a 7 for me, which is bound to change depending on how the anime adapts the source material. As I said before, I've read up to the current chapter in Shield Hero's Manga, and the material that is present can work well if Kinema Citrus uses it wisely. I'm just concerned.
Well, I can't predict the future, but for now The Rising of the Shield Hero is a 7.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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