Back to whateverweather's Profile whateverweather's Profile

Tl;dr
Shield Hero season 2 is not season 1. Most of the reasons that a person may have liked season 1 are thrown out and replaced with a new plot that is not nearly as compelling in the first half. It becomes a generic isekai cgi monster fight which is such a let down. The show picks up in the latter half by a decent margin with the group getting split up in another world, but the damage has already been done which is why I understand people who dropped this show in the first 3 episodes.

My recommendation is just to watch episode 1 and ... then skip to episode five. You may not understand entirely why certain characters are there, but it skipped an arc in the manga anyway so that's already a minor issue.


Story: 2

They fight a giant cg turtle and talk to politicians about fighting a giant cg turtle. THE END
Oh my god I hate this arc. It'd be fine if it were only an episode or two but it drags so much with them going over the logistics of killing a kaiju and having to basically introduce two new characters to the team. The week to week was dreadful, with seemingly nothing happening except a generic cg anime army going up against generic cg monster army.

It's slow and I don't really care about any of the other characters introduced. They skipped Rishia's training arc which makes her pay off fall a little flat. And don't even get me started on Ost.

Moving on, we don't really know anything about the other countries of this world before this arc so a huge fight together to save the world doesn't work in any satisfying way. There's zero stakes to an army that we just met getting wiped out. Which means, It feels more like a raid boss than a fight to protect the world. It's just so removed from the very personal stories of the first season.

And while we're on the topic, a big reason that this season flops on its onset is that its following up a first season that solves most of its problems in a satisfying conclusion. Anything continuing after that would only have basic isekai tropes to fall back on unless you upheave the story in a big way to replace the plot of the first season with something just as satisfying. But this first arc definitely doesn't.

Also the first season had this palpable grit to it, where seemingly the whole world was against the shield hero which made Naofumi's climb to the top through any means very satisfying. He didn't have fame or power and he got those in the first season. Now that he has all of that, the story is just kind of a generic isekai. Complete with a harem of girls following him around. This first arc doesn't elevate anything or replace what was in the first season with anything as interesting therefor it falls on its face.

/////Light spoilers for the latter half -- The plot is exceptionally better once the turtle is dealt with. We actually get more world building by, well, jumping worlds. Naofumi being weakened and the party getting separated in a new setting with new rules really breathed new life into the series. It doesn't make this second season good, but it gives me some positives to reflect on.
Edit 06/29: Sooo the ending happened and oh boy. This season was so inconsistent. The final conflict is very underwhelming and makes this feel like a filler arc. Still better than the turtle but that is a low bar/////////


Art: 6
Art is fine as long as it's not cgi monsters. There are a few sakuga moments that standout but overall characters look good in their outfits and the action is serviceable.


Sound: 5
Op is kind of a less iconic version of the first one. Both go "whoooooa." The OST aside from that is pretty plain and on par with the first season.


Character: 3
If you generally like the characters from the first season, you will like them here. Nothing is really changed, but Raphtalia gets moments to be cool which we like.

Rishia is ok. I could see people being annoyed with her crybaby attitude and love of the bow hero. But honestly there's been worse. She does have an arc, it just sucks that everything around her arc is so boring to watch.

Now, we get to the pain. The Turtle's hot lady familiar (Ost) is the most dull character to exist. There is no conflict with her, she immediately joins the hero's party to exposition dump despite being on the turtle's side. She also has amnesia about certain things which is..... convenient. Ugh, idk man, the story makes it so that the entire party really cares about her, but as an audience member it really rings hollow as we're really not given a personality to care about.

The villains are pretty trash this season. The giant turtle is a force of destruction that doesn't destroy anything of note and therefor isn't interesting outside of lore. And the villain of the latter half is a basic mad scientist type who always has everything "according to plan." He kind of just shows up places and takes over the show as the main villain out of nowhere and we kind of have to just go with it. So ya know, kinda trash.

Last person of note, is my new waifu, the lolibaba, Kizuna Kazayama. Telling you anything about her would be spoilers, but she's precious, adorable, and actually speaks sense unlike some side characters.

Overall: 3

If I had to rank the halves separately, the former would be a 2 and the latter would be around a 5. So as a whole I'll just say its pretty bad (3) season and call it a day. I actually dropped this show after the first 3 episodes, but decided to finish it. I will say that this season is way better binged because again waiting for those turtle episodes really put me off. It gets better towards the middle, but honestly most of this season is frustratingly subpar compared to the first season.

Tl;dr This is pulpy, edgy fun. It's no masterpiece by any stretch, but it's entertaining and therefor fine.

Story:

This section is pretty hard to do without spoilers. For starters, this story involves superpowered high school students in a unique take on a monster of the week formula. It gets edgy real quick as students go missing. The story has many plot twists and big reveals as we uncover what's really happening at this school...

Light spoilers: The story is like a game of among us and the protagonist is the killer.

The plot is pretty formulaic, but every new opponent is interesting in their own right and ... it's fun to watch our under dog protagonist go up against tougher and tougher odds. (I'm trying to be as vague as possible) There's a problem with it being a mystery in that all the characters are stupid enough to prolong the story, even characters that we're told are smart don't really do much to effect the plot. It's more of a feeling of tension that this manga brings rather than anything super substantial actually happening and that's fine if you enjoy the formula.

It attempts to mix this up at a certain point with a big twist, but ultimately with the recent chapters, it's clear that it'll always go back to a familiar formula. Nana will always 1v1 a talented.

Characters:

Like I said before, a perceived problem with this manga is that all the characters are aggressively ignorant to what's going on. it's kind of necessary to make the series work like it does but I understand the frustration. Ok, got the obvious out of the way.

I like Nana as a character. I like how she progresses from the facade of a bubbly high school girl to a genuinely good person who just wants to save people. I like her resourcefulness, her guilt, and how her backstory plays into her character. That being said, she has godtier, grade S plot armor. Like you can kind of buy certain plots because she's clearly been trained very well. But damn this girl should not be alive, well, and sane after what she goes through.

Kyouya is cool but very underutilized. He's just used to peak up the tension and stand in as a sort of rival/potential love interest character.
I feel similarly about Jin, he's very cool but is primarily used as a mysterious exposition dump character.

The antagonists are alright. Generally serviceable for the amount of time that they're given and memorable for their different powers and deranged backstories.

Side characters are weak. Very mediocre in design and personality. Most are just there as noise or plot convenience.

Art:
It's got a distinct enough style. Its thick lines and simple designs give it this poppy cutesy look which contrasts with the darker material. It doesn't always look the best for the action scenes but it's serviceable.

Overall: I like it but it's just ok. This story won't change your life, but it's a fun little edgy read that's propelled by cliffhangers. It's entertaining if nothing else

Teenaged angst in full form. Deadman Wonderland is a manga fueled through its unashamed edge and absurd premise. I personally really like its ideas however its flaws really contribute to it being just an ok series overall.

Story:
The basic plot is the most interesting thing about Deadman Wonderland. It stars Ganta, a 14 year old boy, getting sent off to a fantastically grim prison/theme park where all prisoners must compete in sadistic games and combat to stay alive. Along the way, Ganta meets friends, gains a superpower, uncovers the secrets of the prison, and plots to get revenge on the mysterious "Red Man" who is responsible ... for his imprisonment. [[Essentially it's a battle shonen with a psychotic energy to it.]]

My problems with the story mainly stem from the inconsistent amount of wackiness throughout it. The first volumes tease you with how unhinged its setting can get with a big carnival themed death race, explosions, inmates wearing mascot uniforms, antidote "candies"..... It was so cool! But then the setting becomes underground hallways and we leave this fantastical prison for relatively generic battles in narrow hallways and blank arenas. The conflicts and mysteries are cool enough to sort of carry these sections with plot, but I did feel like we shifted whimsically grim to grim/dour.

My second issue is that the pacing becomes weird. It starts really feeling rushed passed a certain point, with the protagonists and villains crashing into each other every other scene. Also some character backstories happen waaaay too late for me to care about them. I had to speed read one character's backstory in particular because it felt like a distraction more than anything else.

Lastly, like a lot of others have been saying, the story often leans into cliches of shonen. Now, there ARE some unexpected twists here, but they ultimately lead to a predictable outcome. This shouldn't be a dealbreaker though if you're a fan of the genre.


Art:
Art is cool as long as it's not an action scene. It's hard to tell sometimes how characters are moving (or even what their powers do sometimes) outside of finishing blows, which is an issue for an action series. Despite this, expressions and important panels are drawn very well. And character designs are fairly distinct from one another making them shine in the panels they're in.


Character:
Probably the weakest part of this manga for me. A lot of characters are introduced, but are never really given the screen time for you to properly care about them before their fights. I think this manga definitely would've benefitted from more down time and simple character moments. Sometimes it just feels like action figures bashing into each other because of how little shine some characters get. .

The villains are also pretty one note, evil people that lack the depth to make them work. Minor villains especially are underserved and quickly discarded.

But most disappointingly of all, Ganta is just too cliche of a protagonist. There was potential to turn his crybaby personality into a more outgoing delinquent and the plot has glimmers of it but the story sidelines it in favor of a more 'too pure for this world, serious protagonist.' It's just the less interesting option. However, I do really enjoy when Ganta does introspection. I like hearing his thoughts because there's always conflict there. Unfortunately, the cliche story kind of undermines this because I always wanted these inner thoughts to lead to somewhere new, but often they don't.

In contrast to Ganta, I really like how the story handles Shiro. Her fate is what really kept me going throughout the series because she's such an anomaly to everyone else. Playful, dangerous, with clearly hidden darkness, she exemplifies what I wanted more of in this series.


Overall:
Yeah, it's a 5 for me. I think there's really a lot of missed potential here which is frustrating because I want to wholeheartedly recommend it. I enjoyed it, but I'd be lying if I said I was emotionally invested for most of it.

Definitely read the first volume if you like shonen, gore, and crazy people, but if the premise doesn't grab you this isn't a must-read.

Dai's story is that of a pretty basic shonen. Being dragon quest in anime form, it shares some similarities with the dragon ball in art style and Dai's initial character. --Naive boy with mysterious powers is visited by a girl who sends him on an adventure-- The territory is pretty familiar but the lively cast and dragon quest style keep this manga a fun enough romp.

Story: 4/10
Like i said, pretty standard stuff here. Dai and his party have to defeat the demon lord's army. They typically fight one commander at a time while honing their abilities. There are neat swerves in these fights and the ... story does a decent job at making everything seem like an impossible threat that our heroes need to overcome. The characters mainly keep the plot from dulling.
It's also a little lopsided, the final arc is very long (over 100 chapters or like 1/3rd of the series) but the other 2/3rds consisting of the fights against the commanders goes relatively fast. Your mileage with an arc will vary depending on how much you like the villain.

//light spoilers//
A lot of my issues come in that this series really doesn't want to kill it's characters. Even when death flags are constantly being thrown.
My biggest issue though is with the ending. A lot of plot threads are just left hanging. An "event" happens in the last chapter that feels really out of nowhere and makes me wish that there was another epilogue chapter. (I'm particularly mad about ships being tossed to the side.)
//

Art: 6/10
Nothing terrible here. In the beginning you can see a shift as they more solidly identify the style of this manga, but it's typically not bad just different. The character designs are fun and soft. It helps that everyone can fall into an rpg role because the designs do a good job telling you what a character is like. The art during action is generally easy to read but it lacks the fluidity of the similar dragon ball. The 2020 anime ups the art in spades so search up some of those fight scenes if you're interested.

Character: 8/10
The best part of the manga EZ. The characters have very distinctive personalities and designs to reflect this. Dai is your kiddie main character, Pop is your funny, and resourceful coward, etc etc. Again they are a little trite for shonen but their personalities shine through their relationships with each. Even later in the series, characters will have this charming sense of camaraderie. It's a lot of "this character acts differently around this character and this character respects this one but is related to this one" it's nice and it emphasizes how close and likable these characters are.

The character growth is also noteworthy. Characters pretty much start as how you'd expect but throughout the story we're given little instances of growth and complexity. Dai has these great little moments where he starts to question himself and what a hero is. Dai has doubts and moments where people fear him. And it really helps the believability of his character. Even villains, specifically Hadlar are interesting to me because of how they develop. But I'd be remiss not to talk about Pop in this section regarding growth. Pop literally becomes my favorite character because of how much he changes. And the story goes lengths to give Pop his moments in the sun. It really feels like he's the protagonist at times and honestly the story is better for it. Pop is great.

Overall: 6/10
At 349 chapters, 19 pages each, it's not the shortest series but it's doable. I had a good time with this series. It isn't going to change your life, but if you like shonen similar to dragonball, it's a fun romp.

p.s. I recommend the 2020 anime over the manga. The colorful palette and slick fight animation elevate this story up a tier. But at the time of writing the anime isn't close to finishing soo ya know.