Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

One of the top 10 animes in the past decade. I've heard that the manga is better but I've not read it. Intentional or not it seems to be a perfect allegory for today's political climate and the culture war. Aspects of the story parallels themes such as cancel culture, reputation assassination, false accusations, racism, censorship, corruption, media bias and tribalism. The character's feel like accurate caricatures of today's stereotypes, but despite this the show give depth to characters that initial appeared 2 dimensional. It is an Isekia which I usually don't go for. But unlike many whereit's just an excuse to have a fantasy setting or a power fantasy, the MC's alien world view is crucial to the character dynamics and plot.

It's biggest flaw is it's haremish aspect, but unlike the cliche with a young viral man repeatedly turns down the forward advances of every female in the show for no apparent reason. In this show the main charter act's as more of a father figure, if you've ever taken younger person under your wing you can probably relate and the dynamic comes off more realistic. Though it still has the females competing for the MC's attention and affection aspect.

This anime is in the top 1% of anime and is the 2nd best Isekai anime.