Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

The Rising of the Shield Hero becomes the latest in a long line of MMO-based anime. The genre continues to get more and more popular and we're just waiting for one of the series to do it right. Is this the one? Story: A regular college student, Naofumi, spends much of his days being bored, or gaming in his favourite MMO. However, one day, he opens a book that reads about a group called the four legendary heroes. Before he flips far in the book, he is teleported to an unknown kingdom with three others, and they are hailed as the newfour heroes that he just read about. The anime actually doesn't make reference if it's the MMO that Naofumi plays in his world, but this at least gives us the idea that he knows how to play an MMO game. A problem quickly arises in which the king has a grudge against Naofumi, and this quickly rises to a problem where he cannot recruit any allies from within the kingdom, to join his part. He then realizes that he cannot find a meaningful way to level either. Why? Because his weapon is that of a shield - one with no offensive capabilities. We, as the audience, get to see how he attempts to go through this new world while the other three heroes, that of the bow, sword and spear, start off with a larger group to adventure with.

Early on, we are told that the four legendary weapons' growth are stunted if they are within close proximity to each other. While this is true, the kingdom eventually tells the heroes that they were summoned by them to fight for them. Every few months, "waves" invade their world where unimaginable amounts of monster seek destruction upon their world. Naofumi eventually is able to recruit a demi-human, Raphtalia and a talking Filolial (basically a Final Fantasy Chocobo) and we watch their journey to tackle the waves, get stronger, and find a way to get Naofumi back home.

The story in itself doesn't present itself as being anything terribly complex, but the way they go about showing us was well done. This isn't anything new: enter a new world that plays like a game and beat it to get back home. Sword Art Online, Btooom!, Log Horizon and Grimgar of Fantasy & Ash have all attempted this model with varying degrees of success. While we understand Naofumi wants to get home, we, and Naofumi, also understand that to do that, he needs to find ways to solve this new world, get stronger, then worry about getting home after. The way certain story elements play out, Naofumi does come off as a bit of an anti-hero, which does keep this series fresh vs the other video game anime out there. It's the journey that makes the story so special and they change it up that The Rising of the Shield Hero is worth watching.

There are multiple arcs that occur here, most of which lend itself to either character development or progression. Most were done well - I wasn't the biggest fan of the final arc this season. What I'll say without giving too much away, is that it progressed a few things in quick succession and I don't love their decision on that. I feel like this could make future seasons (2 and 3 are already announced) a little harder on story development, but I'm prepared to be proven wrong. (9/10)

Characters: I don't feel like I'm spoiling too much on Naofumi's party because it's basically a given on who he recruits. Due to the way he was treated at the start of the series, Naofumi finds it hard to trust people. That makes it difficult when you need to be dependent on your party members, due to your own lack of offensive talent. However, what we soon discover is that he's actually really smart and kind hearted. He created quick, tactical decisions that immediately pay off, and this is one part of the story that I really liked. While this can create some less than exciting narratives, I think they do a fine job. Naofumi's kindness pays off in large chunks in the later parts of the series and it's here you can see his personality shine, especially after he starts to open up a little. He's a great main character. Demi-humans are not well liked in the area where the kingdom resides, and that has unfortunately led to some rough times with Raphtalia. She is rescued fairly early on by Naofumi, and we see her develop as a character in very quick fashion. We understand why she holds such strong values, especially after she's been given some power to fight on her own. She has a very gloomy past, and the short arc that features her might've been the best one in the entire series. As previously mentioned, Filo is basically the Chocobo of Final Fantasy. The only difference is that she can talk and transform back and forth into a the form of a human girl. As a character, she does have some serious drawbacks, but she is recruited at a very young age. She does eventually get an arc that is also centred around her so while she didn't have much of a past, this somewhat forces some story onto her. However, she is still an excellent addition to Naofumi's party.

Ren (Sword Hero), Itsuki (Bow Hero) & Motoyasu (Spear Hero) are the other three heroes that were summoned, but don't seem to be on the same page as Naofumi when they need to be. They do have separate personalities, but they aren't heavily involved in the story save for anything surrounding the waves. Motoyasu in particular gets to be to be a bit of a thorn in Naofumi's side, so there is obvious conflict there. It'll be interesting what they decide to do with them in future installments. Many of the side characters occur as one-offs during Naofumi's journeys and they are mostly solid. They all play their part well and advance the story in meaningful ways. Characters like Glass are introduced mid way through and we aren't given a whole lot on her, so those are the ones we hope to see expanded in later seasons. (9/10)

Art: It's kind of funny: I looked at the list of things Kinema Citrus animated and I haven't seen any of them except the Eureka Seven movie. But they left a strong impression on me here. Fight sequences are animated beautifully and large-scale scenes keep their integrity. This series focuses a lot of combat and the different weapon designs, especially with Naofumi, look amazing. It doesn't have the shine that you might see in ufotable, but it doesn't really need it here. (9/10)

Sound: The OST honestly sounds like it's from an MMO and matches quite well here. The OPs and EDs are solid as well. In terms of voice work, Billy Kametz (Naofumi) pulls off his leading role very well here. Erica Mendez (Raphtalia) continues to impress me after I was pretty meh on her work multiple years ago. Brianna Knickerbocker (Filo) does a really solid job here too. I was a little doubtful on her after her work with A Lull in the Sea seemed like it had some minor problems, but she obvious improved that here. Veterans like Erika Harlacher (Therese) and Cristina Vee (Fitoria) also pull off some really solid work here in lesser roles that I could see getting expanded in later seasons. Julie Maddalena is apparently the voice director for this one and she deserves a lot of credit for meshing solid VOs with their roles - she really doesn't have much to her name yet, so job well done. (9/10)

Overall Enjoyment: The Rising of the Shield Hero is another video game anime with this style being attempted time and time again. Even though it doesn't really have it's own genre, you see parallels with many other anime that have come before it. However, this is easily the best of the bunch - for now. Time will tell if they can keep up this level of consistency that Sword Art Online and Log Horizon unfortunately couldn't keep up. It was an enjoyable watch and I can't wait to see more. (9/10)