Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero
I dont watch isekai animes usually. I think this may be the first time i do. Anyway, let's get to it! The story started with our protagonist, Naofumi Iwatani, who is an otaku, got summoned to the isekai. Apparently, naofumi was not the only one who got summoned to this world, but also 3 other young individuals. They were summoned to defend this country by fighting against the enemy who comes in waves. Every wave will bring several number of enemies. As the wave progresses, the enemies will get tougher and harder to beat. Things started out good for the 4 cardinal heroes IIRC. Unfortunately, Naofumiwas betrayed by the girl by the name of Myne. He was falsely accused with rape charges. That event made him a bitter person who resent the kingdom.
Story: 7
The story is kinda unusual within isekai genre. While some other isekai started as lighthearted, this show took quite dark turn as the MC had to deal with false rape accusations, and getting hate from almost everyone in the kingdom and the people around there. This show took time to show the training of the MC. The MC had to deal with the ever increasing difficulty of the waves, but it also showed us his quest to clean up his name. The plot thickens when the MC managed to figure out the conspiracy that had taken place around the kingdom and need to fight the big bad of this season. This show also tried to give us some insights regarding the origin of the waves and the other side of the story, but it felt kinda rushed as they only had 4 episodes remaining.
Art: 9
The art was beautiful. the characters are drawn rather realistically without having over-the-top eyes size and whacky hair. The face of the characters were also quite distinct from one and another. Several characters had the face of young adult, while others looked very young. The places were very beautiful and rich. The monsters were also drawn nicely.
Sound: 8
I liked the background music. It gave me medieval european vibes. It suited with the theme of this RPG-ish story. For the opening and ending ones, it was quite generic.
Character: 7
Naofumi had good development. He went from a rather cheerful person to bitter one after the accusation that befell him. He opened up his heart bit by bit after he met Raphtalia and developed friendship with a streak of master-and-servant type of relationship. Raphtalia also had good development, especially when she got her own back story and had to deal with the demons of her past. Filo, one of the MC however, didn't have much in her beside constantly being cute. Melty was latest member that joined their party. She was a tsundere princess and didn't have much courage at first, but then she started to be more brave after joining the party and went through quite hardship. The other cardinal heroes however didn't have much development, but fortunately they started to gain trust from Naofumi and vice-versa. They also learned how to work together. Myne and The King might seemed overlooked, but i'm sure that the creators will explore deeper as to why both of them have so much hatred inside.
Enjoyment: 8
I got hooked instantly after the dark turn of the 1st episode. The other story when Naofumi trained and do quests for people around him can get little bit boring sometimes, but i liked his smugness and pragmatic approach when doing the quests. When the characters fought against the big bad were the best moments in this anime. However, the remaining episodes after that seemed kind of a stretch. I guess the creators needed to do that in order to keep us hooked for the sequel.
Overall: 8
This was a very good anime who will divert your expectations of the isekai genre, and possibly keeping the torch up for other isekai stories out there.