Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

I didn't have many expectations for this anime leading in, as I was not a big fan of isekai. On the other hand, it was recommended to me by friends so I decided to watch it. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised but disappointed at the same time. The first four episodes, which explore the theme of betrayal are really epic and the viewer (or at least form my personal experience) is truly able to feel the hate, anger and betrayal that the main character feels. Naofumi, aka the shield hero is a truly splendid character, at first. As the primary theme of betrayal is castaside, the main character sort of starts becoming a bit of a mess. You can’t really tell what his intentions are, as sometimes he decides to play the good guy and sometimes the bad guy - the guy becomes incomprehensible
Throughout the season you can see his pessimistic perspective of the world change just because a weak Racoon with no actual Backstory, tells him she trusts him. The rest of the show hinges on Naofumi’s motiv, of him risking his life just to give a racoon and a chicken a better life when he leaves the world that he’s “supposed” to hate.

Raphtalia, and her growing up and starting to fall for Naofumi doesn’t really make any sense and has no reasoning behind it whatsoever apart from some viewers adding her to their waifu collection. She felt somewhat bleak as a character with no real emotions. The show keeps on bringing up her tragic backstory and her childhood friend who died, but it is just a relentless annoyance for the viewer. That only applies to when she's an adult though, because as a kid, you could see how hurt she was and all of the things she must have felt. Filo is also quite terrible, because first of all - and many will agree- she just serves as material for all the lolicons. But more importantly I cannot begin to comprehend why a chicken, who makes for lame action scenes, could become such an important character even though she ultimately doesn’t serve any purpose apart from being another person to add to Naofumis harem.
In terms of story, the first 4 episodes are the ones that explore the theme of betrayal, which was basically the most appealing aspect of the show. Episode 20 grasps that theme again, but pretty much ends it right there in an anti-climatic manner.
On the other Hand though, the creator of this story added some jokes, which were somewhat funny, as they showed the characters having some sense of self-awareness at how stupid some things might be. At one point in one fight, one of the characters pointed out that the spear hero had no real personality, for example.

For anyone bored and who doesn’t mind isekai, I say that you should give it a watch if you have nothing else to watch, but ultimately, this is not a show I will be rewatching. Re:Zero for example, does a way better job at exploring the theme of “psychological torcher” (not sure whether to call it that), which is basically this shows only good attribute. Overall, it is definitely one of the better isekai I have seen so far, as some have felt as though they didn't progress in the slightest. Forgetting about some characters, it was a pretty decent watch.