Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3

As others have mentioned, this season is a far cry better from the second season. There are still some negatives, but none of the major issues of skipping and speeding through content from the last season is present here. I do wish they would take some time and produce an ONA to go inbetween, something like what Mushoku Tensei did for season 1 and the S1/S2 bridge with the two specials they produced, but I don't think that's likely given the state of the anime and how it seems solely focused on plowing forward. The writing is top notch (except for a few plot contrivances andconvenient characters), and the pacing is actually reasonable this time. We take a bit more of a slice-of-life approach, as the majority of this season follows a "Naofumi, go recruit this guy to the village" routine throughout the season. By the end of the season, a fair few familiar faces have come to reside in the domain and lots of characters have developed in one way or another. I particularly liked the way in which the other heroes were handled, there was unique development arcs for each and their states correspond somewhat to how rude to the hero they've been in the past, along with how much they are willing to admit fault and change for the better.

There is a plot contrivance at the very end of the season (the last episode revolves around it) which kinda irks me, because it makes the coincidence-meter for this story go off the rails. Let me explain:
A good story should at least work with some sense of logic to it. As far as we know, Naofumi is the only person who was whisked away from his particular world into this new world. Everyones version of Japan seems to be different, and this demonstrates that his chances of being selected for this ritual were already slim to none. This is an extremely unlikely event. Now, after all is said and done, by the end of the first episode Naofumi just so happens to come across Raphtalia, the perfect slave to purchase due to her weak constitution and disease-riddled body. The last episode of this season just so happens to reframe this action of convenience into a coincidentally extremely rare event.

There are many ways in which this could have been handled better, simply by hinting towards the implication throughout this season. Ideally, it would have been hinted at well before this (people who say "they said she looked cute in the Kimono" are not really understanding what implication is). Something like how AOT handled the big reveal about the world's divide, there were hints the entire show leading up to it.

Instead, we simply get an exposition dump from a character introduced IN THIS SEASON which attempts to justify this sudden shift in narrative. There are also a series of unlikely circumstances around the reason that this information is even explained to us; the Japanese aesthetic, the spies constantly watching, all of it retcons a lot of information considering we know the shadows also constantly spy and likely would have picked up on it at SOME point, meaning the statement about the kingdom not having contact must be false. All of it either produces contradictions or requires such a leap of faith in what the characters say, that it makes the premise of that last episode unbelievable.

Overall, the writing feels like it took a bit of a dip into the generic side but managed to do a lot of interesting stuff with the heroes in the middle of the season. The only issue I have is this one gripe, which to be fair is right ant the end and kinda sours the experience, so I give it an 8/10.

The art gets its usual acclaim — the animation is above average (even with some CGI) but falls into the generic Isekai genre art style, with the same forrest and villagers from every other show set in a high fantasy world. This is not really a change from the previous seasons, but it is clear that more of the fights spectacle is relying on special effects when the heroes are involved. They are still relatively well-animated fights from a technical standpoint, but there aren't any outstanding dynamic shots or spectacles here. Even season 2 had more hype moments, and it seems the only time this show really tries is against big CGI monsters, where the effort can be put on half of the subject, and the other half can just be a render. Considering the CGI looks more apparent in this season than the previous season (generic evil boss monster versus a well-integrated artistically styled tortoise), it is surprising to say that this season feels worse on the eyes than the previous season.

This is not to mention that Bitch (Malty) also shows up more this season than the previous seasons, which is a huge negative. Won't penalize this season too much for it but like bro... Naofumi should've killed her. You'll see what I mean.

In terms of pacing, this season is definitely a step up from the previous season, but it is nowhere near the first season. I suspect had they adapted all the material in order, the issues with Eclair and Elrasla and the training arc wouldn't persist. They are still sort of just strangely present without much explanation as part of the team despite barely playing a part in the previous season too. This season introduces some new cool characters, and doesn't suffer from the same pacing issue as the previous season. We are given time to breathe between plot points, which makes the season feel calmer despite the events. Overall, the pacing is 10/10 here.

If you already tolerated season 2, then this will refresh you with some higher-quality plot structure. It feels kinda like a generic Isekai, but thankfully it is managing to rope back my attention and interest. 7/10.