Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

I hate long reviews. And mostly review for future self-reflection's sake. short Villain protagonist or tragic hero MC vanilla guy experiences betrayal on all possible stages after being isekaied. Slowly manages to move past it, but still continues to preach nice guyesnness and vanilla (stepping on same rake twice, much) As story progresses, I think author didn't expect to be writing it for so long and all kinds of wild, plot armor clad stuff happens. plus I enjoyed underdog story told in the beginning of anime, but once Filo appeared, whole 'dark' hero theme fell in the ground. After finishing season 1, I quickly caught up tomanga, and artifact wielders are wild, a cool concept, that reminds me of fly fishing Rick.

minus
Story adheres to traditional values and characteristics of good and bad, heroic and villainous too much. A lot of fan service for all tastes - young: Melty, furry: Filo, Raphtalia, simple minded: Malty etc. Of course, there's the elephant in the room: Raphtalia's age. While it is explained that demi-humans age differently, through levels instead of time. The facts remain that Noafumi kissed underaged and sexualized Raphtalia on screen.

Recommendations of similar anime:
Aldnoah.Zero - can't recommend this anime enough. Epic battles, planetary politics, little to no romance taking away time from the pure eye orgasmic animation. The actually well structured and rational 'gray' ethical questions discussed.
The Devil is a part-timer! - much more easy going and light hearted than A.Z, with better story and more sophisticated characters than shield hero. (How Not to Summon a Demon Lord - might be similar, but it's still on my 'Plan to watch' list)