Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

This show had weak characters with superficial chemistry and simple backstories that aren't thematically tied in any manner. Raphtalia is a sword who trusts good people. Firo is a strong bird. The trio love each other. Raphtalia has parents who died to monsters and friends who died to human abuse. Naofumi is a utilitarian. He uses logic to survive. The king abuses his power to act unjustly. As mostly educated people with decent living conditions, the audience can see the irrational behaviour of royalty versus utilitarians and get pissed due to innate pragmatics. This is the main selling point of the show and which iswhy there are some episodes (4,21) that are good due to catharsis. They make people doubt the good nature of humans, and the trustworthiness of names. The other 3 heroes also make people doubt heroes.

The cast is a shallow harem surrounded by merchants, strong leaders, and expository people. I believe the reason for this choice of underdevelopment is to show that most people don't need a backstory in order to save their nation, even turning to perceived conmen. It is irrational, destructive beings that cause people to doubt this fact. aka. NOAH GET THE BOAT. Ultimately though, I wish there were better characters because the story was very diluted in detail. These problems hinder the other well-crafted parts of the story stated above, since the show basically falls apart after there is no more boat.

The last theme that's brushed up upon is justifiable evil but that point doesn't start probably until after the last episode.

Basically, this show is about a man finding reason to help seemingly irrational people and finding that's not really the case.