Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3

After a Season 2 which impressed pretty much nobody, The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 returns with a much more interesting story than "destroy the Spirit Tortoise". I'll assume you've seen the prequels for the purposes of this review. Story & Characters: With the Spirit Tortoise behind Naofumi and company, The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 has us on a newer plotline - find the missing heroes. Motoyasu, Ren and Itsuki have gone missing and, in order to prepare for the next Guardian Beast attack, that of the Phoenix, they must be found. Naofumi and company must find thesecompanions in order to make sure the kingdom is well protected for, what could be, a large scale battle.

Let me get this out of the way first: The storylines presented here are much more compelling than that of what we got in Season 2. Sure, it rebounded near the end with some minor plot points, but generally, it just wasn't that great. So returning to some decent storylines feels like a must here and they certainly do that here. Before setting out to find the others, Naofumi is set on freeing some slaves that are in the hands of our favourite slave trader. This is probably the weakest storyline, as I wouldn't say it does much more than build up Naofumi's new village. Sure, we get more characters, but aside from making his party larger at certain points during the season, I'm not sure they were necessary here.

After we clean that storyline up, the rest of the story more-or-less centres around finding the other three heroes. These were very interesting, as not only do we get to learn more about their parties and what they were doing while seperated from Naofumi, but we got to see brief glimpses of their lives before they became legendary heroes. Ren's was easily my favourite, but the other two were still fun.

Mixed into those storylines, we did get to learn a little about some new characters too. Sadina is one of those characters and probably the best of the bunch. She has a strong sense of duty and probably doesn't fall too short on the legendary heroes' usefulness on the battlefield to boot. She a connection to an old character, which I welcomed. It wasn't told in the best way, but it was an interesting tidbit. S'yne was probably my least favourite, as she didn't really come with much of a story. She just feels like an extra character to add to our roster. Wyndia was a fun character and her story is, while a little unusual, really well told. I enjoyed learning about her and I hope she's back at some point, should the series continue.

Naofumi is still our main man, and he's basically the same before. I wouldn't say he's changed much since the first season, and certainly, he didn't really show how good a strategist he is here, versus season 1. Raphtalia and Filo are, disappointingly, not involved in the plot a whole lot. The former has some story tidbits, but it feels like warm-up for a new season. Melty is some involvement, but is largely absent. Malty is still kicking around this season and she's starting to get annoying to keep track of. Unless she's part of something bigger, I really don't understand why they didn't leave her back in Season 1. Rishia gets some decent character development this season, which is great, because she basically didn't do anything of consequence last season.

This season provides much improved storylines and some decent characters, even if it does come at the cost of recent storylines for Raphtalia and Filo. While we are given several hints about what is to come next season, the ending to this season feels like it's only readying what could come next. (Story: 8/10, Characters: 7/10)

Art: The Rising of the Shield Hero has never had top of the line animation, and, like last season, still had it's hiccups here and there. Most of the action sequences are still fine, but nothing bigger name series haven't done already. (7/10)

Sound: I believe most of the OST remained the same, though both the OP and ED were meh here. Voice cast all return, with Stephen Fu (Naofumi) still doing commendable work since Kametz's passing almost two years ago. Newcomers Alice Himora (Sadina and Wyndia), Kieran Regan (Fohl) and Lisa Reimold (S'yne) were all strong here. (8/10)

Overall: The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 probably isn't returning to where it was when it first aired in terms of strong seasons, but it's still got some decent stories to tell. I'm rather worried that the Phoenix arc that they implied is coming could be as boring as the Spirit Tortoise arc, but only time will tell, especially because another season hasn't been confirmed yet. (8/10)