Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

tl;dr: An anime with a very interesting twist on the standard summoned hero isekai format with a great cast. Shield Hero starts off seeming like an incredibly generic isekai. It involves an otaku named Naofumi getting suddenly summoned to another world where through the use of game like mechanics he's supposed to help save the world. However, it becomes evident by the end of the first episode that it'll be nothing like most isekai. The core difference is the role of the protagonist. In general in isekai though there may be some that dislike them the hero is usually well liked, quickly makes allies, and generallyhas a very positive outlook on life.

In Shield Hero it's the opposite. As the Shield Hero, there's a general dislike for him, and after he gets framed for a crime he didn't commit, that becomes solidified. The very world that summoned him to protect them, look down on him and despise him, doing their best to make him suffer. Though the protagonist starts off the most optimistic of the four heroes, this ordeal completely breaks him, making him someone that completely loses faith in others and the world. This shift along with his general mentality of rage is captured incredibly well by the writing and the viewer is fully able to sympathize with him. Thus, the viewer is able to understand where he's coming from when he stops caring about other's opinions or other's at all really and finds himself doing his best to be selfish. Watching the story of a hero with such a twisted mentality is incredibly interesting and the narrative does a good job of throwing in a lot of events that showcase how he's different.

However, the majority of this story is showcasing his journey back from the brink. Immediately after he was originally betrayed, in desperation he finds himself willing to do completely horrible things, and to that end he ends up buying a slave, Raphtalia, to fight for him. He originally keeps his twisted demeanor when dealing with her, but ultimately, he's really not that bad of a person, and thus he ends up beginning to treat her well, which in turn results in her getting attached to him, and thus him getting very attached to her as well. While his dark personality still remains present to some degree and still manifests especially strongly at times, Raphtalia is an influence on him that prevents him from completely being absorbed by it and over time she, and eventually the other companions he obtains, overall makes him a less hateful person.

To a degree this is a cliché harem type situation as all his companions are in love with him and he's too dense to realize that. Thus, in terms of romance the relationship development is pretty weak. However, it feels like there's another relationship between them that isn't really romantic at all, but still incredibly strong, that is ultimately developed amongst all of them, especially between Naofumi and Raphtalia that also results in incredibly strong character growth in the two of them. Each of Naofumi's three companions is fleshed out quite well, each with unique backgrounds and complexities that result in them all deeply getting involved with each other and growing closer. Thus overall, the cast and their growth is strong and satisfying to watch.

The plot is primarily centered around Naofumi and his party doing their best while the rest of the world tries to put them down. This is somewhat of a mixed bag. A lot of the plot involves Naofumi going around fixing the messes that the other heroes end up causing. When this happens, he does manage to actually do well and gain some recognition, which in the context of the world and narrative in general is incredibly satisfying. This is intermixed with various characters continuing to try to bring him down, the oppressiveness of which can be grating at times, but overall I would have to say it is worth it for the character and relationship growth that come out of these events.

Overtime, the world at large does eventually gain a better opinion of him. However, what mars this is that despite all that, is that key characters don't seem to be effected at all. Something I've learned through watching Shield Hero, is that one of the key elements to revenge and redemption stories, is the protagonist managing to turn things around on those that most directly harmed him and showing that they feel some sort of regret or shock at their actions, whether it be because they genuinely feel remorseful for their actions or because they are just terrified at the revenge being inflicted upon them. But in this case with the key characters that originally wronged him, the other heroes as well as certain royals, this never occurs. No one is ever really fully punished for what they did. The certain royals have their power somewhat curbed, but continue to scheme against him while the heroes continue to look down on him, ascribing his achievements as having come from cheats and such. The royals aren't that big of an issue, but the other heroes continuing to be so god damn stupid and incompetent without facing any consequences for their unrelenting stupidity and incompetence honestly frustrated me enough that I can't say it didn't negatively impact my enjoyment of the anime. I'm hoping that this will lead to some grand comeuppance at some point, but that is yet to occur this season.

In terms of pacing, it's mostly pretty great. It moves at a pretty fast pace and makes good use of montages to get through parts that while not critical contribute well to characters and tone, but would be overtly slow to show fully. To a degree it feels that it does it's best to avoid info dumping too much to the point that it omits explanations, and though you can generally figure most everything out from context, it can be a bit confusing at times.

The last five episodes are kind of strange though. Episode 21 is essentially where I expected the season to end. It serves as the end of a lot of the long running plot threads that had persisted and built up from the start of the anime, and it also completes Naofumi's first character arc. Honestly, it's a really well done fantastic finale that I would have been perfectly fine with serving as the last episode in the season. After that it gets a bit messy. Over the next four episodes, it essentially starts up the next big story arc and has major revelations that provide information about where the story is going to go in the future. This all perfectly fine and interesting and I'm very interesting in where the story will do in the future, but as expected, it really isn't able to provide that good of a finale after that because the next story is just beginning, and thus it introduces a bunch of new plot threads only to leave them hanging. Thus, the ending itself while a good episode in and of itself, felt kind of weak as an ending, as a much better ending exists just a few episodes before. It doesn't help that these last few episodes felt kind of rushed in general. Thus, it feels like a forced attempt at trying to throw in sequel bait instead of allowing there to be a great ending. Thus, while I would still say that the ending is reasonably satisfying, it does have issues.

The art style and designs are decent, though generally not that exceptional. I will say that the design of UI elements was quite well done. The animation quality is mostly decent, but there are many instances of pretty bad CG. The soundtrack is very good and implemented to fit quite well. The first OP is great both in terms of audio and visuals, and it's use as background music is also done very well. The second OP is good in terms of audio and visuals, though not as much as the first. Both EDs are decent.