Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

This show isn't as bad as some people with agendas would have you believe, or as good as its champions would insist. I really enjoyed binging it, but I think it would have got tiresome as a week-to-week experience. Some of the fights are good, but some are really, really not. The fight with the Pope outright sucks because it's that old trope of fight, long conversations between party members, fight, another conversation, etc. It doesn't feel organic, but like friggin' DBZ, in a series where that doesn't quite fit with a lot of the more thoughtful elements. It honestly seems like the writers areleast interested in the big battles, and so those parts are definitely the weakest parts of the series.

I would say my favorite stretches were just when Naofumi was traveling with Raphtalia and Filo, solving problems and pretending to be an edgelord while actually being a big softie just paranoid about being taken advantage of. gotta say, I'm a sucker for that type of character. And while some people have used this show for their weird, anti-feminist agenda, Naofumi is a Certified Women Respecter. the fact that there is a sociopath who uses a false rape accusation in the beginning threw a lot of people off, repelling some people who would otherwise enjoy the show, and attracting shitty people who Naofumi would fucking hate.

I think the production is solid but mostly unremarkable. It's weird watching this back to back with Bofuri, which honestly looks better and has better fights, but otherwise weak, tensionless writing. imagine this show with Bofuri's visual production values, lol. It's pretty solid as it is, but a lot of the big moments aren't as visually impressive as maybe they should be.

In terms of the characters, only Naofumi and Raphtalia have three dimensional quality. not a big problem for Filo and Melty, who are children who haven't experienced significant trauma, and are thus uncomplicated by nature. but it's an issue especially for the character formerly known as Myne/Malty. She's effective at being infuriating, but her actions are so outrageous, disproportionate, and malicious, it kinda demands more than "bitch be crazy" as an explanation. Ah, but no, she's just rotten. Glass is probably the only good antagonist in the season because even though her motives aren't fully explained, she's cool and intimidating in a way the aforementioned character is not. also she thrashes the three useless heroes twice, love to see that.

I kinda like that the three heroes are pisstakes on different, false ideas of heroism. Spear Bro blindly follows the people he perceives as the "good guys", the Sword guy fights monsters and does the cool badass thing, and the Bow guy plays at being a revolutionary with no consideration of the consequences.

definitely best aspect of the show is Raphtalia. it's a little yikes how quickly she matures, but Naofumi kinda daughter-zones her for the duration of the season, lol. The "Daughter Zone", a more dreaded place than the Friend Zone, more difficult to escape. I mean, he does obviously love her in a way, but if it does eventually happen, it will seem a lot more appropriate later. anyway, she's extremely cute and cool, and has a great character design. Really love her outfit in particular, it's neat.

also people have irrationally called this a "harem" but it's just...not. Naofumi kind of assumes a big brother/father figure role, which is a separate kind of fantasy, I suppose. The idea of a guy being virtuous by going around protecting a bunch of girls, and being totally chivalrous and not having any bad intent. In that sense I can see how it's popular both with men and women. Naofumi is kinda hot, ngl.

anyway this show is pretty mid, but fun if you don't think about it too much. 7/10 is probably generous, but giving it an extra point for Raphtalia.