Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero

I don't usually write reviews for anime, as there is usually no point in over-saturating the stellar reviews already present for it. However, I found that paired with both the time and inclination to finally write one, I was going to have a go at it for this anime. On an overall scale, in terms of especially plot and characters, this anime was awful. Being not only very annoying (and generic at best) every character EXCEPT for the main character and his posse were given the minimum amount of character development required to create a functional group of distinguishable human beings. Even Raphtalia, the main female love interest,eventually began pissing me off by the end of the series with her reoccurring strange romantic attachment to Naofumi, our main characters, even though he raised her from childhood like an, albeit completely incompetent, father.

Nevertheless, I am completely aware of why I sat down and watched this every week.

Frankly, it was entertaining.

In fact, I think I only enjoyed it because- much like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime- I got to see a main character with a decently realistic personality level up and beat the shit out of people.

Would I recommend this anime? Absolutely not- unless you want a mindless generic binge to take the edge off the way alcohol can't.
I specify 'binge' because watching an episode every week, letting the hype die, and then trying to get back into it likely ruined the true potential of how much I could have been entertained.

The character and plot is shit regardless, but the fighting, which is the only thing this anime has going for it, is best consumed quickly to maintain the adrenaline.