English Dub Review: Rising of the Shield Hero “Katana Hero”

Overview

Raphtalia is imprisoned in a Raybul Kingdom prison. She’s wary of L’Arc’s team, who is also imprisoned there, but asks them for help in escaping. Glass is weakened by the draining power of the prison. Raphtalia has a plan to escape…

Our Take

We now have a Raphtalia-focused episode this time around, as Raphtalia herself wants to return to Naofumi. During the proceedings of the previous episode, we saw Naofumi’s side of the struggle, here we get Raphtalia’s side. Separated due to Kyo’s portal trap and are sent to the same prison as Larc, Therese, and Glass. A prison that even drains your energy and makes you too exhausted to even think about escaping.

It’s a reluctant and unlikely truce with a group that frequently clashes with Naofumi’s crew, but it’s one Raphtalia is willing to make if it means getting back to Naofumi which is what matters to her the most. We also learn that the village famously has a vassal weapon that much like a Green Lantern ring, chooses its wielder and whomever it chooses is a twist anyone can see coming from a mile away…

This was a decent Raphtalia-focused storyline that gave her some needed development outside of Naofumi’s circle. All the events culminated in a very wholesome and heartfelt conclusion. And as icing on the cake, it has a decent piano rendition of the Episode 4 song from season 1 called “Falling Through Starlight” which was easily one of the show’s major standouts, and I highly recommend checking it out.