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

Overview

Naofumi’s party is overjoyed to be reunited with Raphtalia. Kizuna criticizes Glass for invading another world. Glass and L’Arc swear they won’t fight Naofumi anymore, and instead find another way to solve their problem. Meanwhile, Kyo’s plot proceeds…


Our Take

First I need to highlight this the opening as I couldn’t help but laugh at the cold opening before the Intro when Kyo was talking to that idiot Kazuki, and even after Raphtalia told him not to move the douche faced very fatal consequences which were absolutely hilarious and deserving, Kyo didn’t even flinch either. This time around we have a very Kizuna-focused episode, as the gang is all back together now with one simple goal, stopping the Madman/Book-Hero Kyo.

Raphtalia returning last episode caps off searching for everyone so now Naofumi and company can search for Kyo and try to figure out what he’s doing. But it’s here where we meet a new character by the name of Yomogi. Yomogi is an interesting character in that she’s one of the few actual good people on Kyo’s side with an actual shared past and history with him. However, that changes very quickly when Yomogi’s cursed sword gave off creepy “Soul-Edge” vibes. And after recognizing how Kyo may have possibly tried to kill her just to stop the heroes, she’s now forced to re-evaluate how she feels about her longtime friend…

Overall a great episode that also took a non-traditional approach as Kizuna becomes the most rational and logical of the group and decides to talk things out with her foe which is rare for most Anime to do. Sure they briefly fight, but it’s only after Yomogi’s sword acts up is when she realizes there was more to Yomogi’s character than being a soldier blindly following orders. With the big twist at the end of what Kyo is really up to, it’s clear that Yomogi knows the kind of people her real friends are, as we gear towards the big finale with two episodes left!