English Dub Review: The Rising of the Shield Hero ” The White Tiger Siblings”

Overview

Naofumi, while purchasing slave children from Lurolona Village, is shown the white tiger demi-humans Fohl and Atla. Fohl obviously has high combat potential, but Atla is blind and extremely ill.



Our Take

Picking up from the previous episode, The White Tiger Twins, Fohl and Alto are bought by Naofumi, who uses one of his potions to heal Atla. In equal parts it’s a very wholesome moment with Atla’s physical therapy, along with freed demi-human slaves from Seyaette and proceeds to make preparations to increase their defenses, while Fohl helps his sister in small ways. At least until one night, when a group of douchey slavers attack the village but Fohl uses a flare left by Naofumi to warn him and his party, who return in time to whoops some ass to their invaders and protect the children. But due to some legal loop-hole bullshit, Naofumi is informed that he’s unable to either arrest or execute them and decides to make an example of them by selling them as slaves in Siltvelt which is the best kind of Karma I wouldn’t have thought about but Damn!

Later on at the Melromarc capital, Naofumi holds a ceremony at the Dragon Hourglass to reset Sadeena and Fohl’s stats, welcoming them to his party. At the castle, they pass by Aultcray/Trash, who approaches Fohl and Alto, finding them familiar. Queen Mirellia tells Naofumi about Aultcray’s past as the Staff Hero, how he used to be respectable warrior who fought for the people he deeply cared about, until a particular tragedy blackened his soul, but the episode ends with some newly revealed info regarding the Spear Hero, Motoyasu’s whereabouts…

Overall a decent episode that stumbles a bit in the narrative, yet further sets up potential storylines while introducing even more new characters. The Staff Hero/Trash in some weirdly subtle way might have some sort of a connection to both Fohl and Atla, though. Hopefully that connection will be explored further touched upon soon. It also felt like a massive plot-hole to leave a village of Demihumans unprotected. I know that flare was designed for that purpose, but Naofumi leaves the village unguarded? he doesn’t exactly need a full party to negotiate a trade route, he can do that shit on his own or with Filo since she likes to carry him around in her carriage. And last time I checked, the Fight club episode established Fohl a high-level fighter. I find it strange that he easily got overpowered by the most bland antagonist’s ever. As for what’s it’s setting up regarding the Spear Hero, I look forward to seeing how this plays out…