English Dub Review: The Rising of the Shield Hero “The Girl and the Dragon; Dragon’s Den”

Overview

“The Girl and the Dragon”

Keel and other demi-human children in the village are starting to learn how to assume therianthrope form like Sadeena. Ren is now staying in the village while suffering the effects of the Curse swords, and doing his best to fit in.


“Dragon’s Den”

Naofumi assembles a party to pursue Gaelion, who has consumed the Emperor Dragon’s Core. Gaelion’s transformation is profoundly sickening Filo, so Naofumi must return Gaelion to normal within the next two days.



Our Take

This time around, Crunchyroll felt the need to double-up with two dubbed episodes at once this week with the former episode, Introducing us to new characters such as an alchemist specializing in monsters, who calls herself “Ratotille “Rat” Anthreya” who is is dispatched to Naofumi’s location. When he guides her to the village’s monster enclosure, Naofumi is handed an unusually large egg by Wyndia, a girl with a love for monsters. And much to everyone’s surprise, the egg turns out to be a dragon egg that later hatches, and on behalf of the villagers, Wyndia names him Gaelion. At first all of this seems fine, however the story doesn’t really pick up until the Dragon accidentally eats and ingest’s something in Naofumi’s room it shouldn’t have, and that’s when shit really goes down…

For the other episode, we learn what that “something” was, and in a way it’s further fleshed out in regards to Wyndia’s ulterior motives and the reason she’s so damn attached to the Dragon, It’s also a decent callback to Season One that’s connect’s to the Sword Hero Ren in a very clever way. The identity of the dragon though sure was a twist. And the power up it got was unreal. But to further add to the sense of urgency, the Dragon somehow is also able to control both Filo and Naofumi’s Curse Shield and has the potential to be the greatest threats Naofumi has ever faced…

Overall, both episodes were excellent and featured a good blend of lore expansion and action via the fight with the emperor dragon and Wynda. In my opinion this arc was shockingly well written, even if it feels like a bit of a detour since we’ve yet to know what’s become of Itsuki. At the very least these were both great episodes so far thanks to the battle that showed well the power of good and timely support and powerful allies that can pull their weight when needed. The CGI in this episode was also much better than Season Two. And it looks like this is going to be one of the toughest fight Naofumi has faced so far. And as an added bonus, it’s also sort-of tied with Ren due to his previous antics in season one. And due to it’s subtle connection with Ren, I think this could work as a redemption-arc of sorts. The cliffhanger even me on edge and excited for the next episode!