English Dub Review: The Rising of the Shield Hero ” The Operation to Capture the Spear Hero”

Overview

A mysterious girl appears while Naofumi is serving breakfast to the children at Lurolona Village. Even though he’d prefer to focus on rebuilding the village, the queen asks him to seek out Motoyasu (The Spear Hero), whose whereabouts are unknown after his party disbanded him…



Our Take

Picking up from the previous episode, the Queen reveals not only Motoyasu’s whereabouts, but news of Ren being the only survivor while his companions were killed after the shit that went down in Season 2, and that Myne/Bitch is still missing. In the village of Seyatte, Naofumi meets an unfamiliar girl named S’yne, who Filo recognizes as Murder Clown. She asks to join the village but understandably kick her out as they don’t easily trust her. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo head out to the nearby city where they find a rock bottom Motoyasu when he tries to reunite with his old party member Elena. Naofumi tries to talk with him but he escapes, so he questions Elena about what happened. And it’s here when we find out what happened to his team when they tried to take the Spirit Tortoise down, but after realizing Motoyasu wasn’t strong enough to defeat it, they all bolted without saying a word.

And it’s here when the story picks up at a local tavern when Naofumi encounters Ren, whose party members all died when they tried to fight the Tortoise; however, he refuses to take responsibility and dismisses his dead friends for being weak. Naofumi tries to reason with him, but the sudden arrival of Bitch/Myne throws all of his efforts out the window as she easily manipulates Ren into believing Naofumi to be the cause of everything, and even goes as far as to throw Motoyasu under a bus with the same bullshit she pulled on Naofumi in Season One. This is all thanks to a new trick to her sleeve that lets her get away with 80% of her bullshit. And as a result of her manipulations, Ren goes mad and starts wildly attacking Naofumi, before escaping with Myne. As a result of being painfully rejected by Myne, Motoyasu drowns into a depressive spiral, until seeing Filo dancing rejuvenates his spirits…

Overall, this episode felt like a slow burn that’s finally starting to boil with its proper buildup while also giving Filo some spotlight as she was able to bring in a decent amount of attention. Since Season One, the consensus along with myself have collectively wondered what the hell is wrong with these “heroes”? They all have some weird neuroses. Part of me wishes Naofumi would’ve cut that lying trollop down when he had the chance, and the fact that she’s now manipulating the other Cardinal heroes for her agenda makes her all the more dangerous. Yet a small part of me is satisfied to see them in the same fucked up position Naofumi started in as one hell of a rude awakenning. And part of me wanted to laugh at what she did to Motoyasu since he was the biggest douche in the previous seasons but wasn’t laughing so much when Ren believed her bullshit though. As for that news about the Queen, we don’t know what was briefly mentioned as it concurrently ended on a cryptic yet comedic note regarding Motoyasu’s mental state and whatever news Naofumi got about the Queen. Still, I’m compelled to see where this goes next!