English Dub Season Review: Rising of the Shield Hero Season One

 

Based on an ongoing series of light novels in Japan by Aneko Yusagi since 2013, the story follows the adventures of Naofumi Iwatani, an easygoing Japanese youth, who was forcibly summoned into a parallel world along with three other young men from parallel universes to become the world’s Legendary Heroes and fight inter-dimensional hordes of monsters called “Waves”. Each of the heroes are respectively equipped with their own legendary equipment when summoned, but unlike the other three who have actual weapons such as a Spear, Bow, and Sword, Naofumi out of sheer happenstance received the Legendary Shield, the sole defensive equipment which makes him unable to use any offensive weapon at all. But unlike the other heroes who are fully supported by the kingdom and gain several strong allies each, Naofumi’s gets the shit-end of the stick after his single companion, (Who’s later revealed to be the kingdom’s princess named “Malty”) betrays him, steals all his belongings, and leaves him devoid of all assistance and supplies after she falsely accuses him of sexual assault. Mocked by the nobility and shunned to hell by everyone from his fellow Heroes to peasants, a now cynical, jaded and mistrusting Naofumi is forced to train as a hero alone out of survival, but due to being unable to fight back, he buys from a slave trader a young demi-human/animal person girl named Raphtalia and later an egg that hatches into a Chocobo-inspired bird-like creature he names “Filo”, who both quickly grow into adulthood and become powerful warriors under his care. As they gradually gain the trust and gratitude of the people with their heroic actions, Naofumi and his new companions work together to carry their mission as saviors of the world while battling the injustice & corruption within while unraveling the mystery of the “Waves” along with Naofumi dealing with the inner turmoil & darkness within himself.

From a technical standpoint, The music composed by Kevin Pelkin is catchy and memorable along with the two Intro’s by the J-pop band “MadKid”, and the English dub has plenty of standout performances such as Billy Kametz (who voiced Josuke of Jojo Diamond is Unbreakable Fame) as Naofumi, while Raphtalia is voiced by Erika Mendez of Kill La Kill fame. the Anime itself looks well drawn & animated by Animation studio “Kinema Citrus” and also excels in terms of writing and character progression. The battles themselves do build up with proper momentum add a level of suspense and urgency giving dramatic tension and weight where it’s needed, but as the title implies, this is Naofumi’s journey. If there are any major flaws, I think if you watch it long enough you could get easily annoyed at the constant degradation of Naofumi, because his defamation continues even far after Raphtalia emotionally saves him during the events of episode 4, and while it’s the primary conflict in the anime, it also serves as a double-edge sword of the show itself because this isn’t just a traditional adventure show about a hero fighting against monsters. No, this is an anime about a man fighting against the very people who should be his allies and consistently finds new ways to make you really dislike characters who otherwise shouldn’t be villains at all as we later see how carelessly flawed the other heroes are within this fantasy world who’s actions and interactions with others can have real and sometimes devastating consequences from their so-called “Heroic Deeds” that are further touched upon in later episodes, because unlike Naofumi The three heroes are stubbornly and transparently fucking incapable of learning from their mistakes and are easily manipulated by the very same red-headed shrew who made Naofumi’s life hell in the first place.

While this show falls under the ‘Isekai” sub-genre category of anime reminiscent of shows such as “Sword Art Online” and “Overlord, where the main character is stuck in a JRPG-inspired fantasy world with nods & references to other games within the genre, the kingdom within Shield Hero’s universe is anything but a perfect one as the corrupt monarchy who blindly thinks the “Waves” are the only problem, but given the shitstorm Naofumi experiences within the first fucking episode, he begins to make keen observations about the corruption, injustice, and racism towards the Demi-human species where slavery ownership is legal which itself presents an even larger problem of how imperfect it is. Naofumi may have purchased an Animal person to fight for him, but nothing he does to her is ever cruel or abusive compared to every other asshole in the Kingdom who treats her and by-extension her people quite poorly.

Our Take

Overall if you can get over the shit that happens within the first episode and learn to look beyond its obvious flaws, “Rising of the Shield Hero” is a satisfying watch, as it takes a non-traditional approach to the underdog story in ways even I didn’t expect. But to avoid spoilers, the central conflict is handled and eventually resolved in such a way that it makes sense with the way episode 21 resolved it, but episode 25 managed to top that in spades while leaving me wanting more with the creator even giving a big thank you to the fans for its success.

At the time of this season review, there haven’t been any talks of a 2nd season yet, but after watching the series from start to finish, you can be damn sure I’ll be on board to watch this and maybe read the Light Novels & Manga at some point in the future just to spot the minor differences or see what happens next.