The Insane Falling Of The Shield Hero

In This Video, I will give my honest review of The Rising of the Shield Hero and what happened to the rising of the shield hero. My content is satire in nature and while it may sound like I disliked the anime it's mostly bad jokes. Season 1 of this anime was released on Jan 9, 2019. This anime has not yet been renewed for a fourth season. There is a light novel, web novel, and manga that you can read if you want. This video contains large spoilers so be aware if you plan on watching the anime. This anime is currently available in the English dub.
#risingoftheshieldhero #shieldhero #animereview
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0:00 Intro
0:24 Naofumi Losses It All
3:09 What this Set Up
3:38 Filler
4:42 Malty's Genius Plan
5:33 Naofumi Vs Pope
7:23 Well... Now What
8:09 Turtle Arc
9:42 What?
10:08 Isekai Arc
11:26 Nani
12:50 Episode 13
13:20 Fight Club
14:01 Return Of Malty (Somehow)
14:47 What Happened?
16:28 Characters (Kinda)
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[@user-bf5sy5ir6l]

If season 1 was the actual peak of the series, then the shield hero didn't do much of rising, did he?

[@yhwach1]

he pretty much completet his entire charakter arc in 1 season. There is no lore rising he can do

[@nurusds3]

Just like SAO where SAO should've ended by the end of the Aincrad.

[@berg450]

He basically rose about 99% of the things keeping him down within the first few episodes. He just had some loose ends to tie up and he did that by the end of the first season.

[@tranngockha6562]

@@nurusds3 True

[@nurusds3]

@@tranngockha6562 was my argument before Reki released the sao progressive series

[@kemious9361]

"But your honor they flock to me" Has to be the best line ever

[@jimbo7551]

why do i feel like i’ve heard this all before the video

[@some_shitposting_idiot3023]

"your honor I literally can't stop them, I can't can't kill them, the slave crests aren't working, they won't listen to me"

[@PWingert1966]

What the Flock eh?

[@vDorgengoa]

I agree. I will now quote this myself.....

[@micro_egg2091]

What does it mean

[@CrimsonStag05]

The dumbest thing for me was Ren and Itsuki immediately trusting malty. Especially when they were the first to start doubting her in S.1. They were at her trial and watched her tell lie after lie even though she knew she was under oath. Also a fun drinking game to play in season 3 is to take a shot every time Itsuki says justice. 😂

[@akitodaisuke6532]

That's bcoz she can manipulate

[@voidtectonic]

I'm guessing you die before the end of episode 1

[@nekoluxuria7721]

personally I do think that was a misstep. in the original WN malty wasn't directly involved with them, she basically was in the background profiting from itsuki being delusional with armor feeding on his delusion and ren kind of being an extreme loner and becoming a bandit as a result of his cursed series. though I think that some stuff from the WN should have stuck. the part above was actually much better because istuki who continuously accused naofumi of holding a brainwashing shield actually gets a brainwashing bow himself and said bow is used by armor, the church of 3, and malty to take down naofumi by harnessing its powers. the calmira arc was personally a mis step since it was a really fun way to parallel what would happen in the end. that and I think the party switch was legitimately a good way for naofumi to understand the heroes and their party better. everyone except bitch 1, 2, and armor had no complains about the party whereas they had issues with raphtalia and filo cept motoyasu. heck naofumi actually decides to put himself in their shoes and agrees that in their situation he might have done the same thing. basically I could go in depth as to what the LN should have kept from the WN and what the LN should not have done.

[@xD-cs7hz]

I guess you dont like any anime then. Majority of Manga and anime stories have characters that do dumb shit, many times being the main character. Thats just how stories make drama. If everyone acted rationally and made good decisions, things would be too smooth.

[@N0_Glory]

it was not afun drinkign game gyus

[@lazyshadow5027]

Shield Hero's main plot point was the fact that Naofumi had to fight for his redemption. Once Season 1 ended, that was over. I was expecting them to go into the whole "other worlds" thing during the start of Season 2, but nope, they left us on a cliffhanger for a chunk of the season. Instead it was just about a really big turtle. I stopped at episode 6, it was way too boring.

[@nathanielbass771]

sadly, the Spirit Turtle was actually a major plot point in the light novels. It was something could not be ignored because it could and was going to destroy the world to save the world. Entire armies were massacred fighting it on their own and during the arc where the shield hero fought it. In the anime... it got reduced to "look, giant monster with bad man!" . In the light novel, Naofumi learned things such as that he couldn't do EVERYTHING on his own and had to start relying on others around him and he had to learn it the hard way as roughly half of the world's armies were wiped out in that one event under his watch. He was still competent and made better decisions than even most of the rulers, but he realized how much authority and influence the heroes had in the world and even questioned his own choices, but he could not undo what was already done and instead began investing into how the world could survive if the heroes didn't stick around due to a lot of evidence seeming to indicate that they would disappear.

[@lazyshadow5027]

@@nathanielbass771 Also the fact that Raphtalia decimated it with ease and it was reduced to, "It'll come back but you'll have to kill X to subdue it for good."

[@Jokervision744]

I basically lost interest in anime there.

[@AnarchySystem]

It's because the main premise of him was solved in a few episodes. That's what led to its fall. It was a rather simple solution he didn't need to get involved at all. The queen only needed to come back and she would have solved everything anyway. It was not his victory, the queen was aware of the situation but decided not to act until she returned.

[@awdsmj]

shoulda brought the idea of the queen helping him out then killed off the queen that way naofumi could suffer more and still have a reason to hate everything and everyone

[@mikemorro140]

iirc the queen couldn't actually solve it herself because she was out fixing things and in the mean time Naofumi had become hated and an outcast

[@AnarchySystem]

The queen has ninjas. She can easily decree from far away. Like I said, she was aware of it because the ninjas were aware of it. @@mikemorro140

[@AnarchySystem]

Indeed, there is no reason to hate anyone anymore. The issue was solved, so the whole premise of the series is gone pretty fast. @@awdsmj

[@a.trance6997]

Is this the part in the manga where Naofumi met the youngest daughter, then the Queen came back and dealt punishment to the king and eldest daughter while vindicating Naofumi? So it all went downhill after that even in the manga? I caught up in the manga at that point and probably the arc after that with a giant turtle or something but never finished.

[@adm-rbx]

the second season was absolutely horrendous

[@Moo.100]

I liked the second season

[@Sunklettuce]

I stopped at the second season this video helped me realize I dodged a bullet.

[@Joshua-sc7lo]

The only reason why it was so horrible is because it was crammed into 12 episodes

[@jonasbrob]

3rd one is okayge thus far imo. not that good but it feels as if they caught up to s1 a bit. Its watchable

[@mysticsky]

I dropped season two and just started watching season three

[@quin3578]

Whats the point of the hero's when most of them seem to get outclassed by secondary characters? Whats with the bow hero getting overwhelmed by his ex-party member? Whats with the sword hero getting beaten by Ms.PinkHair? Aren't these people supposed to be summoned and given abilities that let them do things that no-one else can match so they can save the world? Whats the point in summoning them when apparently the plot lets supporting characters overcome them without much help? THe other characters could probably just save the world themselves at this point.

[@lususnaturae881]

It gets worse as the series goes along.

[@kori612]

yeah i was watching and i was like "... is naofumi really the underdog because raphtalia is outclassing all three heroes right now"

[@cyaneetnoodlesmaker2251]

remind me of a anime which i can’t remember but will try ‘campfire hero’ something like that like i WISH the other hero do something and i’m starting to want a fanfiction about the mc going along with those 3 other hero (like a fanfiction of shield hero that all 4 of them are basically friends)

[@Lynnfield3440]

I actually like not everyone being useless like it is in most anime's. its just that they went about the training all wrong or didnt do much of it at all. And hard work actually pays off.

[@Razer5542]

I also hated that, like c'mon.. You're supposed to be super strong yet get beaten by supporting characters that only had like a few weeks to a month worth of training..

[@grantsampson776]

The other heroes were cartoonishly incompetent because that was the only way to make the opening premise work, but then that just made the MC even more of a Super Special Boy Better Than You than you usually get in these shows, and that dragged it down too.

[@MrZacOFC]

My favorite moments are: THE RAGE SHIELD!!! 1 sec later he was bring back by the power of friendship But your honor they flock me

[@erenyeager2947]

Frl that had me pissed Manz finally about to crash out then that rat ass girl always talks him down 😂😂

[@shoobzy3431]

"But your honor they flock to me", he said calmly

[@TheShadow1347]

My favorite moment in the entire series was when Naofumi first did the Iron Maiden attack

[@deltasource56]

its my little pony

[@ebolachanislove6072]

@@TheShadow1347 the vocals in that scene go so hard but every clip of it on youtube has some dumbass music that crunchyroll added in their upload of the clip that ruins it.

[@thewolfgirlexpert]

The drop in quality from Season 1 to 2 was insane, the writing didn't get much better with S3 but at least the animation was good again, until it wasn't.

[@londoriath3764]

Am glad i never returned

[@vk-eg3ro]

I guess I made the right decision to drop the manga lol.

[@phbe92]

Well you really can't do much when the source material turns to shit after the first 3-4 novels.

[@weikwang7881]

​@@vk-eg3rosurprisingly the manga is better than the anime

[@vk-eg3ro]

@@weikwang7881 In my opinion it got worse at the end of turtle arc.

[@TheUbberman]

Oh my god... I heard it went downhill, but I never imagined it get THIS bad. Edit: Also can't wait for the final arc of this anime when someone notices how many questionably aged girls the Shield hero gathered around him. 'They flock to me' won't hold in court.

[@nathanielbass771]

the light novel actually went into detail about these kinds of things and explained how Naofumi viewed pretty much everyone as children but Raphtalia and Filo were closer to family. He constantly attempted to create a system where they would be able to provide for themselves because after researching and his own gut intuition, he had a feeling that he wouldn't always be there to provide for them. Both of which ended up being dead wrong though XD

[@yuriatsugi3696]

Yep same, am i glad i stopped watching after s1 and kept it glorious in my memories lmao

[@MACizera]

Season 2 destroyed for me. I didn't finish watching it, I couldn't. Even if the anime gets any good I still won't be able to enjoy it until I *close* that arc.

[@seven.yahallo]

What does they flock to me mean? I'm not native.

[@TheUbberman]

'They gather to me on their own.'@@seven.yahallo

[@MasterOfTheBrood]

7:05 was the moment the series died for me personally. call me sadistic but I wanted, I NEEEDED to see heads fly at that point. The Lancer even still acts like The Princess is the greatest thing ever afterwards while still contractually obligated to say "bitch" instead of her name. I don't know it just felt Too comical and "everyone gets out of this okay, see you next time on another exciting episode." You don't add cattle slavery to your series and don't expect us to want to kill the people in charge or such a system, especially after proving how horrid of people they are.

[@thegoose8663]

Then she tries to poison everyone like two scenes later and the queen just goes "OH Meltyyy ☝ you silly goose"

[@ally3417]

I got so bored of Naofumi in the novel that my favorite character ironically became the spear hero, dude develops in such a insane way that i cant help but smile. Anime did him no justice.

[@Grag235]

Honestly, I enjoy the Spear Hero Manga more since he’s actually a cooler person and genuinely friends with Naofumi

[@mateushenriquepinheiro3197]

Motoyasu was mistreated by the story so hard, I feel bad for the guy as he was a punching bag for most of his time on screen and his last major character development is literally becoming insane while also developing an unhealthy obsession in Filo, who is a minor both mentally and physically. His character is fun in reprise of the spear hero but I would be lying if I said I wish he was not insane at times, his potential is great but the story treats him like a joke that isn't fun at times... I even tried to see if fanfictions handled his character in a more positive and good way but was met with disappointement

[@ally3417]

@@mateushenriquepinheiro3197 True, i feel bad for him as a person because like the other heroes he was made to be too stupid to feel realistic just to elevate Naofumi. I still think he is funny though and his development is unique for a novel/anime character and i guess my love for him came from the spear hero novels which are still my favorite pieces of content from the author.

[@felipebisi4145]

Nope still dislike both my favorite morphed into whale girl

[@TenguXil]

Wow I haven't read the light novels so to hear that motoyasu is better in them is a good thing. Really irritates me how many young girls there are in the series but his obsession with Filo is horrible. I really disliked he had mages come up with a way to help him stop her transforming into her bird form simply for his own preference of her. I actually think the second or third seasons should've been about the other heroes now having to redeem themselves. Each of them had glaring flaws and when melty was revealed as a liar and for easily wrapping specifically the spear hero around her finger he should've taken the brunt of the people's disgust. After all the cardinal heroes are extremely powerful compared to the regular soldiers of the world, the fact that they were making such easy mistakes and being misled by others so easily really should've had consequences for them. These are guys who can overthrow government on their own, the bow hero already did once. They should be held accountable. Seems like season 3 in the anime is trying to do some of this but I don't particularly enjoy the execution of it.

[@ArcheonW]

The truly worst flaw in the story was the resolution of Naofumi's problems with the world so quickly in that the queen of the country became a voice for him rather than another voice against him. Had the kingdom continued to hate on him through religious or authoritarian means the plot could have developed in how the populace were being propagandized while some of the citizens continued to question the narrative being fed them, which could have lead to revolution or something. Rather we got a quasi kirito that uses a shield instead of dual blades.

[@wahidpawana424]

Heres's the thing though, if you read the web novel (not the l8ghtnovel), you'll feel that naofumi travelling to another world doesnt exist at this point of the story and this arc felt like a drag in both the LN and the anime.

[@cam3127]

The thing is, it's revealed that there are still religions that hate the Shield Hero, but it's just a nonissue or it's glossed over. Like in season 3, Shield Hero wanted to kill traffickers that destroyed the Demi-Human village, but pink-haired Sword human was like "don't, that could cause a war because of their beliefs". But then they found a loop hole where they were able to force the traffickers into slavery?

[@thefool2320]

@@wahidpawana424 You are 100% right, I read both and the light novel tries to add new plot points where there really shouldn't be any. The pacing of the web novel was really good imo and there were less characters which thus got more relative screen time (although I think the other heros were kind of neglected)

[@wahidpawana424]

@@cam3127 she has a much better character development in the webnovel, in that she straight up help Naofumi capture and enslaved bandits, and use their loot in their hidden HQ to rebuild the village.

[@cam3127]

@@wahidpawana424 Damn bro, that shit just didn't happen in the anime. If anything turning them into slaves was like a joke/lighter moment in the show.

[@KillTheFuture42]

,,A Woman, who was obviously evil, because she was over the age of 10" hahahaha This was so on point and way too funny. Here, take this like and sub, you deserve it.

[@bloodfalcon5611]

Shows the uploader’s real motivation. Also the queen isn’t evil.

[@KillTheFuture42]

@@bloodfalcon5611 That´s true. Eclaire, the Kung-Fu granny and the dressmaker in the capitol were nice people too. But the joke still lands, because a LOT of the women we saw were either evil, good but did evil or they were just petty pricks. The only group of people who were ALWAYS trustworthy were the girls/women who looked like girls. That pattern was especially recognizable in the first two seasons. It´s pretty obvious, that´s why the joke is so funny.

[@bloodfalcon5611]

@@KillTheFuture42 That’s a lot of exceptions you listed. And no, most aren’t evil.

[@KillTheFuture42]

@@bloodfalcon5611 If you don´t want to understand, you will not understand. Have a good day.

[@bloodfalcon5611]

@@KillTheFuture42 You undermined your own point. If you want to cope, you will cope.

[@originalph00tbag]

Remember that lady that showed up for literally one episode to explain raising monsters, said she'd hang around and was NEVER SEEN AGAIN?!

[@cryotherapy7557]

How am I supposed to remember someone the people writing the anime forgot as well☠️

[@Wreighn]

You didn't mention how Malty has complete freedom of movement, and there was even that one episode in season 1 where she tried to poison Naofumi on that ship where the scythe hero was introduced, and there were no consequences.

[@sinisterpanda2738]

This is the biggest flaw with the series imo. Malty and her father got off scot-free at the end of season 1. They didn't even repent and still plotting.. I felt cheated on. I dropped the show and never looked back.

[@evice]

They retconned it, but Malty's eventual actual punishment after trying to basically screw over the world is to be forced to marry a king who likes to torture, r@pe, and his wives in the webnovel. Naofumi had to watch the recording of it because he wanted proof that she was dead.

[@RasenTon]

@@evice that's in the Webnovel, that does not happen in the LN tho...

[@Urza26]

@@evice She would still be a queen though and hold a lot of power. Her father and her should have been stripped of all title and wealth and be forced to do hard labor in Siberia for the rest of their lives instead. As a queen, couldn't she just poison her husband and assume power?

[@evice]

@@RasenTon you right.

[@ojon12389]

A ton of isekai stories fall victim similar to Shield Hero, partly because people tend to copy this popular premise, and don't think about the overall story. What made Shield Hero interesting was: 1. He started out as the underdog, and suffered an injustice. That premise alone can carry a whole arc because people like to see what MC will do to overcome the challenge, or get revenge on the people who antagonized MC. Once that situation resolves, it's now "now what"? It normally turns into a regular isekai show at this point 2. The shield hero as a job is kind of interesting. He is expected to have high defense, but low offense since there are 3 other heroes to cover it. But his job as a shield got way overpowered, and he can do stupidly strong attacks. This is probably what the video mentions, so yeah I feel the same way.

[@michaelfindley9987]

I wholeheartedly agree. I loved the lack of romance, the feeling of naofumi as more of a dad than love interest. The shield being unable to attack made combat interesting; even when it was able to do damage with the shield of wrath, it had a price. I loved the overal lonely/exploratory feeling from it. Then he got a massive crew, Atla literally forcing him into romance, and by volume 15 of the LNs I realized I Just didn't enjoy this series anymore.

[@bloodyredfox]

you should read "The Hero Who Seeks Revenge Shall Exterminate With Darkness"....man took revenge on whole nother level and kept the revenge as satisfying as possible on every account

[@anthonyraymundobarron1255]

Dus you comment all of this without finishing the video?

[@SquaulDuNeant]

You under say and minimise the potential and sadly the waste betrayal of the premisce tho other than that i agree.

[@CptHolt]

Domain Expansion at 6:06 actually killed me LMAO

[@thepshyco1480]

It's honestly kinda sad that such a great series is dying due to a temporary plot. I really hope they find a good way to bring it back

[@Robberator]

This happens to every isekai with a cool setup. After the first couple of arcs, the hero becomes popular and is a harem factory till the end of the series. Authors just can't help themselves, and they kill the intrigue of their own story

[@thechosenone729]

Yeah i wonder if Mushoku Tensei is gonna end up same. First Season was really good even if they left out some stuff from LN and Manga that would make even better background for characters because let's say from Anime viewer standpoint it's easy to hate on Eris from LN and Manga reader she is one of the best characters and Season 2 also leaved some important information and i don't like that they made Sylph looking as morally good as she is in Anime because in manga she literally tried to kill Paul and later Nanahoshi without actually giving a sh... about it just because she got angry.

[@Robberator]

@@thechosenone729 When did that happen? I'm a light novel reader well past the story of season 2, but I don't remember Sylphie interacting with Paul like that

[@thechosenone729]

@@Robberator When he thrown Rudeus into cart to send him away for the job tutoring Eris.

[@rampagepotato4307]

Nah this only happens to revenge isekai trope stories like Shield Hero. They bait you with the (not) satisfying revenge premise, only to show you how it's actually just another garbage isekai post-revenge arc. I'm actually confused how people was surprised/mad how trashy it was after S1. Like, are y'all blind or what?

[@Robberator]

@@rampagepotato4307 I'd argue this happens in any setup where the MC starts from zero and you want to see him progress. A lot of shows take him to the top way too quickly, so for the rest of the series there's barely anywhere else for them to grow

[@Shizkeb]

it's a shame because it also had a really interesting idea with the other heros being disconnected from reality by only seeing their adventure as a videogame while the mc treated it like real life, he even had the same mindset of thinking it was going to be a cool isekai adventure too until the rest of the first episode happened.

[@valhatan3907]

Yeah, that's actually a neat point when the other heroes forgot that *IT'S NOT A GAME BRO.* And it shows how their antic just cause more trouble than actually helping.

[@ryudjn6590]

it got annoying after hearing naofumi saying lines like "This is not a game" 300 times.

[@GenJuhru]

Unfortunately their arc just copy-pasted that of Naofumi's, got fooled, treated as/became a villain and then betrayed by Malty.. like geez, can't they copy plots from other shows/books 🤷

[@urnoob5528]

interesting? sounds like another generic idea at this point lol

[@DKOIsoul]

Honestly, it's mostly the anime killing it lol. Not to say the story is perfect but this anime adaptation is terrible. First season reeled us in and we realized it was bait too late. I feel like they just used shield hero for the popularity more than taking it seriously and now it pretty much failed. Bad animation, constantly rushed. All stuff like that. They even made some moments look more important in the openings just for it to be over in 10 seconds - 3 minutes. People thought there was gonna be some cool fights against monsters in season 2 but the majority of people don't even remember what ACTUALLY happened. This is just one of those animes that can't be saved and eventually everyone will forget even existed.

[@Melo-hq2wv]

Nahh I’m not getting over “rage shield” shit is mad funny, you earned my subscription 😭😭😭

[@ethanmendiola2762]

In my opinion within S1, the last few episodes held some of the best subplot details towards a re-focus on what the first eps did well : 1. The Shield Hero, who got by before everything settled down as a crafter/jeweler, made some really cool jewelry for the gemstone lady. 2. He gained a new companion in the Green Hair chick, who was mistreated by her team, holding the same logic of "All the other heroes are being dumbasses" that started half of the drama. 3. He got a whole entire village as his support who were 100% on his side, like they were before when the Waves of Calamity were happening and he helped those few soldiers. All of these were pointing towards "The first episodes but stronger, and we solved the drama last arc, so all that's left is the Waves of Calamity and finally getting these heroes to understand it isn't a game." Instead in S2, they went the route of a normal OP Isekai WITHIN THE ALREADY ESTABLISHED ISEKAI. BTW we'll solve(poorly) all problems established last season while fighting this obscure bad guy but also never bring up the Waves of Calamity except for Off-Screen Plot and S3 cliffhangers.

[@grapeshot]

Popularity seems to be affected a great deal by gravity. The fall is very hard and steep.

[@ironmaster6496]

That's what happens when an anime is hyped only because of a gimmick, when it finally wears off you are left with a really empty show

[@qron3016]

@@LTNetjak blacksmith is named Erhard and the old lady is named Elrasla

[@hiwhyareyoureadingthis5112]

@@LTNetjak They had those names for a while, Naofumi has trouble remembering names because he always gives people crappy nicknames and sticks to them instead of using their real names, Raphtalia actually tries to get characters to tell him their names so he doesn't give them a nickname they'll be stuck with. Ps: I know the q ten lo arc was complete ass but i think it's kinda funny you left just before Shield hero peaked

[@Fenronin]

@@LTNetjak I don't think the names really matters, Goblin slayer don't even have them

[@Erzhler]

​@@FenroninGoblin Slayer kinda works tho, cause in that world no one got a name. They are all named after their jobs and characteristics. The difference between that and here is consistency. But I will admit that the roles blacksmith and Kung Fu lady play aren't really big

[@Zuhfnyr]

Reading the light novel of this is far sadder than the anime. You get hooked by this interesting and well written world, then just it slowly devolves into "No Plot, All Harem". At some point, the LN actually started featuring this "love triangle" chart for all the group romantic rivalry for the MC on the first few pages. It's best to just watch the first season of this anime, and assume that the story literally ends there, because there's no plot beyond that anyway.

[@reflex9238]

That's not true, as the plot has always been the waves of calamity and that remains true throughout the entirety of the light novels with an ongoing mystery as to what they are to begin with and who or what might be behind them.

[@synnamon_toast_crunch]

​@@reflex9238 yeah but it drags on then adds more complex things which makes it even more confusing to follow. I think it being a mystery is fine, but they have to at least give some inkling into what they are so that readers can follow along.

[@reflex9238]

@@synnamon_toast_crunch Well we have and some it was more or less stated what the Waves are and in volume 22 we even know now what the entity is that's behind the waves in which it required Naofumi and Ren to adapt to the change, and added another mystery on top of that as the end of volume 22 talks about this possibly being way bigger than anyone could've thought originally. I'm trying to be vague here so I don't spoil anything so I'll just go over what the anime so far has gotten towards since the anime skipped over a lot of important world building. So far thanks to the end of season 1, we know that when the waves appear it is possible for other heroes to go and enter other worlds without restriction hence like L'arc, Glass, and Therese were able to go to Naofumi's world that way. There's also another way which wasn't exactly made very clear because season 2 rushed things, but getting permission through some entities that allows one to cross to other worlds in the case of season 2 it was because of Ost that Naofumi and his party were able to go to L'arc's world. Through this one can more or less piece together how S'yne made it to Naofumi's world given that the Queen made no mention of a hero like S'yne. Now I can't remember what volume it was stated in specifically but if I recall correctly it was through this information that Rishia and someone else was able to figure out what the Waves were and their purpose. While I'm at it I do wanna make it clear that S'yne is more than just background character and she does play an important role in revealing more about the waves because of her circumstances, though the anime might take some time to get there. Point of all this was that in the light novels were given bits of information as to what the answer behind this could've been, to say that they don't give anything is ludicrous to say so, and this remains true even in the anime though the anime forgot to go over this as season 2 really failed to stick the landing. Besides when it came to actually getting answers, they didn't exactly have all the time in the world to try and figure it out as they had many other threats to take care, with Kyo being one of them, the Phoenix in the case of season 3 since they're preparing for a fight with it, and another afterwards though I can't say very much but for any of the anime only people I think they'll be in for a treat.

[@Jikkuryuu]

I stopped reading the novel somewhere in the teens. When it's good it's good, but there have been entire books that felt so dull that they could have left on the editor's floor. Like he's trying to compete with the Wheel of Time for bloat. And this is coming from someone who loves the vignettes exploring different characters, that some folks might consider unnecessary excess. At least I'll always have the Saint of the Holy Bird arc.

[@earthygoku]

Yall should have seen this a mile away the anime is literal garbage groomer incel bait

[@spacebug30]

S3 started out actually interesting for the first few episodes with the arena fighting, but then it went all downhill again from there.

[@samorayyt9716]

The moment I dropped the show was the moment he spared their lives... Bro who spears the person who tried to end his life, poison him, and make his life as miserable as possible. the only reason I watched the show was to see them suffering, to the point of me feeling bad for them, I mean at least he kills them right? NO. he calls them bitches....... I was speechless and still am. no one could've prepared me for this. and let alone the power of friendship. I was about to stop at the first time they brought him by the o=power of friendship but I stayed for the revenge and you know the rest.

[@linksnivey1161]

I think the implication was that Naofumi realized the queen was gonna offer up her life in exchange for the Malty and the king because "blah blah they're my family blah blah I love them blah blah blah blah" so as she wasn't a total bitch, he decided to give them swear word names so the queen wouldn't start slightly understandable yet nonsensical and stupid drama.

[@BulletRain100]

The fundamental flaw in how light novels are published is that authors are pushed to write as many novels as they can as fast as they can. While they may have worked over a year to write the first novel that eventually gets them published, they then have to write the next volumes in three months or less. Most light novels start strong in the first novel and then experience a slight decline for the next few novels. The series then experiences a major drop-off at some point where the author has used up all of the story map they had originally started with, but they need to keep the series going because their livelihood now depends on it. A few authors do have a strong story map that can take them over 20 novels, some authors are really good at flying by the seat of their pants and keeping the story at a good quality in perpetuity, but most authors shovel poor-quality stories and bank on the audience continuing to buy it due to a strong initial investment and inertia.

[@schwarzflammenkaiser2347]

The Rising of the Shield Hero was a Webnovel at first and while there were some plot changes the main story beats are all still there.

[@NAzo.]

Source: I made it up. Obviously this is not how the OP says it is.

[@BulletRain100]

@@schwarzflammenkaiser2347 Web novels work in the same way. They need to publish chapters regularly to keep their audience. They ultimately produce the same, if not more content than traditional light novel publishing.

[@lawmanlawman2210]

The author of Spice and Wolf is a good example of someone who had it all at least somewhat all planned out from the start. That novel was so good.

[@BulletRain100]

@@lawmanlawman2210 Spice and Wolf was not planned out and the author says as much in his afterwards. He started out strong with 5 novels, then he had to sprinkle in side stories for a bit to stall. He then set up an endless journey for the next few volumes that lowers the quality. He then decides to end the story so the last volumes are much tighter moving towards a clear goal. When he brought back Spice and Wolf a few years ago with Spring Logs, those are set up as an endless journey. However, he takes around a year to write each one so he has had no need to rush.

[@justaway6901]

As the fan of the source material, the anime did not even do the story justice. The fight against the zombie dragon was supposed to be emotional. It was Naofumi's first realization on how his hatred can negatively affect the people that he cared about. The slave seal he put on Firo is what eventually almost led to her death. The hatred he had for the world that done him injustice is what caused the cursed flames to rage, burning Raphtalia. Naofumi was suppose to cry on that scene by the way. He thought he lost the most important people that he had. It almost broke him. All he felt were guilt after the incident. But the anime somehow use everything in its power(or lack there of) to make it as bland as possible.

[@logantatom738]

Not to mention the pushover of a Noble, Raphtalia's previous owner, instead of showcasing how powerful some human veterans were after the demihuman wars, and his complete contempt for the weak, they just had him go down like a random mook.

[@sidneyrobinson18]

Are the light novels good past the turtle? I heard around that time the story just took a turn for the worse

[@notnick7963]

@@sidneyrobinson18 yeah the novel gets better, i personally didnt care for some of the arcs that followed the curse shield reveal but it slowly picks back up then doesnt come back down until the end

[@SquaulDuNeant]

yeah but still a bad story too many bad points sadly what a waste

[@RatchetClankFan112]

Let’s hope the shield hero gets a reboot that’s faithful to novel’s story

[@6ixlxrd]

There’s not enough people appreciating the “Domain Expansion: Sunday School” joke 😭

[@rivershen8954]

personally, i felt it looked pretty cool with the sun eclipse directly above them and all that

[@ArtemSayapov]

Rising of the shield hero got that SAO treatment for real

[@yuuichi4356]

Shield Hero in the first season was, for me, one of the top 5 isekai anime I have ever seen. After Season 1, I was very excited for Season 2, which we had to wait 3 years for it. But Season 2 was a disaster in every sense of the word, the story became very boring and almost all the characters lost their personality, and even the production was weaker than Season 1. Season 2 of Shield Hero I personally consider it the biggest disappointment I have seen since I started watching anime. Season 3 is definitely better than Season 2, but it is still bad compared to Season 1.

[@sirrealgaming6913]

Alot of the issue is that they decided to take the story tone lighter than the Web Novel The Web Novel is a 10/10 absolutely fantastic it's significantly darker when it's dark but the manga/anime went significantly lighter after the early bit In the web novel when Naofumi's purchase of Raphtalia he was fully prepared to take all his rage directed at the princess on Raphtalia Seeing her and all women in a similar but less comedic way to the Spear Hero Post princess but Raphtalia heals his heart like a therapeutic pet throughout their time together

[@thecompareablezombie]

The material was something the writer of it said didn't like how it ended up being. How season 3 is being handled is little better, but not fully the best as season 1 was.

[@sharkguy2340]

Oh is the 3rd season out? I dropped it during the 2nd season since it became too hard to get through. But if it picks up next season, I might force my way through the 2nd one.

[@lockskelington314]

In the Manga the Queen isn't some softhearted damsel but a Boss-*** Btch who didn't let Naoufumi exucute the princess and king because of how other countries would view that as her killing off anyone who opposes her. She was pissed not at what the princess did but rather because she didn't control the Shield Hero and manipulate him to be a useful asset. Also in the Manga Rishia (girl kicked out of Bow Hero's Party) Intentionally threw that beer Barrel at the Outsiders from the other world after remembering that L'Arc Could handle the booze pebbles from the night before rather then by accident.

[@kanekiken2002]

​@@sharkguy2340I am currently forcing my through 2nd season, I really loved this show in the 1st season, they really disappointed in the 2nd one that I had to drop but I will be giving this series a one more chance.

[@KRIMZONMEKANISM]

I've said it so many times to other people, and I shall repeat it here: This anime had the most promising story up until episode 5. We had a "true" anti-hero protagonist who is getting absolutely screwed in every single moment of his stay in this new world, and so he has to engage in a "dog-eat-dog" doctrine in order to survive. He has to think outside the box and explore every opportunity he gets, he can't deal damage so he MUST find someone to fight for him, and it forces an interesting concept: the coward who HAS to be placed in the most dangerous situations in order to stand a chance of survival. Then we got Filo... and it all rolled down hill from there, into stereotype harem isekai. Mind you, the Filo episode was cool up until the end where she is transformed from her cool Chocobo-esque design into a literal giant chicken and loli-bait. And then we get the shitty political plot for the princesses, and then the shitty "totally-not-Guts'-Berserk-Armor-tm". "Rising of the Shield Hero"? More like, "Downward Spiral of the Shield Hero".

[@ajitae1460]

Absolutely agree with you, the Filo part is the most out of character in the world building, the world in pretty dark and grey for Naofumi with things like slavery, racism against animal people (not sure whats the correct word is) then suddenly we have a cute pet that transform into loli and everything just get better somehow. Its like put a colorful rainbow in the middle of all grey and dark picture, And other heroes's power is pretty lame and isnt powerful at all, at least comparing to shield hero, have almost no variety except some basic thing like elemental skill. So it make me feel like a fool watching , how the hell did shield hero being seen as the weakest of the 4 hero with all this amazing power in the first place? man just carry the whole first wave, after that i just give up.

[@arturzinurov4781]

I am fine with a story chilling out and not putting MC into a meat grinder every single episode and actually allowing him to have nice experiences the problem starts when the author refuses to give any actual hardships to MC moving forward. Literally every girl likes him the queen like him and he is the smartest most intelligent and the most powerful hero there ever was

[@ajitae1460]

@@arturzinurov4781 yeah, i'm fine with that too, just some chilling moment but the problem is the story doesnt even propose any hardship at all after the start. Like the King doesnt like shield hero ? oh nvm this world follow matriarch rule so the queen hold actual power and the queen like MC so its completely fine LUL. If only the King still hold actual power and shield hero slowly gain people's trust and make everyone turning against the king, that could have been so much more interesting to see. Shield hero got shunned by the king and princess making other people turn against him then got other princess and the queen who hold actual power back him up so he easily crush the king and antagonist princess, what is really the hardship here? being crushed by people in high power then got other people with higher power crush them back, the MC doesnt change anything here, he can probably just wait until the queen return and boom problem solved

[@avizvit9932]

This anime dies when Filo kicks the Lancer hero in the balls on episode 5 and he is sent flying team rocket style. That's where you know the writer has absolutely no idea of the emotional reaction those antagonists produced on the audience and is just treating them as infantile punching bags, rather than telling a serious revenge story. This of course culminates on MC' epic revenge being calling the Princess silly names.

[@KRIMZONMEKANISM]

@@avizvit9932 Oh yeah, I absolutely agree on all points there. And the whole "Let's call the Princess a literal Bitch for the rest of her life" is absolutely insane lmao

[@stumonster6091]

That was an incredible review on the issues I and many others have had with S2-3. Thankyou.

[@Florian-rn4lw]

This was honestly a great experience to watch bro, couldn't believe you only had 50K subscribers. Can't wait to see you grow

[@kap1618]

My issue with the anime was how it sanatized characters like Naofumi and the Queen of Melromarc. Also, having Naofumi clear his name in Season 1 took away from the shows concept.

[@admiralandy1983]

Would have been better/more realistic if after his name was cleared the townspeople would still believe he was guilty and still tret him as bad.

[@shortnsiper1322]

I mean they *are* technically NPCs except for the heroes.

[@rRekko]

Completely agree. In the anime they mellowed ALL of it's characters, in order to appeal to a more wide audience. In the novels both Naofumi and the Queen are brutal. They also reversed their roles, the Queen would've killed herself after killing her family because she was very pissed off at them but she still loved them 'cause family. On the other hand, Naofumi was overjoyed and couldn't wait for their head to roll, but the Queen out of love for her family, managed to convince Naofumi to change their sentence into a life of perpetual disgust and shame. The anime studios really did the actual story and it's characters dirty just to be more popular for some ungodly reason. Can't have a hero do bad things you know? Despite the biggest and most memorable anime/manga heroes are flawed and have made huge mistakes.

[@tailornorman1962]

My problem with the anime is that they made the other 3 heroes so weak. They had a big party and weeks of advantage againste Naofumi. And He still overtook them in Power in Like 5 ep. That is not good Story telling. At the point were Naofumi can solo them all you loose all interest in them.

[@anthonyraymundobarron1255]

@@rRekko do we know that they mellowed the characters for appeal. Or is it a result of cramming information in to complete the show?

[@TheUltimateRey]

I love Maple and how she poured all her stat points into defense so she wouldn’t get hurt lol

[@TeddiiTheGod]

Shut up

[@Shizkeb]

it's really bad

[@MysticLuka]

@@Shizkeb It's certainly not an incredibly good or exciting show, but I think Bofuri is decently enjoyable, personally. It's very chill.

[@Nisowyd]

@@Shizkebyup complete and utter dog boo boo

[@Biohacker777]

Bofuri s1 is waaaaay more enjoyable than shield hero s2

[@willimeister2553]

Even though I read a good portion of the manga after finishing season 1, by the time season 2 came out, the pacing caught me off guard and I felt alot of things were skipped got me confused despite being caught up with the manga equivalent of season 2 and a part of season 3. I ended up dropping the show part way through because of the confusion and haven't really been keeping up with it since.

[@moneymandev0739]

Bro is acting like konosuba isn't peak fiction 😭🙏🏾

[@SoushinSen]

The thing that got me annoyed the most is how the heck did the three stooges STILL believed Malty over Naofumi despite having been PROVEN that she lied and betrayed him. They even witnessed the death sentence trial and the would-be execution by the Queen. Any idiot would would be wary of of her deceptive lies at this point. I get that the spear hero, being the most idiot one, continued to believe her because they partied together. But Sword Hero and Bow hero has no relation whatsoever with her, there's no reason they would believe her.

[@nathanielbass771]

funnily enough, in the light novel it's explained that she is brainwashing them for real and bringing all of their worst traits to the surface and making them even worse

[@wyatt9949]

I see it as them all being so desperate that they'll believe anything. Ren lost his whole party so he was desperate to just hear someone telling him that he was doing something correct and things like that. I understand why he would believe her, same to Motoyasu I guess... but Itsuki? yeah... no

[@nathanielbass771]

@@wyatt9949 she actually ended up benefitting Motoyasu in the long run, but in a weird way XD The light novels get pretty wild, as in they made an antagonist that was literally impossible to defeat without the writer making it possible(power wise that is)

[@Daiyuki117]

Because booba

[@Yugvc]

The fact that they green lit both season 2 AND 3 on the same day after airing season one was wild to me

[@Sorain1]

That would make sense if they were basically splitting a single season into two parts, but still wrote and paced it as usual for a single season. Unfortunately, they didn't.

[@bloodfalcon5611]

The first season was extremely popular and successful.

[@plasticold2167]

It falls in the same old isekai trap where everything has to be instant wish fulfillment. Naofumi spends like, one day being miserable and then Raphtalia instantly makes his life better. It's presented as a world where assholes rule and everyone goes along with it but it turns out there's just like, five or six assholes and everyone else is actually pretty chill. You get the feeling it's supposed to be a slow burn kind of story but then it really isn't. Naofumi instantly gets a solid support group and important friends and we don't really get to see the kind of trials you'd expect him to go through. It tells a lot that I remember a lot of the first episode and almost everything else in the show is kind of a blur.

[@leopiemonte3399]

Honestly season 2 and 3 felt like filler episodes

[@KHAN_BHAI007marwat]

I agree with you 💯

[@_Matt29_]

Oh my god.... After watching this I just remembered, I DID watch season 2! I knew the story about the turtle, the evil alchemist, and the Japanese Culture thing... I genuinely forgot I was that far into the season with how fast and unforgettable it all is. In contrast, I rewatched season 1 around 4 times since its release, not because I keep forgetting, but because it was actually fun to watch.

[@andrzejwysocki609]

i swear the anime skipped the fact kyo was also from japan like naofumi, cuz when they killed him in the novel they saw his soul which looked like a japanese guy, in the anime they just blew him up and he was dead...wut

[@zzyunogd]

This!!!!

[@potatohildy]

They were supposed to kill him a second time too tho, right? Because his soul escaped into the basement to try and get to that backup body

[@BronzeOrwin]

Lot of people don't seem to realize it skipped 2 arcs and then speedran 2 more during season 2.......... That's the real reason

[@pastaalfredo3394]

Nah. It's been bad.

[@BronzeOrwin]

@@pastaalfredo3394 first arc was about normal pace, didn't cut out 2 arcs and try to stuff another 2 into a single arc.

[@gatorayds]

@@BronzeOrwin yeah except the first season fell off as soon as that bird showed up

[@BronzeOrwin]

@@gatorayds I'm simply saying reviews for second season are so bad because massive amounts of content were cut, your opinion on season 1 is arbitrary.

[@gatorayds]

@@BronzeOrwin You said "thats the real reason" and it was kinda vague so thanks for telling me what you meant

[@StephanthePelted]

To be fair, I tired the novel for 22 volumes. More and more characters get added to the point the author had to introduce rabbit holes to send chcaracters away in order to cut down how many people will be involved in that given plot. If they had to animate it, it would be a nightmare, alot of the 'plot' in the novel itself feel rushed because Naufumi dint care or because author has to advance the main storyline. I was waiting for the novel to become better, but apparently it dint, I guess animators 'learned' to rush this series from its novels.

[@Requiem100500]

Let's be real, everyone watched it for the revenge plot, after that there was no point

[@Zarastro54]

The fact that the Queen could just abolish the Church with _no_ societal repercussions always annoyed me. Like that alone could and SHOULD have led to a bunch of conflicts that could keep the story fed for a while. Imagine an ultra-orthodox faction of anti-Shield zealots that kept trying to undermine Naofumi, the Queen, and the reformed Church _while_ also having to deal with the waves. It’s a missed opportunity tbh. Also, the way the series basically justifies slavery in the world is really freaking gross. [Edit: To preempt people from continuing to misinterpret what I mean by this, I have added the portion from my second comment explaining _why_ I feel the portrayal of slavery is gross.] Also, it's not that the world depicts slavery that's the problem, it's how the _story itself_ treats it. I have no problem with a story portraying slavery, but this one in many ways does not do it well. Firstly, it makes it "necessary" for Naofumi to keep Raph as a slave because slaves get an xp boost. This boost is so prevalent that it becomes a viable option for green haired girl to enter into a *slavey* contract with him to get her levels up faster, rather than literally anything else. Are you really telling me that nobody has developed a magic that allows a similar level of xp sharing among free party members? It also plays him using the shock collar magic as a joke most of the time, rather than the barbaric thing that it is. Likewise, the two slaves Naofumi has both just happen to be cute girls who are in love with him, and (grossest of all) Raphtalia _willingly becomes his slave again_ when offered her freedom and this is framed as noble, rather than the deeply unhealthy and disturbing action that it is. The idea of a cute girl simping for you so hard that she _literally_ will remain a *slave* to you is the worst kind of otaku wish fulfillment. The problem with how the story portrays slavery is that it isn't so much an abhorrent system that Naofumi has to tolerate because that is the world he is in, but rather it is written as a directly beneficial system that he actively participates in wherein his slaves will love him if he's nice and cool enough. In that vein it somewhat fetishizes slavery.

[@TwilightWolf032]

In the original, the Queen COULDN'T just abolish the church like that, they had been at odds with each other for a while and it was their attempt at assassinating the 4 heroes that gave her the opportunity to do so. Given Naofumi's name was cleaned and the population is more concerned with the waves than the religion at this point, the lack of repercussion is understandable. That said, there's no way to defend the Turtle arc, it is dragged out, boring and feels like a diversion from the plot rather than progression. And the way the series justifies slavery makes sense, they never paint it in a good light and Naofumi only uses it because he's broken. Yes, it is gross, but it is made to show how far from his past self he's become.

[@Zarastro54]

@@TwilightWolf032 I don't doubt that the LN handled the story better, but even then, history has taught us that people _always_ find a way to care about religion, even when there is a much larger threat to their being. I'm not saying there should have been a massive religious war, but there definitely should have been resistance from ultra-orthodox holdouts. After all, how is anyone supposed to _know_ that it was the Pope who tried to kill the heroes? For all anyone else knew, the Queen just framed the Church to gain more power. Also, it's not that the world depicts slavery that's the problem, it's how the _story itself_ treats it. I have no problem with a story portraying slavery, but this one in many ways does not do it well. Firstly, it makes it "necessary" for Naofumi to keep Raph as a slave because slaves get an xp boost. This boost is so prevalent that it becomes a viable option for green haired girl to enter into a *slavey* contract with him to get her levels up faster, rather than literally anything else. Are you really telling me that nobody has developed a magic that allows a similar level of xp sharing among free party members? It also plays him using the shock collar magic as a joke most of the time, rather than the barbaric thing that it is. Likewise, the two slaves Naofumi has both just happen to be cute girls who are in love with him, and (grossest of all) Raphtalia _willingly becomes his slave again_ when offered her freedom and this is framed as noble, rather than the deeply unhealthy and disturbing action that it is. The idea of a cute girl simping for you so hard that she _literally_ will remain a *slave* to you is the worst kind of otaku wish fulfillment. The problem with how the story portrays slavery is that it isn't so much an abhorrent system that Naofumi has to tolerate because that is the world he is in, but rather it is written as a directly beneficial system that he actively participates in wherein his slaves will love him if he's nice and cool enough. In that vein it somewhat fetishizes slavery.

[@antoniodelaugger9236]

​@@Zarastro54japanese mangas and animes have a weird (even korean and chinese ones) hate boner for the christian church. Most of them portray churches in their fictions as evil catholics who uses God to fool people into supporting their own ascension to power, which actually, isn't far off from reality but holy shit, maybe a catholic church that is actually altruistic for once? A pope character that is actually innocent as he looks as he is very religious and moral?

[@theblackswordsman7558]

@Zarastro54 there's no excuse for the series portrayal of slavery, it's just gross and honestly makes naofumi a disgusting character for me. But the slavery thing is far from the only problems this series has, honestly it's borderline unwatchable I don't understand how anyone could like this show or the light novels, it's beyond bad and ridiculous. Soo many dumb things happen it really takes away from any immersion you might have when the world building the characters are soo trash.

[@lordhawkeye]

@@theblackswordsman7558 Could you give some examples of these other problems? Or the so called "dumb things"? Your comment is so vague and without substance I would like to understand what it is you actually disliked in either the show or light novels.

[@frogdude59]

A good deal of it was the turtle arc. Many didn’t like it in the book either so they wanted to push past it ASAP. The other part was how shield hero started off as a revenge story that was resolved towards the end of S1. S2 didn’t have any of the driving forces S1 had and now S3 is just dealing with the aftermath of the tortoise. Do I still enjoy it? Yes. Do I think season 3 is bad? No. Better than S2 but still not as good as S1

[@CD-vb9fi]

For me the downfall started right at the end of Season 1 when Naofumi stopped the execution of those pieces of trash. They were lying and scheming all the way to the end... there was not a single redeeming thing at all but he spared them to just make them suffer the embarrassment of being called juvenile names. They had connections and supporters where they could still cause massive trouble for the entire kingdom. But you are right... the Second Season totally wasted the entire show... the turtle was nonsense and the "other world" arc after it made everything worse. I have lost complete interest and I started watching S3... but it's looking lame with the whole "tournament" fight idiocy.

[@sepphero9639]

​​@@CD-vb9fi actually it's pretty poorly portrayed by the anime. In the lightnovel Naofumi notices that the queen wanted to interfere by offering her own life because of her love for her family (what in some ways is understandable 👀 and fits her so far shown character like the king has at least reason in being racist because S3 spoiler!! shield worshipping beast man nation abducted (and maybe r****) his little sister) and bitch is her daughter after all.) Anyway so since the queen killing herself would have actually solved nothing, if not made things worse he stopped her. That and plot xD

[@CD-vb9fi]

@@sepphero9639 I can understand a parent not wanting a child to be killed. Queen was already guilty enough for knowing the truth and doing little about it as well. Sure she helped Naofumi here and there but it was mostly tokenism. But there is this thing most have about people in power being subjected to exactly the same punishments they carried out on those beneath them. They took a sword to many people without mercy and so they should receive the sword without mercy. It's a tough business... don't rule over others if you can't stomach punishing your own family for doing what you punish others for doing without blinking. This is why people seem to forget why angry mobs have no mercy when they rise up against their rulers.... by the time that happens there has already been a very long chain of tyranny and oppression done such that the expectation that the leader getting drawn and quartered is "non-negotiable". I personally would have been okay with Queen, King, and Princess #1 to go the way of the dodo. They still had Princess #2 to become ruler.

[@sepphero9639]

@@CD-vb9fi i get the feeling you neither understand how monarchy works nor that princess 2 is literally 13-14 years old 👀 people don't "choose" to rule. Also, the queen literally came as fast as possible without starting an all out war. She didn't ignore it she was at a conference to negotiate which country summons which Hero and was stuck there negotiating peace for her county when her manipulated husband made a royal fuckup.

[@CD-vb9fi]

@@sepphero9639 I know how monarchy works. Don't confuse "justice" with "convenience". Justice would be her and them all paying the price for all the wrongs that happened under their rule. Yes... I know this 'concept' of justice is not compatible with monarchy based on human concept as rulers are often seen as "special" and "immune" from punishment for their mistakes. But it does not change what justice is... Instead it just becomes "convenience" where they can brutally murder others by mistake and face no consequences. But don't use "my preferences" for what should have happened to lead you down the path of attacking my intelligence. Don't forget... kingdoms "in real life" have fallen by such designs so the same happening in fantasy is not a stretch either. Some have fallen for nothing other than the greed of another member of royalty desiring to rule. It's a messy affair.

[@NCore_._]

Man I so loved this anime and waited so eagerly when s2 and s3 were announced together. But then I heard saying how bad it was. It really could've been so great. Sucks to see this happened to it.

[@LionHeartSamy]

I didn't even realize there was a season 3 until I watched this video, so had to pause and bookmark it, and go off to watch season 3. The fact that Malty can successfully pull off what she did against Naofumi on day 1 on all three other heroes was so freaking hilarious and yet sad to watch repeatedly and in succession. The spear hero falling for it, yeah, I can see it, he's always been a simp. The sword hero falling for it, suuuuuure alright whatever. The bow hero falling for it, yeah nope I'm out what the hell hahaha

[@notbubblystarters05]

I ended up dropping the show because I thought this story was gonna go the parental route with an obviously young and very impressionable Rafkalia. I suppose that's my mistake. But you can imagine my horror after I slowly realized this very much traumatized child that's sort of adopted but is actually still a slave going through shock therapy with an emphasis on the shock is THE love interest. ToT

[@Naynin]

Even worse considering girly LOVES being his slave. What shocked me more seeing this video just now was that they age her down for 'plot' sometimes, which is so weird considering she's the love interest lmao

[@sompret]

Me, having heard spoilers about how the entire series ends: "If only you knew how bad things will become."

[@savanadelanore]

They won't recover from that 😞 The dress story 🥴

[@NN-cc8uo]

Crazy thing is, it never fell off. It was just never good in the first place. I tried watching s1 but literally slept through it, not even bothering with the final episode because I already got bored to death by the story

[@solarmoth4628]

Naofumi’s relationship with young girls in the novel is weird as hell too. Especially after the tiger girl twin Alta dies while still in an underage beast girl body and they use it as a justification as to why Naofumi needs a harem???? It’s like Raphtalia part 2 because he buys slaves again and they try to push a romance angle again except the author didn’t even bother aging them up this time.

[@jaytheanimeeditor8500]

Yeah this is what did it for me, like sometimes I see the writer behind the storytelling and just can’t stand these ideas that he actively chose to write. The worst part is he’s not very koi about it, but he gets away with it.

[@imapotato7391]

Bro I'm watching the anime with my bf so I can't really read ahead but the whole harem/slave situation is fucking weird even in the episodes I've seen. Given what happened the first few episodes of the series you think there wouldn't be any harems in fear that Naofumi would be accused by one of them. And they keep getting younger like it doesn't even matter😫

[@jackdixon6681]

​@@jaytheanimeeditor8500koi is the fish, you're looking for "coy"

[@YHUAN01]

Atla's point was to tell Naofumi to not cut himself off from loving and letting others love him. She fully confessed to him as she was drying(though she made it clear she had a crush on him pretty early on of their meeting but Naofumi never paid her any mind at all). She flat out tells him that Raphtalia straight up loves him too and was fed up with how he was acting and being insensitive towards Raphtalia's feelings by pulling the whole Kodak from Hanagai series strat of just pretending romantic advances were never there or made to begin with. Through his depression and guilt he was irrationally gonna make an overcorrection that would be a mistake. He was stopped because it was wrong to do such a thing and he recognized it was wrong and apologized for it and soon got over his grief and depression, properly forgave himself over Ost and Atla's death and isn't so weird around people showing him any kind of affection and not so closed off. The slave crest is literally used for just stats and he asks before it ever gets put on anyone you know this because Raphtalia elects to get hers put back on for that reason and to show Naofumi that she wouldn't ever abandon him. He was gonna have it removed because he trusted her but she said she'd keep it because it was her decision. Rishia agrees to it since with a level reset and her getting the crest would make her stronger and thus she could learn to be helpful to Itsuki. Seems like you ain't ever read a damn thing nor watched the anime. The whole slave crest thing is in season 1 and like books 3 and 4 of the light novel rofl.

[@jackdixon6681]

@@YHUAN01 i think you missed the problem: in-universe there's very good reasons to keep slaves, but the slave crest is only a good thing because the author CHOSE to make it one, and it's really fucking weird that they made up a reason to justify slavery. Also, "the point was that raphtalia loves naofumi and he should love her back" is not a winning talking point given raphtalia's age...

[@DudeBro07]

ngl completely forgot about this anime since dropping S2. But you did hit the nail, at this point we were seeing Naofumi solo the waves and watching the other heroes fall from grace. If they at the very least kept Naofumi still struggling to clear his name, and made the other heroes learn from their mistakes and become competent, it would be interesting enough to watch.

[@reflex9238]

You know its funny you mention that because that's exactly what season 3 does, also it looks like you may not have been paying attention given the fact that Naofumi clearly did struggle with all his fights and if the other heroes had gotten their act together they wouldn't have had issues with people like L'arc and Glass and the manga makes that clear as well. The anime also keeps the same rule in that Naofumi still barely has a way to attack and still requires Raphtalia, so he doesn't exactly solo the waves considering he still needs someone to attack.

[@LanceThumping]

@@reflex9238 The rising of the other heroes in S3 was done terribly IMO, basically no weight given to it and barely a hint of redeemable qualities in them before they are just suddenly fixed. Even if the LN is good, I don't think it's coming through to the anime.

[@reflex9238]

@@LanceThumping idk where you got the idea of them being “fixed”. Something which the anime has yet to touch upon though they most likely will in season 4 is that they all also got affected by the curse they used. Ren is unable to get any XP and isn’t able to carry anything without it decreasing in value overtime. Itsuki lost his free will due to his curse series and can only follow orders from those around him, something which was cut out of the anime as Naofumi commanded him to kill himself and he actually tries to do just that but gets stopped last moment. Plus they all just got to the village, so there still hasn’t been much to do so as the anime is trying to take it slow.

[@thatwasmethere3526]

Seriously And s3 there's another raccoon child girl wanting to take Raphtalias place Where the f is it just going?? Got bored and cringed so I dropped it even s2 was boring af!

[@grantlit2196]

thats wild your hating just to hate it saved the series for me @@LanceThumping

[@morganmariex]

I couldn't get through season 2 and I LOVED season 1. I saw season 3 released and still couldn't be bothered. The plot and enjoyability dropped SO much.

[@andreygs]

And people still defend this

[@philosopherkingzant2037]

"She's obviously evil because she's over the age of 10"

[@danstonbeauriz]

😭😭😭😭

[@downix]

I remember reading an article where an anonymous former editor for RoSH's publisher lamented how many of the writers needed the editor to essentially rewrite entire books. My belief is that the first few novels had one editor, after which the writer had more creative control, and based on the webnovel, yeah, that control was pretty bad.

[@teoni8765]

THE EDITING IS STUPIDLY GOOD AND YOUR HUMOUR LMFAOOOOOO I seriously clicked on this video expecting to just hear the introduction for 2 seconds and leave because I didn't care too much about this anime but good lord. You are incredibly funny. Subscribed.

[@badluck9749]

Yes yes, we know Raphtalia is the most breadable. Because she's the only one that we get to explore.

[@Glitchy1988]

The dude also completely under utilizes his shield's potential. If I were him I'd try having the shield absorb almost everything I can think of. Like has he tried to put any money in it? It could give him some kind of Luck or other cool shield. I'd also try having the blacksmith guy make me a shield that has a sharpen tip that juts out so it's like a shield sword combo and then use that power where he can just assimilate it. How about a shield with a crossbow built in. In season 1 he unlocks tons of shields.

[@jameskangethe8952]

That show exists (in a sense)….it’s called BOFURI

[@slowbro7944]

fun fact: he does get similar shields much later in the series (though the crossbow is more a gun) and they are practically useless they don't even give him an extra attack point. cause remember that his attack stat is like 3 or whatever and so any shield he wields will do no damage to anything with a modicum of defense.

[@Hepheat75]

I miss Billy Kamets, he brought so much emotion into the character of Naufumi which is one of the things that killed the second season for me.

[@MoriMementa]

It's tragic how young he died. He really put his heart and soul into his performances, but I know we'd trade that in a moment if it meant he got to live past 40.

[@spikegilfer1997]

This video is the first time I've even heard the new chap, and while he doesn't sound bad the season he starts in really is. Maybe I'll speed-run it one day, season 3 is at least somewhat better. (But increasingly clustered as time goes on.) Fuck, it was such a gut punch when I got that news. I didn't even know he was sick, and he was only in his mid-thirties beside.

[@MoriMementa]

@@spikegilfer1997 His new VA does quite well, I think. It's a pity he had to get the job due to such tragic circumstances, though.

[@Alkaizer87]

@@MoriMementa Meh I don't care either way I watch Subs. Dubs usually suck ass. One exception is Cowboy Bebop.

[@darknessinc.5360]

Me who watches japan dub:

[@ImNotFine44]

The main problem is the source. After season 1, i reread it in the manga and then read on after that point. After where season 1 ended, it just got terrible real quick. Pretty sure the author just had no idea where to go from there. It just kinda sucked. So i was shocked to see years and years later that a season 3 is coming out when i never even heard of the season 2. I could see it falling off from a mile away so i dont know why they bothered doing season 2 and 3

[@robertnomok9750]

says source. Says he read manga, Lol what?

[@bloodfalcon5611]

Season 3 was well received.

[@_NIKOS9_NIKOS]

If I am not mistaken, season 2 n 3 were both greenlight after season 1 ended.

[@kleamat]

​@@bloodfalcon5611 naw it was trash

[@bloodfalcon5611]

@@kleamat Facts don’t care about your feeling on it. It was generally well-received by most viewers.

[@Hashman588]

7:05 The funny thing is that you'd think what naofumi said is a made up joke like the rest of the jokes in the video but that's what he actually says in the show lol. Anyways cool video dude. Cheers from Egypt.

[@histhoryk2648]

6:58 That was the most disappointing thing in S1 Honestly I like only the 1st half of first season, the beginning was great it was dark and Naofumi was a very grey personality full of anger and revenge but in the middle of S1 I've felt that something changed in the writing - something started to rot. Common cliches appeared like "i don't kill you because I'm not monster like you", too much focus on filler Chocobos (I refuse to call them Filolials) or beach episode at the end of season for fan service reasons I came for darkness and I ended with power of friendship

[@thenonexistinghero]

Same here. The darkness so present early on just disappears. Then it just becomes village & harem building isekai... which is really only fun if you make the MC a degenerate who f***s his entire harem. Anyhow, they just keep introducing and adding more and more characters too fast while the rest of the cast kinda hits a brick wall when it comes to character development. Basically characters are being added exactly because the author didn't have an interesting way for the main cast to develop. S3 is finished by now and Naofumi, Filo, Raphtalia and even Melty have been pretty much the same they've been since about halfway through S1.

[@spellsnare]

was in the same boat as you i wanted darkness i not wanted power of friendship resolve all BS

[@Grimnoire]

Season 1 portrayed the struggles of the MC "Who I don't remember the name of" well. But everything outside of that was a regular run of the mill isekai with a main character who has a power everyone THINKS is bad but is actually super super OP and can do just about everything the other "heroes" can't. Mixed with a slavery fetish and a harem slavery fetish in top of that and BOOM every isekai ever. It ended after like... Episode 3 or 4 for me? Whenever the MC gets his revenge idk.

[@darnellfelix8114]

Honestly i think a bit of a bandwagon effect happened that boosted its popularity. At the time a certain VA was having Metoo allegations and people kept making comparisons to naofumis situation

[@Chucker20XX]

Yeah honestly it was overrated and hyped to much I always thought it was just alright in my opinion

[@valhatan3907]

When I watch it back then, I thought it was hold up alright in my sense. But, looking back, it's just other revenge hareem isekai. I don't know what made me hooked up into this at the first place. Guess we always have mistakes as a teen. But, we grow and be better than our previous self every day. By reevaluating ourselves, we can improve, so we will realize how much of a trash this anime is.

[@DeneWinee]

tbh i think the anime "nerfing" raphtalia by not giving her huge knockers is actually a good thing since she is LITERALLY A CHILD. I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN SHE IS A CHILD. THEY CANT MAKE ME FORGET.

[@RickiTikkiTavi]

After all that happened in Season 1, the other Heroes "still" don't trust Naofumi despite working together and seeing he was set up. That along with the CGI Turtle Plot really made S2 boring. Still haven't finished it.

[@alexwikky5604]

I’ve been telling people since ending of s1 man, the revenge was satisfying but the author made the mistake by rushing it in one season That was the entire selling point of the anime

[@gameramv6163]

true i think he really did all of his cards in 1 season and in s2 s3 there is nothing that give u a good time watching anime or where the story is going like the revenge and the hate from another people should get more not just finish it in 1season and raphtile i really hatted the love with mc like why she could just be his children much better than lover + that she is the sword hero i droped it after that it was soo boring ++the anime taked too long to air s2 and s3 like from 2019 to 2022 to get s2 with 12 ep for really?? and a bad cgi pls

[@mariokarter13]

The biggest mistake for me is episode 4. Naofumi and Raphtalia don't have much history at that point so testing their relationship isn't as high stakes as it should be.

[@zapperil]

Imo, revenge as a theme is a very tacky thing, because most of the modern literature that features revenge as the main theme ended up either half-assed or justifying the main character to become a murderhobo That's the core problem of the revenge genre as a whole; when it's done, there's practically no goal after that

[@robertnomok9750]

yeahhh no. People read wn for hundreds chapters more and than 20 volumes of ln. He knew what he was doing and to whom

[@filipvadas7602]

Season 1 was amazing because the story was given time to breathe. Every season afterwards has tried to cram *everything* into 12 episodes, which lead to a lot of changes that, understandibly, rubbed people the wrong way. It also doesn't help that the novels themselves have also kind of plateued as well. The initial driving force of revenge and Naofumi being treated like trash by this opressive, unfair society is just *gone*

[@krisevol3016]

most any ends like this. They get milked to dead, then canceled and everyone moves on to something else. Anime in general has been like this for a decade.

[@FelidaeEnjoyer]

Plus, I don't think many dub watchers got past ep 1 3:14 🤮

[@KosmoXKami]

Naofumi spams rage shield more then Megumi trying to summon maharaga😂

[@yellowcard8100]

The story was bad from the beginning. All the other heroes are written like bumbling idiots while Naofumi is written somewhat with common sense so he looks like a genius in comparison.

[@laura79613]

I remember how much I loved season 1 and even wrote a heartfelt comment about how I wanted this anime to continue forever...then season 2 came.

[@anthonyraymundobarron1255]

Unless a show is designed to be long-running the shows usually suffer in quality. at best this show should have gotten 5 seasons of 25 episodes each.

[@guardiandarkness5345]

Oof my condolences friend I was very satisfied with season 1 that I didn't even bother looking forward to season 2 for some reason

[@Blakefe]

While waiting for season 2. I read all the light novels. I saw how they left out a lot world building. And character development. I was especially upset when they cut out the part where the queen has the all heroes and there parties attend boot camp. It was a great way to show case how incompetent the 3 other heroes and their parties were.

[@yuzmanito]

We already KNOW how incompetent they are, wdym? If anything it's the original series fault for always wanting to show Naofumi has the bigger dick everytime, it stops being entertaining and it just becomes annoying.

[@SystemHasFailed1989]

Most light novels are like this: great premise, good first few volumes, main character becomes strong and confident and starts to destroy most obstacles or the series focuses on things that didn't make it popular, this stakes are lost and/or the concept is no longer a thing thus becomes generic slop. That's what Shield Hero is in a nutshell. People liked the underdog story, he becomes so powerful everyone practically falls over for him as he just makes the most dangerous of foes become a cake walk.

[@Oussuk]

I remember hearing how good The Shield Hero was and first thinking that it was just another story about a bland character who was transported to another world and had to go through a boss gauntlet. But then the twist at the end of episode 1 gave a unique story presence and I thought "This will actually be a fun watch" and then watching episode 1-4 and seeing the amazing character development at the end made Shield Hero one of my favorites. Unfortunately there wasn't really any more of that amazing character development that there was in episode 1-4, at least it wasn't as great as those episodes were, but it still had the same intriguing plot and was enjoyable. But then season 2 and 3 came and basically threw all of that out of the window. Now I want to clarify that I haven't read TROTSH, so I don't know if the story is more interesting there, but from what I've seen in the animated version is that the shield hero isn't doing any rising, which was the entire reason anyone really watched it to begin with.

[@stargazer162]

Honestly I hated the rage shield, it single-handedly killed most of my interest in the series. i liked the first few episodes because of how Naofumi could only protect so he had to think outside of the box to use his abilities in an offensive way or rely on Raphtalia to attack, that made the fights interesting. Then, with the introduction of the rage shield this whole concept got thrown out of the window and all the fights boiled down to Naofumi going into rage mode, beating their enemy with his OP powers, and then being brought back to normal with the power of friendship. Oh, and I also hated how Raphtalia got aged up and turned into a love interest. I liked how Naofumi was turning into a father figure for her, and this interesting moral conflict it presented on how Naofumi felt like he needed to use her as a weapon, not to mention owning her as a slave, all while getting attached to her and starting to view her as a daughter. This got thrown out of the window too because apparently turning her into a walking Stockholm syndrome with a slight element of father-daughter pseudoincest is what the series needed. I continued watching the rest of S1 because I still wanted to see him redeem himself and clear his name, but once that was out of the way, I felt like there was no reason to continue watching this series as everything unique about it that hooked me in the first place was long gone and pretty much all I was left with was a generic isekai harem power fantasy.

[@andrzejwysocki609]

naofumi goes back in time and meets a shield hero who can attack and he is like WTF? thats bullshit lol

[@hornetsilksong]

I really wanted to ignore the red flags and believe that an anime would avoid the weirdass shit and that it would stay a wholesome father daughter relationship, but after Usagi Drop I should've known a bait and switch is always possible. Story fell off when the Queen deus ex machina'd Naofumi's status as social exile away, but that's more of a problem with the source material than the anime.

[@stargazer162]

@@hornetsilksong It's a manga, but Yotsuba to! never makes it weird, and it's a pretty funny slice of life.

[@YHUAN01]

Naofumi literally still sees her like a daughter or younger sibling. Much to her dismay since she you know... actually has romantic feelings towards him. That doesn't really change since Naofumi still wants to go fucking home. lmao

[@andrzejwysocki609]

yeah and naofumie tries to fuck fohl later, lmao he wants that shota tiger cock@@YHUAN01

[@andrewnelson4148]

Finally, someone who see that there were too few episodes for season 3 to work as well.

[@thecompareablezombie]

I agree form what I watched so far, it needs to b a 24 episode season.

[@twitchcoolbob66]

what sucks for season 2 is that, the arc following season 1 is the longest arc in the ENTIRE LN, and it also doesn't help that they planned to do 24 ep but covid kept causing issues and thus due to deadlines they were forced to knock it down to 12. the 13th ep of 2 is just finished scenes that were cut from the OG 24 eps. But yeah it did kinda fall off as a whole which sucks.

[@ariancontreras4358]

"Literally buys a slave". "Falls off". It was always bad.

[@whitefox6274]

As someone who has read all the light novels and loved them, shield hero's adaptation has just been a entire mess. While I had a few small issues with S1 it overall was really good. But when I saw that S2 was only 12 episodes I knew we were screwed. Not only did they skip so much content from book 6 and 7, they also decided that it was a good idea to squeeze in all of book 8 and 9. Effectively ruining that arc since it needed time to breath. Plus changing a ton of stuff in that arc really didn't help at all. Now we are here in S3, while I think it definitely handles the pacing a bit better its still not great, let alone just gliding over important information. I honestly at this point wish they stopped at S1, since S2 effectively ruined the series reputation. Oh well I guess another anime's adaptation getting ruined for no reason I guess? I'm not going to act like the source material is perfect, but its way better then this crap they gave us.

[@NAzo.]

I hate when this happens. Rushing a story arc to just an episode or two especially to a sequel always ruins the series. It's even worse if they do this in season 1 with almost no chances at a sequel.

[@hiwhyareyoureadingthis5112]

It really would've been better if they stopped the anime at season 1, season 1 is good but it becomes worse and worse as an adaptation the more seasons shield hero gets, they never bothered to explain the power up methods and they thoroughly washed the personality of a lot of the characters to the point they're just shells of who they truly are, that fucked it completely since Naofumis arc basically ended in season 1 unlike the light novel where he's still recovering from his trauma during the trial. Let's also not forget that season 1 introduced his village a change that would've been fine if it was just 1 season. I'm enjoying season 3 and the latest episode is easily one of my favourites in the entire series but during it i noticed a big issue with the fights during the season, the characters barely use more than three god damn moves Naofumis arsenal in the anime is Air strike, shooting star shield, shield prison and buff spam... Where are his shields counter attacks? What happened to chain shield? What about Raphtalias dual weilding skill? In fact i think Raphtalia has changed her katanas form once since she got it. The fights look cool but come on these are heroes with a massive arsenal of skills but they just keep repeating the same damn moves.

[@antokarman2064]

Maybe they intentionally made it bad so they can scrap the project and allocate budgets to more popular series?

[@TwilightWolf032]

Manga reader here. I HATE what they did to Naofumi and the Queen during the comeuppance part. Naofumi shouldn't be questioning the morality of executing criminals that wronged him and the entire world with their schemes, he should be shouting at the top of his lungs to have them killed, otherwise he won't be satisfied. And the Queen shouldn't be plotting to kill herself afterwards, leaving her 12 years old child to reign over an entire kingdom with all the waves and threat of war looming over, she should be the one telling Naofumi that death isn't enough and a life of suffering for them will be more satisfying for him! It's the same issue I had with Honzuki no Gekokujou, where the manga makes sure to portray Myne as an adult who is unaware of the customs and traditions of this country she's never been to but still adapts herself to the new environment while balancing her knowledge and experiences from her previous life with the backwards customs from her new life; and yet the anime portrays her a literal child both in mind and body, unaware of anything and incapable of behaving like a proper adult in most situations! There was even that one scene where she panics over the malnourished and fetid children in the orphanage, that the anime sanitized so much they made her come across as a noble lady coming in contact with poor but healthy and clean people for the first time in her life! And the whole deal with Ferdinand reading Myne's mind WITH HER PERMISSION and learning about her life as Uranos that got changed into him drugging Myne and reading her mind without her permission only to suffer no repercussions and skip entirely her rencounter with her mother in her dreams! And don't get me started on Index III, which aired around the same time as these two!!! I don't understand why anime adaptations of LN are so eager to turn unique and interesting characters into generic and unappealing blobs!

[@TwilightWolf032]

KZbin, WTH!? You just cloned my response to someone else and put it somewhere unrelated!?

[@adriancheuque8777]

11:53 "the children yearn for the unpaid labor" That took me off guard

[@crashzone6600]

The ending is horrible for the light novel anyway. When he builds the tower of his after losing his mind, it became a horrible read. But I stuck it out and finished it, and it really didnt get any better. It was like the writer could figure out how to end it, and they wanted to end it as soon as possible to move onto some other project. But it is probably worse than even modern disney story telling.

[@KhoaNguyen-lm5uv]

"Less popular than Konosuba"..." Hey Konosuba is peak! "'s OVA." I retract my previous criticism.

[@vladimircaelum7465]

I honestly don't understand why the author decided to make Raphtalia a kid in the first place. She could just be 18 from the start, and aside from a few initial scenes, like getting a kid's meal from Naofumi and the like, it wouldn't change anything afterwards. All it did was make it impossible to consider her a waifu since she is underage. Filo is even worse, she is a literal child that probably isn't even a year old yet in the series...

[@mateushenriquepinheiro3197]

I think the problem with Filo is the fact she is a little girl/loli if I can be honest, if Filo's 'angel' form was not only masculine but also physically adult I don't think people would have a problem. The biggest problem is the fact she is a little girl which while does make sense in universe, it feels like the writer just wanted to put a loli in his story Also fun fact, in the original web novel the author had to retcon demi humans aging with levels because he forgot about it and later on remembered that Naofumi had a bunch of slave demi human children that should be adults by that point of the story, he made the excuse that Raphtalia is part of a super rare race of Demi humans that age when leveling up. But that completely destroyed the previously established demi human lore in ways that were ignored because that was easier than trying to fix it, so technically speaking if you make raphtalia 18 from the beginning you will get a narratively better story

[@nurusds3]

​@@mateushenriquepinheiro3197racoon is racoon, what super rare bs was the author talking about lol The author could've use element like Filo being Filolial Queen plot, meaning Raphtalia might've been also Racoon Queen race.

[@RusticRonnie]

Its because bonding to a child is easy then an adult. People would question an adult becoming so attached so quickly, but also… the show is pedo bait for like 90% of it. But the 1st part was his actual reason

[@k.3004]

An 18+ slave is much more expensive

[@YogiAlamS-et5jj]

I think ppll Will preffer 1000+ yrs old Loli, than actual aged loli

[@The-SlayerOfKings-3]

You forgot to mention the random bandit guy who could summon a giant meteor! Generic bandit npc’s are truly evolving!

[@VixYW]

lmao That was sick tho.

[@The-SlayerOfKings-3]

@@VixYW I was half expecting after the first one was blocked for him to say, "Well then...what will you do about the second one, Naofumi?"

[@alvinnugraha5264]

@@The-SlayerOfKings-3 No one can beat MadaGoat Meteor summon damn.... Very iconic

[@antoniodelaugger9236]

Shouldn't have come here!

[@whatthepick]

Lmao that was my oh they are weak bandits trope Summons Meteor WTF!

[@Camlling]

Bad pacing and story aside. My biggest gripe as a Dub anime watcher was the VA that replaced the original Naofumi. It went from a unique sounding character with his own personality to the single most generic sounding protagonist i have ever heard. The new VA didn't put in any effort to even remotely sound like the first guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even watch a single episode of the show.

[@Nzosaba_Matenge]

That was beyond their control unfortunately

[@SaintRubicon]

0:20 "To answer this question that hasnt been asked since 2022" Damn that made me laugh hard. Earned my sub with that one. Great Content!

[@AnglesSol]

Honestly, the Malty and King trial should’ve been saved for way later. We’ve could’ve still gotten more of Naofumi with a huge chip on his shoulder, clearing his name and got the chance to hate Mayne more each time she appeared.

[@TwilightWolf032]

S1 should have ended at their trial, given it's the closure for this part of Naofumi's story in the manga and LN. S2 should have started with them going to the island for grinding and meeting L'arc for the first time. They skipped a lot that happens in that segment before the Waves on the island because of it and didn't quite explore L'arc and Naofumi's friendly relationship as a result.

[@AnglesSol]

@@TwilightWolf032 yeah, I noticed that too. Literally the trial would’ve been the perfect ending for the season. Although we wouldn’t have gotten that little moment between Naofumi and Raphtalia which is just very sweet.

[@Sorain1]

An alternative option would be to have the trial where it is, and then spend time on Naofumi needing to get through the trauma of it all. Just because he's vindicated doesn't mean his paranoia and the intrusive thoughts of distrust are going to stop. There's worthwhile character beats to be played there, how his companions help (and sometimes force) him to move on and set aside that reflexive (defensive) distrust and hate. A parallel to Naofumi using the slave seal to force Raphtalia to kill the rabbit monster with Raphtalia forcing him to not just judge people without even interacting with them for example, would make a meaningful scene. The nominal 'what are they doing' during this time can easily be essentially filler style grinding, gathering power and information needed for the next wave. Hell, having Raphtalia beat him about the head with the fact that 'Yeah, Ren was horrible to you. Now you need to be better than he was, because I know you can be.' would give you room to get Naofumi in a better headspace and get him some help in the upcoming battles while setting up hope the other two can grow as characters for the audience. One of the best things done was showing that Naofumi's hostility to the world also cost him opportunities offered in genuine kindness. There wasn't narrative/perspective space to focus on it while he was at his lowest, but post trial would have been the time to do so.

[@LokiScarletWasHere]

Honestly I like seeing Ren go through what Naofumi went through. It doesn't have the same punch because I didn't give a rat's ass about him before, but the thing is, seeing him go through what Naofumi went through gives me a reason to consider giving a shit. Think of it like you're Naofumi. Don't overthink being in his shoes. Now, consider that you get to see one of your persecutors be persecuted the same way you were by the same bitch and go through the same grief. He unlocks the Curse Series like you did, which is going to socially give you power over him as you have experienced everything he's going through from the point when Malty backstabs him. Honestly, how does that feel? Do you feel vindicated? Maybe you feel good because you'll finally have him as an ally by the time his redemption arc is over. You, thinking from the perspective of Naofumi, are likely to care about Ren for once, as opposed to back when he was still a dick who hadn't been through any of the shit he put you through. For once, you *really can fix him*

[@Kingdom850]

I feel like he could have went through this without being set up by Bitch, because he was already struggling with losing his party members and having to accept that treating this world like a video game wasn't the right way to handle things.

[@charlesclark6527]

My god I haven't laughed this hard in a long while. You've earned a subscriber out of me. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@shishou_7639]

The outro got me rolling on the floor 😂😂. Great video btw.

[@kaisac.]

Atleast action wise the curse shields were the worst thing to give naofumi. Him being tanky and having to fight with obscure utility options was way more fun to watch. Felt like him using a really weird build in an rpg.

[@Sorain1]

If the rage shield was something that essentially never came out again, but the temptation was always there? That would have been great. The need to focus on defense and utility while working with the DPS of his party would bring something fresh to the table. Just having an intelligent opponent that feints could turn a ho-hum fight scene into a nail-biting affair because the audience understands that anything which hurts Naofumi on a hit likely obliterates anyone else.

[@duncanlutz3698]

This would also give far more importance to his other party members. Since Naofumi can't dps-carry the group, he would truly need to develop the offensive skills an synergy of his party more. The author could have had fun develop more specialized roles and tactics within the group that would hinge on Naofumi's niche utility skills to create openings for his party to exploit. But nah, lets just go edgelord rage shield and focus on the underage slave harem.

[@LadyTsunade777]

Season 2 really killed all the momentum the series had. I was super interested in the story and Naofumi, and after a few wiki-binges I couldn't wait to see more of the world as an anime. But then the second season tried to slam so much into 12 episodes with horrible pacing. All the good parts of the show were severely shortened, while the boring parts were overly drawn out. I wanted to see more of this other world and its heroes and unique races that Naofumi's world didn't have, but instead we got "we're trapped in a maze alone, but we break out easily after faffing about". I wanted to see more of the other countries in Naofumi's world - to see more of the country where demi-humans rule and hate humans, the country where both sides are equal, and the far east country. The animation quality also went downhill _hard._ They start to over-use 3DCG, and when not using it the 2D animation is absolute garbage. I especially remember the fight in the town near the end of the second arc, where the animation was so stiff and bad I just entirely skipped through it because it was painful to try to watch. Doesn't help that all of the characters feel like blank caricatures of their season 1 selves. None of them - Naofumi, Raftalia, the other heroes - feel even remotely similar to how they were. They're all just one note now. The start of season 3 was great and felt like we might be getting back on track... but then it immediately fell back into season 2's issues. (side story real quick - I have a friend that has always just skipped through any anime he "watches", as in he will skip 3-4 min watch 10 sec repeat, every episode, then complain that a series was bad or he couldn't follow the plot, but would spoil anything he saw anyway; I always hated that he did that, and I always fully watched anything I started, because I wanted to follow the plots and know _why_ a series was good or bad) But a few episodes into season 2, I started doing the same as that friend; the first and only time I have _ever_ done that, because I was just _that_ bored and uninterested. And I started doing it again in season 3 immediately after the Sadeena recruitment arc concluded.

[@TankHunter678]

I knew immediately that they were going to go off track from when they introduced the village building arc right at the end of season 1, which was very much out of place because Naofumi only got the idea for it after he got back from the other world. Even in Season 1 I noticed that they did all these small changes to the character that were steadily throwing them off course. So naturally they did go off course, the characters lost their synergy and they had to rush about in trying to fix the story they chopped up.

[@spellsnare]

true sadeena was interesting but the issue with season 3 started to show again with the same issue season 2 did have they should have developped a story focused on sadeena but nope after sadeena the season 3 did go downhill again

[@JesusChrist2000BC]

I ALWAYS thought it was mid. There are FAR better other isekai fantasy shows out there. Nobody in this show is likable at all.

[@thunderousavenger2382]

Thats why i cant get myself to rewatch the show again. I did enjoy it when i was 15 or 16 or so. Season 1 only mind you. Even back then i dropped the show at s2 because it did nothing interesting or unique anymore. But now that im older and more mature i notice all the questionable writing. And i need a good writing in order to enjoy a show.

[@mariop8852]

One of Manga/animes biggest problems is they always sacrifice initial premise to focus on the big bad. My teenage romcom was the craziest switch because it went from being funny to being depressing half way through.

[@Lorenzo12089]

I think the reason why it stopped working after being reedemed as a hero was because naturally his story had reached its conclusion and there was nothing more interesting after that. I had read the manga way before the anime came out and was familiar with it. But even in manga as soon as he got everything back the respect, recognition, his status as a hero etc then there was nothing intersting left in the story and it just became a normal isekai/harem anime. The other arcs just didn't have the same character motivations as the previous ones nor were they good enough to get us invested in it and cheer for the shield hero. As before we were all on SH's side and the drive to see melty getting punished for her crimes was what kept us interested in the story. So when he got his revenge both for him and for us story sort of became complete.

[@nathanielbass771]

the rabbit hole actually runs pretty deep. "Myne" or "Bidj" ends up becoming a recurring antagonist interfering in the entire world's politics. If I remember right a nation declares war on the shield hero; The anime just glossed over a ton of important points and i'm fairly sure that's what happens when a publisher is allowed to just to remove 90% of its audience XD As an example, in the light novels, Myne is actually given the ability to brainwash people and has been doing so to the other heroes, bringing out their worst traits and making them worse. The Seven Star Heroes actually do important things, etc.