Watching 'The Rising of the Shield Hero'

The Rising of the Shield Hero is a winter 2019 anime based on the novel by Aneko Yusagi (Story), and Minami Seira (Art). The show is produced by Studio Kinema Citrus (Made in Abyss, Barakamon), and is directed by Abo Takao (Black Lagoon The Second Barrage—episode director, Made in Abyss—storyboard). The music is composed by Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss). The show has three central characters, Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo, who are played by Ishikawa Kaito (Days, Haikyuu!!, My Hero Academia), Seto Asami (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, B: The Beginning), and Hidaka Rina (Sword Art Online, Bakuman) respectively.

Summary

The narrative of the show starts off in a very stereotypical fashion, a group of individuals, including our protagonist, are summoned into a fantastical world that behaves like an actual video game. These individuals are the ones that would bring peace to the realm by defeating the waves of monsters that come at a timed moment, whose purpose is simply to destroy the world that they invade. The first day of Naofumi’s life in this new world is standard Isekai fare; however, the show does not wait long at all as by the end of the first episode our expectations are subverted. This happens by way of the Princess, who frames Naofumi as having tried to rape her during the night, drawing the ire of the king, the other heros, and the kingdom as a whole. As the show carries on, Naofumi, the shield hero gets the worst that life has to offer thrown at him over and over again, yet he perseveres, finds true allies, and grows stronger until the shield hero is in fact rising.

Narrative

The central narrative for the most part is nothing all that special, if anything it is standard Isekai fare. It has a mainly episodic structure to it, with small plot threads running through them in order to link them to the central narrative; however there are episodes, especially towards the tail end of the show, where the overarching plot starts to take over in the place of the episodic storytelling we had previously had. The transition to the different methods of storytelling is quite well done. The episodic narratives early in the series managed to set up the characters while the core narrative episodes managed to make full use of the development and progression of characters with a sense of believability.

Characters

The real strength of the show are the characters, and what the writers choose to put the characters through. Some of the characters remain quite two dimensional throughout the show; however, the core of the show made up of Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo, and over time Melty get to experience much of the character development, and progression in the show, while ignoring almost everyone else. While this runs the risk of leaving much of the supporting cast underdeveloped, you also stand to gain four highly developed characters that the viewers would be attached to. It is a relief that it is the latter that came to fruition. Even among the core four characters, it was predominantly Naofumi and Raphtalia that received the most attention, and I feel it is a benefit to the show as we see how these two people, who have both been treated so poorly in their own way, depend on each other to survive, grow stronger together, and thrive despite the hardships that they endure.

Antagonist

In my opinion, this show has one of the most vile characters as one of the human antagonists, the elder crown princess of the realm, the woman who framed Naofumi. This is one of the most reprehensible pieces of human filth that I have seen in a show, and everytime she turned up, my blood physically boiled within the first frame of her being shown. Not since Blade Runner 2049 has the statement ‘That b**** better die’ come to mind whenever I see a character in a piece of media. This is a strong endorsement of the character writing by way of the writers of the narrative as that is the exact thing that you should be feeling when you see her and they achieved this with flying colours.

Visuals/ Music

Visually the show does not stand out too much from the standard anime fare that comes out every season. The character models are pleasant to look at, the colours are pleasing on the eyes, and the background art is breathtaking. Beyond this the action set pieces are quite average, with limited movement by the part of the characters, and by the end of the show, one could get the feeling that there were times they must have been reusing animations for characters from earlier on in the show; however the narrative, and the stakes established before the fight, was always interesting enough to distract me from this point. The 3D work in the show is handled quite well, managing to blend in with the rest of the 2D animation almost seamlessly most of the time. In fact there are times when one might not even notice unless you were paying attention to it. The music for the show was quite alright; however, the two openings to the show are fantastic to not only listen to but to also watch.

In Closing

This is a show that I did not start watching from the off, simply because it was an Isekai; however now that I have watched it, I am glad that I did, because it gave me some very emotional moments, and it made me feel the frustration that Naofumi was going through. Having watched it, this is one that I highly recommend watching. The show consists of twenty-five episodes, and at the time of this writing has not been renewed for a second season. The show is available to watch on Crunchyroll and Funimation.