After the miracle of Frieren and Apothecary, and scared off by Rebel Moon I found myself craving more good anime at the end of the year. And because of it I started rapidly researching and watching new animated Japanese series. Of course when I say “new”, I mean “new to me”. Some of those series I watched were good, some were cringe, some were cringe but in a good way. And one of those series was “The Rising Of The Shield Hero”.
The anime started airing in 2019, and finished on 22 December 2023, just before the years end. This anime, same as Apothecary Diaries is based of manga, which is based of Light Novels. Unfortunately I did not dub into manga or Light Novels, but I did end up watching all 3 seasons and at the very least I can say that I earned my right to review it. And I also learned that overall “The Rising Of The Shield Hero” has received very positive reviews and has some fanbase of its own.
The story is following a protagonist, which is just average college student – Naofumi Iwatani, transported into fantasy world, with a shield as his default weapon. The world in question seems to be governed by rules similar to that of a video game, and it turns out that the rulers of the world have summoned him and other heroes to help them avert catastrophe. Unsurprisingly other heroes are summoned with more reliable weapons such as a sword or a spear which prompts ridicule directed at our shield hero.
Generally the premise is not very original, however the interesting thing is that it turns out that the world our Shield Hero has been summoned to is not a kind place. Everyone has an agenda, most people are materialists, buffoons or ego driven idiots. And the world itself have its problems too, like poverty or slavery. Now I will not go into details but this is what makes Season 1 of this show so interesting. Our protagonist at the beginning od his journey gets cheated, robbed, mocked and just trashed. And we as a viewer get to see what will he do about it.
The animation is good, not eye-candy good, but still good. The voice over is great as usual and the music is amazing. To my surprise it turned out that composer in charge of the soundtrack is Kevin Penkin – the same gentleman who composed the unique soundtrack behind the Apothecary Diaries.
“The Rising Of The Shield Hero” is definitely not perfect. It has is fair share of cringe moments, and it seems the author has a specific taste for women (lolitas are everywhere). Also same as most of animated productions female characters are paper thin when it comes to writing. However it certainly is entertaining – especially season 1, which is why it gets positive recommendation from HOW. At the very least it might be worth checking out.
