As someone not overly fond of anime, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be a total mess that somehow kept me watching. I'd need a full novel to air my gripes with the show, but I'll try to keep it short.

Starting out as a pretty standard Isekai, the course of the anime is upset by an early misadventure, making our hero pretty unwelcome in the world he was summoned to save.

I've only come to be familiar with the Isekai genre, in which the characters, often Japanese teens, end up in a video game type world with an absurd level of strength relative to the average person, but RotSH fits the mold very well.

From the very beginning, our heroes are barely surprised to be summoned in another world. One has a bow, another a sword, a spear or a shield. "Yeah we've seen that in MMORPGs, move along" they say, despite apparently not being aware of what a tank is. The show goes on a whole story arc insisting on the importance of the lives of NPCs, despite having a literal health bar shown on screen.

The characters are cliche to such an extent it can become amusing, they are completely oblivious to the bad intentions of people around them. Most of the cast is completely one-dimensional, those accompanying our hero in particular have almost no agency and behave in a comically irrational way that sometimes border on deranged. The backstories of the secondary cast come out of nowhere and just serve as confirmation that they strictly conform to the cliche archetype they're meant to represent.

Despite that, and much more (passive protagonist, unengaging story, poorly defined world), the anime does attempt to embark on a more elaborate story than a standard Isekai and depicts more complicated interactions between characters, even if it fails at doing so. If you're just an occasional watcher of anime, I wouldn't recommend Rising of the Shield Hero, but some anime aficionados might be interested in its nonstandard story and dark themes.

This anime sets up some great concepts but seems to have a lot of trouble following through effectively. The Shield Hero is unable to wield any weapons, making him practically useless offensively. (Although how does that work exactly? What if he picks up something like a baseball bat? The rules for this are glossed over.)

At first he seems to overcome this weakness by carrying around weak monsters he can use as weapons. Secondly, he manages to form a companionship with someone who can provide him with offense. Then we start seeing hints that he would find creative ways of using "defensive" powers in an offensive way. Okay. I'm intrigued. But instead of building on this, his weakness just gets kind of forgotten and he just starts getting powers that are explicitly offensive. He doesn't even have to learn a valuable lesson to earn these attacks. He just gets them because [spoiler]he got a bit angry one time.[/spoiler] Yay~

There are also some very strange story moments. For example, his two main companions are enslaved to him by a "curse" placed on them. Even though they are perfectly willing to follow him (and crush on him constantly -- of course they're both part of his loli harem), for some reason it was necessary to magically enslave them. One of them is even said to be put through a lot of pain just in order to have this curse applied. This is our (anti)hero torturing and enslaving people he actually likes -- for no reason! It's just weird.

The moment that really made me lose interest in this series is in episode 13 when [spoiler]some random soldiers have what is essentially a magic video camera, to record the shield hero's team defending themselves against some soldiers. THEN this video footage is essentially photoshopped to make it look like they're having a murder spree. THEN they use a magic TV projector to wander around the country showing this footage to all the common people to show how nasty he is.[/spoiler] The lazy ways in which the Shield Hero is constantly getting set up as a bad guy just boggles my mind.

Overall, it's been kind of awkward and lazy. On the plus side, adult Raphtalia is pretty cute, and I felt the series was strongest when it just focused on them as a pair (though she's still technically underage, ugh).

What started off as a really good Isekai Anime with minimal Cliché, slowly gained some flaws and a couple times went a little *too* hard down the path of Loli, so much that it essentially sidetracked the series. However, by the end of the season I found myself enjoying the show quite a bit. I think there's a lot left unexplained and unexplored with the first season so I'm glad that the show won't be stopping here.

Being the largest Isekai franchise out there, it's hard not to try and compare this to Sword Art Online. And all-in-all, I'd say this series is messy but still no where near as shallow and convoluted that SAO got at certain times in the series. It is all too easy for these types of shows to get swept up in the balance between "gotta grind more" and "woah just got overpowered out of nowhere". [spoiler]For example, the sudden rage shield introduction seemed poorly executed and the "curses" sudden appearance has also gone rather unexplained.[/spoiler]

I'm not familiar with the Manga, but I hope this show takes the opportunity given with season 2 and really sets itself apart from the mistakes of past Isekai animes. The first 5 episodes were a rock solid introduction which is something I can't say about most Anime.

To sum up, Raphtalia is really cute and needs some more cool attack moves, but please keep the story rolling instead of diving head first into a Loli harem with insanely OP cute power.

**This is a good example of how music can carry a show**.

The plot is really good and even has a great [spoiler]cliffhanger[/spoiler]. The general atmosphere is very pleasant, and what can I say about the music? Oh my God! You could literally watch this anime just for the music. Kevin Penkin is still quite young in the anime world, so I have no doubt that he will become a legendary composer in a few decades.

However, in terms of character development, [spoiler]Raphtalia[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Filo[/spoiler] are great. As for [spoiler]Naofumi[/spoiler], I have mixed feelings. The other [spoiler]heroes[/spoiler], as well as some of the other characters, could they be more stupid?

And what about turning your back on your opponent to talk for 20 minutes in the middle of battle? Stop that crap, it's pathetic (I've always wondered what the enemy's point of view must be like in this situation). Some episodes are boring to watch, while others are brilliant. To the point where moments of "daily life" are much better and more exciting to watch than a battle you've been waiting for..

**Season 1 : 8/10**

Edit season 2 :

I don't think this season is all bad. In fact, there are some very good things, and the plot is moving forward. Unfortunately, I think the ending of season 1 should have been different.

[spoiler]During the fight between Naofumi and Glass, Naofumi should have ended the fight by hindering Glass, taking his teammates with him, and using his shields to try to reach the rift and then cross over to the other world. We know that he didn't want to kill the other people. That would have been a good way to move the plot forward, and we'd have a whole season in the other world, so much more developed.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]But most of all, find an antagonist other than Kyo. Making a character that is inherently bad, that screams and talks badly all the time doesn't make him a good antagonist. In fact, it was unpleasant to watch.[/spoiler]

Otherwise, the OST is once again a masterpiece.

**Season 2 : 6/10 (Thank the OST for this note)**

Edit season 3 :

Exactly the same concerns as season 2, there are some very good things.

[spoiler]I enjoyed seeing the development of Naofumi's village. The addition of new characters to the shield hero. The arrival of the vassal weapons of this world.[/spoiler]

But there's still some bad and very bad stuff.

[spoiler]Malty, again and again and again. It's boring, it sucks. Sure, it unlocks the curse on the various heroes. But after a while, the story needs to be renewed a bit. Some battles where lvl 30s have more impact than lvl 70s, it gives importance to secondary characters, but there's a limit. Are we talking about demi-humans? They never grow up. It's explained to us that they grow as they level up, but even after lvl 40, the class change, they don't grow at all.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Honestly, if Malty plays another manipulative role next season. The only solution is for her to get killed while trying to manipulate the kingdom Naofumi wants to go to. But if they are all stupidly manipulated, I couldn't do it, I'm sorry.. Even the music won't be able to save the rating that I'm going to give to this season 4.[/spoiler]

**Season 3 : 6/10 (Once again, Music keeps the show alive)**

There is so much good music. My two favorites :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aBZbCzDMqw ([spoiler]S01 - Raphtalia saves Naofomi in the mine[/spoiler])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwTrj0fahh4 ([spoiler]S02 - Ost Horai death[/spoiler])

This animation is in the isekai genre; meaning modern day person transported (usually by magic) to another plain of reality or another world; typically fantasy based.

This series is exceptionally good. While there is some liberal based ideas in the series, there isn't a saturation to point of poisoning the audience or putting off the fan base. The development of the protagonists throughout the series is pretty good and reminded me a lot of another isekai anime called Log Horizon. Though instead of following a dozen characters, this anime follows five to six to include the main protagonist, the Shield Hero.

I wish I could go into detail on well this series was written but I would mainly be repeating myself. The pacing, character development, drama, and trauma of all the characters is spot on, and the consistency is flawless. You will not be wasting your time watching this series; it is well worth a look-see.

9.5 out of 10 stars, simply because I like a little more fan service to my anime. Ex. _Yuuna and the Haunted Bath House_ lol