The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 22

The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 22

Four Heroes Council

This week’s episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero starts off with a meeting between the Four Cardinal Heroes and Queen Mirelia. The reasons for this meeting are so the heroes can put aside their differences and work together, and also so they can share what information they have regarding leveling up between each other.

Unfortunately, while the three other heroes do share their information with Naofumi, it doesn’t appear like any of them are really ready to work together. In fact, Ren and Itsuki appear to be anti-Naofumi again even though last episode they accepted him after it was revealed he was set up the entire time. Why did their characters devolve like that?

We also learn that Motoyasu is still in a party with Myne, and despite her name being changed, I’m going to stick with calling her this. Speaking of Myne, since she’s free and all, she attempts to poison Naofumi’s party at a banquet and gets caught in the act, but still goes unpunished.

So what do we learn about powering up from the other three heroes? First, Motoyasu tells us that you can gain the attributes of any weapon within your heroic weapon’s class simply by picking it up. Next, Ren tells us that you can have your weapon craft things for you simply by feeding it the materials instead of doing it manually. Finally, Itsuki reveals there’s a teleportation system.

However, the one thing even these three can’t agree on is what makes a weapon good. Motoyasu believes base stats are everything, Ren believes upgrading weapons is most important, and Itsuki believes rarity is what matters. In the end, it’s most likely a combination of all three of these things, as logic would dictate.

Class Up

Before the meeting between the heroes, Naofumi’s party was finally allowed to upgrade their classes at the dragon hourglass. I forget exactly why Naofumi can’t be upgraded just yet, but at the very least Raphtalia and Filo get their upgrades.

There was also a point at which Naofumi was given the option to allow each of them to select their own upgrades from a skill tree or to pick for them. He opted to let them choose for themselves, but they were unfortunately not able to due to other “equipment” they already have such as Filo’s power from Fitoria.

While their levels didn’t increase from this, the level cap at 40 was removed. All of their base stats also increased to reflect their new class upgrades. So, let’s go through all of Raphtalia and Filo’s new stats.

Raphtalia and Filo's stats from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
Raphtalia and Filo’s stats
Stat Raphtalia Filo
Max HP 975 1,202
Max MP 917 507
Attack 450 620
Accuracy(?) 436 336
Defense 343 452
Magic(?) 427 252
Agility 482 625

I’m not actually sure what the stats between Attack and Defense and Defense and Agility are, but Accuracy and Magic seem likely enough so that’s what I’m going to assume they are for now. So what do these stats tell us?

Overall, Filo is better than Raphtalia, but this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Filo is the next Filolial Queen and was given some extra abilities by Fitoria, while Raphtalia is your run-of-the-mill demi-human. It only makes sense for Filo to be a bit stronger.

Out of the seven stat categories, Filo is better in four of them, while Raphtalia comes out on top in the other three. Filo has more Max HP, Attack, Defense, and Agility, which all checks out when you look at her fighting style and build. Raphtalia on the other hand has more Max MP, Accuracy, and Magic.

It’s just too bad Melty wasn’t included in this class upgrade because I would have liked to take a look at her overall stats too. I’d imagine that her Max MP and Magic would be higher than Raphtalia’s, but the rest of her stats would be lower.

If this were a gacha game with character rarities between one and five stars like in FGO, Raphtalia would probably be a 3-star, Filo would be a 5-star, and Melty would be a 4-star. 2-stars would be those side characters whose names aren’t important, and 1-stars are the random background characters.

Cal Mira Archipelago and L’Arc

Going back to the Four Heroes Council, we learned that a special event is coming up in this world which happens once every 10 years. On the Cal Mira Archipelago, there’s going to be a double XP event! With events like this, it’s no wonder Ren was convinced this world was a video game and not real.

Honestly, since it takes place on an archipelago I’m just hoping the final three episodes are actually beach episodes. Sure, we got our obligatory hot springs episode earlier in the season, but we haven’t had a beach or pool episode yet. Now’s the time.

The longer this series goes on the less I can take it seriously. I’m still enjoying my time watching it, but it’s by no means a good anime. Currently I have it rated at a 6/10, but I’m thinking that rating will be reduced to a 5/10 by the time this season ends.

L'Arc and his party member from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
L’Arc and his party member

And on the way to Cal Mira Archipelago we’re introduced to two new characters. Well, really we’re only introduced to one, L’Arc, but his no-name party member is still cute. You can also tell they’re going to be decently important characters because they have designs that don’t look like they were just thrown together.

I’m not saying that they’re going to join Naofumi’s party, but I’m expecting them to be his allies for the remainder of the series. So since they’re probably important, let’s quickly theorize about them.

L’Arc is clearly the leader of their party since he seems to be the more charismatic of the two (also he’s male which is usually a pretty good hint in these sorts of shows). I think I saw a sickle of some sort on his hip at one point, and the tattoo on his bicep also seems sickle-shaped, so my guess is that’s his weapon of choice.

As for his companion, she seems like the mage type of gal. She doesn’t have a staff or anything like we’ve seen from some other mages in the series, but her circlet definitely screams “magic user” of some sort. I’m thinking she probably uses some sort of nature magic. Maybe she likes plants, who knows? Or maybe she’s a bard. That would be neat.

Conclusion

So what did you think of this week’s episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero? Do you also think it’s odd that Ren and Itsuki appear to dislike Naofumi again? What do you think of Raphtalia and Filo’s stats? And, what are your theories regarding the two, new characters? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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