The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 24

The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 24

Guardians of Another World

Was anyone else disappointed by this week’s episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero, or was it just me? Sure, the series as a whole is a bit disappointing, but this episode in particular didn’t really feel like it mattered or accomplished all that much.

And I get it, there was a big reveal during this episode, but if you go back and read my review of episode 23 you might notice that I actually predicted it. If I can predict your big reveal, then it probably wasn’t that impressive in the first place because I don’t feel like I tend to predict things that are too “out there.”

I’ll discuss the reveal in more detail later on, but essentially it’s that L’Arc and Therese are heroes from another world. I think I would have rather it turned out that they were heroes from a distant continent. Isekai as a plot device is already tiring enough as it is, but now this series is double isekai’d.

Also, I was told about the use of CGI in this episode before I watched it, and I have to say that it wasn’t a big deal. From what I remember the only time it was really used was for the Melromarc archers, and they’re on screen for around 10 seconds total.

Do I think they could have been drawn and animated like the rest of the series without much issue? Yes. Do I think they were anywhere near as jarring as the CGI used in Overlord? No. And that’s what really matters. Though to be fair, Overlord is still a better series than Shield Hero.

The Next Wave

Alright, so the next wave is going to arrive on the Cal Mira Archipelago, and nobody is ready for this to happen because Naofumi just activated the countdown timer on his own. But why does this matter anyway? The heroes are already on Cal Mira and they’ve been leveling up, so surely they’re ready for this wave.

However, you may recall that Fitoria told Naofumi that if they Four Cardinal Heroes don’t learn to work together, they’ll all surely die in the next wave. And guess who refuses to work together again this time? If you guessed the Four Cardinal Heroes, you get a point.

So to make up for the for the fact that the heroes refuse to work together, Queen Mirelia shows up with an entire military fleet. Oh, and somehow they correctly guessed that the fight was going to take place in the middle of the ocean even though there was nothing to suggest that being the case.

Itsuki, Ren, and Motoyasu from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
Itsuki, Ren, and Motoyasu

As you might have expected, the Melromarc soldiers are essentially useless. In fact, aside from the archers, none of the other sailors on the ships appear to have weapons of any sort. But at least they were more useful than Itsuki, Ren, and Motoyasu.

The soldiers at least took out a few of the minor monsters while Naofumi and L’Arc fought against the wave boss. The other three of the Cardinal Heroes didn’t really do anything other than launch off one attack each at the wave boss without dealing any damage to it.

It was even stated that Raphtalia now does more damage than the three other heroes (combined apparently), and she’s not even that strong stat-wise compared to Filo. At this this point is there even a reason to keep the other three heroes around?

Isekai-ception

L’Arc and Therese are revealed to be from another world. At this point I don’t find that all that surprising, because it’s actually the sixth parallel world in the series. Each of the Four Cardinal Heroes are from different worlds, the world they’re in is another world, and the world L’Arc comes from is yet another.

Also since L’Arc is one of the heroes from his world, does that mean he was originally summoned into that world from a previous world like the Four Cardinal Heroes were? I guess what I’m trying to say is that there are a lot of worlds and it doesn’t seem like travelling between them is as rare as you might at first think.

But that’s not the only reveal regarding this other world. We also learn that Glass (the woman with the fans) is also from the same world as L’Arc and Therese. If L’Arc is the Scythe Hero, we can assume Glass to be the Fan Hero.

As a side note, L’Arc refers to himself and Therese as heroes, but I don’t believe Therese is actually one of the four heroes from their respective world. If she was one of the heroes, she wouldn’t have had to use L’Arc’s scythe to translate her speech, she would have had her own weapon to do that.

So why are these heroes from another world here? As far as we know, they’re here to defend their own world from extinction. It’s unclear if “our” world and L’Arc’s world are at war in some way, or if both worlds have a mutual enemy which is forcing them to fight to the death.

Either way the outcome, at least for now, is the same. That said, I really feel like L’Arc and Therese are going to be Naofumi’s allies in the long-run, which would imply my latter suggestion is the correct one. I could see them teaming up to fight a common enemy in the end.

Naofumi vs. L’Arc

It’s a shame that L’Arc and Therese have to be antagonists for right now, because I really enjoy them. They’re decently interesting characters so far, not that they’ve had much time to really develop. And they have great designs, which is always a big plus.

I think I prefer L’Arc over any of the Four Cardinal Heroes and I definitely prefer Therese over any of Naofumi’s companions (heresy, I know). But honestly, even their fighting styles are more entertaining than anyone else’s.

L’Arc is a straightforward fighter, but at least he doesn’t just use the same attacks over and over like the three useless heroes do. He also doesn’t have random, overpowered skills like Naofumi. And while we don’t exactly know how Therese’s magic works, using gem spirits is far more interesting than standard elemental spells.

L'Arc and Therese from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero
L’Arc and Therese

Now that it’s time for L’Arc to fight Naofumi, L’Arc reveals his ace in the hole because he’s a true anime protagonist. Naofumi, on the other hand, acts like a villain and only reveals partial information about his skills so that he can trick L’Arc.

The combination of Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty is enough to push L’Arc and Therese back even without Naofumi having to rely on his curse shield. Sure, it’s four against two, but L’Arc and Therese were initially built up to be stronger than Naofumi’s party.

And after L’Arc gets wounded a couple of times, Glass shows up to save the day. With her around, it’s possible that Naofumi will have to rely on his curse shield in the final episode, though I hope this isn’t the case. I’d like to see more teamwork from Naofumi’s party rather than an overpowered ability.

Conclusion

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero? Did the big reveal come as a surprise to you? Do you prefer Naofumi’s party or L’Arc’s? And why do you think their two worlds are at war? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the final episode is available here.

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