The Rising of the Shield Hero

This week marks the final episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero (season one). I’m sure there’s going to be a second season, but honestly, I wouldn’t be all that upset if there wasn’t. I enjoyed this series a decent amount while watching it, but it’s not one I would call good.

However, today’s review isn’t about the series as a whole, it’s about episode 25. The episode skips the usual intro and instead begins right in the middle of Naofumi’s fight against the Fan Hero, glass, which began in the previous episode.

Sure, this counted as a fight, but I don’t think it was a very good or engaging fight. I never really thought that Naofumi and his party were in any sort of trouble even when it was the four of them up against Glass, L’Arc, and Therese. Those are some strong opponents, but Naofumi’s party is fairly strong at this point too.

I just really wish that Melty was an official member of the party so we could know what her level and stats are like. In my review of episode 22 I broke down Raphtalia and Filo’s stats after they upgraded their classes at level 40, but we never got the chance to do the same for Melty.

Then, Melty left the party to fulfill her duties as the crown princess, so she missed out on the double XP event in Cal Mira. At this point it looks like Naofumi is level 73, Raphtalia is 75, and Filo is 76, but how far behind is Melty? Surely she hasn’t been able to keep up with the rest of them, right?

Hero vs. Hero

During their fight against the heroes from another world, Naofumi chooses to split his party up into two. He decides to fight against Glass on his own and leaves Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty to take on L’Arc and Therese. There seem to have been two reasons for him doing so:

1. He and his party don’t really have that many combo attacks so there isn’t necessarily an advantage for them if they stick together. However, L’Arc and his companions seem to be much more coordinated, so splitting them up likely makes them less effective.
2. Naofumi wants to question Glass about her origins, and since she appears to be the leader, hopes to negotiate a truce with her.

While the first reason for splitting up works in his favor, the second doesn’t. Glass refuses to call off their attack and insists that either she or Naofumi has to be defeated here and now. Little does she know that Naofumi is completely capable of killing her thanks to his level-ups.

However, Naofumi doesn’t really want to kill Glass, though he decides he has to in the end (but still doesn’t). It turns out that Glass, L’Arc, and Therese are fighting to save their own world much like Naofumi is fighting to save the one he’s now in (sort of).

The main difference is that as far as we know, Glass and her companions are originally from the world which they’re trying to save, while Naofumi was summoned into his. This causes him to think that maybe he shouldn’t stop Glass since she’s fighting to save her world.

But, just when he’s considering his own defeat, he remembers that Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty all live in this world, so he can’t just let it be destroyed. In the end, the timer on the wave runs out before one side can win.

Lecia

I don’t believe I mentioned Lecia in my review of episode 22 when I first noticed her, but I’m sure I posted about her in Discord at one point. Lecia is the green-haired girl who was a member of the Bow Hero, Itsuki’s, party. Magic seems to be her strong suit, but even so, she’s not on the same level as Naofumi’s party.

So what I wanted to mention about her back in episode 22 when I noticed her at the celebration for defeating the Pope is that you can tell by her character design that she’s going to be someone important. She has a decently complex outfit, and her hair color is distinctly different from any of the other major characters.

Yes, Naofumi’s color is green just like Lecia’s, but Naofumi’s other color is black. So if Lecia becomes a member of his party, which it seems like she’s going to, Naofumi will be black, Raphtalia is red, Filo is blue, Melty is purple, and Lecia is green. They all have their own distinct color palette.

And if you don’t think that’s how you can tell when a random character is going to turn out to be important, then you just need to watch more anime. Not every series color codes main characters like that, but enough do to the point that it’s a well-established practice, especially in fantasy series.

So, yeah. I just wanted to mention the fact that I knew Lecia was going to join Naofumi’s party, or at least be someone important, all the way back in episode 22 because of her character design. Honestly, she has a more distinct character design than her patron hero, Itsuki.

A New Hope

At the end of the episode, Naofumi finally decides on what he wants as his reward for defeating the Pope. He wants to be granted lordship over the demi-human domain in which Raphtalia’s village once stood. And, as most things are, this is significant for a number of reasons.

The most obvious reason is that he wants to rebuild Raphtalia’s home village as a way to thank her for all that she’s done to help him along his journey. However, Raphtalia instead sees this as Naofumi attempting to set her up for the day when he’ll eventually return to his own world.

But as it turns out, Naofumi no longer plans to return to his own world, and honestly, why would he? Yeah, he probably left some friends and family behind there, but he has new friends and family now, and his life is definitely a lot better as a lord and hero in this world.

The second reason this is significant is that the Shield Hero is the patron hero of the demi-humans. So by setting up his own domain to include the demi-humans rather than the humans, he’s sending a powerful message to both Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt, that the current Shield Hero is on their side.

Finally, with a domain of his own, Naofumi can begin to build up not only a base of operations but an army as well. If he’s going to have to bring down the world that L’Arc and Glass are from in order to save this one, he’ll need an army to do so. Or, he could just use this army to protect this world without destroying another.

Unfortunately, I don’t really care about Naofumi building up his own domain because I don’t want it to turn out like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

Conclusion

So what did you think of this final episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero? Were you surprised by the fact that Naofumi has decided not to return to his homeworld? And did you recognize that Lecia was going to turn out to be an important character? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any upcoming content, including my reviews of the other series I watched from this Spring season.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Season 2 Episode 1 is available now.

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the final episode is available here.

Cal Mira Archipelago

It’s time for our heroes (one of which is actually a hero) to head on over to the Cal Mira Archipelago. It’s unclear whether Cal Mira is a distinct country from the Kingdom of Melromarc, but something which is discovered later on in the episode hints that it was at some point even if that’s no longer the case.

Since ancient times, this chain of islands has been the training ground for generations of the Four Cardinal Heroes. The reason for this is that a special event happens on these islands which grants double experience when monsters are defeated. We can also assume that the spawn rates of monsters are increased during this period.

Upon arrival the heroes are also given pamphlets which explain the rules they’ll have to abide by during the duration of the event. Basically it’s your standard MMO etiquette, no kill stealing, no griefing, etc.

On an unrelated note, this episode actually did a really good job at showing, not telling, in regards to one of Naofumi’s special abilities. Much earlier on in the series it was said that the Shield Hero has some healing abilities which are unique to him, and I believe one of those abilities was poison resistance.

In this week’s episode it was hinted, multiple times, that Naofumi also has a resistance to feeling sick in general. As far as I can remember there were three distinct times in this episode which illustrated this point:

1. The other three heroes all get seasick on the boat, but Naofumi doesn’t. Also the fact that Raphtalia didn’t get motion sickness this time may be a sign that Naofumi’s skill is extending to his party.
2. L’Arc comments about how Naofumi doesn’t seem to be adversely affected by alcohol.
3. Naofumi is able to eat the berries Cal Mira’s alcohol is made of without an issue. Meanwhile, eating just one was enough to make Motoyasu collapse and begin foaming at the mouth.

Are we being reminded of Naofumi’s resistance to these sorts of things because they’re going to be important in the next battle? It reminds me of how Luffy developed a resistance to poisons in One Piece.

The Scythe Hero?

If you read my review of last week’s episode then you’ll know I predicted that L’Arc’s weapon of choice would be a sickle of some sort. Well, it turns out that I’m just a big, dumb, idiot because he’s actually shown to use a scythe in the OP. Good thing nobody called me out on that before I had a chance to write this week’s review.

We also learn that his full name is L’Arc Berg, and that his companion’s name is Therese. It’s also implied that the pair, or at least Therese, come from a distant country, or other world as I’ll get to in a bit. So what evidence is there to support this claim that they’re foreigners?

The first piece of evidence is the fact that Therese speaks another language which Raphtalia isn’t familiar with. Naofumi understands this other language naturally thanks to the power of his shield, but the same isn’t true for his companions. This makes Therese the first person we’ve met in the series not to speak the same language as everyone else.

To further set Therese apart, she uses an entirely new form of magic which relies on gemstones. One of the magical attacks she uses envelopes her enemies (and friends) in blue flames, but only the enemies are harmed. Naofumi even mentions that the fire didn’t feel hot, his clothes weren’t singed, and he feels as though the curse that was on him had been lifted.

Okay, so it seems like there’s some pretty good evidence for this pair being foreigners, but what if they were from a place much further away? What if they were from another world like Naofumi is?

Let’s start with what I think is the worse piece of evidence for this, Therese’s magic. As I just explained, this magic is unlike anything we’ve seen in the series before, so it’s possible that it’s the magic of another world. This is by no means definitive proof, but I figured I’d mention it anyway.

The better piece of information is L’Arc’s scythe. When Therese speaks and Raphtalia can’t understand her, L’Arc uses some special ability from his scythe to translate her speech. This is exactly like the ability Naofumi’s shield and the weapons of the other Four Cardinal Heroes have that allows them to communicate in this world.

From this we can assume that L’Arc’s scythe is also a heroic weapon, making him the Scythe Hero. That alone would imply that L’Arc was summoned from another world originally, but there’s still one problem: there’s no legend about a Scythe Hero. Does this mean that he’s a hero from another world? If so, how did he get here?

Of course, it’s also possible that the Scythe Hero simply isn’t in the legends of Melromarc, and that he’s actually another hero summoned into the world like Naofumi was. Perhaps he’s a hero from a distant continent, not just another country, which would explain the lack of legends about him.

Surfs Up

I was going to include a section about how the double xp weekend on the Cal Mira Archipelago went for our heroes, but there wasn’t really all that much to discuss. All you need to know is that Naofumi teamed up with L’Arc, they got some strange drop from a monster, and then L’Arc didn’t want to team up anymore.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I can get on with talking about how this episode evolved from a double xp weekend episode into an obligatory beach episode. Though unfortunately while there were shots of Raphtalia and Filo in their bathing suits, they didn’t last for very long.

I’d imagine that we’re going to see more of them in these outfits next week, but at the same time it feels like everything at the beach was accomplished within this episode. So what exactly was accomplished?

Filo claims to have found an island beneath the waves, so she, Naofumi, and Raphtalia go to check it out. It’s at this point that we learn Filo is an excellent diver and can hold her breath for long periods at a time. However, Naofumi and Raphtalia can’t, so instead they wear outfits made of monster penguin skins which allow them to survive.

On the ocean floor they find the ruins of an ancient temple. Although it seems like there’s no way to open the doors, they react to Naofumi’s shield and open on their own. What they find inside changes the entire adventure to Cal Mira, a dragon hourglass. But why is this important?

First of all, I’m pretty sure each country can only have one hourglass. This implies that Cal Mira is either an independent country, or that it was at some point in the past. I don’t know if that will actually end up mattering at all, but it’s something to think about.

What’s more important is that a dragon hourglass designates a location where a wave can attack. This means that a wave could attack Cal Mira without them even knowing it’s possible. Further, the hourglass seems to react to Naofumi’s shield and starts a countdown of 48 hours.

From what I understand, the hourglass wasn’t counting down before Naofumi discovered it. So because he discovered it, the Cal Mira Archipelago is now going to be attacked before the heroes finish leveling up due to the event. On the other hand, a wave during this event would probably give some great experience if they can survive.

Conclusion

As for some final things to think about, L’Arc and Therese were around 16 levels above Naofumi’s party when they first met. It was also implied that there was a second level cap at 70 (the first was at 40). Perhaps after this wave they’ll be able to use this new hourglass to upgrade their classes once again.

Anyway, what did you think of this week’s episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero? I thought it was a pretty decent episode overall, but as much as I liked the beach part, it felt very out of place. Let me know what you thought about it in the comments and any predictions you have regarding L’Arc.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on all the latest content and potential schedule changes.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.