The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11

The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11

Otherworld Reunion

I need to start this review off by commenting on how terrible this episode looked. The animation was horrible. And the fact that there was an action scene in this episode only made the horrible animation stand out more. I would have rather the episode be all dialogue.

But, the animation was also bad for simple things, like lip flaps and facial expressions. Even the parts of the episode that focused on dialogue looked like amateurs animated it. And the art itself was of poor quality in many places. The art didn’t all look bad. But, there were a few points when it was distracting.

Of course, it also goes without saying that the actual content of the episode was trash. But, despite that, I’m going to continue to comment on it for the rest of this review. I can’t think of anything about this episode that I liked other than Filo’s new kigurumi.

Therese, Glass, and L'Arc from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11
Therese, Glass, and L’Arc

I’ll pause my complaints for the rest of this section so I can review the new information about L’Arc’s party. First up, we finally got to see the gem on Therese’s forehead. At least, as far as I can remember, this is the first time we’re seeing it.

And, while we likely saw this in a previous season and I forgot, Therese’s whole color palette changed. Under normal conditions, she has a blue palette. But, when Yomogi showed up and it was time for battle, Therese turned red/orange. Was this ever explained? If not, I hope it will be.

The other big piece of information we got is that L’Arc is actually the king of this country. Does that matter for now? Not in the slightest. But, I’m sure he’ll use his status to help out in some way.

Yomogi Emarl

Yomogi Emarl is the new character introduced in this episode. She’s a member of Kyo’s party. And as we later learn, she’s also Kyo’s childhood friend. She also believes that as his childhood friend, she’s the only person who knows the true Kyo.

This is where Kyo’s character could have become more interesting. Through Yomogi, we could have learned new things about Kyo that added depth to his character. And at first, it seemed like this was going to be the case. Albeit, the path the episode began going down was the most boring option.

Saying that Kyo is actually trying to stop the waves in his own way isn’t interesting. The misunderstood, yet noble antagonist is so overdone. But, then the episode does a 180 and it’s confirmed that, no, Kyo is exactly as we thought he was before. He’s evil for the sake of being evil.

Yomogi Emarl from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11
Yomogi Emarl

Anyway, back to Yomogi. She trusts Kyo to a fault. At first, she didn’t believe that he would ever do anything to harm her. Our heroes were telling her that the sword Kyo gave her was dangerous, but she didn’t listen. And then, when it turned out the sword actually was dangerous, Yomogi deflected.

“Okay, so it was dangerous. That doesn’t mean Kyo wanted to kill me. That shows that his cause is so noble he’s willing to make sacrifices to achieve it.” Yeah, sure Yomogi. You keep telling yourself that. But, to be fair, Yomogi doesn’t seem like she’s the smartest girl around.

She attacked Naofumi & co. while they were all together. That’s 2 Cardinal Heroes, 3 Vassal Heroes, a bird, Rishia, and Therese. And after picking this fight, Yomogi complains that they’re not fighting her one by one. At least she seemed to be a somewhat competent fighter.

Kyo’s Wave Factory

Yomogi learns that everything Naofumi said about Kyo was true when she sees he’s the source of the Wave. Contrary to what Yomogi believed, Kyo has been researching how to create Waves, not stop them. That’s kind of a big difference.

How did Kyo manage to create a Wave? Well, we don’t know exactly. But, we do know that he didn’t create a brand new Wave from scratch. Instead, he caused the Wave that was 3 days away to show up sooner. So, I doubt Kyo can generate infinite Waves on demand.

One thing that seemed to be part of Kyo’s process, though is a human sacrifice. And there are two pieces of evidence that back this up. First, Kyo mentions that Kazuki failed to “get a body for [his] experiment.” From that, we know Kyo needed a human (or demi-human since Raphtalia was the “body”).

Kizuna and Yomogi at the start of the Waves from the anime series The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11
Kizuna and Yomogi at the start of the Waves

Second, after Kazuki cuts himself in half, Kyo agrees to save him. To do this, Kyo puts Kazuki in a vat within his lab. But, when Kyo summons the Wave, we see everything within these vats drain out. So, it would appear that Kazuki ended up being the sacrifice in Raphtalia’s place.

What I’m still unsure about, though, is how summoning a Wave helps Kyo. Wasn’t it already mentioned that his goal is to amass power? At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what L’Arc’s party mentioned earlier in the season. So, does Kyo have some way to control the monsters of the Waves?

Or, he could actually be the good guy Yomogi is. We could all be wrong about Kyo. He might have summoned the wave early so that he could stop it even sooner. It looks like he’s a real hero after all.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2 Episode 11? Did you notice how poor the quality of the episode was? Do you like Yomogi as a new character? And why do you think Kyo wanted to summon the Wave 3 days early? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 12 is available now.

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