The Rising Of The Shield Hero First Impressions With Karandi

Hello everyone and welcome to our shelter!

That’s right, the friendly talks collab will continue this season! Karandi and I will both be following two Anime shows for the Winter Season as we did to the Fall Season! I think we picked very strong Anime to discuss this time around! At my side, we will be talking about the popular The Rising of the Shield Hero. At Karandi’s side, we will be reviewing Meiji Tokyo Renka, a less known show, but very surprising and interesting one until now.

Today we will be covering The Rising of The Shield Hero first 3 episodes! My part is in blue (and italic), while Karandi’s part is purple.

---

The Rising Of The Shield Hero First Impressions With Karandi

Hey there Karandi! Thank you for joining for another season! I’m pretty hyped so far! We actually chose 2 very good Anime shows! (You can all our read Meiji Tokyo Renka thoughts on Karandi side).

So, at the shelter, we will be discussing The Rising Of The Shield Hero and, as Karandi and I have discussed on Twitter… Even though I don’t really want to, we need to start this by addressing the false rape accusation! What are your thoughts on that?

Honestly, I was kind of stunned by the community reaction to it and the over-reaction as well as the take of some reviewers where they essentially decided the entire show was trash based on one plot event. I knew what I was about to watch having read the light novels and I did have some issues with Naofumi in the light novels, but some of the conclusions being drawn about the author and the message of the text because one character lies about rape were pretty extreme. I mostly just read all these posts and wondered what on earth was going on. You?

I think the only difference I have from what you wrote, is that I don’t actually read anything about it! I mean, what’s the point… It’s not like I’m gonna change my opinion when it comes about using this kind of plot lines on entertainment (being it in Anime, Series, movies, books, etc.). To be honest, I think if I actually started talking about this scene or others that happened (for example the rape scene on Goblin Slayer) I would have to write a post just about it, as Lina did, don’t know if you were able to read that one! It was very well written and it actually speaks what I feel.

But, in short, I think people forget this is fantasy! Being that said, the world can be whatever the author wants it to be. So, what’s the freaking problem of having a character who lies and says there was an attempted rape so the hero ends up being completely disposed of any benefit he had?

To be honest, I believe it was a very important point so that the character stopped being so naive, something that he is going to need if he wants to survive… It’s funny though, there is a demi-human who was a slave and that get shocks every time she does not do something Naofumi orders her to do and people didn’t seem so vocal about that. I mean, for me that is even worse, right? So, why is it ok to have a slave on a fantasy world, but using the feminine power for bad, especially in a kingdom where the girl is seen as more important than the male, is not?

I just don’t get it and I think people should just drop a notch a little bit… It’s fantasy, it’s not real world… Aaand… I’ll stop the rant here haha

The slavery thing has come up a bit in posts I’ve been reading. Admittedly, it doesn’t get as much outrage, but that’s probably because a lot of the reviewers who would be outraged dropped the show at episode one after the rape so they never got to episode two where they got to see Naofumi owning Raphtalia and giving her orders that sometimes hurt her. But, I’ve definitely seen some people who have a few issues with the idea of slavery as well.

But, for me, the more important point is that it is a work of fiction and it isn’t that the show is endorsing either false rape charges, anti-woman ideals, slavery or anything else. Yes, these things are kind of in the show, but the anime isn’t saying that this is how we should live. It is quite clear that the false rape charge is seen as a villainous act, the lack of evidence or even care taken in determining who the guilty party is can only be seen as making the justice system of this kingdom seem broken, and slave owning is considered pretty low even in a kingdom where it is legal. So at no point does this anime tell people they should be going out and doing these things.

Context is always kind of important and trying to directly translate events and character actions from something set in a fantasy world into our own is never going to end particularly well. But yeah, let’s end the rant and let’s look at why we’re both enjoying this show anyway.

Yeah, it’s better to do that! I definitely I will never understand what is about people going against a fiction world lol I mean, look at Game of Thrones… It’s one of the most popular shows in the past few years and everything in there is despicable… But, anyways… let’s talk about the positives of the show…

I’ll just take this rant to start one of my positives point lolol I actually like that the system of the world is completely messed up! I like that the story turned more serious and presented problems such as the false rape scene and slavery. Yeah, it’s bad… Of course, it’s bad! But, I think it gives way more deepness both to the world and to the characters (in this case Raphtalia),

I believe that worlds that have huge problems like these to be more interesting to watch and deconstruct than happy ones where peace never ends! Contrary to many other Anime shows of this genre, here the only problem is not the monsters, but also the humans… Oh, just remembered another example! Episode 3, when the commander of the army couldn’t care less about the commoners and just want to go to help the heroes and let everyone to their death (just because being with the heroes will give them more prestige of course). What about you?

I’m definitely enjoying the broken nature of the world and the kingdom established. It rings very true when you look historically at settlements with similar levels of technology as what Shield Hero has established, a lot of these problems, particularly the noble and commoner divide, are very apparent. It is also what gives the events here more weight in general over something like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

If I look at the world building there where Rimuru is building a village and now a Kingdom and everyone who is there is happy and works together, and all of the problems and threats are external ones because everyone who is there is a lovely and sweet monster/person who just wants to live happily… Honestly, Shield Hero feels far more interesting in terms of the world we are looking at and the motives characters have. Not saying Slime is bad, it’s a lot of fun, but of the two stories I know which one has more impact for me.

It’s a shame you haven’t seen episode 4 yet, but I’m really loving how they are continuing to highlight the flaws in the kingdom and the political and power systems of this particular world.

Yeah, I know sorry! >.< But I really wasn’t able to watch it yet bah! Two weeks ago was my anniversary, so I had dinner parties 2 weekends in a row which messed up my schedule 120% 😛

But, well… Something I’m really curious is how you feel about Naofumi at this point, I know that in episode 1 you were not very fond of him, so I would like to know if has grown in you or you still don’t really like him xD Because, truth is, like the kingdom, he is also a flawed character…

Okay, to answer that I am going to need to discuss the light novel a bit because my opinion of Naofumi is very much colored by my experience reading the story. To be honest, the anime version of Naofumi is significantly more likable than the light novel version, at least at these early stages of the story. He’s still a little rough around the edges and while I don’t actually ‘like’ him as a character, I respect how he is being characterized.

The reason I had so many issues with him in the light novel was after the false rape allegation and having the kingdom turn their back on him, he really gave into hatred. And in the novel, there is a lot of internal monologuing and some of it is actually quite vicious and a lot of it is directed toward female characters. Now, this is used as a contrast to show how Naofumi recovers from his betrayal later and he eventually develops into a more rounded character, but it made the first volume of the light novel really uncomfortable reading at times (good story, but it hit hard). The anime has toned down the hatred a lot. It is still there, and it works, but it is a more tolerable level of anger and doesn’t quite make me feel as uncomfortable.

And Naofumi saving the villagers was kind of cool in episode three. Setting the tower on fire while he was on it was nearly heroic and his protection of Raphtalia when the guards just firebombed the place was fantastic. So, he’s working well as a character in the anime and they seem to have found a good moderate level of anger for him to have to get the point across without sending shivers up people’s spines, and hopefully, he will become the interesting character he becomes in the novels. My biggest worry is that they will continue to water him down and he’ll end up being generic nothingness and that would be pretty bad given he’s quite the distinct character in the books.

How are you finding him so far?

Well, my thoughts on him are still the same as in the first episode! In fact, the only difference is that Naofumi is not the main reason to like this Anime anymore.

For me, I feel that it’s very interesting to see the two faces he has. Even toned down, you still need a lot of cold blood to give an order to Raphtalia as he does in the beginning. However, quickly we can see that he is only doing that to help her. She will need to be strong so that she can survive in the world they are in, especially being a demi-human. For example, during the cave scene, he seems evil when he is making her kill something that she seems to not be able to do… He even continues to pressure her when she is already in pain due to the shocks. However, in the last minute, when he actually thinks she doesn’t have the nerve, he is prepared to give his life to save her.

The same thing can be said about the commoners. He basically hates everyone because how they treat him due to the false rape scene… However, in the end, at episode 3, he actually puts his life in the life to save everyone… (Moreover, he was really cool while he was running around the village and using skills to protect the commoners)

I live for broken characters, so I’m just loving him! To be honest, after reading your comment, I’m actually thinking of giving the visual novel a try after the Anime ends xD

But, more than him, I’m also loving Raphtalia! I know she is one of those characters that you like right from the bat… But, even so, her evolution as a character has been pretty nice! What do you think?

Must not spoil episode 4…

Um, Raphtalia is awesome. She’s very screen capable. In fact, most of my screencaps from episodes 2 and 3 are of her in some form or another. I also like the balance she starts bringing to Naofumi’s character. As much as his character journey is important, he alone couldn’t carry this story. However, the two characters make for a very nice into the story and the world and I’m really looking forward to seeing more from them. Also, love the voice actors we’ve got for these two (that really adds a little something extra).

Oh completely agree with you, the VAs are super important for the characters to work! The only way for them to shine so much in the screen is because how the voices seem so real and natural!

Is there something else you want? Something negative about the show maybe?

I actually don’t have much bad to say about the anime. The double episode to start with worked well at establishing the world and plot and ensured episode two could bring in Raphtalia so that worked in the story’s favor. The animation has been reasonable and I like the character designs so far. While there are a few niggles here and there about particular scenes and animation, this one is actually doing pretty well. It isn’t a visual masterpiece but it works well enough and it is getting the story across.

All and all, this one is looking at being a pretty solid above average isekai story. Given I like the isekai genre in the first place, have enjoyed reading the source of this one so far so like the plot, I don’t anticipate many problems as this one continues. Anything you want to complain about?

Hmmm… Besides saying that I hate the lance hero and the girl whose name I can’t remember? Naaah! Not so much xD
To be honest, I also don’t have anything bad to say about the Anime! It can still fall apart, of course, but for now, it’s probably the one that I’m going to enjoy the most this season. It’s neck to neck with Yakusoku No Neverland… Though, I have to say The Shield Hero is at the front at the moment… This because if we compare episode 3 of both Anime, The Shield Hero was stronger… But, only in the end of the season, we will see who was the best for me xD Regarding the community, I’m pretty sure we will see which one is the preferred one at your site 😛

Again, thank you so much for getting back her for a new season! Hopefully this one is going to be as much (or even more) fun as the autumn season was! 😀

Thanks for having me again and I’m really looking forward to catching up with you at episode 8 to see how both of these shows have progressed.

Yeap! Hopefully, there are still kicking and we still love them! Both The Shield Hero and Meiji Tokyo Renka!!!

For now, it’s time for you guys to go to Karandi side and read our first thoughts about Meiji Tokyo Renka 😉