For the past week or so, every chance that I've gotten, I've been watching episodes of The Rising of The Shield Hero which is an anime I first heard about earlier this year. I'd been meaning to watch it sooner, but I guess I just kind of forgot about it until here recently. It's probably been six months since I last sat down and watched an anime series in it's entirety.
At least for this one, I'm glad I found the time to watch it.
Season 1 contains 25 episodes and Season 2 is rumored to maybe come out later on this year. The Rising of The Shield Hero first came out early in 2019 so I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of this one sooner than I did. I discovered this anime by simply looking up good Isekai animes. For those who don't know, Isekai is a sub-genre of anime where the central premise is that the protagonist is transported or reborn into another world. There's many good animes in this sub-genre. In fact, it seems like all my favorite animes that I've watched over the past several years have been Isekai animes.
So what are my thoughts on The Rising of The Shield Hero?
Well in short, it's a great anime. I've seen better ones and I've seen worse ones, but I don't regret watching this one in the slightest. The character development is pretty awesome and the main protagonist isn't just another hero that you see so often in these kinds of animes. There was a few times throughout me watching this that I thought, "This guy is such an asshole". Granted, he's really only an asshole to a lot of people because they were assholes to him first. It's not something I see all that often, but I like it a lot more than the boring trope of the hero who always does the right thing. It makes him seem more relatable.
The premise of the show is simple on the surface. A young guy is looking at a book in his library about some mythical heroic weapons and before he knows it, he gets pulled into the world of this book as his help is needed to save the world. It may sound boring, but it gets a lot better.
He's told that him and three other normal people that got called there are heroes and each of them wield one of the four legendary weapons. There's a sword, bow, spear, and lastly a shield. No surprise, the main protagonist is the shield hero. He has a shield permanently attached to his arm, but it's not just a normal shield. As with all the legendary weapons, they can be upgraded with skills and magical abilities.
Early on, the shield hero is pretty much the black sheep of the group. He's shunned by the other three as well as most people in the kingdom due to false allegations that was brought against him early on in the series as well as throughout it. Even though he starts as a nice guy, he quickly distrusts others because of this. Only later on in the series does he finally learn to trust some people. Some of whom have his best wishes at heart and some who don't.
While the shield hero himself is fairly interesting, the real stars of the show are the supporting characters. Raphtalia for instance is the first real supporting character in this series. She's a demi-human who is a slave when the shield hero first meets her. He buys her only to take care of her and to see that she's alright. Earlier on, he says that he's only doing so because he wants to have a strong party, but later on he shifts more into an actual caring role over her. It's really sweet ^^
As the shield hero gets more people into his party, the train and level up together for the incoming waves. Throughout the land there's what's known as dragon hourglasses. These count down the time until the next wave of monsters and enemies shows up again. Each wave is stronger and tougher to defeat than the last one. This is why the four heroes were called to this world, the defeat the waves together.
The four heroes never really get along great and always seem to be fighting amongst each other more than not. This is especially true of the shield hero since he's pretty much outcasted from the first day he shows up.
Through the series we see all the characters grow especially the shield hero and his party. Characters that start off seeming weak and hopeless, find inner strength within them to overcome their obstacles... and their troubled pasts.
I won't spoil the ending, but you can tell that there will definitely be a second season of it.
I really liked this anime a lot to be honest as I was watching it nearly every chance that I got over the past week or so. The supporting character development was great and even though their stories weren't mine, they felt relatable. That can sometimes be tough to do when writing any good story.
My last favorite part of it was that it ended so soon. I really can't wait for the second season so that should tell you something!
If you haven't watched it yet and you like anime, I'd recommend it! ^^