#rotsh

[clouded-chaos]

Rising of the Shield Hero is so funny when looking past the… flaws.

The other heroes: playing a video game

The King and his daughter: playing a manipulation game

All of Naofumi’s team: playing a love simulator

Naofumi: “guys can I please pick mushrooms and craft jewelry in peace??”

[ev4ikcasswife]

Naofumi gave birth btw

[mothscotch]

is this anything

[falling-star-cygnus]

you know what really needs to be talked about? Rising of Shield Hero

i feel like i used to see posts about it all the time when i was younger and then it just... stopped. the tags just straight up disappeared -> where did y'all go??? why did the fanfiction stop coming!? how did my l'arc x naofumi x therese polycule fall off so fast!?

did i miss something? is there a genuine reason everyone just.. collectively stopped talking about it? Rising of Shield Hero was good shit

[falynnthecat64]

Fohl Fayon episode appearances

37,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,62

[leuke-rants]

"The Rising of the Shield Hero is peak".

The peak in question:

Now if this was a historical accurate anime that wasn't an isekai I wouldn't have that much of a problem with it.

But considering this is an isekai anime where the author is obsessed with having little girls wanting to marry Naofumi, all I have to say is ew!

I also just realised that Melty is sitting on Naofumi's lap. Why is this 10 year old sitting on a grown man's lap, that's gross, especially for this anime.

[aerithcloud]

I think the reason Naofumi Iwatani and Shield Hero is so personal to me still is that it helped me with my identity years ago. Raphtalia represents myself so exactly. The writing influences also some of my personal attachment to Persona 5 to this day.

Raphtalia going from depressive and self hating initially, due to being different from those around her. Then over time gaining confidence, being more upfront, jokey and affectionate. It's how I picture Sumire post canon ending up once she begins to accept herself.

Naofumi going from a kindhearted, goofy guy to traumatised by his experiences and struggling to show his real self due to his past, making him feel doing so would cause him more pain. I'm still really attached to this series, and it's personal to my identity.

[raybeams-outlet]

it’s been about two days since i’ve let the content of rising of the shield hero sink in.

immediately after watching, i saw it as a 4 star watch. even after looking at a couple critiques on here, and acknowledging its flaws, i can’t deny how absolutely locked in i was. i binged the whole thing in 8 or so hours, i didn’t sleep until i couldn’t process what i was watching coherently. as someone just getting back into anime, you’d think i’d bail once i saw light coming through the windows. (this bitch is lowkey long my b)

i have a tendency to summarize what i watch to give an invisible audience context instead of actually conveying my thoughts so i’ll try not to do that here.

i remember being uncomfortable the entire time. society was vehemently against naofumi and his role— and it led him to take questionable actions. there were many points where i couldn’t suspend my disbelief, where i couldn’t just chalk things up to “anime logic,” even if it was portrayed as such. and i believe it stems from naofumi buying raphtalia from a slave trader. (and later on filo). it really is the stockholm syndrome and her getting her slave crest redrawn on her. this actually angers me more now than in the moment, but it felt so unnecessary for her to have it redrawn. and then her further rationalization of naofumi saving her and teaching her how to stand up for herself are convoluted. if anything, i just wish they had met under different circumstances. like if he were wandering the slums of the capital (assuming they’re there) and found raphtalia begging or under a haphazardly built shelter.

i think after typing all that, my real problem is the slave trader. i remember seeing it pop up in the subtitles and my heart sinking. and naofumi actually buying two slaves from this guy put a bad taste in my mouth. was putting the crest on filo necessary… it seemed like she already was attached to naofumi, so it felt more controlling for me. oh i just had the thought of that since they’re half animal they “nEeD To bE tAmEd!!” idk what happens in the manga, but compared to his relationship with melty, that’s how it’s coming off to me.

i know naofumi has grown to care for the girls, but at the end of the day, it still rubs me the wrong way!! lol!!

even with all that into consideration, i can’t bring myself to dislike naofumi. bro was obviously wronged in the worst of ways and had to build his success from the ground up while fighting tooth and nail with the other heroes.

god. the other heroes. no pun intended but they royally pissed me off. it felt like that’s what they’re meant to do but their lack of awareness was killing me, quite honestly. naofumi, begrudgingly, had to do damage control for these dumbasses!! 💀 and to the extent that he did it? bro i’d be pissed too, and they were STILL mad at him for seemingly no reason??? even after clearing his name, they act like they’re above him. perhaps because of his role? motoyasu was ignorant and too busy either trying to talk to a girl or being so far up of naofumi’s ass that he couldn’t see the bullshit happening right in front of him. itsuki and ren are birds of a feather. even if recognizing something felt off (and then going to investigate and nearly!!!!! dying!!!!!!!!!), they still mistreat naofumi— accusing him of cheating, patronizing him for not knowing elements of the game that they were probs told early on. gods, im so glad they’re fictional because if anyone tried that shit irl i would hope their shit would’ve been rocked. i saw a post mentioning the other cardinal heroes and it mentioned how shallow they were and yeah!!! they definitely were!!! as naofumi said, they let this hero shit get to their heads. tbf naofumi is the only realistic due to him being outcasted and facing significant trauma. i believe if the rest of them had gone through the same shit, they wouldn’t be so prideful.

anyway.

that was a lot of the stuff i was angry about. i’ve seen some users here say they couldn’t finish the anime, which is valid. but i think being uncomfortable helped me see things through until the end. it was worth seeing naofumi’s humanity come back bit by bit. i quietly rooted for him because his plights are similar to what some people are going through to this day. i stayed because i wanted to see how naofumi would handle being discriminated against for something he could not control, no matter how badly he wanted to. i also wanted to see more of the demi-humans. they remind me a lot of marginalized communities in the modern world.

even with it’s flaws, i’d still give it a 4, might lower to 3.5 in the future if others’ opinions influence me too much LOL. it’s been one of the anime that got me to stop and think about the politics of their world and thought processes of the characters. i’m glad this wasn’t a passive watch