just binge watched all of shield hero and then read the manga (current chap 56) so i got to swerve past all the Discourse by starting late. But since i missed it, here’s mine:
a rich, aristocratic woman of the majority race in power in a country raising a false rape claim against a man associated with the race she despises and wants to continue having subjugated under her is a historically familiar narrative. it just would have had so much more impact on both the narrative and the audience if naofumi had also been a demihuman.
so, while it is a decent series for an isekai, it suffers from the usual fantasy anime/isekai issue of making stories about or using allegories for the subjugation of poc and minorities without actually including those people as characters. the socio-political situation around the shield hero that slowly comes to light is absolutely fascinating - personally, i just think it didn’t go far enough in the actual characters and in the shield hero as a narrative piece.
The narrative gives us the situation, with great pacing and really satisfying reveals, that the shield hero is hated in Melromarc for being associated most heavily with the demihuman/beastman race - the race that is socially excluded from the human majority and subject to slavery by humans. so it becomes clear that they only summoned the shield along with their own venerated weapons heros solely so the demihuman majority countries wouldn’t have the shield’s support to go against them. then, making him a social exile and having him be associated with criminal activity and sexual assault added to that, while also having the social implications of the demihuman’s hero being inherently evil and demoralizing the demihumans already in the country, further ostracizing them from the human majority.
it’s a double hit combo that’s incredibly politically sound and really sets up for the later political events in the series; i cannot fault it for that.
as it is, its still a valid takedown of a political enemy using tried and true exclusion tactics based on racial aggression from the majority, but it feels a bit human-saviorish. i can’t say white savior bc literally every character is light skinned, except for maybe one dude in the manga who showed up for a page or two.
anyway, the characters come from different worlds - it would have been easy for naofumi to have come from a world of all demihumans or something. hell, even playing into the video game mechanics more heavily and having the heroes be locked into the same in-game race AND class as the previous incarnations of the heroes would have been cool. having naofumi being targeted as just the shield and the audience not understanding it either before the reveals is interesting, but having him be the only demihuman and having his race pointed out just by the contrast of the human heroes would have set up those themes so much more poignantly. rather than a dramatic reveal, the racism and deeper political themes would have been set in stone for the audience from the very first chapter.
that being said, there can still be value in naofumi using his human privilege to help the demihumans associated with the shield - but it doesnt look like that will happen. idk, ive only seen the anime and read the ongoing manga, not the original light novels, so maybe he does get good later, but uh. “slavery is legal in this country and also the shield only buffs those with active slave crests owned by me, sooooo” is very video game logical, sure, but the point that naofumi is the only hero not treating this like a game is driven home again and again - its the other heroes that act like Main Characters who can turn off the game at any moment they dont like something.
ive seen the argument that since he’s nice to his party and doesnt use the crest against them that ~ its ok to be a slave owner if ur nice to ur slaves ~ and dude im here to say. no, it isn’t. still not cool bro.
but i guess not every narrative has to have moral or a lesson or whatever. its an isekai. dude its an anime adaptation of a light novel. it can be the biggest pile of steaming garbage or the best exploration of victimization on tv and its still an isekai.
I kinda get offended when people compliment me on something that im wearing the second time because why not the first but then im kinda glad because they didnt see me wear it the first time
