'The Rising of the Shield Hero' Features a Gratifyingly Cathartic Isekai Underdog Storyline

The Rising of the Shield Hero has elements of your typical isekai.  The main character, 20-year-old Naofumi Iwatini, is an isekai archetype: an otaku who prefers to stay indoors and indulge in anime and video games.  One day, he’s magically whisked away to another world – a fantasy world – along with three young men, as they are chosen to wield the Legendary Weapons and function as the Four Cardinal Heroes.  Their mission: defend the world from the Waves – a series of unrelenting onslaught of monster hordes popping out from another dimension and occurring on set schedules – and in between these apocalyptic events, they need to level up and make preparations for the next one, which will be presumably tougher than the last.  It’s an RPG-esque setup, and such is also an isekai standard fare.

However, The Rising of the Shield Hero also makes striking tweaks on the formula that helps it ascend above being a mere run-of-the-mill isekai.  And all these tweaks contribute to setting up Naofumi as an underdog – which, by the way, is a departure from the starting point of the customarily overpowered, power-fantasy-realizing isekai protagonist.

First of all, although each one of the Legendary Heroes has come from Japan, each one’s version of Japan is actually unlike the others, for they originate from four differing parallel universes!  And each of these Japans has a popular video game that mirrors the state of affairs they have found themselves in – well, except for Naofumi’s.  Thus, while the other heroes quickly adjust to the mechanics and system in place of the “game” they’re stuck in, Naofumi struggles.

Second, the Legendary Weapon that’s assigned to Naofumi is the Shield.  This is a great disadvantage because the Shield is only good for defending; in order to level up, he has to rely on partymates who would perform the offense.  Unfortunately, nobody wants to join his party.  For in the kingdom they’re in, while the Sword, Bow, and Spear Heroes are much honored and appreciated, only contempt and ridicule are felt for the Shield Hero.

Third, and the worst of all, the sole volunteer for his party – Malty S. Melromarc, a princess of the kingdom – proceeds to betray him.  She’s nice to him at first, but this turn out to be a sham.  Soon, she robs him of his money and equipment, and then, she ruins Naofumi’s reputation further by framing him of sexually assaulting her.  The other Heroes and the entire kingdom believe her lie, and as a result, he’s severely ostracized and despised.

After suffering mockery, prejudice, and injustices as soon as he stepped into this world, the initially carefree and enthusiastic Naofumi turns into a bitter, spiteful, and distrustful person.  But he becomes more cunning, analytical, pragmatic, thick-skinned, and tenacious, too.  These qualities, paired with the drive supplied by his hatred for this world, serve him well in his gritty, difficult climb to the top.

However, people who spend significant time with Naofumi would see past his acidic exterior and penchant for pretending to be the villain that people thought him to be, and discover that he’s actually kind and compassionate on the inside.  This is most realized by his partymates Raphtalia and Filo.  Both of them are purchased by Naofumi from a slave trader, as he’s in need of partymates in order to level up – because, again, as the Shield Hero, he has no attack abilities, and given his ill repute, nobody would want to join his party willingly.  However, as their master, he has never treated them like slaves, but instead plays the role of a protective, loving father figure to them.  Thus, the two are fiercely loyal to him, and they also keep him from completely succumbing to despair and hate.

Naofumi is arguably the most interesting fictional character with a shield not named Captain America; it’s a lot of fun seeing the various shields he develops and gains throughout the series.  In addition, his character arc is so initially compelling because it has both the charms of a revenge arc and a rag-to-riches arc.  Right off the bat, it gives off the strong impression that much gratifying catharsis is going to be had from it.  You just know right there and then that, even though he’s starting off with a considerable handicap, he’s absolutely going to catch up with his co-heroes, eventually, and then even overtake them in competencies and triumphs (SPOILERS: he indeed does).

The intriguing jumping point and potential direction of Naofumi’s story (and, to a lesser extent, its first OP, which was an absolute banger) were the chief reasons why The Rising of the Shield Hero was my favorite new anime of the winter 2019 season at first.  But, somewhere down the line of its 25-episode debut season, the show began to feel a little bit wobbly and more of a by-the-numbers isekai.  Now, it never really got bad.  It just hadn’t done much to elevate itself further from its emphatic opening; it hit a quality plateau.  Thus, it ended up being overtaken by the other new anime in my winter 2019 watchlist.  However, it carried over to the subsequent spring season, where it became more thrilling and engrossing – although a large part of this is probably because it was running alongside a weaker lineup of new anime shows.  Regardless, I thought season one finished strong with its last few episodes.

Overall, I enjoyed The Rising of the Shield Hero.  Sure, it’s imperfect, but it’s mostly worthwhile.  It may not be the freshest of isekai, but it has enough unique ideas that it competently executes to place itself on the “fresh” side of the spectrum.  So, I’m definitely watching season 2 when it comes out (I’ll also be happy if Naofumi, Raphtalia, and the rest join season 2 of Isekai Quartet).