With the summer anime season upon us, let's go back to the gem of the winter season: "The Rising of the Shield Hero." The anime is based on the Japanese light novel written by Aneko Yusagi with a manga series written by Aiya Kyū. The anime series premiered on Cruchncyroll and Funimation on January 9, 2019. The anime series falls under the isekai genre, in which the main protagonist is transported/summoned into another world, usually a fantasy world.
The story starts with the main protagonist, Naofumi Iwatani being transported into the fantasy world of Melromarc being the Shield Hero, along with Motoyasu Kitamura (the spear hero), Itsuki Kawasumi (the bow hero), and Ren Amaki (the sword hero). They have been summoned to fight phenomenon know as the Waves of Catastrophe. The first episode of the anime totals up to 47 minutes, which shows the dedication the showrunners have in the series. Toward the end of the first episode, Naofumi is falsely accused of rape by one of his only party members named Myne Sophia and is shunned by the other heroes and the entire kingdom of Melromarc. The shunning of everyone in Melromarc is the catalyst of what's to come of the series.
Since he has no funding coming from the kingdom, Naofumi has no other choice than to buy a demi-human slave named Raphtalia. He trains Raphtalia to be his sword to his shield, and they share intimate moments. As the series goes on, Naofumi and his party go through trial and tribulation due to the other three heroes messes. Motoyasu gives a seed to a village that ends up destroying everything, Ren slays a dragon but fails to clean up the mess, resulting in a plague in a nearby town, and Itsuki brings down a tyrannical leader with his sense of justice but fails to follow up on who will be in charge, leaving the people in a worse off situation.
With Naofumi and company having to do this, the series starts to become frustrating for the viewer because an innocent man has to fend for himself by crafting potions and accessories because he gets little to no support from the people that bought him into the fantasy world. Naofumi does get the justice he deserves with Episode 21, in which Malty Melromarc (Myne Sophia's real name) and King Aultcray (Malty's Father) go on trial for their collusion with the Three Heroes Chruchand the attempted murder of Melty Melromarc (Malty's younger sister and next in line to the throne). Queen Mirellia (Malty's and Melty's mother and Aultcray's wife) served as both the judge and executor, even going as far to place a temporary slave crest on her older daughter Malty to prevent her from pathologically lying.
Queen Mirellia sentences both of them to death in the next scene, escorting them to the guillotine. Naofumi stops the execution saying that death is too easy for them and that their names should be changed "Trash" (Autltcray) and "Bitch" (Malty; "Slut" for her adventurer name instead of Myne). The Queen corporates and agrees with the name changes, thus letting her family members live in embarrassment for the rest of their lives.
The anime carries the message that no matter what life throws at you, you keep moving forward. Despite losing everything at first, Naofumi still had the willpower to keep moving forward, even though there were certain people that brought him down. He took his position as the Shield Hero seriously while the other heroes thought that it was just another game they were playing. Even though a second season hasn't been announced yet, I'm looking forward on what's to come for this anime. In the meantime, you can read both the light novel and manga. While you're at it, you can listen to both RISE and FAITH, the theme songs sung by the band MADKID. You won't regret it!
