Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Rising of The Shield Hero
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S0crates
Posts: 227 Location: Banned - Noticed our poor ethics |
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In my day we used to have a shadow priest tank Ragnaros... xD |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2343 |
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It takes Naofumi a year and a day to punch balloons to death, and they're decently mobile too. The reason he makes decking them to death look easy is because his defense is high enough to ignore their attacks. Merchants have no such luck. Also he keeps a bunch of balloons on him at all times, instead of just one. As for the show, the production values are great, the music is great, the voice acting is great, the status overlays are great in a way that's viscerally satisfying as a nerd to see. The show hamstrung itself with bringing up the matrimony thing early and out of context because WHEW that's a bad implication, and IIRC from the WN when Naofumi read the book and judged Myne the book actually had words and descriptions to go off that weren't displayed in the anime for stylistic purposes, as opposed to Naofumi literally calling some lady a slut based on a fairly chaste picture. Anyways I agree Shield Hero has eye-raising elements that are worth noting, but they're not a deal-breaker for me. |
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#844391
Posts: 517 |
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oooook, well I'm going to skip all the political stuff, I definitely got a bit angry at Nick Creamer's initial post (along with everyone else) but I think Theon's initial review is fair, although there is a lot of stuff that will appear later on the series (which probably won't even show up in the anime adaptation) which will answer a lot of your criticisms. For example the country is actually ruled by a Queen but she is in another country on diplomatic business and we don't see her for several arcs. spoiler[Surprisingly she's actually one of the good guys and shield hero's biggest supporter so don't think this series is all about hating on women in authority.]
I should note that the 3 other heroes are basically parodies of the common popular Shonen protagonists. The sword hero is the edgy loner (aka kirito at the beginning of SAO), the bow hero is the "lets all get along and work together to save the world" and the spear hero is the white knight who tries to save ladies and then get laid with them. There are a lot of characters in this series with very extreme personalities, don't expect them to make reasonable or well balanced decisions. Shield hero himself basically represents all the kids who get ostracized from social circles and just decides to give everyone the finger and do things his own way. As for the false-rape controversy, I don't think it was a controversy in the first place. The only people I've seen complaining about it are critics and reviewers while on r/anime and most discussion boards all you see is people yelling "protecc racoon girl!" and and posting cute memes while the false rape thing isn't even talked about anymore. |
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Nordhmmer
Posts: 1028 |
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Sigh..
A matriarchal country,a state religion spoiler[which proclaims the Shield hero to be ill-omened(to put it mildly)]. What better way for the main antagonist to turn a Savior of the World into a pariah overnight,other than accuse him of raping the first princess of the land. Shield Hero is a tiny mole hill of a power fantasy,not a mountain. |
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AnimeFlyz
Posts: 375 |
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Ill say that this is at least a fair review of the series so far, much better than some of the preview reviews. The only criticism I cant agree on is this.
like, how is this the fault of the series? The Light Novels started coming out in 2013, and the Web Novels came out many years before that. Obviously this is way before any of this #MeToo movement stuff. Plus, its a series from Japan, written by and for a Japanese audience, so using a western standard to critique this plot point just seems really odd. |
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#844391
Posts: 517 |
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Check out r/animememes at some point, there are so many posts about Raphtalia the mods renamed the subscribers to "Raccoon Protecctors". It's pretty funny.
Oh, and minor trivia, Naofumi and Raphtalia have the same voice actors as Sakuta and Mai from Bunny Girl Senpai. I wonder if that was intentional. Last edited by #844391 on Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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AnimeFlyz
Posts: 375 |
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No that is wrong. You meet the queen at the very end of the first arc of the series. Basically, Volume 4 of the Light novel, so this will probably be around mid season in the anime adaptation. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3666 |
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I found the pacing in the second episode odd, particularly regarding Raphtalia's changes. She went from "oh, no, blood is traumatic" to "whatevs" basically instantly. I'm hoping (and was told by commenters) that this isn't the kind of show were people just "get over" their problems.
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#844391
Posts: 517 |
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I did read it a long time ago so it felt like there was a lot more between the start of the series and when the queen showed up. I also read the web novel not the light novel, I'm guessing some of their minor side adventures got cut out to streamline the story more. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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A gentle reminder the Shield Hero anime was made with the Western audience in mind; over the usual Japanese target.
Some backstory - the original Shield Hero webnovel is a cult classic amongst Western webnovel readers, because it was one of the 1st to be fully fantranslated to English. (Also one of the 1st to use the cliche of struggling underdog actively spat upon by the world around them.) Crunchyroll’s producer saw the viewer potential based on this internet popularity and pitched Shield to their Japanese counterparts at Kadokawa, who were seeking a light novel anime to sell to international anime watchers. (This is also a Kadokawa x Crunchyroll co-production.) https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2018/12/04-1/shirobako-is-what-i-do-chatting-with-junichiro-tamura-at-crunchyroll-expo
I'd expect both sides to be aware of any controversy associated with this series (especially Crunchyroll; they suggested it in the 1st place) although there is a chance they could've underestimated Western social reaction trends. I asked around on other forums if the franchise was very popular in Japan - they answered that it isn't that big; the physical sales of Shield Hero's LNs can't compare to the sales generated by titles like Overlord or Reincarnated into a Slime. |
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Hotaru Tomoe
Posts: 2 |
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I hope the Anime gets far into the story. Because without spoiling TOO much, spoiler[ there is a reason this country has a seemingly ridiculous negative opinion of the Shield hero that has nothing to do with his role and everything to do with what happened the last time the Four Heroes were summoned.]
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SquadmemberRitsu
Posts: 1391 |
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I’m just gonna put it right out there and say without any spoilers that it doesn’t exactly stay ‘agreeable’.
Most of the series will be boring and harmless, emphasis on boring. But it does go to some bad places later on, so be warned. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18394 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I am aware of this, but remember that I'm talking about the anime here, not any earlier version.
Why? People do this all the time and it's definitely not just Westerners who do it. In fact, not doing it at all would probably be stranger. Besides, a lot of the time I hear that argument used, it's done to attempt to excuse some pretty scummy stuff. Now, I'm not saying that it's never appropriate - in fact, cultural context is often critically important in comedies, or in theatrical formats that are uniquely Japanese - but a fantasy series heavily based on Western-influenced RPGs and using a setting much more Western than Far Eastern is not the strongest place to make such an argument.
Thanks for the insight here, but I think you may be operating under a false assumption: that I'm talking only about computer or game system RPGs when I mention tanks. My background is actually much more in tabletop RPGs, and in those tanks are considered practically essential. Going into a combat-focused adventurer without 1-2 tanks (or characters who can at least effectively double as tanks) in a table of 5-7 is often practically suicide. |
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doomrider7
Posts: 104 |
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Oh God does it ever. spoiler[Even the stuff with the Queen is really [expletive] creepy in how she ships and kind of pushes her preteen daughter to marry Shield Hero.] |
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doomrider7
Posts: 104 |
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I find disdain for Tank builds odd given that one of the most Iconic builds in recent gaming history, the notorious "Giant Dad" build from Dark Souls 1 is one of the most beloved/hated and meme'd because it's so effective. Ditto for two characters from that game, "Havel the Rock" and "Black Iron Tarkus" being huge who are universally meme'd and beloved are tanky MOFO's who hit HARD. |
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