My Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero: 3rd Season
Seriously, I forgot this was coming back for the fall season. But there was no way I was going to forget that season three was coming. Crunchyroll jumped several guns to not only announce a second season to The Rising of the Shield Hero, but announce a third season in the same breath. This was in 2019. Do you know how long ago 2019 was? What could have caused my blah attitude and pessimism to come up here? Season two happened.
Oh, but Medea, Myne wasn’t involved in season two. How could it be that bad?
Okay, Myne had her bitchy hands all over season one and I loved that season. Season two was rushed to a point where I need ten volumes of the light novel to get the jist of what the fuck just happened. Me not seeing Myne was a treat and if she was involved in season two, my opinion would still stand.
HISTORY: Isekai. Shield. Outcast. Blah, blah, blah! Here’s season one and season two.
SEASON THREE: Shit, the bitch is in the OP theme. I’m going to lose my shizzle on this review, aren’t I?
In the aftermath of the tortoise arc, there’s a glitch that seems to be affecting how Naofumi sees stats and part of his shield. Then, we’ve got the queen relying on Naofumi once more as it seems that the other three heroes are missing in action. Bitch is too. Normally, I would say good riddance on everybody disappearing, I hope they get eaten by a giant chicken. But that’s just my anger popping up again. I have leftover resentment from season one where I just want retribution for Naofumi. I know they’re technically heroes, but they’re shit-heroes. And as for bitch, I hope that she’s not only eaten by a giant chicken and shit out off of a cliff. She must be up to no good knowing her. And then there’s a little something that really grinded Naofumi and Raphtalia’s gears. Demi-humans and slavery!
Yeah, it’s not a modern Isekai without slave-trades.
Naofumi and his team wind up competing in an underground fight club. Save some twin tiger demi-humans. Don’t get too excited, this tournament arc was only the span of 1 or 2 episodes. They do go back to the underground fight club near the end of the season, but it’s not worth mentioning. Naofumi is staying true to saving previously enslaved demi-humans. Meanwhile, we’ve got a phoenix-sized wave about to occur in a couple of months and no one knows where the other heroes are. This season, we get to know more about the other three heroes; Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki. Not only what happened to them during the tortoise arc, but before they were sent to this world.
Motoyasu was ditched by his entire team when he couldn’t even make a dent in the tortoise from last season. Itsuki went full-on Judge Claude Frollo. And Ren’s entire team was slaughtered. But a certain someone came in and toyed with each and every one of these boys.
…
AND NOW, MEDEA IS ABOUT TO MAKE NO SENSE: I truly apologize for the raving I am about to unleash.
AAAAAHHHHH! OOGA BOOGA! OOGA BOOGA! ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAWWWWR! KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH! REN, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU SAW THE TRIAL! YOU WERE THERE! YOU SAW HER FIGHT AGAINST THE SLAVE CREST! ITSUKI TOO! WHERE IS THE CREST ON THE BITCH’S CHEST?! WHAT WITCH-FUCKARY SAUCE IS THIS?! SOMEBODY! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!
My anger is warranted. In the span of a single episode, Myne claimed infamous status in the anime community as the worst thing since Shou Tucker. Let’s not go too ahead of ourselves. I’d say she’s just between Griffith and Shinji Matou. I’m just glad Motoyasu saw Myne’s true colors (AGAIN) as she lied AGAIN about him raping her. Lying about being raped seems to be her ace in the hole time and again. This woman is worse than tumors on your uterus.
Not even Filo doing an idol performance in the same episode could calm me down. Nice try, anime!
NEW CHARACTERS: Quite a bit more girls added to the roster. We got the drunk orca, the glitch in human form, and the tiger twins. They are all orphaned demi-humans. Give Naofumi some credit as we finally got one male teammate.
Sadina is a human and orca, I guess. She has a lot of history with Raphtalia and that’s the end of that tale. Spoilers.
Then, there’ S’yne. She’s the girl who sounds glitchy every time she speaks. S’yne is at first not trusted by Naofumi due to an earlier reputation. But she sticks around.
And then there’s the tiger twins, Fohl and Atla. Naofumi saved them from that underground fight club. Before, Fohl was barely scraping by and earning whatever he could to help his ailing sister. Now, the twins are thriving (despite Atla being blind and sometimes has trouble walking). Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.
JAPANESE CAST:
*Sadina is played by Ami Koshimizu (known for Makoto/Jupiter on Sailor Moon Crystal, Kallen on Code Geass, Ryuuko on Kill la Kill, Holo on Spice & Wolf, Rosa on Umineko, and Anemone on Eureka Seven)
*S’yne is played by Maria Naganawa (known for Kanna on Miss Kobayashi, Platelets on Cells at Work, and Komekko on Konosuba)
*Fohl is played by Kouhei Amasaki (known for Otto on Re:Zero, Kousuke on Tomo-chan is a Girl, and Monoma on My Hero Academia)
*Atla is played by Konomi Kohara (known for Chika on Kaguya-sama, Roxy on Mushoku Tensei, Miu on Domestic Girlfriend, Chitose on Tonikawa, and Kai on Hitoribocchi)
ENGLISH CAST:
*Sadina is played by Alice Himora
*S’yne is played by Lisa Reimold
*Fohl is played by Kieran Regan
*Atla’s voice actress is unknown at this date and time
SHIPPING: Rishia really, for real, truly needs to give up on Itsuki. And if the slap in the face he gave her wasn’t enough of a big indicator…no, it truly needs to be one. I’m glad she stepped up to try and reason with him. But…eh, I got nothing else for this. I’m just annoyed by Itsuki dropping Rishia for being weak and Rishia still devoted to him.
And Raphtalia still loves Naofumi. It’s still unrequited. And she will still get jealous of anyone hugging, rubbing on, or sleeping with Naofumi.
ENDING: It’s obvious that Bitch has been poisoning the minds of every, single one of the four heroes. While Naofumi’s interaction at the beginning of the series was bad enough, Bitch took advantage of the other three during really rough moments of their journey. And all I can say is, Naofumi was wrong to keep her alive for this long. He should have just allowed the queen to have her daughter’s head chopped off. Motoyasu was dropped once it was shown that he could not make a dent in the tortoise from last season. In Bitch fashion, she claimed Motoyasu raped her making him out to be the town Harvey Weinstein. With Ren, Bitch manipulated him after losing his teammates in a gruesome way. But she ditched him soon after Naofumi got involved and helped him out. Finally, there’s Itsuki.
Itsuki wound up with a cursed item given to him by Bitch. These cursed items have not done anyone any good during this season and caused a lot of damage for the heroes who had them and Naofumi having to clean up the mess afterwards. When Ren was possessed, it caused a lot of trouble for innocent bystanders. Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu are all terrible and made terrible messes throughout the majority of this series. They should be licking Naofumi’s boot every morning when they wake up. Sorry, leftover hatred again. However, Itsuki’s sense of justice pissed me off further down the series. Itsuki pulls off his stupid justice kick by attacking Naofumi’s crew and innocent bystanders with his bow and arrows. Hell, he was going to kill Rishia because she didn’t believe in his “justice”. Thankfully, she and Naofumi were able to end Itsuki’s cursed justice. Itsuki is just mentally broken, but is cared for by Rishia.
Hmph. He should have just been left to rot in a wheelchair like Kirito in SAO. Not even sorry for that!
Okay, we’re at the final episode. Not sure when we’re going to see this wave attack with a giant phoenix. In two months is what Naofumi says but who the hell knows! And Bitch is still on the loose. She did drop Itsuki pretty fast, leaving him broke and broken. I know everyone wants Naofumi and the other three heroes together. I’ve been against that from the beginning. Sorry, last time! As of this moment, Itsuki and Ren are with Naofumi and his crew. Motoyasu…everyone still seems to avoid him like the plague. Yeah, he’s annoying. But mostly it’s because he wants to lewd Filo and now calls Naofumi, “Father” because, yeah, he technically did hatch Filo. Who wants to tell Motoyasu that Filo is technically a couple of months old? Okay, final episode. What’s in store?
Raphtalia is royalty!
Do what now?
Naofumi gave Raphtalia some priestess garb. Sadina got scared and warned her to remove the clothes immediately. Just then, Naofumi’s area is attacked (AGAIN). Usually, it’s slave poachers or someone under Bitch’s control. These new guys are different entirely. This time they want to kill Raphtalia. Why? Because she’s really the heir of this place called Q’ten Lo. Raphtalia’s father was the original ruler but abdicated and started a family. Sadina has been watching this family from the very beginning. So, there’s much more to Raphtalia’s family than just what we learned in season one. Naofumi is understandably pissed that these spies from Q’ten Lo are after Raphtalia and have been watching her pretty much her entire life. So, I guess we’re going to Q’ten Lo now.
Okay anime, that’s fine. But a few things. Phoenix wave is going to hit in less than two months. Filo still needs to up her stats after the whole dragon incident. Bitch is still on the loose. Itsuki is on par with a roasted parsnip. We don’t know where Motoyasu is nor do we care. Still in the dark about the tiger twins and that guy at the palace who hates Naofumi. Naofumi is about to drop everything to prepare for the biggest wave to date to go to this place we only learned about five seconds ago. And most importantly, THE ANIME IS OVER!
Yes, this does set us up for a possible fourth season or movie. As of now, we have a fourth season in the works. But I just have to ask myself this. Do I even want it? Okay, stupid question. I do want to see it for what happens. It’s just that I’m kinda in a slump when it comes to this anime. Most of that blame does stem from the previous season. This season wasn’t as bad, but it’s a far cry from where things were in the first season. I’ll give the anime this, it spiked my blood pressure on my day off from work. That’s not a good thing!
So, I guess we’re going to this Q’ten Lo place, meet new characters, and take a total detour from where this story was going with fighting the waves. Then again, this season had absolutely no wave-fighting. And I’m sure we’re not going to get much clarity of any other character that gets introduced and is a “insert-something-here” hero. I’ll give season four a fighting chance if someone throws a Molotov cocktail at Bitch’s face. For those looking for an improvement to season two’s disappointments…I can’t lie. You would probably only like half of the series. Anything involving Wyndia, dragons, and the whole lot of demi-humans might lose your interest.
For now, every season of Rising of the Shield Hero is on Crunchyroll.
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Big question: do the heroes parties know how old they are? specifically Ren and Itsuki cause they aren't even 18 yet. I don't remember Naofumi telling Raphtalia or Filo his age either, and the story isn't focused on the others enough.
I can imagine Itsuki telling his party he's 17 so he can get "wow you're so mature and heroic for your age :))))" type compliments, Motoyasu will tell any woman trying to hook up, and Ren might purposefully avoid it so he's not treated like a kid(he is).
I can imaging his party asking Nao how old he is, and them just freaking out when they learn he's 16!!! after they freak out to Ren about "why didn't you tell you you are only a CHILD". since i think they are all like complete adults(youngest being 18).
canonically: no clue </3 i DO remember Naofumi mentioning offhandedly in the anime (s2 i believe) that he was 20? but i don't remember the context (let alone which episode; was probably before the Spirit Tortoise arc tho?). and like you said, the story (especially in the anime) isn't focused on the others enough to really give us any ideas? you could make inferences based on the passing glances of their parties, but they'd be a lot of conjecture.
i DO get the impression raphtalia and filo are aware of his age to some extent—raphtalia in particular i feel would be the best bet out of his current (anime s2) party to know his age. that said, it's wholly possible that raphtalia doesn't actually know the exact age either: naofumi seems like the type of person to just not mention much about himself (even before getting betrayed by Myne!)
not that he'd go out of his way to hide stuff about his character (in fact he seems pretty unapologetic about himself mostly within reason), but rather he just wouldn't think to say anything. i am very much the same way where i just won't mention shit about myself, even if it's relevant. i tend to hide my birthday from people for instance because i don't want it to be a big deal—i don't have any birthday traumas, i'm just a tad private like that.
(imagining one day naofumi mentions offhandedly somewhere casual in luroluna that he's 20 while everyone starts losing it to some degree. rishia and eclair thought he was in his 30s. melty thought he was 16, for some reason. filo was actually exactly on the mark, strangely enough—no one expected her to have that good a grasp on the passage of time, let alone its relativity to others. raphtalia, having a skewed perception of human ages, assumed naofumi was either in his late teens or mid-20s], and got cllllose enough frankly)
headcanon-wise: god. GODDDD i can't agree more with the assessments on itsuki and motoyasu it's absurd.
itsuki would definitely think being 17 would simultaneously be a badge of maturity (he's so close to being 18! plenty grown and so close to graduating high school! practically an adult!!) as well as a bragging right (he's doing such heroic and marvelous things at such a young age. he's not even 18 yet! what a brilliant mind with such a bright future!!!). unfortunately for him, announcing this fact just makes his gullibility that much more obvious
from what i've read on the wiki and inferred from the anime, it seems that this would've definitely been something that itsuki's party capitalized on. he was practically announcing to the world that he was a young, impressionable mind that could be influenced and controlled. (and this is why we practice internet safety, folks!)
he'd probably really hate to be reminded that he's 17 in those ways (e.g. that he's young, naive, inexperienced, etc), even if it's not outright said. probably reads into things a LOT so sometimes he might snap about it in a situation where the other party wasn't actually trying to belittle/demean him at all. it can make it a little more difficult to talk itsuki down, because he seems like the type of person who'd hate to be told that he can't do something. especially because of something he can't necessarily control, like his age.
probably felt even more insecure about his age when rishia, also 17, joined the party. just another reminder of who he used to be: some pathetic, easy-to-bully weakling struggling to keep up with the rest of the pack.
(but also, wouldn't it have been so comforting? so relieving? to finally have someone your age by your side again?)
(someone who might not necessarily understand everything you say, but gets so naturally in-tuned to it just by virtue of being in a generation similar to yours? even though you're from two completely different worlds?)
(someone who gets overwhelmed by all the demands that the world puts on them, and the demands they put on themself, just like you?)
(someone who is struggling just as much as you are?)
(someone who gets it?)
itsuki would prefer not to have any more teammates his age or younger. he doesn't need to babysit anybody.
motoyasu loudly announces his age, height, weight, blood type, and marital status to anyone displaying a mildly flirtatious manner in his direction.
ren doesnOkay i should probably elaborate more on motoyasu actually.
i think motoyasu's age is something that keeps in his mind a lot, funnily enough. he's 21, so he is (well, was) at that point of his life where he "had" to start figuring out his life direction. ESPECIALLY after learning that he was kinda modeled after (romantic?) VN protagonists, i got the vibe that motoyasu had kinda been... drifting? in terms of his self-identity, anyways.
he seems like the type to focus more on the moment of things, particularly at the expense of thinking out the consequences. honestly, w/the degree of delusion he tends to display whenever Enacting His Heroic Persona™, it's possible that this tunnel vision is something deliberate: so that he doesn't have to think much about his future, much less choose where he's going.
but once you hit that 21 mark, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing you're starting to run out of time (even though you Just finished being a teenager, still haven't gotten much life experience at ALL by virtue of being so young, and you could easily live quadruple the time you've already been alive—so you've got a LOT of time to use).
(i'm approaching this from an american perspective, so i don't know how applicable the 21 milestone is—HOWEVER, you're kind of considered an adult at age 20 (and are treated more or less as an adult in many legal things by 20, though the transition period starts at 18-ish).)
motoyasu's already 21. he could barely even choose a girl to love properly, and he didn't see the warning signs of the relationships he had haphazardly begun. maybe he should've done something about it. maybe he should have listened to those girls. he's just a body, after all—they probably know what's best for him anyways. otherwise he'd just be wasting his life away, right?
(foreshadowing my personal take on motoyasu's previous life. oops. i'm worried about him your honor)
all of motoyasu's party members know his age and would generally know his birthday month/season. he seems like he'd mention that kind of stuff offhandedly a lot: he gives me the impression he's typically an open book when it comes to his thoughts and his personal life. (that is, with some Exceptions. he's a bit of a master at dodging things he Does Not want to acknowledge to the point of essentially trashing them from his mind—raphtalia commenting that motoyasu's words were "empty" during the pope fight is something that echoes in my head a LOT.)
whenever he Does bring up these facts (like mentioning he's an april baby a lot—idk if he was born in april but motoyasu gives me april vibes), it doesn't seem like he's trying to nudge them towards doing something for him at all. he's a tad too oblivious/blunt for that. motoyasu is just a bit of a motor mouth who doesn't care for his own privacy. (not in the dangerous way that itsuki might, but rather just "oh, he's just easy to talk to")
I DIDN'T REALIZE I'D TYPE SO FUCKING MUCH. UHHHHH for ren my answer is actually incredibly simple:
Ren's party members wouldn't even know what he had for breakfast in the morning.
it's not that they don't pay attention to him or anything, because (especially in the beginning) they really really tried to. this bitch is just a puzzlebox of a person who adamantly refuses to talk about himself very much. he'll talk about necessary stuff and won't shoot down small talk by any means, but if naofumi is a passively private person, ren is an Actively Private Person.
it'd be hard not to suspect that ren was hiding Something acting like that, but it became pretty evident to the party (the longer they stayed) that ren just really sucked at divulging information about himself. which WOULD suggest traits of its own, hilariously enough
he's socialized and well-adjusted enough to hold thoughtful, in-depth conversations, but asking him about his favorite food is an exercise in confused futility. (he'd keep second guessing himself and forget the name of the food and then remember he hates x spice and so on and so forth and you wouldn't actually get much of value from the question you actually asked—)
i don't think ren's party ever got close enough to really see much of that kid's true self, outside of those fleeting awkward teen convo moments. not that he'd go out of his way to show it. but they probably got the sense (ESPECIALLY w/his loner behavior) that he was one of the younger Cardinal Heroes.
(i think it'd be a fair assumption to say that generally the people of melromarc would believe itsuki was the youngest cardinal hero, especially as he'd state outright that he was 17 commonly. no one really expected a 16-year old hero)
don't worry about ren's party asking naofumi how old ren is tho, because after the Spirit Tortoise arc ren doesn't have a party to worry about anymore :)
(i am so fucking sorry
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