What They Say:
Iwatani Naofumi, a run-of-the-mill otaku, finds a book in the library that summons him to another world. He is tasked with joining the sword, spear, and bow as one of the Four Cardinal Heroes and fighting the Waves of Catastrophe as the Shield Hero. Excited by the prospect of a grand adventure, Naofumi sets off with his party. However, merely a few days later, he is betrayed and loses all his money, dignity, and respect. Unable to trust anyone anymore, he employs a slave named Raphtalia and takes on the Waves and the world. But will he really find a way to overturn this desperate situation?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While I do still struggle with certain elements of the show that have been introduced recently, I really do enjoy the way that we get Naofumi working through this world. He’s got the harder edge to him after all that happened but he’s also building some interesting relationships that can come back to help later on. Seeing more and more people come on board to his way of things as they see him doing good for a lot of people, especially those that tend to be a bit underrepresented or little protected, it works in a natural way. Especially in comparison to the other heroes where we’ve seen them more focused on glory and fun in between the Waves that have come, all while slowly building themselves. Getting the nod toward the upgrade class side of things as well the last time around helps to push the larger story forward.
It’s welcome to see a nice party having come together overall at the start here to fight so that it’s not all on Naofumi and Raphtalia when they try to evacuate a village when a Wave hits, which is his main focus. When he does connect with the rest of the heroes, it’s amusing to see how they try to use his protecting villages as a bad thing, since they all view those places as essentially NPCs not worth worrying about. What’s worse, in his view, is that there is some level of bickering going on between the others as well when they face off against the Skull Captain on the floating ship because they have different ideas of how to deal with it. But it’s Raphtalia that figures out how to deal with it and she and Naofumi bring that part of the event to a close, which isn’t what the other heroes expected. Especially when it really does reveal the scale of what’s going on and what the Soul Eaters that were there had been up to.
The fight spans the bulk of the episode and there’s a good ebb and flow to it as it progresses, especially as Naofumi finds himself taking the lead on it in a big way and really holding his own against the creatures, barely, while the others are more mostly more than content to just let him deal with it rather than help him specifically. But there is a welcome shift that starts to move in as two of them begin to help and that brings the last of them into it as well. It’s a small break in the wall that has been built to ostracize him and it’s good to see how it plays out, including Raphtalia practically begging them to help while not understanding why. That said, it’s also a good sequence for Naofumi as he continues to hold the line with all of this, pushing back while thinking of the villagers and how to protect them as that’s his main focus at this point. And that, in turn, unlocks more for him in the “game” side of how he views things. The whole Shield Prison piece toward the end is a great growth moment and show just how powerful that the Shield Hero is – and why some are doing their best to minimize and eliminate him.
In Summary:
While in terms of story there isn’t a lot here to really sink your teeth into we do get some key moments. There’s been a slow shift on the part of a couple of the Heroes to view Naofumi more favorably and that’s making a bit more progress here as well, though some are still pretty much against him for reasons of manipulation that they haven’t fully understood yet. I really liked seeing how Naofumi and Raphtalia work together against the Wave monsters this time around and just the kind of quiet energy that we get out of Naofumi as he pushes back against everything since it’s not a whole lot of screaming but rather just actual intensity and progress, resulting in him unlocking more of what he can do. It’s a very solid action episode that overall helps to nudge the narrative forward.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
