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)
The focus on Raphtalia’s backstory has been a bit more underwhelming than I thought it would be based on how other parts of the series has played out. It’s not been bad or anything but just slow and without the really strong hooks it needed to make it work. Watching her going through the understanding of her past and that of others as the group deals with the results of it all is pretty interesting at times but it feels like a side-story out of place within the larger context of what’s going on. Especially after the push that we had in the couple of episodes prior to this with Myne and just how far she’s going in order to cement her position.
This episode at least starts off in a good way with the giant beast that the group now has to deal with that’s storming through the area. That has our team on the run for the moment as they try to figure out what to do since it’s an oversized way of trying to eliminate Raphtalia and the rest by the noble. There’s a lot to like in the first half as the group brings Keel and the others to safety in order to draw out the monster themselves, heading past the forest and to the lake in order to figure out a way to deal with it while not causing anyone else any trouble. Though I may not care for all the characters involved here, the four of them as a team is well-presented and they work together well even as the odds feel so very much not in their favor. Granted, I didn’t like it so much once we had things go big in terms of the new arrival in the mix but that stems from disliking the whole species of what Filo and she is.
The formal introduction of Fitoria to Naofumi and the rest, noting that she’s the queen of the filolial people, has her in human mode like Filo does but gives us someone more subdued and a bit more regal even after dealing with the beast. It is amusing to see how she and Naofumi grate against each other a bit as he’s getting some of the dragon material for his combinations whereas she dislikes this, but she doesn’t actually stop him or threaten him, which is a nice change of pace. There’s a lot of downtime after this as Fitoria whisks them away and they make camp somewhere peaceful after everything that they’ve been through. It feels like there needs to be some big conversations had here but Naofumi has to feed a few dozen filo, so he’s a little occupied. Fitoria does set Naofumi a bit more on the right path toward trying to figure out how to smooth things out with the other Heroes because they’re not doing the work they’re supposed to be doing. But the reveal to him that the waves are hitting other countries and that the heroes should have been spread out among them from the start changes the view of how things are operating.
In Summary:
With Fitoria basically telling Naofumi to go make up with the other Heroes, there’s a dangerous path ahead of him to deal with this simply because of how fractured everything is. And that’s without noting just how much Myne is involved in creating that fracture. Fitoria does impart some useful information, has a nice showy moment of action early on, and works to get the group focused on what they must really do in order to save the world because this is bigger than a single country. Again, it’s not bad, but the structure and pacing of it and some of the more forced elements just leave it flat and dry. And some of that stems from the disappointing arc that we had with Raphtalia’s past that kind of dragged things down more than it should have. Here’s hoping things correct a bit more going into the rest of the run.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll