There are two things I have heard about this story. Frist, that this is SAO done right, and secondly, that it's got an interesting main character who, thanks to a betrayal at the beginning of the story, becomes an untrusting bitter person. Unfortunately, the manga failed to live up to my (not particularly high) expectations. I have read 25 chapters, but I have little desire to continue. I would like to advise caution to everyone, who wishes to read it because, in my opinion, this manga is not worth more than 4 overall.

Let's start with the main hero. In light of the synopsis, I've expected him to be a more atypical shonen protagonist, someone who is more of a man of reason, kind of amoral, thanks to what happened to him. Don't be deceived, however, he is as impulsive and as much of a good guy as they come, in the end, he always saves the day. He is just a brooding asshole all the time, outright not listening to reason, which is somewhat understandable, but that doesn't make it less aggravating to watch. Moreover, he isn't all that consistent, he is Ok with some rather suspicious stuff, only to be so untrusting later, that he wouldn't even hear someone out. That's the thing, he seems to be more untrusting when the story needs him to be, more than when it would actually make sense.

This is one of the biggest problems with the story, it reeks of contrivance. Everything has such a convenient explanation. One of the main hooks of the story is the dark and edgy tone set up at the beginning, but funnily enough, that is all but gone by chapter 25. The manga had a strong first few chapter, and I thought: "Well, this might just go somewhere interesting." It didn't, by chapter 25 it became a completely run of the mill fantasy story.

This is where my disappointment stems from, I was more intrigued by the possibilities that all the dark and edgy staff can lead, rather than the actual pain and suffering that it depicts. And with it turning out to be more self-indulgent, it only strengthens the impression that the story just played the ever so convenient (and somewhat cheap) empathy card. I don't personally mind if something is emotionally manipulative, as long as it leads somewhere interesting, after all this is one of the reasons why we read these stories. However without any catharsis, conclusion, or more intriguing plot line to reward my emotional investment, the only thing I am left with is the feeling of being cheated, and ultimately... disappointed.

Just to illustrate my problems with the manga I am going to talk about ch.12 and 13, some spoilers ahead. So in ch. 12 they get attacked by a zombie dragon, and Firo gets crashed in the dragon's jaw, you can see the blood and all, but I am just sitting there unshocked and thinking: "I don't think they have the guts to pull this off, they will probably find a convenient explanation, as to how she survived". In ch.13 we find Firo alive and well, and turns out the blood we saw was actually her lunch, tomatoes... I seriously laughed out loud at that explanation. Also in these chapters when we see Firo "die" and all hope seems lost, the main hero starts hearing an ominous dark voice that offers him power, with which he defeats the dragon, but he momentarily loses himself in the flames of wrath of this newfound power. You mean he has some kind of dark power residing in him, that he can pull out of his ass at critical moments, which offers him immeasurable strength in exchange for his sanity? I wonder where I saw something similar... *cough* Naruto... *cough* Bleach. In these short chapters the manga not only established that it has no guts or intentions of killing any of the characters, which would not necessarily be a problem, if it wouldn't try to lead us to believe otherwise, since the story supposed to have a darker tone, but it also establishes that we can expect random asspull powerups whenever the heroes or the story requires it. In just two short chapters the narrative fucked itself pretty hard, I mean... smashed tomatoes... how am I supposed to take any of this seriously, after something like that?

I consider this manga to be the kind of "turn your brain off" story. Unlike most people, I don't use this label on fun and mindless stories, but on ones where you shouldn't think too hard about the plot. Because the more you think about the plot, the less sense it makes. Did anyone think about why the MC was betrayed in the first place? On how Rapthalia grows a more mature body by leveling up and also becoming more mature in the mind, or why this world needs the heroes when regular residents can level up and become powerful just as fine? Now, I am not someone who couldn’t suspend his disbelief for even a minute, I actually did it at the beginning, but when my overall enjoyment drops significantly, these sort of questions inevitably starts popping up.

I don't really know what went wrong with this manga, I have no idea how faithfully it follows the novel, I didn't read that. Perhaps the author had a good and dark idea about how to kick off the story but didn't know how to follow it up, or maybe he just wanted to create a good old-fashioned fantasy with a unique twist, but couldn't execute it well. The only good thing a can tell about the story is that it moves at a reasonable pace, although it was on the brink of becoming boring by the time I gave up.

As for the upcoming anime adaptation, I think it will flop, it won’t work in a post Re: Zero world. What do I mean by that? The fact that Shield Hero’s main draw, the "unique" twist, is the dark and edgy „sufferporn” that happens at the beginning, means it will inevitably be compared to Re: Zero and that show portrayed the suffering and failure (some would call it sufferporn) much better and more consistently.

I could go on, but to sum it up, Shield Hero has a strong start, that quickly becomes a completely run off the mill shonen action-adventure fantasy. It isn't unique in any notable way, nor its story or its characters are particularly deep and it's misleading dark beginning can easily lead to disappointment.

As for me personally, I think I put it on on-hold and see what the anime will make of it. Depending on that I may or may not pick it up at a later date.