Overall is an 8/10. I can sympathize with the main character and was impressed once the reveals started coming in. When I say the story begins opening up after 20 or so chapters, I do mean that. In fact, I suggest skipping to chapter 14 if you find his initial state displeasing. You might question a few things at first, but you will have skipped most of the unpleasantness without missing the key points.

I give the story an 8/10:

This is a story in which the hated shield hero must develop and grow to save a country. He asks for no pity as he quickly becomes jaded and begins fending for himself. He has no other choice but to save the country as he will die as well if it falls. Watching his development and his oh so classy remarks toward those that ostracized and hazed him for wielding a shield are the main points of the first 15 chapters. After getting passed all this the story starts to widen up and explore more ideas. I must say that the premise initially seems quite weak, but the author introduces reasons for everything. It is not that everyone blindly hates shield users, it's just spoilers I can't say.

The art is a 7/10

It does well in that I never felt it took away from the experience. I can't say much else as I don't critique art much.

The characters are 7/10

The other three heroes are narcissists that project the games they used to play onto their new reality. Because they're so full of themselves, they blindly join in on the hazing of the shield hero. People the shield hero directly helps do not ignore his contributions and instead opt to stop believing the lies spread of him. If you consider how effective propaganda can be, the reactions of almost everyone in the story begin to make sense. No one ignores what''s right before their eyes, but until then they can only believe what they've heard. As for the hero himself, he is extremely jaded, but also kind. He still helps innocents, but has no intention of being pushed around. It is a reaction I can wholeheartedly see myself taking and why I read 42 chapters in one go. As for the others, once questions started getting answered, I started thinking they weren't badly written reactions.



Below is a description of the characters.

Royalty: the presiding king seems to exist for no other purpose than showing disdain for the shield hero.

Three offensive heroes: These three are all narcissists who believe no one but themselves can be right. They are obsessed with their game logic and often don't consider consequences for their actions. They show disdain for the shield as being a weak gamer class and join in the hazing of the him whole hardheartedly once the shield is framed for the first time. They essentially expect everything to be black and white with themselves permanently in the white.

The masses are then split in two. Those that see the shield hero enact good praise him and are kind. The rest haze him to the maximum extent they are able.

The shield hero's eventual party is filled with good people. They are close knit and bare scorn for those who seek to frame and ostracize the shield hero at every turn.

The Shield hero himself is rather human in my opinion. He was hazed to no end and bore a grudge that became a hatred he had trouble controlling. He helped the innocent while making sure he got paid and developed his powers while cleaning up the mistakes of the other three heroes. While he was backed into a corner and adapted to make sure he could survive, he also never stopped wanting to save the lives of the innocent.