Shield Hero is one of those going in I wasn’t really sure what to expect since it was based off a Isekai Light Novel series. And at the time I had also just got done reading about 16 chapters Arifureta which was basically every Isekai trope ever. So I wasn’t too keen on reading yet another Isekai, but at the same time I was open minded enough to give it a shot, and also because Condifiction is pretty darn good at recommending me only the best Anime and Manga. But I do want to say right now that this is an incomplete review, the manga is nowhere near being finished and these are my thoughts after reading just 36 chapters of the manga. So because of this I will not be giving this manga a score, I will be instead giving this manga a recommendation of a “Go Out Of Your Way To Read It”, “Read” or a “Skip”. Enjoy the video everyone!

Background

The Rising of the Shield Hero’s story is by Yusagi Aneko, who is known for the Light Novel Ore dake Kasereru Class Teni. Originally this manga is actually based off the original Light Novel The Rising of the Shield Hero. And since we’re here already, this manga has a ridiculously long title of “The Rising of the Shield Hero: The Manga Companion”. As you can guess, this is simply another option to consume this series if you want to. I personally have not read the Light Novel as of this time, but I may plan to if there is interest in doing so. But anyways, the art is also done by Kyu Aiya, She is known for; Mofu Men, Code Age Archives and Persona 4 Ultimate manga. Shield Hero’s Light Novel was originally published in 2013, while the alternate Manga version has been published since 2014 in Comic Flapper. Currently at the time of this writing there are 17 volumes of The Rising of The Shield Hero. There is also an anime adaptation announced and is will be handled by the same studio who did Made in Abyss, Kinema Citrus.

Story

Shield Hero is a tale you wouldn’t expect would be so good with the other “Other World” trope that has been driven into the ground in the last couple of years. But Shield Hero, while being an “Other World” manga and having many RPG inspired elements like the mentions of XP and frequent mention of quests. Shield Hero really isn’t taking those aspects and making it the whole manga. Instead, Shield Hero is more about a tale of Revenge and Redemption after a brutal betrayal from an allie. But not only that, it’s about Naofumi finding himself in this new world and raising Raphtalia and Firo correctly as before they were both slaves. I won’t say this story is one of the best manga ever, but I will say it’s one of the best “Other World” manga out there right now. And with its eventual anime adaption it may take the top spot that Re:Zero currently occupies.

Let’s now talk about the most controversial topic when people bring up this series, and that’s Raphtalia’s age versus her actual appearance. So let’s do a little set up here before get into the details. Raphtalia is in reality a 10 year old girl, and because of the way the world works, when leveling up Raphtalia grows in physical age. To put it simply, the higher level she is, the more matured her body becomes. This to me is actually pretty great, it’s a unique character that has the body of an adult, but is a kid in mind and age. But here is where the problem starts to arise and something I hope they don’t do. It’s obvious through the writing on the series that Raphtalia is “the one” for Naofumi. Naofumi doesn’t reciprocate yet in the series, but it’s made apparent that Raphtalia likes Naofumi. Naofumi is 20 years old, double the age of Raphtalia. Now you see the problem and why I hope they don’t go down this route where Naofumi starts banging a 10 year old. This has already made me a little uncomfortable, but depending on how it’s handled it can make or break the story between the two. Because right now in the series their partnership is quite enjoyable, I enjoy their interactions as characters. And thankfully right now these little glimpses of this are very small and hard to gauge exactly where it’s headed. But if Naofumi and Raphtalia start bangin’ when she’s just 10, I may have to lower my final rating once this series is finished.
But there is one thing that I think at the beginning may turn people away. And that’s the fact that there is no real explanation as to why Naofumi is summoned. It seems like the author really just wanted to rush the very beginning because the beginning of Isekai are usually such a drag and cliched. But this one I have a feeling the author felt by doing this he would please the readers of this manga and opted to just go ahead and skip the beginning. To me this is a HUGE problem in the beginning. Now I know what you’re saying “Re:Zero never introduced Subaru and opted to rush past the beginning”. To which I have to say it makes sense with that series, as Subaru’s backstory being a mystery is one of the reasons for Subaru being so compelling. With Naofumi I wanted that little bit of extra characterization for him in the sense of a backstory. I just can’t get fully invested in him, and he’s not a Subaru type. Like I said, it’s a huge problem and it feels amateur and rushed.

But, if you’re into the Isekai genre of manga or Light Novel, then you’ll enjoy your time with Shield Hero. It’s a well paced story with great characters and it knows when and when not to introduce elements or plot point to not rush and overwhelm the reader. But the one thing I do dislike is sometimes the scale of the things that happen do feel a little unimportant when they should be huge altering things. For example, they summon a huge dangerous ass T-Rex that before in the past was extremely destructive. But it doesn’t feel that way, sure they explain what this creature did, but it doesn’t come off as world altering as it should be. But other than that it’s a very well rounded fun manga that has a pretty complex story that in the future will seem to delve into different countries and their own politics. For example, they teased one country that is ran by Demi-humans and uses Humans as slaves. I hope they go to those places too, as I want to see how they’d handle not only from a writing perspective, but from a character perspective as Naofumi has a squad of only Demi-Humans.

Characterizations

Shield Hero though is a surprisingly nuanced series in my opinion, let’s take for example our main character Naofumi. He’s a man that was betrayed at his most vulnerable point, not even 24 hours spent in the new world he was just learning. He was taken advantage of, and because of this the story really revolves around that one pivotal moment. Everything from then on (so far) has the Shield Hero and his companions doing anything they can to get Redemption. Because of this we get to experience some really great moments in the story, for example, I love the first chapters that focus on Raphtalia. She is a young demi-human who has obviously experienced some terrible things in her young life, being tortured, her parents being killed. The things Naofumi takes for granted, Raphtalia cherishes. The first time she eats a full meal, she doesn’t know what to think, she’s confused. She thinks, “Why would Naofumi do this for me?” many times during these initial chapters she’s introduced. Because of this we can really appreciate and get behind this character, Raphtalia. She’s had a tragic history, she’s cursed, it’s not a story most would want to experience for themselves, but a nice underdog story.



Another Underdog story is Naofumi though, continuing on with him like I said before he was betrayed and now spends his time going back and forth on whether to be what the people now expect of the Shield Hero, or be a better man, taking the high road. Morally speaking, Naofumi does some really awful stuff to people, demanding a reward from a poor town that could barely afford it and had to collect money from everyone to reach his demands. But you learn that throughout Naofumi is man that truly has a heart of gold that he grows into throughout the series. Chapter 1-5 Naofumi is completely different from Chapter 20-30 Naofumi so to speak. Naofumi in a way is a character that doesn’t understand his own rage either, this is presented throughout the manga multiple times. Moments where Naofumi is consumed by rage are great because we get to what Naofumi truly feels. This is because throughout the manga the reader gets the sense that Naofumi isn’t kinda an asshole, but at the same time you don’t get the feeling he’s expressing even half of what he truly feels. He’s in many ways mysterious because of this, but mysterious in this way only though. When it comes to revenge and rage, he is 100% transparent.

Continuing with Naofumi, I think his arc is one that so far is extremely compelling. Outcasted as the Shield Hero, Naofumi is forced to grit his teeth and deal with the lies told about him. Even when he seemingly has friends, that may I add visibly show they deeply care about him. He still feels so betrayed by watch happened in the first chapter that he never really opens up at all. Even when he is raising Raphtalia in the beginning he still treats her harshly, and she may be the closest person to Naofumi. He even seemingly takes on the “burden” (saying that in air quotes) of raising Raphtalia as his own daughter. It goes to show that Naofumi is a person that will take on the burdens of others, or just soldier on and try to bury whatever he felt and continue with what he needs to do. It’s a pretty great character in that way, because that’s kinda what being a human is about. You have to just deal with life and move on as best as you can.

Another character we can talk about before moving on is Firo. Now surprisingly this character paper should be one of the worst characters of this series. “A Bird that eventually turns into a young lady and looks like an angel”. Well that doesn’t seem compelling at all, how does that even work? Well her character thought great explanation and writing turns out to be the most fun of the characters. She was an egg purchased from the same slave trader Naofumi bought Raphtalia from who hatched and turns into a legendary breed of Philo Rial that can turn into a human whenever she wants. She has no real tragic back story, and she is the most pure of the characters, which also fits into her design of an angel (which by the way is a great character design). In a way she serves to be the comedic relief of the series as sometimes this manga can get a little dark at times. Later on though in the series her character really does shine in some great moments. No spoilers of course, but Firo has an appetite and Pilo Rial are known to be able to eat almost anything. That is all.

Art

Kyu Aiya does an amazing job with the art direction here. This may be the most crisp manga I’ve read in a good while. Everything is clear, and even in action scenes where it’s ramped up to 11, you can still easily make things out, even distant actions. Backgrounds are even better too, for example there is a pub they regularly go too and every time they go there it’s incredibly detailed. Even simple things like a camp fire shared by a weak Raphtalia and Naofumi is great to look at. You can see how the light of the first fills the panel, but at the same not too much. Giving this scene more depth to it overall.

Character designs are a real treat though, in my opinion, the best design overall is Firo. Firo in her Philo Rial form looks like a fat Chocobo, which if you don’t know, Fat Chocobo’s are the cutest things on to ever be thought up. So Firo kinda follows that example, she’s a giant bird who absolutely loves to pull carts and eats anything organic. In this form, the art design for her is really well done. We can see feathers, her claws which are detailed and her stupid bird face which is totally not a Chocobo you guys.

Raphtalia’s design is great too, she is a Demi-human from the raccoon race, and as far as I’m aware there aren’t too many raccoon anime boys/girls. So Raphtalia having Raccoon ears is a nice little change that’s refreshing. I also feel she’s heavily inspired by Holo, The Wise Wolf from the series Spice & Wolf. She has long flowing hair, a tail and protruding ears, but this is only in design only. In terms of personality, she’s a pretty innocent girl. Also, I like how she looks like she’s in her 20’s, but in reality because of how many times she’s leveled up, she just looks that and is actually just a 10 year old girl. I think this adds to not only her character because it’s interesting but it’s also a nice little tidbit of world building in the art. Sure you can be a 5 year old with a fully grown body if you level up enough. It makes sense logically and also within the world too, which is important.

Naofumi is pretty great too though, he’s a little generic starting out, but later on in the series he does seem to have more of a seasoned warrior look to him. I’m not saying I’m comparing Guts to Naofumi, but I am, and only in the sense that it follows the same progression visually, but much less extreme than Guts. But chapter 30 you can tell Naofumi is seasoned and he’s been through a bit. He doesn’t show scares or anything, but instead through his changing outfit and his Shield. Since his shield has different types depending on what the shield consumes and replicates, it changes the way it looks. So a good example, and a simple one is the Rope Shield. It’s basically as it sounds, it’s a rope shield that’s used to rappel, climb, or possibly tie up enemies. This is great visually though because with the way the art is so detailed with can see the finer intricacies going on here with each type of shield. Thinks like the jewel in the middle of the shield always being a main stay, or each version of the shield having certain visual accents that visually designate what kind of shield it is.


Final Rating

Shield Hero is for me one of my favorite experiences reading a manga. The story was incredibly easy to follow and while being layered presenting you the layers of it slowly enough for you to not be overwhelmed. The characters are great too, I especially love the demi-human characters a lot because they’re treated differently within the world, so they interact to it differently than say, Naofumi. Which is a testament to it’s overall quality in world building. Shield Hero isn’t going to be a revolutionary manga though, it doesn’t need to be it’s an Isekai for christ sake. But in my opinion, currently right now, Shield Hero is easily in the top 3 Isekai series I’ve ever read or watched, easily in some areas better than Re:Zero, which may be the best one. If you enjoy Isekai, then this manga will 100% be for you, and if you don’t enjoy them you may skip it. But I urge you all to find a copy of it or however you consume manga and read it.

The Rising of the Shield Hero gets a seal of approval by me, so read it!