Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

(This review may contain minor spoilers. Please continue reading at the risk of spoilers.)

As I was reading the first chapter, I was thinking, Is this just a typical seinen manga about some random person travelling to another world? But boy, was I wrong about this one. It illustrated the meaning of how it was to be downgraded by society but with the essence of fantasy in a different world.

I was captivated by the story. It started with a simple cliché, that somehow lead into something much greater that makes me love this manga so much. It demonstrated the meaning of betrayal and what it meant to be isolated and hated by others, and the meaning of warmth, strength and love, all in a few chapters.

The art is beautifully illustrated to capture most of what is showcased in this manga, but I believe it doesn`t really capture a true battle scene. However, it was able to fully illustrate the characters emotions and feelings; in all aspects. Like Raphtalia`s loyalty and respect towards Naofumi, and Naofumi`s depression and lack of love in the world; for he was being hated by many around him.

As Naofumi started as an ordinary person and has now evolved into the new person he is, I believe he went through massive events that helped change his character throughout the story. He was betrayed and played by a thief and degraded by those around him, and that rendered him unable to see and enjoy the beauty of life. But that all changed as he met Rapthalia, who later becomes his slave, as he is unable to wield weapons other than his shield.

After the harsh life Raphtalia has lead so far, she was bought by Naofumi, the shield hero. She was afraid of killing monsters at first, but she learned to trust Naofumi and feel needed as she was not treated so before. She tries her best to become of good use to Naofumi, as she learns that he will be the one to protect the people during the Calamity. She goes under a giant growth spurt, and because of that attracts danger to Naofumi but that allows him to be able to experience and see the beauty of the world.

I, personally enjoyed this manga, and those hoping to read the manga, I will tell you this manga has its ups and downs but its REALLY worth it. Even with 8 chapters translated so far, it really surpassed some seinen mangas with more than 20 chapters out there.

(If I made any mistakes, please tell me and I will correct them immediately.)

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.

This story is awesomesauce! Many stories have problems with constantly screwing over their hero but this one has no such qualms. The main character practically wakes up and gets punched in the dong just for existing. While you might feel bad for him and wish Thor to smite the villains with lightning's justice, it helps keep the reader guessing and keep tension. Also not to cause any spoilers but the series depicts what being accused of a certain crime is like for an innocent.

There is however a few problems with this series. The biggest one is the current love interest is a little girl. If you didn't see this coming you haven't read enough manga but the little ten year old girl that gets saved by the main character gets a crush on him. The author then attempts to solve this by aging her body...which means she's mentally still a child...which she even says. WTF are you serious? I'm sorry but no matter what voodoo bs you try and pull she is still a ten year old that hit puberty way too quickly, 13 going on 30 style. That is the definition of jailbait, just don't.

Overall I will sing the praises of this series with opera style gusto. I just hope it doesn't go the way I'm thinking it might go romantically, but then this series has already surprised me once so it could very easily do it again.

Ever since the first chapter was released, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari has been increasing exponentially in popularity. It is quickly rising up the ranks and it isn't very hard to see why.

Story: 9

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari is a story of betrayal, revenge, & redemption. The story follows Naofumi Iwatani as he is suddenly brought to another world. There he is deemed as the shield hero, the weakest of the 4 heroes due to lack of attacking power. Because of that, no one wants to be his companion and what's worse is, he's eventually betrayed and framed. Scorned and loathed by the people who were supposed to be his allies and the people who brought him in the first place, the once happy and caring otaku is now a mistrusting anti-hero hellbent on revenge.

As time goes on, he finds people who actually place their faith in him and see him as a hero. However, as a result of being betrayed, it's going to take a lot of work, before he warms up to anyone. Of course, he is slowly becoming the person he used to be. But there's still one problem, the fact of the matter is, he was betrayed and ridiculed. Who wouldn't be mad after those events? Will he truly live up to the name of a hero? Or will his desire for revenge never subside? Join Naofumi as he embarks on a journey to discover what it truly means, to be in a marching band. Sorry, I just couldn't control myself. Jokes aside, you will experience the adventure of a lifetime as Naofumi fluctuates between the borders of wanting to protect innocent citizens & his companions and wanting to kill those he hates with all his heart.

The story has plenty of action and brutal ones at that. Shield Hero (what I'll call the manga from now) isn't as soft as to not show the likes of blood & decapitation. It's just one big thrill ride; you anxiously wait for those who betrayed him to be killed in the worst ways possible. Nothing of the sort has happened so far, but it only makes your interest stronger. Now, you just can't wait for that time to come.

Just by reading the synopsis, you can already tell, there's going to be drama and there certainly is. We are given back-stories, current situations, etc. It makes for more compelling characters and senseless action is never fun.

Romance is definitely present in the manga. Currently, we only have things like blushing, but soon enough, you will get your ever so nice romance. At this rate, it seems like it's going to be a harem, so if that's not your cup of tea, I'd get off the train now.

Like every story, Shield Hero has flaws. The most one prominent one being that a lot of things that happen are cliche. You could even say it's predictable. But don't you tell me you don't want a heart-warming after everything the protagonist goes through. You know you want that cliche yet adorable moment. So it's flaw may not be as bad as it seems, it doesn't deteriorate the quality of the story by that much.

To sum things up, Shield Hero is a roller-coaster of emotions, supplier of top notch action, & generous giver of sweet romance.

Art: 9

The art has a shoujo feel to it. You can't deny that the main guys were drawn to be good looking and the main female lead has remnants of common female shoujo eyes. It's not a bad thing though, the art is actually great. The characters, the fights, the backgrounds, and especially Naofumi's feelings. Whenever he's pissed or angry, his face really shows it. You can tell how mad he is. You get a sense of his blood-lust.

Character: 9

I don't think the plot is the main reason as to why the manga got so popular, the plot isn't exactly new. With that being said, I'd give that award to the characters.

Naofumi isn't your typical shounen protagonist. He isn't crazy altruistic, he has a dark side filled with thoughts of revenge and selfishness. Yet, deep down, he's a caring guy. He just doesn't want to show it, in fear of being betrayed again. In short, Naofumi is a breath of fresh air.

Raphtalia, our main female protagonist, is a great female lead. She's caring and adorable. She's afraid of dying, but isn't afraid of fighting. It's nice to see a female lead who isn't completely useless. She's just a strong and nice girl who'd do anything for Naofumi.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Those who believed Naofumi committed heinous acts are absolutely hated by the readers. I hate them too, but if you really think it about it, their actions only make them human. Yeah, I hate those guys with every fiber of my being, but who's to say I wouldn't have reacted the same way they did? That goes for all of us. I'm sure a majority of us would've ended up as the enemies of Naofumi too. Everyone knows there's technically no benefits in helping someone who's ostracized and that's why bystanding is a common problem. The only difference between what happened in Shield Hero and what happens in real life is the supernatural aspect. Aside from that, their personalities, thoughts, and actions are all realistic.

While not every character is likable, they are all well-written and for that, I will give this section a 9 by not including my personal feelings.

Overall: 9

Shield Hero is a riveting tale of betrayal, revenge, redemption, faith, love, action, and so much more. I assure you, reading Shield Hero is simply a wonderful experience. The story is so enticing, Naofumi's feelings of revenge will be passed on to you. You will be that close with the characters of the story.

(sorry for the bad grammar as this is the first post that i made in english here)

Good point of this manga:
#story: one thing that i like from being in 2014 is, the author become more creative and excellent at elaborating plot line, as it is become eminent that the plot of this manga had a bright future of plot, though i still don't know about the next chapters, but definetly i will wait it to release soon.
#art: now days art is sky and earth comparision, escpecially with this kind of art, it's hard in 2010 to found manga like this, but suddenly it burst up in 2014. well done 2014 manga
# Characters: if you feeling fucked up with normal manga, that only contain grow up, stronger, then lose, then training , then win, this manga is recommended for you, as the characters had a promising future, with the darkness in the hearth, yet it captivating us by how hard to become a useless bum shield hero. But still, it's still doing his best to do whatever he can do. this manga is likeable for everyone
#enjoyment: can't be put in the word.
#overall: as long as the author don't mess up, it will had a bright future of it.
i will wait for anime of this manga in summer 2016/2017.

Idk if there's any part considered spoiler in my text but if so, sorry.

This manga is great....then you finish the first arc. The story start with the revenge plot, where the MC is wrongfully accused and then we follow him on his tragic situation. The thing is, when you're done reading this arc, the rest of story becomes incredibly bland. Except naofumi and his gang, every other character have just no effort put into them whatsoever, more specifically the three other isekai guys. You would think that after the first act, they would have grown or changed or something would have made them more interesting, but no. The story is still enjoyable but its not able to grab your attention as much as the revenge arc. Its still a decent manga but it really let me down.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari.
Where do I start... oh right.
Story- 8
Some people consider this as a somewhat typical storyline.
The "hero" is taken from his world to another to fight against "Waves" of monsters that spawn once an hourglass in the center of the town turns to 0.
It's a manga with heavy RPG elements and a pretty good plot.
Art- 10
The art is amazing.
Characters are well drawn, with beautiful backgrounds.
The action is clean, and I love the way the armor and weapons of the different heroes are depicted.
Characters- 10
The main character is far from the typical selfless hero.
He's cynical with a negative outlook on the world around him.
Raphtalia, the "slave" he purchased has trauma from being a survivor of the Waves.
The main "antagonists" are indeed the monsters in the Wave, but there's another side for the antagonists, which you'll quickly find out.
Overall- 9
This is an amazing manga. It's an RPG fantasy with amazing art, great characters, and a pretty good story even if it's somewhat cliché.
It's a must-read for everyone.

Now before reading this series, i was skeptic.At first i thought it was your regular summoned MC with overpowered abilities and destined to save the world. And seeing how the MC gets Shield makes me think that his shield might contain some overpowered abilities,but i was wrong, it caught me off guard and the way the personality of the main character did a 180 completely surprise me

Story: 9/10
As i have thought i was completely caught of guard by the series and how the story takes another route.You thought this is gonna be another overpowered MC? nope you are wrong the MC is completely powerless without companions and how the story made the three other heroes look like they took a class for Assholelogy is astonishing.

Art:9/10
I really like how the art style looks and how it captures the emotions of each characters and how you can feel their emotions through it

Character:10/10
Naofumi is a completely new MC in my eyes, first i thought that innocent smile look of Naofumi before he got betrayed was a surprise to me, his character can make me relate on how would react in his situation.You can say that he is a character force to fight, and he may look scary and bad,only because he is tainted, but inside he is a kind guy.

The other Heroes are the ones you really wanna beat up, the way they are portrayed is great, you can almost feel the hatred and the other characters like the King and The Princess is just awful to look at because of their actions.

Enjoyment 10/10
Really enjoying how this manga is turning up and would be glad to see more

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Only 10 english chapters are out but I only see positive reviews so I thought I'd share a "negative" opinion.

::: Plot :::
Well your average guy gets summoned to a fantasy world with video game elements from opening a book... Hopefully that gets rationalized later, but I'd bet the true reason is to gain more otaku readers.

Once there he, along with 3 modern day gamers, is given the groundbreaking quest of defeating demons that will appear from some fissure. The twist is that, from the get-go, he is discriminated against and becomes unjustly hated by everyone within two chapters.

The twist should make the story more interesting; but the complete lack of rational thought/discussion from all the characters, which leads to events, makes it unbelievable and even comical. No one ever tries to use reason, the MC just goes straight into victim mode and just goes along with the madness whenever he has to give more than one sentence's worth of argument.

::: Characters :::
So an entire world (which you can technically leave without winning) you have absolutely no ties to despises you, you verbally express and emotionally feel hate towards it and its inhabitants whose behavior is just shy of spitting at you on sight, so what do you do?

Well you go through and carry out your given mission to save the world and anyone you encounter with absolutely no second thoughts... Wait what?

That's right the MC wears a perma scowl, constantly complains but pretty much does everything he can to be righteous. Sure he sometimes acts like a rebel, but you can bet he'll follow it up with 1000% righteousness without ever struggling between what is right/wrong.

He reminds me of a character from a manga (forgot which) that permanently glares and acts pissed off while going way overboard in helping anyone that needs it; however, that behavior was played for laughs in a comedy manga...

The other characters aren't really worth mentioning, just standard archetypes. Thus far there is only one known villain of questionable motive who just enjoys being evil to the MC while wearing a smile on their face.

Now in most stories, a random soldier will question an evil order and receive a menacing glare/threat before going through with it; it illustrates he, and likely other characters, don't enjoy persecuting the protagonist but do as they're told for self preservation.
Not here, you get to see an evil smile as an evil order is received; 99% of the population is comprised of sadistic evil dicks, only to the MC though.

::: Art :::
It looks fine? Not sure how you can really grade art sooo moving on.

::: Conclusion :::
Though I score it low and bash it for being shallow mainstream while trying to be edgy different, as mentioned earlier your personal enjoyment will depend on how much depth you want from your fiction. I wanted to bring up the negatives that I observed to go along with the glowing reviews in order to give a complete picture.

It's not a boring read and only somewhat painfully bad at times so I just turn my head off like when I watched SAO1, a show I kept watching, entertained, right up until the Asuna tentacle scene where I thought to myself: "Wow, was that even necessary? Did they really go there? I'm done."

The only problem is all the Fridge Logic you may experience after reading.

Tate no yuusha no nariagari is an exciting read and deserving of recognition as one of the most interesting and captivating stories currently ongoing. It does many things well and is capable of getting you hooked in it's story after only reading the first chapter.

The story is about a man that gets summoned into a medieval era as one of four heroes which destiny is to save the world and that way the protagonist named Naofumi becomes a hero which weapon would be the shield that way becoming the shield hero. The shield hero isn't as revered in the kingdom as the rest of the heroes and the person that leads the kingdom tries to make living a suffering for our hero eventhough he hasn't really done anything deserving of condemnation, Naofumi devastated goes through a journey that will take him to meet the adventure he had never meet before. Along the way he meets people such as Raphtalia and Filo that would be an essential help for him in order to meet his goals and expectations in his adventure.

The art is good and fits well with the story, it isn't the best art but it couldn't have been more fitting for the kind of story this series offers, the characters have a noteworthy design especially Raphtalia eventhough it is indeed simple.

The characters are well developed as every character seems to have a motivation and purpose in the story and aren't in the series for the sake of being in it but for the plan of attaining a goal and making their objectives a reality. Naofumi is a very cool protagonist and the people that accompany him help him to be better in order to be able to be at the level of the expectations put in him, Raphtalia is an awesome girl in the story because she is one of the biggest factors involved in the success and improvement of the protagonist, Filo is a lovely girl that always bring joy ad the rest if the cast is incredible in it's own way.

This series is really enjoyable and captivating making it able to get more and more people involved in it and followers of it's interesting story.

Okay so, I just wanna say that this manga is amazing!!! I fell in love with it immediately . It is about a boy named Naofumi who was dragged into another world which is a "mmorpg". He had no one, and he was all alone in the beginning, but as he goes on his journey, he gets stronger and better.

Tate Yuusha is not your average hero story, that's what I want to emphasize from the start. If you expect things started great/awesome from the beginning, and can't tolerate a little bit drama, I suggest you to look away, as you'll be disappointed anyway. I think it's clear from the synopsis too.

Okay lets move to the actual review, I think this could be one of the best isekai(another world) stories I've read or watch until now. If you have a lot of experience in isekai anime/manga, you'll find this to be unique. This might remind you a lot to real life, where tyrant and corrupt scum sometimes become ruler in our world. our MC won't experience glory or rosy life in the world he's summoned into. He will face humiliation because of the scum I've mention before. But I assure you that's only in the beginning. If you think your heart can take it and don't have problem with a little bit revenge story, you should read this. Because even though the main course is about revenge, I find a lot more sweet and glorious deeds on hero of the shield journey.

That's a little bit more about the story, another strong point of this manga will be the characters. There are huge developments here, even though on few characters only. What we can see from Naofumi, Raphtalia, and some characters when they're first introduced will change greatly as the story progressing. Most of them will experience hardship, and they won't just play around with super OP ability like some other protagonist.

Finally, I will recommend this as either fantasy or drama isekai manga. I find some news that there will be anime of this, and I can't wait too see it.