Do any of you know why people like Rising of the Shield hero?

[Konradleijon]

It's a slightly darker paint by numbers Isekai, that's only claim to fame is that in the first episode the main character gets Falsely accused of Rape, and then gets all Edgelordy and buys a slave. Which it's fans f
defend until the end.

 

[mizzet]

Because some people just like it *Shrug*

'Paint by numbers Isekai' might not be high literature, but it is still very much a popular genre. And for the edge - 'Betrayal Fics' also have a good amount of fans. The false rape accusation is a plot device the same way Naruto getting kicked out of the village is - it makes the hero a falsely maligned victim with an excuse to be 'darker/edgier' and 'show them all'. And allows them to overcome adversary - with variable help from author fiat/making other characters incompetent. As it is original fiction it also works without having to assassinate people's characterization.

Honestly, I personally am a sucker for emotional pain in fiction. So I don't think this type of thing has to be done badly. Though of course there is a wide range of competence of execution.


In addition, I'd assume there were just some people who thought that Raphtalia was cute (or similar). And nothing can quite get people to dig in their heels like being told that something they like is bad and that they shouldn't like it.

 

[Konradleijon]

Yeah Raphtalia Barely has a personality at all.

and how the narrative bends over backward To justify him having a slave. Because the magic slave crest is the only way for her EXP boasts.

 

[Wandering Hunter]

1.- Cute birds.
2.-Cute Racoon.
3.- Before it got an anime it was hit already, the fact that it was some of the most extensive works abviable before everything else gave it a lot of mementum.
4.- easy self insert into a nerd that can do no wrong and gets all the cute girls becuase he is literaly me. or at least for some people.
5.- Shield crafting was a cool idea.
6.- Cute noble loli.
7.- A villianes easy to hate by white knigths and Incels.
8.- Naufumi is atractive to girls sometimes, he plays the same cords as many broding characters that came before him. Regardless of morals and actual likeability, people identify with an underdog.
9.- The comabat was fun, at least in the webnovel i think.
10.-Hey at least it´s not the healing hero, you boys have not seen a real controversy yet. This will push back the normalization of anime at least 5 years or so.

 

[Konradleijon]

1.- Cute birds.
2.-Cute Racoon.
3.- Before it got an anime it was hit already, the fact that it was some of the most extensive works abviable before everything else gave it a lot of mementum.
4.- easy self insert into a nerd that can do no wrong and gets all the cute girls becuase he is literaly me. or at least for some people.
5.- Shield crafting was a cool idea.
6.- Cute noble loli.
7.- A villianes easy to hate by white knigths and Incels.
8.- Naufumi is atractive to girls sometimes, he plays the same cords as many broding characters that came before him. Regardless of morals and actual likeability, people identify with an underdog.
9.- The comabat was fun, at least in the webnovel i think.
10.-Hey at least it´s not the healing hero, you boys have not seen a real controversy yet. This will push back the normalization of anime at least 5 years or so.

Click to shrink...

isn't that Most Isekai? Like the hated Sword Art Online do most of the same shit and yet people hate Sword Art Online..

and Cute Anime girls? Both Filo and Raphaelita has paper thin characterization.

the narrative repeatedly bends over backwards To justify him owning slaves, and his Other "dark" behavior , while at the same time, absolving Him of guilt.

 

[duburu]

One Word:
EDGE

 

[Wandering Hunter]

isn't that Most Isekai? Like the hated Sword Art Online do most of the same shit and yet people hate Sword Art Online..

Click to shrink...

well yes, people are still looking for some of that specific brand of trash entertrainment that isekai provides. I got so early into SAO i read the ligth novels before the dam thing aired. I would say the first volume of the story had some good things, but it was a YA novel at best. Just the story of a young dude having an adventure. Then the story got a lot of padding and bad content that got added to the final product, the anime.

honestly things like log horizon, and overlord to some degree took a better angle at the Trapped into a video game thing. By the point you get to the shield hero, you seen everyrhing up to the point it's sort of disgusting. And well i don't know every reason why people hate SAO, i liked some aspects of it when it came out, but the worst thing it did was bring the scheme of a lazy fantasy in a gamelike world, and other permutations with or without one element or the other.

some are not isekai, some are, all have the same blandness to them. they all had a chance to exist because there was a precedent of a chance of becoming popular or at least getting published.

The next thing to trend will likely be Demon/Spirit hunting with character development for both the villians and the heroes, as Demon Slayer is the next SAO as a trend setter. It's not like we haven't seen this before, but when has this worked enough to breaktrough globaly? the last i remember it was bleach, and inuyasha before that. I see things like Fire force, jujutsu kaisen, and chainsawman direct equivalents of manga content jumping on the coming craze. Some people will look at how things are done there and will hate Demon Slayer in restrospective. some will say "But Demon Slayer was better animated and had a better soundtrack!"

In my opinion the magnus opus of the whole craze would be either Drifters or Bofuri, depending if you chose to focus on either the aspects of the EDGE or the POWERFANTASY. I would say any popular anime plays those angles in one way or the other and then adds something unique or just good production values.

The Shield hero of the demon trend could be Jagaaaaaaan, but who knows. I liked some things from shield hero, most of it was the same old bulshit. And long times fans that i talked personaly said the anime, the manga, and the ligth novel held back on the Webnovel's edge. not that would make that better. But it would give more value to the show if only just for shock. for such a vindictive and selfish actions fit like a glove to the kind of protagonists the shield hero and all the isekai cunts are.

and Cute Anime girls? Both Filo and Raphaelita has paper thin characterization.

Click to shrink...

YES. let me enjoy my slave/pet/wifes/ groomed daugther.

the narrative repeatedly bends over backwards To justify him owning slaves, and his Other "dark" behavior , while at the same time, absolving Him of guilt.

Click to shrink...

you seen nothing yet, the most horrible mental gymnastics are yet to come!

 

[Konradleijon]

well yes, people are still looking for some of that specific brand of trash entertrainment that isekai provides. I got so early into SAO i read the ligth novels before the dam thing aired. I would say the first volume of the story had some good things, but it was a YA novel at best. Just the story of a young dude having an adventure. Then the story got a lot of padding and bad content that got added to the final product, the anime.

honestly things like log horizon, and overlord to some degree took a better angle at the Trapped into a video game thing. By the point you get to the shield hero, you seen everyrhing up to the point it's sort of disgusting. And well i don't know every reason why people hate SAO, i liked some aspects of it when it came out, but the worst thing it did was bring the scheme of a lazy fantasy in a gamelike world, and other permutations with or without one element or the other.

some are not isekai, some are, all have the same blandness to them. they all had a chance to exist because there was a precedent of a chance of becoming popular or at least getting published.

The next thing to trend will likely be Demon/Spirit hunting with character development for both the villians and the heroes, as Demon Slayer is the next SAO as a trend setter. It's not like we haven't seen this before, but when has this worked enough to breaktrough globaly? the last i remember it was bleach, and inuyasha before that. I see things like Fire force, jujutsu kaisen, and chainsawman direct equivalents of manga content jumping on the coming craze. Some people will look at how things are done there and will hate Demon Slayer in restrospective. some will say "But Demon Slayer was better animated and had a better soundtrack!"

In my opinion the magnus opus of the whole craze would be either Drifters or Bofuri, depending if you chose to focus on either the aspects of the EDGE or the POWERFANTASY. I would say any popular anime plays those angles in one way or the other and then adds something unique or just good production values.

The Shield hero of the demon trend could be Jagaaaaaaan, but who knows. I liked some things from shield hero, most of it was the same old bulshit. And long times fans that i talked personaly said the anime, the manga, and the ligth novel held back on the Webnovel's edge. not that would make that better. But it would give more value to the show if only just for shock. for such a vindictive and selfish actions fit like a glove to the kind of protagonists the shield hero and all the isekai cunts are.


YES. let me enjoy my slave/pet/wifes/ groomed daugther.

you seen nothing yet, the most horrible mental gymnastics are yet to come!

Click to shrink...

what mental gymnastics? I heard bad things about the Light novel. Like him buying a village of slaves,

 

[Nicodemus]

what mental gymnastics? I heard bad things about the Light novel. Like him buying a village of slaves,

Click to shrink...

Something I have noticed.

You have a slew of errors, none of with any consistancy across your posts.

Any reason why?

Because the magic slave crest is the only way for her EXP boasts.

Click to shrink...

This is wrong, just being in a Party gives the boost.

 

[magic9mushroom]

It's a slightly darker paint by numbers Isekai, that's only claim to fame is that in the first episode the main character gets Falsely accused of Rape, and then gets all Edgelordy and buys a slave. Which it's fans f
defend until the end.

Click to shrink...

There are billions of people. There are tens of millions of people who consume Japanese media.

Done.

(Also, false rape accusations are a controversial topic. By definition, people disagree with you about controversial topics. Citing a controversial topic as a reason no-one should like something is blatantly-obvious myopia.)

 

[Arthotus]

Your question sucks and your arguments are worse. "I don't like a thing, so why do other people like a thing." Not even worth answering properly.

Spoiler: ....damn

A Shield Doesn't have an Edge, Right?!
Shield Hero and his rape allegations are a stand in for anyone who has ever felt falsely wronged. Had a GF say you cheated and made all your mutual friends hate you? Had someone accuse you of cheating on a test? Pretty much everyone has felt wronged in some way when someone else lied about something, especially given how naive and trusting he is to begin the story.

Things turn and he finds out the fantasy world he's in isn't so happy-go-lucky and it has slaves and a dumb church who hates him just because of the magic weapon he got. Oh would you look at that, we have a 'persecuted just because of who I am' theme.

Yeah, he digs his heels in like a dumb ass and becomes an edge lord because 'Fuck it, if they want me to be an ass hole, I'll be an ass hole', but the distinction for him from most stories is that he still does his fucking job, and the power fantasy swings in hard when, despite being such an edge lord, he still has devoted friends(yes slaves/pets I'll get to that in a second), he's still a thousand percent more competent at his job of saving the world than the other 'liked' heroes. It's a pretty clear, "Haha, chads suck, we incels actually know what we're doing" if you want to be cynical, but during the story, it's also pretty clearly shown that Shield's edge lord tendencies are fucking him over too, because even he isn't as good as he needs to be to win, because he's refusing to work with the other heroes.

And at the end of the day, no matter what else you want to say about how 'edge-y' he is or deride that particular aesthetic in character development or story writing, he's still an objectively morally 'good' character. Given the choice to literally have his false accuser killed, he opts to (sort of) forgive her and let her live. Yes, he does so in a dumb, spiteful, and morally fucked up fashion,(which appeals to the power trippers), but he still does an objectively good thing by not killing her for ruining his happy go lucky life. His 'I'm supposed to be liked' bullshit also starts to evaporate as the series goes on and he learns more about the world, and he genuinely starts to realize that the fantasy world people are racist ass holes and the shield heroes are always the moral compass, which is why 'a lot of' people hate them. So he digs in more on the edge lord tropes in order to help all his half-animal people friends, because he's a good guy and fuck racists, I guess? Look it's definitely not how I would play the field, but give the guy a break, he's only an anime character.

Slaves and Pets as Waifus
Shield Hero needed a party. Stories about a lone edge-lord on his solo quest for redemption/revenge/self pity very rarely have any staying power. So give him a pair of companions who literally are not allowed to leave his side.

Enter his slave and pet. Yes, it is wrong to keep slaves, but it can very easily be argued that Shield Hero rescued his slave from a far, far, far worse fate by buying and using her as a sword to his shield. He NEEDED someone to do DPS, and since no one normal would follow him anywhere after his rape allegations, he HAD to buy a slave. It's also shown early that he needs to use the slave mark to get her to actually fight for him to start, but to my knowledge(I only watched the anime so I'm not exactly a perfect expert here), he only really uses it later on to break her indecision/fear or enforce his will as the Main Character when she's trying to be all selfless and loving and protect him or some dumb anime crap.

I want to say again, slavery is bad. Owning a sentient 'pet' is bad. But Shield Hero is ultimately very protective of his waifus, and they all grow to become a genuine family before too long. Sure, it's a little fucked up that he doesn't remove the slave mark (again, I don't remember if he does so eventually), but remember, HE DOESN'T HAVE SEX WITH THESE YOUNG GIRLS. (Again, to my understanding) Regardless of the fact that he is using them as child soldiers, he's doing so out of naked necessity and it's an objectively better fate for both of them than if they were with literally anyone else in the fantasy realm. Yes, relative morality exists, and yes, Shield hero is the good guy in a world that repeatedly tells him to go shove a pine-cone down his urethra.

In summary&TLDR
There's lots of reasons to like and dislike Shield Hero. Power Fantasy, Sticking it to the Chads, lovable Waifus(even if they are paper thin), edge-lord battle transformations, and neat video game rules in a fantasy world, among many others. You probably just wanted to make people angry with a dumb question, but I genuinely hope this was at least a little enlightening about why anyone ever that isn't you could like Shield hero.

 

[Konradleijon]

Yeah, but he keeps slaves even after the Rape accusation has been lifted and he has been cleared of all his crimes.

and even when he saved thousands of people, so you'll think they'll start to trust them.

what should have happened is after a big climatic Fight where Raphtalia Saves him, he realizes slavery is wrong, instantly saves her from the slave crest, and then goes back to the slave trader and beat the shit out of him, freeing all his slaves.

Naofumi says that he has been a terrible human being , by buying people as property, but says if any of the freed slaves want to join him to overthrow slavery in the kingdom. If not he'll find a village for them.

 

[Arthotus]

Yeah, but he keeps slaves even after the Rape accusation has been lifted and he has been cleared of all his crimes.

and even when he saved thousands of people, so you'll think they'll start to trust them.

what should have happened is after a big climatic Fight where Raphtalia Saves him, he realizes slavery is wrong, instantly saves her from the slave crest, and then goes back to the slave trader and beat the shit out of him, freeing all his slaves.

Naofumi says that he has been a terrible human being , by buying people as property, but says if any of the freed slaves want to join him to overthrow slavery in the kingdom. If not he'll find a village for them.

Click to shrink...

What are you arguing? I gave you various reasons people could enjoy the story despite it's flaws. I'm not really here to argue that Shield Hero is a perfect character and everything he does is right(he is not and he does dumb bad stuff).

 

[Megaolix]

Yeah, but he keeps slaves even after the Rape accusation has been lifted and he has been cleared of all his crimes.

and even when he saved thousands of people, so you'll think they'll start to trust them.

what should have happened is after a big climatic Fight where Raphtalia Saves him, he realizes slavery is wrong, instantly saves her from the slave crest, and then goes back to the slave trader and beat the shit out of him, freeing all his slaves.

Naofumi says that he has been a terrible human being , by buying people as property, but says if any of the freed slaves want to join him to overthrow slavery in the kingdom. If not he'll find a village for them.

Click to shrink...

*Sigh*

Let me chime in for a bit. At the end of the first book? It's Raphtalia at the end of the first book that wanted the Crest again. Naofumi would not have minded then but hey, her call.

Now, on the story itself. Why it has its fans? Quite frankly, the first book was alright. Sure, there could have been a better false accusation used as a plot device, but let's not focus on that.

Whole other reason he used a slave was a question of trust. Just as everyone hated him back then, he decided he could only trust a slave at his back. His mental state was that bad, if you recall he kept seeing Raph as a kid even when she grew up.

This culminated at the end by his 'defeat' in that duel and his fear that Raphtalia would leave him right away as the crest was being removed. Whatever he claimed before, he got attached to her. Only for her to slap the spear hero and go back to him. Then he started to get better mentally.

After that, arc 2 and 3 were alright and there, I gotta say the quality of the story took a dive down. Sure, it was justified back then, but then they put in skills making slave stat growth much better than normal, which did indeed turn the whole thing ridiculous with that village.

 

[Konradleijon]

Sorry, about thinking you liked shield hero, it's a pretty cliche Isekai. in the oughties it seemed to be a pretty popular Web novel, for some reason, even getting a official release five years before its anime.

 

[Wandering Hunter]

So what do you like?
Did you mean to say more people should like Sword Art Online as opposed to the shied hero?

 

[Konradleijon]

Yes, at least Sword Art Online doesn't have the main character owning slaves. Doing incredibly shitty things that the narrative doesn't call out, and yes I know about the Asuna rape scene, thats disgusting, but it at least frames it as something evil people do.

 

[CrossyCross]

This bash thread is super fucking obvious, dumbass.

At least have the guts to plainly state you wanta Rant thread shitting on a show/story you don't like, rather than trying to pretend you're some naive bystander trying to get details from something and then acting outraged by cherry-picking details from the explanations/answers given to you.

 

[TheMidnightRook]

At least have the guts to plainly state you wanta Rant thread shitting on a show/story you don't like,

Click to shrink...

Fun fact: a Shield Hero rant thread already exists.

 

[Just ya average jo]

Your question sucks and your arguments are worse. "I don't like a thing, so why do other people like a thing." Not even worth answering properly.

Spoiler: ....damn

A Shield Doesn't have an Edge, Right?!
Shield Hero and his rape allegations are a stand in for anyone who has ever felt falsely wronged. Had a GF say you cheated and made all your mutual friends hate you? Had someone accuse you of cheating on a test? Pretty much everyone has felt wronged in some way when someone else lied about something, especially given how naive and trusting he is to begin the story.

Things turn and he finds out the fantasy world he's in isn't so happy-go-lucky and it has slaves and a dumb church who hates him just because of the magic weapon he got. Oh would you look at that, we have a 'persecuted just because of who I am' theme.

Yeah, he digs his heels in like a dumb ass and becomes an edge lord because 'Fuck it, if they want me to be an ass hole, I'll be an ass hole', but the distinction for him from most stories is that he still does his fucking job, and the power fantasy swings in hard when, despite being such an edge lord, he still has devoted friends(yes slaves/pets I'll get to that in a second), he's still a thousand percent more competent at his job of saving the world than the other 'liked' heroes. It's a pretty clear, "Haha, chads suck, we incels actually know what we're doing" if you want to be cynical, but during the story, it's also pretty clearly shown that Shield's edge lord tendencies are fucking him over too, because even he isn't as good as he needs to be to win, because he's refusing to work with the other heroes.

And at the end of the day, no matter what else you want to say about how 'edge-y' he is or deride that particular aesthetic in character development or story writing, he's still an objectively morally 'good' character. Given the choice to literally have his false accuser killed, he opts to (sort of) forgive her and let her live. Yes, he does so in a dumb, spiteful, and morally fucked up fashion,(which appeals to the power trippers), but he still does an objectively good thing by not killing her for ruining his happy go lucky life. His 'I'm supposed to be liked' bullshit also starts to evaporate as the series goes on and he learns more about the world, and he genuinely starts to realize that the fantasy world people are racist ass holes and the shield heroes are always the moral compass, which is why 'a lot of' people hate them. So he digs in more on the edge lord tropes in order to help all his half-animal people friends, because he's a good guy and fuck racists, I guess? Look it's definitely not how I would play the field, but give the guy a break, he's only an anime character.

Slaves and Pets as Waifus
Shield Hero needed a party. Stories about a lone edge-lord on his solo quest for redemption/revenge/self pity very rarely have any staying power. So give him a pair of companions who literally are not allowed to leave his side.

Enter his slave and pet. Yes, it is wrong to keep slaves, but it can very easily be argued that Shield Hero rescued his slave from a far, far, far worse fate by buying and using her as a sword to his shield. He NEEDED someone to do DPS, and since no one normal would follow him anywhere after his rape allegations, he HAD to buy a slave. It's also shown early that he needs to use the slave mark to get her to actually fight for him to start, but to my knowledge(I only watched the anime so I'm not exactly a perfect expert here), he only really uses it later on to break her indecision/fear or enforce his will as the Main Character when she's trying to be all selfless and loving and protect him or some dumb anime crap.

I want to say again, slavery is bad. Owning a sentient 'pet' is bad. But Shield Hero is ultimately very protective of his waifus, and they all grow to become a genuine family before too long. Sure, it's a little fucked up that he doesn't remove the slave mark (again, I don't remember if he does so eventually), but remember, HE DOESN'T HAVE SEX WITH THESE YOUNG GIRLS. (Again, to my understanding) Regardless of the fact that he is using them as child soldiers, he's doing so out of naked necessity and it's an objectively better fate for both of them than if they were with literally anyone else in the fantasy realm. Yes, relative morality exists, and yes, Shield hero is the good guy in a world that repeatedly tells him to go shove a pine-cone down his urethra.

In summary&TLDR
There's lots of reasons to like and dislike Shield Hero. Power Fantasy, Sticking it to the Chads, lovable Waifus(even if they are paper thin), edge-lord battle transformations, and neat video game rules in a fantasy world, among many others. You probably just wanted to make people angry with a dumb question, but I genuinely hope this was at least a little enlightening about why anyone ever that isn't you could like Shield hero.

Click to shrink...

... jesus fucking christ you killed him!

 

[yaka]

Because there is other isekai like In Another World With My Smartphone
With shit like that even trash would appear like gold by comparing

Slave in isekai is not uncommon and many isekaied japanese seem to suport it when they go to other world
At least in this one they don't say slavery is cool they say slave only live because of luck of having a not so bad master

I don't think the fan defend it until the endbut because they like it and defend it because there are much more badly one out there and it is only attacked because it is popular

 

[Lightbringer]

Okay, OP wants a goody do-gooder protag, good.

But y'know...that is like, your preference? If you don't like SH, that is fine, I don't like it either, that doesn't mean others should dislike it just because you don't like it.

Get off from the high horse. Everyone has different preferences, such is the world.

 

[rx915]

It was ok.... had that underdog theme that reels me in but it could've been better.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Didn't we have a shield hero rant thread?

Yeah, yeah we do.

Don't need to necro this thread.