Man, maybe they should've changed the name of this from "The Rising of the Shield Hero" to "Everybody hates Shield Hero"
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They cast Matsuoka as Ren because he has dark hair, wields a sword, and mentions VRMMO's (ending in an "Online" title), right? C'mon, you can't tell me that's not the only reason they cast him for Sword Hero
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All the heroes coming from alternate versions of Japan was an interesting twist. And did one of them come from a world where Japan won WWII? I kind of feel like it was Ren.
I'd just like to point out that Naofumi was the only one of the heroes who was willing to hear out the priests (?) without expecting a reward in return. On-top of establishing prior that he helped his little brother when he was "breaking bad" tells me that Naofumi was not only the most normal of the heroes, especially compared to the rest being more pompous and selfish, but may have had the more pure heart
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I kind of get the sense this series is going to explore what defines a hero and how people perceive them and their heroism, especially with our focal hero shunned and vilified while the other heroes get to go on and be treated as one would expect a hero to be.
So was Motoyasu in on it? Myne giving him that chainmail the day before was an obvious lie, and Myne didn't strike me as the type who would've physically degraded herself like that for an act to convince him Naofumi raped her. He did seem like a genuine nice guy, or as genuine as the high-handed other heroes can be, but then again so did Myne...
I did find it weird that a supposed matriarchy had a king in such a prominent role, but there was a purple-haired woman in some royal regalia in the opening, so maybe she's the queen
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I'm glad the armorer was able to see the truth after he looked in Naofumi's eyes. I guess he could tell in his eyes that Naofumi was a man filled with hate at being unjustly accused and basically convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Although at least he has one person on his side now
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Maybe the moral Naofumi will take from all this is that "The One" isn't always the first attractive girl in a mini-skirt who throws herself at you, but the raccoon-girl who you see in your visions and then discover in another world as a slave. Which sounds really weird when I put it like that
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A main character who takes on a slave for his own can be pretty tricky, but I feel like they're probably going to re-frame it as Naofumi saving this girl from her bondage by taking her in, even if it's ostensibly for a selfish reason of getting him another body to help him level up.