Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero Anime General Discussion Thread

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Ultragunner

oh boy, this is gonna be the “Goblin Slayer” aka “controversy” of the winter season, isn’t it?

Possibly. And like GS, the controversy will all be based on one single event at the beginning of the story.

[Kanon]

That was not too bad, but I have quite a few problems with the first episode.

The three other heroes act like being summoned to another world is something completely mundane and immediately get on their high horse and start asking for rewards. Well, asking for a reward is fair, but they really came across as dicks for no reason, and it doesn't make sense they wouldn't be at least a little surprised and disoriented.

The heroes all come from different parallel worlds, but of course they're all Japanese. Given that their weapons automatically translate for them, introducing a foreigner wouldn't have been a problem. I'll give the story the benefit of the doubt for now, maybe the fact they came from different worlds is very important to the plot and it's obviously easier to highlight if they're all from the same country. Given that they skipped them talking about the differences between their worlds though, I'm not very hopeful.

The Kingdom is a matriarchy, but the ruler is male. Not saying that never happens, but a Queen would have made more sense, and it's not like it would have changed much. I'm aware it's a minor thing, but world building is important.

Then there's the claim of an attempted rape. No trial or anything, if Naofumi hadn't been a hero, his head would have rolled on the spot. I assume the author mentioned the society is a matriarchy in an effort to make it more believable, but he should have put in more effort than that. Nobody was even willing to listen to his side of the story, and that was before they even produced the "evidence" (and completely ignored the rest like him being robbed and not being drunk/reeking of alcohol like what Myne claimed). The whole scene was pretty ridiculous. And the implications this has are pretty terrifying. If a hero gets treated that way, what about an ordinary man? It feels like any woman in that world can claim a man attempted to rape her in order to get him executed. The whole thing was poorly done. I suppose the King is in on it for whatever reason, but I doubt the other heroes save for Spear hero are, yet they were reacting just like the others. But maybe this is criticism of Japan's justice system and its ridiculously high conviction rate?

Oddly enough, the weapons guy could tell he was innocent unlike everybody else and even helped him because... he saw the look in his eyes? Sure, why not.

Well, that's about it. I did like the rest, for the record. It's a fairly typical RPG setting, but the shield upgrading system seems really interesting. The shield is more handy than it looks at first glance, since it can even do stuff like increasing the quality of materials.

Curious to see how the slavery aspect will be handled. Obviously Naofumi will choose the cute loli over a strong dude, but I wonder if there will be a solid reasoning behind it. I say this but I'd probably make the same choice

[Sacredus]

Well... Don't worry, it all will explained at end of 1st arc. As for this:

Originally Posted by Kanon

Then there's the claim of an attempted rape. No trial or anything, if Naofumi hadn't been a hero, his head would have rolled on the spot. I assume the author mentioned the society is a matriarchy in an effort to make it more believable, but he should have put in more effort than that. Nobody was even willing to listen to his side of the story, and that was before they even produced the "evidence" (and completely ignored the rest like him being robbed and not being drunk/reeking of alcohol like what Myne claimed). The whole scene was pretty ridiculous. And the implications this has are pretty terrifying. If a hero gets treated that way, what about an ordinary man? It feels like any woman in that world can claim a man attempted to rape her in order to get him executed. The whole thing was poorly done. I suppose the King is in on it for whatever reason, but I doubt the other heroes save for Spear hero are, yet they were reacting just like the others. But maybe this is criticism of Japan's justice system and its ridiculously high conviction rate?

This would also happen in our world... And this is what actually might start another drama so lets better not continue this topic.

Originally Posted by Ultragunner

oh boy, this is gonna be the “Goblin Slayer” aka “controversy” of the winter season, isn’t it?

Just ignore SJW's (they will cry and be offended by everything anyway) and just enjoy good show.

[frodonk]

That was too short, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that this is just a genderbent version of fushigi yuugi. with the shield hero playing out what happened with yui in that series

I don't believe that this guy would've suddenly changed his character right after that accusation. We can take the in series explanation that he's following the story of the shield hero character from the book he found, but that's a bit of a stretch for me.

It's interesting enough for me I guess, picked up for now

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Kanon

That was not too bad, but I have quite a few problems with the first episode.

The three other heroes act like being summoned to another world is something completely mundane and immediately get on their high horse and start asking for rewards. Well, asking for a reward is fair, but they really came across as dicks for no reason, and it doesn't make sense they wouldn't be at least a little surprised and disoriented.

The heroes all come from different parallel worlds, but of course they're all Japanese. Given that their weapons automatically translate for them, introducing a foreigner wouldn't have been a problem. I'll give the story the benefit of the doubt for now, maybe the fact they came from different worlds is very important to the plot and it's obviously easier to highlight if they're all from the same country. Given that they skipped them talking about the differences between their worlds though, I'm not very hopeful.

The Kingdom is a matriarchy, but the ruler is male. Not saying that never happens, but a Queen would have made more sense, and it's not like it would have changed much. I'm aware it's a minor thing, but world building is important.

Then there's the claim of an attempted rape. No trial or anything, if Naofumi hadn't been a hero, his head would have rolled on the spot. I assume the author mentioned the society is a matriarchy in an effort to make it more believable, but he should have put in more effort than that. Nobody was even willing to listen to his side of the story, and that was before they even produced the "evidence" (and completely ignored the rest like him being robbed and not being drunk/reeking of alcohol like what Myne claimed). The whole scene was pretty ridiculous. And the implications this has are pretty terrifying. If a hero gets treated that way, what about an ordinary man? It feels like any woman in that world can claim a man attempted to rape her in order to get him executed. The whole thing was poorly done. I suppose the King is in on it for whatever reason, but I doubt the other heroes save for Spear hero are, yet they were reacting just like the others. But maybe this is criticism of Japan's justice system and its ridiculously high conviction rate?

Oddly enough, the weapons guy could tell he was innocent unlike everybody else and even helped him because... he saw the look in his eyes? Sure, why not.

Well, that's about it. I did like the rest, for the record. It's a fairly typical RPG setting, but the shield upgrading system seems really interesting. The shield is more handy than it looks at first glance, since it can even do stuff like increasing the quality of materials.

Curious to see how the slavery aspect will be handled. Obviously Naofumi will choose the cute loli over a strong dude, but I wonder if there will be a solid reasoning behind it. I say this but I'd probably make the same choice

All I can say is that if something seems so over the top it's impossible to believe, perhaps there's a reason that we don't yet know, something that makes most people behave in a certain way toward him.

[RDNexus]

They skipped the part in which each hero mentioned what they were doing when they got summoned.
It'd have helped showing how Naofumi's summoning circunstances were way different from all others.

[wuhugm]

Overrated series is overrated

[erneiz_hyde]

Anyone else read the manga/novels and that being the reason why you're holding off on watching this? I vaguely remember the earlier parts of this made me feel like shit. It got better eventually, but that vague memory of nope is making me hesitant to watch it until a bit later, maybe even binging it when it's finished or something.

[RDNexus]

Me? On the contrary! Following the Manga and having only read the first few LNs, I'm more than eager to follow this adaptation week after week.
Well, rarely have I ever left a series of my interest pilling up to marathon it later, and it was only because I wasn't interested on it at the time

[Galaxian]

Originally Posted by Ultragunner

oh boy, this is gonna be the “Goblin Slayer” aka “controversy” of the winter season, isn’t it?

I can think of 3 controversies that the western fandom will obsess over:
-The false rape allegations.
-The use of slaves.

Spoiler for Spoilers:

-Raphtalia's accelerated growth.

[PreSage]

Originally Posted by Ultragunner

oh boy, this is gonna be the “Goblin Slayer” aka “controversy” of the winter season, isn’t it?

Originally Posted by Galaxian

I can think of 3 controversies that the western fandom will obsess over:
-The false rape allegations.
-The use of slaves.

Spoiler for Spoilers:

-Raphtalia's accelerated growth.

I'm just curious why this series will be controversial like GS? I think the main reason why GS became controversial was the lack of warning about the content in ep 1 before the series started.

And the 3 potential controversies listed isn't very explicitly shown in this series, as compared to what was shown in GS. Also, those topics are covered in movies and many other anime; that I can't understand why it will suddenly become a big issue now.

All that aside, I'm surprised that this manga (or did it start as an LN?) actually got an anime of its own. I like the first episode; will enjoy watching the rest (although I'll be itching to punch a few people along the way )

[FlareKnight]

I think the only thing for me is how crazy fast the MC goes into the dark. But who am I to judge when I haven't been teleported to another world, kicked around for having a shield, and being framed for rape. Maybe a person really would go from being fairly reasonable to not being willing to trust a single soul.

Also...do none of these people have games with tank characters? Did they manage to pluck people from different versions of Japan that just never figured out how a person who can take a hit is valuable to a fighting force? Who does the archer guy think is going to keep the front lines busy so he can fire at the enemy safely?

But yeah, we're heading for slavery territory here. In part I get how someone who can't trust anyone and is rejected by most people would turn to a slave force. But it also shows his weakness that he can only fight with someone who he has a curse power to control. The society is bad for being so human-centric that they are enslaving other sentient races, but the MC isn't so great either for being apparently willing to take advantage.

Regardless, it was still a good start. You got into the world, saw the real messed up nature of this whole place, and dropped the MC to what is likely his status quo position of being really angry and distrustful. So now the show can just pick up from here and see him...well rise up from the bottom he's sinking down to.

[Galaxian]

Originally Posted by PreSage

I'm just curious why this series will be controversial like GS? I think the main reason why GS became controversial was the lack of warning about the content in ep 1 before the series started.

And the 3 potential controversies listed isn't very explicitly shown in this series, as compared to what was shown in GS. Also, those topics are covered in movies and many other anime; that I can't understand why it will suddenly become a big issue now.

Because, as of late, the western side of fandom has taken up the habit to blow things way out of proportion.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Also...do none of these people have games with tank characters? Did they manage to pluck people from different versions of Japan that just never figured out how a person who can take a hit is valuable to a fighting force?

The other three Heroes recognise the world they're in as being similar/identical to the game they played in their own world, despite the game having different names in each version of Japan. Naofumi has never played that game. The other three know from playing the game that the Shield Hero is a low-powered loser role and pretty much useless hence their disdain for him and their non-existent expectations of his future abilities even if he could level up.

[RDNexus]

And usually, Tank Characters tend to be more than mere meat shields, with some offensive skills and such.
In Naofumi's case, there seems to be none, going by the other heroes' definition of Tanks. Still, it sucks

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by nojay

The other three Heroes recognise the world they're in as being similar/identical to the game they played in their own world, despite the game having different names in each version of Japan. Naofumi has never played that game. The other three know from playing the game that the Shield Hero is a low-powered loser role and pretty much useless hence their disdain for him and their non-existent expectations of his future abilities even if he could level up.

So does the game the world is based on not rely on tanks? Who draws aggro away from the attackers then? Even If it is underwhelming a game, they show at least suspect the role will be important if they had a legendary hero take up the role.

[nojay]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

Even If it is underwhelming a game, they show at least suspect the role will be important if they had a legendary hero take up the role.

Some possibilities:

The game the others have played is badly unbalanced and the Shield Hero is a schlub role by accident or even design. Don't assume the game is the same as something we might have played where tanks and shield-carriers are an important part of a party's balance.

Another possibility is the social world around the game, the comments and blogs by players and twitchers might well have downgraded expectations of anyone playing as a Shield Hero and since hardly anyone plays it with any enthusiasm that makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The third possibility is that the Shield Hero "route" is the toughest one to level-up (see Naofumi's complaints about trying to gain EXP with no offensive capabilities) but it results in a powerful character after the grinding is done however no-one's found this out in the game because it's hard unglamorous work -- see my previous point.

[Applehell]

Was okay first episode I guess. Aside from protagonist being tank nothing about story or setting stands out. It more or less your basic isekai game themed world now with event raids. Even if the matriarchy, the King is still the first higher official of any relevance for majority of earlier arc anyway. The technical stuff such as art animation is pretty good and very consistent. BGM is also quite pleasant.

As for more controversial stuff, the false rape accusation on it's own wouldn't be a real issue on if weren't leading to try justify MC's terrible actions later or making generalization about whole groups of people because of what one person and a bunch assholes did. Because everyone outside his immediate party is worse than him or ignorant so he's right by default. Setup allows everything to feed into his worldview and without him getting called out on some of it.

Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde

Anyone else read the manga/novels and that being the reason why you're holding off on watching this? I vaguely remember the earlier parts of this made me feel like shit. It got better eventually, but that vague memory of nope is making me hesitant to watch it until a bit later, maybe even binging it when it's finished or something.

I have and the early parts are definitely the worst of story from what I remembered. It does get marginally better, but not to point where if you don't like the early your mind will change later. The main reason to follow this honestly for protaginst being a tank and his revenge fantasy. I personally have the former to lose its novelty early on since in reality he stops being much of a defense only hero and the later is really all the story has. There is fair bit interesting history about Shield Hero, but its overshadowed by revenge and nearly everyone being a dick to him. I lost interest halfway in so I have no idea it really changes significantly in the later arcs.

[Itlandm]

I read the first of the novels and was not impressed. The misery dragged on way too much for my taste, and I got the impression that the author had some complexes he might have better worked out with a therapist before taking up a writing career. (But evidently plenty of people like this, so I guess I was wrong.)

Actually I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the anime, probably because it moved much faster so I did not have to spend hours in the swamp of righteously angry self-pity.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

So does the game the world is based on not rely on tanks? Who draws aggro away from the attackers then? Even If it is underwhelming a game, they show at least suspect the role will be important if they had a legendary hero take up the role.

The information was cut pretty badly there.

Spoiler:

In the LN, there was more than just "The Shield is a useless dead-end class". They explained that while the Shield starts with a huge advantage in defense in exchange for no attack, the gap in defensive capabilities narrows quickly so by the time you've leveled reasonably the Shield is pretty much just a guy who can't attack, not a high-HP high-DEF guardian who can take all the damage. It's thus not that their games don't have Tanks, it's just that the Shield is a broken Tank class.