Isekai Sucks But Shield Hero Doesn't

Transcript:

So ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero’ just aired its first 45 minute special episode recently and I kinda dug it, and since I’m generally not really fond of modern Isekai that’s a big deal to me. So, here’s a video talking about why I liked it and why I don’t like most Isekai. I will say first off that this video won’t discuss the manga or the Light Novel, so there will be no spoilers beyond the first episode. I actually briefly skimmed over the first two chapters of the manga and it seemed pretty good, though I liked how the anime seemed to expand on most of its scenes without skipping any content, so if the anime is able to keep it up this might actually be a case of an adaption being better than its source material which is always exciting. So I’m going to refrain from spoiling myself with the manga for that reason. The LN may have more details, though I’m not able to comment on that since I don’t plan on reading it. Oh, and I can’t be bothered to meticulously edit footage that will skirt around content ID so you’ll only have a looping GIF to look out throughout this video. If you want to see what the show looks like just go watch it yourself, in the meantime you can just tab out and listen to my nervous, barely listenable voice while you do something more productive for the next few minutes I guess.

Isekai stories typically involve a male Japanese teenager being transported to a generic fantasy world where they go on a grand adventure. The world doesn’t have to have any video game mechanics built into it, but usually even if the world isn’t technically some kind of Virtual Reality MMO most modern Isekai show usually have it so that there are video game mechanics like stats and skills and pop up menus and level ups anyway just so that it resembles some kind of RPG. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this premise, really there’s nothing wrong with any premise as execution is the most important aspect of a story. It’s just that Isekais are really overdone these days and only really seem to exist because fans, usually though not always young fans, just seem to eat these types of stories up. The reason for that obviously varies from person to person, but in a general sense most would agree that the main appeal of these stories is that they’re not just an escape from reality, but they’re about a character escaping from reality. A character is plucked from their boring everyday life and put in a new world where all the skills they built up wasting their time on video games and anime and other otaku hobbies can be put to good use. And since they’re stuck in this world and are usually put in immediate danger and given clear goals, they don’t really have to think about the world they’ve left behind. In fact a lot of Isekai stories start with the protagonist dying in their original world and reincarnating in this new one, just to cement the idea that there’s nothing left for them in their old world.

Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting an escape, other than that the idea is just kinda juvenile and that living out this premise would probably be more terrifying and traumatising in real life than it is presented in these stories, it’s just that generally they tend to be super boring because the world they enter feels like it was specifically designed to cater to the protagonist’s every need. They’re usually given a unique and absurdly strong power, or they have information that gives them an edge, or they just kind of start at an absurdly high level, or the citizens in the world, especially the women, just seem to really like the protagonist for vague reasons. The issue with this isn’t that it’s sexist or otherwise problematic with their base assumptions about the society and the world or anything like that, though on a case by case basis some of these stories can be those things, it’s just that generally a story where the central characters don’t have to work for anything just doesn’t really work unless the fantasy is so appealing to you specifically that you can engage with it on an almost mastabatory level, wishing you could literally be the protagonist. While everyone else is left high and dry, wishing they could see something that had character growth and intrigue and tension and development and themes. Unless your story is called One Punch Man, where your story is self aware and is primarily about exploring the idea of a character whose conflicts have no tension, most people need good execution in order to stay engaged. Nothing wrong with mastabatory fantasies, but it also just so happens to be the case that since a lot of Isekais are written for (and sometimes by) young audiences, they tend to be too milquetoast for you to be able to actually, well, masturbate to them, so you’re caught in a middle ground where they’re not interesting enough to be watchable and not brave enough to admit to being as emotionally complex as pornography. Yes, I am saying that Sword Art Online would be vastly improved if it was a Hentai, don’t @ me.

So that brings us to Shield Hero. Right off the bat the most notable aspect of Shield Hero is that despite the fact Naofumi, the titular Shield Hero, is a Japanese Otaku who is brought to another world and given a legendary weapon right off the bat, almost every other aspect of his new situation seems to be designed to needlessly screw him over rather than cater to his needs. The first point is that he is not the only hero summoned to this world, there are three other Japanese males who were summoned with him, and they were all given weapons as well. But while the others were given a sword, a spear, and a bow, Naofumi is stuck with a Shield. He can’t remove it and the world’s rules don’t permit him to use any other weapon like a sword in his offhand, meaning that he is totally stuck with a weapon that isn’t designed for offence. On top of that the other heroes were summoned from a parallel version of Japan where some version of this world exists almost identically as an anime or a game, meaning that the other heroes already know how the world works, while Naofumi is in a totally new situation. This means that right from the first moment they enter this world the other heroes have reason to be more confident, and this affects how they and the rest of this world treat Naofumi. He’s treated as something of an afterthought, and word gets around quickly that he’s the clueless, least powerful member of the group charged with saving the world. What this means is that while the other Heroes get to live out the typical Isekai power fantasy, Naofumi is kind of stuck being the comic relief side character at first. We kind of see this a lot in shows like this, where a side character is used to make the protagonist look that much more cool, and while usually those shows write off that side character as being okay with their situation or otherwise unimportant, here, that character is the one we’re forced to follow and sympathise with. So we can get more of a sense for how much it would actually suck to be in that position, watching how the other more fortunate heroes cockily take their situation for granted, demanding rewards and other benefits whilst subtly looking down on or writing off their supposed comrade. And it’s because Naofumi seems so weak and naive at first that they’re able to avoid feeling guilty regarding his treatment. The Spear hero and the girl who joins his party are okay with tricking him, stealing his stuff, and smearing his reputation with rape allegations because he wasn’t going to be useful or able to fight to begin with in their eyes.

I kind of just find this dynamic inherently more interesting than what we normally see, not just for the way that it comments on the Isekai genre, but by how it’s able to make out a character to be an underdog we can root for when by all other accounts he is still very much an overdog. We can see that his shield is still a very powerful weapon and that he is still in a privileged position, it’s just that he’s vastly less privileged position compared to his peers who get to have the stronger weapons, as well as all the fame, money, comfort, and cute girls. We have to remember that the only reason the king doesn’t execute him on the spot for the rape allegations leveled against him is because they still need him to be a hero. This is what allows him to realise that his life is just about the only thing this society is going to begrudgingly afford him, and that he’s going to have to work his way up from level 1 using a weapon that makes it inherently difficult to farm exp, and with no outside assistance.

Over the course of this episode we see Naofumi transform from a naive otaku into a jaded individual who isn’t willing to take shit from anyone, and that development alone so early on is pretty interesting. And it’s what gives me the impression that Shield Hero is going to be more of a coming of age story about learning how to integrate into a harsh Adult world, whereas most Isekai’s are more about retreating into a childish, convenient fantasy world both figuratively and literally. Now, there’s every chance that Naofumi’s development will stop here, that he’s going to be jaded and untrusting of others from now until the end of the series and that he’s simply never going to grow out of his pessimistic attitude, which is essentially just an attitude existing at the other end of the juvenile spectrum. The development we’ve seen so far is just one step and I hope it doesn’t end there. I’m sure he’s going to be motivated on getting revenge on the other heroes because of the way they treated him, but I hope the other heroes are able to develop as well and that they’re able to work together as equals eventually and apologise to him. So far the other heroes don’t appear to be so much scummy so much as they are just arrogant and insensitive, so I hope effort is made to make them come off as good people on the whole. There’s also the matter of the slave girl introduced at the end of the episode, who Naofumi is likely going to recruit. I do think it’s a good idea for Naofumi to recruit a slave, as he is enticed into buying one because the slave trader explains that a magic seal makes them incapable of disobeying or betraying their master, and Naofumi is still extremely closed off and defensive because of the betrayals and mistreatments he’s endured so far. But I hope the slave girl is someone who will exist to help Naofumi open up and challenge his perspective, and not just be a cute waifu who mollycoddles him and reinforces his perspective. Though I’m sure she’ll be submissive at first I hope she eventually becomes confident enough to call him out and enable his growth rather than stunt it.

So, without out of the way, before I end things off I will say that I’d appreciate it if you didn’t give me any spoilers in the comments. I’m sure many of you are burning to explain that in the manga or the light novels Naofumi and the other characters develop in this or that direction and that I’m right or wrong in my assumptions and predictions or whatever. Don’t bother, please. I really enjoyed this first episode and since I liked it more than the two manga chapters I read I intend to wait to watch more of the anime rather than read ahead, so I’d prefer to be disappointed or surprised at my own pace rather than be told how correct or incorrect my guesses were. Even if you don’t like where this story ends up going and want to save me the time I might like what happens, so I’d rather just make my own mind up and discuss future events in the story when I see them. You know, if they’re interesting enough to talk about either way. That’s not to say that this first episode was that amazing or impressive, I mean I enjoyed it but it’s still just an Isekai. The writing is good so far and it has some neat ideas, but while the visuals are good the aesthetic is still basically the same thing I’ve seen hundreds of times before and I personally didn’t notice anything particularly noteworthy about the direction, animation, and music, or any of that stuff. The nicest thing I can say is that it looked above average, not because it did anything stellar, but because plenty of modern anime can look low budget or otherwise badly made. I hope it’ll pass the time nicely but if it goes down a path I don’t enjoy, dropping it won’t devastate me or anything.

If you enjoyed the video, like comment and subscribe. Because a youtuber is supposed to say that, and that because if you don’t do that I’m not really going to see any point in putting effort into recording an entire video when I could just dump content like this into some god forsaken corner of the internet in a text format or not write them at all. So with that, if there is a next time I’ll see you then.