The Rising of the Shield Hero (Season Two) – Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Something has stopped the waves of calamity, however, it isn’t much better. The Spirit Tortoise has awoken and it requires the souls of eighty percent of the planet’s population. Luckily, Naofumi agrees to help fight back!
The Rising of the Shield Hero (Season Two) – Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
What did you watch?
I watched the first season of The Rising of the Shield Hero back when it aired in 2019 and then watched it again in 2021 when I put together a series of posts analysing the story and themes. I had a lot of fun writing those posts and was keen to dive straight into season two when it aired in 2022. However, life got in the way and it wasn’t until 2024 when I was finally able to watch the second season… I know, season three has been and gone in that time and season four is currently in the works. Well, I’m here now, so let’s dive into season two.
What happened?
Naofumi was busy preparing for the next Wave when Lurolona Village was attacked by giant bats. Even more surprising was that the countdown for the next Wave vanished. He hurried to the Capital and met with Queen Melromarc along with the other Cardinal Heroes. She revealed that the Spirit Tortoise, an ancient monster who brings total destruction to the world had woken and that was what stopped the waves. She begged them for their assistance in defeating it, however, only Naofumi was willing to help. The other three walked out since they were only required to fight the Waves. They had no obligation to do more than that.
Naofumi met with the other rulers and came up with a plan to defeat the Spirit Tortoise. They were aided by Ost, a familiar for the Spirit Tortoise who revealed that it had been woken up and was not acting of its own volition. During the first battle, they were able to remove the Spirit Tortoise’s head, however, they then learned that they needed to destroy its heart too, so Naofumi and his party travelled into the Spirit Tortoise. While there, they encountered L’Arc, Glass, and Therese from the other world. They had come to take care of the one responsible for waking the Spirit Tortoise as he came from their world. They agreed not to fight but refused to work together.
Eventually, they found the one responsible and tried to defeat him. However, Kyo was the wielder of the Book Vassal Weapon and with it had gained control of the Spirit Tortoise. He also revealed that had they simply killed Ost, they wouldn’t have had to worry about any of this as she was the Spirit Tortoise and not just a familiar. After a fight, Kyo escaped back to his world. L’Arc and his party chased after him, however, Naofumi couldn’t until Ost unlocked his ability to travel between worlds before she died. They were going to go to Kyo’s world and kick his ass!
What did you think?
Overall, I was quite disappointed with this season. There were some good moments, most notably in the second half of the season, but there were a lot of contradictions, plot holes, and weak characters. For example, the first episode went out of its way to remind us of all the most annoying things about the series. The other heroes walked out when the Queen asked for their help and Rishia entered into a slave contract with Naofumi. The strangest thing to follow was how Kyo captured the other Cardinal Heroes despite them not wanting to fight the Spirit Tortoise. It’s possible that they planned on doing it alone, but that wasn’t clarified. As with a lot of this season, it felt rushed and disorientated. I feel like it could have and probably should have been a two-cours series. It wasn’t terrible, but the bad outweighed the good.
What was your favourite moment?
So, it was fairly obvious that Raphtalia was going to become the Katana Hero when they went to watch a prospective candidate attempt to use it. I’m not entirely sure why she ran off without L’Arc and the others but it gave her a chance to find the shrine that worships the Katana Hero where they gave her some new clothes and basically left her looking like an absolute badass. I loved how she then fought against Kazuki, who was working for Kyo and apparently against him… They clashed blades, but it wasn’t even close. Then, Raphtalia turned to him and told him not to move if he wanted to live. She wandered off shortly after, leaving Kazuki’s followers to attempt to heal him.
It was pretty shocking when Kyo finally arrived and managed to upset Kazuki enough for him to move. As soon as he did, however, his body fell in two. Brutal! It felt like it had been a while since this series actually did anything like that, so it was long overdue. I was a little curious as to whether Raphtalia would be able to take the Katana back to her world, but then L’Arc and the others travelled back and forth with their Vassal Weapons. However, this series also went out of its way to explain that the missing Mirror Vassal Weapon user was going to cause a war to break out. Then, it said that the region with the Katana Vassal Weapon was desperate for a hero, so I can’t imagine Raphtalia taking it to another world went down too well. It just felt like none of this was properly thought through.
What was your least favourite moment?
I don’t think it gave anything enough time. Take Kyo for example. We learned in a short series of flashbacks that he was a shut-in NEET who blamed everyone and everything for his problems. Eventually, when the gaming community turned against him, he jumped out of his window and was reincarnated into another world. That’s what drove his desire for power. That’s what made him into a complete ass. However, that was nothing compared to his childhood best friend, Yomogi who had followed him since they were children. She was defending his plans and was even used as a suicide weapon (without her knowledge), but still she defended him. Then, after having a cup of tea with Kizuna, she turned on him in a heartbeat. Yes, it was the right thing to do, but it needed more development, much like everything else in this season.
Who was your favourite character?
Kizuna Kazayama was easily the best character in this season. Like Naofumi, she was reincarnated from Japan, although which Japan wasn’t confirmed, since we know that Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu were all from different versions of Japan to Naofumi. Anyhow, she had been summoned to L’Arc’s world as the Hunter Hero, one of the Four Cardinal Heroes, however, she wasn’t summoned to fight the waves. Kizuna was summoned to fight something else, although after defeating it she was imprisoned in the Infinite Labyrinth where she stayed for two years before Naofumi showed up. Again, her time there was handled too lightly and not given enough time to show what she went through. Regardless, she had no idea about the Waves and was horrified when she learned that the other Cardinal Heroes invaded Naofumi’s world in the hopes of killing their Four Cardinal Heroes. She was a great bridge between these two sides and allowed for some reflection. I would definitely watch a series that follows her time in this world.
Who was your least favourite character?
This is the easiest decision although I think it may surprise some people who were expecting me to say Kyo, the moustache-twirling villain. I’m actually going to call out Rishia. She was without a doubt infuriating from the first moment to the last. Her constant whining and crying was over the top. Her ridiculous battle costumes turned every scene with her into a joke. How am I supposed to take a fight to the death seriously when she’s a giant penguin or a cartoon version of Filo? They could have done some interesting things with her where she realised that Itsuki wasn’t the hero she believed and how she came to accept herself and Naofumi as the hero, but instead, they just had Naofumi lose it to the rage shield and call her a bunch of names that he’d never say if he were self-aware. I just couldn’t stand her.
Would you like some more?
I loved the first season a lot and while the second season really didn’t do anything to build on that, I would still say that I’m committed to the series and want to see the third season and the fourth when it comes out. The world that has been shown is fascinating and while there were some issues with the pacing and development in season two, it’s enough to keep me interested. This season did bring up some more questions that I’d like to see answers for, so I will be checking out the rest of the series. Another season like this, however, might change my mind.
What have you learned?
There’s a fine balance between expecting the audience to pick up on all the clues and spoon-feeding them the answers. This season went too far in the direction of leaving it to the audience. So much so, that it created too many situations that weren’t given the weight they deserved. There was a warning in every episode about the depiction of suicide, however, that amounted to about ten seconds of the actual story. Something like this needs to be explored and developed. Kizuna went from happy-go-lucky to suicidal and back in two frames of animation. Kyo’s motivation was explored for about thirty seconds, simultaneously with a recap of Naofumi’s motivation. It just wasn’t enough and these things need more. I’m not saying we needed to be spoonfed the answers, but we needed more time to explore and process what was happening. Some elements of the story will need more time. Without them, you’re not doing the story justice.
Series Information
| English Title | The Rising of the Shield Hero |
| Japanese Title | Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Isekai, |
Anime
Season One
| Season | Season One |
| Released | Winter 2019, Spring 2019 |
| Animation Studios | Kinema Citrus |
| Episodes | 25 |
| 1-4 | The Fall of the Shield Hero! |
| 5-8 | It’s Definitely Not a Game! |
| 9-12 | The Making of a Hero! |
| 13-16 | Lies, Disinformation, and Deception! |
| 17-20 | Strategy and Tactics 101! |
| 21-25 | Heroes from Another World! |
Season Two
| Season | Season Two |
| Released | Spring 2022 |
| Animation Studios | Kinema Citrus, DR Movie |
| Episodes | 13 |
It can’t be helped that majority of the anime adaptations based on LNs suffer compressed adaptations so much that the anime-only audience isn’t intrigued to get into the source material. Then again, like you said, a two-cour season is preferable for many volumes of LN getting adapted. The 1st season had 6 volumes been compressed, but with proper pacing seeing a two-cour was planned back then.
This 2nd season’s one cour wasn’t enough for 5 volumes of the LN so it’s as clear as day the development & pacing felt off even to anime-only audience. I’ve got unfortunate news for ToG new season is suffering from these issues that I vowed to just stick to the webtoon source material route.
The only LN series that has a more proper pacing would be the 86 series as the first cour adapted one volume only. Even if I still dislike the anime’s narrative has been compressed so much that it became a very black-and-white morality, besides mood whiplash with anime-esque exaggerated facial expressions even in serious scenes, that’s been spoonfeeding to audience (unless we’re supposed to see through the female protagonist Lena’s POV and very a-bit-far-fetched sheltered mindset/upbringing), I’ve to acknowledge the fact it’s one of those rare LN series to get the pacing right in its anime version.
I think this came down to a bad adaptation. If you don’t have the budget to make a faithful adaptation of the books, then you have to get creative with what gets cut. Trying to squeeze everything in was a terrible decision as it ruined two arcs. Had this season just been the Spirit Tortoise arc they could have done something with it. It just lacked any sort of impact.
Trying to fit that many books into twelve episodes was never a good idea. Some of the best shows that were based on manga only used one or two volumes for an entire season. I’d rather a season that fully develops the characters and the stakes over one that rushes through a bunch of arcs without any sort of care. Sadly, this will be a prime example of how not to do things for some time.
2nd cour was just horrible, the only thing that really made me stick with it is Ost Horai
I quite liked Kizuna too, but no one got enough time to be fully developed. The whole Spirit Tortoise arc should have been twelve episodes alone. It was a horrible adaptation.
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