The Rising of the Shield Hero

(note4me: copied from letterboxd) - 5 October 2025

Some SPOILERS, beware

Nah y'all weird for liking this.. I watched this like what, years ago? Maybe the first episode, then dropped it because I lost interest, and I made the mistake of rewatching it, because why not? Let's give it a try! I watched as much as I could stomach, that fateful October morning.. And the first few episodes? I was chilling with it. My star and a half (edit: 10%) goes to the whole game/wordbuilding of the anime, it is genuinely nice. The premise was interesting. But.. a Slave? SLAVES?????? And the MC was just down with it? Being in the modern day? Like I get that the world they were transported to was a medieval sort of age, where slavery was much more common, but c'mon. Have some sense. And I decided, maybe it'll get better, and I stuck around for a few more episodes. But it only got worse. The father-daughter or maybe older sibling-younger sibling bond that I was hoping for crumbled.. Why is she a romantic interest for the MC? Grooming much?? And she goes to the slave owner (SLAVE OWNER!!!) to get her mark that binds her to him back, after it was broke, WHAT? It's just a poorly disguised fetish. It's so so gross and I dropped it because of that. And last I checked he got with atleast 2 more loli looking children in his circle??? This is why people hate anime, this is just plain weird. Genuinely an anime only degenerates would like.

(AND! Another gripe - the fact that literally every other person hated the MC? Why? Just because he has a shield as a weapon? Like, I might understand the King/Princess/Townsfolk's viewpoint on it because it's ingrained into their own like world and they have preconceived notions about what the shield hero is like, but the other weapon users? Why do they even hate him? It just feels lousy.)