The second half of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 1 has been released by Manga Entertainment in the previous month. Part 1 of this adventure isekai anime was amazingly thrilling with compelling visuals. In this article I will be reviewing part 2 of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 1 and discus if it is as good as the previous part.
Naofumi and his companion are not at ease as they were accused of abducting princess Melty who is actually accompanying them in their journey inorder to meet her mother, the queen. Since the rest of the heroes are not ready to listen to them, Naofumi and the others are on the run.
Melty advises to stay in a place of nobles, she is familiar with but on their way they stop by a place called which Raphtalia recognizes as her home. It brings back all past memories of all the destruction that the Wave brought to her village along with the death of her family. It makes her sad but what makes it worst is her encounter with the man who dragged her along with her friends into slavery.
The second part of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 1 starts off dark and gets eve darker when we dig deeper into Raphtalia’s dark past that include her slavery period and the bad things happened to her loved ones. It is indeed one of the most tragic things to watch in the anime series but one of the most amazing arc to watch when it comes to emotions as we end up feeling sad for Raphtalia more than any other character in the series.
This anime does a great job for making us care for the characters. In the beginning we ended up caring for Naofumi when he was treated as an outcast after being accused of hideous that he didn’t commit. Although the backstory of Raphtalia is gloomier than that but we all felt bad for Naofumi and cared for him.
Another good thing happened in this part is that the heroes have put end to their hostility towards Naofumi. Although everything is not sorted out by the end but there many things have been covered and concluded revealing a lot of things in the process. It was good to see things that started so dark, wrapping up in such a satisfying manner
Although for many reasons the first part was not liked many viewers and in that case viewers might also not the second par as when it come to the writing, it is still the same with things happening abruptly with nonrealistic misunderstandings that annoys you. But that’s how melodramatic stories work so it is understandable and if you enjoyed that in the first part you would like this one too.
The anime adaptation of the The Rising of the Shield Hero has ended the story on a sensible note even though, the source material is still in continuation. Although it will leave you with a few questions but it ended and resolve the major issues that we have been watching since the beginning of the series. As the next two seasons of the series has been confirmed, those questions will hopefully be answered along with the journey of the cast.
This part of the season 1 of The Rising of The Shield Hero was animated by Kinema Citrus, while the music was composed by Kevin Penkin. Both have done a great job in their respective fields that complemented well with each other. Compared to previous part, this one has more battle scenes so it is also visually appealing and thrilling with great animation.
The opening theme, titled, “FAITH”, performed by MADKID, is not as good as the previous opening. While the new ending theme, title “While I’m Next to You”, performed by Fujikawa, gives an emotional feel with soft melody that reflects the emotional side of the story.
The voice cast of first half of the season returned to play their respective roles and have done amazing job like in the previous one. But the one who stole the show is Asami Seto who voiced Raphtalia. As the most emotional and heart wrenching part of the story is dedicated to this character, Asami Seto stands out in the second half for making us cry and feel extremely sad for Raphtalia especially the part when she cried out loud. Asami Seto has performed exceptionally well.
The anime series has been brought to UK by Manga Entertainment which can be bought in Blu-ray, DVD as well as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack along with special 200 pages light novel. These releases have all episodes of second half of the series (from episode 14 -25) which can be watched in both subbed and dubbed version. On-disc include some extra like themes without credits and trailers.
All in all, The Rising of the Shield Hero is a worth watching series especially for the fans of isekai. There are certainly some flaws in the story that have been rightly criticized but if those flaws are ignored then it is surely an entertaining series to watch, Since the second new seasons have been confirmed, there is hope for a lot of things to happen in this adventurous journey of the shield hero.
