The second season of The Rising of Shield Hero is thirteen episodes long. The anime is based upon the light novel series. It follows Naofumi, who was brought into this world as the Shield Hero. As one of the four cardinal heroes: sword, spear, bow and shield, he supposedly has great relevance. Unfortunately, he spent the whole of the first season having to clear his name and gain respect. At least by now he has succeeded in restoring his name but sadly, the four heroes still cannot work together nor sort out their issues.
This season begins with a new threat that will be the main focus for this season. Instead of the waves that was revealed right at the finale of the previous season, it’s seemingly something else. A giant monster has awakened and threatens to destroy all the nations in this world, with Naofumi agreeing to help to try and quell it. Maybe it’s because Naofumi no longer have to prove anything with the whole world against him, but the season is nowhere near as tense and addictive. Rather, the pacing is off and the events a lot more boring. There is still a big threat, and there’s still a lot of things that takes place, but the drive and raw emotion behind the actions are gone. Instead, it feels like a hollow shell, where the writing and animation is of a lower quality.
It takes around half of the season before you get a glimpse of what made the first season so good. Naofumi and the party gets to the core of the issue, pushes through it and then finds themselves in an unfamiliar, yet still familiar situation. It can feel like it is retreading certain aspects of the past but thankfully quickly moves forward. That said, a large chunk of the season still feels like a generic isekai or fantasy anime, which is disappointing in that it lost so much of its charm and character.
While it is cool to see familiar characters again, everyone has gotten weaker, as their contributions to battles are insignificant. Even Naofumi frequently struggles. There’s less variety as Naofumi reuses the same moves again and again. Then there are the other three heroes, who each have gotten even worse in terms of their ego to ability ratio. They’re side characters that barely appear, and whenever they do make an appearance, they are pathetic. It’s even more infuriating when you know that Naofumi has to make good with these guys and supposedly work together with them to save the world.
There are scenes where it almost reaches an emotional height but falls just short of it. It’s supposed to highlight the fact that Naofumi, despite all that he’s gone through, can finally find it inside him to trust someone and treat them as true comrades, even if he doesn’t outwardly show it. There’s a short period of time where it resets Naofumi’s progress, and despite all that he has done and endured, he suffers again. It’s just unbelievably unfair for him, but this mini-arc gets resolved very quickly. So quickly in fact that it feels like a pale imitation of past events.
With the way the season is structured, there are times where it feels disconnected to the first season, and to all the things we had learnt about Naofumi’s role. He’s broken several rules, and while the anime teases about the waves and the other world that the invaders came from, it doesn’t do enough to differentiate it from a typical isekai anime. It’s like an isekai within an isekai now. The only good aspect is that eventually, Naofumi and his group, in particular, Ralphtalia, gains strength that has the potential to far surpass what they already had.
It’s still odd that Naofumi has a HUD that shows me all the stats of his party and enemies. It’s handy and convenient that he’s able to store and pull out items magically from his inventory. This probably has something to do with the world, but the convenience doesn’t stop there since there are various events where it just so happens that Naofumi was in the right place, so he manages to achieve what he needed to do. It’s weak writing and the season has a bad tendency to just portray new characters as if the viewers were already familiar with them. Although, where is Naofumi’s trademark wariness? He accepts the new characters all too easily.
The season finale is nowhere close to what you would have hoped. You would have suspected whether there would be enough time during the season to resolve everything given that things rapidly escalated out of control. Yet you also have that sinking feeling that the pacing is fast-forwarded, and the plot rushed in order to wrap it up. Unfortunately, that is true and the final confrontation against the villain should have been a satisfying battle where Naofumi triumphs and the villain gets their just desserts. What ends up is a disappointing encounter that lacks energy and soul.
The biggest problem with the season is that is ends up rushing many aspects of the plot that should have been slowed down and fleshed out. There was no proper build up of the villain, so they were generic and it was impossible to emphasize with them. There is a distinct lack of epic battles. The first season never had crazy high-octane battles, but what it did have were carefully crafted and detailed scenes that emphasized the potential that Naofumi had, and the struggles he had to push through to reach it. Everything just felt interior this season. The main arc for the season is wrapped up in twelve episodes, and the thirteenth episode is more like a recollection episode where the characters just reminiscent about the past. It’s a weird choice but at least it is not a recap episode, and doesn’t reuse any animation.
Overall, the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero is subpar. After the stellar first season, it fails on every aspect here. The story is rushed, where it glosses over many things and does not properly build it up, so that it is hard to care about the protagonists’ plight. The villain is one-note, and the season ends up becoming like a generic isekai anime with how it was structured and written. It’s really only the potential shown from the first season that keeps you watching here, in the hopes that it could eventually match it. And while this season had moments where it showed the same potential, it never got anywhere close.
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