The third season of The Rising of the Shield Hero is 12 episodes long. Taking place after the second season, Naofumi, the titular shield hero, finds himself with a bit of respite as he prepares for the next beast awakening. However, the other three cardinal heroes of the world have gone missing. That said, this part is only a side story given that the season immediately focuses on Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo joining in an underground coliseum battling against others to earn money. Their goal is to earn enough from winning to purchase back the demi-humans and settle them in his village.
Season 2 was bad in that it rushed its plot way too much, and removed everything that made the first season so good. Season 3 doesn’t rush quite as much, but also doesn’t go back anywhere near as good as the first season. The pacing is still brisk, especially since you might expect the focus to linger on the battles, or to build upon the new characters. This is especially so when those new characters and their related events feel like they have some importance, yet the anime skips over them quickly.
A big problem with the anime now is that Naofumi is trying to get the other three heroes to work together. Yet, the other three heroes, who already did not leave a good impression back in the first season, are detestable here. It’s not a bad decision to make them different from the typical archetype of a hero, but when they are portrayed as pure stupidity, naïve and one-note, it’s very hard to relate and keep watching. All their bad traits are on full display, 100% of the time, and Naofumi, while doing dubious things himself at times, is the only good one of the lot.
When you see the other three heroes being so pathetic and easily manipulated, it’s disappointing and literally painful to watch. It doesn’t help that the pacing and storytelling completely negated to cover their reasons, motivations, and journeys falling into this state of despair. The heroes just appear with some fast flashbacks and that’s it. When they were already so out of focus, the anime needed to give them more time to flesh them out if they were going to be important supporting characters.
Spear Hero is reduced to such a pathetic state that it feels like the writer just gave up on the character. He is more like a comic relief character except… that he isn’t funny. Sword hero isn’t that much better, as he goes through an arc to rediscover himself. While the anime attempts to justify his situation by giving us a flashback to his background, the arc is over so fast, in less than an episode, that it doesn’t give us enough time to fully understand and accept his actions.
Naofumi is basically on a quest to find as many allies as he can, and he does. It comes at such a rapid pace that each episode often has a new character that turns up, and eventually joins him with such ease. The three other heroes are so fixated on one thing it is hard to take them seriously. Despite having sunk so low, the three are so easily saved, where they don’t quite work or flow naturally. Plus, the heroes are shallow that they end up becoming annoying and you just wish that Naofumi can smash some sense over them for all the pain they had caused him before. Naofumi had to suffer something similar earlier, and yet when it is their turn, they are so weak and cannot take it at all.
While this is much better than the second season, there are too many instances where you feel something is missing, as if the story skipped over an event so that the characters’ behavior seems unexpected and off. There isn’t the type of build up and suspense that made the first season so good. A good example is Myne, her first appearance in this second seemed like it was setting up something big. It makes you seethe with how she is still roaming around with little consequences and manipulating the characters. Unfortunately, it turns out she’s just a petty thief in the end when she could have done a lot of damage.
The final episode sets up the next plot arc, although it is a little bit contrived. Naofumi can be seen as vengeful at times, although considering the things that he had to go through and suffer through, it is understandable. What is annoying is that Myne somehow continues to still be extremely capable of getting in the way and deliberately sabotaging everything, but it is difficult to understand why based on the things we have seen of her.
Overall, the third season of The Rising of the Shield Hero is much improved over the second season. It never comes close to reaching the heights of the first season, and it struggles to undo all the damage from the previous season. Therefore, it is an impressive achievement for it to course correct to the point of being watchable. Unfortunately, the season also lacks an engaging plot arc, since it’s basically just Naofumi going around gathering the other three cardinal heroes and other allies. Given that all the heroes are a joke, in terms of abilities and personality, it can be a frustrating watch.
---------------------------------------------
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
