©Aneko Yusagi Seira Minami/KADOKAWA/Shield Hero S4 Project
Well, we’re back for Round Four. I don’t know if it’s because Crunchyroll is stuck investing in this series, or the reception to the last two seasons wasn’t as bad as what I thought it was, but regardless of the reason, I’m here to do my job and see what we can glean from this next installment in the Shield Hero franchise. I still stand by the fact that season one is pretty solid, despite having some questionable content, but seasons two and three are significant low points, with season two in particular probably being one of the worst things I have ever watched. It’s hard to say exactly how much better season four will be based on its first two episodes, especially when it seems like we’re still in stalling territory, but what we have here so far is okay.
I find it funny that after multiple seasons, at this point, Naofumi just can’t do his damn job because everybody wants a piece of him both literally and metaphorically. If he’s not off trying to gather people together and remind them about their responsibilities, he’s taking a detour because his mere presence invokes such strong reactions from so many different kingdoms in this world. The guy just wants to clear up a misunderstanding so people won’t randomly attack his right-hand raccoon, but now he’s got a deal with all this political fighting and potentially years of beef between different furry politicians. At the very least, it’s not as dull as it could’ve been.
The politics are straightforward from what we have seen so far, and this season has a bit more of a sense of humor compared to the previous iterations. Maybe it’s because we dealt with all of the rage curses, but there has been significantly less angst from these first two episodes so far. If anything, this is how I expected Naofumi to act at the beginning of season two, before we had to revisit that character arc out of nowhere. He knows his responsibilities; he’s trying to communicate clearly to people while also respecting their perspectives. He still has a little bit of that attitude where he can’t help himself, and I feel like that’s going to bite him in the butt soon. But overall, it’s not bad. I don’t think Season One Naofumi would handle being attacked by a flock of women at the beginning of Episode Two the way he does here. I do like that he expresses a bit more affection lately, like towards their little panda companion, Ra-chan.
The dub is solid and makes digesting all of this exposition a bit easier. I think Stephen Fu was a solid choice to pick up the mantle from Billy Kametz after his unfortunate passing. This is my first time watching more than one episode of the dub since that happened, so it did take me a second to get used to, but I was able to adjust to it pretty seamlessly. I like the kind of emphasis the dub puts on all the furry politicians being these petty, duplicitous men who are just really into gaslighting Naofumi into staying.
As for what I would like to see from this season, it would be nice if the show paid off the previous king being an important character, as teased during the last two seasons. The king was a noble hero, and that’s how he rose in power; however, he eventually let himself go. The show keeps referencing him, especially with his connection to the white tiger siblings, who, I suppose, are now just part of the main cast, but the plot never explored that further. I wonder if we will see this Phoenix spirit creature that had been foreshadowed for well over a season at this point, because we can’t even continue the issue of the waves of creatures until those spirit creatures are dealt with first. The show had an idea, and it has been doing everything in its power to delay its premise by having the protagonist progressively deal with increasingly random side developments. At the very least, I hope it’ll be entertaining to see what other detours the show randomly comes up with.
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The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
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