Rising of the Shield Hero (Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari) Episode 10 Review

Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 10 Review

To start, I thought this episode was good. It set up some stuff that will be happening in the future as well as stuff that will happen next episode. We got some more of the other heroes and why they aren't as great as some episodes have made them out to be. 

 As we get one episode closer to the second wave we see our main characters preparing for the upcoming fight. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo have all upgraded their gear and have obtained new party members for the waves due to their past good deeds during the first wave. We also got a little tease at one particular figure at the end of the episode of a character from the opening that I won't get into right now.

Something I want to talk about right now are things I've noticed about the anime that seem different from the manga. Some things that I like and some things that I'm not a big fan of. First off, the biggest one to me, is the change in Filo. In the manga Filo is a lot more free spirited and is not used as a "romantic interest" for Naofumi what so ever. She loves Naofumi in the manga but it is in the same vein as a child loving their parent. She never once mentions wanting to mate with Naofumi and to me, this change they have made to her doesn't suit her character at all. 

The most accurate example I could give is that during that scene in the episode where Raphtalia asks Naofumi if she could go with him back to his world, instead of Filo getting angry and jealous of Raphtalia, in the manga she would have probably of asked Naofumi is she could go back with him as well. The fact that Filo has become a love interest for the sake of adding a rival to Raphtalia seems weird. Filo in the manga was my favorite character because she was mainly used as a comedic character who happened to be the strongest party member for Naofumi and be a little child. I just wish we could get more of the manga Filo than this weird anime lolicon version.

If I can back track a little, I'd like to talk about the scene between Raphtalia and Naofumi again. I really liked this scene a lot. It wasn't in the manga and when it came up this episode I thought it was great. As opposed to how I like the manga version of Filo more than the anime version, I like the anime version of Raphtalia more than the manga version. In the anime it seems like they are giving more personality to Raphtalia and giving her more presence overall. Unfortunately, after a certain point in the manga Raphtalia become kind of dull. The story stops focusing on her as a character because they make it seem like her development as a character is done. It made me really sad to see such a great character like Raphtalia fade into obscurity due to a lack of development. 

That's why I liked that scene from the anime this week. Unfortunately Filo had to interrupt the scene between the two but I hope it gets revisited later on. In the manga Naofumi and Raphtalia talk about how close they are but after a certain point the manga just makes you have to assume that the characters are talking to each other during time skips rather than actually show the scenes. I hope this changes for the anime because I think character moments are great for shows even though some seem to be allergic to it (I'm looking at you That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime). 

Overall it was a good episode that set up a lot of great things that are coming in the future (keep an eye out for the Queen. She's cool). This episode made me excited to see what is to come and hopefully this show continues with the development of Raphtalia and Naofumi's characters.

But that's just my two cents. Thanks for reading.

If you are interested in knowing what anime I am currently watching and what manga I am currently reading, please check out this link: https://anilist.co/user/codyashi/