01-12-2019, 07:21 AM | #1 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Shield Hero
I think we need to discuss this show. I'm not going to call it "Shieldbro" anymore because I only just realized that the "bro" is actually an in-joke regarding the main charcter's misogyny. It's Shield Hero now.
This show is making rounds all across the internet for - spoiler! - a false accusation of rape in the very first episode. This needs to be unpacked because everyone has a lot of shotgun opinions to it. The very presence of this plot twist has given people an edge to make broader statements about feminism, social justice and the incel/manosphere community. I feel whatever people think or feel about these topics can be dismissed as irrelevant, because Shield Hero is bad. Why is it bad? From the first episode, we're told that the main guy is an otaku and a college student, and he's never had a girlfriend. He's a shy Japanese guy with an interest in women, but not a lot of history of success with them. Out of nowhere, the guy is transported to a fantasy world with three other guys. We're soon told he's one of four legendary heroes, armed with a distinctive weapon, and that he's essential to stop "waves" of monsters from destroying the world. Almost immediately, this guy is ostracized by the other heroes. They don't (immediately) discriminate him based on his 'weapon', a shield, but because he's slow to adapt to his surroundings (i.e., he doesn't run with it immediately) and his social status is lower than the others. He's younger/poorer than the other college student other worlder, and the other two are smart high school kids. So he's at the bottom of the totem pole despite being second in age. These guys don't show a ton of respect for him. Then we get to the court scene and the guy is openly called useless by pretty much everyone present, including the king. The level of distaste is completely out of proportion for what this guy has done (i.e., nothing) and disrespectful considering he's supposed to be a world saviour. Later, there is a funding ceremony, and an ally selection ceremony. The shield hero Naofumi is given the least money, and no body sides with him to be his ally, because he doesn't have any offensive prowess. The need for a ceremony like this feels unnecessary, as does the spectacle of embarrassing the shield hero. Certainly people would have tipped him off ahead of time that he's on his own? Then, we get one girl who sides with Naofumi. She's cute and Naofumi is instantly enchanted by her beauty and mystery, since she sided with him. She helps him out a bit and seduces him into buying some expensive equipment. Later that night, she steals the equipment and plants false evidence on him, takes his money and cries rape. There's a court scene where the girl mocks Naofumi, and the king says his punishment is to live in shame, because they can't execute him as he's the hero of the story. So none of this makes any sense. Turns out the girl who cried wolf is the daughter of the king and a princess. That means she's the richest person in the kingdom. Why the heck would she go to these lengths for cheap magical gear and some pocket change? Moreover, what was the point of framing him and setting him up for a rape charge? Why did she openly mock him in public? If she's the princess, why is she out of the castle, adventuring, and not staying inside protected where she can't be captured and ransomed as a hostage? Like none of this makes sense. My only conclusion is she's a predatory person, and is doing this for laughs, and realized Naofumi was easy prey based on his lack of ego and desperation being thrust literally 1.5 days into a new world without a clue as to what's going on. This isn't a referendum on women being deceitful, hypergamous wenches, it's literally just an evil woman. Manga spoilers: Spoiler: show Why does this bother me? Because after the false rape accusation, Shield Hero appears to be painfully generic and routine. All the tropes and stereotypes are here: the celibate hero with a dark past, tons of cute, powerful girls in an expanding, fluid harem. Lots of male power where Naofumi has the best weapon, his enemies and rivals are defeated/humiliated, and whatnot. The red pill theme that might have been hinted at with the rape accusation is dropped entirely. To me, this means that the author deliberately threw in this twist as a hook to get people to watch his dumb, generic anime. And that crass intent is, itself, pretty debase and worthy of criticism. The story itself is bad. I would think that, if you want to get people to read your garbage, don't make it garbage. Write something decent and let its natural merit attract an audience. But even more upsetting is the stupid hook has attracted legit incels, red pills to reading it. Apparently, most of the readers before the anime debut, who dubbed the show "Shieldbro" and claimed it was the best isekai, made up the fanbase. That means that while male power fantasy is derived from video game origin, there is a parallel appeal to incels and red pills who feel emasculated/deposed by women. What does this mean, exactly? Consider how Pepe the Frog became a hate symbol, despite being nothing more than a depressed cartoon frog. He became a hate symbol by association, there's literally nothing offensive about Pepe in isolation. Shield Hero has more offensive material to its nature, by virtue of being an isekai world with video game qualities. Video games are a male dominated interest, as is anime/manga. And now the readership base, and now anime viewing base, are swarming with male power scum because the author was crude enough to bait with a twist like that. Is Shield Hero worth watching? No, I don't think so. But you should know about it. You're going to be hearing about it non-stop alllll year.
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01-14-2019, 01:38 PM | #2 | |
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You made a small mistake. Naofumi is given the most money because he has only one party member.
I also talked about episode one in the bbb suggestion thread. I didn't really look into spoilers but it doesn't matter because I'm very unlikely to continue it. Quote:
A better dark fantasy isekai is Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash which has very believable characters and a bad situation thrust on the main characters in a realistic, natural way. Mainly, they're bad at being murder hobos and so they have to struggle to make enough money to survive and push themselves harder because of it. |
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01-16-2019, 02:34 PM | #3 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Episode 2
I'm still following this, for now. Perhaps not much longer. The tonal shift is pretty jarring. Naofumi buys his slave and she's terrified of him, justifiably. Then he takes her to a cafe and she instantly becomes comfortable around him. What? Spoiler: show
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01-18-2019, 08:06 AM | #4 | |
我が名は勇者王!
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So I learned that Shield Hero is co-produced by CrunchyRoll, and it was picked up for an anime specifically for Western audiences.
An excerpt from an interview with the producer and composer: Quote:
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01-23-2019, 12:21 PM | #5 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Alright, dropping this. Triggering gimmick aside, this is actually pretty poorly written. I read chapters of the manga and, while it's not as cringeworthy as the anime, the badly written parts become much more apparent and pretty incoherent.
Sucks. I need something new for this season, not that I had hopes for this anyway.
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01-24-2019, 01:17 PM | #6 |
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I've known that the general viewing population isn't really all to smart, but the fact that this show is rated highly and seemingly beloved by viewers baffles me. It makes me wonder how many anime influencers are getting paid by Crunchyroll to push it.
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02-16-2019, 04:58 AM | #7 | |
我が名は勇者王!
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Quote:
Slime Tensei (Fall 18 ): 8.411 (scored by 76,365 users) Bunny Girl Sempai (Fall 18 ): 8.531 (scored by 155,147 users) Shield Hero (Winter 19 ): 8.491 (scored by 50,919 users) Bunny Girl Sempai beats it (.1 is significant) but that's a completed anime, and it's uncontroversial. It's almost a full tenth of a point ahead of Slime Tensei which to me is the considerably better anime. Given how horribly routine and mediocre this anime is outside of the Gamergate hook, BPK and I concluded that the appeal is in the misogyny. People want to turn this into a /pol/ hot topic. I constantly need to ground myself in the reality that the world is pretty insane right now; we elected Donald Trump president in the same lifetime that white male power is being challenged. It's eminently possible that high school-aged incels who already feel emasculated see this as an empowerment anime.
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02-18-2019, 10:48 AM | #8 |
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I don't really agree. There's plenty of normal non-misogynistic people who enjoy the series.
I think it's more of the fact that this series uses kind of an underdog tale. The Shield Hero is about the biggest loser getting the worst weapon and given the worst scenario for his isekai adventure. Everyone roots for the underdog. People enjoy watching a hero persevere through struggles. They want him to get justice for his undeserved wrongs and prove he's right. Unfortunately this coupled with poor writing and people are ignoring those aspects. Also, I find it funny that everyone called out Goblin Slayer on the goblin rape in episode one as a turn off, yet it then became the most watched show. Still, people called for it to be banned from the Crunchyroll Anime Awards because... rape is bad? This is kind of the opposite with the false rape accusation and everyone is seemingly singing the show's praise. Will people ban it from the Anime Awards because of false rape? |
02-23-2019, 01:40 AM | #9 |
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I got into a fight with a friend today about Shield Hero. I said it was a stupid idea to basically ignore one of the four heroes of legend just because he has a poor equipment and his counterargument was that I was overthinking it and the setting's own people were too dumb to understand how important he is.
I'm kind of baffled by this excuse. Apparently the setting's own people are dumb because this is the middle ages level of education and somehow that means they can ignore prophecy and legend? I'm pretty sure if you're a dumbass in the middle ages, you take myth and legend as fact and you don't defy such an important prophecies involving saving your world from disaster. He then said I was sick of the genre, which is half true in that I don't think the genre is very diverse. When I tried to say other series in the genre are better because they break the mold, he said it was just nostalgia, which I disagree with. I honestly think the series I like (Overlord S1, Grimgar, ReZero) change up the genre enough to make them interesting compared to so many in the genre. He's a friend, so I didn't argue it with him too hard. We both gushed about Kaguya: Love is War, so he's not hopeless. |
02-23-2019, 02:23 AM | #10 |
我が名は勇者王!
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"middle ages" and "pop culture middle ages" are different animals. I got to hear a lot about this when my sister was in her Medieval Studies stage.
The ancestry of Shield Hero goes something like this: The idea of women as a sexual currency definitely originated from RPG hentai. You don't see it outside of RPG hentai until Mushoku Tensei. Though I'm sure the idea of the middle ages as a barbaric time where beautiful women were constantly preyed on has existed since Conan the Barbarian.
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03-14-2019, 09:43 PM | #11 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Learned something interesting Loki.
It turns out that this series, much like Goblin Slayer, pulls designs from other anime series for its characters. The blacksmith that befriends Naofumi is Jet Black. The Queen of the country whose name I forgot looks like Cornelia li Britannia.
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