#fohl

Seriously, I forgot this was coming back for the fall season. But there was no way I was going to forget that season three was coming. Crunchyroll jumped several guns to not only announce a second season to The Rising of the Shield Hero, but announce a third season in the same breath. This was in 2019. Do you know how long ago 2019 was? What could have caused my blah attitude and pessimism to come up here? Season two happened.

Oh, but Medea, Myne wasn’t involved in season two. How could it be that bad?

Okay, Myne had her bitchy hands all over season one and I loved that season. Season two was rushed to a point where I need ten volumes of the light novel to get the jist of what the fuck just happened. Me not seeing Myne was a treat and if she was involved in season two, my opinion would still stand.

HISTORY: Isekai. Shield. Outcast. Blah, blah, blah! Here’s season one and season two.

SEASON THREE: Shit, the bitch is in the OP theme. I’m going to lose my shizzle on this review, aren’t I?

In the aftermath of the tortoise arc, there’s a glitch that seems to be affecting how Naofumi sees stats and part of his shield. Then, we’ve got the queen relying on Naofumi once more as it seems that the other three heroes are missing in action. Bitch is too. Normally, I would say good riddance on everybody disappearing, I hope they get eaten by a giant chicken. But that’s just my anger popping up again. I have leftover resentment from season one where I just want retribution for Naofumi. I know they’re technically heroes, but they’re shit-heroes. And as for bitch, I hope that she’s not only eaten by a giant chicken and shit out off of a cliff. She must be up to no good knowing her. And then there’s a little something that really grinded Naofumi and Raphtalia’s gears. Demi-humans and slavery!

Yeah, it’s not a modern Isekai without slave-trades.

Naofumi and his team wind up competing in an underground fight club. Save some twin tiger demi-humans. Don’t get too excited, this tournament arc was only the span of 1 or 2 episodes. They do go back to the underground fight club near the end of the season, but it’s not worth mentioning. Naofumi is staying true to saving previously enslaved demi-humans. Meanwhile, we’ve got a phoenix-sized wave about to occur in a couple of months and no one knows where the other heroes are. This season, we get to know more about the other three heroes; Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki. Not only what happened to them during the tortoise arc, but before they were sent to this world.

Motoyasu was ditched by his entire team when he couldn’t even make a dent in the tortoise from last season. Itsuki went full-on Judge Claude Frollo. And Ren’s entire team was slaughtered. But a certain someone came in and toyed with each and every one of these boys.

…

AND NOW, MEDEA IS ABOUT TO MAKE NO SENSE: I truly apologize for the raving I am about to unleash.

AAAAAHHHHH! OOGA BOOGA! OOGA BOOGA! ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAWWWWR! KILL THE BITCH! KILL THE BITCH! REN, YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU SAW THE TRIAL! YOU WERE THERE! YOU SAW HER FIGHT AGAINST THE SLAVE CREST! ITSUKI TOO! WHERE IS THE CREST ON THE BITCH’S CHEST?! WHAT WITCH-FUCKARY SAUCE IS THIS?! SOMEBODY! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!

My anger is warranted. In the span of a single episode, Myne claimed infamous status in the anime community as the worst thing since Shou Tucker. Let’s not go too ahead of ourselves. I’d say she’s just between Griffith and Shinji Matou. I’m just glad Motoyasu saw Myne’s true colors (AGAIN) as she lied AGAIN about him raping her. Lying about being raped seems to be her ace in the hole time and again. This woman is worse than tumors on your uterus.

Not even Filo doing an idol performance in the same episode could calm me down. Nice try, anime!

NEW CHARACTERS: Quite a bit more girls added to the roster. We got the drunk orca, the glitch in human form, and the tiger twins. They are all orphaned demi-humans. Give Naofumi some credit as we finally got one male teammate.

Sadina is a human and orca, I guess. She has a lot of history with Raphtalia and that’s the end of that tale. Spoilers.

Then, there’ S’yne. She’s the girl who sounds glitchy every time she speaks. S’yne is at first not trusted by Naofumi due to an earlier reputation. But she sticks around.

And then there’s the tiger twins, Fohl and Atla. Naofumi saved them from that underground fight club. Before, Fohl was barely scraping by and earning whatever he could to help his ailing sister. Now, the twins are thriving (despite Atla being blind and sometimes has trouble walking). Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Sadina is played by Ami Koshimizu (known for Makoto/Jupiter on Sailor Moon Crystal, Kallen on Code Geass, Ryuuko on Kill la Kill, Holo on Spice & Wolf, Rosa on Umineko, and Anemone on Eureka Seven)

*S’yne is played by Maria Naganawa (known for Kanna on Miss Kobayashi, Platelets on Cells at Work, and Komekko on Konosuba)

*Fohl is played by Kouhei Amasaki (known for Otto on Re:Zero, Kousuke on Tomo-chan is a Girl, and Monoma on My Hero Academia)

*Atla is played by Konomi Kohara (known for Chika on Kaguya-sama, Roxy on Mushoku Tensei, Miu on Domestic Girlfriend, Chitose on Tonikawa, and Kai on Hitoribocchi)

ENGLISH CAST: *Sadina is played by Alice Himora

*S’yne is played by Lisa Reimold

*Fohl is played by Kieran Regan

*Atla’s voice actress is unknown at this date and time

SHIPPING: Rishia really, for real, truly needs to give up on Itsuki. And if the slap in the face he gave her wasn’t enough of a big indicator…no, it truly needs to be one. I’m glad she stepped up to try and reason with him. But…eh, I got nothing else for this. I’m just annoyed by Itsuki dropping Rishia for being weak and Rishia still devoted to him.

And Raphtalia still loves Naofumi. It’s still unrequited. And she will still get jealous of anyone hugging, rubbing on, or sleeping with Naofumi.

ENDING: It’s obvious that Bitch has been poisoning the minds of every, single one of the four heroes. While Naofumi’s interaction at the beginning of the series was bad enough, Bitch took advantage of the other three during really rough moments of their journey. And all I can say is, Naofumi was wrong to keep her alive for this long. He should have just allowed the queen to have her daughter’s head chopped off. Motoyasu was dropped once it was shown that he could not make a dent in the tortoise from last season. In Bitch fashion, she claimed Motoyasu raped her making him out to be the town Harvey Weinstein. With Ren, Bitch manipulated him after losing his teammates in a gruesome way. But she ditched him soon after Naofumi got involved and helped him out. Finally, there’s Itsuki.

Itsuki wound up with a cursed item given to him by Bitch. These cursed items have not done anyone any good during this season and caused a lot of damage for the heroes who had them and Naofumi having to clean up the mess afterwards. When Ren was possessed, it caused a lot of trouble for innocent bystanders. Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu are all terrible and made terrible messes throughout the majority of this series. They should be licking Naofumi’s boot every morning when they wake up. Sorry, leftover hatred again. However, Itsuki’s sense of justice pissed me off further down the series. Itsuki pulls off his stupid justice kick by attacking Naofumi’s crew and innocent bystanders with his bow and arrows. Hell, he was going to kill Rishia because she didn’t believe in his “justice”. Thankfully, she and Naofumi were able to end Itsuki’s cursed justice. Itsuki is just mentally broken, but is cared for by Rishia.

Hmph. He should have just been left to rot in a wheelchair like Kirito in SAO. Not even sorry for that!

Okay, we’re at the final episode. Not sure when we’re going to see this wave attack with a giant phoenix. In two months is what Naofumi says but who the hell knows! And Bitch is still on the loose. She did drop Itsuki pretty fast, leaving him broke and broken. I know everyone wants Naofumi and the other three heroes together. I’ve been against that from the beginning. Sorry, last time! As of this moment, Itsuki and Ren are with Naofumi and his crew. Motoyasu…everyone still seems to avoid him like the plague. Yeah, he’s annoying. But mostly it’s because he wants to lewd Filo and now calls Naofumi, “Father” because, yeah, he technically did hatch Filo. Who wants to tell Motoyasu that Filo is technically a couple of months old? Okay, final episode. What’s in store?

Raphtalia is royalty!

Do what now?

Naofumi gave Raphtalia some priestess garb. Sadina got scared and warned her to remove the clothes immediately. Just then, Naofumi’s area is attacked (AGAIN). Usually, it’s slave poachers or someone under Bitch’s control. These new guys are different entirely. This time they want to kill Raphtalia. Why? Because she’s really the heir of this place called Q’ten Lo. Raphtalia’s father was the original ruler but abdicated and started a family. Sadina has been watching this family from the very beginning. So, there’s much more to Raphtalia’s family than just what we learned in season one. Naofumi is understandably pissed that these spies from Q’ten Lo are after Raphtalia and have been watching her pretty much her entire life. So, I guess we’re going to Q’ten Lo now.

Okay anime, that’s fine. But a few things. Phoenix wave is going to hit in less than two months. Filo still needs to up her stats after the whole dragon incident. Bitch is still on the loose. Itsuki is on par with a roasted parsnip. We don’t know where Motoyasu is nor do we care. Still in the dark about the tiger twins and that guy at the palace who hates Naofumi. Naofumi is about to drop everything to prepare for the biggest wave to date to go to this place we only learned about five seconds ago. And most importantly, THE ANIME IS OVER!

Yes, this does set us up for a possible fourth season or movie. As of now, we have a fourth season in the works. But I just have to ask myself this. Do I even want it? Okay, stupid question. I do want to see it for what happens. It’s just that I’m kinda in a slump when it comes to this anime. Most of that blame does stem from the previous season. This season wasn’t as bad, but it’s a far cry from where things were in the first season. I’ll give the anime this, it spiked my blood pressure on my day off from work. That’s not a good thing!

So, I guess we’re going to this Q’ten Lo place, meet new characters, and take a total detour from where this story was going with fighting the waves. Then again, this season had absolutely no wave-fighting. And I’m sure we’re not going to get much clarity of any other character that gets introduced and is a “insert-something-here” hero. I’ll give season four a fighting chance if someone throws a Molotov cocktail at Bitch’s face. For those looking for an improvement to season two’s disappointments…I can’t lie. You would probably only like half of the series. Anything involving Wyndia, dragons, and the whole lot of demi-humans might lose your interest.