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What have you been watching/reading this week? (Anime/Manga)
Covering for Whom as she's busy today.
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.
If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL or any other database you use!
The Rising of the Shield Hero
I decided to give it a go because of all the buzz it had. Conceptually I think it's a bit boring, being a run-of-the-mill isekai, but it does a pretty great job with the characters. The protagonist is a gruff and flawed but likable underdog, his party is really sweet (if a little shallow), and the antagonists are... well, a little cartoonishly villainous, but meh, it's a little more fun that way. There's enough emotional depth in the Shield Hero's response to the hardship he faces, and the relationships he builds, to give the show a good amount of substance.
Boy was the first episode a slog, though. Partly it's because I had been spoiled about what would happen, so expecting certain things just felt like I was constantly flinching. A part of it is that the Shield Hero gets an unreasonable amount of grief from nearly the beginning, which really didn't work particularly well. Finally, as the first episode of an isekai, it felt like most of it just doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, he gets sucked into a parallel world, blah, blah, this really isn't going to matter all that much moving forward.
Overall, recommended. Not a must-watch (unless you feel compelled to understand the memes), nothing ground-breaking, but it's a fun watch.