First Impressions / Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari

「フィロリアルの女王」 (Firoriaru no Joou)
“Filolial Queen”

At long last, the other shoe has finally dropped for the Four Heroes. There’s a price that comes with power and prestige. Respect has to be earned, after all. Expectations have to be met. When the King summoned the heroes to protect Melromarc from the Waves – and conveniently neglected to tell them that other countries were suffering from the Waves, as well – he implied that the only way for the heroes to return to their homes was for them to defeat the Waves and prevent the Catastrophe, but though that they may or may not be true, what would happen if the heroes were to fail? What would happen if they died?

Well, we have our answer now. According to Fitoria (Tange Sakura), the true Filolial Queen, when the heroes are killed, new heroes will be summoned to take their place. After all, if the heroes are fighting amongst themselves, then they aren’t reaching their full potential, which they will need to do if they are to save the world. Unfortunately, while none of the heroes are entirely blameless for how their situations turned out, the problem also can’t be laid solely at the feet of any of them. Even if Fitoria were to summon a new batch of heroes, the King and Myne would still conspire to alienate the Shield Hero from the rest of the group. And since that’s the case, discard and draw wouldn’t be enough to fix the situation.

Melty has been urging Naofumi to talk to the other heroes for some time now. She and her mother understand that in-fighting directly impacts the heroes’ effectiveness when there are people’s lives hanging in the balance. While past heroes managed to protect all of the countries, this recent crop is struggling to handle Melromarc. Needless to say, the comparison isn’t flattering. Again, that’s not completely their fault. No one informed the heroes that other countries needed saving, leaving Fitoria to pick up the slack. Since she was raised by a previous hero and has lived for centuries, she’s grown to an enormous size and holds enough magical power to cancel Naofumi’s attempts to activate the Rage Shield, but even she can’t fight the Waves on her own forever.

After his traumatic experience with Myne, Naofumi stopped trying to communicate with the other heroes. This made sense, as Myne had so thoroughly destroyed his reputation that they wouldn’t listen anyway, but he also told the King to get down on his knees and beg if he wanted to know how he became so strong. Not exactly the words of a man interested in reconciling for the greater good. Of course, he didn’t know what was at stake then. Luckily, Ren and Itsuki have taken Naofumi’s warning to heart and are investigating The Church of the Three Heroes as Myne lurks in the wings, watching their every move and gritting her teeth. Now that the series has passed its midway point, I can’t help hoping she doesn’t interfere too much with their progress. Quite a few people seem to be urging Naofumi to reconcile with the others, despite the fact that it’s not so simple as talking and making up when he is literally being chased out of the country. It’s about time someone reached out to him. Plus, if he manages to sway Itsuki and Ren to his side, each powerhouses in their own right, he will be in a much more advantageous position to negotiate with Melromarc and the other countries.

The question, then, is whether the small gains with Itsuki and Ren will be enough to save the heroes from Fitoria.

 

Preview

31 Comments

  1. Kinda one sided that Fitoria hasn’t plead her case with the other heroes first,
    and basically laying all of the blame at Naofumi’s feet (I know she said she
    had the jist of what happened). The series continues to place Naofumi in an
    untenable position, which is perfectly in-character with its premise. GJ!

    Being an Anime-only viewer, my guess is that Filo will somehow change Fitoria’s
    resolve. I mean, after all and for various good reasons, Naofumi can’t just do
    a 180 and walk into what’s clearly a very dangerous situation with his party.
    Besides, the story is about the Shield Hero – so you know he ain’t gonna die —
    kinda an empty storyline threat without tension.

    An interesting item was dropped too — Filo’s growth was because she’s being
    raised by a hero. If he’s killed, can she simply be “adopted” by the next hero
    if she’s the next queen candidate? Something’s not quite adding up with her claim.

    But back to the interesting item — does that mean that Raphtalia’s growth was
    due to being “raised” by a (Shield) Hero, too? Kinda fits with some other things
    that have happened – like his healing potions seem to be over-the-top (remember
    the olde lady acting like a 20-year old again) so that part’s consistent.

    Not too bad – will the next episode be another wave?

    mac65
    Reply

  2. My biggest issue with this series has always been how the world is made to be against Naofumi. It’s one thing if people just don’t like him, but the deck is always stacked so high against him at every friggen turn that he basically always needs a miracle/hand-wave to fix things. Here Fitoria could’ve recognized that Naofumi is the Hero trying the hardest and said she was going to off the others first at least, or given him a grace period, but no, her almost childlike simplicity says that the Heroes aren’t working out, time to kill the one closest.

    The whole thing just makes the world seem too stupid. The show never actually tries to make Naofumi look like a genius or beacon of law, but he’s really ending up that way just by comparison.

    Aex
    Reply

      1. And then she says that she’s just going to kill him because of it. So she knows it’s the country’s issue, but Naofumi still has to die because no one else will play nice. Another unfair problem that it’s suddenly his responsibility to fix.

        Aex
        Reply

      2. As a light novel and manga reader for this series, I can tell you two things:
        1. There’s a reason this series is called the “Rising of the Shield Hero”. There were hints of this earlier that are easy to miss in the anime, but were talked about in detail in the novel. It’s the idea that a hero looks better if everyone else is horrible or you overcome untenable challenges that the world has placed before you. This idea is what drew me to the series in the first place, but I agree with Aex, certain plot points are almost contrived to make Naofumi look good.
        2. I’m pretty sure the next episode will expand on it, but Fitoria did say minutes earlier in the episode that she doesn’t care about humans and only wants to protect the world, so at least that point makes sense in context. That’s all I’ll say without giving spoilers.

        Aoihoshikage
        Reply

  3. The problem I see with all the heroes are not their squabbling or the fact that there is a favoritism for the three with offensive weapons. The issue here is the cult The Church of Three heroes have isolated the heroes by not telling them every piece of info about the world. Now, while we are at the pivotal point to the church’s conspiracy stronger characters have appeared and the heroes with their limited experience and intel are being challenged. In some ways the Church of The Three heroes have failed to nurture the heroes the correct way and these heroes are the results of the neglect. It’s best to leave the nurturing to the Queen she being a leader and mother knows best as to what will make someone grow.

    Nothing on the king from me the only thing he is good for is making sure the Kingdom has a leader. After the Queen returns the King can take a hike.

    https://randomc.net/image/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2009.jpg

    https://randomc.net/image/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2029.jpg

    RenaSayers
    Reply

    1. Agreed, everything about that “Church” is a massive problem. I really have to wonder if they have some sort of plan beyond “make the Shield Hero miserable so that we look awesome”, cause like you said, the other three Heroes really aren’t strong enough at this point. A blind nug could see that they still need Naofumi or they’re gonna get wiped out by the Waves and/or whoever Glass is, yet they’re trying to kill him. Great logic.

      Aex
      Reply

      1. That true about this “church”, but it not just them the kingdom as well and its people. Especially the royals, nobles, and the self absorbed ass called heroes. If only they make a Light Heroes story instead and stuff!

        Xingbar
        Reply

    3. I’m an anime-only viewer for the series so, these are all just guesses. Looking back at the “bad guys” in the series so far, they’re all incapable of leadership. The King is broken. Malty is too impulsive to carry out anything long-term and she’s just not smart enough. The Church seems empty of anything resembling a soul. It’s just a front. So, look behind the curtain and my guess is you’ll find the main boss behind all this. At first, I thought Glass might be an early reveal for the main boss, but now I’m fairly sure she’s a minion. A powerful one, but still just a minion. Main boss still to come. Once that happens we’ll start getting some explanations about what’s really going on with The Waves, etc.

      Keep Refrigerated
      Reply

    4. I believe that the Church has purposefully neglected to nurture the heroes’ knowledge of their world and strength to keep them manageable. Alienating the Shield Hero and separating them keeps them from reaching their full potential, which prevents them from ever challenging the Church or even knowing why they should. At the same time, the Church has kept them ignorant of other countries so that Melromarc remains the only protected kingdom, thus weakening the potential for opposition from other countries.

      Stars
      Reply

  5. After reading the info and the episode, I like the ending when Fitoria she’ll rid of the “new” heroes herself if they don’t work together or whatever. To be honest I like shield hero anyway and as for other heroes they can suck it, but at less the spear hero make a comeback at the spin off. Plus like her face expression. Then again they cannot save the fantasy world with just four people and that world should suffer since its not OUR idea world of fantasy.
    https://randomc.net/image/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari/Tate%20no%20Yuusha%20no%20Nariagari%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2036.jpg

    Xingbar
    Reply

  9. I really want a Fitoria and Motoyasu “encounter”. After seeing what Fitoria did to the T-Rex-with-Elton-John-glasses, the smackdown she’d give Motoyasu would be epic.

    Keep Refrigerated
    Reply

  10. I wanted to take a pulse:

    There’s some drama going on with the an American voice actor, Vic Mignogna, who did Broly in Dragonball and Edward in Full Metal Alchemist (both of them).

    He was accused of sexual assault and rape by some women on Twitter, specifically fellow voice actresses, and Funimation and Sony claimed to have done an investigation and fired him over the course of a couple months.

    Thing is, those are CRIMES in Texas, and Vic Mignogna is also filing a lawsuit of defamation. The burden of proof in such a case is on the defendants (the women) to prove Vic committed the crimes, not only in the CVivil case, but in any potential criminal case ofc.

    Since this seems to mirror the plot of Rising of the Shield Hero, I wonder if anybody here has been following it….whether you’ve heard of it (why and how or why not?) , and what you think is going to happen?

    Me and the wife and some of my legal professional friends think these female voice actors and Funimation are pretty screwed.

    Jerry
    Reply

    1. I’ve barely paid attention to this, but everyone who cosplays regularly at cons he is at knows he’s a creepy fuck so it doesn’t really surprise me. I stood in line to get an autograph for a friend (I really hate hearing this guy’s voice smattered all over anime to begin with) and he asked to take a photo with me. Sure, whatever, hands immediately went to thighs and I just walked off. But yeah the burden of proof is on the women in this case so I hope they got something on him because it’d be nice not to look at his greasy face ever again tbh.

      And I don’t feel violated/raped/sexually assaulted or whatever by my experience and wouldn’t personally pursue it but he’s just turned into the world’s biggest shithead in recent years.

      Daris
      Reply

    2. I haven’t been following it but last I heard it was just sexual harassment. Pretty sure dudes just a creepy uncle which has become a reason for people to attack/discredit/get fired.

      The modern desexualization of things is just the newfound way for religious puritan ideals to sneak their way into society.

      weasl
      Reply

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