Rise of the Shield Hero

With the first episode, I wasn't expecting to like this show so much - especially since it was 47 minutes but I am very interested in the story. I'm sure anyone would relate this show to Sword Art Online, given that the theme is similar - people brought from one life to another that have to fight and get stronger until they can defeat the overarching threat and return home. The biggest difference that I've seen so far is that this deals with a lot more adult themes - allusions to rape, slave trades and I'm sure there will be more.

Going into the first half of the episode, I definitely thought Naofumi would be liked a lot more even if he wasn't as knowledgable about the world as the other heroes. The people who wrote the story, though, definitely made it clear that Myne would be trouble given that she made Naofumi buy her some pretty expensive gear and then tried to seduce him into drinking. Sadly, even though he didn't drink and decided to turn in early, she still manage to frame him for sexual assault and all of his gear and money were taken and given to the other heroes. I don't think I would come to have disdain for characters so quickly, but the combination of both false accusations as well as the reluctance in giving Naofumi any benefit of the doubt was very anger-inducing. Naofumi was put into a corner where anything he would do would be used against him - "Oh, you wanna go home after what you've done? You owe it to these people to fight." They forced him to become the person that they set his name out to be - someone who'll do whatever they need to get what they want.

My hope is that he'll be able to rebuilt his reputation among the country before the wave of monsters that he's training to combat rampages through it. I would hate to see his reputation stay at the bottom for the whole series - but I don't think it will. The shop owner seemed to believe that Naofumi was truly innocent, so that was already a step up. He's also the best person for Naofumi to have as an ally as well since he can make gear and what not.

I'm pretty excited to see how the story unfolds. It definitely wasn't anything that I thought it would be, but that's good because now I'm invested into what will happen in the story that has yet to be told.