Tate no Yuusha/Shield Hero Season 2 Anime Episode Discussion

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Why didn't Ost kill herself as soon as she remembered she was the core? And if she couldn't do that, why not ask Glass' group? I get why Naofumi and his friends wouldn't want to do it, but they wouldn't have cared.

At least there I think we can assume Kyo probably wouldn't have let them and they needed a group able to take out the heart.

[Lex79]

For Ost, the only thing I can think of is that she might be unable to kill herself, it was not explicitly said but it's a common trope.


For Rishia, I agree with most that was said. I was expecting her to have her moment of awesomeness sooner or later because it was frankly obvious it was going to happen, but having her resisting Gravity magic "because it's ki" without a more proper explanation felt lazy. And sadly the show didn't do enough to make me care of her so that I can look past these problems.

[Dengar]

.....And this is why people familiar with the source material thought skipping the training arc was a bad idea. The tortoise arc being boring aside, Hengen Musou working the way it does was established in the LN long before this. Yes this includes answers to all the questions that people asked since this episode. At least, with regards to Hengen Musou.

Spoiler for Why only this one granny seems to know it.:

Well, the short version seems to be that unlike hero skills and magic, Hengen Musou is not a "game mechanic". It's a special style that uses a form of "life energy" that isn't present on the character sheet, and is very hard to properly explain to people who cannot observe it. Some people have a natural aptitude for observing and manipulating it but because most people require a lot of training to even become aware of the stuff, most people just give up on it before getting that far. The discipline itself is one of utility more or less. It lets you manipulate life force to buff existing combat abilities. At its most basic level it can shield the user against other energies. But in the case of the old lady she's so adept at it she can fight without the use of weapons.

In the case of Rishia her natural aptitude seems to be how her "character" was "rolled", and seems to have come at the expense of her base stats and level growths.

[cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Chosen_Hero

Wait... what? Am I the only one who thinks this episode (actually the arc as a whole) is a mess?

- How the hell did the other three idiots get captured? I know there was a time jump at some point before they started fighting the turtle but holy shit that was jarring.

- Ost is such a ridiculous existence, she was practically there just to needlessly complicate a situation that could have been easily fixed. There were just way too many hoops to jump through just to find out that killing her at the beginning would have been the right response and probably the easiest way to deal with this situation.

- So Rishia, the one that is way too underleveled by the others standards is just able to fight on equal terms with opponent (boosted by the power of the other three cardinal heroes) that gave the others with high level difficulty just because she can control ki or whatever the fuck? ... I mean, I knew they were going to force some character development for her (it was super obvious after all her whining) but this was just... bad, really bad, at least be consistent with it.

No, I don't care if it was foreshadowed in the LN/Manga, that's not what were are discussing here.

It also doesn't help that i don't care for her, especially since I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE FUCK SHE POPPED UP FROM, she's just there at the start of the season and I'm supposed to care about her and her stupid crush that doesn't seem worth the hassle she's going through because... reasons, I guess?

- Also, if ki is this strong then why care for the vassal weapons outside of prophecy/chosen one bullshit? She was pushing back a vassal weapon weilder who was using the turltes powers and that was buffed by the other three cardinal heroes while underleveled AF... doesn't that kind of diminish?... undervalues?... depreciate? (can't seem to find the proper word) the strength of the Vassal weapons and Cardinal heroes outside of prophecy/chosen hero bs?

I liked everything else... I guess, but these points have just been bothering me.

Rishia is essentially a character that slowly develops at first but her potential is unleashed at later levels. At this point around level 70 according to the ln. Think like up until now she was only getting the bare minimum stat increases like +1 if that when she levels but is now getting aroung +10 to +20. Her stats are balancing out and then exceeding at a massive rate as a result. Her proficiency with ki sped up said development to the point she could fight kyo instantly.

As for the three stooges, it is outright omitted what happened. Basically what was omitted was that they went ahead to attack the spirit tortoise to gain an advantage over Naofumi by gaining the spirit tortoise drops but were overwhelmed. Kyo gloated during this scene that motoyasu and itsukis parties abandoned them and he quickly took them hostage. meanwhile Rens party was outright killed off before he did the same.

The anime is sadly skipping over a few too many details

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

The anime is sadly skipping over a few too many details

Since the three Stooges didn't get speaking parts for this arc, it honestly probably is better waiting for the reveal that at least one party got wiped out when they return in later seasons. Presumably we are not going to see much of them for the foreseeable future.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by stray

Wings make everything more badass though... just imagine Rishia without the chocobo costume.

We don't really need to imagine that, she fought the whole battle without it. It's like the reverse of what happened with Naofumi, she gets powered up when she loses the wings.


Anyway really either Rishia is like a 1 in 10 billions case, or the natives of that world would do better to find and train ki users, because apparently they are far better than any hero. Not to mention the fact that if you rely on the summoning you might end up getting completely useless heroes like the 3 stooges.

[stray]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Since the three Stooges didn't get speaking parts for this arc, it honestly probably is better waiting for the reveal that at least one party got wiped out when they return in later seasons. Presumably we are not going to see much of them for the foreseeable future.

I don't get the appeal of getting more of the three stooges. I mean we're going to Glass' world, isn't that more interesting?

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

We don't really need to imagine that, she fought the whole battle without it. It's like the reverse of what happened with Naofumi, she gets powered up when she loses the wings.

The chocobo suit is anime original actually, though the anime also skipped over the squirrel outfit she wore with Itsuki's group. Maybe I should have just gone with Red Bull giving wings instead...

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by stray

I don't get the appeal of getting more of the three stooges. I mean we're going to Glass' world, isn't that more interesting?

Sure, we'll stay over there probably for a good amount of time, but eventually Naofumi and company have to return to their world and then it's again the thing with Fitoria threatening to stomp them if Naofumi doesn't get the three idiots to shape up.

[velvet nightmare]

the anime itself even points out the plot hole.

why are l'arc and friends even bothering to return souls if they're just going to come back later to destroy the world?

also watching a kangaroo chicken fighting a turtle that shoots lazors is just too stupid on too many levels.

going to drop this show

[Frontier]

Traveling to Glass' world seems to be treating this as basically a new game for our protagonists, with the RPG staple of waking up in a jail cell and everyone's levels are reset back to 1, including Raphtalia being reduced back to her child form. I guess these worlds really weren't designed for other Heroes to just jump to and from them .

I love how Naofumi gives Rishia permission to make cute noises but she's able to restrain herself for once .

Seeing Raphtalia's physical body reset after going to level 1, while adorable, kind of makes me curious what's closer to her mental or actual age. I guess if demihumans grow while leveling up, her adult form is more closer to what she actually is, even if it feels like she's still a child in some respects .

It feels like they're in a starting area of a game with low-level monsters and enough things to fight to XP farm a bit, but the teams' low levels and Raphtalia barely able to wield her sword now makes slightly stronger monsters more of a challenge. Luckily they're not the only prisoners on that island .

Kizuna, the Hunting Hero! Voiced by Miyu Tomita! Not only is she another Cardinal Hero of this world, but she's 100% another Japanese Isekai victim like Naofumi. And she can apparently change her weapon into anything having to do with hunting, being a fishing rod or a hunting blade. And she's also a pretty energetic and plucky young girl, who is also an 18-year old loli, because it wouldn't be Shield Hero without all the loli's Naofumi teams-up with .

So Kizuna is apparently Glass' best friend and views L'Arc as an older brother figure, but has no idea what the Waves are? Did they only start after she was captured and held prisoner in the Infinite Labyrinth? Then what were the Four Cardinal Heroes of this world even summoned for? And her weapon can't even harm anyone so it's not like she was brought there to fight the Cardinal Heroes of the other world. And why was she held captive to begin with ?

Finding the edge of the labyrinth and a bug for Naofumi to exploit finally frees our heroes as they land in front of a Japanese-style mansion. And Kizuna is definitely a hugger .

So I guess we have to find Filo next...I'm kind of surprised she wasn't in the labyrinth with them or not in another level of the labyrinth .

[EroKing]

Incoming lolicons. BRACE YOURSELVES

Jokes aside, upgrade in animation is clearly noticeable in this new arc and Kizuna is just lovely. May the ratings on MAL RISE again!

[stray]

Rise of the Pedo Hero? Can't really complain about loli Raphtalia and lolibaba Kizuna though... they were about the same height.

They made some major changes from what I remember, it was only Naofumi and Rishia in the Infinite Labyrinth while Raphtalia was supposed to teleport to a different place. I'm guessing a lot of their decisions this season are seiyuu related. I have no idea how the rest of the season is going to change now though.

[Twi]

Wasn't Raph supposed to be with Glass's group?

That was pretty important considering it ties to three different subplots.

[Frontier]

People rediscovering Shield Heroes love of loli's again .

[Dengar]

This is all wrong. Why is Raphtalia here? Just to be loli bait? How will the upcoming events even make any sense when she's there?

How are they supposed to get people interested in the source material when they just keep doing it dirty like this?

[Aogami]

Originally Posted by Dengar

How are they supposed to get people interested in the source material when they just keep doing it dirty like this?

Maybe wait and see what exactly they do first before claiming they did it dirty?

[Chosen_Hero]

Originally Posted by cyberdemon

Rishia is essentially a character that slowly develops at first but her potential is unleashed at later levels. At this point around level 70 according to the ln. Think like up until now she was only getting the bare minimum stat increases like +1 if that when she levels but is now getting aroung +10 to +20. Her stats are balancing out and then exceeding at a massive rate as a result. Her proficiency with ki sped up said development to the point she could fight kyo instantly.

As for the three stooges, it is outright omitted what happened. Basically what was omitted was that they went ahead to attack the spirit tortoise to gain an advantage over Naofumi by gaining the spirit tortoise drops but were overwhelmed. Kyo gloated during this scene that motoyasu and itsukis parties abandoned them and he quickly took them hostage. meanwhile Rens party was outright killed off before he did the same.

The anime is sadly skipping over a few too many details

In other words, she's a Mary Sue character... great.

[Dengar]

No... She's not... How is she a Mary Sue in any way?

Originally Posted by Aogami

Maybe wait and see what exactly they do first before claiming they did it dirty?

Because I can't think of any way to fix this mess? This is even worse than what they did at the end of season 1, or the beginning of season 2.

[Twi]

I guess they're going to blitz through the entire time in this world so they can get back to the original world. Mind you, that's going to cause its own problems later on, but I guess they've decided to sacrifice Season 2 for Season 3 materials?

I mean, some of the stuff can be welded on. You can see in the key visual that they give Raph her plot item. It'll look messy, but it can be done. But it's also going to make situations like Rishia being the only one able to do jack-all against Kyo before come out of nowhere, whether you think the excuse is good or not, which forces LN readers to explain. I can only assume it was meant to lure in Anime-onlies who won't know the difference and would be fine reading the LN afterwards to understand the changes.

[frubam]

Kizuna's a doll =03. Although I didn't feel that they properly defined the despair she felt being alone for so long, I thought it was pretty lovely how ecstatic she was when she got out of that labyrinth. It felt like the pacing was decently quicker than the last arc, which was kinda annoying given how not-as-interesting it was.