Alright! God bless all the patron saints of anime.
Already seeing polarization going on here huh. I'd say it's better than the naysayers are saying. Frankly, I like it better than Arifureta. I like the concept of a hero who becomes cynical and jaded and hates the people around him, but not heroes like in Arifureta or Dungeon Seeker where they descend to the level of near-villainous, transforming and literally abandoning their humanity. The Shield Hero doesn't do this; he just finds himself trapped in a world where everyone thinks he's a violent criminal and
at best and
at worst. He behaves as you would expect of someone who's surrounded by people who have already found him guilty of just about everything they can imagine without even talking to him or obtaining any evidence.
Part of what's cool is stuff like the way the guy shows some actual virtue in this world, the way he gradually heals, the degree to which the world needs him in particular, and just the story overall. I for one liked it and am really looking forward to this.
One thing I hope though is that they come up with a clever way to handle a particular oddity in the early part of the story: