The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3

Episode 3

The integration of our two new demi-humans and their introduction into the main story springboards many positive scenes in Shield Hero, like the compassion Naofumi shares with these two when he first looks at them. There aren't a lot of scenes of Naofumi sitting down and talking with the demi-humans, showing his disgust at their treatment and how he wants to show them respect like proper living beings. He masks this under a veil of professionalism as if treating the situation like a business transaction. Still, you can tell from his demeanor and actions that he wants to give these kids the ability to reclaim their lives. Also, happy to see one of the only times he snaps at the slave trader and calls him out on his bullshit. Can we get more scenes where Naofumi is shown to explicitly hate the way that all of this is set up?

This episode shows glimpses into the larger implications of Naofumi's actions. Despite being a hero, he doesn't have any political power outside of his area, and there are still a great number of people out there who don't like the Shield Hero or see him as easy pickings. Naofumi's trying to buy off slaves in various regions and bring them back to his place will look suspicious at best to many high-ranked nobles and officials. At worst, it will attract a lot of unwanted attention, as we see in this episode. If you could acquire a slave from the Shield Hero, you could probably fetch them for a high price, right? One of Shield Hero's selling points early on was that Naofumi is a persecuted hero. This is a very creative way of him keeping that persecution while also highlighting that he is the hero of the story because he's being persecuted for doing something undeniably good in a world full of rotten people. I also like the weird implication that some people are trying to go into slavery specifically to be purchased by Naofumi. You can do a lot with that concept, even though it currently exists as a background gag.

That being said, things still feel rushed in this episode. It does its best to cover what I assume is a lot of material from the original light novels in one episode, and it does that mostly efficiently. This episode is another example of the massive jump in the storytelling quality we got from season two when it felt like it just dragged its feet to get to relatively uninteresting plot points. However, certain things felt glossed over too quickly or not given a focus. For example, this whole situation with the slave trade puts a giant target on Naofumi's back, which he should've prepared for. The episode plays out with him going away with his most powerful companions to discuss a trade deal, and then the town gets attacked because it has very few people to defend it. Naofumi knew something bad could happen, but I don't know why he couldn't have kept one or two of his more powerful companions in the town. Maybe he thought that if anything bad happened, he could get back fast enough. Still, that's a pretty big risk.

The episode is set up to tell the audience more about the White Tiger Siblings, but it looks like the writers plan to highlight their part in the story across the entire season. Not only are they featured prominently in the opening, but that final scene with the former king was very interesting and unexpected. I think the implication is supposed to be that he's their uncle because he recognizes something about them, and the story the queen tells gives the impression of her trying to confirm something. I don't know why she couldn't just say it if she knows something. Perhaps she figured it wasn't her place to speak about her former husband's past. Still, this is a solid episode that covered a lot of groundwork just in time to hit another major plot point with the other heroes in the next episode.

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The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.