Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari: Web novel and manga.

Volumes one and two of the original web novel have been licensed and so are not available on English translation sites, so have to reference the manga for material that occurs in there. It's still not too hard to catch up to the story when referencing the arcs in volume 3 onward. There's some adaptation compression/decay, but it's not egregious, yet.

Naofumi as the main character is very interesting because even though he's clearly in the "anti-hero: Unscrupulous Hero" category, throughout the story he plays with every hero trope imaginable from "anti-hero" to "wide-eyed idealist" and a few villainous tropes such as Then Let Me Be Evil and even briefly adorns Well-Intentioned Extremist. He also lampshades Pay Evil unto Evil, and goes above and beyond by paying "good unto good" as well.

That being said, there are a few tropes missing from his page.

A Father to His Men: Lampshaded. And quite literally When Naofumi gets his own village, and starts to train the new slaves, he objects "what am I? A mother?" and for all intents and purposes, he is their father, by adoption, and he has that dynamic with the overwhelming majority of them. Like it or not.

Even Evil Has Standards: As much as Naofumi wants to see Malty/Bitch/Whore/Witch suffer, with good reason, there IS an upper limit to what he can stomach happening to her. He is forced to watch a recording crystal with footage of the King of Faubley torturing Witch to death. Even he is visibly disgusted and has to ask the guard to fake a recording of him watching that scene. The guard agrees. King Faubley keeps sending crystals of women being tortured that way, as gifts. Naofumi puts them in storage, only due to fear of starting a war if he returns them.

Harem Seeker: Lampshaded. Originally, Naofumi was this upon being summoned. Malty's betrayal changed all that. Seeing the way Motoyasu runs his own harem didn't help.

I Gave My Word: Naofumi always keeps his promises, for good or ill. ALWAYS.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Narrowly averted. Read Chapter 80 of the web novel for details.

Mad Scientist: Briefly, while under the effects of a curse.

Pay Evil unto Evil: Lampshaded. In additon, Naofumi will repay acts of kindness with kindness as well. This, more than the quality of his goods, is why Naofumi patronizes Oyaji's shop. Oyaji is one of the few people who treated Naofumi decently after Malty's betrayal.

Properly Paranoid: The manga only shows Malty's betrayal, but chapter 80 reveals that many people pretended to befriend Naofumi, only to betray him horribly later. They all met Karmic Death. This becomes a major plot point later after Naofumi acquires a village, he uses a special plant to design houses that he can enter at any time. It is justified in that not only are the Three Heroes basically under house arrest in his village following The Spirit Turtle incident, but several of his villagers get brainwashed by "the church of the three heroes" under the instruction of Witch, and there is an attempted coup in Melromark.

Stray Shots Strike Nothing: Averted with extreme prejudice.

edited 13th May '15 10:07:38 AM by Harem-author

Rapthalia:

Her Happiness in Slavery entry needs an update. There's a far more sinister reason why Raphtalia wants to be Naofumi's slave. It goes right into Fridge Horror territory. At the time Rapthtalia was "offered" her freedom, demi-humans in Merlomark had the same legal rights as MONSTERS, and Motoyasu's companion (the one who suggested the duel to "free" her) was MALTY. Think about that for a minute. It shouldn't surprise anyone why Raphtalia was so angry with Motoyasu's "help."

edited 13th May '15 7:59:56 AM by Harem-author

Firo's Clingy Jealous Girl entry needs an update.

She's angry with anyone except Melty getting too close to Naofumi. Firo challenges Raphtalia on several occasions, especially in the manga.

Big Eater: And How!

Extreme Omnivore: The things she won't eat can be counted on one hand. The things that CAN eat her is an even shorter list, though there are quite a few that have tried, much to their horror. When all four of the legendary heroes take an ocean voyage to a special training island, Firo occasionally swam in the ocean, and sharks went after Firo. She would kick them onto the deck of the ship and then eat them.

Relationship Upgrade: With Melty. When Firo goes into heat, she attacks Melty while Naofumi has both of them in his "shield prison." They come out, and Melty is naked, on the ground, with a post-orgasmic afterglow, unable to move. Firo is quite pleased with herself. They get "close" frequently after this.

edited 14th May '15 6:46:19 AM by Harem-author

Rishia Ivy Red:

Made a Slave: Although she agrees to it willingly, Naofumi does brand her with his slave crest as part of her training so that his shield will boost her status to maximum effect as she levels up. She eventually loses this brand when she goes into one on one battle with Itsuki and apparently becomes "the hero of the projectile" in chapter 245 when a portion of Itsuki's power goes to her.

Fohl:

The Big Brother Instinct entry needs an update. Naofumi AND Rapthalia both think it's "something else." Rapthalia even says it out loud.

Good Old Fisticuffs: His primary method of fighting. Proves essential when he becomes "the hero of the gauntlet" after Atlas' death.

Taniko:

Fluffy Tamer: Likes to collect monster eggs and raise them.

Friend to All Living Things: She was raised with and by monsters, and she considers them family. This brings her into conflict with Rat, constantly. She doesn't have issues with the Heroes or her fellow villagers hunting wild monsters for food, materials, and exp, however.

edited 13th May '15 8:28:19 AM by Harem-author

Melty Q Melromark:

Relationship Upgrade: With Firo. Naofumi specifically tells Melty that being "more than friends" with Firo "doesn't count" as a romantic interest, as far as he's concerned.

Malty Melromark:

Hoist by His Own Petard: Repeatedly. She refuses to actually learn anything from it, however.

Serial Escalation: Her response to any kind of punishment or correction of her obviously offensive behavior is to become even more offensive. By the end of the story, she has convinced Tact that the best way to "save" her homeworld is to conquer it by any means, even if that means actually killing the other heroes and sabotaging efforts to fight the "waves."

The Moral Event Horizon entry needs to go in YMMV.

edited 13th May '15 8:55:46 AM by Harem-author

Tact: The antagonist of the War Of Heroes arc, and the first character who has deliberately sabotaged the efforts to fight the "waves" threatening the world.

Composite Character: Tact has all of the flaws of Ren, Itsuki, Motoyasu, and even Trash, but none of their redeeming features.

Dirty Coward: All of his "heroic accomplishments" shown on screen were purely the result of ambushes, sneak attacks and backstabbing.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite the fact that he happily boasts how "heroic" he is in killing people who don't agree with him, his self-righteous actions, or his own superiority, he takes the death of his very first follower due to a stray shot rather poorly.

Heroism Addict: Tact may well be this.

Miles Gloriosus: Loves to boast about how "heroic" and talented he is. His actions, especially in battle say otherwise.

Moral Myopia: To truly insane levels rivaling those of the "Celestial Dragons" in One Piece. Tact sabotages the battle with Hanou so there would be massive casualties, and then escape with a portal while the survivors fight on? Heroic, and deserves praise. Tact orders an attack on the queen of a foreign country and her escorts while they are unarmed and in parlay, as invited guests, with a squad of troops armed with high-powered firearms from ambush behind heavy curtains?Noble and just. Tact orders an all out assault on all nearby countries, destroying their armies and killing civilians by the thousands purely for his own ego?The ultimate in righteousness. Naofumi launches a counter attack which is clearly aimed at Tact, and Witch, a duly convicted traitor who intended to shoot Naofumi in the back, both his targets dodge thereby leading to accidentally hitting Eri, an armed combatant who was among those that fired at the Queen of Melromark and her escorts earlier, and was actively pointing a gun at Naofumi, intending to fire, again to shoot Naofumi in the back?This Is Unforgivable!!

Psychopathic Manchild: Tact has shades of this. He is basically treating his role in the story as if he was in a single-player RPG.

Wrong Genre Savvy: Let's just say Tact wasn't expecting Naofumi to be an anti-hero with a penchant for paying evil unto evil.

edited 13th May '15 10:03:30 AM by Harem-author

It's nice to see a shieldbro thread and all but, you can just edit these examples into the character pages instead of making a thread.

Well, maybe his editing priviliges is taken?

Also, apparently:

His cooking skill? Apparently, his real little brother considering that, yes, he does have real cooking skill. Momfumi is the best Naofumi.

I stumbled across this series recently. Very interesting. And, given the license for the novels and manga, I'm betting it'll be getting an anime soon like what happened with DanMachi.

This is probably the 3rd most active WN thread in Animesuki, after Mushoku Tensei and Arifureta. We can only hope.

Hmm. I quite enjoyed the manga, and am contemplating buying the LN. Is it any good?

Thred-necro: An anime is on it's way with the first promo-video coming next week

So we can expect a Rising Of The Shield Hero anime soon enough? I'd be happy about it!

PV is out looks promising.

i have heard this is a pretty dark isekai, so how does it compare to Re:Zero? and how much despair is it compared to Re:Zero? especially episodes 13-18?

Not as dramatic, or gory.

It is mostly about a dude trying to make a living and do the right thing after the people who ripped him from his old life and royally screwed him over for no other reason other than because they could.

It's about him slowly crawling his way up after hitting rock bottom, and dealing with all the shit life throws at him.

A new trailer is out

https://youtu.be/Pyl2h9Xdd9s

so apparently some people on MAL (yes, i know, shitty place to read the forum) thinks this series is gonna cause a controversy like Goblin Slayer. as someone more familiar with the series, do you think it's gonna gonna cause a controversy?

Mhh unlikely, for starters there is no in-your-face rape.

See Winter 2019 anime thread and you'll get the picture.

And uuuh... Maybe I won't watch the anime yet due to reasons unknown but oh well.

Basically it sounds like it's a juvenile revenge fantasy written by someone who appears to have some major issues with women. MRA/Misogynism, etc.

Edited by Clarste on Dec 29th 2018 at 8:48:12 AM

I only read the manga to ~ chapter 40, but I heard the WN went pretty absurd later on.

Yeah the things mentioned in the Winter thread all sound pretty unsavory, though except the part where the king and princess get renamed to "Trash" and "Whore" it is unlikely the anime will get that far into the story.

Tate no Yuusha got that much attention because it was sorta the first prominent "revenge-isekai" but that is not really a recommendable sub-sub-genre.