History Characters / TheRisingOfTheShieldHeroNaofumiIwatani

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Played With. Like the other three heroes, Naofumi was an otaku who could not help but compare Melromarc and its magical and cosmological rules to that of a video game. However, he was not as familiar with gaming clichés as the others. This combined with being denied all of the perks of being a Cardinal Hero by the royal family had caused Naofumi to learn how to survive in this world slowly through trial and error, him and his party eventually becoming more powerful and more effective against threats compared to the other heroes.

** [[spoiler:Fgittingly, when he receives the Vassal Mirror, he gains the power to impower others with his cooking.]]

* LoveYouAndEverybody: He tells Raphtalia that he loves her... as an adopted daughter, to her chagrin. But given she was a little girl when he found her, then aged quickly according to her leveling up, it's understandable.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: With the capital dead set on outright hindering Naofumi, he ends up the only Hero that's succeeding at his job against all odds while the others continue to blindly cause problems, severely underperform, irrationally blame him while amassing a large track record of embarrassing defeats and poor decisions. While it seems Zig-Zagged in Naofumi's case, it was never framed as anything but bad, more of a NecessaryEvil since it was stressed that he needed someone to fight for him, and he could only afford Raphtalia at the time, and the entire issue had to be put on the backburner in favor of ''saving the country'' from threats in and out of it. They're happy to be his slaves since, in a country where demi-humans only have ''some'' rights as someone's property, and even then they can still be be abused, beaten, and killed at their owner's discretion without suffering any legal trouble, Naofumi gets brownie points for treating them with basic decency, and later fatherly affection to the point where he arranges for them to live in a village where they're just slaves InNameOnly at Raphtalia's behest. Contrast this with Motoyasu who, [[JerkassHasAPoint despite rightly pointing out how slavery is an inherently evil practice]], just uses it as an excuse to antagonize Naofumi and attempt to force Raphtalia away from him and into his own party without caring one bit about context or her personal feelings, or bothering to call out the king for turning a blind eye to his own kingdom practicing it, or really doing ''anything'' about it despite the latter calling him out on his unwanted help.

* NeverGetsDrunk: And never gets seasick or poisoned either. The cohol fruit has such a high alcohol content that a single fruit must be diluted in a ''barrel'' of water to create something safe to drink. Naofumi snacked on them like they were peanuts, while another person eating just half a fruit nearly died of alcohol poisoning. It's part of his secondary power that being the shield hero has, though the web novel implies he never really got drunk before the summoning either. Itsuki thinks it's a psychic power.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Due to his Shield being better suited for support, he often relies his teamates to do the fighting for him.

** In the anime, Naofumi stops Malty and Aultcray's execution, which Mirelia was the one to propose, due to a precognition the night before and under the fear that [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he might become just like them]]. He also notices when Malty is begging him to save her that her Slave Crest was dormant, meaning that she can beg to a man she tried to kill and be genuine because she doesn't care. This leads him to stop their deaths and deciding on their name change by thinking as dying being too light a punishment. In the light novel (and the manga, too, but the light novel is the source material) Naofumi was adamant about putting them to death after Malty tried ask him to forgive them and take the moral high ground, which Naofumi saw the hypocrisy in due to what he'd suffered with them. Mirelia is forced to agree with Malty about the repercussions of the deaths of royalty and suggests they be given a life not worth living, which leads to Naofumi deciding on the name change.

* MagikarpPower: While the Shield Hero's default stats are much lower than the other heroes, leveling up is way harder for him due to his nonexistent offensive power, and being falsely accused of assaulting Malty has robbed him of what little royal support he has, Naofumi slowly began to outclass the other heroes because unlike the other heroes, he was willing to put the work into getting stronger. He learned the ins and outs of Melromarc and its properties, he out-thinks his foes instead of [[AttackAttackAttack charging at them blindly]], is willing to work with his party instead of leaving them behind or making them do all the work, and is the first to unlock his Curse Series. Whenever he has to work with the other heroes, the disparity between him and them is even more obvious, with the Queen rightfully pointing out that Naofumi is the only one among them likely to survive the coming Waves if they don't work together.

** In the manga, with a sinister face, Naofumi was about to finish a helpless Glass off inebriated by the luchol fruit juice. In the same circumstance in the anime, Naofumi just tried to convince her to give up and retreat

* CounterAttack: Naofumi's only way to deal damage, justified in that his only weapon is his shield, and his attack stats are very low. It would take several minutes of striking starting level {{Mook}}s if he wanted to kill by his own hand.

** [[IntrepidMerchant during Naofumi's travels between Waves]]; he went about cleaning up the messes left behind by the other Three Heroes and went the extra mile to leave the towns in a much-better state than how the previous Heroes left them. It's through his actions that earned him the respect and admiration of the public, along with the eternal ire of the Three Heroes Church over the successes of "The Devil of The Shield" [[SuperZeroes while at the same time the Three Heroes that they prayed to failed at nearly every possible turn.]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: An InUniverse example. In Melromarc, Naofumi is seen as worthless by the other Heroes due to having a weapon that cannot attack and is treated as [[TheAntiChrist "The Devil of The Shield"]] by members of The Three Heroes Church who preach that The Three Heroes must eventually grow strong enough to kill him. [[spoiler:However, his situation is quite the opposite in nations like Siltvelt and [[MeaningfulName Shieldfreeden]]; which were established by the previous Shield Heroes as homelands for the [[ALittleBitBeastly Demi-Humans and Beastmen]] who all follow "The Church of The Shield Hero" due to Naofumis' predecessors having protected and helped save them from persecution and harm. Had Naofumi been summoned to either of the two nations, [[RightfulKingReturns he would have been immediately and warmly welcomed by the and treated as the nations' King]] and the people would provide him with everything that he could ever want or ask for.]]

* GrumpyBear: Naofumi finds most everything that happens around him annoying, even when it's [[spoiler:an entire village treating him with genuine love and respect]]. When he's not angry or taking sadistic joy in another's misfortune, he usually looks bored.

* CherryTapping: Naofumi's attack with the Balloon monsters that latch onto him early in the story is a very weak attack, but it is the only one he can do..

* CherryTapping: Naofumi's attack with the Balloon monsters that latch onto him early in the story.

* TheNicknamer: When he's not resorting to HeyYou, he comes up with nicknames for just about everyone based off of his first impression of them. He only calls a handful of people by their real names such as Raphtalia and Filo. Everyone else is fair game and several he only knows by the nicknames he created.

** Episode 7 of the anime has Filo bluntly tell Raphtalia that she intends to make Naofumi her "mate". But this is quickly brushed aside since she simply content to have Naofumi's attention in any capacity, even as his surrogate daughter. Indeed, it sounds like FatherIWantToMarryMyBrother rather than something romantic.

* WeaponOfChoice: In the anime he tends to default to the Chimera Viper Shield in combat, as it's one of the few shields with a counterattack ability.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: An InUniverse example. In Melromarc, Naofumi is seen as worthless due to having a weapon that cannot attack and is treated as "[[TheAntiChrist The Devil of The Shield]]" that must be defeated the other Three Heroes by members of The Three Heroes Church. However, his situation is quite the opposite in nations like Siltvelt and [[MeaningfulName Shieldfreeden]]; which were established by the previous Shield Heroes as homelands for the [[ALittleBitBeastly Demi-Humans]] whom Naofumis' predecessors had protected and helped save from harm. Had he been summoned to either of the two nations, [[RightfulKingReturns Naofumi would have been immediately and warmly welcomed and treated as the nations' King]] and the people would provide him with everything that he could ever want or ask for.

This page is for Naofumi Iwatani, the eponymous protagonist of ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero''.

[[WMG:[[center: [- ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'' '''[[Characters/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero Main Character Index]]'''\\

** Naofumi was weak-willed and timid till he was betrayed by Myne which caused him to become aggressive, cynical, and pessimistic. Once he finds Raphtalia and he sees that she is truly his ally and that he's not only in this world, he starts to trust at least some others again and protect her and Filo like his own family. Later on, after his his name is cleared by the queen, he's still a JerkWithAHeartOfGold but has more emotions than he use to and can fully trust the right people again.

** Despite Naofumi wanting to see Malty suffer, in the worst way, and for good reason, there is a limit to what even he can stomach. [[spoiler:When he was forced to watch King Faubley torture Witch to death to avoid provoking a war with Faubley, he was visibly disgusted, and had to ask the guard who was there as a witness (and holding a magic crystal recording him watching the scene) to fake him watching it to the end, and the guard agreed.]] Chapters 342-345 takes this UpToEleven.

** In the Light Novel and the manga, with a sinister face, Naofumi was about to finish a helpless Glass off inebriated by the luchol fruit juice. In the same circumstance in the anime, Naofumi just tried to convince her to give up and retreat