The Rising of the Shield Hero S3 – 02 – Whale of a Match

“Team Rockvalley” continues to win and earn winnings, but one night there all of their opponents forfeit, ending their night early. Naofumi agrees to have drinks with Nadia the beast woman, who likes a man who can handle his rukor fruit.

When they are surrounded by thugs on the street, Naofumi assumes Nadia has double-crossed him, but they’re not her men, because she takes all of them out with chain lightning magic. After giving him a hug (she’s a hugger) she says she hopes they don’t meet in the arena.

But after meeting with the owner of the city’s largest department store, who has an interest in sponsoring Rockvalley, Rishia learns that sure enough their next opponent will be Nadia, whom only Naofumi knows. When they meet in the arena, she gives him another snuggle before getting down to business.

Naofumi makes clear to Raph and Filo that this isn’t like their previous opponents; she’s much tougher, as befits a championship matchup. Those running the fights even make things tougher by flooding the arena, and Nadia takes advantage by transforming into full beast form: that of an orca.

This comes as a huge shock to Raph, who immediately recognizes her as “Sadeena-neesan”, a good friend from Lurolona Village. Once “Nadia” realizes she’s Raphtalia, and the man is Naofumi, she basically throws the match. Unfortunately, those running the show declare the result invalid.

Instead, they put Nadia on Naofumi’s team and pit them against the Murder Clown, who enters the arena flanked by two wooden golems and the aura of someone even more powerful and dangerous than Nadia.

Within moments, she has stopped Raph’s sword with magical wire and covered her and Filo in goo, but Filo transforms into bird mode and delivers a punishing kick to the clown. As she and Raph fight, Nadia/Sadeena urges Naofumi to join her in a choral spell.

This spell summons the wratch of the thunder god, not upon their opponent but upon Raphtalia, who is surrounded by lightning but unharmed. She harnesses this power to deflect the clown’s attacks and deliver a stirring coup-de-grace that creates a crater in the arena.

Unfortunately, the clown switched out her body for a golem dummy at the last second, so Raph’s awesome attack doesn’t hit. The clown then says a bunch of cryptic stuff to Naofumi about not having enough base strength and asking him to stay alive until their next meeting before disappearing.

The boss wants to nullify this match as well, but both the Slave Merchant and the department store reveal Naofumi’s identity as the Shield Hero and grants him the win…and the winnings. That means Naofumi and Sadeena, who both had the goal to buy back the Lurolona villages, are now able to do so.

From there we focus on young white tiger demi-human boy buying low-cost medicine for his critically ill, bandaged sister. We got a glimpse of these two striking looking characters in the OP, so I’m intrigued to see what their deal is. But for now, I’m on Team Sadeena, whale-tail hair and all.

The Rising of the Shield Hero S3 – 01 – New World, Same Problems

After a thrilling, intriguing, but brief cold open which has a masked Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo fighting in an arena, we get the lay of the land post-Spirit Tortoise. The other three Cardinal Heroes are missing, Malty may be planning something untoward, and a new Guardian Spirit, the Phoenix, is about three months away. Queen Mirela asks for Naofumi’s help locating the other heroes so the four of them can protect the kingdom.

Naofumi is primarily concerned with protecting his own lands, but helping Melromarc will be beneficial to that goal. After a quick stop at Elhart’s to see if he can mend the gear they got in the other world, Naofumi and his party of Raph, Filo, and Rishia stop by the slave market to find most of the slaves have already been sold.

The slave merchant tells them that because slavery is no longer legal in Melromarc, the beastman slaves are simply being sold in markets where it is still legal, like Zeltoble the country of merchants and mercenaries. So Naofumi & Co. head there in a travel montage set to Kevin Penkin’s always stirring score.

Once there, they encounter a man who appears identical to the slave merchant in Melromarc, only he is actually that man’s uncle. He shows them to the literal underground of the capital, where rich folks bid on the beastmen slaver who claim to be from Raphtalia’s home village of Lurolona, but are actually lying.

It doesn’t matter, as the Lurolona brand, connected as it is to the legend of the Shield Hero, is all that matters, and they sell for top dollar. Money is everything, particularly in a merchant country, so the slave trader’s uncle recommends a way for Naofumi to make the money he needs to buy up as many slaves as possible: fighting in the underground arena.

While checking out the arena, Naofumi meets a comely lass who correctly predicts the winner of the bout they witness. Then Naofumi procures some masks and tells Raph and Filo that they’ll be participating in arena battles in order to procure the necessary funds for his goals.

While it takes Filo a bit to understand that they have to appear weak at first in order to get more people to bet for or against them, their first match ends splendidly. Initially billed as underdogs, Naofumi, Raph, and Filo stage a major “upset”, even though they’re hardly going all out.

You and me both, Filo. The events I described above are ostensibly what’s going on in this new season of Shield Hero. But it felt like a lot, and also felt like it might’ve behooved me to go back and re-watch the second season, which is generally considered to be not that great. But while at times I was like Filo and didn’t quite get everything going on and mentioned and hinted at, I also agree with Filo that it sounds like fun, so I’ll be continuing to tune in!