It’s not every day that one finds an iskeai, which actually seems good and has a very promising potential in the future. ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero‘ shows us that isekai is not only about the ecchi and over the top cliched stories but also packs some riveting action, duality in notions, a fantastic cast, and a good story.
Back in September 2019 at Crunchyroll Expo, the news of two more seasons for the isekai anime series were confirmed in production. The surprise announcement was enough for the fans to go gaga. They were all happy as not one, but two seasons were officially announced.
‘The Rising of the Shield Hero’ garnered a pretty massive fanbase and the fans after knowing that there’s going to be a third season too, they are excited. Throughout the article, we will discuss the release date of the new season and other exciting aspects of the show.
1. Release Date and Announcement
The announcement for the production of ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3‘ came back in September 2019, along with the announcement of the second season at Crunchyroll Expo during a special stage panel.
As of the last update, the production team for ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3’ hasn’t officially unveiled any information about the release date of the third season.
Furthermore, The Rising of the Shield Hero fell into a controversy when the first episode aired in the US, with numerous viewers criticizing it for the depiction of slavery and framing of false rape accusations in the time when MeToo movement was at its peak.
It sparked a roar among the activists, and the audience there, the show’s producer Junichiro Tamura apologized for it and said that he didn’t know about such happenings as the movement wasn’t much popular in Japan.
In the theory section, we would further discuss how the isekai rose to fame, about the hideous writer of the series, compare the light novel series and anime, and discuss the expected storyline for the third season.
2. Theory Section
Earlier in 2019, Kadokawa announced that their net profits for the first quarter rose largely, it was all thanks to Naofumi and his adventures. Tamura, the producer at Kadokawa, said that he would like to animate all of the Shield Hero till the end.
The key factor which decided the fate of the second and third season of the isekai anime series was its sudden surge in popularity on the streaming platforms, especially on Crunchyroll, it dominated the #1 spot on Crunchyroll for the Winter as well as Spring 2019 section.
I. Financial Standings
As of December 2018, the light novel series had a massive 3.3 million copies in print, and the manga had 1 million tankabon volumes in print by January 2019.
In April 2019, the manga and light novel were able to sell 6.2 million copies in Japan, and due to the rising popularity of the anime series, the sales increased by 1.2 million copies within two months.
II. Awards
Although the isekai anime or light novel series hasn’t won any awards, it won’t be wrong to say that it has won countless hearts of fans and gained a massive fanbase out of it.
The only notable achievement for the anime was that Raphtalia won the ‘Best Girl‘ in the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2020.
III. The Animation
Kinema Citrus helmed the burden of animating ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero,’ and they were able to to do it nicely. The animation is pretty good and crafty, the art style is nothing to fawn over, and the character designs are untenable. But it stands where it should matters, in the action sequences. Overall, it’s decent to look at.
IV. About Aneko Yusagi
Aneko Yusagi is the writer of the famous light novel series ‘The Rising of the Shield Hero.‘ There is no information regarding his gender; even Yusagi isn’t his real name, it’s a pen name often used by the writers to separate their real life and the writing life.
The author has been regularly publishing new chapters, and from that, we can infer that he/she is in good health.
V. Production Update
As of the last update, Kinema Citrus, Crunchyroll, or any other company related to the production of the third installment hasn’t announced a release date for the show.
However, if one is to guess the release date, then it would be scheduled to broadcast sometimes in Fall 2022 if the second season is released by mid-2021.
3. LN/Manga compared to Anime
The Light Novel is adapted from the original web novel. In the web novel, the protagonist Naofumi is more fleshed out and raw, but the LN made him a bit more mellowed and appealing to the mainstream audience as to attract more and more viewers, which it certainly did and was quite successful in it.
The manga version depicted Naofumi as a person driven by plausible revenge. After all the mishaps, one is bound to fill with agony and anger. It seemed more confrontational, the manga version. People understood the pain and connected with the character.
In the anime, it’s different altogether. Instead of being a hot-blooded character, he is a selfless kind of person who just wants the betterment of the kingdom. The manga readers didn’t like this, and they preferred the edgelord over the kind and compassionate Naofumi, which by all means seemed reasonable.
In all, it isn’t that bad, the studio makes changes for the marketability of an anime series, they don’t tend to change much of the original story, and Shield Hero falls under this case only. Hopefully, Kinema Citrus won’t do more experiments with Naofumi as a character.
4. Key Visual
The key visual for the third season isn’t out yet, but it will adapt the story from Volume 10 of the LN.
No trailer or teaser for the third installment has been released yet.
Nonetheless, The Rising of the Shield Hero season 3 is not coming any soon. You can check all our updates on The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2.
6. Expected Storyline/Plot for Season 3
The story will pick up from Volume 10 of the Light Novel series, which is after Naofumi and his team defeats Kyo and escapes the other dimension.
After saving the kingdom from the rampage of the Spirit Tortoise, the queen of Melromarc rewards Naofumi by giving him a piece of land where he can create a settlement. The first season surprisingly covered this, but the third season will need to develop it further.
But peace can’t stand Naofumi being happy, and one day he is invited to visit Zeltoble, a country of mercenaries that’s famous for its Coliseum, where fighters compete, gambling on lives are done, and everyone is allowed to participate, even the heroes. But underneath the glitz and glamour, is the dark and gloomy secret.
Raphtalia meets an old friend in a battle, Naofumi struggles to convince all the heroes to work as a team, and the Coliseum battles are getting interesting. The third season will unravel several new mysteries and secrets with lots of action sequences.
Let’s just hope that the wait for the third season isn’t too long.
7. Cast and Staff
No new cast and staff have been announced yet although several new characters would be introduced.
The cast and staff for the first season were:
I. Staff
| Director | Takao Abo |
| Series Composition | Keigo Koyanagi |
| Character Design | Masahiro Suwa |
| Music | Kevin Penkin |
| Studio | Kinema Citrus |
II. Cast
| Kaito Ishikawa | Naofumi Iwatani |
| Asami Seto | Raphtalia |
| Rina Hidaka | Filo |
| Megumi Han | Glass |
| Hiroki Yasumoto | Elhart |
8. About The Rising of the Shield Hero
Tate no Yusha no Nariagari or The Rising of the Shield Hero is an isekai light novel series written by Aneko Yusagi. It was initially published as a web novel on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website from 2012 to 2015.
In August 2013, Media Factory started publishing the light novel series with an expanded storyline featuring illustrations by Seira Minami.
Later on, Kinema Citrus adapted the light novel into an anime television series. The first episode aired on 9 January 2019.
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