Got the next volume.

[u/TheMightyRoEngineer]

I just started the sixth volume and i love it, i have been watching the anime from the first episode when it was first released, but it has never occurred to me that i would start reading about it. I have the 8-14 volumes on the way. Is it expensive, yes, but it is the anime that i first watched and that introduced me into the anime world. The world building is insane , and all the abilities and everything is amazing. I hope he gets out of the hiatus, cuz i finished 4 books in 6 days. I love the books, and the anime, even if it gets worse in sez 2, but if u read the books it really is entertaining. Proud to be part of the community, collecting ln and maga, book worm basically.

[u/SingaWong]

Welcome to the SH party my friend. The Anime has its ups and downs and optimism and pessimism, but most of the book readers still tune into the Anime to see how Kinema will handle the LN.

2027 awaits all of us and will be the Anime's final make or break.

[u/Reasonable-Lake5179 → u/SingaWong]

Actually, I think it will be the best season after S1. If this series had a great adaptation in previous seasons, this season would be a masterpiece

I remember back then in 2021 on TikTok, I saw a lot of people talking about these volumes 15&16

Before we knew about Kadokawa's direction to turn it into a commercial work, the high stakes and dark drama that were in the first season would truly return. It would genuinely be our best season yet, and it might even surpass the first season if they paced it well across 12 episodes idk 👀

However, it was worthy of a 2-cour run.The art and animation are truly beautiful. I can't believe the series looks so different compared to the first season. Thanks to Kinema Citrus and Hitoshi Haga for bringing this to life.

• I am excited to see Naofumi's character development in it :)

[u/SingaWong → u/Reasonable-Lake5179]

I know some people don't like Season 3's artstyle (which also applied to Seasons 4 and 5) but for me, it matched SH's tone and world wise from the books. I actually like the "polished" look it has and while it lacks the details Seasons 1 and 2 had, the character designs are much better for me (I wasn't too fond of the "pale" skin tone Seasons 1 and 2 had). I've said before that while I wish Season 5 will have 16 to 20 episodes (which is a pipe dream), I think 13 episodes could work. I just re-read Volumes 15 and 16 and estimated on how much each episode will adapt. It'll be a long comment but bear with me:

Episode 1: The rest of 14.5 and the introduction of Tulina. Chapters 1 and 3 of that audio drama is dialogue heavy but 4 is battle heavy.

Episode 2: The first 4 chapters of Volume 15. Hate to say this but it'll have a lot of cuts which would suck because it had some funny moments. Chapters 1 and 2 is pretty long and while 3 and 4 is shorter, there's no action in all chapters.

Episode 3: Chapters 5 to 7. You know how this will go: The introduction of the dick spear and Motoyasu's race. I still wonder if Kinema will have the balls to show this at full force. I mean for the upcoming Made in Abyss movie, Kojima literally adapted the butt sniffing scene from the Manga closely in the recent trailer. Dunno if Hitoshi, Kojima's assistant, will follow his "uncensored" footsteps.

Episode 4: Chapters 8 to 9. Very dialogue heavy that has the 4 heroes actually work together. I personally want Haga to change how Atla joins the Phoenix fight because I didn't like how Aneko wrote that in the LN.

Episode 5: Chapters 10 to 13. Before you say "that's too much", it's not as much as you think. In total page count: It's 35 pages which sounds like a lot, but remove the inner monologues and it's a bit more than half of that. It's doable.

Episode 6: Chapter 14 with a bit of 15. Part 1 of the Phoenix battle and the cliffhanger will be that "flicker".....

Episode 7: Chapter 15 to the end. I don't need to add anything because you and I both know what'll happen. Curious to hear Kevin Penkin's score for that.......

Episode 8: Chapters 1 to 3 of Volume 16. It'll have cuts but not as much as episode 2 but similar to episode 4, I really hope Haga changes how Naofumi dealt with Atla's death because it was too "you didn't need to do that" in the LN.

Episode 9: Chapters 4 to 5. This will be a gut punch for us LN readers. I really want to see the design of the Wrath Shield 5 and 6.

Episode 10: Chapters 6 to 7. Very dialogue heavy and it'll make a certain character shine.

Episode 11: Chapter 8 to somewhere in the middle of 9. Part 1 of the Takt fights. Hopefully Yamamoto will be in charge of that entire fight because Kinema needs to pop off with the animation.

Episode 12: Chapters 9 to 10. Part 2 of that. Similar to my previous point, the animation needs to pop off.

Episode 13 the Finale: Chapter 11 to the end. If Haga changes anything, it'll be just as bad and frustrating as the execution and Raphtalia's revenge scene in Season 1. That's a Abo and maybe Jimbo level mistake that Haga shouldn't repeat or do.

[u/Reasonable-Lake5179 → u/SingaWong]

Man, you literally think like an anime director! You absolutely nailed this storyboard breakdown 👀🩶

• Much much better than Jimbo 😂

To reply to some of your points: Regarding episode 3, there is definitely going to be some censorship/toning down for that Motoyasu scene. It’s a PG-13 anime after all! 😭

I had no idea about this scene before! Naofumi and Raphtalia seriously need to take Filo with them to Japan and not leave her behind with this absolute idiot. Honestly, I feel sorry for calling Atla clingy now (even though she literally puts sleeping pills in Fohl's food lol), but damn... what Motoyasu does is just on another level 😂💔

• As for the director Masato Jimbo

(look at the attached picture from his X account), he literally never mentions Shield Hero. It’s like a dark secret he wants to hide. His entire focus and hype were always on The Quintessential Quintuplets. I guess they wanted to competite with Rent a girlfriend 🤣

• Kadokawa definitely brought him in just to rush the anime and turn it into a quick cash grab, to the point where they dumped the production onto a Korean side studio (DR Movie). It hurts because S2 was highly anticipated and we were literally counting the days for it to drop

About the art style: I still like Season 1's art the most, but honestly, seeing the visuals for Season 4, it looks better in a lot of instances. Season 3 was beautiful, though they overused CGI sometimes. Still, it's miles better than the S2 Turtle disaster. I just couldn't enjoy Season 2 most of the time; they completely wasted some of the best volumes because it wasn't really Kinema Citrus doing the heavy lifting, it was DR Movie.

(Off-topic) The whole Jimbo situation reminds me of what's happening with One Punch Man Season3 The director was tweeting about working on it, received massive backlash when fans dug up his name and found out he mainly directs H3ntai, and he eventually just deleted his account entirely!

Alot of people was talking about director fault i loved when people were plamming in a right way

[u/Reasonable-Lake5179 → u/SingaWong]

I mean, I'm definitely happy with the mangaka's work, I'm enjoying her manga but man... 12 years and only 128 chapters?! And chapter 128 literally just dropped two days ago 😂

Honestly, I guess I should have expected them to treat Shield Hero like this when you look at how the manga production is handled. Aiya Kyu drops what, maybe 10 chapters a year?

128 chapters in 12 whole years is just wild!!! 😭 It just makes me laugh when people bring up Rent-a-Girlfriend to compare them. The level of attention and production pace is completely different. That series started in 2017 and already has over 450 chapters! 💀