Here’s Why the Second Season of Shield Hero was so Bad

Have You Ever Wondered Why the Second Season of Shield Hero Was So Bad? It seems to be a common consensus among those who watched the anime that the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero was significantly worse, diverging greatly from the quality of the first and third seasons.

Looking at the ratings on MAL, the first season holds a score of 7.93, the second season dropped drastically to 6.52, and the third season climbed back to 7.10, with the fourth season set to premiere sometime in the future.

Here’s Why the Second Season of Shield Hero was so Bad

But why was the second season of Shield Hero so poorly received? Well, in an online forum, a fan posted about how they had watched the second season and mentioned seeing on Twitter that the anime made significant changes compared to the original work, which ended up being disastrous for the series.

This fan then asked, “What did the anime change compared to the original material?” In response, another fan compiled a list of all the changes the second season made to the events in the light novel. Just take a look at the sheer length of the text!

I even considered translating all the points listed above, but it turned out to be far more than I expected. I found the Spirit Tortoise arc extremely boring, but knowing there were so many changes and that the second season was objectively dull is mind-blowing.

I even came across a thread on MAL titled “SKIP THE TURTLE ARC,” and I would genuinely recommend newcomers read a summary of the second season and jump straight into the third.

Let’s Check Out the Japanese Reactions

• The screenwriter of The Rising of the Shield Hero was also involved in Bravern, and the author commented on X that the story development is the same. It seems the author appeared there as well. Some defended it, saying it wasn’t outright plagiarism, but the production timeline overlaps. Also, the bonus novel in the DVD is terrible.
• “Now, let’s talk about the controversial Episode 10. First, as a premise: almost the entire episode is anime-original.” I almost died laughing.
• I haven’t read the original material, but even so, the script for the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero had zero consistency and was painful to watch… The third season was relatively interesting, which made the discrepancy even stranger.
• I only watched the anime, but I admit that starting with the Spirit Tortoise arc, I began to think, “this is getting boring,” and I stopped watching after the third season.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero is popular overseas, right? I wish they had done a better job.
• I read the original material and the manga adaptation, so it seemed like my brain was filling in the gaps while watching. I didn’t realize it was so different. Well, it did feel like a digest version, but even for that, the quality was poor.
• The second season had a lot of “what is this?” moments (I loved the first season), but this… this is something else.
• I’m sure I watched the second season, but I don’t remember anything… I only remember that it was completely different from the original and that the plot development was terrible… Or maybe it was so bad it got erased from my memory.
• This has practically turned into fan fiction…

I resonate with the sentiment of the second-to-last comment. The only thing I remember about the second season is the Spirit Tortoise; I have no recollection of the story and didn’t feel motivated to return for the third season.

via Voce Sabia Anime