Am I. The only one who didn't like the way it turned? I liked the start and the subverting expectations until it didn't and he became a tsundere hero who saves people. You'd think he'd be a villain or at the very least do some murders especially against that bich, and like a true hero he's every body's bich who does their bidding and fulfills their wishes and anything they ask or goes out of his way to help for no reason or makes a tsundere reason (warped perspective on my part with confrontational words of bias and dislike but it's the truth nonetheless) I kind of wanted it to go the murder route so I want a refund but meh, can't do a thing about it. At least they didn't massacre the anime adaption like Arifureta seriously what were those fools thinking with Ari and the rest, if they were going to make that trash adaption why bother at all. But yea I wanted a borderline but lovable psycho like pre final season eren when he gets mad, or light when L was still kicking and didn't degrade with those kiddy peasants, maybe not lelouch since lulu is more of an intellectual anti-hero schemer. But yea, wanted some blood. Didn't get any at all (negligible). So I'm disappointed. He's just a little tsun hero who'll change his ways to a real hero with the standard annoying to some (me) but lovable to others (insolent, ungrateful, etc.etc) female sidekick like Nami from One Piece who beats them up for comic relief (I don't find it funny oda but ok you covered all your bases since luffy powers is rubber which is borderline ridiculous but you mad genius made him creative as hell) called....forgot her name. Well we went off topic for a bit but in conclusion. Shield hero should have been fall if shield hero and rise of villain with some blood and gore.
I am not disagreeing with you but lets be real, doing that would require the author to write a complex villain and lets be honest the villains of the shield hero are pretty much one note because the author isn't actually that capable. I was honestly surprised to learn that the anime was actually popular, I remember despising the webnovel back when I read it, I still finished it because I had no taste and was still susceptible to the sunk-cost fallacy back then, so finding out that it was one of the most popular animes of the season was a surprise to me. The shield hero' story would have benefitted from Naofumi actually going independent and not just be a quasi-vassal like he was in the novel, doing so would have allowed the author to explore Naofumi's own philosophy and personality and would have put him in conflict with the Kingdom anyway because he was essentially rebelling. The fact that he was still relying on a slave party after his 'redemption' would have made for an interesting character arc and made the guy more amoral/ pragmatic since his justification for it was more practicality than any sense of morality. but that was not what happened, the author made the threats 'World Ending' to force him to cooperate, and put him on the route of tsun hero rather than a proper anti-hero with actual flaws. also Arifureta isn't good and I am not talking about the anime, even the novel is bad beyond the first volume which is good at best.
You seem to forget that at its core Rising of the Shield Hero was always a relaxed isekai. The overarching story, flaws, etc. were used to add depth to the characters. Not to make the series dark. There are plenty of revenge porn stories that take the murder route like you want. Shield Hero is not one of them. And Shield Hero has always been popular as such despite your personal distaste, so no, Naofumi should not have been a villain. PS: The anti-heros / villains you suggested as examples (L and Lelouch) also belong to very different genres from Tate no Yuusha. Their series engage with utopic / dystopic societies on a high level. The characters fundamentally want to make the world a better place. Meanwhile, you matched that by suggesting ... Naofumi be a murderer. Yeah. No way. Nice guy Naofumi is closer to L and Lelouch than he would be as an unhinged murderer. If he simply killed, he would be missing everything that made L and Lelouch relatable and charismatic. Just imagine if L was taking his extreme measure (including sacrificing people) without Light and his mass-murders to justify doing so. He'd be a paranoid sociopath, not a genius detective forced to inhumane measures by Light's supernatural means. Or if Nunnally was removed and Lelouch's wish to leave her a peaceful world had devolved to revenge for his mother. He never would have made it as far as he did or had the depth to act against his own force's interests.
The problem is the first arc of Shield Hero makes it seem like the story intends to go in the dark direction, that is why there is such a noticeable tonal shift once its over and the story starts to take on a more relaxed Isekai narrative. Also there is leeway between wholesome relaxed isekai and over the top edgy muder porn stories, I think the OP meant that he wanted it to be more dark anti-hero in that sense and not necessarily those revenge fantasy isekais. there is a lot of leeway between the two that would have allowed the author to continue the dark theme of the first arc without going full murder porn. Naofumi would have become a murderer anyway, just through his struggles to remain outside the influence of the Kingdom and killing those they sent to hunt him down, and not necessarily because he was hunting the other characters down himself.
"The problem is the first arc of Shield Hero makes it seem like the story intends to go in the dark direction, that is why there is such a noticeable tonal shift once its over and the story starts to take on a more relaxed Isekai narrative." The tone is much lighter once Raphtalia grows up, and that happens within the first few chapters / episodes. Which goes more towards establishing her tragic background and relationship with Naofumi than the story's tone. And honestly, even then there are signs it won't be as dark as it initially seems. Such as when Naofumi buys her a kid lunch, ball and bonds with the blacksmith. "Also there is leeway between wholesome relaxed isekai and over the top edgy muder porn stories, I think the OP meant that he wanted it to be more dark anti-hero in that sense and not necessarily those revenge fantasy isekais." True, but OP specifically singled out Naofumi not revenge killing people who slight him (ie. the princess) and fighting waves to save the world as flaws so I disagree with you there. Furthermore he specifically states he's looking for a psycho MC, which was never Naofumi. Even at his lowest. OP is looking for a different genre than Shield Hero.
You are right, I guess I just read it that the OP wanted Naofumi to be more like Light, I didn't watch attack on titan so I have no frame of reference there, which was more rational villain than psychotic murder porn protagonist and that is where my misunderstanding came from. Until the L arc was finished, light while a bit egomaniacal was for the most part a rational decision maker, so I thought the OP wanted a more dark and rational MC, rather than the stereotypical nice guy MC that is usually present in Isekai.
Yea, but it was the vibe and direction the story was going. Betrayal is actually a good catalyst for character growth and personality change, it's just authors tend to ignore it completely where every betrayal has no impact at all, best friend betrays you? The logical answer is to be nice bitten twice shy but nope, almost every novel immediately gets and accepts a fat best friend. The betrayal should have turned nice guy Naofumi from a dumb nice guy to an enlightened evil or at least something close to that but the betrayal had barely any impact at all. Sure he was rude to people and scowled a lot but underneath he was the same guy. Didn't change a bit. The author made it seem like a drastic change was going to happen, all sunshine and rainbows cliche and then it took a dark ugly turn but it didn't continue down that path instead it switched to another path mid way between those two leaning more towards the sunshine and rainbows and I'm a hero who saves people and the world. So yea, he duped us. He set the tone switched it and switched it again and switched it one more time and I'm guessing he'll have a circular character arc so it'll switch one more time where he regresses to the same person he was before.
First, to address your belief that the author does not develop Naofumi at all. Have you tried reading Yari no Yuusha? Naofumi is completely different there. He was affected by the framing, but not in the way you expected. Your idea of how Shield Hero's events should affect Naofumi is not the author's idea of how it should. And that is normal. Even irl people react in myriad ways to traumatic events and you're going to eventually make an ass of yourself if you assume otherwise. It's natural that things will not go as you believe they logically should, and if you can't get past that then you need to look for series that match your expectations. You're complaining about tonal shifts that happen within the first first two episodes of a 25 episode series. My immediate question is why did you put yourself through another 23 episodes of a series you apparently actively disliked? There are authors more in-line with your idea of how characters should behave and I strongly believe your time would be better spent looking into them. PS: I said that Naofumi did not react the way you expected, but factually he did have the, "nice [sic] bitten twice shy." The author makes a recurring point of how Naofumi obsessively needs everyone he partners with to be his slaves, and actually breaks down when Raphtalia is freed. You cannot be more insecure than that. Which makes me suspect you are obfuscating from your original complaint that you wanted Naofumi to be a psychotic murderer. In which case I again advocate you find one of the "revenge porn" series that are actually like that instead of complaining about Shield Hero.
I dropped it long ago. So no I didn't watch it but I read the manga before it was adapted, and I made it until the other bird left by the hero was pushing him around then I dropped it for good. Now addressing your ass like response. People cope in different ways yes, but you're even more of an ass if you don't think the ENVIRONMENT has a MAJOR impact on the direction of the coping. In a world where violence and fighting monsters is a thing, where he was held at spear point, where he himself has the power to f people up, where you can die for being weak, the common and most liable path of coping is also violence, aka turning into a revenge murder story. If he was in a game where he could respawn and stuff then ok np, the environment is different but actions have consequences possibly death in that world. As for that bit about character development?! That's pure BS, he's just a tsundere with a facade, he wasn't once bitten twice shy at all, since it only took a single slave to fix him, even then his character didn't shift at all. Sure he acted different but I did say 'INSIDE' he was the same person all along, he just changed his methods that's not character development, that's a change in strategy. Know the difference. As for the revenge porn you are suggesting, what's makes you think I haven't read any? People like you just love jumping to conclusions and going way outside of the box straying from the topic when they can't win a debate or don't have enough confidence in their argument consciously or subconsciously. Having read stories that went the revenge way I can critique the similarities between this and them and they are very much identical.....at the start of course. Though those revenge stories aren't 'perfect' either but that's a different topic I won't stray from the point as you have. He's always been a nice guy hero and like a true nice guy hero the plot armour protected his nice guy chastity except with the slightly unconventional mean guy facade instead of the deux ex machina to save the day. He could've totally been killed so he's justified in killing the ones he did him wrong but he chose the nice guy route with a mean guy facade helping people out here and there, even Hiiro from Konjiki? Mondaji!? (IDK forgot the name it's been a minute, the one with word magic). Is better than his facade, since he's not acting at all, he's an actual jerk/introvert/eccentric so it's wayy more believable and natural than whatever naotumi is doing. I don't even know how 'Shield Hero should've been a Villain' turned so confrontational. All I'm.saying is that it went that direction than made a U turn and it could've gone completely in that direction but succumbed to the cliche of isekai to save the other world. Naotumi is just a cheap discount revenge mc who doesn't do anything but scowl instead of taking action, it was clear from day one (well not day one from when he started his tsundere hero act) that it wasn't revenge and all and was going the revenge route. The only reason I'm even talking about that name on the list of justice saint hero simps is because I'm seeing a lot of his memes lately. Even the memes are more entertaining than he could ever be. Although I got pretty far in the manga I skipped a lot of chapters (speed read) because they were just so cringe, illogical or just underwhelming.
If you cannot deal with others having an opinion that differs from yours then you are going to have a really difficult life. I recommend retiring to a cave as soon as possible. You have been added to my ignore list. Replying will be pointless @chencking was so polite that your assertions of him being an ass reflects on your negatively. If you are not the target audience, that does not automatically make something bad Take tentacle rape, I won't make threads bashing even if I think you have to be sick in the head to be interested in such things especially scatophilia