Summary
An entertaining and informative start that already seems to promise more excitement than Season 2.
While season two of Crunchyroll’s The Rising of the Shield Hero ended with mixed reviews about everything from episode count to story direction to filler content, it still ended up being one of the most anticipated returns of the Fall 2023 anime lineup — since the last thing viewers saw was Naofumi’s group visiting Ost’s memorial in the finale, Season 3 Episode 1, “The Dark Coliseum,” has the opportunity to take the story in an entirely new direction while hopefully recapturing the quality and attention to detail fans praised back in the first season, so let’s recap.
Set to adapt both the Rebuilding arc and the Fallen Heroes arc, The Rising of the Shield Hero season three has the potential to be significantly more satisfying than its predecessor if it can manage to embrace the shortened episode count without losing its direction.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 Episode 1 Recap
The episode opens with Naofumi and his party engaged in a coliseum battle under the name “Team Rockvalley.” They seem to be struggling against their opponent, the Topak family.
After returning to his land, Naofumi learns that the bow, spear, and sword heroes have all gone missing while he was gone. With the Phoenix guardian set to revive in three months, the lack of heroes will make defeating the beast harder if they are not found.
Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, AKA “Trash” and former king of Melromarc, is the current Staff Hero.
Naofumi attempts to purchase local slaves to work his land but learns they have been taken to be sold for higher value elsewhere. The Slaver Trader suggests he visit Zeltoble if he wants demi-humans from Lurolona Village.
Thanks to Naofumi popularizing them, demi-humans from Lurolona are now being sold for absorbent prices on the black market, putting them out of his price range.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 Episode 1 Ending Explained
The Zeltoble slave merchant suggests fighting in the underground arena of the Coliseum to acquire more money. Naofumi visits to watch several matches and learns that anything goes in this arena.
Naofumi decides to secretly enter the fights to win enough money to buy back all of the slaves from Lurolona Village.
The episode then comes full circle, showing Naofumi’s party pretending to be weak against the Topak family to make their winnings greater before easily defeating them.
After an okay second season, the season three premiere had a lot to live up to, and so far, it seems to have delivered.
While the first half felt a bit wordy at first, filling in viewers on the state of the world with explanations, it quickly picked up, diving right into the conflict and excitement. Already, it felt like this season was getting to the action much quicker than its predecessor.
It felt good to see Naofumi back to his own land again. While the detour last season was interesting and gave fans important info regarding the other heroes out there, the struggles of Naofumi’s world are morally complex and interesting enough to carry the story just fine.
I am curious to see how his new slave liberation plan works out, as it already feels like a promising start to the season.
What did you think of The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 Episode 1? Comment below.
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