Rising of the Shield Hero final thoughts and the future of Crunchyroll simuldubs

[PicardMan]

Crunchyroll just finished airing the last episode of their first ever simuldub and I wonder how popular it was? The cast did really well (Billy Kametz's second big role) and unlike Funimation simuldubs, only the latest episode was paywalled (at least until the dub got delayed. They removed all paywalls after the delay). I'm hoping Crunchyroll continues simuldubs as minimally paywalled dubs are great. Of course, there's the show itself to discuss, which considering that Crunchyroll had to compete with Funimation, Netflix, Aniplex, and others, limited which show they could experiment with.

Shield Hero was, in my opinion, a solid action anime, but still a pretty generic "trapped in another world" anime. Admittedly, it's been hard to get excited about a lot of anime releases as it seems like 90% of it is so formulaic nowadays. The big twist at the beginning is that the main character gets a useless weapon when the cliche of this genre is to be a power fantasy where the main character is invincible and gets all the girls. Of course, the show does devolve into that. The big discussion point seems to be the whole fact that the main character gets falsely accused of rape and that this happened about at the same time as the Vic Mignogna controversy, causing this show to become a favorite of the #IstandwithVic crowd. I personally didn't think that false rape accusations should never happen in fiction and wasn't part of the crowd that immediately dismissed the show. The plot point after that is what got me far more uncomfortable. That was the fact that our hero owns slaves. Yes, he was desperate and he didn't have any other way to defend himself than to buy a slave to fight for him, but portraying slavery as a good thing always is flinchworthy. Slavery waifus seem to be part of this genre even if it seems like a disgusting idea.

The characters fall into a similar trap as many other anime of this genre. The girls are adorable, but their only personality traits seems to be providing affection and doting for the protagonist (except for the princess Melty, who actually is a rare case of a character unattracted to the protagonist. The other heroes are losers and the spear hero is the only entertaining one, being the constant slapstick villain. We have two obligatory lolis, including one who can turn into a Chocobo. Her fights are pretty cool, but the whole loli doting our 20 year old main character is still gross. Naofumi, the shield hero himself, is this persecuted guy who has a chip on his shoulder about the world. He's supposedly an even bigger jerk in the light novel, but I've never read that.

Villains and the overall plot are kinda boring. We have a monsters are trying to destroy the world plot that's been done to death. The end had us finally getting an intriguing antagonist in

Spoiler

the heroes defending another fantasy world who are trying to kill the four cardinal heroes of the world we're following

, but this whole plotpoint only factors at the very end. There are some cool action scenes that made this solid junk food entertainment, but I know for sure I'll forget this anime in 2020.

I'm wondering what the future of simuldubs on Crunchyroll will be? They promoted this series to death, but I don't know how many people actually streamed it. It did seem to get a lot of discussion but not here. Will we get one simuldub a year? What did the rest of you think of Shield Hero as the first simuldub?

 

[Frontier]

Crunchyroll just finished airing the last episode of their first ever simuldub and I wonder how popular it was? The cast did really well (Billy Kametz's second big role) and unlike Funimation simuldubs, only the latest episode was paywalled (at least until the dub got delayed. They removed all paywalls after the delay). I'm hoping Crunchyroll continues simuldubs as minimally paywalled dubs are great. Of course, there's the show itself to discuss, which considering that Crunchyroll had to compete with Funimation, Netflix, Aniplex, and others, limited which show they could experiment with.

I watched it subbed. I kinda want to check the dub out, but opinions on it at the start seemed mixed. I did think the cast looked pretty great though .

Shield Hero was, in my opinion, a solid action anime, but still a pretty generic "trapped in another world" anime. Admittedly, it's been hard to get excited about a lot of anime releases as it seems like 90% of it is so formulaic nowadays. The big twist at the beginning is that the main character gets a useless weapon when the cliche of this genre is to be a power fantasy where the main character is invincible and gets all the girls. Of course, the show does devolve into that. The big discussion point seems to be the whole fact that the main character gets falsely accused of rape and that this happened about at the same time as the Vic Mignogna controversy, causing this show to become a favorite of the #IstandwithVic crowd. I personally didn't think that false rape accusations should never happen in fiction and wasn't part of the crowd that immediately dismissed the show. The plot point after that is what got me far more uncomfortable. That was the fact that our hero owns slaves. Yes, he was desperate and he didn't have any other way to defend himself than to buy a slave to fight for him, but portraying slavery as a good thing always is flinchworthy. Slavery waifus seem to be part of this genre even if it seems like a disgusting idea.

I understand why what Myne did rankled people to some degree but it felt in-character as something she would do to manipulate and ruin someone.

The slavery aspect is problematic, especially when it becomes less of a necessary thing for Naofumi to even use on his party and yet he still works with the slave dealer.

The characters fall into a similar trap as many other anime of this genre. The girls are adorable, but their only personality traits seems to be providing affection and doting for the protagonist (except for the princess Melty, who actually is a rare case of a character unattracted to the protagonist. The other heroes are losers and the spear hero is the only entertaining one, being the constant slapstick villain. We have two obligatory lolis, including one who can turn into a Chocobo. Her fights are pretty cool, but the whole loli doting our 20 year old main character is still gross. Naofumi, the shield hero himself, is this persecuted guy who has a chip on his shoulder about the world. He's supposedly an even bigger jerk in the light novel, but I've never read that.

I think you could argue Melty is a bit of a tsundere for Naofumi, secretly very fond of him but she hides it with a haughty attitude and bravado.

Spear Hero was an absolute idiot. Every time Filo kicked Motoyasu in a balls was a good day .

I liked Ren too. Up until the end he seemed to be the only other Hero who was reasonable and actually had an IQ.

Filo didn't really "dote" on Naofumi, at least as much as Raphtalia did. I think she basically took Raphtalia's spot as a daughter figure even if Raphtalia still has to deal with being daughter-zoned.

Apparently Naofumi's jerkishness gets toned down with each subsequent adaption. The Light Novel version wasn't as bad as the Web Novel version, and the anime version was much more tame compared to either.

I'm wondering what the future of simuldubs on Crunchyroll will be? They promoted this series to death, but I don't know how many people actually streamed it. It did seem to get a lot of discussion but not here. Will we get one simuldub a year? What did the rest of you think of Shield Hero as the first simuldub?

I was wondering if they might do it for In/Spectre since that's another anime they're involved with the production committee on and the animation seems pretty far advance (to the point where they could premier it at Anime Expo when it's not supposed to be out until 2020).

 

[PicardMan]

The slavery aspect is problematic, especially when it becomes less of a necessary thing for Naofumi to even use on his party and yet he still works with the slave dealer.

It was also awkward when

Spoiler

Raphtalia was set free and then she decided to get her slave crest back. That seemed like an incredibly awkward scene. There was the scene where Raphtalia encountered that one slave trader guy and was tempted to kill him, a scene that almost seemed to be there just to prevent the story from being misconstrued as pro-slavery. Overall the writing of slavery as a topic was really sloppy.

I think you could argue Melty is a bit of a tsundere for Naofumi, secretly very fond of him but she hides it with a haughty attitude and bravado.

Maybe she admires him, but to what extent is ambiguous. Consider her final scene in the show

Spoiler

the scene where Raphtalia hugs Naofumi and Filo says she's jealous. Filo asks Melty if she wants to join in a group hug and Melty emphatically says "no." I guess there are multiple ways of interpreting that scene.

I'm happy that at least one other person checked this show out because there have been a few anime talkback or final thoughts threads that die just as soon as they are created. Of course, it seems like non toyetic anime talkback threads or final thoughts threads seem to struggle on this forum.

 

[Frontier]

It was also awkward when

Spoiler

Raphtalia was set free and then she decided to get her slave crest back. That seemed like an incredibly awkward scene. There was the scene where Raphtalia encountered that one slave trader guy and was tempted to kill him, a scene that almost seemed to be there just to prevent the story from being misconstrued as pro-slavery. Overall the writing of slavery as a topic was really sloppy.

That did seem pretty redundant in light of the prior episode.

I think he was there as a representative of the worst of the nobility when it comes to the treatment of Demihumans and to further Raphtalia's story.

Maybe she admires him, but to what extent is ambiguous. Consider her final scene in the show

Spoiler

the scene where Raphtalia hugs Naofumi and Filo says she's jealous. Filo asks Melty if she wants to join in a group hug and Melty emphatically says "no." I guess there are multiple ways of interpreting that scene.

I seem to recall her blushing during that scene .

 

[PapaGreg]

Thought it was dumb edgy light novel wish fulliment nonsense

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[PicardMan]

Thought it was dumb edgy light novel wish fulliment nonsense

Wish fulfillment seems pretty accurate, but edgy seems like an awkward phrase because it seems fairly tame for the trapped in another world genre, at least compared to Re:Zero, but Re:Zero really seemed to try to be the goriest trapped in another world anime possible. That one had the constant "Subaru dies over and over and goes insane, then he gets the resolve to use his ability to return from the dead in a time loop to learn how to tackle the problem, then the pattern repeats" formula. It was hard to take that show completely seriously when Subaru snaps back from his insanity in just an episode or two. Okay, that's a little off topic. Anyway, wish fulfillment isekai seems to be Crunchyroll's bread and butter and I guess that's why that's most of what they dub (that isn't Mob Psycho 100 or Bungo Stray Dogs). The next simuldub will probably be an isekai, but I hope for another genre. This isekai was at least tolerable as I'm too scared to learn if The Master of Ragnarok is really as bad as it's terrible My Anime List score implies.

 

[Frontier]

Thought it was dumb edgy light novel wish fulliment nonsense

Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk

I dunno about "wish fulfillment."

The whole point of the beginning of the story is setting up Naofumi thinking that's the kind of experience he's in for only to knock him back down to reality, thus contrasting him with the other three Heroes who still don't get it.

I mean, are there wish-fulfillment aspects? Yeah. But I think those are usually meant to balance how difficult Naofumi's life is.

 

[doomrider7]

I dunno about "wish fulfillment."

The whole point of the beginning of the story is setting up Naofumi thinking that's the kind of experience he's in for only to knock him back down to reality, thus contrasting him with the other three Heroes who still don't get it.

I mean, are there wish-fulfillment aspects? Yeah. But I think those are usually meant to balance how difficult Naofumi's life is.

Oh no, it's FULL ON wish fulfillment. I'm legit heartbroken that I missed this thread discussion because I was at work. But it's time to get to work.

He's a list of materials detailing the issues the series has that I've compiled in preparation for this very discussion. Enjoy.

Spoiler: Quotes

Having a character from the 21st century keep a slave at all without questioning the morality of it is pretty suspect in and of itself. It'd be one thing if the MC was a native and thus had no qualms about buying and keeping slaves with the intention of treating them as such, but he's ostensibly from our time yet seems to have no moral qualms about slavery in the slightest. Maybe if he bought her because he felt empathetic to her situation which is not unlike his (both being victims of circumstance ) but he's not to concerned about that either.

Naofumi and Raphtilia have a nice dynamic, but the framing and execution of it is skeevy as hell and eyebrow raising at best.

Doesn't he shock collar her to get her to fight or something and then gets her a meal to say sorry followed by shock collaring her again later on to have her fight more in spite of being very traumatized? Isn't that like full on Abusive Relationship 101 stuff?

I mean, all any of that stuff means is that he's keeping a shock collar on a child under his care so he can force her to fight for him, which is ludicrously abusive by any conventional childcare standard. That he meets a few of the other basic qualifications for guardianship doesn't change that.

It's worth noting the pattern that slavery-tolerant narratives in these sort of stories are usually part of. Normally, they will be featured in stories that are general power-fantasies, where the main character is (or ascends to become) an unstoppable supreme being who nobody is willing or able to gainsay. Having the protagonist's love interests (and isn't it interesting how it's almost always just women?) be his literal slaves is an extension of that that makes it clear what kind of power fantasy this is - one of absolute and total control which you will, of course, exercise ethically (but not actually, meaningfully relinquish) because you are a Good Guy.

These stories usually contrast it with a previous life characterised by a near-total lack of control - the protagonist is a shut-in, a downtrodden office worker, or whatever. Shield Hero makes it hilariously blatant and specific - the protagonist has his worldview shattered by being betrayed by the first adult woman to interact with him, and rebuilds his life by taking in a ten-year-old slave who eventually becomes his wife (and head of a small harem of other slaves) and helps him achieve godhood.

I've also seen it framed as the fantasy of "the girl who has no choice but to spend time with me, and therefore will eventually see how good I am deep down." As opposed to other girls who you might actually have to try to show your good side to, and who might reject you before you get a chance. This sort of logic also applies to childhood friends or little sister type love interests.

The basic nature of the fantasy is "I know I'm a great person, but no one else gives me a chance. If only they were forced by circumstance to give me a chance, then they'd also realize that I'm a great person (without me having to change my behavior even slightly)."

What Iaculus, Clarste and others said. The Isekai genre uses tortured reasoning and emotional appeals to have its protagonists get away with awful stuff all the time, and Shield Hero is no different. If you're a young reader who's not used to this sort of narrative, you might actually believe that Naofumi is an ok guy because he treats his slave nicely - in spite of the times where he actually literally uses the slave collars around the neck of his slaves, which cause them immense pain when they disobey him.

The only reason people can root for Naofumi is because he is a walking persecution complex. He never actually strives to become a better person as far as I'm aware, making him a weird version of wanting recognition for not being a jerk.

All the antagonists are more terrible than him, to him, for very flimsy reasons, and oh, they all claim they're innocent when they're blatantly evil, how could you not hate that! They're all malicious to the point of idiocy, idiots to the point of malice, or have some shady hidden agenda.

Shield Hero isn't the worst isekai out there (somehow), but it's pretty telling that it's considered popular, that it's gotten good production values and stuff.

But basically, summoning the hero's is an effort that needed to be signed off on by all countries and each country summons one each. Since they summoned all four they broke a law the needed to compensate the offended countries. So to appease the country of Faubley, the queen has Myne/Malty marry their king and be his 10,000th bride. What happened to the previous ones? They all died after being raped to death by him. He's named/nicknamed Slug and resembles Jabba the Hutt. Apparently being married to him is a well known punishment for wayward princesses who "step out of line" with many committing suicide on the spot rather than be shipped off. He also keeps recording crystals of his "conquests" some of which he sends Naofumi to watch(to his "credit" he finds that gross and unpleasant). She later comes back to life since it turns out she's a spirit of betrayal and fragment of the dark goddess of Evil since birth and tries a coup. When that fails she's renamed Witch and burnt at the stake with a grinning Naofumi being the one to lead her there.

The village stuff is that Naofumi creates a peaceful village for all his Beastkin slaves to live. Life is great there...except for the whole fact that you know...you're a slave. All of this is presented as a good thing and being in the right by Naofumi since Beastkin have so little rights that they're killed on the spot as monsters in this country. So rather than you know...try to CHANGE that, he figures it's best to just make them his slaves since he's such a nice guy and give them a nice village to live in again because he's a nice guy.

The 10 year old princess thing is that the queen blatantly ships her daughter and pushes her to want to marry Naofumi. He's not interested and she and Filo start arguing about "Waifu" stuff so he uses his prison shield to put them in time out for a few hours. When he lets out, the princess is stark naked with "satisfied" look on her face with Filo standing over her looking pleased with herself. They become good friends after this.

And yes. Naofumi and Raphtalia hook up. Lets be honest, this was IMPOSSIBLY obvious the instant she aged up. She's also kind of the leader of his slave harem or some crap.

Spoiler: Excerpts

Meeting Raphtalia

I caught the eye of the raccoon-girl. And I realized, looking into her eyes, how I felt. Yes. This thing was a woman, the same gender as that one that betrayed me. I looked into her scared eyes and immediately thought that I wanted to control her. I thought I could just pretend that I’d turned Myne into a slave… If she died, it might make me feel better. “All right then, I’ll take the middle one.” “An excellent choice, and it makes my life easier too.” The slave trader produced a key and opened her cage. She stepped out, and he put a collar around her neck. She let out a yelp. I looked at her, quivering in fear, and felt a wave of satisfaction wash over me. I imagined that other woman quivering in fear, just like this, and it made me feel great.

Filo's New Crest

JustPaste.it - Share Text & Images the Easy Way

justpaste.it

And Finally, some breakdowns by my good friend papsoshea.

How do you feel about Naofumi so far after 22 episodes?

I wanted to make a thread focusing on Naofumi as I feel he is an interesting character who lost some of his complex traits from the light novel. I'm not a light novel reader but there is this great Youtuber who has been going over what was skip in the novels so far and what I really hear myself...

myanimelist.net

How do you feel about Naofumi so far after 22 episodes?

I wanted to make a thread focusing on Naofumi as I feel he is an interesting character who lost some of his complex traits from the light novel. I'm not a light novel reader but there is this great Youtuber who has been going over what was skip in the novels so far and what I really hear myself...

myanimelist.net

 

[doomrider7]

Thought it was dumb edgy light novel wish fulliment nonsense

Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk

It is.

I dunno about "wish fulfillment."

The whole point of the beginning of the story is setting up Naofumi thinking that's the kind of experience he's in for only to knock him back down to reality, thus contrasting him with the other three Heroes who still don't get it.

I mean, are there wish-fulfillment aspects? Yeah. But I think those are usually meant to balance how difficult Naofumi's life is.

Not really, no. They're there, but it's more window dressing than to balance things out.

 

[Frontier]

Oh no, it's FULL ON wish fulfillment. I'm legit heartbroken that I missed this thread discussion because I was at work. But it's time to get to work.

He's a list of materials detailing the issues the series has that I've compiled in preparation for this very discussion. Enjoy.

Spoiler: Excerpts

Meeting Raphtalia



Filo's New Crest

JustPaste.it - Share Text & Images the Easy Way

justpaste.it

And Finally, some breakdowns by my good friend papsoshea.

How do you feel about Naofumi so far after 22 episodes?

I wanted to make a thread focusing on Naofumi as I feel he is an interesting character who lost some of his complex traits from the light novel. I'm not a light novel reader but there is this great Youtuber who has been going over what was skip in the novels so far and what I really hear myself...

myanimelist.net

How do you feel about Naofumi so far after 22 episodes?

I wanted to make a thread focusing on Naofumi as I feel he is an interesting character who lost some of his complex traits from the light novel. I'm not a light novel reader but there is this great Youtuber who has been going over what was skip in the novels so far and what I really hear myself...

myanimelist.net

FYI, I think there's some light novel stuff in there, so I'm strictly basing my opinion off the anime.

Spoiler

The only time I can think of where Naofumi seriously used the slave crest was to actually try and save Raphtalia when they were fighting a monster and she was freaking out because it was the same one that killed her parents.

Afterwards she puts the slave crest back on as a sign of loyalty, which...again, I did find pointless and unecessary because it basically becomes superflous and is a problematic aspect.

My take on Naofumi is that he's a genuinely good guy who became hardened and bitter after being so utterly betrayed and degraded, so he hides his compassion and emotions beneath a selfish veneer. Raphtalia saw through it and more and more the old Naofumi comes back until he's eventually redeemed in the eyes of the public and doesn't have to act that way anymore.

If you're talking about the other Heroes...well, they're idiots aside from Ren, mostly. They're not evil like Myne/Malty is, and the king at least was genuine in hating the Shield Hero even though he went about it in a way that completely screwed the kingdom over. But he wasn't as bad as his daughter even if he was also culpable.

 

[doomrider7]

FYI, I think there's some light novel stuff in there, so I'm strictly basing my opinion off the anime.

Spoiler

The only time I can think of where Naofumi seriously used the slave crest was to actually try and save Raphtalia when they were fighting a monster and she was freaking out because it was the same one that killed her parents.

Afterwards she puts the slave crest back on as a sign of loyalty, which...again, I did find pointless and unecessary because it basically becomes superflous and is a problematic aspect.

My take on Naofumi is that he's a genuinely good guy who became hardened and bitter after being so utterly betrayed and degraded, so he hides his compassion and emotions beneath a selfish veneer. Raphtalia saw through it and more and more the old Naofumi comes back until he's eventually redeemed in the eyes of the public and doesn't have to act that way anymore.

If you're talking about the other Heroes...well, they're idiots aside from Ren, mostly. They're not evil like Myne/Malty is, and the king at least was genuine in hating the Shield Hero even though he went about it in a way that completely screwed the kingdom over. But he wasn't as bad as his daughter even if he was also culpable.

We're gonna have to disagree on this. Like yeah I know you mean the anime, but the anime had a source and my post is digging stuff out of said source those being the WN, LN, and Manga from which Naofumi does not come off as a particularly good person AT ALL, but only in the basest of ways. The MAL links pick this in more specific ways.

 

[PicardMan]

It seems like famous anime Yotubers are going nuts for this show despite how divisive it is with the anime community. I don't really see much to gush or hate about. I do agree that the action and humor are fun even if the plot isn't that unique. Shield Hero does seem to be more of an action isekai when so many of them seem to be more harem, comedy, or some other genre. Overlord is probably the other most famous action isekai and I think I enjoyed the action and animation in this show better than that. I do find the fact that Youtubers seem to salivate over isekai weird when the genre seems to be feeling a little stale. Crunchyroll's next simuldub will probably be another isekai and I'll probably watch it, but I'm wondering how much mileage we can get out of the genre left.

 

[doomrider7]

It seems like famous anime Yotubers are going nuts for this show despite how divisive it is with the anime community. I don't really see much to gush or hate about. I do agree that the action and humor are fun even if the plot isn't that unique. Shield Hero does seem to be more of an action isekai when so many of them seem to be more harem, comedy, or some other genre. Overlord is probably the other most famous action isekai and I think I enjoyed the action and animation in this show better than that. I do find the fact that Youtubers seem to salivate over isekai weird when the genre seems to be feeling a little stale. Crunchyroll's next simuldub will probably be another isekai and I'll probably watch it, but I'm wondering how much mileage we can get out of the genre left.

Youtubers will salivate over ANYTHING controversial and isekai has that in spades due to a lot of really problematic aspects like slavery normalization and sexism. Few things will garner views on their channel more consistently than that. There's a funny irony that the biggest and most spectacularly successful isekai to date is Reincarnated as a Slime(which IS really goo albeit the anime rushed through a lot of things) which while greatly liked, didn't quite hit off here like in Japan where it managed to rival the likes of One Piece and Idolmaster in revenue and sales.

The genre has some really great series, but few really seem like they'll get to be put on the run, but I can post about them in a bit.

 

[Frontier]

Youtubers will salivate over ANYTHING controversial and isekai has that in spades due to a lot of really problematic aspects like slavery normalization and sexism. Few things will garner views on their channel more consistently than that. There's a funny irony that the biggest and most spectacularly successful isekai to date is Reincarnated as a Slime(which IS really goo albeit the anime rushed through a lot of things) which while greatly liked, didn't quite hit off here like in Japan where it managed to rival the likes of One Piece and Idolmaster in revenue and sales.

I enjoyed Slime. I didn't love it, but it was fun and the production values/character designs were pretty good .

 

[PicardMan]

Youtubers will salivate over ANYTHING controversial and isekai has that in spades due to a lot of really problematic aspects like slavery normalization and sexism. Few things will garner views on their channel more consistently than that. There's a funny irony that the biggest and most spectacularly successful isekai to date is Reincarnated as a Slime(which IS really goo albeit the anime rushed through a lot of things) which while greatly liked, didn't quite hit off here like in Japan where it managed to rival the likes of One Piece and Idolmaster in revenue and sales.

If that's the case, why do those aspects of Shield Hero seem glossed over by Anime America and Gigguk? I know a few hardcore right wingers use Shield Hero as a symbol of #IstandwithVic, but it seems like Gigguk and Digibro, who seem to lean to the left in their political views, also really liked Shield Hero. They do seem to point out slavery and other controversial aspects of Master of Ragnarok and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. Speaking of Demon Lord, Mother's Basement praised the first three episodes, but never did a follow up video on the series as a whole. Mother's Basement, Gigguk and Digibro also heavily praised Slime so I think they've sold their soul to the isekai gods as it's seemingly the only genre those guys talk about anymore.

 

[doomrider7]

If that's the case, why do those aspects of Shield Hero seem glossed over by Anime America and Gigguk? I know a few hardcore right wingers use Shield Hero as a symbol of #IstandwithVic, but it seems like Gigguk and Digibro, who seem to lean to the left in their political views, also really liked Shield Hero. They do seem to point out slavery and other controversial aspects of Master of Ragnarok and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. Speaking of Demon Lord, Mother's Basement praised the first three episodes, but never did a follow up video on the series as a whole. Mother's Basement, Gigguk and Digibro also heavily praised Slime so I think they've sold their soul to the isekai gods as it's seemingly the only genre those guys talk about anymore.

For the same reason that none of them took any serious whacks at G. Slayer when that was ongoing. They all know their Fandom and how it operates and who their viewers are. They'll rock the boat in ways that'll poke at the normies, but not in a way that'll outrage their bases. That and degrees of obliviousness about a lot of these things.

 

[PicardMan]

For the same reason that none of them took any serious whacks at G. Slayer when that was ongoing. They all know their Fandom and how it operates and who their viewers are. They'll rock the boat in ways that'll poke at the normies, but not in a way that'll outrage their bases. That and degrees of obliviousness about a lot of these things.

I've seen quite a bit of videos throwing shade at Goblin Slayer. Insulting popular series does get views and I remember Mother's Basement doing a clickbait Worst Anime of 2018 featuring Goblin Slayer and Darling in the Franxx (neither made the list). It seems like Bennett the Sage and Anime America were the only ones who liked it. It is still obvious that anime Youtubers do try to state opinions, positive or negative, that they think viewers want to hear to get views, which is why I do question their reliability for reviews.

 

[PapaGreg]

If that's the case, why do those aspects of Shield Hero seem glossed over by Anime America and Gigguk? I know a few hardcore right wingers use Shield Hero as a symbol of #IstandwithVic, but it seems like Gigguk and Digibro, who seem to lean to the left in their political views, also really liked Shield Hero. They do seem to point out slavery and other controversial aspects of Master of Ragnarok and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord. Speaking of Demon Lord, Mother's Basement praised the first three episodes, but never did a follow up video on the series as a whole. Mother's Basement, Gigguk and Digibro also heavily praised Slime so I think they've sold their soul to the isekai gods as it's seemingly the only genre those guys talk about anymore.

Though Digibro stopped watching it because he didnt like the anime adaption

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[doomrider7]

Though Digibro stopped watching it because he didnt like the anime adaption

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Of which show? I don't really follow anitubers so I'm curious if you mean Shield or Slime.

 

[PapaGreg]

Of which show? I don't really follow anitubers so I'm curious if you mean Shield or Slime.

Shield Hero, Ironically he like the mentioned manga but hated the anime yet thought manga slime was kinda boring but liked the anime so much it made to his Top 15 anime list