Maintaining and the solidifying the standard of excellent visual presentation set by its predecessor, season 4 fixes the main issue of season 3 and represents a return to form for the franchise. Hold on, before we move forward, let me qualify that. If the only thing you found compelling about Shield Hero was the controversy surrounding the false rape accusation plotline, then by all means, feel free to drop the franchise entirely. There is nothing left for you here. This seems to be a common misconception about the nature of the Shield Hero storyline. When I suggested that, on paper, in terms of narrative content, season2 is the strongest entry in the franchise, I got a lot of pushback from people saying that they found season 1 far more compelling, and when questioned, the reason they all reported was always invariably the Malty plotline. Unfortunately, what people don’t seem to understand is that the false rape accusation only ever represented the B plot of the first installment. It is not and was never meant to be the A plot of the epic. Be realistic. Motoyasu and Malty’s interferences effectively turn into Team Rocket attacks as early as episode 5. The everyone-is-an-asshole-to-Naofumi-and-falsely-accusing-him-of-crimes-all-the-time-for-no-reason subplot had already overstayed its welcome in season 2 and had become downright embarrassing in season 3.
As such, don’t expect it to be present in the franchise’s fourth installment, and if you do, you will be disappointed.
S4 represents a return to form in that we stop screwing around doing random side quests, hanging out in the village, and frolicking around with our friends. It finally feels like the show has a sense of direction it is actively aiming towards, rather than meandering around and reactively responding to random, disconnected, disjointed, ancillary events. The overarching narrative backdrop is the same one that had been set up since the beginning of S3. The revival of the Phoenix Guardian Beast looms, and in order to be able to face it at full strength, we need to get stronger and deal with any and all external issues that threaten our stability and state of readiness, except that this time around, we, uh, actually do that, and move towards that goal with purpose and focus. As such, the word of the day is Q’ten Lo. The journey to Q’ten Lo in order to save Raphtalia from political persecution is the main narrative thrust of the season – couple of things to address about that.
First, yes, the sudden revelation that Raphtalia is somehow royalty came completely out of left field, was not set up in the slightest, does not fit the narrative up to that point in any way whatsoever, was jarring as all hell, and is an obvious retcon. It is what it is. Something similar can be said about the white tiger siblings. Important descendants of royal bloodlines have a funny habit of ending up as slaves in Melromarc so that the Shield Hero can conveniently take them under his wing.
Second, how can I claim that we don’t waste time with side quests in S4 when the whole point of it is a side quest involving Raphtalia’s origins? That is a fair question and the answer entirely depends on how strict you want to be with the boundaries of the A plot. Even if we don’t consider it A plot proper, because it doesn’t involve directly fighting Waves, Guardian Beasts, or anyone from Glass’ world, I submit to you that quelling the political discord of Raphtalia’s world and uniting its nations is sufficiently directly related to our main characters’ ability to deal with the aforementioned threats, not to mention necessary, that I would, at the very least, call it A plot lite.
Still, if you want to drop the anime because of any of these reasons, that’s perfectly understandable. If, at this point in the game, you don’t want to deal with even more set-up and delays, and just want to go back to fighting the apocalyptic threats, that is an entirely justified and valid frustration. I found it pretty frustrating, myself, that throughout the entirety of S3, I kept getting told that it’s all about preparing for the Phoenix fight, even though we’re not making any visible progress of any kind, then season 4 rolls around, and sure enough, we’re still preparing for the Phoenix fight, and then by the end of S4, we’re somehow still not there. “And we’re still in fucking Bruges!” What can I say? There’s only so many “our fight continues” endings a man can take. I cannot fault you for it.
If, however, you’re in for the ride, then here’s the deal.
The fourth season’s main strength is also its main weakness. I’ve said this before when talking about JJK.
Time. It all comes down to time. The way you write things, context, jobbing, build-up, foreshadowing, yes, that all matters when it comes to making things feel like a big deal and goading the audience into investing in whatever you want them to invest in, but at the end of the day, you just can't get away from the fact that the most important factor is plain old time. No matter how well you write the elements of your story, the audience still needs to spend time with them in order to properly invest. You can't just skip that step.
I can't even tell you how many anime I've seen that were, truth be told, pretty fucking terrible, but still succeeded to make me invest in the cast and got me to somewhat give a shit about what happened to them simply by virtue of the sheer amount of time I spent with them. I cannot emphasize this enough. Time matters. It's the foundation which the upside-down pyramid of long-form story investment is based on.
This is where S4 excels in a way that the franchise never has historically. I’ve criticized it before for stumbling its way through events and story arcs in a way that feels rushed and not properly built up and thought out. Here, for the first time, it feels like we are given a proper amount of time to immerse ourselves in each arc. The first half of the season deals with some political cloak-and-dagger intrigue in Siltvelt centered around the white tiger siblings, Fohl and Atla. The second half of the season deals with the internal upheaval of Q’ten Lo centered around, naturally, Raphtalia.
Simply put, the first half tries to be Game of Thrones. The second tries to be One Piece’s Wano arc. Setting the success or lack thereof of these attempts aside for a moment, again, I want to emphasize the fact that, in both instances, you spend a meaningful amount of time in both places, to the point that I was able to invest in the characters and politics of both nations. They didn’t feel like mere pit stops with forgettable filler casts that we shortly glimpse at on our way to bigger and better things. They were given enough oxygen to feel like living, breathing stories populated by a believable cast of characters that could stand on their own.
Unfortunately, the best thing about these 2 narrative arcs is also the worst thing about them – the amount of time you spend in them, particularly Siltvelt. I’ve called this out since S1. Yusagi Aneko, the light novel’s writer, is not a good story writer. She (I’m assuming she’s a woman because of the feminine pen name (it’s simpler than writing he/she every time, but note that the writer’s gender is not confirmed)) has many a good idea about the kinds of events she wants to take place in her story and she also has a pretty good grasp of her protagonist’s desired growth curve. It’s when she gets into the nitty gritty of connecting it all together that it goes sideways. In the past, the problem was that events and plot devices came out of pretty much nowhere and required brute force investment. You got little to no lead-in or build-up for most high-stakes situations. It’s here, it’s happening, get invested or gtfo. In this installment, the problem is that while the narrative is given an appropriate amount of time to breathe, alas, the author largely fails to fill said time with interesting and compelling content and events.
Unless you are significantly invested in the characters and their stories, then I fear the substance of season 4’s story arcs will not be sufficient to keep you engaged. The Q’ten Lo arc was underwhelming for a variety of reasons, but on the whole, when compared to what one could have realistically expected from Shield Hero, I’d say it was probably the best we’ve gotten so far. The Siltvelt arc is by far the greater problem, for the simple reason that you have no foundation to expect it to happen. You are told from the get-go that your destination is Q’ten Lo, that’s where you’re headed, and you’re in a hurry. Siltvelt is merely your launching off point, the place where you take the ferry to head to Q’ten Lo. You don’t expect to spend 5 whole ass episodes in it. Expecting the viewer to shift their investment to this degree is a pretty big ask.
That being said, if you manage to get over the initial issues and invest, I would absolutely put it to you that the Siltvelt story is worth every penny and gives Fohl and Atla some much needed development and attention. Though paper-thin, I actually found myself becoming invested in the downfall of the arc’s villain. The guy put up an unexpectedly strong performance.
All in all, Shield Hero becomes pretty transparently nothing more than an animated JRPG. Naofumi has his HQ, that is to say his village, and he can always teleport back and forth, even in the middle of significant story arcs, and change his team comp by switching various party members in an out. While not the most elegant way of dealing with a cast that has outgrown the author’s ability to effectively utilize each character, it gets the job done.
The visual presentation of season 2 is truly regrettable, because it derailed a franchise that started out beloved, and has been nothing but solid since. Alas, such is life. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you get got.
P.S.: The opening is still really good, but nowhere near the marvel of the third season's.
