I haven't watched it for a long time, but I just remember hating the main character so much. Like, him being falsely accused means he has to buy slaves and act like a total cunt when dealing with people somehow? It's bizarre. Also the slave girl gave off creep vibes. Hate it.
Generally not a fan of animes premised around false rape accusations.
We stopped watching after the first episode for those very reasons. It all felt very...reddit bro and the buying the cute slave girl was really upsetting for the people I was watching with.
Yeah. After the first episode, being the naive idiot I am, expected everyone to be upset by the first episode, or at least, a little put off, but nope. Everyone was defending the slave choice, and the general creepiness of the show. I watched up the third episode, though I read the summaries, and they never got rid of the slave idea. It was there the whole time, and the MC even got more. I fucking hate that show.
It would be a very good show if it ever actually confronted the main character with what a piece of shit he is and how obviously he picks and chooses which problems to tackle as a hero based solely out of self-interest and grievance. Corrupt royalty? Gotta do everything to expose and depose them because they ruined my reputation. Abolishing slavery? Ah, well, you see, me and my slaves decided this society just isn't ready for such a radical change like that...
It's an awful series that only really got any following because Crunchyroll propped it up so damn hard. They bankrolled most of the damn thing and pushed it super hardcore. If you go to their homepage, you currently have like 7-11 different direct references to their newest push, God of High School. You'll see them only take down God of High School stuff for a day or two when Re:Zero has a new episode.
I put in the effort to actually watch the entire thing and it just doesn't stop having issues. It's enjoyable if you can fully shut your brain down, but that never happened for me. The fact that Raphtalia gets an opportunity to not actually be a slave and instead says "I want to be a slave," is some fucking hot garbage. It doesn't deserve any of the hype it got or the weird cameo they somehow forced into isekai Quartet. It feels like just a hard push from Crunchyroll to appeal to the "anime audience" which is assumed to be a bunch of horny teenage boys that have never had a single struggle in their lives.
I don't know if anyone actually gives a shit about spoilers regarding the end of the season but...
spoiler
The end is just so damn uncomfortable and stupid. The evil princess ends up getting revealed as the evil person that she is and the king is stripped of his titles because earlier in the show it was revealed to actually be a matriarchal society...somehow. But basically Shield Boy is finally given his opportunity for revenge and from my understanding it differes from the light novels a bit. He names the king 'shitty king' and the evil princess 'stupid removed.' The queen sentences them to death and the one good fucking scene in the show is fucking deflated when shield boy stops the execution. Like the king and princess were fully set up in a guillotine and everything. From my understanding they actually die in the book. But it's just gross feeling even if the animation studio made the action scenes enjoyable to watch.
I think the show could have been redeemed up until Raphtalia grew up. A story where Naofumi learns to stop being a terrible person while raising Raphtalia could have been a decent story. You could have him eventually start opposing slavery, the kingdom, etc, as he became a better person. Once she became Naofumi's voluntary slave waifu, the show was no longer redeemable. And than once Filo appeared it just got worse and worse.
