By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting​

Two years ago I wrote a long post about the reasons why I liked Rising of The Shield Hero despite the controversy of it at the time. It is still is one of my favorite series to date, and I was recently rewatching it after some friends and myself started to debate the workings of the weapons and magic to hype ourselves up for Season 2 (which is set to release sometime in the next year–we hope). 

In my previous analysis/review, I discussed storytelling and what I loved about the different heroes’ journeys that we see from over Naofumi’s shoulder. I tried to focused in on the clear difference between Naofumi–who sees this new world as his reality–and the other heroes who largely continue to see it as a game. Even when the others say that they realize it is no longer a game, we can see by their actions that this is not as deeply felt or understood by their actions as time goes on. 

In my rewatch, I noticed this scene from Episode 11, “Catastrophe Returns” where we actually see the world the way Naofumi does during a battle and, potentially, outside it:

It’s not the first time we see these additional icons added to a character’s vision. We get a similar moment when the King (now Trash) tells them that the weapons cannot work together. We see it also when Naofumi adds items to his shield, thus creating the skill tree and also when Naofumi interacts with certain objects (like, mining with Raphtalia early on and seeing a little arrow over what he is mining or when he tries to pick up another weapon and is alerted that it can’t be used). 

With this in mind, this is likely the same way that others heroes see the world. Strike that–it’s exactly the same as later in that same episode we see Ren’s field of vision displayed:

If everything in your vision suddenly went through a game-like interfacing filter–wouldn’t you also feel like you are in a game? 

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