Rising of the Shield Hero was probably one of the more polarizing, yet massively popular anime the season it dropped. A story of an isekai hero who doesn’t immediately become loved the moment he pops up in their world, it featured characters that weren’t entirely black or white, as well as some proper villains to root against at the same time.
While it’s the protagonist is probably the most polarizing due to his characterization, the other characters are amazing as well. The fellow heroes that work alongside the Shield Hero are fascinating in that they aren’t entirely good or evil, making them unpredictable in terms of how they’ll behave next.
10 Worst: Motoyasu Kitamura
In truth, it’s not really Motoyasu’s fault that he’s placed at odds with Naofumi. In most circumstances, he would’ve been doing the right thing supporting Malty. But Malty is a monster of a character, and it takes him forever to actually admit it.
He’s an incorrigible flirt and hits on literally any girl he meets, but worse yet is he’s obsessed with Filo. He tries to capture her once and keep her stuck in her human form, failing to understand what he’s doing is wrong.
9 Best: Filo
Filo is introduced early on when Naofumi buys a monster egg, only to find it developing into a Filolial Queen after it hatches. One of the better characters in the series, Filo just wants to go on adventures with Naofumi and pull carts. If nothing else, fans should be able to love her for constantly kicking Spear Hero off the screen once he becomes too much to deal with.
8 Worst: Ren Amaki
Ren Amaki is the calmest of the other heroes, but that doesn’t make him less of a jerk. He has a terrible habit of trying to do everything on his own, even when that results in causing more problems for everyone else.
He can’t seem to stop making work for his friends, even occasionally kicking people out of his group because they don’t seem “strong” enough for him, even though the “solo” player style obviously doesn’t work.
7 Best: Mirellia
The actual ruler of the land of Melromarc. She knows far more than she seems to at first, knowing that she can’t trust her own daughter Malty and immediately realizing her husband isn’t all that useful either. After seeing how they mistreated Naofumi, she managed to punish them both in a way that was satisfactory to Naofumi before going on to aid both him and the other heroes in every way they needed. She proves to be Naofumi’s staunchest ally outside of his own group.
6 Worst: Itsuki Kawasumi
Itsuki is probably the worst of all the existing heroes. While the others have their flaws and admit to them over time, Itsuki thinks he’s actually doing good, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, he rushes in without thinking trying to do something noble but without thinking of the consequences.
His obsession with proving himself the hero has resulted in him doing some truly ugly things, and he even kicked someone out of his party because they briefly received the praise he didn’t.
5 Best: Fitoria
One of the heroes from a previous era, Fitoria is a Filolial Queen herself. She’s just as eager to save the world as anyone else in the world, but she’s also willing to go further than anyone else.
She’s willing to kill the existing heroes if they don’t act right so more heroes can be summoned instead, which can make her dangerous to the errant heroes who don’t want to do their job. Her no-nonsense attitude is very much needed, even if she can get pretty childish in her own way.
4 Worst: King Melromarc
The King is as much of a problem as Malty, which is why he winds up being renamed “trash” later on in the series. His incredible hatred for demi-humans allowed an environment to be created where they could be abused in his country.
Because he spent so much time spoiling Malty, she wound up turning into the type of person who manipulated everyone into giving her what she wanted, meaning he’s responsible for all of what happened with Naofumi.
3 Best: Melty
The second child of the Melromarc family, Melty is the young woman placed in charge of running the kingdom after her mother steps down. She’s got a lot to live up to, which first comes with surviving on the run from her older sister who wants to kill her and take the throne from her.
She manages to become a close friend to Filo, while also gradually getting Naofumi to get over the fact that he can’t trust anyone in the Melromarc family.
2 Best: Raphtalia
There’s not a better character in the series than Raphtalia. She starts out as a child, and though Naofumi isn’t the most supportive person when it comes to taking care of her, she still manages to become strong enough to both be his sword and get revenge for what was done to her.
She’s loyal to a fault and works at Naofumi’s conscience when he’s too focused on making money or getting some kind of benefits from the work they’ve done.
1 Worst: Malty
Without even being the main antagonist, Malty manages to be the worst character in the show by a longshot. When she’s introduced, she tries to work with Shield Hero, but then robs him for seemingly no other reason than her own amusement.
But if that wasn’t enough, she doesn’t just frame Naofumi for no other reason than him existing, but we also see her try to have her own sister killed. There are no redeemable personality traits to this character whatsoever.