u/Reasonable-Lake5179

First of all, I absolutely love how Filo defends herself here. Watching her kick Motoyasu right below the belt gave me an unbelievable amount of psychological relief!

• Motoyasu is just so incredibly stupid, constantly walking around with this delusion that he is the main character and the ultimate savior of the world

But on a serious note, I really feel like the author, Aneko Yusagi, could have allowed him to genuinely improve and mature as the story progressed 🤧

• Unfortunately, his extreme stupidity feels completely intentional. 😭

If the author had given him some real character development instead of making him cause so much unnecessary trouble, I would have definitely given his spin-off (Yari no Yuusha) a fair chance 👀💔

There is a slight spoiler ahead! I don't consider it a huge spoiler, but I'm tagging it just in case:

Raph-Chan is a new addition to Naofumi's party. Her first impression is that she's just the cute mascot of the series and maybe a cute supporting charcher

* but is there actually more to her??

When creating Raph-Chan, Naofumi used Raphtalia's hair and his own blood. However, >! during the creation process, Ethnobalt noticed something different. It was as if something interfered—Raph-Chan was manifesting way faster than any normal shikigami. !<

>! The first time we actually get a hint that Rifana is connected to Raph-Chan is in the Light Novel Volume 12 side story, "The Ghost Story of Lurolona Village," where the children of the village are talking about doing a test of courage while telling scary stories. !<

I don't really think Raphtalia knows about this, right??

The fact that her "daughter" is actually >! Rifana !< 😂💔

I would love for them to add this realization in Volume 23. If Raphtalia finds out, she would want to take care of Raph-Chan even more than Naofumi does 🌚 Instead of getting jealous from her best friend

[Season 1, Episode 22]

She is honestly my absolute favorite character in the entire anime! ❤️‍🩹

Just look at this scene. That is a fully grown, armored knight, and she's got him in a headlock like he's a younger boy in a schoolyard fight she's trying to make say "Uncle" 🤣

​Honestly, Raphtalia's a bit crazy in the best way possible. This is exactly why her anger hits different than Naofumi's one for me.

+ His wrath is loud and explosive, but hers is quiet, calculated, and totally badass. She doesn’t need a Rage Shield; she just switches to her "dead eyes" mode and handles business.

Just looking at this special drawing by Seira Minami (based on Aneko Yusagi's exact descriptions) compared to the anime... it really hurts.

• The anime literally gave the main heroine's parents the 'Villager A and Villager B' NPC treatment!

​Looking at this design, it totally makes sense why Sadeena fell in love with Raphtalia's dad—he was actually handsome! 👀

• It also explains Sadeena’s hilarious 'female jealousy' when she salty-called Raphtalia's mom 'chubby' 😭😭

Actually I love the mom's simple, wholesome design more; it perfectly reflects her kind personality, just like Raphtalia clearly inherited ❤️❤️

• along with her dad's eyes too

​What frustrates me is the anime's weird priorities. They couldn't be bothered to draw proper faces for her parents, but they happily burned budget on a 2-minute non-canon hot spring scene. Making Raphtalia think 'kissing makes babies' just for cheap fan-service made zero sense, especially since she already knows what a 'virgin' is! It's like a master mechanic who can rebuild an car engine but doesn't know how to open the hood! 🤣 ​They really did her parents and her character even dirty sometimes

Which parent's design do you guys like more??

One of my favorite Season 1 moments: It gives me vibes with 'White only ' Naofumi protecting Raphtalia's feelings without even realizing it

putting the little flag on Raphtalia’s kid’s meal.

Naofumi only did it because that’s a common trope for kids' meals in Japan to make them happy.

He had absolutely no idea that to Raphtalia, this flag symbolically meant that she would rebuild her village and rule it one day ❤️‍🩹

I just really love this trope. There is something incredibly heartwarming about a character who is so focused on surviving, yet accidentally ends up being a beacon of hope and positivity for someone else without even realizing it. Does anyone else appreciate these unintentional wholesome moments??

Honestly, though, I missed that aspect;

Raphtalia served as Naofumi's moral compass.

She would hold him back whenever he was about to make a mistake—she wasn't just a carbon copy of the hero.

She is amazing

For example, when the townspeople were thanking the other three useless heroes, Naofumi wanted to leave them to suffer the consequences, but Raphtalia was the one who told him "No" and talked him out of it. The dynamic between the hero and the heroine is fantastic

Raphtalia knows full well that Naofumi is a kind person and that it was only the world that changed his personality; she helps him on a beautiful journey of healing. This is certainly not the case with the web novel; by the end of it, I didn't feel that Naofumi had truly recovered from the betrayal.

i feel like this anime has NO AUTHOR

Only kadokawa editors

and designer of charcter Seira Minami

I love stories like this. The first season is a masterpiece, even if there were some issues with the adaptation. 🙂

This is the situation with the first season,

so imagine 😂

What about next seasons 😆

I loved Raphtalia's revenge in the manga (Ch. 22)

Unlike ep15

but the anime/manga censorship and pacing ruined it.

A few things make zero sense:

+ The "Underground" Dungeon & Illness: Why is there a giant window looking at the night sky in an underground torture cell? And how did she get a fatal respiratory illness in a well-ventilated room? They made it look like a simple cold.

+ The anime Pacing & Resolve: Showing her backstory after Idol Rabier fell out the window was a bad choice

+ The manga did it perfectly: backstory first, finding her friend's body, and stepping on that pig with zero hesitation. The anime making her look sad or hesitant to end him was a bad move and they

Question for LN readers: What exactly happened in Raphtalia's past in the LN? Was it more than just getting whipped? Her trauma seemed way too deep for what the anime showed, and she got over it way too fast too.