The Rising of the Shield Hero Announces Spin-Off Series

The Rising of the Shield Hero was one of the most popular anime series released this year, and now the franchise is beginning to capitalize on that popularity by exploring its world in new ways. For those wanting to spend more time with the central trio of Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo outside of their monster battles, this new spin-off might be more your speed. The series has officially debuted the new spin-off, The Menu of the Shield Hero, on Kadokawa’s Comic Walker website.

This new cooking focused spin-off will be handled by Amamichi Akano, and you can currently find the first chapter here. It’s all in Japanese, and there’s currently no word on an official English release for the spin-off as of this writing, but those who enjoy it can look forward to the next chapter’s debut on September 21st.

A cooking based spin-off is a particular interesting route for the series to take as it’s squarely focused on a notable trait from Naofumi’s early run. After he was betrayed by the kingdom and made out to be a criminal, he spent the majority of the series’ earlier moments in a hateful daze. It made food tasteless, as he often commented, so this new spin-off might be exploring this aspect of his personality even more so than the original series was able to.

At the very least, the spin-off’s initial chapter sees a return to young Raphtalia, and this was a pretty popular form for the character. Originally conceived as a series of light novels written by Aneko Yusagi in 2013, The Rising of the Shield Hero‘s anime adaptation is produced by Kinema Citrus and directed by Takao Abo. You can currently find The Rising of the Shield Hero streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV in both its original Japanese language release and with an English dub. The series is described as such:

“Iwatani Naofumi, a run-of-the-mill otaku, finds a book in the library that summons him to another world. He is tasked with joining the sword, spear, and bow as one of the Four Cardinal Heroes and fighting the Waves of Catastrophe as the Shield Hero. Excited by the prospect of a grand adventure, Naofumi sets off with his party. However, merely a few days later, he is betrayed and loses all his money, dignity, and respect. Unable to trust anyone anymore, he employs a slave named Raphtalia and takes on the Waves and the world. But will he really find a way to overturn this desperate situation?”