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Why Malty Melromarc is the Worst Girl in Anime History

Without a doubt, The Rising of the Shield Hero’s one of the best anime I’ve seen in years. Not only does it offer plenty of action and drama, but it gave us the best girl of 2019, Raphtalia. However, it also gave us the only woman in fiction that I despise more than Cersei Lannister. That woman’s name is Malty Melromarc.

To say I hate Malty would be an understatement; I loathe her very existence and actions. Which is why I called my review of the episode where she gets her just desserts “Naofumi’s Best Day Ever”. Since I already gave my pick for best girl of 2019, I wanted to give you guys my pick for the worst girl of 2019, Malty.

Sin #1: Made Naofumi’s Life Hell

When Naofumi and the other three heroes get summoned to this new world, no one wants to join Naofumi. They all see Naofumi as weak since, being the Shield Hero, he can’t attack. The only one to help him out is a girl named Myne who seems nice at first. Then she reveals her true nature as a bitch.

Myne’s an alias Malty uses as an adventurer, and then she uses her status as Princess of Melromarc to frame Naofumi for attempting to rape her. If he had been anyone else, Naofumi would have been executed. Instead, the kingdom treats him like an outcast and with contempt. As a result, Naofumi develops the bitter and cynical personality he retains for the rest of the series.

While this was only the first act of cruelty Malty inflicted upon Naofumi, there are two things that make this truly heinous. Firstly, she has no ulterior motives whatsoever; she only does it because she can. Secondly, it’s pretty much confirmed in the web novel the anime’s based on that she’s done this to multiple men in the past, all of whom were executed. In other words, she’s a psychopathic serial killer.

Sin 2: Trying to Take Away Raphtalia

After her framing of Naofumi, Malty went on to join the party of Motoyasu, the Spear Hero and the first to believe her lies. The man’s a shameless flirt, though, and when he started hitting on Raphtalia, she got jealous. Refusing to let Naofumi have any happiness, she manipulated Motoyasu into dueling Naofumi, then cheated to ensure he won, setting Raphtalia free.

On the surface, this looks like another petty way to hurt Naofumi by taking away his only companion, and it is. However, in the web novels, an even darker motive comes to life. It turns out that free demi-humans had less rights than slaves in Melromarc. Had Raphtalia chosen to remain free, Malty would have likely killed her for sport. What an absolute bitch.

Sins #3, 4, and 5- Tried to murder her sister, frame Naofumi, and seize control of Melromarc

After that, Malty’s actions are limited to being a continued nusiance to Naofumi’s party. However, they’re immediately cranked back up to eleven with the return of her younger sister and crown princess, Melty. Due to her awful personality, Malty’s mother chose to make the younger Melty the heir to Melromarc’s throne. As a result, Malty schemed to reclaim what she saw as hers.

This ultimately led her to side with the Shield Hero hating Church of the Three Heroes to frame Naofumi for kidnapping Melty. She then used this as an opportunity to murder her sister in cold blood so she could become the next heir to the throne. She went so far as to burn an entire forest to the ground to flush Naofumi’s group out of hiding.

Luckily, though, the Church of the Three Heroes turns on everyone in order to seize power for themselves, leading them to be brought down by the efforts of Naofumi. The Queen of Melrocmarc then returns and begins setting right everything Malty’s done.

Justice Can Be So Cathartic

So, let’s review everything Malty’s done. She falsely accused Naofumi of trying to rape her, tried to take away his only friend and companion, repeatedly got in his way, framed him again, and turned him into a wanted criminal. She did all this while having no reason beyond the fact that she could do it, too. In other words, Malty Melromarc’s a petty, vindictive, and overall waste of human life, effectivley making her Cersei 2.0.

Fortunately for everyone, Malty’s even dumber than Cersei was. Once everyone became wise to what she was doing, it was only a matter of time before everything blew up in face. When it did, though, the results felt absolutely cathartic.

Seeing Malty scream in pain as every one of her lies became undone was an absolute joy to watch. I know that sounds sadistic, but considering everything that she unjustly did to Naofumi, it felt justified. I was perfectly happy letting her be executed. However, in a moment of true Cersei stupidity, she had the nerve to beg Naofumi to spare her life. So he did. What he chose to do her instead, though, was just as amazing.

As punishment for all her heinous deeds, Malty would lose her title as Princess, her level got reset, and her legal name was changed to Bitch. Depending on the medium, her adventurer alias got changed to “slut” or “whore”. It was absolutely perfect.

What Happens Now?

The Shield Hero currently only has one season under its belt, and its unknown if it will get a second one. If it does, though, I will tell you guys this: Malty Bitch will not learn her lesson. She actually gets worse.

Even though she’s a selfish, vindictive, petty, narcissistic psychopath, Malty’s Bitch is also a complete an utter idiot who will betray anyone who sides with her. Once people are wise to her ways, then she’s not much of a threat. However, in the web and light novels, that doesn’t stop her from continuing to manipulate and use others to get revenge on those who she think wronged her. As a result, Naofumi eventually downgrades her from a Bitch to a Witch. If the web novel’s are any indication, though, Malty Bitch Witch’s fate will end up being worse than death.

And that’s why Malty Melromarc is the worst girl in anime history and now sits at the top of my hate list. Fortunately, the anime balances it out by giving us the best girl of 2019.

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Why Raphtalia is the best girl of 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! I had meant to post this before the end of 2019, but my schedule got in the way of things. Thus, I want to kick off the new year by taking a look at the anime of the old year. Specifically, I wanted to look at who many consider to be the best girl of 2019, Raphtalia from The Rising of the Shield Hero.

The Rising of the Shield Hero came out in January 2019, and it attracted controversy early on for two reasons. First, the main character, Naofumi, gets summoned to be a hero in another world. However, he’s falsely accused of attempted rape by the worst girl in anime history, which turns him into a bitter cynic. Secondly, there’s the status of Raphtalia herself, as she’s Naofumi’s slave.

I should explain some things.

Raphtalia’s Origins

Given the fact that she has tanuki ears and a tail, it’s obvious that Raphtalia’s not human. She’s actually a demi-human, a humanoid species with animal traits and the ability to rapidly mature as they grow stronger. These traits lead them to be the target of discrimination and outright enslavement in parts of her world. Unfortunately, such a fate would befall Raphtalia. After losing her parents and her village to monsters, she and the survivors were captured and sold in slavery. The poor girl went through many cruel and heinous masters until she was left sick and near death. This is where Naofumi found her and bought her.

In order for her to fight and defend them, Naofumi went out of his way to treat Raphtalia well, making sure she was well fed and happy. Deep down, though, Naofumi simply didn’t have it in him to hurt someone who’d been through the same kind of hell he went through. As a result, within a few weeks, Raphtalia went from being a shy and adorable little tanuki girl to a strong and beautiful 20-year-old swordswomen.

Calls Out the Detractors

As I said at the start, Shield Hero got a lot of flak over what happened to Naofumi. Then it got probably more flak over the fact that Raphtalia’s a slave. It gets even more meta when another one of the heroes duels Naofumi in a misguided attempt to “save” her. Raphtalia’s ultimately set free, yet she chooses to stay with Naofumi.

The anime makes it as clear as possible that this isn’t a case of Stockholm Syndrome or brainwashing. As the anime shows, Naofumi never treats Raphtalia as a slave, but as an actual person. Almost anyone else would have left Raphtalia for dead; he didn’t. As a result, Raphtalia was able to see past the Shield Hero’s bitter exterior and see him for the kind person he truly was. This, in turn, led her to develop a genuine loyalty for Naofumi. This leads to one of the best moments in anime for 2019 when she bitch slaps her “savior” and calls him out on his ignorance. You go, girl.

Raphtalia+Naofumi

Overall, I think Raphtalia’s the best girl of 2019 for multiple reasons. Firstly, there’s no denying that she’s absolutely adorable as a kid, and goes to down-right beautiful as an adult. However, the true reason is her personality. In spite of everything she’s gone through, Raphtalia refused to let herself be broken. She remains incredibly kind-hearted, compassionate, and understanding of others. As a result, she helps Naofumi learn to slowly trust others once more, helping him as much as he helped her. Lastly, she’s an incredibly powerful swordswomen who doesn’t take anyone’s crap.

If you guys haven’t figured it out by now, it’s clear that Rapthalia’s fallen in love with Naofumi. Unfortunately for her, Naofumi refuses to acknowledge her feelings because he still cannot fully trust women and because of the fact that she’s still technically ten. In her defense, though, once demi-humans level up into their adult forms, they’re basically considered adults physically and mentally.

By a wide margin, Raphtalia was the best girl of 2019. She’s powerful, kind and caring, always there for her loved ones, and incredibly beautiful. Naofumi, for the love of all that’s holy, marry her!

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