RJ Writing Ink

Rest In Peace, Billy Kametz, the voice actor for Josuke and Naoumi Iwatani.

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.

Click here to see more animanga stuff.

Rising of the Shield Hero, Episode 21 Review/Recap

I had been wanting to post about this since the start, but I never found the time to do it. That said, I couldn’t help myself from wanting to write something for this moment.

If you haven’t been keeping up with anime, Rising of The Shield Hero was one of the big names to come out of winter 2019. It’s an Isekai story about Naofumi Iwatani, a college student who gets summoned to another world as one of four heroes meant to save it from destruction. Standard Isekai, until you learn that Naofumi is the Shield Hero, who can only use a shield to defend and nothing else. It gets worse.

The show got a lot of controversy from the first episode when Naofumi was wrongfully framed for attempting to rape a party member, Malty. Then comes the fact that Naofumi’s first real companion is a slave girl he bought. So, there’s controversy about this thing. Not that I care.

Long story short, the anime just had Naofumi take down the corrupt religion of the Church of the Three Heroes that was behind his troubles. In doing so, though, he almost died.

Recap

Naofumi wakes up in a high-class hospital after being saved by the Queen, Miriela Q. Melromarc. He’s been asleep for three days while his friends Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty have been by his side. He’ll live, but it will take a month or so to heal.

The Queen then explains that everything Naofumi went through wasn’t supposed to happen. The Four Heroes were supposed to be summoned seperately by different countries. The Church of Three Heroes, though, decided to be turds, summoned them anyway, and hogged them all to Melromarc. The Queen was all over trying to stop an international incident while her husband and daughter put Naofumi through hell.

The Queen is, understandably, furious beyond words. She outlaws the Three Heroes Church, but she goes the extra mile to convince Naofumi to stay in Melromarc. If he leaves, the international community will invade Melromarc for what they did to him.

At the Royal Palace, with the entire country watching, the King and Malty are tried for treason, incompetence, and being pieces of garbage.

Malty’s put under a slave crest to make sure she tells the truth, but despite all that, she continues to lie. About framing Naofumi for raping her, kidnapping Melty, trying to kill her sister.

The sentence for both of them: death. Yet Naofumi’s not satisfied with that, and decides to make the rest of their lives hell. Instead, the King’s name is changed to “Trash”, and Malty to “Bitch”; her adventurer name will now be “Slut”.

Good thing, too. The Queen was willing to offer up her own life in exchange for her horrid husband and daughter. Naofumi decides to stay in Melromarc, but he plans to help everyone in the world from here on out. So he, Filo, and Raphtalia set out once more, only this time, everyone knows that they’re heroes.

Review

There were a few differences between what happened here and what happened in the manga, and light novels. First, Naofumi was the one who called for their deaths rather than wanting to spare them. It took the Queen to convince him to make them go through a fate worse than death.

Second, in this episode, even Motoyasu turns his back on Bitch after he learns the truth. In every other version, he’s on her side despite it defying all logic.

My point is that the way they react ends up being out of character for both of them. Every adaptation of Shield Hero, in fact, has gotten lighter in tone to make Naofumi more heroic. In the web novel, he could be just as bad as everyone else.

Everything that I just mentioned, though, is me nitpicking. It doesn’t tread water against the moment we’ve all waited for: Trash and Bitch get what they deserve. In regards to that moment, the anime did it better than any other version.

Having the two pieces of filth stand trial while broadcasting it across Melromarc was a great idea. That never happened in the literature or manga, so it made the whole thing more enjoyable.

The best thing, though, was seeing the anime version of Cersei Lannister crying and in pain. Every time she got shocked, I was grinning ear to ear.

I know it sounds sadistic, but let’s remember everything she’s done:

• She stole Naofumi’s gear
• She falsely accused Naofumi of trying to rape her
• She manipulated Motoyasu to fight Naofumi so she could take Raphtalia away from him, and likely hunt her down and kill her for fun.
• Charging an unfair toll to a distant village, then cheating in a race against Naofumi
• Framed Naofumi for kidnapping Melty, tried to kill her, and burned down a forest to flush them out.

That’s not even the worst of it. The Web Novels say she pulled what she did to Naofumi on other men. She’s a monster, and seeing her in pain is cathartic.

So, it may irk me a bit that the episode ends on a positive note, like everything’s right with the world. It isn’t, and there are going to be more troubles in the future. I will overlook it all, though, because it was worth seeing Bitch get what she deserves. It’s what I wanted to see Cersei Lannister go through in the end.

The anime is going to keep going for a few more episodes, but this felt like the perfect way to end the show; or at least the first season. By god, it was worth it, though. One of the best anime I have seen in years!

I Give “Naofumi’s Triumphant Return” A 5/5. I’m going to watch this episode over and over again.