Light Novel

The Rising of the Shield Hero light novel is written by Aneko Yusagi which follows the story of Naofumi Iwatani as he is summoned into a new world as the Legendary Shield Hero.

Overview
The Rising of the Shield Hero was first imagined by Aneko Yusagi as a web novel on a fan-generated site. However, due to its popularity, it was picked up in 2013 by Media Factory for distribution in Japanese and in 2015, it was picked up by One Peace Books for distribution in English. As of 2021, twenty-three volumes will be released in both Japanese and English translation.

The Web Novel is commonly believed and treated as a rough draft of the series, however, the author of the series, Aneko Yusagi, noted that the Web Novel and Light novel should be considered two separate works. While the two stories start similar, the differences between the Web Novel and Light Novel grow as they develop. Light Novel Volume 8 and Volume 9 appear exclusively in the light novel story and as of Volume 16, the two stories have diverged completely.

In 2017, the spin-off series The Reprise of the Spear Hero was released in light novel and manga form.

Canon
Since the Web Novel and Light Novel are meant to be considered separate works, they are considered to have independent canons. What occurs in the web novel does not necessarily predict what will occur in the Light Novel and vice versa. The works which are contained within the Light Novel universe includes:


 * The Rising of the Shield Hero Light Novel
 * The Rising of the Shield Hero Drama CD
 * The Rising of the Shield Hero Manga
 * The Rising of the Shield Hero Anime
 * The Reprise of the Spear Hero Light Novel
 * The Reprise of the Spear Hero Manga
 * The Reprise of the Spear Hero Drama CD

Differences from Web Novel
After the light novel was created, a few notable changes were made from the web novel. The most notable is that it is missing multiple web novel arcs (Like Counterattack of the Fluffy-Tailed Waifu or The New Seven Sins arcs) and has a few light-novel exclusive arcs. Anything after Volume 16 of the Light Novel does not exist within the Web Novel. Even within shared arcs, the details of the story are quite different. Key characters like Kyo and Ost do not exist in the web novel while others like Medea do not exist in the light novel.

Besides the general story-line, the characters within the story are also noticeably changed. For example, in the light novel Naofumi's personality is less sadistic and grows during the course of the story.