Naofumi Iwatani

"I hoped the whole place burned to the ground, the whole damn world."

- Naofumi

Naofumi Iwatani (岩谷尚文) is the protagonist of The Rising of the Shield Hero series. He was summoned to another world to serve as the Shield Hero (盾の勇者), one of the Four Legendary Heroes.

Appearance
Naofumi has short black hair that spikes in all directions, sharp green eyes and he often wears a scowl on his face because of his cynical outlook towards the world. However, he does express gratitude from time to time.

The armor he primarily wears is Barbarian Armor +3, which has gone through numerous upgrades and transformations. Depending on the situation, he may switch to different sets of armor or clothing.

The weapon in his possession is the Legendary Shield, which was granted to him when he was summoned to another world.

Personality
Naofumi had initially been an exceedingly trusting and positive person. He was also enthusiastic about his situation when initially summoned. However, his mentality abruptly changed after Malty S Melromarc, the princess of Melromarc, betrayed and framed him. Being left near penniless, framed as a rapist, and hated by nearly everyone, Naofumi became extremly distrustful, cynical, and spiteful towards everyone and everything in the entire world. He could not trust anyone as a traveling companion except when they had a slave contract. He started to assume that others were trying to get something from him. The result of the Princess's betrayal has left him in an almost permanent state of anger and hostility, which he masks behind a calm and level-headed personality. This mentality bites him back as he unknowingly pushes away genuine believers of the Shield Hero and Siltvelt envoys.

His hatred for Malty is truly without limit, extending to the point where he becomes wholly apathetic and ignorant to advances of women in general. Early on, he even expresses disgust and hatred for women purely because they are of the same gender as Malty, though he never voices this. This is due to his entire world view and personality being permanently warped by this trauma. He also feels like he can never trust anyone with anything in common with Malty. This leads to Naofumi falling into a state of deep depression. In this state he is approached by Beloukus who offers to sell him a slave for which he can use fight for him. In the slave merchants' tent that he finds Raphtalia. Who is very Sick and actively traumatized from the first wave. He decides to buy her for malicious reasons and his extensive hatred with anything in common with Malty. He chose Raphtalia in particular since she was in a terrible state which would make it easier to force her to suffer. This hatred for women does shortly go away as he soon realizes he can’t do such cruel things to a innocent child.

Over a very short amount of time Naofumi becomes very protective and actively caring for Raphtalia. He becomes protective of her since he has nothing left in this world that has been so cruel to him. He is caring and actively gives her medicine to help with her illness and is shown to buy the ball Raphtalia was eyeing. He is also protective of her to the point he was willing to throw balloon monsters at kids who were bulling her. Which he is noted to be somewhat sadistic about. He is also a kind and heroic person at heart who actively risked his life for strangers during the second wave in Riyute Village. He actively goes around getting the attention of the monsters much to his own confusion. He also gains an increasing disgust with how Melomarc's army target the wave boss and don't try and help the villagers. This is further intensified with how they cast a powerful magic spell with no regard for him or any civilians who were all luckily evacuated by then.

He is upset but did expect to not gain proper recognition for his contributions to the wave for keeping the people of Riyute safe. During the party to celebrate the victory over the wave Malty initiates a plan to take away the last thing Naofumi has which is Raphtalia. This eventually leads to a conversation with the other 3 heroes who criticize him having a slave. Naofumi nonchalantly by pointing out he can't fight alone and that slavery legal in this screwed up country. He also points out that rules of slavery in their world don't apply here and thus they don't have any right to criticize him. When Naofumi tries to leave the party with Raphtalia Malty and the king have her gaged. They call her a "poor girl" and someone who needs to be freed from the grips of the shield hero. This greatly angers Naofumi while they use this to force him into a duel with Motoyasu Kitamura even though everyone knows Naofumi can't fight alone.

This leads to a one-sided duel which Naofumi nearly wins but loses due to outside Interference from the Princess. This cheating leads to his lose and watches them forcibly remove Raphtalia's slave crest. This loss of the last thing he had and the one he trusted most causes his hatred to become greater than ever before leading to the unlock of the shield of rage. After Raphtalia slaps Motoyasu and criticizes Malty for cheating and calling out all their lies and explains how she was happy being his slave as he never had treated her like one. She then ignores them as she goes to Naofumi's side. When Raphtalia comes to try comfort him, he rejects her and calls her a traitor and actively calls his shield a curse. Raphtalia Refuses to back down and kneels down to him talk about how the shield and most importantly of all he protected her time after time again. This leads to an emotional scene where for the first time Naofumi had felt any real emotional happiness since he was framed. He ends up crying on her for a long indeterminate amount of time. She confronts him understanding that he must have suffered a very cruel time, He then cries himself to sleep in her arms. However, once he unlocked the shield of Rage, he lost the ability to emphasize with others leading to this being his last truly happy moment for a long time.

When he wakes in the Moring Raphtalia is there to greet him. She gives him a sandwich she made for him since they hadnt eaten. When Naofumi takes a bite, he is surprised that he can taste again, this causes some tears to come down his face. This comforting from Raphtalia prevented him from being completely consumed by his despair. For the first time his framing he is able to feel other emotions outside rage. Even after his hostility towards women goes away thanks to Raphtalia. He is still completely oblivious to their advances as can be seen with Raphtalia's advances and her romantic feelings towards him thought the series. He is amazed that the Beloukas is willing to pay 35 gold pieces for her. He joking thinks about it since he has been short of money but this gets Raphtalia very embarrassed and stressed so he decides to stop. While at the slave merchants tent Naofumi decided to buy a random monster egg on a whim. Since he thought Raphtalia could use one t help her fight and maybe once it grew he could probably sell it for a profit.

While they are staying in Riyute Village to help rebuild it the egg hates. Over the course of the next week the chick grows rapidly which surprises everyone. He presumes it's the effect of his monster wielder shield with its growth maturatiion ability. Once filo grows up completely he asks the villagers to know what species she is. Once he learns that she is a filolial he then decides to name her Filo. Which Raphtalia comments show bad Naofumi is with names. This is shown before this point with his terrible Nicknames for the King and the Second Princess. Where he specifically calls them Trash and Bitch respectively. This somewhat peaceful times ends with the rude arrival of Malty S Melromarc and Motoyasu Kitamura. Where they try and take over the village and force them to leave. They first impose an imitate 50 silver entry and exit fee which makes everyone unhappy. Naofumi points out the ridiculousness of it by pointing out the price for the inn is 1 silver per night with food included and how absurd the new fee is in comparison.

Naofumi actively sadistic about those who wronged him and actively wants to see them wants to suffer. This can be seen when Naofumi is happy to see Malty freak out with the Suprise appearance of the Shadows of the q. This makes Malty lose her cool and authoritarian behavior, in a moment of rage she challenges Naofumi for the sake of the village through a race with Motoyasu. Naofumi is very reluctant to do so but is convinced by the villagers and Raphtalia to stay. Naofumi is disgusted with all the Cheating from Motoyasu's side which he points out is unfair with random potholes appearing in front of him. When he wins the race, he is accused by Malty of cheating despite all evidence to the contrary. The Shadows then appear again and confirmed that Malty's side is the one that was cheating. This makes Malty be forced to walk away however this is not before Filo kicks Motoyasu in the crotch which fills Naofumi with glee.

After saving the village he is offered a reward by the Govener of the village. He ends up getting a carriage for Filo to bring around and a merchant pass which waves entrance fees. He then begins his journey as a traveling merchant.

Traveling merchant gig Filolial Queen monster crest. Filo turning into a human. Being relayed by the villagers he saved and their families. During his time as a trader Naofumi is also shown to be very observant. He dislikes being ripped off and does not tolerate people stealing from him. This can be seen how he goes into a rage when Malty frames and steals everything from him. His distaste for scammers can be seen when some merchants try and rip him off. He also can be seen as somewhat of a sadist as he likes to make those who wrong him much pain. This can be extensively seen during the trial.

When he gets to Glass' World he is very upset and distraught from getting separated from Raphtalia and his party. He is constantly worried about her to the point it interferences with his normal though process. This leads him to actively try and reunite with her. He even went as far as to Raph-chan with Raphtalia’s hair and his own blood in hopes of finding her location. When Raphtalia disappears from his party menu after losing her slave crest becoming the vassal Katana wielder, This left him extremely worried. He is actively show to be far less stressed about Filo. To the point it is hardly mentioned in comparison to Raphtalia in all sources of the media. He only is upset and worried about her once he finds her being treated as an amusement attraction. This sends him into a moment of rage where they get her back at night. In which he actively mentally tortures the captors who gave Filo permanent trauma. Which is the worst experience filo has had in her short life.

Naofumi himself tends to be very emotionally vulnerable about certain things. He is also very caring for those he loves. This can be seen in his reunion with Raphtalia where he actively held back his tears of joy upon seeing her. He is also very understanding of what she went through and helps her with her immediate problem of Trash II.

After returning from Glass’ World and returning the Spirit Tortoise’s Energy He and his party are welcomed by the people and the Queen. This great achievement makes Naofumi and his party actively loved and adored by the public. This is while the three other Heroes became hated by the same people that use to admire them for failing and leaving the world a worse place. This leads Naofumi to decide to take them under his wing' and help them see the reasons for this change. This act shows the other three hero’s how compassionate he truly is.

Background
From an early age, animals have naturally been drawn towards him. He was well-liked by any animal he encountered and they would act friendlier towards him than most other people. When he was a kid, he was offered a ride by a dog in his local area even though the dog had never once given a ride to anyone. During his time in elementary school, he was never once pecked by the chickens who were notoriously known by his classmates to peck. As Naofumi grew up, he worked multiple jobs at once, including at an izakaya and food-court.

At the age of twenty, he was a sophomore in college and had a passion for video games, light novels, anime, and other otaku-like activities. He would often put his hobbies in front of his actual studies, which caused his parents to believe he was a lost cause and focused all their attention on his younger brother by sending him to a famous prep-school in the hope to secure his future.

However, the pressure and the lack of freedom was too much for his younger brother. Worn out by the stress of studying and jealous of his older brother's freedom, he eventually turned into a troubled teen. He started dying his hair in different colors and even swore around the house.

Naofumi was painfully aware of the fact that he was the main reason why his younger brother turned into such a troublemaker. He took it upon himself to help mend his younger brother's relationship towards their family by introducing him to a dating simulator game. His younger brother was hesitant at first, but quickly got hooked and became an otaku himself.

Because his younger brother found a way to relieve his stress, he rededicated himself to his studies. Afterwards, he became the top of his class and even managed to get into a good high school.

One day, Naofumi went to the library to save money, where he found a book called The Record of the Four Holy Weapons. He immediately lost consciousness while reading it and found himself in another world.

Etymology

 * The name Naofumi means "esteem, furthermore, still, yet" (尚) (nao) and "sentence, writing" (文) (fumi).
 * Naofumi's surname Iwatani means "rock, boulder" (岩) (iwa) and "valley" (谷) (tani).

Trivia

 * Naofumi was summoned to another world through a book called 'The Record of the Four Holy Weapons'.
 * As the only hero to be their weapon's first choice, Naofumi is also the only hero among the Four Legendary Heroes who did not die prior to being summoned to Melromarc.
 * Naofumi has an innate immunity to alcohol and motion sickness.
 * Naofumi's favorite fruit is Rucolu Fruits, which are commonly used to make water barrels into alcohol. Additionally, his love for the fruit became so well-known, it's now used to confirm the Shield Hero's identity.
 * Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo are featured characters in the second season of the cross-dimensional anime series "Isekai Quartet."
 * Stephen Fu took over the role in season two is the same Voice who played Anti/Gridknight from SSSS/Gridman and SSSS/Dynazenon. This was due to Billy Kametz's deteriorating health and eventual death from Collen Cancer.