A third new trailer has been revealed for the ongoing fourth season of The Rising of the Shield Hero, which previews the upcoming “Q’ten Lo arc” that will start on the seventh episode. The fourth season first aired in Japan on July 9, 2025 and is expected to run for 12 episodes.
The returning staff from past seasons working on season four include Hitoshi Haga (since Season 3) as director, Takanori Yamamoto (previously involved as episode director and animation director on Season 1 and 3) as assistant director, and Keigo Koyanagi (since Season 1, co-credited with Kinema Citrus in Season 3) as series screenwriter. Kinema Citrus (since Season 1, shared credit with DR MOVIE for Season 2) is handling the animation production.
Franziska van Wulfen (since Season 3), Sana Komatsu (since Season 3), and Masahiro Suwa are serving as character designers for the fourth seasons, with Kevin Penkin, Alfredo Sirica (Season 3 sub-composer), and Natalie Jeffreys (Season 3 sub-composer) as music composers.
Meanwhile, the anime’s main voice cast stars:
- • Kaito Ishikawa as Naofumi Iwatani
- • Asami Seto as Raphtalia
- • Rina Hidaka as Filo
- • Ami Koshimizu as Sadeena
- • Kouhei Amasaki as Fohl
- • Konomi Kohara as Atla
- • Takeo Otsuka as Werner
- • Jiro Saito as Jaralis
The anime’s first three seasons premiered in 2019, 2022, and 2023. Crunchyroll and Bilibili are streaming Season 4.
The anime is based on the fantasy light novel series, written by Yusagi Aneko and illustrated by Seira Minami. It was first published by Kadokawa’s MF Books imprint on August 22, 2013 and has released 22 volumes as of June 2019. The series started as a web novel on Shosetsuka ni Naro in 2012.
The light novels have also inspired a manga adaptation and several spin-offs.
One Peace Books licensed The Rising of the Shield Hero light novels and manga for release in English, describing the main synopsis of the former as:
Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!
Sources: The Rising of the Shield Hero Official Japanese Twitter, Anime News Network
