| Naofumi Iwatani | |
|---|---|
| The Rising of the Shield Hero character | |
 Naofumi Iwatani, as illustrated by Seira Minami | |
| First appearance | The Rising of the Shield Hero chapter 1: "A Royal Summons" (2013) |
| Created by | Aneko Yusagi |
| Voiced by | Japanese Kaito Ishikawa English Billy Kametz (season 1) Stephen Fu (season 2–present)[1] |
Naofumi Iwatani (Japanese: 岩谷 尚文, Hepburn: Iwatani Naofumi) is a fictional character from the light novel The Rising of the Shield Hero written by Aneko Yusagi and illustrated by Seria Minami. Naofumi is a young man summoned into a parallel world along with three other young men to become the world's Cardinal Heroes and fight inter-dimensional hordes of monsters called Waves. Equipped with the Legendary Shield, the character earns the title of "Shield Hero" (盾の勇者, Tate no Yuusha) and goes on a journey with hatred towards society after being falsely accused of sexually assaulting a princess.
Naofumi was written by Aneko Yusagi to be a character affected by morality and how he forges bonds with other characters to recover himself from the presented crime. The anime staff aimed to portray him carefully when dealing with the character's relationships, most notably Raphtalia. He is voiced by Kaito Ishikawa in Japanese. In the English dub, he was voiced by Billy Kametz (season 1) and Steve Fu (season 2–present).
Critical reaction to the character has been mixed based on his dark traits but multiple writers enjoyed his character arc presented in the story, most notably when dealing with his slave Raphtalia as the two grow close despite Naofumi's initial characterization. Kametz's voice acting earned him an award by Crunchyroll.
- ^ Stephen Fu [@That_Fu] (May 3, 2022). "Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all the support. I'm honored to be subbing in for Billy as Naofumi this season. I'll do my best to make you proud" (Tweet) – via Twitter.