Read more about Naofumi Iwatani at: Wikipedia

Official Site: Crunchy Roll

, is a fictional character from the light novel The Rising of the Shield Hero written by Aneko Yusagi and illustrated by Minami Seira. Naofumi is 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 Legendary Shield, the character earns the title of 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 and Billy Kametz in English.

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 Rapthalia as the two grow close despite Naofumi's initial characterization. Kametz's voice acting earned him an award by Crunchyroll.

Naofumi was created by Aneko Yusagi. Yusagi stressed the importance of leading with your morality and the idea that of negative effects or impacts on other people in the making of the character as Naofumi accused of sex abuse. Naofumi was written to come across as a composed otaku, but Yusagi believes he is stronger in the anime to the point he believes there Naofumi is seen from Rapthalia's point of view. Across these first chapters, Naofumi is comforted by Rapthalia which he felt were one of the best adapted part of the anime. Another important relationship Naofumi forges in the narrative is with L'arc Berg who was made to act like his older brother despite often irritating him.

Naofumi Iwatani has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.