I finished my services in Nam back in early '75 and from then onwards assumed I wouldn't be put through anything similar again. Being violently thrust into the jungles of Saigon suddenly seemed all too inconsequential upon bearing witness to the first 10 minutes of Goblin Slayer. I have been scarred for life. Following these events, I have purchased a suit of chainmail armor and a few water scrolls from Ebay to protect myself from the inevitable and despite my therapist's best wishes. The end is neigh, my friends.
Joking, this anime is bad lol. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the sole reason it's currently in-season for one reason and for one reason only. Shock factor, but more specifically the rApE. Goblin Slayer is a substanceless heap of hot garbage, albeit hot garbage packed meticulously well. It serves as a constant reminder that the people who forfeit artistic integrity, and maybe even their pride - oftentimes have it the very best. Liking shock factor fueled shows isn't a small niche, granted, but not to this extent where everyone cares for them, and the people who don't typically know to avoid them. Yet for some reason once sexual assault gets thrown into the equation, everyone and their grandmothers rush to the scene. And only then too is it that people get upset and start storming the shed looking for pitchforks.
Depiction of rape in art can either be tasteless or serve a purpose. In our case and in the humble beginnings of Goblin Slayer its initial intentions are presumably to villainize the goblins. Rape is probably the single easiest way to make the audience dislike the perpetrator. And low and behold, it works... for a while. Not before long, it devolves into nonsensical softcore porn, but more importantly manages to desensitize a large portion of the viewerbase to the act itself by repeatedly shoving it down our throats. Which has me convinced the word "villainization" is thrown around as nothing more than a convenient scapegoat here. If it truly were about muh villainizing, it did a damn shitty job by instead making me profusely grin at a child's sister unwillingly partaking in a goblin bukkake in front of his very eyes.
It's an actual fear of mine that some 12 year old somewhere on this very planet popped his first boner over a few goblin cummies. And what a massive one it must have certainly been. While it's clearly overused mainly just to maintain cheap interest for the story, the point to take away is that no one should have their goblin slaying experience sullied by implementation of needless hentai elements. If animated goblins really are your kink, HentaiHaven probably has you cov -- Oh, wait. :(
Before getting into the nitty gritty, litty titty, or the plot if you'd rather, it might be important to address the whirlpool of opinions surrounding the anime as a whole beforehand. Some conflicting, others in fullhearted agreeance, it doesn't really matter. The root of the problem is the sheer amount of opinions, instead. Please refrain from adding this anime to your stagnant PTW with 200+ and counting titles that you'll never get around to finishing in this lifetime or any other after seeing one scene and a Gigguk video on it. The most enjoyment someone can suck out of this withered goblin's crusty nutsack is watching a grown man get a stroke over episode one. Head on over to EtikaWorldNetwork for more information.
Yet youtubers, discussions, and the community as a whole have deemed it fit to blow a staggeringly boring show out of interstellar proportions. All because of a little edge. Consider realistically, what else does Goblin Slayer bring to the table? Cookie cutter characters, a nameless and faceless protagonist who is the literal living embodiment of stoicism itself and a Tolkein-esque animified high fantasy setting with that rudimentary boring ass guild system that's making me want to rip out my nose hairs by the second. Konosuba you aight tho.
The plot is, as the title suggests, a well over four hour journey of pure unadulterated goblin slaying and all the misadventures accompanied along with it (18+). Resembling a few anime due to the aforementioned setting, there are two I constantly see being referenced as similar, with Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash definitely being the most prominent one. These two shows clearly split at birth, and one is a bit less retarded than the other but it's still clear to see why the mother abandoned both. I have an entire review dedicated to Grimgar written two years ago, and seeing as I'm writing this right now you'd figure shoving special ed kids in lockers to be a specialty of mine. Berserk's the other one often mentioned, which almost seems like another gateway for Berserk fans to toot their own horn for liking the grimmest, darkest comic of them all. "This series people like has rape? My series also has rape, but, like, betterer".
I'd like to say the show has a definitive highlight (i.e plot, characters), but it's about as consistent as Miura's writing. The quality of the fight scenes is incredibly varied, ranging anywhere from terribly unengaging to kinda fun and the SOL scenes inbetween are either boring as all hell or funny-ish. The humor in these scenes typically relies on showcasing how much of a flat out sociopath our protagonist is. It typically follows the structure of one of the side characters interacting with him in a normal way and him responding like a lizard person. Or like if Gendo Ikari had his own show and wasn't a neglectful father but instead the protagonist of an action adventure. Essentially, he's just Jotaro minus Star Platinum. While that means he'd probably still make a better Jojo than Jonathan, Jotaro has the power of unfunny memes and Jojokes on his side while this guy swims around in sewers killing goblins. Talk about luck of the draw.
His backstory is pretty unclear and at one point in the show he is even killed, only to be resurrected back to life by laying in a bed with a virgin. Disregarding the Kirito-tier plot armor for just a second, if that method of resurrection were applicable in real life I'm pretty sure the anime community would account for the single most renowned group of healers in the realm. Last but not least, his suit of CGI armor is incredibly ugly looking and has almost become synonymous with his character by now. The epic character of.. the nameless titular character almost makes up for the fact that using more than a single adjective to describe the entire cast is overkill. The most characterization this lot gets is establishing a tropey elf vs dwarf rivalry and a personal favorite of mine, that is seeing the dragon-lizard-man's transformation into a certified cheese connoisseur
Anyway there's really not much else to comment on. The main sauce of this whole Goblin Slayer saga lies in the fact that something so bland has gotten so tremendously popular and even well-received overseas. I call it a saga because judging by its level of success, it'd be dumb not to continue in this season's footsteeps. But I suggest instead of how power scaling exists in shonen, every season they up the ante by doubling on the number of goblin gangbangs.
