Category: Goblin Slayer

We reach the end of the water town arc and Goblin Slayer killed some goblins. I am not sure what else I expected. I must say that animation wise for a series heavily focused on action, the action itself is rather static. Sadly some of the more impactful panels of the manga were cut from the adaption and I find that whenever Goblin Slayer kicks into gear, the action itself is rather flaccid. Take note that this is mainly whenever the Goblin Slayer himself starts fighting as when other characters fight the action is fine. The conclusion to the final fight is rather simple with Goblin Slayer causing a cave in and using the gateway mirror as a shield to protect them. I felt that he could have at least killed the champion orc just for finality sake as this does feel like a bit of an anticlimax to the whole arc with what could be considered the main villain getting killed offscreen.

So that last conversation between Goblin Slayer and Sword maiden was a confusing one and likely an explanation is needed as even I had trouble following it. The basic rundown is this, the demon lord sect, the one that was previously shown being defeated by the hero in a previous episode, set up a mirror under water town which would transport goblins under the town. The only killed some women in the town to gain the attention of the Sword Maiden. Now if it was known that the women in the town were killed by the demon Lord sect then that would mean that Sword maiden would be forced to go into the sewers to confront the goblins and due to Sword Maidens PSTD she was absolutely terrified of goblins. So Sword maiden blamed the killings in town on Goblins, hoping this would push the army into mobilizing against them. Unfortunately the army deemed that goblins were not worth dealing with which left Sword maiden in a bad position. She set her familiar(The alligator) down in the sewers to prevent adventures from stumbling into the place and stop Goblins from advancing further. Then she heard of Goblin Slayer and set about hiring him to take care of the goblins for her.

This whole conversation was certainly misleading as on hearing it myself I was mistaking it for Sword Maiden placing the mirror down in the sewers in order to show people the threat of Goblins? When in reality it was just Sword Maiden admitting to lying about the demon sect just so she would avoid facing goblins. This would be a first where I say that White Fox messed up in regards to conveying the situation. But I will say that Sword maidens fear and desperation were portrayed a lot better her than in the bedroom where she finds solace in the Goblin Slayer promising to always be there to hunt goblins, even in her nightmares. Well we are reaching the final arc of the series and to give an early verdict on it, it’s fine. I appreciate White Fox’s efforts to tone down the rape aspect but frankly the story itself is just a bit too simple for my liking. There is only so long I can watch a man kill goblins.

I know my coverage of this series has been quite sporadic(My coverage of anything this season has been rather lacking in general) and I can say that is in part due to my current work which has me less inclined to blog as I work enough as it is. But another part of not covering this all too well is also due to the simple fact that there really isn’t much to comment on here. Goblin Slayer the anime has lived up to it’s name of being about slaying goblins. But well, that’s it. The characters are pretty base though their interactions can be amusing and the plot mainly seems to be of GS slowly learning to warm up to people and his posse of adventurers going into dungeons to kill Goblins. That can be enough for people but for me I just find myself lacking interest for this is what this show is and this is what the show will be in the future. I just don’t see anything changing with the premise being what it is. As such while it is watchable, I don’t hold any strong feelings towards this series. not hate or love or much interest. I can stick it on, watch it for twenty minutes and leave without it having much of an impact. It’s popcorn really, something to have to pass the time but not having any real opinions or feeling towards.

For those who watched the crunchyroll broadcast you may be wondering just why episode 7 ended on a minute of a half of a birds eye starting at the screen. As it turns out that was supposed to be a credits roll but someone messed up at crunchyroll and had it blank with the normal ending tacked on. On this note, who here believed Goblin Slayer was dead? What? No one? Yeah, me neither. It’s not much of a cliffhanger to have the main character seemly die when he has plot armour considering that the show itself is named after him. I will admit that if he did die this would be a hell of a way to go out, going berserker on a goblin champion and scaring goblins so much that they all run terrified from him. The situation itself was certainly a lowest point for the party with high elf nearly raped, priestess getting a chuck ripped out of her and the guys…actually thinking of it Lizard and dwarf got off rather light in this engagement.

In episode 8 we see how Goblin slayer survived the encounter and it was one of those eye rolling moments that show Goblin Slayer’s light novel origins. He was revived with healing magic that basically required him to sleep sharing a bed with priestess and Sword Maiden. Sword Maiden was needed to cast the spell and Priestess was needed due to the spell requiring a virgin which Sword maiden wasn’t due to having been raped by goblins. My short time googling can’t confirm whether there is an actual D&D spell like this but honestly I found the whole scene just asininely pandering. Oh boy isn’t it cool that Goblin Slayer slept with two hot chicks in a bed last night? And now Sword Maiden is talking suggestively to him with nipples that could cut diamond. It was either cold as ice in that room or Goblin Slayer just emits an invisible aphrodisiac that it renders any woman weak in the knees. Overall i just found it distracting how Sword Maiden talks of being raped by monsters and her voice and the camera angles seem to be suggesting that I should be very turned on by this despite the content talking of how traumatised Sword Maiden is.

I do like that the treat of the goblins is mainly due to how much they distress Sword maiden who can fight demon lords and dragons no problem but is so deeply traumatized with her experience with goblins that she cannot relax knowing they are so close by. But it’s rather hard to take her seriously when while she is explaining it she rolls her hands down her chest causing her massive assets to jiggle. It’s a bit like watching a woman talk about her suicidal tendencies while pole dancing. Only other things I can mention is that it is rather novel for this show to have a beholder and refer to it as “The beast that must not be named” for that monster was one of the few that Wizards of the coast(D&D owners) copyrighted. And word is that they are pretty hard on enforcing that copyright so Goblin Slayer had to skirt around its name in other to not be sued. Also due to the shifting around of material a small plot hole has opened up but I suppose White Fox will skirt around that as well.

Episode four is one of those episodes which has me at a loss about what to even say about it. I mean in this episode Goblin Slayer went and slayed some goblins and in other news the Pope is still catholic. I mean sure there was a unexpected interruption of a Orge leading them which much to Goblin Slayers disappointment, wasn’t a goblin. There is a certain catharious in that the Orge is extremely egotistical and finds Goblin Slayers dismissal of him to be a great insult. Indeed the thing that makes his remarks on Goblins being more troublesome than one Orge is the fact that GS means it wholeheartedly. To be fair he also has a point as while Goblins are low level they are far harder to get rid of than one orge, regardless of how powerful that orge may be.Points for creativity with GS using a teleport scroll to connect it to the bottom of the ocean, herby making the water pressure push so hard through the opening that it effectively becomes a makeshift water jet cutter. I am a little curious as to how a simple farm boy could understand enough to know what effect he would get if he attempted such a thing but knowing GS, he likely was only planning to use it to drown goblins and didn’t quite know about the force the water would gush out at.

Other than that, High elf took much distaste in the adventure with did seem like a dirty extermination job rather than a true adventure to high Elf adventures are like those of D&D campaigns with a bunch of friends having fun saving the world. Whereas with Goblin Slayer it’s literally nothing more than a job with nothing fun at all. Episode 5 on the other hand was more light hearted, being about some daily grind of two rookie adventures and Goblin Slayer running into people around town. These downtime episodes make for a good change of pace and it’s nice to have people fighting things other than goblins. It’s nice as well to just see Goblin slayer out of his element in ordinary conversations with people. His complete utter disregard of anything that isn’t goblins once again proves to be a good source of comedy and his bluntness with the other characters is rather endearing.

This does mark a turning point in the series where the darkness of the first episode eventually just becomes something more standard at least as far as I have read in the Light novels. This show could lose a lot of people for that and I admit myself that both the manga and light novel lost me when the first story arc ended. Animated it’s at least proving more entertaining as action does work better in a animated format but I admit that the story itself doesn’t really have much of an end goal. Basically is just Goblin Slayer and friends going to kill Goblins. However from the looks of things the anime is going to skip the last part of the first volume and instead jump straight into the second volume. This is a change that I heartily approve as I am certain they are planning to use the finale of the first volume to close out the series and in that regard it would make for an excellent conclusion to the story.

It’s a bit of a slower episode, being more about setting up whats to be the main cast for the remainder of the series if the opening is anything to go by. So I might as well take this time to address the recent controversy this series has spawned. In most cases I wouldn’t really bother as it’s dumb and as far as I am concerned current real world matters should not be a factor when judging fiction even when said real world matters involve the author. But I might as well throw my two cents into the matter as it’s tangentially related despite my opinion potentially riling people up.(Provided said people even read this but I digress) So the low down is this, it seems the first episode of Goblin Slayer got a lot of flak for the rape scene in episode one. It’s shock factor, it’s propagating rape culture, blah blah blah, all that nonsense. I am actually pretty surprised as the reaction to this as this is far from the only rape scene in anime with there being much worse examples to cite, I didn’t see people getting riled up about the first episode of Psycho Pass for one. Now before people start painting me as some rape hentai enthusiast I will point you to my preview on the header bar as well as my first impression when I very much express my distaste for the trashy aspect of rape in Goblin Slayer and I still stand by that.

For if someone was to point at the manga and say that it sexualises rape then I would honestly agree cause boy there are panels in the manga where you can’t tell if the artist is trying to shock you or turn you on. So I find it surprising that people are reacting to the anime with so much volatility when it’s handled the matter much much better by implying instead of showing. When it comes to fiction, nothing is off the table provided it is treated with the delicate care required to make it work for the story. So I honestly just laugh at those turning up their noses at what is essentially a PG level scene of a horrific but tamely shown act. One anime youtuber even stated that it would give Emergence a run for its money to which I say “WHAT? Are you serious?”…honestly it’s absurd. Alright I know the futility of asking you to not read Emergence but for your own sake, don’t. For the curious, imagine if the author of Mahou Shoujo SIte decided to write a hentai doujin. For those who do not know that anime, imagine watching a slow moving trainwreck where the end result is obvious but you must watch every painfully contrived stupid event that leads to that outcome. So when the expected ending happens all you are left with is time you will never get back and feeling like crap for the rest of the day. Save yourself the trouble. My point is this, there is a time for picking up the pitchforks and a time to grow thicker skin. The Goblin Slayer anime is clearly in the second category so that’s all I will say on this.

If it’s one thing I like about Goblin Slayer despite his lack of dimensions is that he’s got his gimmick and damn if he runs with it to hell and back. It was delightful seeing High Elf girl try to lay down some exposition about an incoming threat to the world while Goblin Slayer proceeds to not care in the slightest up until they mention that they need to kill Goblins. His obsession with Goblins is a great source of comedy both inside and outside the show that despite how literally faceless he is, he actually becomes rather loveable for his stoic dementor. Which makes this new party that has formed a good dynamic as they play off his seriousness with banter. I must say the banter was quite good between all of them despite their characters not being all that unique, most playing to the trope of their race. I could have down with the flat chest joke though cause wow, how many times have I heard that one and it wasn’t even funny the first time.

I also love the small additions to the series like the bit of exposition at the beginning about the gods of the world fighting through dice and the extra focus on the different reasons people have for the origin of Goblins with Goblin Slayers remark about them coming from the green moon sounds rather poignant. Another tidbit in this episode was the Witch woman who talked to Priestess and her odd but sadly annoying speech impediment. I do like what is considered an explanation for her odd way of speaking in that being a high level spellcaster, she can cast spells with a single word so she must constantly mind what she is speaking out loud for fear of accidentally blowing the place to hell. That said her voice tick wasn;t the only annoying thing about her as I could ahve done without the camera foxusing on her tits and those boob bounces. They even put in the “Boing” sound effect, bloody hell. I said it before but CGI Goblin Slayer Model aside, I say White Fox is doing a fine job with the adaption. May next episode feature many goblin deaths.

The opening to this series is surprisingly more melancholic than I would have expected. When the shows opening started I was waiting for it to break into heavy metal but it stayed low and actually does match the rather dark nature of the series itself. After all this is a series about a PTSD madman who dedicated his life to killing all goblins and unlike Eren Yeager has actually made decent progress on that resolution. With the first episode mainly acting as a introduction of our protagonist and antagonists, the second episode sets out to go into more depth with Goblin Slayers routine. There are changes from what i have read of the manga and I am not certain if it’s truer to the source light novels but I find White Fox are handling the material well. There are some misgivings among viewers over missing scenes such as the comedic moments but I find that White Fox are focusing more on Goblin Slayers cold and ruthless nature while having him slowly get more human as the story goes on. I still find it ridiculous that this guy can somehow have a harem of three(Incoming elf girl for four) girls despite having no real charm and talking about nothing besides killing Goblins. Besides with him constantly hunting Goblins I would suspect he would smell quite bad from all the goblin blood.

I like the way that White Fox is interlacing the Slayers speech about being like a Goblin from the Goblins perspective with his merciless slaughter of a goblin hideout and one thing about this series that I do like is that despite his effort purely being out of personal revenge as well as being looked down upon by other adventurers, Goblin Slayer has gained quite a bit of fame for his exploits due to the fact that he takes care of one of the greatest threats to normal villagers. The contrast between him and other adventurers is certainly interesting as the adventurers act very much like any rpg player would. Indeed when playing an rpg why would I bother with a quest that pays little, nets me barely any exp and has no real reward besides moral grandstanding. Thus Goblin Slayers mental trauma has effectively netted him much goodwill from the people despite him never doing it for them in the first place. Even with the Slayers backstory I appreciate that White Fox are toning down the rather problematic aspects of the story as we certainly do not need a full page spread of goblins raping the protagonist’s sister in order to understand that this was a horrific traumatic event which set his course of life from that moment forward. Nor do we need any shots of goblin rape to remind us that Goblins are horrific creatures that fully deserve every pain the Slayer bestows upon them. Be it getting stabbing in the head with a pickaxe or lit on fire. Actually on that note I might as well say that fire arrows are not actually a effective weapon in reality as the wind from the arrow traveling through the air would often extinguish the flame.

There are two points of contention with this adaption for me though with the biggest being White Fox’s odd decision to render Goblin slayer in both 2D and 3D. This isn’t necessarily a rant against CGI in anime as I have no problems with Goblins being CGI at points and understand the reasoning behind it. Having a single goblin model which you can copy and paste around the place is more cost effect that drawing fifty goblins. It’s the lack of consistency which annoys me and the opening scene of this episode is a prime example. In the opening scene Goblin Slayer is having a chat with his old childhood friend and constantly throughout this scene they switch between 3D and 2D. Perhaps they thought it was seamless but to anyone watching it’s like someone pasted a toy model to the screen with how much it fails to blend into surroundings.It’s iterating as it constantly takes you out of the show to see him change so suddenly so frequently and I don’t quite understand as to why it was needed. Making a walk cycle for his childhood friend was no problem but making Goblin Slayer walk is too much trouble? Or is it that they don’t want to ruin the fanservice girl because boy is this big titted farm girl been showing a lot of that. Her very first scene isn’t even her face but instead her nude body after waking up and we got an unnessary scene of her bathing later as well which I just find strange. Fanservice is certainly nothing new but in a series like this you can’t help but feel it’s a forebringer of darker tidings as any cute girl is marked as a potential target for future goblin rape. I am just saying that in a series which features a awful lot of rape, isn’t trying to turn on your audience rather distasteful? That could lead to some rather bad fetishes developing for some people. Either way i wonder what will happen next week? WIll Goblin Slayer kill more Goblins? Well Yeah, most likely.