Goblin Slayer S2
Short Synopsis (Anilist): The second season of Goblin Slayer.
This was a surprisingly relaxed start for Goblin Slayer. It opened on a bit of a recap of Season 1, mostly showing us how dangerous goblins are and reminding us of the rape tendencies. Beyond that though there was a shocking lack of action and goblin murder. Instead it was a lot of character interaction, reminding us who these people are and their relationships with each other, as well as introducing a new character to the party. The idea seems to be using him to set us back to square one a bit, to remind us how dangerous they are before Goblin Slayer is allowed to live up to his namesake. Honestly I’m not sure how engaging of an idea this is. The main draw of the show is watching GS go full Dark Souls on some goblins, seeing the inventive and strategic ways he takes out a nest. The Priestess might be able to show us some of that as she wrangles a party of rookies, but will it really be the same? I’m not sure. Suffice to say, much like Season 1 I’m going to keep an eye on it for the occasional epic Goblin Slayer moments, but other than that I’m not expecting much from it.
Potential: 25%
The Kingdoms of Ruin
Short Synopsis (Anilist): Witches once blessed the human race with wisdom and peace. But the Redia Empire’s “Gear Expansion” brought about a culture of science that far surpassed magic, and witches were viewed as enemies impeding the progress of civilization. Thus began the witch hunts. One human named Adonis, who was raised by a witch named Chloe, swears revenge against the human race that took his beloved mentor from him. What salvation can be found at the end of a bloodbath fueled by utter despair?
Kingdoms of Ruin is, in my eyes, a pretty standard edgy sci-fi/fantasy show. The blend of technology and magic is, as always, more interesting than your standard high-fantasy Tolkienian world of elves and orcs. And I’m always down for a revenge plot where our lead is just/almost as bad as those he is fighting. That’s why it’s such a shame it had to go full public sexual assault/rape/brutalization with it. Had it just stuck to killing her, a standard revenge story, it could have walked that line of edge. Instead it jumped right over it and was a bit much. Still, if Kingdoms of Ruin can pull it back a bit, can actually do something marginally interesting with its lead, I could maybe vibe with it. I don’t expect it to, nothing about it says “Intelligently written” to me, but hey. I’ll give it one more. If I remember.
Potential: 10%
Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me
Short Synopsis (Anilist): Ryuuto Kashima is the school’s gloomy introvert, and he’s got a crush on Runa Shirakawa, the popular girl. After losing a bet to classmates, he confesses his feelings to Runa one day. Shocked and secretly just as inexperienced as Ryuuto, Runa agrees to date him. The relationship grows between two people who are as similar as they are different. Will their young love blossom? Time will tell!
This is the most cookie cutter “Dweeb guy hot girl” style of romance out there. I got to the end of the episode and didn’t care a lick for any of the characters and arguably couldn’t distinguish them from any other “blond school idol and dweeb” pair out there. Seriously, these two are just knock off Bisque Doll clones! I want to say you can find better versions of this exact premise in this very season, but I can’t actually think of one. At the very least there are far better romances. The only saving grace you might be able to get out of it is that it actually pulled back on going full ecchi. Like it opened on an offer to get laid and backed off. I couldn’t believe it! If you’re looking for a trash romance this season you can’t do much worse than Our Dating Story. Luckily even with the issues it has it isn’t the worst romance I’ve ever watched the pilot of, so maybe you’ll get something out of it.
Potential: 0.001%
