Anime – Goblin Slayer

Anime Nov 22, 2019

Overview:

Goblin Slayer (GS) in the first ep starts out by setting the tension that will continue throughout the rest of the season without dipping down much at all. The atmosphere is dull in that it captures the way he feels and portrays it as I believe he does. It’s not an exciting world he is part of, its one with loss that is unpredictable and can happen at any time. Onna Shinkan is introduced in the first episode where she initially signs up to become and adventurer and is asked to join a party the moment she is about to look for a quest to begin her journey. This group is also new and due to their lack of experience it is shown throughout and even up to the point they are faced with true combat with goblins. The goblins are as stated, not the smartest but adapt and learn quicker than people would give them credit for. As the group encounters the goblins of course due to their overconfidence meet a terrible fate. Their showing is more to represent all new adventurers since this world is in a time where there are several new adventurers like them that have little to no experience with even the basics. Goblin Slayer happens to go to this cave to kill these goblins and succeeds. The first ep is packed full of information about the world and sets things up very nicely about how terrible goblins actually are even though they are always thought to be nothing more than insects with no power or intelligence.

After that entire encounter we are taken on a small quest to take out a goblin encampment where Shinkan is further shown what is essentially the daily life of GS. We get a bit of backstory of reasoning as to why he detests goblins to the extent he does and why he will not let a single one escape the extermination area.

We are shown the rest of the main cast that will be with us till the end of the show. You can consider them a group of misfits for reasons that are explained and shown. They have come there with a request for GS’s help. He immediately refuses but as he is told it is about goblins his decision quickly changed to a, yes, I’ll do it. They set out to the ruins where the new cast is shown what goblins truly are and why they are a threat underestimated by most. After the quest they are immediately sent to a faraway city that once they arrive and complete the objective can be a bit complicated as the dialog with the quest giver is very vague and for any who do not completely understand I would highly recommend a brisk through the past couple eps to see the talking points they mention. Also, to rewatch the scene of their conversation. It took me a few minutes to figure it out as I first thought it was her who was somehow involved but I was misunderstanding it first watch of the scene. Keeping the details vague as to not spoil what it’s about but there should be a reddit discussion or comment somebody posts that can help better expand upon their dialog and its true meaning to save time decoding it yourself. It’s not that its complicated but more along the lines of being too vague which is alright imo as its one of many storytelling methods of not directly stating XYZ. The quest givers past that is shown and talked about is sad and the reasoning behind how she was able to get GS recruited to deal with the goblins is smart to say the least.

Upon returning home we are greeted with one last quick arc that was apparently shifted to the end of the season instead of prior to the previous arc. I feel the way this was shown flows well and is a good end to the series though. A couple lines of dialog seem out of place though since it was clearly written to make more sense prior rather than after the past arc but that’s a very minor thing all things considered.

Visuals/Music:

The visuals were good enough, they are about average imo. That is not a bad thing though. GS is shown in CGI and to some that is terrible, but CGI is something that takes time to actually cope with. I was able to understand the reasoning for CGI when I watched Knights of Sidonia and am now fine with 95% of it in shows. There is clearly censoring going on but not the white light or black bar type. The censoring here is more convenient in that it blends with the environment. The music fits well and does its job, nothing lackluster or spectacular about it. Its opening song captures the show pretty well with its feeling that gets portrayed with it.

Final Thoughts:

Something that is strange is that there are no character names explicitly given to anybody. They just refer to people as what a person would call a board game piece. Say you are playing a game of monopoly and somebody picks the hat, they would then be referred to as `it’s the hats turn` or `it’s the dogs turn` given somebody chose a dog.

A major thing I want to point out is in the first ep how many people were complaining about the rape scene and the shows overall dark theme about a fantasy world revolving around killing goblins. The scene itself was censored with barely anything showing other than enough information to gather what is happening at that time. There was nothing inherently bad about it and I believe it needed to be shown to truly get the point across about goblins and the way they act. Verbally stating or discussing how they act would not have gotten the point across that this world is a dark place and these things actually happen. The scene itself was to show this and to show Shinkan herself how terrible goblins are and that they are not to be taken lightly. If a person takes them lightly it will only end badly for them. Even in the manga it was shown with a bit less censoring, but I do not feel it was to the point of disgust, it showed it to the point that it got the point across about these creatures and made the readers/viewers have feelings towards them that otherwise would not be to the degree they are. Same goes for the meat shields in the final arc, it is censored and shows enough to get the point across. There is a lot that can be said but the outrage regarding the scene was a bit ridiculous. It’s a show for mature audience and the rating specifically states who the show is meant for, R - 17+, which is a mature audience only. Ratings need to be respected and not every show needs to coincide with what people are comfortable with, if a person doesn’t want to see what’s going to be shown then don’t watch as not every show is meant for every person.

Little bit of a rant but that is something that I could go on for a while about lol. Ratings are something that people seem to neglect but they are there for a reason, R is not meant for a unmatured audience and as such will not be catered for them.

The show in its entirety I already feel had to hold back too much. The content that was to be portrayed felt watered down compared to what it was wanting to show. Is that good or bad? It’s a bit of both and what I mean by that is, they were essentially forced to hold back. If they had not held back it probably would have gotten an, A, for adult audience only rating. Any type of content in that field has a very hard time finding funding let alone a channel to broadcast to which would ultimately lead to its premature failure. They did however give as good a show as they could have, given their restrictions. It’s just sad that due to these restrictions the show was brought down to more of a monotone way of storytelling. Could they have done better? Probably but you could tell they were nearing the edge of what they would be allowed to show and portray to a wide audience and still maintain funding.

I do recommend others to watch this show but keep in mind that the rating is a true representation of what you’ll be in for. Its only meant for mature audiences who are alright with subjects and content that is on the darker side. It doesn’t go that dark in all honesty but that’s because it can’t go that dark due to the restrictions it is bound by. The entire story shown though is not grand or anything along those lines. If they did bump the rating to A they could properly show the story as it is meant to be but then funding will be slim if any while also not having a proper way of broadcasting it to a wide audience for it to have the success it currently has. Simply put it’s in a quagmire, it could be better but it also cant and due to that reasoning is why I believe it to be a 3/5. There is a lot to say about the show but it mostly boils down to they have bounds that they are not allowed to feasibly go out of and that will/has ultimately hinder the shows overall quality which is sad to see but completely understandable.