Goblin Slayer.I never quite realized how… Against the concept I was until I saw the man in all his glory. Probably because I don’t put much thought into the shows before watching them. I see it. Turn it on and watch. It all just comes to me as I go along. I have a lot of problems with this.
First off, I feel like when it comes to the backgrounds n’ such Goblin Slayer is definitely trying. You’ll have these moments in the… Taaaavern..? It was a tavern, right? That can’t be right. I’m not sure what to call it. Look, it’s the registration place. So, the priest is in the registration place and she’s registering to become an adventurer which I am tired of seeing by the way. I don’t even know what games do this but I always felt having to ‘register’ for an adventurer’s license or something along those lines takes the mystique out of the whole journey. Well, not completely. It feels like a system has been created for something that is supposed to make you feel completely free! The whole idea of adventuring in my head and why it is such a romantic form of storytelling is because someone just decided to pick up their bags and go! None of this hassle of meeting requirements, signing papers or having to go to an office and pick up some card that says you’re an adventurer.
That wasn’t what I was getting at, though. What I was saying is that the compositions don’t seem as flat and boring. I don’t really know how to explain with words but basically it looks pretty neat and cool. The backgrounds has a pretty significant amount of things going on with a bunch of stuff filling the space along with background characters. Though, it doesn’t look great. Like, there’s not a whole lot of detail on the objects themselves nor the background characters. And the background characters are just still images standing in the background so it looks like people are standing still and it is awkward. But still! Points for trying! This goes a long way, believe it or not. Additionally, the CGI was not terrible but still a little jarring. I am referencing specific scenes the Goblin Slayer guy was transitioning from 2D in one scene and then be 3D in another scene entirely.
Anyways, getting into the nitty-gritty… It is pretty obvious the appeal this show is going for… The kirby fans are going to LOOOOOVE this! They’re gonna see all the pink goop going around and shit! Okay, i’m kidding. Goblin Slayer is really something else. But I can’t get behind the 2 main appeals of the show. The first being how “gritty” it is. The problem isn’t that it is gritty. It is that it pretends to be gritty. Like, everything gruesome that happens… They don’t REALLY show it. They mainly insinuate it happens. Now, i’m not saying “show me goblins raping girls”; albeit, I am sure most people who think like me would say that. Me? I’d say there’s a certain point where too much grit just isn’t appetizing. But like… If you’re trying to sell me on this blood-squirting, head-splitting, gnaw-tearing experience. Then, it’d probably would help to; not just show blood-squirting but to show everything else. I wanna see the dude get eaten alive. I wanna see some nudity. I wanna see the skin burn off the goblins once they catch on fire. It is just too ‘tame’ for what it’s going for.
The second appeal: I kind of realized the moment I saw ‘Goblin Slayer’ himself that I didn’t really watch someone killing goblins. I immediately realized what the point of the show is literally halfway through and that’s pretty funny, honestly! But y’know… I realized what we were going to be doing for the entire series. Aaaand.. Does not sound like a fun experience. It sounds a lot like I am playing Runescape and the only thing I’ll be doing is killing the goblins outside of Lumbridge castle. Granted, I am still gonna watch Goblin Slayer. That is a given. For various reasons, really.
To summarize: It doesn’t look any good for what it is trying to accomplish. I don’t like that there is a system in place for adventuring (in hindsight, I should’ve realized this in my Grimgar review but, then again, Grimgar handled it better. It felt a little more natural and not a thing that we just popped into). I don’t like the heroine. She’s a wuss loli girl. Kind of boring. Goblin Slayer himself is a pretty cool guy, though, he’s a goblin slayer… I don’t know what’s entertaining about that. And a final note: I never realized how much I wanted an anime Dark Souls. Not, like, the meme I used on my re:zero video. I mean actual anime Dark Souls. If this Goblin Slayer character was fighting the shit you can fight in Dark Souls and going through that kind of environment then I’d be fucking down!
My Anime Storybook 