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This is the best comedy manga i've read since King's Game.

It fails as a thriller simply because the story itself doesn't have a framework that allows for good character development to happen. Instead of the characters growing naturally and developing relationships with one another, the story prioritizes filming obscene acts for views for the sake of blood and gore. That might not be completely unenjoyable as a thriller, but none of the characters were engaging enough for you to care if they succeed or not.

If you're watching it for the blood and gore, prepare to be highly disappointed, as the violence extends to nothing beyond ... anything you would see in an averagely violent series like Terraformars or Elfen Lied. The characters are drawn in an incredibly generic art style with flat faces that don't pop out or look distinct beyond generic anime attractiveness and the gore is incredibly uncreative to the point where it feels less like watching viscera and more like watching a dummy being thrown in a woodchipper.

It's one thing to have your manga include heavy subject matter like rape, pedophilia and murder but it's another thing to rely on value of those elements in a vacuum to sell a story. Those elements add nothing to the story and provide nothing but half-decent drinking material.

Dark does not equal mature.

If you're watching this as a comedy, i highly recommend it. Characters are emotional and overdramatic for reasons untold, plot twists are thrown left and right like M. Night on speed, characters are introduced solely for the purpose of them getting raped or murdered, villains are portrayed as one dimentional cartoon rapists and there's one arc that literally revolves around getting a guy to kill himself. For a show that's supposedly for adults, it's very cartoony and entertaining.

Dead Tube is a solid 3.

Disclaimer: I want you to enjoy Goblin Slayer without any influence from any outside source, but also keep in mind that the series isn't immune to criticism and despite the grandiose complaints which many quickly shrug off, those complaints are there for a reason.

STORY: 4/10
Goblin Slayer's strengths are held back by its tendency to leave holes, the so-and-so fight scenes and characters which don't really garner much interest aside from occasional good writing hiccups. It gets a lot of praise for being "realistic" and "gritty" but it doesn't really function well as anything other than a Tabletop RPG session. Adding in snuff and rape doesn't ... make something "realistic" and "mature" and while i understand why someone would enjoy a manga that's darker in tone and more violent than your typical fantasy anime, we need to be able to distinguish between "dark" and "mature".

Goblin Slayer, Akame Ga Kill and Elfen Lied all hinge from the same praise that the show is much darker than your average series, but that's not indicative of quality. The inclusion of goblin rape scenes sets the tone of the series as a violent and sexually horrifying portrayal of a fantasy world, but it doesn't make it any more interesting, especially when those scenes happen to characters we don't have much interest about. The majority of characters who are victims of horrible sexual violence all exist in order to fulfill that quota of sexual violence instead of being written as characters. This leads to a lot of audience apathy towards the brutality being shown on screen and it makes it all less engaging. Another thing about the rape scenes is that they happen at such a high frequency to characters we have no interest in and it quickly becomes dull and accustomed to. When rape scenes are the least interesting part of your manga, oh buddy, you got some stuff to fix.

The world of Goblin Slayer does not become realistic through its usage of rape and violence, it feels like a tacked on feature by an author who doesn't understand how to make the audience feel grim and despair and relies on harsh violence to give the illusion that these cardboard cutouts are being violated, despite the lack of any actual character. Attack On Titan did a good job presenting a world that was grim and despair-inducing without even the slightest mention of rape and even if it doesn't have well written, a lot of authors can still take a lesson or two about presenting world building from that series.

CHARACTER: 6/10
That being said, i did enjoy a lot of the main character interactions, particularly the cute moments between the titular character and his party, but that adds another layer of issues. The light tone of the character interactions really undermine the violence that the story attempts to have. Instead of providing a contrast or a refuge from the harsh violence, it creates a dissonant whiplash that serves the story poorly. (Also, does this show really need a harem? Doesn't that give a conflicting demographic?)

The tone has a conflicting identity which is apparent when you go back-to-back from playful character banter to meaningless goblin violence. It doesn't fit well and it makes the it all the more frustrating when the tone flip-flops between dreary and cheery. I can't take the violence seriously because i don't care, and i can't enjoy the banter between characters because that's not what i read Goblin Slayer for.

ART: 6/10
The art is very pretty and charming and you can make the argument that it becomes disheartening when horrible things happen in this cutesy anime art style, but i can't help but feel like the art style undermines a lot of the grimness the setting tries to have. The art style would work much better in something more akin to Konosuba, because it really does shine during more comedic and expressive moments.

ENJOYMENT: 6/10
Look, there's no other way to put this, goblins are boring. That's personal preference, of course, because when the villains are written to be an inherently ugly and evil race, there's not much enjoyment or character variety. I'm more of a technical fight kinda guy, and there's not much enjoyment i can make when all that's happening in a fight scene is swinging swords and casting spells which function according to video game logic i've seen done better in other Isekai anime instead of being a realistic portrayal of a clashing of swords. That wouldn't be an issue for me, but there's a lot of praise coming from the "realism" of this manga's world, but it really does feel just like a video game.

OVERALL: 5/10
I didn't make this review because i hated Goblin Slayer, i made it because it gets a lot of undeserved praise for what is essentially just another generic fantasy series. It doesn't know if it wants to be realistic, ridiculous, fun, dark, humorous or well written. The action gets dull quick, the characters don't mix, the series is boring. It doesn't deserve praise as "the best thing ever made" and it doesn't deserve praise as "the worst thing ever made". It's just a mediocre show that's going to be forgotten.

And if you enjoyed this manga BECAUSE of the rape scenes, don't hide it by excusing it as "mature" or "realistic". I won't judge you. We're all degenerates.