Dec 8, 2023
Goblin Slayer is beautiful and provokes great feelings of nostalgia for anyone who has played old-school MMORPGs. It's not an isekai, but it makes you feel like you're gazing through a mirror into a classic MMO world.
In a nutshell, it's a pleasing show with fair amounts of, in its setting, realism. Nothing feels overpowered or broken. Everyone in the main crew resembles a level 30 adventurer that has chosen their role at the town a week prior. Character design is great, the environment is great, lore allows for lots of fill-in-the-blanks but still good... it just makes you hope you could be reincarnated there –
...
without being an isekai. Great to add to your watching list for some fantasy!
Story: 7/10. Not quite episodic storytelling, but the arcs are somewhat short and there's no big plotline other than killing goblins. Linearity is not an enemy to a good story in certain situations—this is one of them. The plot, although it feels pointless, allows for the exploration of the beautiful world and slow introduction to characters + their desires. This feels, as I have not read the manga, like an extended journey into the life of our protagonist in overcoming his trauma, a trauma we haven't touched even 10% into yet. This is good. It allows for a lot to happen before the real issues of the show are addressed (plus they are never forgotten, you are reminded of everyone's personal trajectory as you watch). Albeit, there is slow progress done every episode to the protagonist's main stories, as you feel negative qualities be slowly eroded by an exposure to various simple plot devices.
Overall, it gets a 7 not because it's anything special, but because it does nothing special very well.
Characters: 7/10. I hate likeability as a factor for character design approval, but if that is what you are looking for, everyone is likeable—except for a red-haired mage. In my opinion, a well-designed character makes the audience get even more invested in the anime. All characters, especially side characters, achieve that purpose. You wish you could be there in the guild having a cold one, telling tales of great peril, fighting monsters in caves, or rizzing up a lass around the town. Characters are confronted constantly with life and death situations, the fragility of life, and their puny capacity to overcome situations of peril.
The most important characters in the show, goblins, act like a force of true evil that continuously endangers the life of our heroes. They are the driving force and have a well-thought-out design. They symbolize the adaptability of evil to inflict pain on humans. A simple enemy in any MMO, a force to be reckoned with in this anime.
Animation/World/Setting: 8/10 I think that this is self-explanatory from what I have said previously. They borrowed from amazing source material that is all MMORPGs from the good old days, and the animators adapted the world perfectly. The guild feels alive, the scenery draws you in, the art is neat, the girls are beautiful, the men are cool-looking Ichigos. Absolutely nothing to complain about. It's not mushuku tensei, but it's very good!
Music/OST/Openings/Endings: 6/10 Nothing too special in this department. The music achieves its intended purpose; it submerges you into a fantasy world and contributes to the illusion adequately. The OST is not The Witcher 3 or Uncharted 3, but it's Call of Duty—you never really notice its greatness, but for it to be good, you don't have to. Openings are over the top, and I personally did not like the songs in them or the endings.
Overall, 7.33, repeating, of course.
PS: Everyone who says this anime is dark and "too much" is right but slightly incorrect. The anime is not for people under 18, technically, because of blood and sexual abuse themes. However, if you're over 18, you've seen this a million times on television. However, I am biased since I think even Redo of Healer is an interesting exploration of sexual abuse and mental disorders, and I like when sex (+ its negative counterparts) is included in anime since it makes it more human and realistic on a completely different axis.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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