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EP. REVIEW: Goblin Slayer II

...she used Purify to try and take the life of the goblin shaman, they cut out the part where she was chastised for her actions by the Earth Mother (LN for context)...But it nearly crushed her. It was something of a watershed for Priestess, and it affected things from there on, as she kept asking herself if she was using her power correctly....

Dale B wrote:

...she used Purify to try and take the life of the goblin shaman, they cut out the part where she was chastised for her actions by the Earth Mother (LN for context)...But it nearly crushed her. It was something of a watershed for Priestess, and it affected things from there on, as she kept asking herself if she was using her power correctly....

Thank you very much for this as the sequence left me perplexed as to why she reacted as she did and it seemed to not make sense and was very out-of-place. Also, why the goblin shaman recovered afterward, I assumed the spell wore off or something but from what you say, did the Earth Mother reverse the spell to save him? These are important bits of info to leave questions on, especially if the answer has far-reaching effects on the character or plot...

All this Chris guy does is shit on the show and point out how much he barely tolerates it. Low star reviews all the time. Get someone else please.

All this Chris guy does is shit on the show and point out how much he barely tolerates it. Low star reviews all the time. Get someone else please.

Exodus007 wrote:

All this Chris guy does is shit on the show and point out how much he barely tolerates it...

As a fan of the series, I politely disagree. Chris is doing what reviewers are supposed to doーtake a critical look at the series...

Goblin Slayer is definitely not terrible, but I feel like it pretends to be edgy. When really it isn't. Attack on Titan, Elfen Lied, Black Lagoon, and Redo Of Healer—don't pretend to be edgy, they are the mofo EDGE spoiler[[Over the Max by JAM Project, playing in the background]]!!

Heck, if I disliked the series, I would stop watching it. But I obviously I do like it, just not every anime is able to be perfect in every single way. I just really hope it starts to up the ante. Come on fam, lets do it.

Meexa wrote:

Goblin Slayer is definitely not terrible, but I feel like it pretends to be edgy. When really it isn't. Attack on Titan, Elfen Lied, Black Lagoon, and Redo Of Healer—don't pretend to be edgy, they are the mofo EDGE spoiler[[Over the Max by JAM Project, playing in the background]]!! Heck, if I disliked the series, I would stop watching it. But I obviously I do like it, just not every anime is able to be perfect in every single way. I just really hope it starts to up the ante. Come on fam, lets do it.

The problem this season isn't the story, its the adaptation writing and timidity of the studio. For example, they bobbled the bit with Priestess's chainmail, just to leave shreds on Princess. If you read the LN, Princess was naked on the altar, and had been ritually cut and was bleeding out and off the altar, powering the barrier protecting the shaman as well as the summoning ritual. She was also screaming her life away, as it obviously was painful (and she got progressively weaker over time as she lay there dying). After they rescued her, Priestess found her mail AND her stolen clothes thrown to the side like the trash goblins considered it, not folded and stacked neatly. They also did Princess a disservice; the way they portrayed her was not as she was portrayed in the source material. She wasn't a bored, entitled brat looking for a thrill. She was raised on the tales of adventure her brother the King had when he helped save the world with Sword Maiden. Most of the King's advisers were adventurers who went with him. And Big Brother was OVERPROTECTIVE of his little sister. He knew just how bad it could get, and wanted her safe. Whether she wanted it or not. But she had been fighting that battle most of her life, and she was quick and clever because of it. She stole the guard outfit so she could move about in the city unwatched, for example. Naive was what she was. She knew stories, not reality; her 'fair payment' for Priestess's gear for instance, which no doubt exceeded its worth by several orders of magnitude. She knew the danger of getting into trouble in her city, and the thrill of getting away with something, but that was all she knew. It would have taken a half to a full episode to round all that out, but the results would have been very worth it.

This plagued the whole season: They dulled many edges to duck controversy. Acolyte was also not clothed, and the goblin extracted a (several) scream from her by using one of the stolen tools from the dwarves to saw the fingers off one hand. Which Wizard Boy had to pick up and pack away, as they might be able to heal them back on (they did, btw). They also cut out Acolyte's entire party, which cut out any reason to care about her, and some tidbits of character action and, not growth, but getting slugged with reality enough to wake a vengeful boy up a bit (When the troll almost clobbered him, he never processed that slipping in Acolytes blood was all that saved him then...but he got a real close up look at the club....and the hair and blood and skin shreds that were all that was left of the Warrior Priestess of Acolyte's party. She was fun: literally, a "Praise the Lord and Pass Me My BattleAxe!" kind of person. And her last act was to push Acolyte out of the way of a clubstroke, taking the blow herself, and smiling at her friend. In fact, it was her battleaxe that Lizard Priest used to deliver the coup de grace to the troll with). They did the same on the river to Archer's homeland. Another party fell prey to the bombardment from the cliffs, and they didn't fare well. You had one elf girl running through the woods, trying to find her sister and friends. She found them on the shore; they had been impaled by the goblins. Pure shock, but also an indicator that these little goobers were somewhat worse than their kindred; they worked in tandem, and there was more than greed and breed driving them. Said girl also wound up decorating a post. Instead we get a second or so of visual gobbleygook that, if you do a frame by frame step through, you can see silhouettes that look modeled on the manga take of the event. All the impact of dry sponge and 30 or so frames they could have used elsewhere.

Obviously, they couldn't do everything from the source, but they followed anime formulas too strictly, and cut out or jumped over set ups or context issues that filled in motivations, actions, and results. If you don't know the text it just looks like bad writing; if you do, you can see where they tried and failed to compress things.

Oh my goodness, they basically (permanently) self censored themselves. The light novel sounds way more dark. If I was head of the studio, I would just make a full uncensored version, then just put cheap black bars once broadcasting. At least, in the future if anyone wanted the uncensored or the retail environment changes, we got a golden copy.

Meexa wrote:

Oh my goodness, they basically (permanently) self censored themselves. The light novel sounds way more dark. If I was head of the studio, I would just make a full uncensored version, then just put cheap black bars once broadcasting. At least, in the future if anyone wanted the uncensored or the retail environment changes, we got a golden copy.

Technically, episode 1 of season 1 was nothing to scoff at, either, but ever since that controversy blew up, they've cut all the most gruesome scenes from the show (with maybe the exception of the meat shields). I assume they just don't want to cause a stink again. My problem with it isn't really about making Goblin Slayer more gruesome and dark or whatever, but rather about how cutting a lot of this stuff removes context and substance to several of the characters. I honestly don't want to see a bunch of random female adventurers impaled on sticks, but alluding to it might set up the emotional stakes in the battle. They don't have to show Princess naked on screen, but alluding to it could help.

That said, I'd argue it wasn't just censorship that made the anime weirdly fall flat, but the general attitude to condensing the story at the expense of character roundness and development. They got the beats down, but not the layers. So much feels hollow and empty, and I'd argue season 1 and Goblin's Crown did much of the same. The anime isn't a total bust and it's been fun to watch regardless, but it really is just a different beast to the novels.