Goblin Slayer

Honestly, Goblin Slayer does not impress me with what it is looking to achieve, but I guess it works like many other grimdark, power-fantasies work: Loads of shocking scenes and a protagonist that never loses. I simply cannot enjoy something so predictably formulaic.

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Story: 1/10.__

The story is as simple as it can be, and the characters get as much depth as their names, which is to say none. The plot will follow the revenge story of one dude who "specialises" in killing goblins. I put "specialises" in quotations because, despite the story establishing that this guy has only ever fought goblins all his life, he can surprisingly outsmart and know the weaknesses of many other creatures with behaviours/attack patterns diametrically opposed to those of goblins. The Goblin Slayer's revenge path is justified, but what it isn't is the fact that he is the only one out of all the villagers to react in this way to the goblin menace.

In fact, the whole setting can't stand on its own when you stop to think even just a little about it. To stick with the villagers, it makes no sense that they wouldn't try to defend themselves on their own when the goblins have been there for more than a generation. Thus, the goblin threat is familiar to them, and out of all the villagers, the story wants to make the readers believe that only one person was brave enough to defend them against a constant threat. This would be treated as a nitpick if the tension caused by the battles of the story was an intriguing focus to follow instead of boring me to the point that I can't even enjoy seeing the Goblin Slayer be a badass.

And why is there no tension whatsoever in the story?

The answer is quite simple: the combats will go about the same way over and over again. The Goblin Slayer will always get to a place, order people around, and then take all the glory. Rinse and repeat. Now, if this repeating sequence was played comically like the combats of Saitama in One Punch Man, I could probably find it comical as long as it is used sparingly.

But the series always wants to be serious and dark, trying to "light up" by using cheap gags that don't work for me instead of creating a lighthearted tone. Therefore, I have to judge it for the kind of dark fantasy it wants to be. When my interest was worn off by the absence of tension, I tried to focus on something else interesting, only to find myself further disappointed by the series.

Some people praise the series's world-building, but it is nothing worth mentioning. As I previously stated, the setting is nonsensically dark, and no plot point progresses noticeably. Here's why.

The things we know for sure in chapter twenty-seven are more or less the same as in the first four chapters: goblins are evil, Goblin Slayer is a certified badass, and the rest of the adventurers are either greedy and corrupt or useless. The only thing that changes about the adventurers is that some are only doing something praiseworthy when the Goblin Slayer is around to tell them precisely what to do.

This questions their worth as individual adventurers and their motivations to put up with the Goblin Slayer's plans. It's like they cannot have any critical judgment of their own. The only "progression" on a visible character level is Goblin Slayer's increasingly more significant status among the rest of the adventurers, even when he's paired up with characters of his combat level.

This brings me to my next point: The Goblin Slayer is not that different from other self-insert power fantasies found in other LN protagonists. He will always win, be one step ahead of the pack no matter how unlikely it is, and always be the boss.

Hell, even gods can't possibly control this character because he has to be unique because of his tragic backstory. We can't have themes such as predetermination or destiny ever go against the protagonist, can we?

There can't be anyone else to rise up like the goblin slayer because that would make him less memorable and show that his motivation doesn't differentiate him from other villagers who would most certainly train to become goblin slayers themselves after surviving a goblin raid.

And, of course, the Goblin Slayer is the only one who can ever show more intellect or combat abilities because then he wouldn't have a reason to order them around, right? He would be the one who may be asked to stay on the sidelines because he's too reckless.

We can't have our protagonist ever be in the wrong, right? After all, what kind of badass faces the disapproval of his actions other than to dismiss it as a cheap and recurring gag? I can't think of a black swordsman who decided to do something that had real and permanent consequences for everyone involved and marked the turning point of a significant arc of any manga.

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Art: 4/10.
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Nothing impressive about the art. It's your run-of-the-mill LN-inspired kind of character design. If anything, they make the style work for the monsters, the battles and the shocking scenes, which is a use for that style I have not often seen.

However, good battle scene fluidity and good monster design won't make up for the tedious repetition of the flow of the battles. Nor will it make up for the shock factor the series shamelessly rubs on the reader's face.

I have read gore manga before, I have seen rape portrayed in fiction before, and Goblin Slayer uses both things with the tact and understanding of an angsty fourteen-year-old trying to make his story interesting by any means.

__Enjoyment: 1/10.
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I've tried to give this manga a chance to prove that it could be enjoyable, even if it was just for mindless action.

But it can't even make that work out, and to compensate, it relies on spamming the shock factor, which only brings out a very shallow interest in the manga. I tried to grab onto the world-building, to find a ridiculous setting and a static world knowledge that reveals the poor thought and care the author put in this story.

In fact, the Abridged parody of the anime is brilliant by comparison. It solves many of the original issues I have with the manga. For example, it makes the Goblin Slayer more likeable by turning him into a raving madman who fights instinctually. This also makes the group dynamics far more interesting because it forces all the characters to follow along, not because they admire him as this oh-great warrior but because they must restrain him, even if only a little, in his madness and even then, in the heat of the moment they follow along in the hopes of getting out alive. Which they manage to do, somehow.

But I digress....I merely think it's a shame that there's now two Abridged series that made me wish they were the original material.

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Overall rating: 2/10.__

Goblin Slayer tried to make its battles somewhat interesting and make its main character different from other fantasy protagonists. However, it tried to do so by setting up an unnecessarily dark story without even taking the time to make the action varied or make the characters more than nameless tropes. There are better ways to make a story stand out; the author just had to scrap the bottom of the barrel.

If anything, it highlights the story's shortcomings when the magic of the badass protagonist and the shocking gore wears off. I tried to find something to justify the time I put into reading all the chapters available at the time of reading it, but I found none. It was a waste of my time.