Anime Review: Goblin Slayer - A Fair Adaptation But Inferior to the Manga

When the first episode of Goblin Slayer came out, there was a lot of controversy surrounding that episode cause of the rape scene, and I can understand why people were pissed off or disgusted - I mean who wouldn't be. However, the anime toned it down compared to the manga, which was slightly more explicit, and the anime toning things down was very apparent compared to the manga. I felt that it was generally less gory, and some scenes weren't long enough to shock the viewer.

I'll start with the good aspects. The anime actually did a relatively good job adapting the story, but sometimes there was filler content that could be replaced by actual scenes from the manga. Nevertheless that was not a really a major problem. I have to commend White Fox (the studio responsible for adapting Goblin Slayer) for changing the order of the arcs (Sword Maiden arc first before the Attack on Cow Girl Village arc, when it's the other way in LN/Manga sources) because it actually felt very natural and was a good way to end the anime on a good note. Hell, even the manga should have sequenced the story this way. I should probably read the light novel since that's the original source material to really get a full understanding of how it is sequenced, but that's for another time. 

The art was generally ok and was faithful to the manga and light novel. There was attention to detail for the art in the anime. One example is the drawing of lips on female characters (personally I never seen that in anime before), and all the other characters are actually hand-drawn and animation/fight scenes are hand-drawn (some exceptions using CGI). The OP is a good song that is even made better since it really suits the anime. Paired with the animation, the OP made me feel like I'm playing Darkest Dungeon, where hopelessness and fear among the adventurers is a time bomb that will cause a chain reaction if not dealt with carefully. Makes me wanna play Darkest Dungeon again. There's also a lot of waifus, and some of the body proportions are so weirdly drawn in the anime - e.g. Cow Girl in the anime (her breasts are so unnaturally large jfc). Nevertheless it is a sight for sore eyes. If I had to choose a favorite, it's probably Sword Maiden, for obvious reasons ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

The Bad

Whilst there are many good aspects of the anime, there are also some notable flaws in the anime. The first and obvious one is the use of CGI in scenes where Goblin Slayer is spinning around or moving, because it looked so unnatural and out of place. It actually made me laugh a bit at the scenes, but fortunately there weren't too many of these scenes and they weren't too long either. I know they use CGI because of budget and time constraints, but if they really wanted to resolve those problems, they could have just cut unnecessary scenes where we just see Goblin Slayer turning around and moving and instead use jump cuts and perhaps some CGI to show that he actually moved around (e.g. Goblin Slayer talking to Cow Girl, when Goblin Slayer stands up and starts turning using CGI, immediately then pan to Cow Girl's face talking etc.). 

 

Another disappointing aspect of the anime was its less than impressive gore and shock value since the manga was definitely way more gory and created a stronger sense of despair. One particular scene to compare was when Priestess gets her arm almost chewed off by the Goblin Champion, the anime depicts her arm as just full of blood, rather than a chunk of flesh being removed compared to the manga. What's with the toned down gore? Another such scene is the scene involving the Goblin King utilizing female human meat shields, and it barely showed anything, and if viewers didn't read the manga, I really doubt they would have known what it really was/looks like. Maybe they are saving the good stuff for the Blu-Rays, so they can entice people to buy these expensive editions (Seriously Japan, I don't get why people buy editions that contains 2-3 episodes for $100+ sometimes).

Overall, the anime adaptation of Goblin Slayer was relatively good and I actually watching it after I read the manga, so I can see the comparison of how it should have been adapted from the light novel. Whilst it cleverly changes story sequencing to improve plot progression and sense of flow, use of CGI and toned down gore/sexual content was disappointing, especially for people who specifically wants to watch Goblin Slayer. The anime even explicitly states that it caters for an older audience and has a warning regarding to sexual violence and gore, but I'm sure the toned gore was an intentional decision made by the studio since the uncensored/gorier version will be available on Blu-Ray editions (gonna wait for that I guess). I definitely have to say that Goblin Slayer is an overrated series, sure it's a cool world and cool concept, but the story is somewhat stale. Gonna give it props that it reminds me

Darkest Dungeon bros will understand this. THE MATCH IS STRUCK!

of Darkest Dungeon though.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Story: 7/10

Characters: 8/10

Art: 8/10

Sound: 7/10

Enjoyment: 8/10