Maybe nobody cares about this topic anymore, but I want to rant about it anyway.

Content Note: Fictional sexual assault and fictional r*** are mentioned. There is nothing graphic in this post with words or pictures, and there is no connection to reality.

Goblin slayer was a 5.6/10 anime for me, and I don’t hate it at all. It just lacked creativity. I was disappointed by that. One thing I never got upset over was what everyone else was freaking out about: the scenes and story elements surrounding goblins r**ing humans. Yes, it was horrifying, but that’s what dark fantasy is all about. It’s no more or less disturbing that monsters torturing or murdering people. Now here are the arguments from the people who were railing on Goblin Slayer for, I think, the wrong reasons. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I think these arguments are invalid and I’ll tell you why.

–Arguments of Those Offended and My Responses–

Argument #1: Animated productions are not meant to show sexual acts.

Maybe you are thinking of the indsutry of Western children’s cartoons, which I can understand needs to beware of adult content and themes. Eastern Anime is its own unique media entertainment platform. Western children’s cartoons are a separate platform, and a relatively small one, with few subcategories besides educational cartoons. Video games, live-action movies, live-action TV series, books/novels, manga, and comic books/graphic novels are also examples of separate classes of entertainment.

For most of these categories, the content is extremely wide. Think of books. There are allegorical fantasy novels that teach moral lessons, and there are extensive works of erotic literature. Think of TV shows. There are crime dramas that show horrifying violence, torture, and murder, and there are family-friendly fantasies. So what am I trying to get across here? That’s it’s natural there are tons of genres of anime, and that some contain heavy sexuality.

If you’re going to say eastern animations should not show sexual acts, you might as well say that live-ation TV should not show acts of murder, and books should not be allowed to have offensive words in them. All are equally stupid things to say. Sorry, but you don’t decide what an entire entertainment industry can or cannot do. Just as with movies and books, if you don’t like it, then don’t watch/read it.

Argument #2: Goblin Slayer made the r*** and sexual assault scenes seem erotic, appealing to perverts.

So, have you ever heard of a thing called monster hentai? xD If the non-hentai Goblin Slayer offended you, stay away from it and don’t look it up. Monster hentai is anime porn (hentai) that appeals to people with a fetish for animated monsters. It often contains r***. Now, I didn’t think the graphic scenes in Goblin Slayer were erotic at all– they were portrayed as being exactly what they were: gross, disturbing, and tragic. To normal viewers, scenes of monsters r***ing humans are the farthest thing from sexually stimulating. But if you or anyone else thought they were erotic in Goblin Slayer, then, lol, you probably just have a fetish for monster hentai. And by the way, if the show did mean to appeal to monster hentai watchers, so what? Let people watch what they want, as long as they keep it separate from reality.

Argument #3: Putting the goblin r*** scenes aside, the characters and some of the situations were also too sexualized.

Well, yes, the sexualization is absurd, of course. I personally thought it was hilarious. One of those “it’s so bad it’s funny” things. I mean, no woman in reality could survive if if their boobs were as big as the farm girl’s– forget breast ensmallment, they’d also need surgery to reinforce their spines. With gross Titan Tits like hers, all women would have chronic pain syndrome and wouldn’t be able to do any physical labor, let alone helping on a farm. And the Sword Maiden was so over-sexualized that it destroyed the point of giving her some fascinating lines and insights.

Anyway, if that kind of thing bothers you instead of giving you a reason to laugh at poor quality productions, then stop watching the show. Just tell people you don’t like it. In your room, alone, you can laugh your ass off at how stupid over-sexualization can be. But what you shouldn’t do is shame or hate on others (online or in person) for being ok with sexual themes in anime. Remember, it’s just anime. People know it’s fiction/ fantasy, and just because they are ok with something happening in anime doesn’t mean they would be remotely ok with it in reality.

Argument #4: The show went farther than needed to show the theme of goblins tormenting humans.

That’s one of the more understandable arguments out of the four I’ve chosen to present. I have no issue with people giving this as their reason to dislike Goblin Slayer. If you think the show went too far with a dark theme, of course you’d get fed up with it. You’ll see it as just being there for shock value or a tool of edginess to lure in edgelords like me. (I know those terms are outdated, but I don’t care.) For me, though, the show didn’t go overboard with the goblins tormenting humans. The story told and showed what was necessary to portray goblins as the abhorrent creatures they are in this anime’s world.

As monsters, the small goblins seem harmless. At a time when the threat of war with powerful demons looms over the country, high-level heroes and adventurers don’t bother with goblins. However, the creatures are a constant pestilence to normal people living in rural areas. Humans are afraid of most creatures that work together in groups, such as wolves. But goblins are smarter and more “human” in that they can use tools and don’t need to kill livestock– or humans– to acquire food and resources. Nevertheless, the nasty-by-nature goblins steal human goods, kill livestock, destroy humans homes, and set fires. Worst of all, they work together to trap and torture humans physically and sexually. In order to communicate all this, Goblin Slayer needed to show that goblins will r*** humans.

–The Actual Weaknesses of Goblin Slayer–

The premise of Goblin Slayer is frankly boring. A man called Goblin Slayer is determined to spend his life slaying goblins. Throughout the story, he… slays goblins. (And ok, some other monsters too.) A theme of the story is how Goblin Slayer becomes more open to others and more “human,” but even that isn’t done with any creativity or powerful scenes or lines. There are a few interesting themes like how, for the Sword Maiden, goblins can be metaphors for daily anxiety issues or for past trauma. The main character was traumatized, what with seeing his sister tormented and killed by the goblins. Still, despite those factors, the story is overall… just plain average. 5/10.

Well, maybe the other aspects of the show make up for a poor story? That’s partly true. The auditory elements of Goblin Slayer were good, with a few seiyuu I liked, fitting dark music, and a unique opening song. 7/10. That’s about it, though. The art was just above average quality, but I didn’t like it, especially with the animation for the character of Goblin Slayer constantly done in CGI. It stuck out like a sore thumb. 5/10. The characters were typical and irritating, but since there was the awesome Lizard Priest, plus a bit of development for Slayer, Priestess, and Sword Maiden, let’s say the characterisation was “fine.” 6/10. My enjoyment of the series was pretty low, 5/10. Hence Golbin Slayer is 5.6/10: unoriginal and mediocre.

While I don’t hate the show, I don’t like it, either. But that’s not because I think it’s in any way a moral issue. For a much more interesting dark fantasy than Goblin Slayer, try Claymore, Berserk (1997), or Re:Zero (Staring Life in Another World). This has been Anime Rants. Ja, ne!!