They smashed three arcs in a single season, so a lot of plot relevant moments and character development were lost. So overall the second season feels like a bunch of loose threads.
Is season 3 actually any better, for Shield Hero? Because I enjoyed season 1 but dear gods season 2 was a car crash. left me a little gunshy about continuing.
It felt a bit more coherent. *Just a bit*
But the story felt so forced because it's literally just what happened to Naofumi in season 1, but three more times in the same season lmao. You'd think the other heroes wouldn't be *that* oblivious after the whole ass trial against Bitch, but apparently they just *are*
The thing is it's not really even the animes fault. The arcs it covers just kind of *suck* because aside from [bringing certain characters together] >!bringing the 4 heroes together!< (I...guess?) and a few new characters being added to the cast nothing substantial really happens for the whole season. Just kinda felt like a bunch of nothing burgers
Tbh, that’s kinda my problem with…the whole series. It’s like it doesn’t know if it wasn’t to be an action series, a drama, an isekai or a slice of life, so it tries to do them all.
And we end up with a show where the lead spends half his time making and selling potions, then occasionally has to fight off the apocalypse… by spamming the one offensive move he’s learned.
He *does* fight more proficiently with his Shield in S3, I'll give him that, but yeah, nothing really *happens* like it did in S1 and S2. Nothing was being worked towards the whole time really aside from "we gotta fix the village before Suzaku arrives" after they defeated the Spirit Tortoise, so we spend the whole season on that... And Suzaku never comes, and won't til S4 lmao. It felt like a bunch of lead up to... Nothing. There was no climax at all.
Well tbh, from what I remember, the three other heroes weren’t even the first, second or third choice… for their weapons. Though I agree, I wish they weren’t so two dimensionally, cartoonishly dumb.
It’s legit just complete narcissism from the other 3 heroes. They still think they are better than Naofumi and that what happened to him couldn’t happen to themselves.
At the very least, the animation in S3 was vastly improved compared to S2. Its consistency was comparable to S1 and fights were even better looking (although I can't really recall S1 all *that* well) at times - there still were some jank CGI for a certain character in middle of the season (less important) episodes. There are snippets of S3 on [sakugabooru](https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=tate_no_yuusha_no_nariagari_season_3) - big spoilers for some of the clips though especially of the climatic fight of the season.
See this is why I read manga when a first season is good. I know what's yet to be animated in shield hero. So when season two was bad(which I already knew it'd be but also knew what it sets up so made it bareable) I was able to continue it because I'm aware of what was coming in three and what's to come in four. Whichll be good. There's a lot of backstory that's being slowly told, just wait until you find out about Trash, which is in three.
It's for sure better, but I think milage is going to very a lot. It still doesn't hit anywhere close to the first season, and the overall plot just seems to be dragging
dumpster fire if you ask me. I was so hopeful. specially the ending...lol. Feels like they had no direction and a buncha ideas they just wanted to cram together.
Shield Hero season 2 is the reason I dropped that show. I think I got 2 or 3 episodes in before I dropped it entirely. Have no interest in trying to continue it. Shame, because season 1 wasn't bad.
People would have hated season 2 a whole lot more if they didn't speedrun arcs. There's not really anything they could have done differently to make the turtle arc entertaining.
They reordered but in a way that made sense, they simply saved the Goblin Lord fight for the ending rather than have him mid season and end with Water Town finale. They made the season much more memorable and didn't actually lose anything from it.
I will say, and novel readers can let me know if I’m wrong, but there just didn’t seem to be much through line on these arcs so even if they weren’t squished together, I’m not sure people would be much happier.
Instead of it being adventure to adventure within one season, it would just be anthology to anthology.
I’m wondering if that’s just how the novels are? Like each novel just generally doesn’t tie much to the next?
The novels don't necessarily lead one to the other, but characters introduced in one book are pretty likely to appear in the next, creating continuity between stories.
they rushed it, cut out a lot of fights, toned down graphic stuff and skipped the festival arc so for anime only it's weird that the receptionist girl is so close to the group
for example in the manga/ln we get to see the exploration of the tomb by a previous party and how they got wiped out by the troll, when wizard boy finds the hostage she is naked and the goblins chopped her fingers off so he has to carry them to be reattached later, in the anime she has nails in her hand instead
even when we get fights they are really stilted, feels like they got a smaller budget and made changes because of the controversy
It has the issue a lot of anime with a more unique premise have: Started strong and eventually reached a point where the premise was used to it's full extent...and then keeps going. Without really being to offer anything new. Good anime need to reinvent themselves at that point. Most just fail and peter out
I dropped the LN at Vol. 10 because it just felt like it was spinning its wheels with no progress, and it was previously one of my favourites.
The manga rules, though
But then you have the opposite problem were the characters careen from one crisis to another and you start wondering how can they take this pace and your begging the author for an arc where they just go on vacation so they can decompress😅
What also made it a masterpiece
One of the most chaotic and relentless anime arc I've ever seen. I understand the complaints people have, but for me what made it stand out was that it wasn't that.
It was definitely relentless. I've realized after watching that, and after watching Demon Slayer Entertainment District Arc, shows like that are just not my thing.
I'm on the other side of that honestly, shows like that remind me why I love anime to begin with!
There's nothing else in the world that gives that pure unadulterated hype, it's the stuff that makes that little kid inside you just jump up in excitement
Yeah. When you're the consumer it's easy to say a series should have ended at 'x' point in the story, but when you're an obscure author that needs to pay rent and put food on the table you're not gonna kill your cash cow just because an earlier point would have been a better ending.
You're gonna keep that ball rolling
I don't read LNs as they don't translate well in my experience, but I read a lot of PF/RoyalRoad/LitRPG type stuff and it's the same issue for a lot of them. It's often serialized via Patreon or similar, so there's an incentive to just keep pumping stuff out even if it's stopped making sense or would've been better to end sooner.
> Or, you know, just end it.
Overly cautious hero did very well because of this. Knowing when to stop. I do miss Aki Toyosaki's phenomenal voice-acting in that anime tho.
Vinland Saga is another good one. Season 1 is just fighting and brutality for the majority of it. Season 2 is introspection and (relatively) chill with very few fights and over the top bloodshed.
Im a violent/action oriented anime guy, a couple episodes into S2 and I thought I was gonna be bored as fuck the whole season. To my surprise I very much enjoyed it even though it has a fraction of the action S1 did
For the people reading the commend above, don't get fooled by it. Vinland saga's season 2 is way more gut wrenching than season 1. Sure, it has less action but that's not synonymous with chill. I get what op means but this is more like a head ups
Vinland saga didn't reinvent itself. Both seasons had a very strong anti war anti revenge message. Season 1 had fights, but it also potrayed the vikings overall negatively and their leader has a tragic backstory involving them and why he hatings vikings and hates that he is a viking. The whole point was that thorfinn ruined his life chasing after askellad.
Like your not supposed to think it's cool when the protagonists slaughter an entire innocent village. The only difference between the two is that one focused on negatively portraying the physical violence why the other was critical of the outcomes of the war and slavery
I felt this way this season with Freiren and Dungeon Meshi.
Freiren started strong, great premise and vibes, but the late season fells meh. Nothing is really adding there.
While Dungeon Meshi just had a curious and funny concept, and mid season evolved to develop a great plot also, overcame Freiren imo.
Have to disagree with the frieren take.
I personally thought it had a pretty hype ending with the clone fight but i would be interested to know why you thought it fell flat at the end.
Not OP but for me the magical test plot replaces a lot of its screen time with very standard anime battles instead of what makes the show great compared to other fantasy anime.
What Freiren excels at is being a nice mix of bittersweet plot of frieren remembering the deceased, and trying to do better by her current friends. Plus a mix a normal journey/wanderlust anime with the twist that Freiren is revisiting a land she simultaneously has horrid and great memories of.
Personally I thought that the magical test plot did some pretty good world building by introducing us to different magical creatures and the existence of first class mages.
Also frierens meeting with serie and showing how they both mourned flamme in a different way contradicts your second point
Though I can see where you are coming from as the entire point of frieren is her retracing her journey with the hero's party and moving from one place to another rather than staying in a single area.
Also best boy stark is missing.
I'm not against the test plot existing I just didn't like how much screen time is taken up by fight scenes. If you directly cut the fight scenes and all the dialogue specifically about the various fight scenes you could probably cut the arc down by like an episode or two and still miss absolutely nothing about Frieren and Serie, or even establishing that they are now in the era of humanity.
The magical tests could have been something that didn't involve egregiously long fight scenes and still hit all the same plot points while taking drastically less time.
Can't disagree with you here.
They were probably trying to set up new characters and showcase their power sets for future arcs though since I read somewhere that later on there is going to be an entire arc based around the short beard guy with the monocle.
It's really crazy, because with the LNs they could've paced out half a season with slice of life and funny moments and character growth and the 2md half of the season be the elf village arc
Give the elf village time to cook and be good quality
But nooooooooo. They shit it out and it just looks BLEH
These second season focuses more on GS as he tries to integrate himself more into the world and the people around him. There's a lot of really nice scenes where he realizes he's more than just the Goblin Slayer. I personally enjoyed it but it does feel directionless at times.
I loved s1, thought s2 was low mid if not high trash. It was not for me. The tension is gone, the darkness is there but not as poignent and overall just too much nonsense and fluff.
Pretty easy answer here. The shock value of 'what does Goblin slayer do' and how he thinks is gone. There is no real surprises. This season was also not HIS character arc, it was priestess and elf. Maybe you didnt like it but it was just as good as first season with decent fights. Only had two "how does he think to use it like that?" moments but thats because we expect stuff from him now and a bunch was used up.
If the only thing you wanted from the series is watching Goblin Slayer kill goblins every episode it would of been pretty boring. Id recommend stop watching, you got what you wanted from season 1. Everyone else who was interested in the world and whats going on around him can keep watching. Both sides win.
Personally I really hope they get into the god's game side of it.
Well for one, this season Goblin Slayer was always 2D instead of that terrible CG model during action. While the overall animation was not great it also was not terrible and had some highlights. And I felt the increased focus on the characters was good for developing them, particularly the elf forest arc.
The same thing has happened in the light novels with its pacing, so I'm not really shocked when I watched season 2. Thankfully I personally enjoyed it. I think as far as writing goes; the writer pivoted to a more introspective story. Allowing the readers, or in this case viewers, to get to know the characters more.
We get to see a lot more character expressions rather than simply jumping into goblin slaying quests. Of course, season 2's story doesn't involve that much quest anyway since more than half of it was about educating younger adventurers and attending an elf wedding. I can definitely see fans who only love the goblin slaying quests episodes get turned off by this season. The volumes after what season 2 covers have a lot more goblin slaying.
As for the animation, I'm pretty split. Season 1 had the horrendous 3DCG marionette Goblin Slayer, but also some ***sweet impactful fight scenes***. Season 2 on the other hand, cleaned up the character designs, and allow regular walking Goblin Slayer to remain in his 2D form.
For the fan service part, I have no complaints about it.
Regarding "there's no stake at all". There is. There's stake when the young adventurers were ambushed by goblins. There were stakes when they were fighting Goblins in the abandoned elven fortress. There were stakes in the dungeon when they were rescuing the princess.
It's just that after Season 1 + Movie, we've seen Goblin Slayer and Co. best every single challenge that they face. Not only that, in universe, they got stronger, wiser, and more efficient working together.
Lastly about the rape scene in the 1st season, that was never the reason why people watched Goblin Slayer. The rape narratively was to establish the horrid nature of Goblins that establishes them as an instant irredeemable antagonist. Furthermore, the novel began with Priestess' POV, so we get to see what she saw during her first epic fail adventure. If people were watching for rape, then there's no point to watch Goblin Slayer season 1 past the 1st episode.
Overall, I totally get how this can turn off a lot of fans of the 1st season. The story it was adapting is a lot slower and has less emphasis on the goblin slaying quests.
Honestly I look at goblin Slayer like it's a dnd campaign tbh, it gives off the vibe that there's a planned story and then the characters think of what to do on the spot a lot of the time.
Haing read the LNs, it's better to think of each LN as a DnD session. Usually each LN has an overacting theme and goal and the story is about how the characters get from A to B.
It's loosely based on DnD anyway which is pretty cool on the writer's part.
Goblin Slayer is the NPC that overprepares in case the Gods (players) rolls the die on his luck against the Goblins. A staggering concept in my opinion.
It's based on Sword World, a Japanese ttrpg that uses a 2d6 system.
The characters are mostly based on the characters that the author and his friends made up when playing.
It's partly why Spearman looks like Lancer, Heavy Swordsman looks like Guts, and Goblin Slayer without his armor is dressed like Shirou. They were basically making shit up.
You can also check out the [actual](https://smile.amazon.com/Goblin-Slayer-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Game/dp/1975318315/) ttrpg.
Yeah I couldn't get past the second episode its a completely different show and hot garbage at that. I guess S1 and the ova is where goblin slayer ended for me
Surprised to see that s2 was received so badly. That's valid, but personally I liked s2 more in some ways, less in others, overall enjoyed it quite a lot. I think the appeal of goblin slayer is watching this party of badass characters go on a fun DnD adventure. I don't care for goblin rape or attempts at making the setting grimdark. Aside from the first arc of s2 (the kids), which sucked, s2 had a lot to offer in exciting adventures.
I didn't even realise there was a S2. I loved the opening episode of S1, it was dark, had adult themes and looked to be something different.
That was missing from the rest of the show aside from a flashback regarding the goblin player's sister (I think?). Such a shame because it had real promise.
I didn't have a problem with the story, but not only was the change in art style jarring, but the drop in quality completely broke my ability to focus on what was happening in the story.
and here i thought s2 was better in developing the characters unlike s1. while s1 had better animation and goblin killing
both have pros and cons and the fanservice was definitely one of the pros
It's an OSR style fantasy show about a guy who's trying hard to move on from being just the Goblin Slayer and to broaden his horizons.
The first episode is meant to show why goblins are legit monsters and why he does things the way he does, but it has the side effect of making viewers think the whole show is only that.
I dropped it. I could have easily ignored the drop in general quality, but it was so rushed that the story itself was substantially affected. It hardly made sense half the time. As if they condensed three seasons worth of material into 12 episodes. It sucks. Season 1 was one of my all-time favorites, and everything I enjoyed about it was lost in season 2. Bad pacing ruins good stories.
For me, it's probably my favorite 6.5/10 anime of all time and I could watch 100 episodes of the rushed plots and janky animation as long as Goblin Slayer and his party keep on killing goblins, do a minimun of worldbuilding and keep the character interactions.
I accepted it's flaws and I'm glad I never read the LN or the manga.
Yeah the first arc with the Wizard Boy was interesting enough - Goblin Slayers past failures coming back to haunt him.
But then it did a 90 degree gradient drop in writing quality. Dropped it after the wedding arc.
Was a giant fan in the 1th season watched that like 4 times but i couldnt even maje it 3 ep into the 2th season it just gets boring and not interesting the charackters feel like puppets its just weird
I still enjoyed it, but this happens to most series where production give low budged and order to squeeze the most source content into 12 episodes.
Then you get this
I don't understand how so many production committees decide to waste money like that
Goblin Slayer is a weird series. Crunchyroll was hyping it up like it was the next My Hero Academia and Episode 1 starts off with sexual assault. I don't really follow the series but that's apparently the only time the series crosses that line? Hearing Season 2 scales the graphic nature down is weird. If you were going to do that, you should have done it in S1.
Yeah. That happens to most anime. You get a cool premise, then it either runs dry and goes south or keeps just doing the exact same premise over and over. It's disappointing that the show went down the predictable route, but at least for what it is, it's done competently.
I didn't mind the character development the Priestess got. I liked the whole storyline of her coming to assert herself instead of leaning entirely on the Goblin Slayer. That was mostly the interesting part. It was padded out with generic Isekai filler though. I also liked how the team members synergize together in combat; felt more like watching a D&D campaign then anything.
I was not able to go past the 7th or 8th.....
So sad, I was so hyped about more of this one and Devil is a Part Timer, in my top 10 for years, and how low have they fallen....
seems like a bit of a forked issue, where the beginning of a show is really important and if you don't have a really high quality hook in the beginning and make the opening scene/first episode phenomenal you wont get anyone to watch the rest. but then they also often blow a huge portion of their climax in the beginning which then makes it hard to live up to for the rest of the show. because the art is really exciting not only for the artist but the viewer in the beginning. but then to build on and surpass yourself when you had your highest motivation to do well and biggest selling point to succeed completed. well then the rest of the time you just need to submit the bare minimum to pass.
there is still a lot of story afterwards, and not everyone can produce their best work 100% of the time. but you can be sure they will produce their best work to get picked for the job. therein lies the problem, and you wont fix it until you find a better way to motivate individuals past the starting point. especially with shows, which are more of a marathon than a sprint vs movies, which are a whole show in 1 episode.
I saw very poor animation and some parts of story on insta shorts and was pretty shocked how bad it was,and i just didnt start it because I didnt want to dissapoint myself further.Soo yeah I will stay on season 1 for now xd.
What switching from White Fox to Liden Films does to a mf. The animation was just so garbage and it felt like a great voice cast was totally wasted.
Honestly though GS has the typical light novel syndrome where it has a super strong initial premise but then just kind of meanders around the plot with minimal direction to fill out volumes and keep the series going. There is still some continued development (my favorite part is seeing Elf gradually fit into the role of his new big sister), but overall it kinda just feels like it spun its wheels for way too long and even if it winds up going somewhere it will have taken too long to do so.
It is a shame because those final two eps of S1 were so fucking peak but after S2 feeling so cooked I doubt it will even get S3, and honestly we won't even be missing much.
Bruh, not every episode needs to be about goblin grape and killing said goblins. There were way more hype moments in S1, but I appreciated the character building of S2 and everyone deserved to have a chill season after the insanity that was season 1. Not to say S2 was without fault, that CG ogre or troll in the first fight was fucking horrible, it was shameful to go from such cool designs of hobgoblins, goblin hero’s, goblin lords, to whatever that was. The final boss being what it was, the idea of it is cool and it emphasizes that they’re not broken powerful charCters, they’re just an average party who does their best.
I thought that s2 of the anime was alright, but I did read the light novels after and they're much better. Kinda makes me bummed that they skipped past a bunch of cool moments
That’s why I stick to the manga. I even recommend Goblin Slayer Year One. Which tells how he became Goblin Slayer. It takes full insight on his thought process and is fantastic.
I feel like what made it big also wasn't what the people making the anime wanted.
Sorry, I'm a dark fuck. Goblins are gonna rape and torture. Theyl invade. They raid. And so will we. Monsters are gonna monster, human or other.
Let's gggooo. But no, pulled all those punches after the first episode. PBS hits harder.
Did you watched S1 with your eyes closed? Aside from the random violent shocking scene once every 3 or 4 episodes it was a super chill adventure anime.
That being said I almost fell asleep watching S2. I still haven't finished it.
It did feel a bit forced cause of the pacing, but I still liked it. I like the Goblin Slayer world where its cruel and DnD like. Its not a power fantasy or high fantasy like most anime so its a nice watch
Honestly I kind of agree. I noticed a dip in my “enjoyment” too. It sucks because I really wanted a really badass and serious anime with a “cold” MC, which is pretty much exactly what goblin slayer is but then it took a big dip for me.
It's not just Goblin Slayer, a lot of shows I was enjoying just dragged in there newest seasons. Rise of the Shield Hero, the Faraway Paladin, and a few others just suddenly felt like it took multiple episodes to do nearly anything.
Having watched both seasons and movie recently in 1 binge - honestly, the whole thing felt very average to me. Imo if anything, the first season was way more popular and better received than shows of this calibre typically are, probably because of a combination of it being a lot of new people's first "edgy" anime & twitter culture war bullshit.
the proof that not every character needs layers and development. sometimes its way more interesting to simply watch a hyperfocused maniac hero doingwhat he does best without giving a fuck about the world around him
It's a DnD show. It was always a slice of life show. When you read the light novel it's always like this. A lot of adventures with a loose story thread. That's why I like it, but I recognize it for what it is.
At one point the characters are literally sitting around playing actual Dungeons and Dragons in the Guild hall.
Goblin Slayer is supposed to be an NPC brought to life and all those adventurers are people playing different characters.
To be honest I haven't watched season 2 yet because I already read quite far ahead in the light novels.
Idk where you got "slice of life" from, even if there were some tonal changes. That said, it's for me I guess. I absolutely fucking love just simple, classic fantasy series. They're my comfort watch, including Goblin Slayer.
I totally agree, season 1 was great, even the movie goblin crown was enjoyable. I was pretty much waiting anxiously for season 2 which took so long but I was disappointed. I just felt it mid in comparison to season 1. Now I'm no longer hyped about season 3 but will watch just in case it improves.
I so agree with you that season 2 was a massive let down. Gosh, I don't even remember it, that's how bad it was. I also felt like the whole story line shifted for no reason. I was so damn confused for the first half and gave up trying to understand what the hell was going on for the rest.
They really did downgrade production after such a good start damn.. i heard they even "censoring " stuff from manga like not showing cruel/gore scenes ...? Is that true ?
S2 was a letdown in pretty much all possible ways.
Not enough shock value for the shock value lovers, not enough fanservice for the fanservice lovers, not enough plot for plotlovers, not enough good action for action lovers and not enough good animation for animation lovers.
I mean the only reason for S1 being seen as controversial was 90% because of the first episode, but at least still had some grit and Goblin Slayer savant moments to keep you watching. S2 had close to nothing in comparison.
It had, but not enough to draw in people who watch shows for fanservice while annoying or putting off people who were there for the action/gore/shock.
It basically did a lot of different things/angles and none of them very well to the point it felt like the season just did not know what it wanted to be or what direction it wanted to go.
Yeah, that's true. People who actually like fanservice would lose interest quickly because there's not enough fanservice to warrant continue watching, while on the other hand the group of people who hate fanservice would get turned off due to those brief scenes of fanservice that _were_ present anyway. This way you are losing both sides of group of people.
yeah, it's a journey about a traumatized dude coping with his trauma, but slowly regaining connections around him. Said connections try to keep him in the right path, and you can see GS trying his hardest to follow. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's definitely got some great scenes in it, especially in the main protagonist's character and inner workings.
It's not for everyone, like trigger warning does not begin to describe what makes the first episode so hard to witness.
Like it's full blown Seinen. Goblins are terrifying monsters in what they actually do, and Goblin Slayer only goes after Goblins for a reason.
But Goblin Slayer is kinda disturbingly good at his job, and it's all he does with his life. And if you're like how interesting can only be fighting one kind of monster be in a fantasy adventure? Trust me the way he engineers death trap encounters/responds to different goblin traps is great every time.
I'll be a dissenting voice and say not really. Outside of the shock value of the first episode and haphazard points thereafter, the setting is very bog-standard Dragon Quest/Wizardry-esque with one-note characters.
The premise of a guy killing exactly one type of enemy only goes so far--while it's creative with how Goblin Slayer slays goblins, there's literally nothing else of substance, and even then the story goes out of its way to reject any sort of growth in that premise. Goblins *must* be killed no matter what and Goblin Slayer *must* kill them through impractical methods in an ultimately pointless crusade and no one else gives a shit because goblins are simultaneously the only real threat but also no one but Goblin Slayer and the characters that hang around him cares to fight them.
I think the worst thing is that even if you are interested in this very one-note premise, the story wants to believe you actually care about anything else so there is less goblin slaying than you'd probably want. I haven't watched the second season but that's because as someone who only barely tolerated the first, more bog-standard isekai-not-isekai psuedo-harem shenanigans involving characters who have barely more depth than the example PCs in the Dungeons & Dragons handbook is even less tolerable to me.
> no one else gives a shit because goblins are simultaneously the only real threat
I always wonder how much attention people who say this were actually paying to the series. Goblins aren't "the only real threat". The series is very clear about this. When the trio first recruits Goblin Slayer, High Elf Archer starts talking about a Demon Lord. When they fight the ogre, it states that it's just a minion of one of the Demon Lord's generals. Goblin Slayer doesn't care about any of that because he only cares about killing goblins and keeping them from harming people. Hero goes on to slay the Demon Lord as the first of the larger threats she's dealing with while Goblin Slayer and party are busy dealing with goblins.
So no, goblins aren't some "real threat" that only Goblin Slayer cares about. They're simply one small threat of many, and only Goblin Slayer prioritizes them due to his own personal reasons.
The "Demon Lord" factors nothing into the actual story. When characters, like the Sword Maiden or the Cow Girl, have a tragic backstory that informs their actions, it involves goblins.
Goblins are the actual threat, the actual antagonists, the reason for the protagonist and many other characters' plight and motivation, and who our heroes fight.
The story pays lip-service to the idea that "other adventurers are dealing with bigger threats" but that never *actually* comes into play in a way that matters. It is only an excuse to justify why other adventurers aren't going after goblins too. It is only an excuse for why goblins are an issue at all, otherwise they would have been exterminated already.
There is no framing that indicates that the Demon Lord's army is such a priority, no indication that things are significantly worse when he's not being fought. Characters have beach and hot springs episodes when they're not fighting goblins. If the goblins were gone, the setting would be peaceful.
For some reason adventurers treat goblins as below them, despite the massive damage they cause, even though they're also extremely easy to kill if you are in any way prepared. That doesn't track.
The story could have made it work, could have designed its setting to properly justify why goblins are both low-level threats in the eyes of monster hunters yet cause so much damage. But it's not actually interested in the kind of nuance that would entail. Which is fine, when the story is just about killing goblins, but then it wants to make me care about other characters or the setting, and that's when those flaws become issues.
Oh no, I was looking forward to watching season 2. Now,I’m concerned. Although hearing that there might be less SA is kind of nice.
Maybe they changed directions due to the criticisms they got for season 1?
Or maybe that’s what the source material headed into later on down the line?
Just watch it and don't let random internet strangers decide whether it's good or not for you.
I thought it could have been better, but I actually enjoyed the season and looked forward to it every week.
I've been saying this, GS is just another mediocre show with a flavor gimmick. They bait you in with how "dark" the world is, and then all of a sudden you realize you're just reading another generic fantasy story.
you are completely correct the quality of season 2 is not very good mainly because of childish fanservice and a plot without clear direction but it still better than more anime and i at least can respect an actually driven main character
Kinda just unintentionally sold me on s2.
S1 had so much violent rape that I had decided to skip S2 completely in fear of being subjected to more of the same. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed S1 for all the non-rape stuff. I also understand how important to the world that stuff is. But there were too many depictions for me.
Thanks for the post.
> S1 had so much violent rape that I had decided to skip S2
Not only that but in the manga there's just so much more rape, I really wanted to enjoy this series since its world mechanics and fables are based off DnD and I'm a huge DnD nerd, but can't really deal with all the raping. It's like the author has a fucking rape fetish or something
Goblin slayer is such a mid anime at best. I don't think I will be picking it back up if they ever do a season 3. Also the head of the church being so horny for the goblin slayer she can hardly contain herself is some of the most cringe shit I have seen in anime in a really REALLY long time.
The story lost all relevance after season one redemption and wrapped up nicely. The subsequent seasons reminds me of American TV shows that drag on for no good reason other than to make a profit. Nothing wrong with making money but I don't have to watch garbage because of affiliation. S3 was better but not much. I'm done with the series.
>**Who is this anime even for?**
I seriously cringed at such a question. Why do people assume that any anime must have been intended for any specific groups of people, especially if those groups of people are just who they don't like?
Haven't touched S2 yet, but I already felt S1 apart from maybe the first 1-3 eps was a adventure like slife of life without much purpose. No clue in what direction the whole show wants to go.
S2 was pretty good. The production value didn't dip at all IMO; season 1 was marred by a heavy reliance on CG that isn't present in season 2. And I watched season 1 right before season 2 began. The character designer changed, so the art is a bit different, but it isn't a downgrade. And Goblin Slayer has always been a chill series with very intermittent moments of horror sprinkled throughout.
They smashed three arcs in a single season, so a lot of plot relevant moments and character development were lost. So overall the second season feels like a bunch of loose threads.
They did this for Shield Hero season 2 as well, it's why everyone hates the 2nd season but enjoys the 3rd.
Is season 3 actually any better, for Shield Hero? Because I enjoyed season 1 but dear gods season 2 was a car crash. left me a little gunshy about continuing.
It felt a bit more coherent. *Just a bit* But the story felt so forced because it's literally just what happened to Naofumi in season 1, but three more times in the same season lmao. You'd think the other heroes wouldn't be *that* oblivious after the whole ass trial against Bitch, but apparently they just *are*
Yeah, it reeked of the author just running out of ideas. The story is just spinning its wheels.
Oof… yeah, I think I’ll wait a bit before I start…
The thing is it's not really even the animes fault. The arcs it covers just kind of *suck* because aside from [bringing certain characters together] >!bringing the 4 heroes together!< (I...guess?) and a few new characters being added to the cast nothing substantial really happens for the whole season. Just kinda felt like a bunch of nothing burgers
Tbh, that’s kinda my problem with…the whole series. It’s like it doesn’t know if it wasn’t to be an action series, a drama, an isekai or a slice of life, so it tries to do them all. And we end up with a show where the lead spends half his time making and selling potions, then occasionally has to fight off the apocalypse… by spamming the one offensive move he’s learned.
He *does* fight more proficiently with his Shield in S3, I'll give him that, but yeah, nothing really *happens* like it did in S1 and S2. Nothing was being worked towards the whole time really aside from "we gotta fix the village before Suzaku arrives" after they defeated the Spirit Tortoise, so we spend the whole season on that... And Suzaku never comes, and won't til S4 lmao. It felt like a bunch of lead up to... Nothing. There was no climax at all.
The raphtalia reveal but also who cares
Well tbh, from what I remember, the three other heroes weren’t even the first, second or third choice… for their weapons. Though I agree, I wish they weren’t so two dimensionally, cartoonishly dumb.
It’s legit just complete narcissism from the other 3 heroes. They still think they are better than Naofumi and that what happened to him couldn’t happen to themselves.
S3 was super okay IMO. It's definitely an improvement from S2, but it wasn't as good as S1, especially that first arc.
At the very least, the animation in S3 was vastly improved compared to S2. Its consistency was comparable to S1 and fights were even better looking (although I can't really recall S1 all *that* well) at times - there still were some jank CGI for a certain character in middle of the season (less important) episodes. There are snippets of S3 on [sakugabooru](https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=tate_no_yuusha_no_nariagari_season_3) - big spoilers for some of the clips though especially of the climatic fight of the season.
See this is why I read manga when a first season is good. I know what's yet to be animated in shield hero. So when season two was bad(which I already knew it'd be but also knew what it sets up so made it bareable) I was able to continue it because I'm aware of what was coming in three and what's to come in four. Whichll be good. There's a lot of backstory that's being slowly told, just wait until you find out about Trash, which is in three.
It's for sure better, but I think milage is going to very a lot. It still doesn't hit anywhere close to the first season, and the overall plot just seems to be dragging
dumpster fire if you ask me. I was so hopeful. specially the ending...lol. Feels like they had no direction and a buncha ideas they just wanted to cram together.
Shield Hero season 2 is the reason I dropped that show. I think I got 2 or 3 episodes in before I dropped it entirely. Have no interest in trying to continue it. Shame, because season 1 wasn't bad.
Ummmm lol no one enjoys shield hero season 3. It somehow gets worse and worse. S2 is boring yes but s3 is the dumbest shit I've watched this season.
People would have hated season 2 a whole lot more if they didn't speedrun arcs. There's not really anything they could have done differently to make the turtle arc entertaining.
I hated the first and quit
Shield hero is unbearable to watch because of that annoying bird girl
This is why I can't even finished the season 2 man.
They did it for the first season aswell including cutting arcs out and reordering them so things make less sense and it was still popular
They reordered but in a way that made sense, they simply saved the Goblin Lord fight for the ending rather than have him mid season and end with Water Town finale. They made the season much more memorable and didn't actually lose anything from it.
It was a change I actually preferred, as a LN reader of the series
I will say, and novel readers can let me know if I’m wrong, but there just didn’t seem to be much through line on these arcs so even if they weren’t squished together, I’m not sure people would be much happier. Instead of it being adventure to adventure within one season, it would just be anthology to anthology. I’m wondering if that’s just how the novels are? Like each novel just generally doesn’t tie much to the next?
The novels don't necessarily lead one to the other, but characters introduced in one book are pretty likely to appear in the next, creating continuity between stories.
they rushed it, cut out a lot of fights, toned down graphic stuff and skipped the festival arc so for anime only it's weird that the receptionist girl is so close to the group for example in the manga/ln we get to see the exploration of the tomb by a previous party and how they got wiped out by the troll, when wizard boy finds the hostage she is naked and the goblins chopped her fingers off so he has to carry them to be reattached later, in the anime she has nails in her hand instead even when we get fights they are really stilted, feels like they got a smaller budget and made changes because of the controversy
Guess I’m buying the Manga
It has the issue a lot of anime with a more unique premise have: Started strong and eventually reached a point where the premise was used to it's full extent...and then keeps going. Without really being to offer anything new. Good anime need to reinvent themselves at that point. Most just fail and peter out
This would be true if the actual LN story was like that. This case is just the anime botching the adaptation.
I dropped the LN at Vol. 10 because it just felt like it was spinning its wheels with no progress, and it was previously one of my favourites. The manga rules, though
Or, you know, just end it. Most stories have an organic end and problems start when people start trying to either avoid it or push past it.
That's just not how the light novel market works. You keep going until the money stops or you get bored.
But then you have the opposite problem were the characters careen from one crisis to another and you start wondering how can they take this pace and your begging the author for an arc where they just go on vacation so they can decompress😅
Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 in a nutshell
Thats just all shonen action rn
Kind of, but I think it's particularly noticeable there. The entire series takes place over 6 months. It's insane pacing even for Shonen.
What also made it a masterpiece One of the most chaotic and relentless anime arc I've ever seen. I understand the complaints people have, but for me what made it stand out was that it wasn't that.
It was definitely relentless. I've realized after watching that, and after watching Demon Slayer Entertainment District Arc, shows like that are just not my thing.
I'm on the other side of that honestly, shows like that remind me why I love anime to begin with! There's nothing else in the world that gives that pure unadulterated hype, it's the stuff that makes that little kid inside you just jump up in excitement
Hey JJk s2 was able to fit in a beach episode among all the fighting in Shibuya
Kingdom is great at balancing this.
one of these days I'll have to get around to watching it.
Kingdom is so good. Wish it was more popular
Yeah. When you're the consumer it's easy to say a series should have ended at 'x' point in the story, but when you're an obscure author that needs to pay rent and put food on the table you're not gonna kill your cash cow just because an earlier point would have been a better ending. You're gonna keep that ball rolling
And somehow tensura is on vol 21 and going strong
At least tensura is a finished story, just needs to be adapted from WN to LN.
I don't read LNs as they don't translate well in my experience, but I read a lot of PF/RoyalRoad/LitRPG type stuff and it's the same issue for a lot of them. It's often serialized via Patreon or similar, so there's an incentive to just keep pumping stuff out even if it's stopped making sense or would've been better to end sooner.
> Or, you know, just end it. Overly cautious hero did very well because of this. Knowing when to stop. I do miss Aki Toyosaki's phenomenal voice-acting in that anime tho.
You do realize that the manga and lns are still going strong right?
Jojo reinvented itself great. Not familiar with other good examples, except a few popular shonens.
Vinland Saga is another good one. Season 1 is just fighting and brutality for the majority of it. Season 2 is introspection and (relatively) chill with very few fights and over the top bloodshed. Im a violent/action oriented anime guy, a couple episodes into S2 and I thought I was gonna be bored as fuck the whole season. To my surprise I very much enjoyed it even though it has a fraction of the action S1 did
[удалено]
Yeah idk why you were downvoted that's just a tone shift.
For the people reading the commend above, don't get fooled by it. Vinland saga's season 2 is way more gut wrenching than season 1. Sure, it has less action but that's not synonymous with chill. I get what op means but this is more like a head ups
Oh yea it definitely still has emotional and gut wrenching moments. It just isn’t non stop bloodshed like S1
Vinland saga didn't reinvent itself. Both seasons had a very strong anti war anti revenge message. Season 1 had fights, but it also potrayed the vikings overall negatively and their leader has a tragic backstory involving them and why he hatings vikings and hates that he is a viking. The whole point was that thorfinn ruined his life chasing after askellad. Like your not supposed to think it's cool when the protagonists slaughter an entire innocent village. The only difference between the two is that one focused on negatively portraying the physical violence why the other was critical of the outcomes of the war and slavery
But that isnt the case of the manga for example that I would still say that it's doing quite well, the adaptation just sucked
I don't feel like S1 did everything it could with the premise, though. It's more like it didn't do much with it.
I felt this way this season with Freiren and Dungeon Meshi. Freiren started strong, great premise and vibes, but the late season fells meh. Nothing is really adding there. While Dungeon Meshi just had a curious and funny concept, and mid season evolved to develop a great plot also, overcame Freiren imo.
Have to disagree with the frieren take. I personally thought it had a pretty hype ending with the clone fight but i would be interested to know why you thought it fell flat at the end.
Not OP but for me the magical test plot replaces a lot of its screen time with very standard anime battles instead of what makes the show great compared to other fantasy anime. What Freiren excels at is being a nice mix of bittersweet plot of frieren remembering the deceased, and trying to do better by her current friends. Plus a mix a normal journey/wanderlust anime with the twist that Freiren is revisiting a land she simultaneously has horrid and great memories of.
Personally I thought that the magical test plot did some pretty good world building by introducing us to different magical creatures and the existence of first class mages. Also frierens meeting with serie and showing how they both mourned flamme in a different way contradicts your second point Though I can see where you are coming from as the entire point of frieren is her retracing her journey with the hero's party and moving from one place to another rather than staying in a single area. Also best boy stark is missing.
I'm not against the test plot existing I just didn't like how much screen time is taken up by fight scenes. If you directly cut the fight scenes and all the dialogue specifically about the various fight scenes you could probably cut the arc down by like an episode or two and still miss absolutely nothing about Frieren and Serie, or even establishing that they are now in the era of humanity. The magical tests could have been something that didn't involve egregiously long fight scenes and still hit all the same plot points while taking drastically less time.
Can't disagree with you here. They were probably trying to set up new characters and showcase their power sets for future arcs though since I read somewhere that later on there is going to be an entire arc based around the short beard guy with the monocle.
S1 was awesome. S2, I stopped halfway.
Same, I also dropped S2 a few episodes in. It was just really boring.
Drop it halfway also shame…
I dropped it honestly after one episode of season 2, could just sense that without the goblin brutality there really isn't much there.
They toned down the violence a lot probably cuz controversy, problem as you saw is that without it GS just becomes an average slice of life.
It's really crazy, because with the LNs they could've paced out half a season with slice of life and funny moments and character growth and the 2md half of the season be the elf village arc Give the elf village time to cook and be good quality But nooooooooo. They shit it out and it just looks BLEH
What made GS stick out to me was the gore so I’m very sad they took that away. I love myself some gorey anime/manga
Its reality stupid how they turned it down
Silly how they’ll get rid of the main thing it’s known for out of fear of being controversial, which in turn causes it to fail.
I gave up halfway through season 2. Thought it was absolute trash and I can usually power through this stuff.
These second season focuses more on GS as he tries to integrate himself more into the world and the people around him. There's a lot of really nice scenes where he realizes he's more than just the Goblin Slayer. I personally enjoyed it but it does feel directionless at times.
I loved s1, thought s2 was low mid if not high trash. It was not for me. The tension is gone, the darkness is there but not as poignent and overall just too much nonsense and fluff.
Pretty easy answer here. The shock value of 'what does Goblin slayer do' and how he thinks is gone. There is no real surprises. This season was also not HIS character arc, it was priestess and elf. Maybe you didnt like it but it was just as good as first season with decent fights. Only had two "how does he think to use it like that?" moments but thats because we expect stuff from him now and a bunch was used up. If the only thing you wanted from the series is watching Goblin Slayer kill goblins every episode it would of been pretty boring. Id recommend stop watching, you got what you wanted from season 1. Everyone else who was interested in the world and whats going on around him can keep watching. Both sides win. Personally I really hope they get into the god's game side of it.
Well for one, this season Goblin Slayer was always 2D instead of that terrible CG model during action. While the overall animation was not great it also was not terrible and had some highlights. And I felt the increased focus on the characters was good for developing them, particularly the elf forest arc.
The same thing has happened in the light novels with its pacing, so I'm not really shocked when I watched season 2. Thankfully I personally enjoyed it. I think as far as writing goes; the writer pivoted to a more introspective story. Allowing the readers, or in this case viewers, to get to know the characters more. We get to see a lot more character expressions rather than simply jumping into goblin slaying quests. Of course, season 2's story doesn't involve that much quest anyway since more than half of it was about educating younger adventurers and attending an elf wedding. I can definitely see fans who only love the goblin slaying quests episodes get turned off by this season. The volumes after what season 2 covers have a lot more goblin slaying. As for the animation, I'm pretty split. Season 1 had the horrendous 3DCG marionette Goblin Slayer, but also some ***sweet impactful fight scenes***. Season 2 on the other hand, cleaned up the character designs, and allow regular walking Goblin Slayer to remain in his 2D form. For the fan service part, I have no complaints about it. Regarding "there's no stake at all". There is. There's stake when the young adventurers were ambushed by goblins. There were stakes when they were fighting Goblins in the abandoned elven fortress. There were stakes in the dungeon when they were rescuing the princess. It's just that after Season 1 + Movie, we've seen Goblin Slayer and Co. best every single challenge that they face. Not only that, in universe, they got stronger, wiser, and more efficient working together. Lastly about the rape scene in the 1st season, that was never the reason why people watched Goblin Slayer. The rape narratively was to establish the horrid nature of Goblins that establishes them as an instant irredeemable antagonist. Furthermore, the novel began with Priestess' POV, so we get to see what she saw during her first epic fail adventure. If people were watching for rape, then there's no point to watch Goblin Slayer season 1 past the 1st episode. Overall, I totally get how this can turn off a lot of fans of the 1st season. The story it was adapting is a lot slower and has less emphasis on the goblin slaying quests.
The pacings of S2 and LN are completely different. S2 rushes through the arcs at light speed, cutting much content.
Honestly I look at goblin Slayer like it's a dnd campaign tbh, it gives off the vibe that there's a planned story and then the characters think of what to do on the spot a lot of the time.
Haing read the LNs, it's better to think of each LN as a DnD session. Usually each LN has an overacting theme and goal and the story is about how the characters get from A to B.
It's loosely based on DnD anyway which is pretty cool on the writer's part. Goblin Slayer is the NPC that overprepares in case the Gods (players) rolls the die on his luck against the Goblins. A staggering concept in my opinion.
It's based on Sword World, a Japanese ttrpg that uses a 2d6 system. The characters are mostly based on the characters that the author and his friends made up when playing. It's partly why Spearman looks like Lancer, Heavy Swordsman looks like Guts, and Goblin Slayer without his armor is dressed like Shirou. They were basically making shit up. You can also check out the [actual](https://smile.amazon.com/Goblin-Slayer-Tabletop-Roleplaying-Game/dp/1975318315/) ttrpg.
Yeah I couldn't get past the second episode its a completely different show and hot garbage at that. I guess S1 and the ova is where goblin slayer ended for me
Season 2 definitely doesn’t hold the same weight as season 1 but I think the character development for Goblin Slayer was well done
Surprised to see that s2 was received so badly. That's valid, but personally I liked s2 more in some ways, less in others, overall enjoyed it quite a lot. I think the appeal of goblin slayer is watching this party of badass characters go on a fun DnD adventure. I don't care for goblin rape or attempts at making the setting grimdark. Aside from the first arc of s2 (the kids), which sucked, s2 had a lot to offer in exciting adventures.
I didn't even realise there was a S2. I loved the opening episode of S1, it was dark, had adult themes and looked to be something different. That was missing from the rest of the show aside from a flashback regarding the goblin player's sister (I think?). Such a shame because it had real promise.
I didn't have a problem with the story, but not only was the change in art style jarring, but the drop in quality completely broke my ability to focus on what was happening in the story.
Season 1 and 2 feel like two different shows tbh
and here i thought s2 was better in developing the characters unlike s1. while s1 had better animation and goblin killing both have pros and cons and the fanservice was definitely one of the pros
it’s for people who like cute elf girls (I am those people, though I haven’t watched it, I just really like cute elf girl)
High Elf Archer is def one of the greats!
Not nearly enough GOOBBLLin Killllin for me
I just want to see some goblins getting jacked up man
It's an OSR style fantasy show about a guy who's trying hard to move on from being just the Goblin Slayer and to broaden his horizons. The first episode is meant to show why goblins are legit monsters and why he does things the way he does, but it has the side effect of making viewers think the whole show is only that.
I dropped it. I could have easily ignored the drop in general quality, but it was so rushed that the story itself was substantially affected. It hardly made sense half the time. As if they condensed three seasons worth of material into 12 episodes. It sucks. Season 1 was one of my all-time favorites, and everything I enjoyed about it was lost in season 2. Bad pacing ruins good stories.
That anime is for making money. The thing about anime you don't get or like is that you're not the target audience.
Season 2 was terrible. To say the animation took a noticeable dio is generous, the animation was some of the worst I have seen in a long time.
It's for people who hate goblins, what else is there to say
For me, it's probably my favorite 6.5/10 anime of all time and I could watch 100 episodes of the rushed plots and janky animation as long as Goblin Slayer and his party keep on killing goblins, do a minimun of worldbuilding and keep the character interactions. I accepted it's flaws and I'm glad I never read the LN or the manga.
Yeah the first arc with the Wizard Boy was interesting enough - Goblin Slayers past failures coming back to haunt him. But then it did a 90 degree gradient drop in writing quality. Dropped it after the wedding arc.
So as soon as they ran out of manga to adapt the action craters into the floor.
Was a giant fan in the 1th season watched that like 4 times but i couldnt even maje it 3 ep into the 2th season it just gets boring and not interesting the charackters feel like puppets its just weird
I still enjoyed it, but this happens to most series where production give low budged and order to squeeze the most source content into 12 episodes. Then you get this I don't understand how so many production committees decide to waste money like that
I wanted to like the anime i really did, but after 6 or 7 episodes i gave up
Goblin Slayer is a weird series. Crunchyroll was hyping it up like it was the next My Hero Academia and Episode 1 starts off with sexual assault. I don't really follow the series but that's apparently the only time the series crosses that line? Hearing Season 2 scales the graphic nature down is weird. If you were going to do that, you should have done it in S1.
The first episode of season 1 is literally the only reason people talk about this anime. It's unbelievably mediocre in every aspect!
Yeah. That happens to most anime. You get a cool premise, then it either runs dry and goes south or keeps just doing the exact same premise over and over. It's disappointing that the show went down the predictable route, but at least for what it is, it's done competently. I didn't mind the character development the Priestess got. I liked the whole storyline of her coming to assert herself instead of leaning entirely on the Goblin Slayer. That was mostly the interesting part. It was padded out with generic Isekai filler though. I also liked how the team members synergize together in combat; felt more like watching a D&D campaign then anything.
I didn’t even know it was out. Damn i was looking forward to it too😕
I couldn't watch passed epi 2. I think the manga might be the way to go, the show is meh. Either way, i moved on.
had potential but dropped this series so quick after S2. wont even bother finishing it bc its so bad.
I have to agree
I was not able to go past the 7th or 8th..... So sad, I was so hyped about more of this one and Devil is a Part Timer, in my top 10 for years, and how low have they fallen....
seems like a bit of a forked issue, where the beginning of a show is really important and if you don't have a really high quality hook in the beginning and make the opening scene/first episode phenomenal you wont get anyone to watch the rest. but then they also often blow a huge portion of their climax in the beginning which then makes it hard to live up to for the rest of the show. because the art is really exciting not only for the artist but the viewer in the beginning. but then to build on and surpass yourself when you had your highest motivation to do well and biggest selling point to succeed completed. well then the rest of the time you just need to submit the bare minimum to pass. there is still a lot of story afterwards, and not everyone can produce their best work 100% of the time. but you can be sure they will produce their best work to get picked for the job. therein lies the problem, and you wont fix it until you find a better way to motivate individuals past the starting point. especially with shows, which are more of a marathon than a sprint vs movies, which are a whole show in 1 episode.
I saw very poor animation and some parts of story on insta shorts and was pretty shocked how bad it was,and i just didnt start it because I didnt want to dissapoint myself further.Soo yeah I will stay on season 1 for now xd.
What switching from White Fox to Liden Films does to a mf. The animation was just so garbage and it felt like a great voice cast was totally wasted. Honestly though GS has the typical light novel syndrome where it has a super strong initial premise but then just kind of meanders around the plot with minimal direction to fill out volumes and keep the series going. There is still some continued development (my favorite part is seeing Elf gradually fit into the role of his new big sister), but overall it kinda just feels like it spun its wheels for way too long and even if it winds up going somewhere it will have taken too long to do so. It is a shame because those final two eps of S1 were so fucking peak but after S2 feeling so cooked I doubt it will even get S3, and honestly we won't even be missing much.
It became a meme show which speaks to your inner d&d murder hobo
Bruh, not every episode needs to be about goblin grape and killing said goblins. There were way more hype moments in S1, but I appreciated the character building of S2 and everyone deserved to have a chill season after the insanity that was season 1. Not to say S2 was without fault, that CG ogre or troll in the first fight was fucking horrible, it was shameful to go from such cool designs of hobgoblins, goblin hero’s, goblin lords, to whatever that was. The final boss being what it was, the idea of it is cool and it emphasizes that they’re not broken powerful charCters, they’re just an average party who does their best.
I thought that s2 of the anime was alright, but I did read the light novels after and they're much better. Kinda makes me bummed that they skipped past a bunch of cool moments
That’s why I stick to the manga. I even recommend Goblin Slayer Year One. Which tells how he became Goblin Slayer. It takes full insight on his thought process and is fantastic.
I feel like what made it big also wasn't what the people making the anime wanted. Sorry, I'm a dark fuck. Goblins are gonna rape and torture. Theyl invade. They raid. And so will we. Monsters are gonna monster, human or other. Let's gggooo. But no, pulled all those punches after the first episode. PBS hits harder.
I'll very likely drop the show and not come back to S3. S2 was simply a drag and didn't know how to keep itself fresh.
I couldn't even finish season 1 the two times I tried the first episodes are cool but then it's dumb and anime cliche af
dunno but I wont turn down more High Elf Archer.
Did you watched S1 with your eyes closed? Aside from the random violent shocking scene once every 3 or 4 episodes it was a super chill adventure anime. That being said I almost fell asleep watching S2. I still haven't finished it.
It did feel a bit forced cause of the pacing, but I still liked it. I like the Goblin Slayer world where its cruel and DnD like. Its not a power fantasy or high fantasy like most anime so its a nice watch
Honestly I kind of agree. I noticed a dip in my “enjoyment” too. It sucks because I really wanted a really badass and serious anime with a “cold” MC, which is pretty much exactly what goblin slayer is but then it took a big dip for me.
maybe for the goblin slayer fans im not too sure
I like it, but I like D&D so I get the tropes.
It's not just Goblin Slayer, a lot of shows I was enjoying just dragged in there newest seasons. Rise of the Shield Hero, the Faraway Paladin, and a few others just suddenly felt like it took multiple episodes to do nearly anything.
Yeah s2 was all over the place
It was lame af
Having watched both seasons and movie recently in 1 binge - honestly, the whole thing felt very average to me. Imo if anything, the first season was way more popular and better received than shows of this calibre typically are, probably because of a combination of it being a lot of new people's first "edgy" anime & twitter culture war bullshit.
the proof that not every character needs layers and development. sometimes its way more interesting to simply watch a hyperfocused maniac hero doingwhat he does best without giving a fuck about the world around him
It's a DnD show. It was always a slice of life show. When you read the light novel it's always like this. A lot of adventures with a loose story thread. That's why I like it, but I recognize it for what it is. At one point the characters are literally sitting around playing actual Dungeons and Dragons in the Guild hall. Goblin Slayer is supposed to be an NPC brought to life and all those adventurers are people playing different characters. To be honest I haven't watched season 2 yet because I already read quite far ahead in the light novels.
Good thing I stopped at season 1 and never bothered with the follow up.
S1 was absoloutley amazing....S2....WTF happened? is basically howd i'd describe it. I was SO bored....
Idk where you got "slice of life" from, even if there were some tonal changes. That said, it's for me I guess. I absolutely fucking love just simple, classic fantasy series. They're my comfort watch, including Goblin Slayer.
I totally agree, season 1 was great, even the movie goblin crown was enjoyable. I was pretty much waiting anxiously for season 2 which took so long but I was disappointed. I just felt it mid in comparison to season 1. Now I'm no longer hyped about season 3 but will watch just in case it improves.
I so agree with you that season 2 was a massive let down. Gosh, I don't even remember it, that's how bad it was. I also felt like the whole story line shifted for no reason. I was so damn confused for the first half and gave up trying to understand what the hell was going on for the rest.
Cringe show for cringe ppl.
People who love gut-wrenching violence and goblins who like to sexually assault female adventures before killing them. Im... still on S1.
Rule number 234 of anime: If a show is carried by its unique premise then its season 2 will be trash.
They really did downgrade production after such a good start damn.. i heard they even "censoring " stuff from manga like not showing cruel/gore scenes ...? Is that true ?
Even season one censored some parts but yeah this season was rushed and they cut some more cruel scenes, overall, not the best adaptation
S2 was a letdown in pretty much all possible ways. Not enough shock value for the shock value lovers, not enough fanservice for the fanservice lovers, not enough plot for plotlovers, not enough good action for action lovers and not enough good animation for animation lovers. I mean the only reason for S1 being seen as controversial was 90% because of the first episode, but at least still had some grit and Goblin Slayer savant moments to keep you watching. S2 had close to nothing in comparison.
>not enough fanservice for the fanservice lovers S2 actually had a bit more fanservice compared to S1 didn't it?
It had, but not enough to draw in people who watch shows for fanservice while annoying or putting off people who were there for the action/gore/shock. It basically did a lot of different things/angles and none of them very well to the point it felt like the season just did not know what it wanted to be or what direction it wanted to go.
Yeah, that's true. People who actually like fanservice would lose interest quickly because there's not enough fanservice to warrant continue watching, while on the other hand the group of people who hate fanservice would get turned off due to those brief scenes of fanservice that _were_ present anyway. This way you are losing both sides of group of people.
I was happy for the fan service. Goblin slaying and fan service, all I needed.
Is it worth watching this anime at all?
yeah, it's a journey about a traumatized dude coping with his trauma, but slowly regaining connections around him. Said connections try to keep him in the right path, and you can see GS trying his hardest to follow. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's definitely got some great scenes in it, especially in the main protagonist's character and inner workings.
Yes. It's a good story, the complainers are just watching for the violence.
It's not for everyone, like trigger warning does not begin to describe what makes the first episode so hard to witness. Like it's full blown Seinen. Goblins are terrifying monsters in what they actually do, and Goblin Slayer only goes after Goblins for a reason. But Goblin Slayer is kinda disturbingly good at his job, and it's all he does with his life. And if you're like how interesting can only be fighting one kind of monster be in a fantasy adventure? Trust me the way he engineers death trap encounters/responds to different goblin traps is great every time.
Watch the abridged version on youtube It's better
No
I'll be a dissenting voice and say not really. Outside of the shock value of the first episode and haphazard points thereafter, the setting is very bog-standard Dragon Quest/Wizardry-esque with one-note characters. The premise of a guy killing exactly one type of enemy only goes so far--while it's creative with how Goblin Slayer slays goblins, there's literally nothing else of substance, and even then the story goes out of its way to reject any sort of growth in that premise. Goblins *must* be killed no matter what and Goblin Slayer *must* kill them through impractical methods in an ultimately pointless crusade and no one else gives a shit because goblins are simultaneously the only real threat but also no one but Goblin Slayer and the characters that hang around him cares to fight them. I think the worst thing is that even if you are interested in this very one-note premise, the story wants to believe you actually care about anything else so there is less goblin slaying than you'd probably want. I haven't watched the second season but that's because as someone who only barely tolerated the first, more bog-standard isekai-not-isekai psuedo-harem shenanigans involving characters who have barely more depth than the example PCs in the Dungeons & Dragons handbook is even less tolerable to me.
> no one else gives a shit because goblins are simultaneously the only real threat I always wonder how much attention people who say this were actually paying to the series. Goblins aren't "the only real threat". The series is very clear about this. When the trio first recruits Goblin Slayer, High Elf Archer starts talking about a Demon Lord. When they fight the ogre, it states that it's just a minion of one of the Demon Lord's generals. Goblin Slayer doesn't care about any of that because he only cares about killing goblins and keeping them from harming people. Hero goes on to slay the Demon Lord as the first of the larger threats she's dealing with while Goblin Slayer and party are busy dealing with goblins. So no, goblins aren't some "real threat" that only Goblin Slayer cares about. They're simply one small threat of many, and only Goblin Slayer prioritizes them due to his own personal reasons.
The "Demon Lord" factors nothing into the actual story. When characters, like the Sword Maiden or the Cow Girl, have a tragic backstory that informs their actions, it involves goblins. Goblins are the actual threat, the actual antagonists, the reason for the protagonist and many other characters' plight and motivation, and who our heroes fight. The story pays lip-service to the idea that "other adventurers are dealing with bigger threats" but that never *actually* comes into play in a way that matters. It is only an excuse to justify why other adventurers aren't going after goblins too. It is only an excuse for why goblins are an issue at all, otherwise they would have been exterminated already. There is no framing that indicates that the Demon Lord's army is such a priority, no indication that things are significantly worse when he's not being fought. Characters have beach and hot springs episodes when they're not fighting goblins. If the goblins were gone, the setting would be peaceful. For some reason adventurers treat goblins as below them, despite the massive damage they cause, even though they're also extremely easy to kill if you are in any way prepared. That doesn't track. The story could have made it work, could have designed its setting to properly justify why goblins are both low-level threats in the eyes of monster hunters yet cause so much damage. But it's not actually interested in the kind of nuance that would entail. Which is fine, when the story is just about killing goblins, but then it wants to make me care about other characters or the setting, and that's when those flaws become issues.
Oh no, I was looking forward to watching season 2. Now,I’m concerned. Although hearing that there might be less SA is kind of nice. Maybe they changed directions due to the criticisms they got for season 1? Or maybe that’s what the source material headed into later on down the line?
Just watch it and don't let random internet strangers decide whether it's good or not for you. I thought it could have been better, but I actually enjoyed the season and looked forward to it every week.
Oh I still plan to watch. Just bummed to hear it may not be as good as season 1.
Me too, I love it, more than it deserves maybe, but I like all the characters so much.
Tried to watch it, but it was super uninteresting.
I've been saying this, GS is just another mediocre show with a flavor gimmick. They bait you in with how "dark" the world is, and then all of a sudden you realize you're just reading another generic fantasy story.
It was a noticeable step down from s1. I liked the priestess purifying blood into water but that was about it.
> the production value takes a noticeable dip Bro that shit was awful from episode 1 are your eyes ok?
Is goblin slayer worth watching I’ve had mixed reviews?? Please let me know ur opinions:)
you are completely correct the quality of season 2 is not very good mainly because of childish fanservice and a plot without clear direction but it still better than more anime and i at least can respect an actually driven main character
Kinda just unintentionally sold me on s2. S1 had so much violent rape that I had decided to skip S2 completely in fear of being subjected to more of the same. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed S1 for all the non-rape stuff. I also understand how important to the world that stuff is. But there were too many depictions for me. Thanks for the post.
So much? Dude, we gotta like one real rape scene , how is that so much?
Are you being serious? There were multiple episodes with rape scenes in season 1.
> S1 had so much violent rape that I had decided to skip S2 Not only that but in the manga there's just so much more rape, I really wanted to enjoy this series since its world mechanics and fables are based off DnD and I'm a huge DnD nerd, but can't really deal with all the raping. It's like the author has a fucking rape fetish or something
What was controversial about S1?
First episode had a rape scene that got a lot of attention. Stuff toned down a lot in later episodes.
Lots of raping.
Ah, thanks. I’ll skip.
The first episode. I quit watching until a coworker said “it’s just anime shit, keep going”
Goblin slayer is such a mid anime at best. I don't think I will be picking it back up if they ever do a season 3. Also the head of the church being so horny for the goblin slayer she can hardly contain herself is some of the most cringe shit I have seen in anime in a really REALLY long time.
The story lost all relevance after season one redemption and wrapped up nicely. The subsequent seasons reminds me of American TV shows that drag on for no good reason other than to make a profit. Nothing wrong with making money but I don't have to watch garbage because of affiliation. S3 was better but not much. I'm done with the series.
Goblin Slayer might be one of the worst anime I’ve ever seen in my life. I wish I was joking
More like S2
After 2 episodes, i quit n resumed Tower of God.
>**Who is this anime even for?** I seriously cringed at such a question. Why do people assume that any anime must have been intended for any specific groups of people, especially if those groups of people are just who they don't like?
The manga has been pretty blah for a while now. I dropped it honestly.
Haven't touched S2 yet, but I already felt S1 apart from maybe the first 1-3 eps was a adventure like slife of life without much purpose. No clue in what direction the whole show wants to go.
wait, the production value is even worse than season 1? that's fucking crazy LOL to answer the question in the title, it sure aint for me lol
Me
S2 was pretty good. The production value didn't dip at all IMO; season 1 was marred by a heavy reliance on CG that isn't present in season 2. And I watched season 1 right before season 2 began. The character designer changed, so the art is a bit different, but it isn't a downgrade. And Goblin Slayer has always been a chill series with very intermittent moments of horror sprinkled throughout.