Should you watch Goblin Slayer Season 2?

We get it goblins suck , this anime keeps reminding us that goblins suck. Remember when this banger came out back in the day. It came out amidst the trend of anime having an extremely controversial first episode. This first episode is then followed up with average run of the mill anime episodes. I’m usually fine with this because I love the average run of the mill fantasy anime stuff. That’s literally what I’m here for and I would have watched it even without that headline making first episode. With that in mind I tuned in for season 2 so that yet again they can tell me that goblins suck. Hey everyone, welcome to aniprop. Let’s get into it. 

While I am a fan of Goblin Slayer, it does give the impression that the ambition of the adaptation far outstripped the animation ability and budget of the studio involved. The fact that I can see these limitations clearly is a credit to the attempted atmosphere and characterizations. The goblin slayer is well characterized through strong personality and equally strong mystery. He is just like the version of Halo’s master chief that I had growing up. Not this new emotionally intouch one that walks around with a naked face all the time. I’m talking about 2001 get to the pelican kinda master chief. Goblin Slayer is even more master chief than that master chief, this guy doesn’t even take off his helmet to eat. He is always ready for action. The nature of the character alone lets us know how dangerous the goblins are because he has clearly been traumatized to the degree that he never takes off his armour, sleeps with his sword at the ready, inspects his home perimeter daily and takes every quest possible to kill goblins. His meticulous and serious character is the strongest indicator of the dangers the goblins carry. 

Should you watch Goblin Slayer Season 2?

Should you watch Goblin Slayer Season 2?

The second way that the dangers of the goblins are highlighted is not as good because of the limitations I highlighted earlier. The atmosphere of the anime in the dungeons I can see are meant to channel an eir of horror. It kinda fails to do so because of the limitations of the animation. Here is a prime example, in episode 2 this character storms forward into a goblin trap leaving his whole party behind and endangering himself. This is meant to be extremely scary. He encounters a woman being tortured in the pitch black, his clothes become stained with blood, he cant see, the goblins begin to grow in number and even a troll comes out. I would be pissing my pants if I had read that sequence in a novel. But the animation here even though decent doesn’t allow one to be scared as the style lacks detail. It’s actually kinda funny instead 

Other than the lack of animation ability, I do think the show could have been more ambitious with the goblins. Each goblin group has some kinda leader which is the smartest and craftiest goblin. The anime effectively conveys the idea that these goblins can communicate and display a high level of intelligence somewhere below the average human. The anime could have capitalized on that and shown us more details from the perspective of the goblin. Show us what they are saying for example or have more complex traps. 

Despite my disappointment with that element of storytelling, the goblin slaying missions were the best part of this anime. It is exhilarating to see how goblin slayer organizes his party to handle the large hordes of goblins in each mission. It’s like watching a battle in fire emblem. It’s pretty fun involving some strategy and heavy use of tools and environment over spells and skills. Overall Goblin Slayer isn’t a high quality production and suffers from a lot of the problems of generic fantasy anime but it’s good enough to enjoy and even though the animation isn’t great. The character design and voice acting for the actual goblin slayer is top tier. So yes this one isn’t a must watch but there is some fun to be had if you do decide to watch. Should you watch Goblin Slayer Season 2?