About a year ago I heard of Goblin Slayer, a dark fantasy genre light-novel that also has a manga, and now an anime that is currently airing too- which is about a character who, you guessed it, slays goblins.
Above you can see my copy of the first light-novel straight off my own shelf, with priestess on the front. (Yes that's her name, most characters are named as if they're game board pieces in a tabletop rpg.)
In Goblin Slayer, the character known as Goblin Slayer has only one interest: killing goblins. He wears a somewhat worn suit of armor since a fresh one wouldn't carry the same goblin-stench his has (so he wont be detected as easily), and carries a short sword that is easy to use in caves. He always keeps his helmet on and doesn't show his face because goblins could ambush him at any time- he believes. That part is probably true since he has killed many goblins for years.
Why does he hate goblins so much? They killed his sister and destroyed his home.
The author was inspired by tabletop rpg games, and has set out to make this fantasy decently dark (especially the novels) but its not the darkest one out there.
If you've seen Berserk, you'll know what I mean.
I wanted to write this post for about a week now following a recent controversy over a 'sexual-assault' scene in the beginning of the story, and how big the outrage became online over what seems to be a pretty tame scene that is made to get you up to speed on how messed up these goblins can be.
Just recently the anime aired and there came a surprising uproar of people across the internet, mainly thanks to a single scene that implies a goblin is sexually assaulting a character. The scene itself shows nothing but a vague pose a character is left in after being brutally beat up, and then her face is shown up close as she is lifelessly moved around, implying a humping motion.
The author wanted to communicate that the goblins in Goblin Slayer are evil, viscous, animal-like beings who're cruel.
Episode 3 is already out at the time of this writing, and those who've read the novel may notice some gory or other graphic scenes cut from the anime. Still, many folks online have campaigned to damage the series' name and reputation by going as far to claim that all men enjoy hurting women, that the industry is purposefully working to drown the world in sexual-assault-culture so everyone just accepts it, and a list of other wild speculative or downright asinine comments putting the series down.
The social media explosion over Goblin Slayer also included people complaining about people complaining, fights among users, and in some places continues to rage on.
Before I go further I just want to say that the series is what it is, and shouldn't be judged on its fandom- there are fans out there who aren't helping the cries of those sensitive and complaining about Goblin Slayer. This comes in the form of fans who're taking what's presented in the series and escalating it or making comments about how more women should be abused, which is furthest from anything the series exists to promote, which is the slaying of truly awful monsters.
Some examples:
Game of Thrones is a dark fantasy live-action TV series that has millions of fans and has immense popularity worldwide, depicting and outright showing what people are complaining about in Goblin Slayer, yet campaigns and widespread shock over its content seems minuscule.
I think the same idea goes with GoT that I feel is accurate about Goblin Slayer already: spend more than 25 minutes with the first episode and actually try to understand what's going on and the purposes of its content before freaking out and going on a crusade.
As with any of my discoveries I like to present recommendations of great media I find, and Goblin Slayer to me is a breath of fresh air. I think this feeling mostly (for me personally) comes from Goblin Slayer's personality himself and how much he has grown on me so quickly with his love of killing goblins becoming humorous to me pretty early on. The guy sticks out like a sore thumb among other adventurers, and some think he's weird for loving to kill goblins so much.
Priestess is an innocent looking, cute character who befriends this guy and ends up becoming his quest buddy for a while, adding a layer to their relationship with the mysterious and odd Goblin Slayer.
I am slightly concerned seeing how quickly many folks on twitter and social media were outraged with the release of the first episode of Goblin Slayer, and Crunchyroll even added content warnings to the start of the episodes in case the show is too much for anyone while watching.
The light novel has continued publishing in the USA for at least a year now or more, and I'm almost wondering if the online outrages are just a classic hate-herd mentality of piggy-backing each other's anger to create a loud voice of change that many will see and giggle at, whining that wont change a thing. But really, is that even necessary or mature in itself even?
Ah, our present-day world.
If gore or dark fantasy isn't your thing, by all means I understand.
I'm not into most horror media myself and even get teased for it, but getting up in arms over monsters (who're driven in pretty deep as being cruel antagonists) who're doing monstrous things, or honestly anything evil to the heroes or innocent characters, just doesn't make any sense to me. The series wants you to hate the goblins, not the whole series. Its supposed to feel good when Goblin Slayer slays them.
If the whole series became about offensive content then yeah, there'd be headlines about the series being a dick to the planet by its own existence, taken offline possibly by sensible businesses, and then I would agree that it is actually promoting evil.
If it does promote evil, why is the evil beings or goblins not heroes? Heroes themselves exist to slay those being evil. That there should be enough example for most people to understand.
Hentai itself has its own classification, because there's enough love-making (by whatever means) and nudity that its promoting in its own overall concept of being what it is. Goblin Slayer is not hentai, or something other than a standard dark fantasy with shock factor and story elements that give you an example how bad these goblins are. It is not classification-defining content other than being a title of the dark fantasy anime genre.
So far, a tame scene where something is implied to happen to a character, isn't any valid description of the promotion of sexual assault. If it is, then hardcore SJW's have decades of research to do and a wish-list of media to campaign against that is bigger than the collective wish-lists of Earth's children sent to Santa Clause.Comedy movies over the past decade or two have characters using racial slurs for African Americans or other wonderful people of Earth to represent douche-bag characters or jokes that communicate deeper meanings that present overall feelings or lessons, but just because offensive content is present in something doesn't mean it is promoting it.
I often fear we're becoming a society that jumps at the slightest sights of things, who becomes willing, in great numbers, to totally damn things at a merciless speed before fully understanding or being reasonable about them.
Not to get overly philosophical here, but if you think deep enough about it all, one has to ask some questions about how things got this way.
Especially when characters have been mutilated in all ways I can imagine for decades in Hentai. xD
Not to mention I see way, way, way more heinous or insanely sexual or rude behavior and language in handfuls of western animations that are on TV for anyone of any age to access, and don't get me started on games that are out there with content that we regularly accept because we're used to games too.
If the heroes were promoting sexual assault and performing it themselves, if Goblin Slayer became gratuitous in offensive content where its like every other episode, shown or not, that'd make way more sense to be upset about.
Sexual assault is a serious crime and victims are made every day, its nothing to take lightly, and as a self-proclaimed gentleman I abhor anyone who truly abuses or assaults anyone sexually or not.
People are abused in a myriad of other ways too, its never a good thing, and there are many times its important for people to stand up against evil and have/use the voice that we in the USA and other countries have been allowed to have thanks to men and women who work, fight, and die every day for that right.
Mature anime can exist that is not hentai anyways, especially when it takes care to leave things out or censor itself, and not be worth forming a mob over because the villains do villainous things. Mature anime is allowed fall into a genre and not be some subject-defining-mission to promote evil. One question I have to ask is why are people so quick to get up in arms these days, quicker than I've ever seen in my nearly 29 years.
Its called literary representation, (for lack of better words) or showing evil or offensive material to communicate story elements and depth. When Lord of the Rings came out, people saw how J.R.R. Tolkein used the great evil of the orcs and all of Sauron's forces, to communicate the lessons and philosophy the series can teach those willing to understand. Part of Tolkein's inspiration was to create a story that would be epic and contain moral or Christian undertones to teach people lessons about greed, hunger for power, betrayal, lying, and other negative aspects that destroy people and their relationships with others, fitting into a fantasy story many have loved for what's going on a century in a couple decades. Peter Jackson who directed the movies for LOTR we all know, did his best to flesh out Tolkein's vision and manifest these concepts and visual expressions of Tolkein's lessons.
The scene in Goblin Slayer might be a bit unecessary, I'll give it that at least, and I would agree similar emotion could have been evoked in viewers by alternative methods by the animators, staff, or the author if he felt like it.
Long as it doesn't breach specific criteria like I mentioned previously, I honestly have a hard time believing anyone is surprised at all by what happened in the show anyways. Also, by no means am I saying we should ever become complacent about doses of offensive content in our media.
My reaction when watching episode one was a facepalm while saying "that's...it?", but hey, I probably just think all this because I'm a white millennial male right?
Those goblins are terrible beings, just like the a-holes who do the same to people in real life. I think that's a pretty understandable message, and I think anyone can take that message and walk away without spending precious energy and time to create more negativity on the internet.
If a series really had the intent that Goblin Slayer is being blamed for, it wouldn't be sold in manga sections of bookstores the world over, and alongside series that people of all ages enjoy, or even be listed on Crunchyroll in the first place.
Check out this trailer if you'd like a peak at the anime.
Goblin Slayer has a pretty good cast of characters who join the story as the story progresses, and the scope begins to pan out a bit.
Goblin Slayer does have some good shock factor elements, and characters you're not expecting to die can die. Messed up things happen at times you're not expecting, which is another allure of stories like this one in this specific genre. Its also got great music in the anime. ^^
The new effect I've been seeing over the past week seems to fall in line with the good old saying, "bad publicity is still publicity", and I'm seeing droves of positive social media posts praising Goblin Slayer now that the volley of initial hardcore SJW's is out of the way. :D Many posts share a common similar joke poking at folks who've never seen Berserk, some also show a particular horse...
If you like the anime or manga and haven't checked out the novel yet, definitely do so, there's quite a bit of extended story you'll find.
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