Reviews

This anime contains scenes that I wish I could un-see, especially the first half of the first episode, establishing the 'weak' goblins as something completely different in numbers and truly terrifying when they raid a village by night.

The Goblin Slayer is maligned by other adventurers for selectively targeting these creatures that are seen as weak (they are, alone and by daylight) but it seems that he is the only one who truly recognizes their destructive potential. A young priestess, the only survivor of a newbie adventurer party who think a goblin mission is easy money, joins him in his quest and slowly the person who is Goblin Slayer is revealed.

The first scenes from the movie would make more sense if you watched the series, understanding who the grandmother is and how/why the letters she cherishes exist, who Violet is and who the Major is to her but from a viewer point-of-view it's not mandatory.

The animation is fantastic beyond compare, the characters are believable and as a stand-alone movie it is amazing BUT I can't help but feel the writers have cheapened the whole experience of tracking down 'the major', I feel it should have been a 25 episode epic of Violet chasing down rumors and shadows while Major Gilbert, feeling remorse for forcing her into combat eludes her, ending with a pan-ultimate scene where Violet finally embraces her one true love and cries 'I am alive, I am free and I love you too, from the bottom of my heart'.

I realize that not everybody likes long running series (for example Bleach, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Black Clover - even Fruits Basket and Clannad) and to them this must seem beautiful, and it is, I rated 9/10 but what is to become of the series now? Though it is somewhat Japanese to know the end in the beginning (I want to eat your Pancreas, Grave of the Fireflies etc.) so perhaps some shadow chasing is still possible and this isn't the death bell of the series created by the talented Kyoto Animation studio.

In overview the story line follows a well beaten path with the handsome and charismatic prince falling in love with a common girl. Think along the lines of the Disney version of Aladdin, Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast and you're not far off.

The animation is on the better side of average and there's some subplots to keep the pace interesting, not much in the way of humour and everything the main characters put their hand to succeeds easily. There's not the struggle to overcome adversity that would put some meat on the bones of this story.

It seems to me that this series is targeted toward the preteen to early teen girl market, in that respect add another star, my daughter loved it and she's in that demographic.

It's not as funny as Konosuba but is still 'sitcom' funny, definitely not for children but for those who've been through the awkward stage of teenage relationships and their misunderstandings.

Yes, this show is all about Yamada popping her cherry but there's enough subplots to keep the story interesting and the comedic disasters that befall Yamada as she tries to reach her goal are quite funny. There isn't as much nudity as I expected and it's not what I would consider sleazy.

I can't compare this to the manga or 2001 series as I haven't seen either. My daughter introduced me to this series, we started at episode 1 and before long I was just as keen as she was to see the next episode. By episode 5 I was tearing up with Tohru as she struggles against genuinely selfless nature to put her own feelings first and Yuki and Kyo escort her back... the rice ball is finally picked to be included in the fruits basket!

There is a bit of fantasy about the zodiac Sohma characters which adds spice to the story but mostly it's about the interplay of the personalities and rising above circumstance; A delightfully interwoven series of subplots keeps this interesting and it's hard not to get invested in the characters. On one hand I can't wait to see how this ends, on the other I wouldn't mind a few more series before concluding, it's just that entertaining to watch.

There are a few scenes not suitable for very young minds but on the whole this story is suitable for children old enough to follow a complicated plot over a series.

It may have taken 3 seasons but Souske admits that he actually has feelings, not that he understands them.

You must watch season 1 and 3 before watching this series, season 2 is optional but worth watching as a humorous side story, a fundamental understanding of arm slaves, the characters, their personalities and relationships is assumed. This chapter flows nicely with no slow parts as Souske relentlessly peruses Kaname alone and the remaining forces of Mithril struggle for survival after being decimated by Amalgam.

To me it feels like half a season, it ends on such a cliff hanger with a few loose story threads, I just can't wait to see where the story goes from here and hope the story does continue.

There are a few quite disturbing scenes in this series, not suitable for very young minds.

Don't let the overly cutsie animation style fool you to thinking that this is a good story for children, in some respects I found certain scenes more disturbing than Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul, on par with the scene in Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory of the execution of Nami from Namsac. The MA15+ rating is definitely warranted.

With that warning out of the way, my review: The story moves along beginning innocently enough but gets dark very quickly, a little disjointed in spots as each magical girl has two identities and I found it a little difficult to tie which backstory flashback went with each magical girl. Apart from being a little disjointed the magical girl part of the story wasn't hard to follow and showed a good deal of imagination and originality with some good twists and subplots. There was no way I could pick how the story would end up until it did, which is one of the reasons I love anime so much.