God this feels like the most disappointing seasonal of Fall to be honest. I thought the first season was pretty fun not perfect nor anything to grant it a stay in the minds of weebs after it was over but an entertaining piece with a very interesting idea that executed it perfectly with decent animation and a very exciting DOOMesque soundtrack. The most stay it had on people mostly Twitter was the controversy of the first episode that displayed the depravity and violence of the goblins ignorant of the fact that that was the point and what made the first appearance of the Slayer memorable and important which allowed the show build on a proper foundation and premise. It was a scene made to make you demonize goblins and sympathize with the Slayer. It didnt matter though because that was the kind of publicity a relatively unknown show like Goblin Slayer needed after all theres no bad publicity as long as you say the name right. That said it came as a shock to me that at the start of the first episode and every episode following afterwards until the end...came a warning about the violent themes and scenes that might trigger people. This to me while at first may seem fairly harmless is one of the first signs of how the show got sterilized. For what reason I do not know it still has a 17+ rating and from what I know of other shows of that rating they didnt need a blatant warning like this. The other reason comes from the animation. White Fox did a good job animating the first season all things considered. The combination of handdrawn animation and CG combined with the immaculate sound design and context given by the Slayer and firsthand experience of the Priestess led to perfectly delivering the cathartic violence and horror the show got known for. It makes sense why they were good at delivering that violence as they had experience with other shows of similar rating like Akame Ga Kill. Liden Films however...has none of that experience. While they have animated some lesser known shows that have explicit violence its clear that theyre more comfortable with lighthearted shows or shounen shows that arent as explicit or gorey like Goblin Slayer. Its clear that the animation and visual design has taken a drop in quality evidently by just looking at the character designs but beyond that the action scenes lack the dynamic energy that the first season has. The action feels more hollow less gorey less viscera and less energy with even sound design taking a nosedive in quality as the main theme is overused without any good execution. As a result this diminishes the quality of the show and turns it from a R18+ show to something akin to a 12+ show something it clearly isnt but clearly masquerades as. Thankfully the story is fine...ish. I think the first half of the story was fine a bit lacking though but the second half fell flat on its face when it picked up the pace. I think it did a good job in trying to expand Goblin Slayer as a character. The first season concluded by finally getting to know the man behind the mask his backstory why he does what he does. The second season starts by getting to know the man personally with all the nuances his ambitions his life his regrets and how he improves socially. Where before he was socially outcast among adventurers here he has talks with fellow more experienced members and his own teammates. He gets included more with guild activities and he helps new adventurers personally and by the end he is left happy a clear coherent sign of character development that I enjoy. By the second half however it decides to pick up the pace or at least it tries to until its too late. The elven kingdom arc feels halfbaked with a climax that has a lot of potential for development for the Priestess but never goes anywhere. It seemed like a filler arc without any substance or development sure it helps with the worldbuilding and we have a touching moment where a survivor interacts with the Slayer it was executed pretty poorly however but it couldve been omitted without any loss of meaningfulness and its clear that a lot of stuff was cut from this arc to save time if the terrible animation and combat scenes didnt make that evident enough for people. Time that doesnt even feel like it amounted to anything because the final arc of the season is over and done by two episodes without any emotional impact or any proper conclusions as if it was another enemy of the week Slayer and crew had to deal with. It even omits characters that were thought to be of some importance like the Swordsman who had the same glow in his eyes like the Slayer which I found ridiculous to say the least why would you tease a character and then give him only a cold opens worth of screentime? It just doesnt make sense. Overall Season 2 of Goblin Slayer was a disappointing mess and an example of how not to handle a sequel properly by an animation studio either by indifference or inexperience. I believe it has some qualities of the first season still in there but theyre more or less muddled by the drop of quality everywhere. Ironic the scene that gave the show a chance in the spotlight is what ultimately doomed the sequel whether it liked it or not. Sterilization a fate many a shows mired with people that cant conform to disturbing themes have fallen into and many that cant recover from. If there will ever be a third season lets hope they wont fall prey to the same mistake twice.