I hate to disillusion them, but rape is frequently a plot element. Typically a major one. If you want to complain, you could say its used too soon to characters we have no attachment to, just showing 'Oh look, these bad guys are bad'. If it was a character we knew and liked, the impact would be much bigger and when the Goblin Slayer came up, it'd give us a bigger 'FUCK YEAH'.
While I agree, I think the goal they went with in that scene wasn't so much with establishing that Goblins are bad but rather that the setting is not as light-hearted as it might seem from the start. The beginning might very well be set in the same world as Konosuba but that impression is lost the moment the red-headed mage gets fucking shanked in the kidney and the Goblins start fucking up that Sword-kid.
The manga, btw, is even more mean spirited, since everytime shit gets real, there's a small flashback to the characters, which in a certain way makes you expect they might pull through, since it fleshes them out a little... but nope, they get fucked up the moment thereafter.
I was only going to quote just the first part, but then it just kept on going.
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One of the things that this guy mentions, about the Quest Giver not stopping them, is actually addressed in the Manga (and might be addressed in Episode 2):
Basically, Goblin quests don't bring any money and Goblins have only shitty loot, therefore higher ranking adventurers have little interest in fighting them. The only people who are willing to take them on are low-rank rookies and while some manage to pull through by being smart and cautious, a lot die or get injured in the process. Eventually, the Goblin-horde will get whittled down, even by comparatively weak adventurers, and someone will claim the Quest reward, while the crippled, maimed or killed adventurers fall by the wayside.
The Quest Givers know this, but they can't really do anything about it, since if they don't hand out these Quests to the rookies, noone is going to take them and whoever is being attacked by said Goblins will never be saved.
In that regard, I have to praise the world-building a little, this is kind of an interesting idea.
That being said, I have to criticize the Manga for it's tone. On one hand, it tries to be a grim and dark fantasy tale like Berserk, but then it gives you whiplash by immediately trying to be funny. The priestesswatches the sorceress being shanked and her body being almost violated, the sword dude being hacked to pieces and the kung-fu girl that gets beaten to a pulp and raped... and then the next time we see her, she's all cheery and buddy-buddy with the Goblin Slayer in the Quest-Giver-Headquarter thingy.
There's a point where Goblin Slayer rambles on about why he thinks Goblins attack humans (ie: Goblin kids watch in terror from their hiding place as Adventurers swagger into their cave, kill or torture everyone and steal everything) and the panels show that this is essentially what the Goblins did to him . . . and it's followed up by a Super-Deform of the somewhat angry Quest Giver lady asking GS if that doesn't make them like evil demons.
Doesn't really add up... but it's still enjoyable for what it is and it pissed off a shitton of whimps.
Has Dobson voiced his inane opinion on this? I halfway expect him to demand all of Japan being put into reeducation gulags. Again.
(Which is funny because the review mods have deleted reviews in the past for petty reasons, so I don't know why all of a sudden it's being cracked down with this one.)
