One can start by reasoning about this. It's a short film, based on a manga. Thus, the first step would be to determine the publisher of the manga in question. The official website of the manga, as well as the publisher's YouTube channel, might be hosting the video for promotional reasons. The free to watch ‘anime’ is mostly region locked to Japan, although subtitles are provided at times.
In order to find the video, I’m also trying to figure out who published the manga. The web presence of small imprints can be quite low. And even if the promotional video for the anime is available on their website, it’s often region-locked to Japan or doesn’t have any subtitles in other languages. This is a very legal route of trying to download a video file, but it’s rarely successful because you’re missing a single translation layer.
Late at night I keep replaying some of the calmer scenes from ‘goblin no suana’. Primarily three people: the main character, somewhat pragmatic but mostly wary, trying to make his way through, often in a somewhat ambiguous moral fashion. The companion who starts off as the person being rescued, slowly but surely transforms into a very solid and resolute partner. And then the older mentor figure, whose past actions haunt his every word of advice.
The goblins serve as a good threat and also as a good narrative mirror for the humans to test their decisions with. Even in very dark scenes there are moments of very grounded human moments that make them hit even harder. They are a compact but rich cast, and I think what is most compelling is the believable relationships between the characters even in the bleakest of scenarios.
I loved the relationship between Gareth and his squire, Colin. Colin adored Gareth at the beginning of the novel, looking up to him as a sort of knightly hero. Gareth tried his best to maintain that respect, given his own past failures and the horrors he knew awaited them in the cave. Colin’s disillusionment was something that I found really difficult to read. His sections were typically short and diary-like, and what became evident very quickly was that Gareth had created in this child a chivalric fantasy of immense proportion. Through Colin’s eyes, we witness the gradual collapse of that myth, and it is a very powerful and poignant reading of the cost of war and the way we glamorise conflict for children. The final section of the novel with Colin is extremely affecting. You aren’t quite sure whether you’ll be happy for him or not. The fear of carrying the scars of such an experience for the rest of his life is extreme.
Ugh, regional licensing is the worst. I live in a relatively small country, and thus half of the anime recommendations I read about are not available through Crunchyroll, are trimmed down on Netflix, and, sadly, Funimation does not even operate in my country. My “legal” options so far for watching said recommendations are generally: nothing or wait for said to be released on physical disc and import (which costs an arm and a leg). I really want a “worldwide” option, but that doesn’t seem to be how things work currently. At times purchasing the Blu-ray with English subs from an international online retailer is the most ethical option. Very expensive and slow, but directly purchased. Using a VPN very carefully with a subscription to a service in a country where said anime is streaming would be another option, but that is a very gray area in terms of contract law. I just wish that people would push for better, more global licensing options, and in the meantime just make the best choices that we can as fans.