Goblin Slayer is originally a light novel series written by Kumo Kagyu and illustrated by Noboru Kannatsuki in February 2016, it was later adapted into a manga by Kōsuke Kurose in May 2016 with the anime being released initially in October of 2018. The anime is directed by Takaharu Ozaki and co-written by Hideyuki Kurata and Yōsuke Kuroda.
As I said in my recommended Fall Anime 2018 piece, this anime is rated R for a reason and I must re-iterate a trigger warning for violence and sexual violence. That being said, I’ll continue with the review.
Now, I have to say, the first episode was probably the hardest to watch when is comes to the violence and sexual violence aspect. It pretty much sets the tone of “look, this is something that’s going to happen in this show, so if you can’t handle it, turn back now”. Honestly, if you can get through the first 15 minutes, you can get through the rest of the series.
Goblin Slayer is a dark fantasy series and it starts off the same way we’ve seen many fantasies before it, a young woman, this one simply called Priestess, has just finished her training and is looking for companions to set out on her first adventure. She meets a couple newbies and one, supposedly more highly trained, sorceress and off they go to hunt some goblins. For a moment, things are normal, the path they follow will be full of bonding and victory, maybe a little drama here and there, but they’ll all end up heroes, right?
Wrong.
Oh, so very, very wrong. Because that moment quickly turns dark and Priestess only manages to survive because of a man who everyone calls “Goblin Slayer.” After the events, she decides to continue life as an adventurer despite what happened but the only one she wants to work with is Goblin Slayer. Goblin Slayer, well, slays goblins. It’s all he cares about following his own tragedy. He isn’t a hero, nor does he claim to be one. He is only here to kill goblins. Sure, if someone is in danger, he’ll help them (especially if goblins are involved), but he doesn’t go out of his way to defeat the forces of evil or save the innocent. He just wants to eradicate goblins.
Along the way, Goblin Slayer and Priestess make some other fantastical friends, High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, and Lizard Priest. All of which bring their own skills and badassery to the table. I think one of my favorite things about this show is that no one has a name, they are just called what they are. Like the previously mentioned, but we also have Cow Girl, Guild Girl, and Witch to name a few others. They don’t have names but they are still individually identified.
What I also like is that Goblin Slayer isn’t an OP protagonist. In fact, despite being a silver rank, he is only good with goblins. For instance, when he had to fight an ogre, he almost died. However, he learns about everything he can and he retains that information. Now that he’s fought an ogre, he’ll probably be fine the next time it happens because he’ll remember what worked last time.
Goblin Slayer is also one of my favorite character types. He’s straightforward and unemotional, but its because he was basically on his own from a young age and genuinely doesn’t understand human interaction. His social skills are incredibly underdeveloped which adds to the bond and relationship development between him and Priestess – which thank God is a brother and sister feel instead of romantic because I’m so tired of that troupe. Goblin Slayer lost his sister, so Priestess has taken her place in many ways. He keeps Priestess safe and alive, she also does her part in protecting him and teaching him basic human skills and encouraging him to branch out of his one-track-mind-goblin-slaying-shell.
As you can expect, we meet lots of different monsters from fantasy, mostly goblins. There’s lots of action, but also lots of times where not a lot happens and we get regular plot development, yet it still feels intense and not like a waster of an episode. There’s plenty of gore and death for fans of shows like Berserk, Parasyte or Guyver but it doesn’t feel like a repeat.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
