First a light novel, then a manga, and now an anime. White Fox co., ltd has stepped into some big shoes with Goblin Slayer’s latest adaptation. Celebrated as a dark fantasy with some horrifying elements, Goblin Slayer is perhaps the dark horse of this anime season. But, will this series just be built on shock value, or will there be some great content amongst the horror? Let’s check it out, starting with the first episode.

Japanese Original Episode Title: ある　冒険者　たちの　結未

Plot

Almost like starting our own RPG game, we’re introduced to a young priestess who has just signed up to an adventurer’s guild. Eager to get out into the world, she happily starts her first quest with a group of other newbies. They plan to defeat a horde of goblins who have attacked a nearby village and kidnapped some girls. They quickly set off, because hey, who needs preparation!? Unfortunately for them, they’re about to find out how things can go very wrong.  

Episode Highlights

A Priestess’ Realism: Watching the episode, I could already imagine the cries from viewers at how weak the Priestess was. She either stared at the goblins coming at her without saying anything or just shook and cried. But, keep in mind, the Priestess is only fifteen, and this is her first journey into the ‘real world’. I appreciated her realistic responses to such a horrible situation rather than her randomly leveling up and defeating everyone.

Violence: Rated at PG13, the series did have to turn down the blood and gore down to keep in line with the classification. This ended up working in their favour as deaths had more impact by being either off screen or shown with a bit of blood rather than having an absolute gore fest. However, they did not censor the scenes of sexual violence, which some viewers may find upsetting.  

Epic Entrance: Gotta give props where it’s due. Our boy Goblin Slayer really knows how to make an entrance. From the fire to the heart pounding music, it was as epic as it gets.

Themes & Trivia

Names: For the meantime, it doesn’t seem like any characters have been given names. In the manga characters are only referred to by their title such as ‘Priestess’ or ‘Fighter’.

Be Prepared: Probably the biggest takeaway from the episode was to always do your research! Don’t jump into situations, or should I say fights, without your potions and a plan.

Don’t rely on others: At the end of the episode, Priestess comments that it was a normal occurrence for adventurers to go gung-ho, attack goblin dens, and never return. This, combined with the guild person’s pretty poor effort to dissuade the adventurers on their quest, leads me to believe the world is one that doesn’t care too much about others’ welfare.

Comments

Overall, out of all the first episodes I’ve watched this fall season, this one was probably the darkest. Almost like a Game of Thrones episode, you watch it knowing that no one is safe, and the world it’s set in and the people who inhabit it are a bit shit. White Fox did a fantastic job with the animations; they’re clearly adept at animating fighting scenes. I’m not 100% sold on the voices yet, but we shall see how episode two goes.

The Priestess and Goblin Slayer have definitely peaked my interest. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Priestess grows as a fighter and whether her compassion will be her undoing. On the other hand, I wonder if Goblin Slayer will curb his enthusiasm to kill all goblins with the kind Priestess by his side. Or perhaps they will become the ultimate goblin slaying duo. I’m unsure how many side characters will pop up, but if they do, let’s hope this series won’t be a death flags galore. It’ll be disappointing if they only introduce characters to kill them off in the next scene.

After checking out the episode, I immediately went to read the first few chapters of the manga to see how the source material was. I found that Episode 1 is based on Chapters 1 and 2 from the manga. The episode was pretty much an exact copy of these chapters, which I know most anime adaptations tend to do, but I was still a little disappointed. The studio is given the medium of animation and instead of thinking of anything innovative to do they just copy it scene by scene.

Keep on slaying, Queen!

I’m very excited to see the next episode of Goblin Slayer.  The characters are beginning to steal my heart. I want to see the Priestess grow and know the secret of Goblin Slayer’s hatred towards goblins. Although…after that episode how can you not hate goblins? Let us know in the comments your personal theory on Goblin Slayer’s backstory!

NEXT TIME: Goblin Slayer (Yep, that’s the name of Episode 2, Goblin Slayer Episode 2: Goblin Slayer)

Goblin Slayer

Fall 2018 | Anime Info | Simulcast