Goblin Slayer Episode 3 Review: Unexpected Visitors

This week’s episode continued the slow pace set by last week. With some new characters popping up, and more world-building, we almost fell into the slice-of-life genre. The only action was reserved until the episode’s final seconds. As great as it was to learn more about Goblin Slayer’s world, the chats and dancing around topics made for a slightly dull watch.

Episode Three Violence Levels – Very Low (A bit of blood)

Japanese Original Episode Title: 思いがけない来客

Plot

An elf, a dwarf, and a lizardman walk into a bar and order up a Goblin Slayer. A new Demon King has risen, and is planning an all out attack on the world. Humans, elves, and dwarves alike have banded together to push his attack back. Unfortunately, Goblin Slayer isn’t too interested in saving the world at large, so instead the trio directs him to a smaller quest – a goblin nest has appeared on Elven lands and they head off to get rid of it. A mismatched squad is formed, will this end with heartwarming feels or absolute heartbreak?

Episode Highlights

Who Rules the Earth?: Perhaps the most interesting piece of world lore was the beginning of the episode. We learnt that the gods played a dice game to decide who would ultimately rule the earth, they continued to play until they fell asleep and I guess it’s either still going or no one won.

Elves vs. Dwarves: As in pretty much every rendition of fantasy worlds, elves and dwarves don’t like one another. But despite this rather cliche relationship dynamic, it was still quite fun to see the two characters poke fun at one another!

Space Goblins!? During the episode characters discussed their various theories on the origins of goblins. Goblin Slayer puts his own theory in, saying goblins came from a green moon and have watched the world with envy and greed, thus their raiding of villages to get the things they’ve always desired. Let’s hope Goblin Slayer doesn’t nuke the moon!

Underestimating Goblins? In one scene Goblin Slayer questions the trio about ‘goblin heroes’, stating that they’re as strong as a platinum ranked adventurer. Keep in mind that Goblin Slayer is only a silver rank – really emphasizing that pretty much everyone but him has been underestimating the power of the goblin horde.

Themes & Trivia

Dragons: Lizardman mentions that his reason for travelling is to gain wisdom and ultimately turn into a dragon. Eastern dragon lore is heavily linked with Buddhist temples, with dragons representing enlightenment or intellectual clarity. In Kyoto you can visit a temple called Ryoan-Ji (竜安寺), ‘The temple of a dragon at peace’, which features a six hundred year old painting of a dragon. You can learn more here.

References: In last week’s episode I noticed a character looked a lot like Lancer from Fate/Stay Night. After doing some digging I found this was intentional and quite a few characters are pretty accurate copies from other franchises. This week’s reference spot is Witch and comes from the Goblin Slayer wikia where an eagle-eyed fan saw Witch looked a lot like Sorceress from Dragon’s Crown!

Short or Far Sighted?: Goblin Slayer refuses to get involved with the Demon King quest as he argues regardless of what happens with the demons, villages will still be attacked by goblins. I’m still weighing up on whether this shows his narrow-mindedness or that he knows that while everyone is off with the demons, he’ll be the only one remaining to defend the common village folk.

Comment

This week’s episode covered all of Chapter 4 and about half of Chapter 5 in the manga. As mentioned above, I did find this episode to be quite slow, mainly filled with information and jokes. As I said in last week’s review, this series really needs to find a balance between boring its audiences with all the world-building and shocking them with intense violence. However, getting those harsh words out of the way, I do actually like the characters that have been introduced. The High Elf in particular seems very powerful and ready to kick butt! It’ll be interesting to see if she takes on a mentor role for the Priestess as she’s 1900 years old than her!

One character I’m hoping we never see again is the Witch. She just seemed to be unnecessary fan-service and the way she talked was like she was high on shrooms. I’m sure at least five minutes of the episode’s twenty was dedicated to her five or so lines. But even if I’m not a fan of her, I’m glad she stuck up for Priestess and shooed away some other nosy adventurers!

#SquadGoals

With this episode, Goblin Slayer finally got the goblin killing squad he’s dreamed of. But, as glad as I am to get some background and lore, I am missing the action a bit. I’m hoping next week’s episode will feature Goblin Slayer doing what he does best – absolutely decimating a goblin nest.

In the meantime, make sure to check out the rest of the MANGA.TOKYO team’s Fall 2018 reviews.

NEXT TIME: The Strong