Goblin Slayer Episode 6 Review: Goblin Slayer in the Water Town

Using the metaphor I used in last week’s review, this week’s episode was the tantalizing climb up a roller coaster track’s peak. A new character was properly introduced, there were some fantastic jokes and foreshadowing – everything I ever wanted in a Goblin Slayer episode. So let’s get into what made this week so exciting!

Episode Six Violence Levels – Low (some bloodshed & nudity)

Japanese Original Episode Title: 水の街の小鬼殺し

Plot

The Goblin Slaying Squad head to Water Town to meet with the individual who requested them. That person is Sword Maiden, a legendary hero who achieved gold rank status (second highest) and is credited with defeating the last Demon King. She has asked Goblin Slayer to help rid her town of the goblins who have been attacking women and kidnapping children. The Goblin Slaying Squad is more than happy to oblige.

Episode Highlights

Goblin Boats: Another episode, another tidbit about Goblins – they can learn to use tools if shown how. By extension, if you show a Goblin a boat/ how to use a boat, suddenly they create a naval fleet!

Burn, Baby, Burn: It’s nice to see that the Goblin Slaying Squad have grown to close enough to deal out some sick burns to one another.

Mysterious Figure: Could Goblin Slayer have found his match in a mysterious figure that controls the Water Town goblins from behind the scenes? We’ll see in future episodes…

Themes & Trivia

Lady Justice: As many of the characters in Goblin Slayer are inspired by pop culture counterparts, it’s no surprise that Shield Maiden also has her double somewhere. Some have pointed out she looks similar to Elysium from Soul Calibur, personally I just see her as Lady Justice (not technically a ‘pop culture’ reference but a design reference nonetheless)

Why no fire, water or poison? A bit of a plot hole in the anime, but in other adaptations, High Elf argues with Goblin Slayer about his rather brutal methods of adventuring. They come to an agreement where Goblin Slayer will limit his creative ways to something a bit more traditional. This discussion wasn’t shown in the anime.

Comments

This week I’m over the equator in Tokyo, which means my manga collection has been left behind in Australia – so no manga chapter explanation this week. However, in saying that, I think we can safely say that parts of this anime have jumped around and cherry picked from the manga’s chronology. This has caused many to wonder about a certain massive fight scene, which others have speculated will be the series’ finale – so for those of you who know what is, keep your spoilers to yourself, just in case! Others have prayed for a beach episode, and who knows if that will even happen.

I have to say, out of all the Goblin Slayer episodes so far, this one is by far my favorite. There’s a fantastic balance of story-telling, action and comedy blended into an exciting episode. It’s literally the episode I’ve been saying week after week I knew the series had the capability to do. Information about the goblins and other characters were explained in a few lines rather than info dumps, which made for enjoyable world-building and character development wasn’t shoved down our throats.

If Goblin Slayer continues on this trajectory, I won’t have anything to complain about. I guess my weekly reviews will soon be filled with theories about Goblin Slayer’s face. So get ready for next time on MANGA.TOKYO – is Goblin Slayer a secret ikemen? I’m only partially joking there…

The Goblins are Coming!

At last I can say that the threads of a plot have started to come together. Rather than just random goblin raids, we’re building up towards something bigger and exciting. I’m hopeful the second half of Goblin Slayer will be filled with some intrigue and action. But I’m sure the question on many fan’s minds is – when will the much fabled ‘beach’ episode be thrown in? I, for one, could happily skip it for the series to continue on this new trajectory. But sometimes you just gotta give the people what they want!

That’s it for this week’s Goblin Slayer review, while you wait for the next one, make sure to check out the rest of the MANGA.TOKYO team’s Fall 2018 reviews.

NEXT TIME: Onward Unto Death