Goblin Slayer Episode 1 Review

So my friends take on this show is that it’s like Berserk, but with violence, rape and goblins. So my friend’s take on this is that it’s Berserk. With that in mind along with what I’d been informed of during some preliminary research, I went into this with positive hopes that this will be a dark and visceral experience, but hoped it was also going to be a good one. I also apologize in advance that I will be referencing Dungeons and Dragons a lot, since this is very much in line with it.

Right off the bat, this is the first of our new format of trying to do episodic reviews, so I’ll be tagging the end of it with a rating and who knows, if my data analytics obsession kicks in, I may do some fun charts or something with them, who knows. What I do know is that this show kicks off with a girl, weeping on the floor of a cave as a heavily armored man walks down a cave and she looks on with an expression of pure fear. We rewind a bit and find ourselves in quite the picture of an intro for an Adventurer’s Guild, completed with ranking, dog tags to identify ranking and name, and a generic job board. Enter the Priestess, who we saw previously on the floor of the cave. She is approached by a cavalier fighter, an energetic monk, and a tsundere mage. Together, they embark off to take on goblins and rescue some farm girls. They quickly find themselves at the entrance to the cave and make their way down finding a few sign posts along the way.

As they move forward and split the party (never a good idea), the Priestess and Mage are assaulted and while the Mage firebolts one of them, the rest get in on her, pin her down and stab her. The Fighter and Monk return, and the Fighter’s blade gets caught on the roof of the cave and he is butchered rather viciously. The Monk runs in and sacrifices herself to allow the Mage and Priestess to retreat, as the goblins have their way with her. Some distance later, the Priestess is hit by an arrow and the goblins begin to prepare to have their way with the Mage as well, when suddenly an armored figure approaches. We are now caught up with the beginning of the episode. After Goblin Slayer quickly dispatches the goblins, he mercy kills the Mage, who was stabbed with a poisoned dagger. The Priestess then assists Goblin Slayer in the brutal and methodical slaughter of the goblins, including the young ones.

 

 

With that, the episode ends with the Priestess giving an epilogue explaining that this story is not unusual in this world. Goblins taking girls, using them as play things and when rookie adventurers go to save them, they are subsequently slaughtered, with the girls eventually joining the temple after suffering such trauma. The Priestess however, is compelled to continue adventuring and assisting Goblin Slayer in his quest to rid the world of the goblin menace.

With that, the episodic review ends and I guess I try to summarize my thoughts on the matter. This show, does a great job of being grimdark, without being too stupid nor making Goblin Slayer seem broken or OP. Much like Guts, Goblin Slayer is methodical, his business is killing, and business is a boomin’. Also like Guts, he is not invincible, with him admitting that his skill is based around practice and acknowledging that in sheer numbers, even 50 goblins would be far too many for him to combat. With the VA work, art, animation, and music all have me looking forward to the show, and I’m excited to see if the show will continue to impress. So I have to give the show right now 8.5 slaughtered goblin younglings out of 10.