Goblin Slayer Episode 2 Review

Alrighty, right off the bat this episode starts with a disclaimer that probably should have just been constantly on during the first episode. After that we see an interesting flashback intro scene from a red-headed girl as she interacts with a young boy who we are led to believe is Goblin Slayer. She heads out on her own to town and evidently has trouble communicating with that young boy to this day, indicating that she herself is not killed/worse by goblins. We are then treated to a great OP that starts out strange but seems to fit a dark fantasy rather well, and I imagine would be a dungeon crawler boss fight’s song or something akin to that.

Turns out that she was in fact not the one who got attacked, but her family and village, with Goblin Slayer having survived the ordeal. He has spent the last 5 years with her and her uncle, while watching over the area. Like clockwork, he wakes up every day he’s not in the field and inspects the perimeter for scouting goblins’ foot prints, and repairs any fence damage. While they are still friends, the interactions and conversations with her and her uncle lends to some backstory of the Goblin Slayer. Also turns out she’s strong and I mean STRONG.

After we get back to town, we have the childhood friend observing Goblin Slayer as he sits and is silently observed by other adventurers. Some mocked his gear as shoddy and barely above porcelain rank. Others of a higher grade doubted his skills as a silver ranked adventurer. Some even just thought he was some kind of weirdo. In the end, all he did was wait to hear about any goblin slaying quests. and converse with Priestess on the various hunting techniques, in a way that made me think of vampire hunters.

To the priestess’ concern, he leaves a set of 3 adventurers to face a goblin nest near a village instead to hunt a fortress that was infested with the goblins. He stated that he methodically and systematically plans how to most effectively handle these goblins while the Priestess has some pangs of survivor’s guilt that is thankfully not crippling, but still has an effect. We are further treated to a bit of backstory just makes him seem more and more insane. He recounts the “hypothetical” of hiding away and watching goblins murder and rape his family and friends. He gives a bit more explanation to his mentality as well, with him citing the fact that survivors will fall into one of two categories. Those who are picked off, usually giving foolish young adventurers the kind of false confidence that goblins are a minor threat. The other category is that of the survivors, who grow and learn and become leaders and bodyguards of other nests. Mind you the entire time he’s discussing this, he is firing off flaming arrows at the massive wooden fortress. Arriving at the entrance, the Priestess casts barrier, which traps the goblins inside the burning fort, to her slight horror. Goblin Slayer begins to caution her about potential back doors or escape routes and explains that imagination breeds survival with those lacking imagination are typically the first to die.

The CG outro was bad, however this episode was great to me on character development. They do a good job of making Goblin Slayer very realistic and not at all like a Mary Sue, by indicating he loses some times, and that his only reason for being successful is being psychotically obsessed with the killing of goblins. We end off with a post-credit scene of a bard singing about Goblin Slayer and his deeds on the frontier, which I really liked. The episode has kept my attention and it would take a significant FUBAR to make me lose interest in the show. As of right now it’s gone up my ranking to 9 Sexy Stretching Childhood Friends out of 10.