©Kumo Kagyu • SB Creative Corp.-Goblin Slayer2 project
Goblin Slayer represents a working man’s approach, both the series in its storytelling and the protagonist in how he goes about his business. Plot points turn out to be purely mechanical in the same way that a seemingly off-kilter Slayer strategy is simply the most effective way to kill goblins. Take, for example, the ongoing idea of goblins learning throughout the characters’ encounters with them. Certainly, it ties into the thematic idea of people’s growth and offers the possibility of a broader scope regarding how threatening the little monsters are. But more immediately, it makes sense why each successive encounter with the goblins causes them to present new challenges that the Slayer and company cannot continue to defeat with the same strategy . It’s a device designed to further inject the thrill of adventure into a story built on blunt pragmatism.
As someone who has always been ambivalent about Goblin Slayer’s broader stance on the banality of “realistic” fantasy adventures, I actually welcome this. The series, which in its first season had the characters commenting on the boredom of just stabbing goblins while they slept, now takes them on a roaring river rafting trip. The girls all did a swimsuit episode right after, sure, join in. If Goblin Slayer is willing to accept its realistic anime excesses, maybe it will finally relax enough to get out of its ass. Maybe there’s something to the series being simply a story instead of a continuous list of techniques.
That’s driven by this episode’s continued emphasis on characterization. I know I just commented about the girls at the party wearing fanciful swimsuits, but it still gives people an opportunity to make little quips to differentiate each other. They sat around the campfire and talked about their personal histories. I’m so used to other ‘classic’ fantasy settings treating elves and their culture with great reverence that hearing the Archer talk about her goofy, friendly interactions with her family felt new and special in a way that I think Goblin Slayer wanted a lot of the time.
There’s an important idea in this Goblin Slayer series that doesn’t get enough credit. While it’s an obvious old-fashioned element of the show that other characters underestimate and denigrate him, it also shows his attitude toward himself. As Lizard Priest points out, the Slayer’s desire to do good things for the Elves and others in his group is not a motivation that can be taken for granted. It’s a caring aspect of his personality that he despises too much instead of the revenge he claims drives him. That remains clear no matter how much the Slayer tries to make goblin slaying the sole subject of his vocabulary. The scene where he comforts the goblin he saved earlier demonstrates that, confusingly: The value of what he did wasn’t about all the goblins he killed, but about the people he helps and protects in doing so.
The past few episodes have shown that Goblin Slayer as a show hasn’t given enough credit for that unique content. The aforementioned campfire scene offers some anecdotal information that allows the heroes and the audience to identify the Archer’s brother when he appears in a later scene. It weaves in details that happen much more naturally than any of the minutiae of monster slaying. Some of these don’t lend themselves to the most creative angles, such as the idea of elves’ long lifespans that keep them at a distance from their hominids (we’re all also see Frieren this season). But it’s still cuter than just watching Slayer grind some sticks. It ends with the show itself, which sees the Archer pick up a bola of stone and string that the Slayer had put together, instead happily playing with them like a pair of chirping birds.
I didn’t know that Goblin Slayer could be so completely divorced from the actual suffering that sets the tone of the setting. It’s nice that the past few episodes have had happier moments that make life worth fighting for. This episode has more going on than the previous episode, which also makes it more uneven. But it still held my interest with its interactions and even ended with an unapologetically rad Slayer getting ready to fight a dinosaur. He mistakes it for an elephant as a joke right before the credits. This series can always be entertainingly irreverent in its own right.
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Goblin Slayer II is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
You can just call Chris the Goblin Slayer. You can check out his other adventures on the blog or brave the dirty goblin cave Twitter.