Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown
Goblin Slayer receives a letter from the Sword Maiden asking him to find a missing adventurer who has disappeared while hunting goblins. As long as he gets to kill goblins, he’s not going to complain!
What happened?
The missing adventurer is the daughter of a lord who reached out to Sword Maiden for help. She, of course, could not help directly but knew exactly who to call on – Goblin Slayer. The mission would take them high into the icy mountains, which was proving to be quite uncomfortable for Lizardman. Upon arriving they rescued a village from a group of goblins and tracked them back to their lair.
As soon as night fell, they descended into the caves and found a horde of goblins waiting for them. The strangest thing for Goblin Slayer was that the goblins appeared to have learnt from the method he used to track them. They hadn’t got it quite right, but their attempt had left an arrowhead embedded in Elf Archer’s leg. Goblin Slayer had to remove it, although he promised he’d try not to hurt her!
Further into the cave, they found a shrine and the missing adventurer lying on top. She was naked and had been branded with a symbol that represented the god of knowledge. What were they up to? Goblin Slayer believed that there must be a Goblin Paladin and decided that they should head back to the village with the girl, who was still alive… just!
When she woke, Goblin Slayer asked her some questions. She did her best to answer, but it brought up a lot of uncomfortable memories. When Goblin Slayer revealed the plan to attack the real goblin stronghold, an old dwarf castle, the Noble Fencer demanded to come with them. In order to get into the castle, they disguised themselves as follows of the god of knowledge and brought offerings to the Goblin Paladin.
Once inside, Noble Fencer lost it after coming face to face with the goblin shaman who was wearing a cloak made of her friend’s cape. They searched the castle, finding more captives, destroying their armoury, and then finding the Goblin Paladin who was about to be crowned. However, they need a shaman to perform the ceremony… and he’s dead!
The goblins became aware of their presence and attacked. They split up, Elf, Lizardman, and Dwarf rescued the captives, while Goblin Slayer took Priestess and Noble Fencer to attack the goblins. Noble Fencer was still struggling with what happened to her, but Goblin Slayer promised to kill all the goblins. Not just the ones here, nor the ones in the castle, but ALL the goblins.
They escaped from the castle and raced down the mountain with the entire horde of goblins in pursuit. Goblin Slayer fought off what he could and directed the group towards a deep valley. He fought the Goblin Paladin one-on-one and won, but there were still a lot more goblins. This was when Noble Fencer created an avalanche with her magic and then Priestess made a barrier to protect them. Unfortunately, Goblin Slayer got caught in the avalanche.
Of course, Goblin Slayer survived thanks to the magical rings he distributed earlier that make it possible for some to breathe even underwater. They returned home with the Noble Fencer and celebrated surviving another year!
What did you think?
Honestly, I’m just happy to have more Goblin Slayer. I will state that I’m not overly thrilled, however, that the first twenty-five minutes was a recap of season one. My biggest problem with that was that the extra minutes would have been far better served fleshing out this adventure, which if given the time it needed could have been six episodes of a regular season. As a result, it felt a bit rushed and underdeveloped.
It was a lot of fun and the action was excellent. There were a few things that just seemed to fall for Goblin Slayer which was no doubt because of the need to move things along quickly. The same could be said for Noble Fencer’s back story and even how she came to be on the shrine, branded. It really needed more time. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely rushed.
What have you learned?
I’m a big fan of short stories and tight narratives, but I can also see when a story is too tight. Epic fantasy is one of those genres that really struggles when the story is too direct. It’s expected that there will be setbacks, time not really doing much, and even a bit of exploring. Epic doesn’t just apply to the battles either. Everything is bigger and requires more time and attention.
Unfortunately, it seems to be increasingly common for a studio to attempt to cram these stories into a much smaller format, something that I think hampered Record of Grancrest War as well, even at twenty-four episodes. As I said earlier, this could have easily been six episodes of a season and not a sixty-minute movie, with a twenty-five-minute refresher at the beginning. I think I may have to invest in the light novels to see how it handles the epic nature of this story.
Other reviews in the series
Series Information
| English Title | Goblin Slayer |
| Japanese Title | Goblin Slayer |
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Dark Fantasy |
| Demographic | Seinen |
Anime
Season One
Movie
| English Title | Goblin’s Crown |
| Japanese Title | Goblin’s Crown |
| Released | Winter 2020 |
| Animation Studios | White Fox |
Season Two
Manga
| Series | Side Story II: Dai Katana |
| Author | Kumo Kagyu |
| Artist | Shougo Aoki |
| Volumes | Ongoing |
| 1 | The Fortress City |
| 2 | There’s Always Tomorrow! |
| 3 | Help and Help Alike! |
| 4 | I Can Smell Blood! |
| 5 | If You Let Your Guard Down, You Die! |
| 6 | Be Thankful to Everything! |
