GOBLIN SLAYER

This a general brush of the main plot of the series and its direction thus far:
The catatonic and autistic protagonist who lives in a Dungeons and Dragons (which I know almost nothing about) style medieval esthetic universe suffered a horrible loss of family and friends when he was a kid at his village by the hands of one of the vilest creatures this universe established the green skin pointy nose lizard eyes goblins who will survive and reproduce by any means and are disgustingly evil and sadistic. From this trauma and hate that he bears he vows to himself that he will become the Doomguy exterminator of goblins and make the goblin race extinct from this tabletop game fantasy universe.

Goblins are like an insect pest for example rodents in this world people don't pay much attention to them, they underestimate them and let inexperienced adventurer scrub deal with them and of course much like pest control of our universe people will not pay much attention to the importance of your job and only call you when there is an infestation at their own doorstep.

So pest control slayer guy devotes his life to this one autistic goal (the goal itself isn't autistic its the way he approaches it) to exterminate all goblins and is joined by other adventurers he saved and who were sent to join him by their respective factions in dealing with this grave pest that we are led to believe if not dealt with will cause some bubonic plague level damage to all races in this world or wipe them all out and replace them to be on top of the race hierarchy civilization food chain and dominate this world. There are more characters that have some bonds (if you can call them that) with the MC but their existence from what I can see is so purely for plot driving (Pest control guys company at least have some semblance of a personality and purpose no matter how bland it is) and for having the MC something to do.

And so on their extermination mission, these tabletop nameless characters usually go on goblin quests together usually spouting generic fantasy lines and lore and then in between taking their rest in a generic fantasy medieval small towns, villages, and cities where they meet more tabletop figures that need them for or tell them about the stuff I said above and of course adventurer birocratic stuff and rankings that serves almost no point in this manga beside for forcing characters to talk on another (the guild birocracy in the story which encompasses a big portion of itis draining and serves no purpose besides for telling people about quests and forcing character interactions and plot in an unengaging and boring way).

So the plot moves on the note of this pest control fantasy group maybe bonding in the future and not doing this extermination business like mindless drones or maybe dying in the line of job duty who knows and Pest Control-san maybe overcoming his autism and catatonia and becoming a healthy emotional human being if possible who knows how to interact with people on some emotional level or maybe bonding with someone on a deeper level himself, whilst saving the world from a doomsday goblin infestation or conquest and exterminating all of them or not and him getting some crazy revelation about them or him or the world or something-something (like gee what happens when I exterminate a species from an ecosystem does that have repercussions on other lifeforms or crap I'm not a pawn of this tabletop game I am me and I will continue working in fantasy pest control for a living) which I think is a slim chance and will be added in only to justify the actions he has taken thus far because of the prohibitions the story and the way it was written imposed.

Somewhat SPOILERy from here if you haven't read anything yet:

The intellectual appeal of this universe (and its narrow and not very engaging by the narrative fact of it being constrained as a tabletop game manifestation since its attachment quality to the fate of the characters and the plot is lost being viewed through that prism) on some level is the system of dice tossing that is an unofficial hinted physical law of the universe which is in the continuous war between the Gods of Chaos, Chance, and Destruction and Gods of Order, Fate, and Creation that are the creators and govern the universe (I think that their properties correct if not) which is manifested through the dice toss that determines what will each entity in the world do. The Dice is sorta like their compromise on what will happen next however it is hinted that Goblin Slayer sorry Pest Control guy defied the toss of the dice in few instances when he and his companions should have died (I haven't found any explanation how besides he's special in his slaying autism and MC and it will amount to something) and he turned it around miraculously wow since you can't have one of the companions dying yet. It is hinted that he is defying the physical law of causality that the dice toss has in his slaying autism and care of, not anyone dying by the hands of goblins and in his vengeance and pure hatred for them which eh doesn't make a lot of sense nor is that engaging as reason or motivation.

Overall the enjoyment part will be the crafty ways in which goblins will be slain and using some fantasy items in clever nuanced ways to outsmart even stronger foes or big hordes, brief military tactics on how to fight goblins which are valid, bright and make sense, the appeal of the exterminator aura which the Pest Control guy gives off and his unusual look Doomguy look that comes with it and the skills his companions have and few of their interactions and that's about it for them (I couldn't get myself to give the characters a higher grade since even a few moments when they escape from their generic role and personality and act somewhat human it's still so alien because of the rules of the world and mission they are doing (the talk revolves about arguments about goblins, goblin slaying or about the husk of the personality of the MC or his robotic responses that are intended for comedy but are boring and annoying than funny in my opinion and reaction to them, or giving advice on boring out of nowhere romantic interests which in the way hanldle serves for the Pest Control Guy to have girls feeling for him harem conflict or some crap which in the way so far handeled added nothing for the story and gave a possible bland motivation rather than a personality to the MC so far). They are trapped literally trapped in their role as the main MC backup and tools it like he is playing a tabletop with their lives destroying their character development in the process and the possibility of them forming an interesting group that's relatable and which fate you care about.
To conclude this dark fantasy is drawn very good and the battles, gore, and fighting is fairly well done and is enjoying to look at, the military tactics make sense and are interesting and there is some minuscule discussion about determinism and free will. Other than that the characters are reduced to tabletop figurines constrained by the aforementioned stuff about the narrative and the goblins are pure evil pests and thus far I'm not seeing more of them of trying to be bubonic plague rodents or trying to become the dominant aha you taught we were weak but we are the main threat race that will try to torture and subjugate others in this world. So the main plot is reduced to being driven by this extermination mission that may at some point impose some moral or universal balance questions rather than simple necessity which I would have given a higher grade for the story if it handled it better and more belivebly and not constraining in this tabletop DnD format in my opinion.
Overall I couldn't give it a higher grade than 3 which is poor since the manga, in my opinion, isn't decent enough with its way of storytelling, universe construction decisions, characters and their development (which is one of the main reasons for me for grading it this despite it being rationalized of being a tabletop game that is not at all for having uninspiringly and boringly written characters) and the plot which is centered around isekai pest control thus far.

26 chapters have been released since this review.

Story 7/10 -
The narrative mostly progresses like a game. Goblin Slayer gets a quest to kill goblins, saves people, and the cycle repeats. There's plenty of action, plenty of gore, and plenty of other characters that join the main protagonist. The story does get kind of repetitive since there isn't much variety. It's pretty much the quests get harder and harder and newer types of goblins are revealed. A bit of rape is also included, not for anyone's fetishes, but to indicate the cruel and merciless actions of goblins. I hope the story gets more interesting or takes an odd turn because, as of now, it seems too predictable and straightforward. I'm still enjoying it for the most part, though.

Character 8/10 -
Goblin Slayer is a badass. If you like these types of characters, then prepare to love this one. He has earned the respect (and maybe affection) of Guild Girl, one of the receptionists working at the guild, and has saved the main heroine, a young priestess, who has joined his adventure on hunting goblins. Keep in mind, Goblin Slayer is not overpowered since it's been shown countless times that a strong foe might overpower him, but his wits and smarts have always prevailed in the end with his unique ways of killing his greatest foe.

The other characters aren't really that special besides Goblin Slayer of course, but they all maintain their role perfectly. None of them get annoying, and it's nice seeing Goblin Slayer interact with all of them. He's been changing since the beginning for the better but still retaining that man-of-few-words badassery. All of the characters compliment each other and are entertaining to watch as the series continues on.

Art 7/10 -
The gore, the combat, the slices, all of that is very well drawn. Props to the illustrator. The action can get messy (as in blood, blood, blood) which might make the panels a bit hard to read, but you can pretty much tell the gist of what's happening. Doesn't really get in the way. And the character designs are not bad either. I didn't really like the rape though, but I understand that it's supposed to be a realistic depiction of the main enemy.

Overall 7/10 -
It's a fun manga to read. Never once has it annoyed or infuriated me. All the characters are, at least, not troublesome or obnoxious. The story could be more interesting but it will do for now. And the comedy is nice, too. If you like a badass protagonist, pretty female characters and some goblin slaying then start this manga right away.

*WARNING - this review may contain some spoilers*
"Goblins aren't smart creatures, but they aren't dumb creatures either. This is a common mistake to beginners, since they think too lowly of this creature, and soon enough they all got killed by the creature they think lowly off."
- The Goblin Slayer

Story : 9
The story is very promising since it's just been 16 chapters, it basically a really F-cked up manga that makes goblins as this really F-cked up creatures. Different then any manga or game we used to play, goblins used to be minor preys that beginners could took out easily. However in this manga, goblins aren't that typical easy to kill creatures for beginners, but a very lustful and all around F-cked up creature. And that’s where The Goblin Slayer comes in to play. A guy who hated the goblins for what they did in his backstory and want to slay every goblins in the entire land. At the beginning of this manga, it wasn't much of an impact, but as the story progress it turned out to be a great badass story waiting to be told.

Art : 9
The art is great in it's own right and probably one of the best art I’ve seen as of yet. Art style is quite edgy in a way where, it makes the story looks like a group of adventures having fun in the world. But soon enough it took a dark turn. This kind of in-depth art and gradient makes it more impactful to me, you may not agree. But, I assure you the fact of the matter is, it's a manga that you will probably look back and read it with enjoyment.

Characters : 8
The MC is a total badass in his own ways, he’s not your typical main character, because the fact is he is so interesting. He isn't your typical naive MC or an OP MC for no reason, he built his path to becoming a badass Goblin Slayer, and sure enough he succeeded in his own accord.
The rest of the characters are also loveable, you can get quite attach to some characters and the funny thing is, this manga is so unpredictable. I can't quite know which character might die, since to be honest everything went so fast that you look back and think to yourself "Wait did that just happened?".

Enjoyment : 10
This manga a fun manga, and it’s ironic that it's really intense some times. It's uncommon for a manga to make you at the edge of your seat for some scenes, and I’m ashamed that i haven't found out about this manga sooner. The story is getting fuller and the cast of characters keeps on growing. The manga, currently is updated every month but the scenes and tense situation that it produced, always makes you remember it back and can't be easily removed from your memory.

Overall : 9
In conclusion it's a F-cked up manga that have a lot of dark and thrilling atmosphere. It makes you more open in my opinion, it makes you realizes that the world is not a safe space and the fact of the matter is we could act out like the goblins too. Humans and goblins aren't that different to an extent in this manga. However, I’m not going to spoil most of the story now will I? It's executed very well and the scenes link up so well that sometimes you think that "is it too good to be true?" The Author really put a lot of thought in making this manga and i give props to him, i surely hope the story progresses nicely in the upcoming releases. And maybe, just maybe we could finally see the MC's face.

Goblins.

The basic mob 99% of fantasy writers/game publishers brush over.
Being able to write an engaging plot about that is a plus in itself.

But what sets it apart, is being able to provide multiple perspectives and consistent pacing to the world of the goblin slayer.

If you are afraid of gore and dark sexualised depiction of the fantasy genre then this manga isn't for it.

What is it is a semi-realistic story of what life would be like if the average person like you and I were to live in the popular generic fantasy RPG world, as we watch various protagonists share their harsh realities of living in such a world.

We would be scared shitless of basic mobs like goblins.

“Goblin Slayer is a masterpiece!”. “It’s a good alternative to other dark fantasy manga like Berserk and gets too much hate for being ‘edgy’ or the rape scenes”.

I kid you not, these are the type of comments that were circling around anytime someone mentioned GS.
I have to say, as someone who’s not like the ‘snowflakes’ who write off GS because of the rape scene, once I read the manga I found it to be underwhelming, and there to be more glaring problems to focus my attention on.

Story (5/10):
Goblin Slayer is about a adventurer who witnessed Goblins kill everyone in his village as a boy and rape his dear older sister. Filled with feelings of powerlessness, rage and anger, he swore to kill all the goblins.

With a limiting premise of slaying goblins, the manga was doomed to fail from the beginning. The writer either has to recycle storylines with GS killing goblins, or will be forced to expand from his initial premise showing GS’s party take on new enemies and quests. The writer has gone with the former so far and has done a decent job in trying to make the story interesting by introducing different types of goblins like: goblin shaman, goblin lords, goblin champions etc. and has GS use different methods in order to deal with the situation. That being said, it didn’t prevent the story from becoming boring and stale.

The plot follows the same formula half the time of “x number of goblins have shown up in a village or cave. There’s a 70% chance they're raping some girls, but don’t worry Goblin slayer is here to slay them!” That’s pretty much it. Mindless entertainment filled with murder, rape and gore to make the audience hate the goblins more, which is why people label GS as edgy, shock value trash.

The world building is poor. The world is your generic fantasy setting, where everything comes across as a copy of a D&D campaign. It has your traditional Japanese guild with: quests, ranks, items and a character sheet straight out of D&D. The cities, towns and the capital aren’t given names. The locations lack depth and have nothing distinguishing themselves apart. The world feels shallow.

Characters (6/10):
The characters are poorly written and lack any depth. They’re generic, cookie cutter troupes based off their character classes. The writer was so lazy he didn’t even bother making up names for them! How can I be emotionally invested in these characters when I have to refer to them as “spear guy”, “cow girl” or “priestess”?!

Goblin Slayer is a bland, emotionless human who acts like a robot with a one track mind only focused on killing goblins. All his dialogue is about goblins. There’s not much to him besides that. He does get some development once the party joins and we see him opening up and learning there’s more to life than slaying goblins. The problem with this is they join after a couple of chapters and it comes across as forced, with them seemingly joining his crusade to kill goblins despite being representatives of their clans to thwart the Demon lord.

What I do like the is thematic representation GS stands for and how pragmatic he is. GS isn’t the most powerful or smartest fighter, but because he’s spent years learning about goblins he’s an expert in his craft. His character is influenced off Batman and it shows, with his fights revolving around him prepping before hand with items or setting up traps to win. GS is supposed to represent the ‘common man’ fighting the weakest enemy- goblins, whilst there’s supposed to be a “hero” out there fighting the Demon lord and his army.

GS is probably the only well developed character in the show. The priestess has some depth to her. The rest of the party are as one dimensional as the rest of the characters and haven’t been fleshed out well. The elf and dwarf spend way too much my time making stupid comments about each other, while all the lizard can talk about is his love for cheese.

There’s no compelling villain in this story. The overreaching enemy are goblins... one dimensional, cunning, little green shits that raid villages, slaughter adventurers and rape girls.

Art (8/10):
The art is one of the saving graces. It looks amazing and is very well detailed. The fights look dynamic and are easy to follow. I love GS’s design, despite everyone else’s armour looking like they came straight out of a generic fantasy setting. However, my criticism is I don’t think the art fits the tone of the story well.

Overall (6/10):
Goblin Slayer is a overrated, dark fantasy manga lacking in substance. I shouldn’t compare series, but it’s embarrassing when fans try compare this average manga to Berserk because Berserk is more than just gore, violence and murder. Miura uses these dark, mature themes to enrich his story and explore the ‘darker parts’ of humanity. Rape is a heavy subject topic that plays a integral part in the story of some of our main characters e.g. Guts and Casca. We see how the trauma affects them and how they deal with it. It shows how dark and unforgiving the world is in a Medieval setting. In Goblin Slayer, rape is thrown in to show us the brutality of the goblins. However, the way it’s executed is done poorly. In the first chapter, a girl is raped to demonstrate how vile and animalistic these goblins are. The reader by this point is not invested in this throwaway character. When the girl is raped, she’s sent away and never mentioned again in the story. This is where it comes off as cheap, edgy, shock value ignoring the ramifications of it.

Despite my criticisms of GS, I do think the series had potential, but it suffers from some major flaws:
1) Lack of names for characters or the towns and cities. I can’t feel emotionally connected to the characters or immersed in the world without it.
2) World building could be better: Instead of having GS travel to the same guild all the time to pick up quests, have him roam around the world slaying goblins.
3) Give more depth to the party. This may change in the future, but as of yet the characters are lacking.
4) Depicition of rape. Don’t throw it in so casually just to show “how gruesome goblins are”. Don’t fetishise it as if it’s some hentai continuously focusing on angles of beautiful girls breasts, legs or them moaning as they’re getting plowed.
5) Inherent lack of long term storytelling. The writer shot himself in the foot focusing only on goblins. He has nothing else to go on after that.

If the manga improved on some of these aspects i would have rated it higher.
At the moment it’s entertaining watching Goblin Slayer come up with new ways to kill goblins, but beyond that there’s not much to be invested in the story.

"Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them; he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed. And, abruptly, the concept came, amusing to him even in his pain. ... Full circle. A new terror born in death, a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever." - I am legend, Richard Matheson

Demon Lords are taking over the world. His generals spread across the lands. Countless heroes are being summoned to fight against the ruthless demon horde. Who can defeat those epic monsters? Who will slay the demon lords and save the entire world?

Not our protagonist, that's for sure. The only thing he ever wants to do is kill goblins. It's his hobby, his job, and his sole purpose of existence. The Demon Lords are not his concern. Gold is only his secondary objective. Goblins. Must kill more goblins.

Never have I seen a character so passionate about something, so dedicated to improving his craft it brings a tear to my eyes when I read about his quest to erase the entire goblin race from existence.

The setting is cliche. The side characters are paper thin. Hell, they don't even have names.

None of that matters.

This manga simply delivers exactly what is said in the title. Expect goblins getting killed. Expect lots of goblins getting killed. Expect lots and lots of goblins getting killed. Oh, there is also some rape and dismemberment, but these are minor stuff. Don't read them. Or just skip them. Who cares.

When a manga has a premise, and it executes that premise so perfectly, it doesn't need complex characters or intriguing plot. The art is just a bonus. Every chapter you are treated to another day in the life of Goblin Slayer. It's like reading about an artist who continuously polishes his skills, breaking new grounds. It's like watching DeadMau5 works on his latest remix on Twitch. It's like watching bob ross showing you how to paint some happy little trees.

There are no stories to be had, no life lessons to be learned, but you can't stop yourself from wanting more. That's Goblin Slayer in a nutshell.

Goblin Slayer is kinda entertaining. It's not entertaining because it has a compelling plot, or any deep themes, or any multi-faceted characters (dear god no). Characters have such stupendously little depth that most of them don't even have proper names. That is not a joke. The four important main characters outside of the protagonist are referred to as "Elf", "Dwarf", "Guild Girl", and "Lizardman". Check the wiki if you don't believe me.

The world-building is pretty questionable. The premise is a generic RPG fantasy world except goblins are much more vile and dangerous than usual. They wreak havoc every day by pillaging villages and raping women. Beginner adventurers attempt to kill the goblins, but many (most?) of them perish in their attempts due to their inexperience and get raped and plundered and murdered. But there are apparently worse problems in the world (problems that are never actually elaborated on) and goblins are too weak to be thought of as a "real threat" (even though they very clearly are not weak, as high-level adventurers are shown to have trouble with goblin hordes in later chapters), so quests to slay goblins grant very little reward. This remains the case even with important quests that involve the protection of entire defenseless villages from goblin attacks. Because of the disproportionately small pay, no one actually competent bothers to help out, so as a result normal citizens, beginner adventurers, and entire villages get destroyed by goblins practically on a daily basis. But apparently it's no big deal, so goblin extermination quests still have low rewards. Nothing makes sense, but whatever, fuck it.

Insert our badass protagonist, the fabled Goblin Slayer, whom bards sing of and people fear. He has made it quite clear many a time that his entire purpose in life is to kill goblins. He flat-out refuses to accept any quest unrelated to murdering goblins - he lives for it and knows everything about the goblin hunt, from how they eat to how they move. He has plenty of experience destroying goblin nests and doesn't flinch in killing even the youngest. He reasons that baby goblins that are spared by adventurers become truly strong when they grow up. So he crushes them (most of the time literally).

That's it. This dude kills hoards of goblins because of his "tragic past" involving them (a past he suddenly elaborated about without ever being asked early on in the manga.. talk about subtlety). And women love him. Nearly every female character he meets lusts for him. How could women not love him? He's the best goblin slayer around.

How about the other characters? Well, as I had mentioned earlier, most of them don't even have proper names. All of the women only exist to fall in love with the protagonist to make him look cool. I don't really remember any male characters aside from the nameless generic dwarf dude and the lizard whose sole personality trait is eating cheese.

So why is it entertaining? Well... it's honestly pretty fun, despite it all. The goblin slaying is often done in creative ways, and the protagonist comes up with half-way interesting plans in destroying the things. It's also enjoyable in just how brutal he is at times. At some point, I genuinely wondered why the author was so fixated on vilifying and destroying goblins. Did a goblin murder his family? Did he read a doujin with them and his favorite female character? Does he just not like the way they look?

In all, I give Goblin Slayer a 6/10, which is pretty damn generous given the many negative aspects of it. A more objective and fair rating would be a 2/10 or something, but I don't really care. Sure, it may not be very intellectually stimulating, but it's far more enjoyable than other "turn your brain off to enjoy" manga like most battle shonen because the author of Goblin Slayer realizes the only entertaining aspect of these things is the ridiculous fighting scenes. It's actually genuinely inspiring how little the author gives a fuck when it comes to world-building, character development, thought-provoking themes, or anything that would normally be prevalent in such a tragic, character-driven story. It doesn't feign a stupid facade of depth. There's no protagonist I want to strangle, there's no stupid "friendship is power" monologues and no real coherent plot whatsoever. It's a manga about a badass and his genocide against goblins and I like it.

Overall.
Its the blandest manga I have ever read or heard of.
This manga is a joke that proves we are in a simulation were bizarre events like this can happen. We live in a simulation that people can enjoy Goblin Slayer.

Story.
The story is complete shit and has nothing to add to your intellectual being. It doesn't present any deeper themes. It just is going around killing goblins with a few overlying arcs.

Art
The art is not bad, but it's not good. I mean it's your standard manga art style.

Characters

These are the blandest characters I have ever seen in all of my manga adventures. It seems like they almost don't think. They make Luffy look like a genius. Don't expect character development or any deep thoughts.

Enjoyment.
I can't enjoy something this bad. It is terrible. There is nothing to enjoy here.

“Before the Demon King destroys the world, the goblins will destroy the villages. The appearance of a powerful enemy is no excuse to neglect the weakest ” - [Goblin Slayer]

✪---HISTORY---✪ (7)
The plot of the story is not complex, it is simple, but even so it is well managed and I found it very enjoyable and good (the author knows its limits well).

The first arc is decent, it introduces you well to the protagonist, who already shows that he has a cold attitude and that he goes about his business (killing goblins). Then the story introduces you to things like the adventurer's guild, the rank system, and the priestess (who after being saved, she wants to return the favor to the Goblin Slayer). The good thing about this story is to see how the perspectives of characters like the priestess or the High Elf change, who previously did not understand the Goblin Slayer, but now they do.

Then the story introduces you to the dwarf, the high elf, and the naga who ask him for help to stop an army or something like that (this is when they introduce the demonic realm of the burned "Demon King"). The goblin slayer refuses and makes it clear to us that his only target is goblins, and that's what the story is about. The group of the dwarf and the high elf ask permission to go with him on one of his missions to see how he unfolds, and the Slayer accepts. At the end, the story shows you the cruelty of the Goblins, while the characters change their points of view. Then the story takes an interesting turn, since they put a theme of "gods and a chess-like board", which opens the doors for the manga to become somewhat complex.

In short, the goblin slayer story consists of a protagonist who is immersed in revenge and focuses on a single objective, to kill goblins. But he is in a society where the missions of Goblins are underrated and there is a lot of discrimination and capitalism, that's why the society of the Goblin Slayer world sucks, and that is what makes the Goblin Slayer unique.

✪---BEST--MOMENTS---✪
One of the highlights is the arc of the goblins attack on the farm, in which goblin asks for help to stop them. In the final chapter or there, when the goblin slayer is about to kill the goblin leader, they tell us how he became strong after a character forgave her, so at the moment in which the protagonist He says:
"You should never forgive a goblin" makes the scene B R U T A L.


Another would be the paladin arc, in which the "princess fighter" is rescued after the accident, and Goblin Slayer looks at her and she wakes up and looks at him and simply says; "Goblins" (with incredible art). For these reasons and others, the paladin arc seems to me the best of Goblin Slayer, apart from introducing you to the god of wisdom and how the Goblin Slayer group deal with problems is "" exciting "" and incredible.

(There are more good moments like the dialogue between the sword maiden with illustrative art and language or the epic rage / "" power up "" that Goblin Slayer has in the Goblin Champion arc).

✪---PROTAGONIST---✪ (7,8)
The development of the protagonist (Goblin Slayer) is good, and in the spin off manga "Goblin Slayer Year One" it is even better (very good I would say).

The "Goblin Slayer" is presented to you as cold, witty, strategist, serious, spiteful and vindictive. His attitude and his motives for being a "Goblin Slayer" are justified by his very tragic and painful past. He is a character who is not really OP, but someone who is strong thanks to his intelligence after coming up with good decisions or strategies when fighting!

He is not silver rank for being very strong like other adventurers, but for knowing how to use weapons well, knowing what equipment to use, knowing the enemy's weak or critical point, ways to defeat or retain the enemy etc. and all this he has after his long experience of being an adventurer (exactly 5 years of experience) ... also influences the fact that he was trained by a "" master "" who saved him in the past from the Goblins in his childhood, and possibly because of this is that Goblin Slayer is so "powerful" (to put it in some way).

The "" Power Ups "" (PU) that he has, is only one. Even so, more than PU, it is simply that he was full of determination, since a loved one was about to be killed, and he gave everything or nothing to save her (you don't have to look for much logic either).

The interesting thing about this is his past and background, to see how he manages to fight the goblins and is learning from his mistakes, and most importantly. He, like him, is leaving aside his cold attitude, and is relating to the other adventurers.

✪---CHARACTERS---✪ (7)
As for the other characters, because the manga focuses on the Goblin Slayer group more than everything, since the manga is about that, the adventures of the Goblin Slayer and his group.

"Priestess"

The priestess was reckless and in need of some "reality". It was thought that being an adventurer was a children's game with the group he was with, after the incident he realizes that it is not ... that he has to take this being an "adventurer" seriously and as the story progresses with Goblin he matures and gets used to the murky things that happen in the world of Goblin Slayer, while he is sympathizing and understanding "Goblin Slayer". She is an important character, since it is mainly thanks to her that Goblin Slayer stops being so cold .. put aside killing goblins a bit and start having fun or experiencing things in life instead of killing goblins, like trying ice cream , socialize more etc. Besides that she is not a useless character at all, she is in fact the most useful of the Goblin Slayer group.

"High Elf"

The elf something similar happens to her, she made fun of the "Goblin Slayer" for doing Goblin missions and worst of all, she underestimated goblins more than the same priestess in her "beginnings". She also needed a bit of "reality" in that world, and so it was. She had it and understood the "Goblin Slayer" better and stopped underestimating the Goblins. She is an important character due to the fact that she helps the protagonist to be more open, and not only focus on the goblins ... what I like the most about her is how she complements the Dwarf, they make a very good duo.


Postdate: (The dwarf and the lizard have practically no development and neither do they need it, they simply gain more experience in battle and contribute to making "Goblin Slayer" more friendly .. even so I don't dislike them and the dwarf is very charismatic. It would be necessary to talk about the "Sword Maiden" or the "fighting princess" of the "Goblin Paladin" arc and its developments, but I don't feel like it xd)

✪---ART---✪ (8)
The art of Goblin Slayer is rare and unique, what I mean is that the author, despite having a "generic" style of drawing characters, in action scenes or key moments, draws like a BEAST. Also that he is very good at drawing goblins, the amount of detail that he puts into some panels is scary.

Finally there is the factor of what I nickname as "illustrative language", which in summary would be that through a drawing you can transmit a message, emotion or even suffering of such a situation or character through images. Unlike the anime, the author does it very well, as for example in the Goblin Paladin arc when the "fighting princess" is caught by the goblins and then rescued, and after sleeping and later getting up, she is traumatized and simply says ... "Goblins ..." (on the other hand, in the anime, the attitude she has is that of someone relieved, that is, it doesn't make any sense after what she suffered).

✪---SCORE---✪
7,2|10 (GOOD)

This started off with a lot of potential, in that it seemed to be a standard D&D manga that subverted expectations right off the bat. The first dungeon crawl goes sideways, which is immediately engaging. However, this turns out to be the peak of the manga, and everything goes downhill from there.

The world-building seems expansive at first, but we quickly discover that it's limited to this one town and a handful of characters. The main characters we follow are completely one-dimensional. The goblin slayer himself literally never removes his helmet, even when out experiencing a festival, or even when eating and drinking (does he shove food through the slits in his face plate?).

There's zero development of either characters or story, and without the halfway decent art (that unfortunately tends to get a bit muddled during fight scenes) and somewhat creative fighting, this would be completely without merit.

Give this one a miss.