Holiday Review: GOBLIN SLAYER

Nothing could compete for controversy this year quite like today's selection.  Although Yen Press has been quietly releasing this digitally in chapters for some time, it only blew up in popularity after its animated adaptation began airing.

Oh, if only had it stayed obscure forever.

GOBLIN SLAYER (Goburin Sureiya), based on the original story by Kumo Kagyu and character designs by Noboru Kannatuki with art by Kousuke Kurose.  First published in 2016, and first published in North America in 2018.

PLOT:

For the Priestess, this was meant to be just another adventure for her newly formed group of adventurers.  Little could she have known that what was meant to be a mission to kill some simple goblins would end with most of her party killed, tortured, and cruelly violated.  At the last minute, she is saved by a hulking figure in a suit of armor, known only as Goblin Slayer.  His only purpose in life is to kill every goblin he can find.  The common folk adore him; other high-ranking adventurers scorn him; to Priestess, he is a savior.

STORY:

Goblin Slayer is precisely as bad as you've heard it to be.  It's grim, violent, misogynistic, shallow, and half-baked.  It's the revenge fantasy of a 13 year old boy angry at the world, pouring over his D&D manual as he scribbles story notes and poorly drawn anime girls in a notebook, convinced of his own genius.  It's a thoroughly bad time, and the fact that so many people are responding to this story positively makes me question the taste of this fandom at large.

The story wants so very, VERY badly for you to believe that Goblin Slayer is cool.  The creators want you to be awed by his strategies, thrilled by his bloodshed, and all but rubbing your hands in glee at the prospect of those who scorn him getting their just desserts.  They have an idea of how a dark fantasy lead acts, but not what makes the best examples of them compelling.  It's not enough to have a dark and gritty look to go with your dark and gritty backstory.  There has to be something recognizably human within them, some quality capable of growth, emotion, or hope.  Goblin Slayer is utterly lacking in these.  His mind is consumed entirely with thoughts of death and revenge, losing everything down to his name in the process, unable and unwilling to connect with the very people he saves, l.  A wise person would see this as the foundation of a tragedy, but the shallow fool writing this thinks it just makes him badass.

In true edgelord fashion, the only thing this story hates more than goblins is women.  Priestess, our oh-so-creatively named protagonist, is a quivering chihuahua of a girl with barely any personality to speak of.  Her innocence and empathy for others is scorned by Goblin Slayer (and by extension, the audience), and her only contribution to the story is her white magic (and in true D&D fashion, she can only use her spells so many times per day).  The sad thing is this is a better fate than every other woman in this book.  Those that aren't starry-eyed admirers or nakedly arrogant are used as cannon fodder, slaughtered and raped in as graphic a manner as a mainstream shonen manga can allow.

There's just so little going on under the surface of Goblin Slayer.  This isn't just a matter of poor worldbuilding (although there's plenty I could nitpick there), it's a matter of being spiritually empty.  It has nothing to offer but misery and spite, and that's uglier than any goblin.

ART:

Kurose's art doesn't deviate much from the original illustrations, but what it does add mostly comes from the world of hentai doujin.  He clearly savors every scene of assault, dragging them our far longer than either the original light novel or the anime adaptation.  Their contorted faces, twisting bodies, and dripping sweat and tears (and other implied fluids) are drawn with loving care.  In fairness, the bodies of the women tend to twist weirdly even when not being raped, as there are a lot of snake-spined women showing off their goods on the page, the panels turning awkwardly to fit in every single curve.

The focus on the fanservice comes at the expense of the actual action.  The fights are cramped, chaotic affairs, which might be an effective bit of mood building if not for the fact that otherwise mudane scenes are laid out in the same fashion.  Kurose tends to lean heavily on speedlines to convey movement, and since so much of this volume takes place in a cave there isn't much to say for the backgrounds.  It's sad when I would rather look at the 4-koma gag strips on the back side of each cover than I would at the book itself.

PRESENTATION:

The only extra is a few pages of a side story from the original light novel author, which doesn't particularly add much.  The prose manages to be both terse and rambling, and occasionally is strangely formatted.

RATING:


Goblin Slayer is a hollow fantasy-flavored power fantasy that's ugly and hateful through and through.  I'd sooner read a dozen isekai manga beginning to end than pick up this first volume again.

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 5 volumes available.  3 volumes have been published and are currently in print.

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