Goblin Slayer – 09[There and Back Again]

We reach the end of the water town arc and Goblin Slayer killed some goblins. I am not sure what else I expected. I must say that animation wise for a series heavily focused on action, the action itself is rather static. Sadly some of the more impactful panels of the manga were cut from the adaption and I find that whenever Goblin Slayer kicks into gear, the action itself is rather flaccid. Take note that this is mainly whenever the Goblin Slayer himself starts fighting as when other characters fight the action is fine. The conclusion to the final fight is rather simple with Goblin Slayer causing a cave in and using the gateway mirror as a shield to protect them. I felt that he could have at least killed the champion orc just for finality sake as this does feel like a bit of an anticlimax to the whole arc with what could be considered the main villain getting killed offscreen.

So that last conversation between Goblin Slayer and Sword maiden was a confusing one and likely an explanation is needed as even I had trouble following it. The basic rundown is this, the demon lord sect, the one that was previously shown being defeated by the hero in a previous episode, set up a mirror under water town which would transport goblins under the town. The only killed some women in the town to gain the attention of the Sword Maiden. Now if it was known that the women in the town were killed by the demon Lord sect then that would mean that Sword maiden would be forced to go into the sewers to confront the goblins and due to Sword Maidens PSTD she was absolutely terrified of goblins. So Sword maiden blamed the killings in town on Goblins, hoping this would push the army into mobilizing against them. Unfortunately the army deemed that goblins were not worth dealing with which left Sword maiden in a bad position. She set her familiar(The alligator) down in the sewers to prevent adventures from stumbling into the place and stop Goblins from advancing further. Then she heard of Goblin Slayer and set about hiring him to take care of the goblins for her.

This whole conversation was certainly misleading as on hearing it myself I was mistaking it for Sword Maiden placing the mirror down in the sewers in order to show people the threat of Goblins? When in reality it was just Sword Maiden admitting to lying about the demon sect just so she would avoid facing goblins. This would be a first where I say that White Fox messed up in regards to conveying the situation. But I will say that Sword maidens fear and desperation were portrayed a lot better her than in the bedroom where she finds solace in the Goblin Slayer promising to always be there to hunt goblins, even in her nightmares. Well we are reaching the final arc of the series and to give an early verdict on it, it’s fine. I appreciate White Fox’s efforts to tone down the rape aspect but frankly the story itself is just a bit too simple for my liking. There is only so long I can watch a man kill goblins.