Goblin Slayer

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Cover of the first chapter.

"I slay Goblins."

– Goblin Slayer

Goblin Slayer is a manga based on a light novel of the same name. The series is, like Dungeon Meshi, relatively new but it has quickly gained popularity among neckbeards for its creative use of a very generic fantasy setting. The story is mostly a gorefest that aims to show you the most efficient ways of killing as many goblins as possible, whether it be through stabbing, maiming, poison, fire, or creative use of utility spells.

The series has gained notoriety for its explicit rape scenes, causing some anons to label it as spanking material for a certain kind of people. Although, most fans will also be quick to point out that these scenes feature women that look more like victims of spousal abuse rather than sexy vixens getting their comeuppance. Others have pointed out in response that the rape scenes do showcase the rape victims in ways which are very close to a rape doujin with some mentioning that the light novel doesn't go into detail on the rape, unlike the manga devoting many pages showing the rape victims and their exposed genitals.

To say it's controversial and debated on /tg/ is an understatement and ironically, it's not even for the rape. The setting has some confusing worldbuilding with many calling it contradictory or outright nonsensical. Describing the complaints /tg/ has with the state of the world, the behaviour of the characters and the many criticisms for the in-universe justifications (many which /tg/ found unsatisfactory) for everything can take up a page on its own and has taken up FUCKLOADS of threads.

Also, it has an abridged series that is arguably better than canon with some very impressive voice acting.

And the anime’s voice for the Goblin Slayer in the English Dub? Doom Slayer.

Main Series

The main series opens with a group of fresh-faced murderhobos going on their first quest, which like any other first quest, is about killing goblins that have been pestering the locals. This simple quest promptly ends with a near TPK after the rookies underestimate the dangers of a goblin lair (for starters, no Cure Poison spells and using a non-stabbing sword in close quarters). Just before one of the final survivors, Priestess, is taken out she's saved by the protagonist Goblin Slayer. The other one ends up PTSD'd hard due to rape so she is sent to a temple along with the rescued girls.

From there the manga chronicles Priestess's evolution as an adventurer and Goblin Slayer's realization that there may be more to life than murderfucking goblins.

Characters

The Slayer making chunky salsa from a Goblin head.

At some point the author decided that naming characters was too hard and as such no character has a name, but is instead referred to by their title, class, race, or some combination thereof. It's probably because the protagonist doesn't really care for their names and only remembers them by their titles. Although, this remains a speculation.

• Goblin Slayer is what you would get if you combined Batman, Doomguy, and Bear Grylls into a ball of vengeful fury. It is quickly revealed that he is the only survivor of a goblin raid on his village when he was a kid, seeing the carnage was enough to change him into a killing machine hellbent on purging dirty midget greenskins to the point of crushing Goblin babies with a club. Well, mostly it’s because his older sister hid him under the wood floor so he saw what thr goblins did to her while keeping himself silent while her blood and other fluids leeked onto him. On top of that, it is implied he was autistic, which makes his experience even more traumatic. The best moments of the series (according to those who aren't just here for the rape) comes from seeing the many ingenious tools he's made to dispose of goblins, such as using a gate scroll as a high-pressure water jet cutter or dousing a big goblin with gas and rolling it like a fat molotov cocktail. Though some of /tg/ is confused by how he's even aware of half the physics behind such a feat given his fantasy setting.. The answer is simple: medieval folk actually did know a good deal more than modern people think and since he can read and write he is clearly educated. He is also somehow able to project himself into dreams: when a girl who had survived a goblin raid told him of her nightmares of that time he simply told her to call upon him in said nightmares and he'd come. And it FUCKING worked.
• Priestess is a newbie adventurer that is saved by Goblin Slayer after her first quest goes south. Her design and abilities are not unlike that of a cleric, as most of her miracles are support based. Magic is governed by a number of daily uses like Dark Souls or 3rd Edition. She has a heart of gold, but is generally naïve when it comes to the horrors of the world.
• Childhood Friend or Cow Girl is the childhood friend of Goblin Slayer and also technically survived the goblin raid on the village by virtue of being out of town. She now lives on a farm with her uncle and rents a room for Goblin Slayer. This being a manga means that she is a love interest.
• High Elf Archer is an Elven ranger that joins the party a few chapters in. Even though she is a High Elf her description is closer to a standard Wood Elf. Even though she's 2000 years old, she is easily the most childish of the party.
• Dwarf Shaman is a Dwarven druid that throws rocks at people and lugs around tons of booze. He is a 170 years old and has a fatherly attitude which he mostly hides by teasing the High Elf Archer.
• Lizard Priest is a Lizardman that wears a native headdress and summons skeletal minions. He speaks very politely and tends to break up the verbal abuse between the Dwarf and the High Elf. A cool bro overall who worships dinosaurs, just like his kin in another setting.
• Guild Girl is a pen-pusher that takes requests from peasants, writes up quests notices, and hands out rewards when the tasks have been completed. She is another love interest.
• The Goblins are almost a character unto themselves as they're present in nearly every chapter released so far. What makes them interesting is that the author has spun what is most often considered a weak low-level threat into crazy Viet Congs on crack, rather apt as the goblins are known for covering their weapons in a mix of shit and piss (essentially making them the goblin equivalent of Tucker's Kobolds). Generally, the goblins pose a great exercise for any longtime DM that wishes to go against tropes or surprise veteran players. Some of their notable tactics include: Totems to distract from their hidden ambush tunnels (again, like Viet Cong), using seemingly live corpses as traps, hiding in old wells, using wolves as guard dogs and mounts, and using kidnapped women as literal meat shields by tying them to boards and hiding behind them. Of course, it's highly advised not to go too far with making them a deadly threat if you wish to keep them feasibly a weak and low-level threat. Many readers are confused why these goblins still remain underestimated despite what we've seen and many finding the justifications given to be very weak. Oh, and for added weirdness, it's implied that the story Goblin Slayer's sister told him of goblins coming from the green moon that orbits their world might actually be true; at one point, Goblin Slayer and his team find a mirror-portal that, when looked through, reveals goblins working machines made from human bones in a field of endless green sand underneath a black sky...

Year One

Even Goblins need some lovin'.

"How will I kill them next time?"

– Goblin Slayer

Year One is the prequel side-story to Goblin Slayer and is mostly about filling in the gaps of what has so far only been implied or glossed over in the main series. The title and premise is a reference to the Batman series of the same name.

Year One is divisive due to it filling out gaps which some anons believe only added to the mystery of the main character, while others are just happy to have more Goblin Slayer. However, it is undeniable that Year One caters to the /d/eviants that like monster-on-woman action as it doesn't take more than nine pages for three women to be gang-raped in an explicit three-in-a-row fashion.

References

The series is full of visual references to other Japanese works both video games and manga, including Berserk, Dragon's Crown, Fate/Stay Night, Final Fantasy, and many more.

Criticism about setting

As stated above, this manga is undoubtedly a very, very controversial topic thanks to the inconsistent setting. It’s a setting with two opposing gods, which is presented as a game much like D&D, and this makes many inconsistencies within the manga/LN. Many threads have been taken up by arguments around this.

One common criticism is the unrecognized threat of the goblins. Year One shows that goblin invasions have destroyed entire villages for years and that despite that, they’re still thought as the lowest of threats. There is an abundance of evidence against them being such low threats with the guild reporting to have to send multiple teams of new adventurers with many teams wiping. It’s also been stated that there exists stories (in universe stories) with the manga about adventurers having their teams almost entirely killed and survivors being traumatized exist and are common stories too. One explanation given is that only low level adventurers take jobs fighting goblins due to low pay but this doesn’t explain the belief that goblins are weak. It’s possible to think of a job as both high-risk and low pay, that the goblins are deadly and unrewarding to fight, at the same time with no contradiction. It also doesn’t explain how the abundance of rape stories and wiped teams doesn’t encourage the adventurer’s guild to either stop sending untrained noobs to fight goblins, start training the noobs (which, to be fair, is shown in one scene but it's a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment), or to increase awareness of this threat because dead adventurers can’t do anything profitable. Goblin Slayer is just about the only one to recognize this threat but doesn’t actively spread the knowledge among the other adventurers. The only possible excuse is that the human cities are far too many and expansive to count villages wiped by Goblins a loss.

A really big complaint is how was the world in a situation for this reputation and others to come up to begin with. The goblins are shown to employ poisoned weapons & infected wounds exist yet everyone behaves like in a JRPG world anyway & some wear bikini armor. So many characters, new or experienced, never wear a helmet (besides Goblin slayer) despite the dangers of that and goblins being shown to cheap shot the head. Do the dragons everyone fights at high levels never aim for the head or are high level guys just immune to head damage? How did they survive so long to become high level? There's even a barbarian with a high level axe in one scene who goes down with one stab for not having any armor but how did that barbarian manage to be successful & get that high level axe to begin with? Did he never suffer any infections or any injuries to tell him to cover up until that point? They say that this series is set in a DnD 5th ED session with a 5th ED character sheet shown at one point so one can guess he gets bonuses for being unarmored (thus why he has no armor as armor would weaken him) but how did a high level 5th Ed Barbarian go down in one hit like that considering his bare skin should be hard as steel? The above criticism too is another problem. How did the goblins = weak reputation sprout up if TPKs from goblins are such a common thing among low levels? This series tries setting up [1] for people underestimating enemies & fighting without head protection but the deconstruction itself makes no sense. It's like if someone tried saying don't bring a knife to a gunfight with one caveman with a gun shooting a caveman with a club but doesn't answer where the hell did a caveman get a gun to begin with. They have the payout but the setup makes no sense.

Adding to this, the protagonist has been criticized on some grounds for his tactics, calling them an illusion of pragmatism instead of actual pragmatism. One thing he does is deliberately use low quality weapons and armor because he doesn't want enemies looting his corpse to obtain good weapons in the event of death. This attracted much criticism. For one, having worse equips makes him more likely to die and be looted as a bad sword breaking at the worst moment or armor that fails to protect could easily lead to death and thus looting. Some say he's preparing so hard for events occurring after his death that he might wound up becoming dead because of his own preparation. Next, what good will some of his loot help goblins? Some fa/tg/uys noticed that goblins usually come either much smaller or much larger than him. They noted that he could simply equip himself with armor which won't fit his enemies (easily done by picking armor that fits himself) and force his enemies to destroy his armor by breaking it up, thus reducing its effectiveness, in order to use it, assuming they don't choose to leave his armor with his corpse for being a bad fit. As an extension of that, some question the effectiveness of his equipment being taken, noting that a medium quality sword in the hands of a goblin isn't anywhere close to as threatening as the protagonist armed with the same weapon considering the protagonist can kill plenty of goblins with low quality weapons. The goblins in this manga have not been shown to maintain their weapons and their best equipment is stolen or looted, so it's possible that any weapons or armor they take will eventually rust and thus a good weapon will do our protagonist much better, assuming proper maintenance, than a goblin with the same weapon in the long run too. A long run the first point suggests will last longer if the protagonist considered decreasing the chances of his own death, rather than increase those chances with purposely poor quality equipment.

The above doesn't even begin on the multi-thread long debates on the setting and feasibility of organisations like the adventure guild. This all can take many pages to explain, but the Fantasy Doomguy on steroids makes it at least readable.