The Fall 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Goblin Slayer II

Spring has arrived, and with it, a brand new year for the adventurers. The Goblin Slayer's party continues with their local exterminations of those little green pests while trying to also watch out for unsuspecting new questers who might not fully know what they're getting into. This includes an upstart young wizard who the Slayer takes it upon himself to try to talk some sense into. When that seems to fail in the face of the boy's ambitions, a different approach is arrived at: Have Priestess, the Goblin Slayer's erstwhile comrade, be the one to take the new kid in and show him the ropes!

Goblin Slayer II is based on a novel of the same name by Kumo Kagyu. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

Content warning: This episode contains depictions of sexual assault. Viewer discretion is advised.

Right off the bat, one major hurdle of criticizing an episode of Goblin Slayer is trying not to get sucked into criticizing the whole of Goblin Slayer. The story's defining issue has always been how it exists at the behest of applying harder, "real-world" logic to fantasy adventure tropes, but in doing so, falls into fallacies of its own. As an example, this premiere features a scene where the Slayer and his party use ropes to mark their different potions so they don't confuse them in a combat situation. It's a neat idea, except if that was an issue that came up in this universe, then it makes no sense that the potion bottles would be unmarked that way by default. It's not an astute detail observation; it's a problem that was only created so the main character could look clever in solving it.

That's just a tiny, singular example. Still, it speaks to the logistical throw-offs that are the toughest roadblock to getting into Goblin Slayer, even more so than the famed graphic, sometimes sexual, violence. There isn't any of that in this second-season premiere, save from brief allusions in a quick opening flashback. Instead, it recommits to the raw atmospheric stupidity of those that occupy its setting. Even though everyone in the tri-county area should have at last gotten a clue about the actual danger of goblins after the ending of the last season, there are still tons of rookie adventurers happily heading off to get slaughtered by goblins in quests that the guild happily hands them.

Among those is the motivating focus of this premiere, in the young wizard that the Goblin Slayer leads around for the lion's share of it. Like everyone else in this setting, the kid is afflicted with a complete lack of object permanence and is ignorant of the actual threat level of goblins. He probably has specific, trauma-based reasons for being so hot to prove himself in killing the little critters. But none of that's elucidated on just in this opening episode. Instead, there's simply some deadlocked back-and-forth: The kid admits that he has no idea how to slay goblins yet gets belligerent over people telling him he has no idea how to slay goblins.

The Slayer's methodology for talking down the wiz kid proves inadequate, but that might be the point. The end of the episode wheels around to the Priestess potentially ranking up her abilities by taking the new kid under her wing, leading an adventure to slay some goblins apart from her mentor. To the writing's credit, this leans into what Goblin Slayer's second season is already making apparent as a theme: Learning and evolving. Priestess's ambitions form the backbone of what this next plot apparently will be, and there's also a brief allusion to the Noble Fencer from the movie starting a training program to better prepare adventurers, in parallel to the capacity for learning that the goblins themselves showed in that same film. The episode also finds time for some snippets of humor, including the Slayer's obsession with goblins being too single-minded at times or the way all the other healers in the guild start beefing with the wizard when they hear him smack-talking the Priestess. That little funny detail made this world feel more cohesive and lived-in than any alleged real-world grittiness.

If anything else, this episode also made me retroactively appreciate Goblin Slayer's season one premiere a bit. It is more impactful, to say nothing of being brisker, to show a group of jobber adventurers discovering why they aren't prepared for goblins, compared to spending an entire episode with one of them in a "Nuh-uh!" "Yes, huh!" argument with the lead. Presumably, the actual impact will hit in future episodes once the kid finally gets to witness those horrors in person. But just because this series is further along doesn't mean it can make itself feel grander simply by taking longer to build up a new story. All that does is force viewers to spend more time getting a headache from pondering the finer points of this stupid setting and the stupid people who occupy it.

Winter has passed and the snow is gone—making it the perfect time for all those fresh young kids dreaming of adventure to set out… and be butchered by goblins.

It's been a year since Priestess' first adventure ended in bloody tragedy and in that time she has grown dramatically. In fact, all those close to her agree that she's due for a promotion. There's just one problem—her party. While Goblin Slayer, High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, and Lizard Priest all know her value well, the fact remains that she is one step above a newbie and they are at the maximum rank most adventurers can ever even hope to attain. It make sense that outsiders would worry that she is being carried by the party of veterans. The only way to prove this wrong is to have her join an expedition of similarly leveled adventurers—to show her worth as a leader in a way that can't be chalked up to anything but her own skill.

This brings us to the other central character of this arc of the story: Wizard Boy. Wizard Boy is a new character—one obsessed with killing goblins. The trick is that, unlike Goblin Slayer, he has an ego. Not only does he look down on adventurers that far outrank him, he believes Goblins are easy to kill and his powerful magic will be all he needs to slaughter them en masse as well. And while Goblin Slayer trained for years before setting off on his quest of genocidal revenge, Wizard Boy is impatient and ready to get to killing immediately—which makes him a dangerous liability no one is willing to party with.

The thing that Wizard Boy can't stand, however, is that Goblin Slayer—the man who has killed more goblins than anyone else—isn't willing to be his champion and ally. This is because Goblin Slayer can see right through him. Wizard Boy is driven by rage and hurt—he's emotional rather than logical. For Goblin Slayer, it is all about planning and efficiency. Being mentally calm at all times to make sure every moment is spent doing the most correct action available.

The idea of pairing Priestess with Wizard Boy is a great one narratively. The two could not be more different—which should lead to character growth for both of them. And while it'd be one thing for her to lead a group of similar rank adventurers, having her lead a group with such a volatile personality in the mix? Well, if that doesn't show her worth to the guild, nothing will.