In Goblin Slayer episode 6, “Goblin Slayer in the Water Town,” Goblin Slayer answers the Sword Maiden’s request to slay goblins. Onna Shinkan, the priestess, goes with him, and so does the Elf, Dwarf, and Lizardman. The Sword Maiden tells them that women and children are being murdered throughout the city. The culprit? Goblins, as one adventurer learned when he interrupted an assault. With the military preoccupied, and with the failure of the local adventurers to even return from the sewers when they went to deal with the threat, Sword Maiden turns to Goblin Slayer. Will he and his crew fare any better beneath the city? And are goblins the only threat?
Warning: This series presents decidedly mature themes, and it contains a dramatic representative of violence against women (including rape). If any of these these trouble you, please do not watch this series or read this review.
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Quick Summary
What’s in This Post
3 Favorite Moments
With the two of them double-teaming him, Goblin Slayer didn’t have a rhetorical chance! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Moment 1
Remember back in episode 3, when Onna tried to explain to Goblin Slayer that delivering an order wasn’t the same as having a discussion (my favorite Moment #3)? Well, this week, Goblin Slayer announced that he was heading to Water Town, and anyone who came with him would earn one bag of gold each. Onna tried to explain to him that this should have been a discussion, and he said it was — they had options! But her frustration turned to delight when Yousei Yunde agreed with the priestess (3:57). If he was going to go with or without them, then there was no real choice and this wasn’t a discussion at all! I almost felt sorry for Goblin Slayer — those two are a formidable team! The Dwarf, Kouhito Doushi, gets bonus points for observing that Goblin Slayer actually told them about the quest instead of just running off on his own. That’s a huge improvement!
Onna was so embarrassed that she couldn’t apologize for Goblin Slayer’s bluntness fast enough! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Moment 2
You’re summoned to appear before the Archbishop. She happens to be the Sword Maiden who helped defeat the last incarnation of the Demon Lord. She’s hailed not only as a powerful warrior, but the most beloved of God. How would you act? I’ll be you can guess how does Goblin Slayer greets her! “I came to slay some goblins,” is the first thing he says (7:30). Poor Onna! She looked like she might faint! She just couldn’t apologize fast enough as she tried to deliver some of the expected social greetings. Fortunately, the Sword Maiden seemed to be a gracious soul who understood that Goblin Slayer was just being Goblin Slayer. For Onna’s sake, I was happy to see the Lizardman, Tokage Souryo, speak politely along with the others in their party. Immediately after that, though, Goblin Slayer was getting impatient with all of the words that didn’t include “kill” and “goblins,” so he impatiently asked, “So, where are the goblins?” (7:56). Onna could only slump in exasperation, the bells on her staff ringing quietly.
Yousei was loathe to admit she learned the technique from Goblin Slayer, but she gathered her arrows after each encounter. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Moment 3
Yousei has shown herself to be a highly skilled archer, but she’s somewhat lacking in the experience department. She toughed out the adventure in episode 4, and I don’t think we’ve seen her in action since then. I was really happy to see her seem to take some of the lessons she’d learned to heart! As they were wrapping up an encounter and discussing what came next, Yousei retrieved one of her arrows from a goblin’s head. Kouhito and Onna gave her a quizzical look, prompted her to answer in her best tsundere voice, “Just so you know, I’m not copying him. This is going to be a long battle, right?” (13:13). I would not have been surprised if she had added, “Baka!” to the sentence! But at least she’s starting to think like a campaigner now. That’ll serve her well in the future!
Thoughts
We got to see Yousei’s ears wiggle this week (13:55)! I don’t know why, but that made me very happy! Kinda reminded me when Tuka, the Fairy Elf from Gate, visited the Japanese Diet in episode 8!
Wiggling Elf ears are cool… Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Are you enjoying the banter within the party as much as I am? I’ve already mentioned that Onna and Yousei are getting along well, but I also like how Tokage and Kouhito are interacting with the rest of the party. I’d honestly love to sit down and have a beer with them just to talk shop. And no, it’s not just because I like the 2,000 year old Elf archer! Though she is absolutely adorable…
I have high expectations for the show’s combat realism. While I love the relationship that’s building between Onna and Yousei, one thing I don’t like about it — at all! — is how they’re taking issue with this tactics.
With his successful tactics.
You know, the tactics that have up until now been keeping them alive?
I’m having a hard time explaining it away when Yousei tells him, “Remember, no using water, fire, or poison!” (10:50). I get wanting to conduct humane warfare, I guess. Defining rules of engagement is important, and I don’t want to paint myself as someone who would torture goblins even if they were my enemies. But after everything they’ve seen in these six short episodes, why would Yousei and Onna want to limit their options?
Yousei seriously just told Goblin Slayer to limit the ways he’ll kill goblins. I’m all for humane war, but “no using water, fire, or poison?” Reminds of me of Frost in Aliens when he said, “What are we supposed to use, man? Harsh language?” Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Am I missing something here?
We got some good combat scenes this week. Goblin Slayer apparently has some great martial arts moves. Kouhito conjured a giant rock to sink one of the goblin’s ships (and it was kinda cool to see goblins using ships in the mammoth sewers!). Yousei was here usual badass archery self, Tokage was great at conjuring weapons, and Onna was the pillar of defense we’ve come to expect. They were still combat effective! But only under the circumstances they encountered.
Maybe the show’s setting up a big, dramatic decision on the parts of Onna and Yousei? Maybe make them choose between fighting with “water, fire, or poison” or being captured? Or is this a technique to show just how deep Goblin Slayer’s repertoire really is? Maybe show that he can kill goblins even when his tactical hands are tied?
What do you think? Did the show slip up, or is there something I’ve missed? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!
Other Posts of Interest
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit Discussion of Goblin Slayer Episode 6
- KVASIR 369’S ANIME, MANGA, AND GAME BLOG: Goblin Slayer Episode 6 Review
- Anime Q and A: MASTER OF SIDE QUESTS – ‘GOBLIN SLAYER’ EPISODE 6 REVIEW
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Goblin Slayer Episode 1: The Fate of Particular Adventurers
- Goblin Slayer Episode 2: Goblin Slayer
- Goblin Slayer Episode 3: Unexpected Visitors
- Goblin Slayer Episode 4: The Strong
- Goblin Slayer Episode 5: Adventures and Daily Life
- Goblin Slayer Episode 7: Onward Unto Death
- Goblin Slayer Episode 8: Whispers and Prayers and Chants
- Goblin Slayer Episode 9: There and Back Again
- Goblin Slayer Episode 10: Dozing
- Goblin Slayer Episode 11: A Gathering of Adventurers
According to some reddit posts I’ve seen about the source material the reason for Elf’s restrictions on Goblin Slayer’s combat abilities is twofold. 1. Because she considers the “extreme” ways he exterminates to be only viable when GS on his own, when adventuring with a party of companions its too dangerous to employ poison, fire or water as they might get caught up in what could be considered “uncontrollable” tactics. (Fire spreads/is too unpredictable, water can sweep you away/drown in, poison well is poison). 2. It’s a way of the author making combat scenarios more varied, and having GS think of different tactics that aren’t just “kill it with fire”–they’re trying to make him more of a ~traditional adventurer~ and less of a pest exterminator.
Personally I think they could have come up with better in-universe justifications but then again I don’t put much faith in this author, I don’t think he’s a particularly good writer.
I guess both of those makes sense — even with careful planning, flames could go out of control and poison could escape the immediate area of combat.
“Personally I think they could have come up with better in-universe justifications but then again I don’t put much faith in this author, I don’t think he’s a particularly good writer.”
I would have preferred Yousei just come out and say, “Dude, you can’t endanger the population!” But I get what you’re saying.
It might be my D&D background talking, but I’m finding most of the material to be interesting. This is the first thing that really struck me wrong (well, at least in a way I couldn’t explain away).
There’s one thing that I did a double-take on. No torturing goblins? (I think they specifically mentioned water-boarding, which is a really oddly out-of-place term, but that’s an aside here.) When has GS ever tortured goblins? He’d kill them swiftly and efficently to move on to the next goblin. What’s the point of torture? What does he expect to learn? If anything, I could imagine him conducting “durability experiments” or something like that, to get data on what kills a goblin most effictively. But really, what was that about?
No fire and poison makes sense if they’re killing goblins in the middle of a big city. Too risky in terms of collateral damage (that was Priestess’ initial complaint, too [ep2?] – while GS considered this an acceptable trade-off). No water? In Water Town? Not sure about that.
“When has GS ever tortured goblins?”
I don’t remember him ever wasting time on something like that! Not even the “durability experiments” you theorized…
It almost felt like there were some chapters unadapted or something.
“No fire and poison makes sense if they’re killing goblins in the middle of a big city. ”
Okay, that makes some sense to me. I hadn’t considered that, and it does make some sense in the context you mentioned. In that case, I wish they’d been more clear, with Yousei saying something like, “You can’t expose non-combatants to that kind of danger!” or something.
Good points!