Goblin Slayer

Goblin Slayer
The cover of the first light novel.
ゴブリンスレイヤー (Goburin Sureiyā)
Genre	Dark fantasy[1]
Light novel
Written by	Kumo Kagyu
Illustrated by	Noboru Kannatsuki
Published by	SB Creative
English publisher	‹See Tfd› NA Yen Press
Demographic	Male
Imprint	GA Bunko
Original run	February 15, 2016 – present
Volumes	3
Manga
Written by	Kōsuke Kurose
Published by	Square Enix
English publisher	‹See Tfd› NA Yen Press
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Monthly Big Gangan
Original run	May 25, 2016 – present
Volumes	1

Goblin Slayer (Japanese: ゴブリンスレイヤー, Hepburn: Goburin Sureiyā) is a Japanese dark fantasy light novel series written by Kumo Kagyu and illustrated by Noboru Kannatuki. A manga adaptation by Kōsuke Kurose is serialized in the Monthly Big Gangan magazine. Both have been licensed by North American publisher Yen Press. An audio drama CD will be bundled with the fourth light novel.

Setting

In an alternate world, humans are at war with Dark Gods. Demons and Monsters are summoned up by the Gods and adventurers fight them. Of all the monsters, Goblins are the most common and the weakest, with the strength and intelligence of a human child. However they prove rather fearsome, when they attack in numbers. Most beginner adventurers assume that Goblins are weak, and their carelessness gets them killed but the Goblins themselves are later killed by other adventurers who come later.

Characters

Much like in Maoyu the characters are not named properly, but after their profession.

Goblin Slayer (ゴブリンスレイヤー, Goburin Sureiyā)

Voiced by: Yūichirō Umehara^[2]

The Main character. As a child he watched his family get butchered and desecrated by Goblins that attacked his village. He has dedicated his life to wiping out all Goblins. He is always wearing his full suit of armor, so his face is never seen. All his equipment is kept specifically for the purpose of killing goblins, from his dirty, leather armor to his short sword. He is stated to be more or less insane, due to his obsession with killing goblins. He never takes any other job, only focusing on jobs that require goblins to be killed. He is ruthless, even willing to kill young and baby goblins, stating that they could become like him, and grow up to become stronger. His is also very knowledgeable about goblins, which comes in handy more than once. He saves Priestess in the beginning when her party is ambushed by Goblins. Only she and one other party member survived, with the other one, quitting as an adventurer after being raped by goblins. He has since accepted Priestess as a party member using her skills to assist him, wherever she can. He is a Silver rank adventurer, rather high up in the ranks. He is often mistaken for a rookie due to his filthy appearance. Despite his silent nature, he is actually rather calm and composed, although only focused on killing goblins. He has no knowledge of worldly events or other adventurers focusing single-mindedly on killing goblins. If offered a job other than goblin killing, he automatically refuses, be it for a village or even the world.

Priestess (女神官, Onna Shinkan)

Voiced by: Yui Ogura^[2]

The main female protagonist. She is a porcelain rank adventurer, the lowest rank as she had just joined. She lacks offense abilities, mostly acting as support with her healing. She has some other abilities that can function as defense or even offense in the right situation. Once, she uses a shield spell, "Protection" and traps goblins inside a burning fort, where they suffocate and die in the smoke. She initially joined a party of four and went to kill goblins, however, the goblins ambushed them, killing two, captured the third and raping her. As she was running, Goblin Slayer saved her, and used her abilities to wipe-out all the goblins in the nest. Since then she has remained with him as his party member. She maintains a different outlook than him. She is always remorseful when it comes to killing, even goblins. She does not like his habit of killing even the young, but has no argument to counter his. She has grown used to all his methods, unorthodox or otherwise.

High Elf Archer (妖精弓手, Yōsei Yunde)

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama^[2]

A high elf adventurer. She came with Dwarf Shaman and Lizard Priest to find Goblin Slayer and recruit his help. They face some trouble earlier as they are unable to pronounce "Goblin Slayer" and refer to him in other names, until they find him. They revel their objective; due to the increase in other demon monsters, there are not enough people to deal with Goblins and the elf army cannot mobilize to attack goblins as it would create suspicion and panic, if the army were focusing only on taking out the weakest monsters. They wish to hire Goblin Slayer to help them kill goblins. Her party also joins him to help him. She initially looks down on Goblin Slayer, due to his unkempt and weak appearance, but later comes to respect him, when she sees him in battle. She is a light-weight when it comes to drinking. She is Silver Rank.

Dwarf Shaman (鉱人道士, Kō Hito Dōshi)

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura^[2]

A dwarf adventurer and Party member with High Elf and Lizard Priest. He is a cheerful and happy mostly and is almost always arguing with High Elf. As a Dwarf he is good with Metal, Stone and Alcohol. At first glance, he is able to tell that Goblin Slayer is experienced and strong. He sometimes proves more knowledgeable than High Elf, a sore point for her as she is over 2000 years old while he is only 170. He is Silver Rank.

Lizard Priest (蜥蜴僧侶, Tokage Sōryo)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita^[2]

A Lizardman adventurer and Party Member with High Elf and Dwarf Shaman. Like Priestess, he can also heal, but he also uses a sword to fight. He often acts as a mediator between Dwarf and High Elf, stopping their arguments. He is a very calm and composed person. He care deeply about the nature due to his religion.

Cow Girl (牛飼娘, Ushikai Musume)

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi^[2]

Guild Girl (受付嬢, Uketsuke Jō)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida^[2]

Sorceress (魔女, Majo)

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa^[2]

Lancer (槍使い, Yari Tsukai)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka^[2]

Media

Light novel

The light novels are written by Kumo Kagyu and illustrated by Noboru Kannatsuki. The series was originally published online.^[1] SB Creative published the first volume under their GA Bunko imprint on February 15, 2016.^[1][3] Three volumes have been released so far.

The fourth volume of the light novel will include an original audio drama CD written by Kagyu.^[4]

Yen Press licensed the novels for publication in North America, and has scheduled the first volume for December 2016.^[5][1]

Volumes

Manga

A manga adaptation by Kōsuke Kurose began serialization in the June 2016 issue of Square Enix's seinen manga magazine Monthly Big Gangan on May 25, 2016.^[1] Yen Press licensed the series at the same time as the light novels,^[5][1] and are simulpublishing the chapters in English as they are released in Japan.^[11][12]

Volumes

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

The following manga chapters were serialized in Big Gangan and published digitally by Yen Press, but have not yet been collected into a volume:

Reception

The first volume of the manga reached 39th place on the weekly Oricon manga rankings, selling 20,360 copies.^[14]

External links

• Official light novel website at GA Bunko (Japanese)
• Official manga website at Monthly Big Gangan (Japanese)

References