Written by Kumo Kagyu Demographic Male | Illustrated by Noboru Kannatsuki | |
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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.
Contents
Goblin slayer volume 1 light novel review
Premise
In a world of fantasy, adventurers come far and wide to join the Guild, in order to complete contracts for whatever jobs are available. An inexperienced priestess joins her first adventuring party but comes into danger after her first adventurer contract involving goblins goes wrong. After the rest of her party is slaughtered she is saved by a man known as Goblin Slayer, a adventurer whose only purposes is the eradication of goblins with extreme prejudice.
Characters
The characters in this story do not carry proper names but are named by their professions.
The series' main character, an experienced silver ranked adventurer who only concerns himself with hunting goblins. The jobs he takes only involve goblins and takes no others. His appearance is not as glamorous or elegant due to using equipment that would seem lacking for an adventurer of his rank. His style of combat relies more on pragmatism such as setting traps, using their own weapon against the user, and taking whatever advantage that may come. He even uses his own imagination to repurpose a protection spell in order to kill all the goblins in a burning elven fortress. His most defining trait is the hatred of goblins that fuels him and his actions. The reason behind this is how his family and village were massacred by goblins and made a vendetta against all goblins everywhere, though he is open to the idea of there being genuinely good goblins somewhere in the world.
The main female protagonist. She is a porcelain rank adventurer, the lowest rank as she had just joined. Her personality consist of being young, kind, and a generally helpful person. She is capable of using healing magic and protective spells with a high amount of proficiency. After her first goblin hunt rapidly goes downhill and saved by Goblin Slayer, she joins with him as a new party. Even after the events of her first job, she still wishes to be an adventurer and helps her party however she can. As she fights along Goblin Slayer, she learns how to use spells alternatively, gaining new spells, and has started to wear armor as the story progresses. Her backstory is that of an orphan raised in a temple into priesthood along with other orphans like her.
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 by other names (mostly Orcbolg and Beardcutter), until they find him. They reveal 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.
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.
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 cares deeply about nature due to his religion.
The childhood friend of Goblin Slayer
A young woman who runs the Guild's front office as a receptionist and hands out contracts to adventurers. She shows concern over the villages pleading for help against the goblins and is exasperated from how few experienced adventurers would take such jobs. This problem would leave inexperienced rookies to die from them or worse. She holds great amounts of respect for Goblin Slayer, due to his willingness to take on many goblin contracts others would not touch.
Light novel
The light novels are written by Kumo Kagyu and illustrated by Noboru Kannatsuki. The series was originally published online. SB Creative published the first volume under their GA Bunko imprint on February 15, 2016. Three volumes have been released in Japan so far.
The fourth volume of the light novel will include an original audio drama CD written by Kagyu.
Yen Press licensed the novels for publication in North America, and has scheduled the first volume for release on December 20, 2016.
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. Yen Press licensed the series at the same time as the light novels, and are simulpublishing the chapters in English as they are released in Japan.
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.