Yesterday, Crunchyroll premiered the long awaited Goblin Slayer movie, Goblins Crown. The film had been due for a limited cinematic release in western countries such as the USA and the UK, after successfully debuting in Japan prior to Global Health Crisis and due to the lingering Covid 19 virus, the film has not been able to be released in international cinemas. I had been looking forward to this film since I knew of it’s impending release, it was such a disappointment not being able to watch it at the cinema on the big screen but I so was excited when I learnt that Cruchyroll was planning on releasing it. As soon as I woke up yesterday, I spent most of the day periodically checking to see if it was available yet, yesterday evening it was up and I was finally able to watch it.
An optimistic young priestess joins the adventurer’s guild where she parties up with three hotshot newbies who’ve taken a contract to destroy a goblin nest. But her quest goes awry in an instant when her team is brutally ambushed inside the goblin’s lair. Wounded and in shock, she’s rescued by a high-ranking adventurer known just as Goblin Slayer, a man dedicated to slaughtering every goblin in existence. Eventually the two join a party who have been requested to investigate an uprising of demon creatures including a horde of goblins being led by mysterious leader.
The film starts off by recapping the events of the first season, eventually the story begins roughly 20 mins into it. A young female noble and group of adventurers have answered a towns call for help as they are being constantly raided by goblins, after killing many goblin raiders the group of adventurers had thought they had located the goblins lair and hatched a plan to finish the goblins off. Some time later, after the noble girl’s parents had not heard from her, they send out a new request for a group of adventurers to find out what had happened, and bring their daughter home. Obviously as the request had made mention of goblins, Goblin Slayer and his group answer the call.
This is a good film that continues to lead on from the main series after a recap, showing the darker side of fantasy worlds, our protagonist is as single minded as ever in his pursuit to eradicate the goblins and this is explored brilliantly. The film continues growth the titular character, who is now working seamlessly with his group, although as ever he does not make his party aware of his full plans. However his interaction and the way he handles the rescue of the noble’s daughter and helping her move past her traumatic experience, I felt the film shone a light on the effects of trauma as it is clear to see her struggle with PTSD. The priestess was also shown to have grown since the series becoming a much stronger than when we first met her in the original series.
If I was to have any criticism of the film it would be that the first 20 plus minutes were recapping the events of the first series. Although this is just because I had seen the series, for those that had not seen the series, this would have been a good way for them to get to know the main characters and also hopefully make them want to go watch the series, I know it made me want to re-watch it. The other issue I had was that I felt the storyline was very similar to that of the first episode of Goblin Slayer, only with the threat ramped up, as such it did not feel as special as it could have, it just felt like a long episode, although that may be due to the fact that I didn’t get to see it on the big screen. I also felt that the other party members did not get much screen time at all and as such did not add any further depth to their characters and they were not given any time to shine, which was a shame. It did help to continue to show that goblins are a much bigger threat than many of the adventurers give credit, as goblin slayer reveals to the priestess and his other party members the full extent of the goblin’s plans.
One last minor issue is, I had watched the original series in English dub had gotten used to the English voice actors who did an excellent job on the series. The Japanese actors did a great job and you could feel the emotion in their voices, it was just difficult for me to adjust too, so I will not hold it against the film.
3 Stars
This Anime is not for children, it is rated 15 and the film and series does contains scenes that many may find difficult to watch so viewer discretion is advised. The anime does have some shock and awe moments that maybe were not required, although it does it to show the true depravity of the goblins. I may not agree with those scenes but Goblin Slayer it is a great series and these scenes should not be held against it.
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