“Goblin Slayer” is Anime’s Interpretation of Reality
Anyone who’s watched anime for a while will know that Goblin Slayer ranks near the top of the list of bloody and gory anime.
At times it’s even sicker than most mainstream anime. But despite its gore, Goblin Slayer is an accurate depiction of our passage as youths into adulthood. And how despite how hard we try, nothing really goes the way we want it to.
So if you’re queasy or overly sensitive, you might want to click away and go about your merry life. This isn’t for you.
And if you’re still here, I hope I’ll put this amazing anime in a new perspective for you.
Picture this: you’ve just finished buying supplies and you’re leaving town for a four-day hiking trip at the nearby forest. You and your four best friends are singing, laughing, sharing jokes on your way and out of nowhere… a rock flies through the trees and one of your friends (let’s call him Tom), falls to the ground with a small puddle of blood forming under his head.
You stare dumbfounded, unable to understand what had just happened. He must be playing a prank, you think to yourself.
Only for another friend to drop on the ground with a loud thud next. In a few moments you see four- no, five goblins stepping out from behind the bushes with a menacing grin on their faces.
You let out a blood-curdling scream but it’s too late; they drag you past two of your friends lying on the floor, skulls caved in and brains oozing out of their noses. Maybe that was a mercy because you and your other two friends were dragged back to their lair where you spend the next few months tortured.
Now I’m not saying that life is going to cave your skull in and abuse you it might not… but…
It also could. Who am I to say?
I’m simply saying that Goblin Slayer teaches us hard truths about life we need but don’t want to hear.
Truth 1 — It’s the Little Things in Life that Matter the Most
When you’re young, everyone around you has dreams. I’m going to do XYZ or ABC, everyone is full of potential. Rich, famous and all that. Fast forward to today, many of us are struggling, some are depressed, stressed and even suicidal.
In the Goblin Slayer universe, nobody takes the small things seriously. Goblins? BAH! That’s for new adventurers. I want to hunt dragons and demons!
Then they actually face goblins and end up in a ditch as food for the forest animals.
Younger, you might overlook the importance of the smaller things in life. Health, companionship, peace of mind. You wanted all the big, flashy things you could show off on your socials.
Then suddenly, someone you love has cancer. Or maybe it’s you. And all those big and flashy things suddenly aren’t as important anymore. No more dragons and demons. You want your family. Your friends. You want a peaceful night of sleep.
Suddenly it’s the little things that take center stage.
Because life isn’t fair. All you can do is take time to appreciate the smaller things while working towards your bigger dreams. Just because they’re smaller doesn’t make them any less important.
Truth 2 — Failing is the Starting Line of Real Winners
Failure is the mother of success. The Sword Maiden from the series was an explorer who fell prey to and was abused by goblins a long time ago. Somehow she survived and she became the Archbishop of The Supreme God of that universe.
Goblin Slayer watched his sister brutally murdered in her effort to protect him. And he cursed his own powerlessness at that time. He failed to protect his own sister then. Now? There isn’t anyone better to hunt goblins in their universe.
What will you do with your trauma and your pain?
Tyrion Lannister phrases this perfectly:
Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.
Hiding them away and putting them under the rug won’t get you anywhere. The best of us fail but winners are those who acknowledge traumas to grow stronger.
Truth 3 — Go Alone if You Want to Go Fast, Go Together if You Want to go Far
For a large part of the series, Goblin Slayer was a lone ranger.
Doing everything on his own. Trusting nobody with his back. I mean, the man saw dozens of adventurers who entrusted their backs to somebody else only to be cut down by goblins.
With experiences like that, who could blame him?
Then he joins up with a group to take on a quest that requires more than one adventurer. Next, goblin packs too large for him to handle alone attacked his village, and he needed to rally the town or face annihilation.
How much can you do alone?
A lot.
How much more can two people together achieve than one person alone?
Twice as much.
Goblin Slayer is an entertaining retelling of the brutal truths of this world. If you can look beyond the gore and blood of the series, there are plenty of lessons to be found in this strangely brutal anime series.
