Note: This post is considered an episode review and it dives into spoilers for the movie.
GOBLIN SLAYER is returning with a second season in Fall 2023. However, there’s a movie that released between seasons titled GOBLIN”S CROWN so I’m here to cover it before Season 2 premieres.
I should first note that this movie is very short. It purports to be an 1 hour and 25 minutes. However, the first 25 minutes is actually a recap of Season 1 so the movie is actually around an hour long (and that’s counting the end credits). There does exist a version of the movie without the recap though most official releases such as Crunchyroll’s is the version with the recap included. If you don’t care for it, feel free to skip to the 25 minute mark.
The movie begins in earnest with a pretty cool fight scene in a snowy mountain region, involving goblins and a new party of rookie adventurers led by a girl referred to as Noble Fencer (Sumire Uesaka). We then skip ahead in time and learn that the rookies have gone missing. Per the request of Sword Maiden (Aya Endo), Goblin Slayer (Yuichiro Umehara) and his team of adventurers travel to the mountains to find the missing party and kill some goblins along the way. Their first order of business is fending off a goblin raid on the village who made the original quest and gathering info.
The night before they head off into the mountains, Priestess (Yui Ogura) and High Elf Archer (Nao Toyama) enjoy the village’s hot spring. This is a nice scene and I’m not saying because of the fanservice. These girls have obviously interacted before but this scene is the first time where they really get to know each other, with High Elf Archer talking about her childhood and why she became an adventurer. My only nitpick is that I wish the movie visually depicted this information and not relied solely on High Elf Archer’s exposition.
On the next day, the team travels to Noble Fencer’s last known location, a cave occupied by some goblins. As the team clears the area, they eventually find an unconscious Noble Fencer in what appears to be some sort of altar. Priestess speculates that the goblins are worshipping a sinister god while Goblin Slayer thinks the horde is being led by a Goblin Paladin, a very dangerous goblin variant. A flashback scene sheds light on what happened to Noble Fencer and it’s the familiar tale of rookie adventurers underestimating goblins and paying the price for it, complete with murder and rape (two of GOBLIN SLAYER‘s favorite things!). Back at the village, Goblin Slayer deduces that the horde is occupied in an abandoned castle up in the mountains. Noble Fencer recovers and despite her emotional instability, she decides to join the team to get her revenge on the goblins.
To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about Noble Fencer. On paper, she ought to be a very interesting addition to the cast. GOBLIN SLAYER already has its share of characters who keep on fighting in spite of their emotional trauma though Noble Fencer is the first character we see where the trauma is so extreme and so recent. Her experience with goblins draws parallels with some other characters’. She’s the rookie adventurer who learns about goblins the hard way and is the sole survivor of her party, much like Priestess was in the first episode of Season 1. Her traumatic encounter with goblins is more akin to Sword Maiden’s. Her newfound vendetta is similar to Goblin Slayer, albeit without the controlled rage our main hero has spent years developing. All things considered, there could be something compelling with Noble Fencer.
Weirdly however, GOBLIN”S CROWN doesn’t really capitalize on these parallels. There isn’t really a moment where Noble Fencer gets to talk to someone about her experiences and the parallels she has with some of the other characters isn’t really acknowledged. Frankly, she kind of lacks the opportunity to do as the third act of the movie gets so action packed. The most the movie has to offer in this department is having Noble Fencer befriend the team, particularly Priestess, and killing off those darn goblins. I don’t know if such prose got cut in the process of adapting the light novels or if it’s just not in the source material at all but regardless, it is a little strange. GOBLIN SLAYER is surprisingly decent at exploring the emotional journeys of its characters so I’m not sure why it skims over Noble Fencer’s. For what it’s worth, I do enjoy Noble Fencer’s friendship with Priestess. The movie provides plenty of good scenes where Priestess gradually gets Noble Fencer to open up, help her feel part of the team, and look out for her during the more chaotic and action heavy scenes. By the end of the movie, I buy these two being friends.
Aside from Noble Fencer’s arc, the remainder of the movie really is just goblin slaying. Goblin Slayer devices sneaking in the castle by having himself and the other guys dress up as cultists while the girls pretend to be their prisoners (why am I not surprised with the latter). The stealth route quickly goes awry however when Noble Fencer impulsively attacks a Goblin priest for lusting over Priestess and being a goblin. When the goblins hold a ceremony, they deduce the priest’s death and become aware of their intruders’ presence. From there, really is action scene after action scene. As mentioned earlier, that makes gives little room for Noble Fencer’s character but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have fun watching it all. The final battle is particularly entertaining with how the team runs down the snowy mountain while occasionally stopping to thin out the horde, culminating in Goblin Slayer fighting the Paladin on his own and Noble Fencer causing a freaking avalanche with a magic spell to wipe out the stragglers. One of GOBLIN SLAYER‘s biggest strengths is its creative set pieces and that is still the case in GOBLIN’S CROWN.
After the battle, the gang sans Goblin Slayer celebrates the holidays at the Adventurer’s Guild. Noble Fencer plans on returning home to see if she can appear in Season 2 though she and the other girls promise to write letters to each other. That sounds like a really fun idea though Priestess being the only girl Noble Fencer has any major attachment to, the prospect of a medieval group chat falls a little flat. I guess it can’t helped with Guild Girl (Maaya Uchida) and Cow Girl (Yuka Iguchi), they only appear in this scene, but the movie definitely could’ve done more with High Elf Archer. Her first major interaction with Noble Fencer is chewing her out for attacking the priest. The two then spend a good chunk of the movie in separate teams so all we get before the ending is High Elf Archer giving Noble Fencer a pat on the back. Hopefully, the story rectifies this issue in subsequent arcs.
As for Goblin Slayer, he decides to watch over the town to ensure nothing bad happens. Priestess joins him after chatting with everyone, which is a nice note to end the movie on. That brings the story back to the duo that started it all. An interesting tidbit is dropped when Goblin Slayer tells Priestess that the goblins they just fought were adapting to his tactics. That does happen a couple times in the movie though it doesn’t have any real bearing on the movie’s plot, hence why I didn’t mention it until now. Still, this might amount to something during Season 2. Considering that this entire anime’s plot is man killing goblins, it’s going to have to spice things as time goes on.
GOBLIN’S CROWN isn’t the best entry in the GOBLIN SLAYER anime. Its primary issue is that it lacks the room to explore the new character. Had it been longer or was instead produced as a couple of TV episodes, I think the arc it has to offer would fare a lot better. That said, I still enjoy the movie for its action scenes and the characters carried over from the show. It’s decent enough that I remain interested in this series and continuing on into Season 2.
Watch GOBLIN SLAYER -GOBLIN’S CROWN- on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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