English Dub Review: Goblin Slayer “The Strong”

He got knocked down, but he got up again.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The party enters the fortress after reluctantly bathing in goblin blood to avoid detection. The presence of traps but no totems points to a lack of shaman goblins, but then that begs the question of what set the traps. They come across a waste heap, in which lies battered elf prisoner who begs them to kill all of the goblins (not that Goblin Slayer needs to be asked). This shakes up the Elf and the Priestess, but a good pep talk gets them to back in sorts. Soon they find the goblins’ base and use spells to disarm and incapacitate them before methodically butchering them in their sleep. It’s tiring work, but it gives the Elf a chance to experience what GS goes through on a daily basis.

Eventually, the boss appears; an easily ten feet tall ogre that casts gigantic fireballs. The Priestess uses up all of her magic just to protect them, though that gives the rest just the push they need to fight the ogre. GS gets knocked down by an attack but gets back up to use the magic scroll a Witch had helped him unlock. Turns out it opens a portal to the bottom of the sea, and the water pressure is so strong it cut the ogre to ribbons before GS makes the killing blow directly in its head.

On the way back to town, as everyone rests, the Elf vows to take him on a real adventure one day.

OUR TAKE

Seems they saved pretty much all the action for this half of the story, seeing as it was mostly about showcasing each of the new party members’ own unique fighting styles. Elf is good with a bow as expected, Dwarf is good with both offensive and defensive spells, and Lizardman has his little dino bone creatures to do stuff. On top of that, they all have lively personalities to bounce of each other so as to make the interactions not so one note. Dwarf is cocky but easy going, while Lizardman is rather stoic but good-natured.

More open to development is the Elf, who is a go-getter but naïve about the world, has only now been able to see it for this adventuring job, so her exposure to the horrors goblins do to their prisoners is a rather shocking eye-opener to her. She’s really the one who goes through the most change in this and the last episode, mostly through being exposed to Goblin Slayer and his work. Having established the dynamic between GS and the Priestess, this was a good time to throw in a few other different adventurers who are on his level of competence but don’t have his experiences doing this sort of job.

The voices are mostly fine for these three. Mallorie Rodak doesn’t have a ton of credited voice roles to her name as of this writing, but she plays the Elf well as someone ambitious and feisty. Likewise, Josh Bangle is equally green, fitting for someone playing a talking lizard, but he plays Lizardman well enough for the little amount of range that character needs. The one role I think could’ve been cast better is Barry Yandell as the Dwarf. Yandell does fine with his usual “happy and/or sneaky old man” voice, but I feel like this role should have gone to someone with deeper vocals like R Bruce Elliot (Ginyu in DBZ Kai & Makarov in Fairy Tail). Not a huge deal, but it’s something I would’ve changed if I were in charge.

With one third behind us and the rest of the principal cast introduced, I look forward to seeing this world further fleshed out over the course of this season. I don’t need any grand battles to raise the stakes, but some variety in the quests would be nice. Guess we’ll see how they handle that as things move forward.