Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One

Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One, by Kumo Kagyu. Originally published in the U.S. by Yen Press, October 2018. Approx. pages.

HachiSnax Note: I first started reading the Goblin Slayer light novel series back in 2018, right before the anime was announced. It has been a lingering regret that I have not reviewed the novels themselves in a timely order. RightStuf took forever to get my copy of Vol. 8 to me, around when Vol. 9 was about to drop, so in the interim, I dug up my copy of this, the first volume of the prequel story.

Ideally, I had wanted to do concurrent reviews of the original light novels as I read them, as well as the anime and the manga (although I'm only up to Vol. 4 of the manga, as I'm borrowing them from the library). Each of the various Goblin Slayer incarnations have their own strong points; the light novels have a real nostalgic, homage feel for the pen and paper RPG's of yore. The original mangas, with art by Kousuke Kurose, were amazingly illustrated, and gave a real hard, dark edge to the series. And the anime, directed by Takaharu Ozaki (of Girl's Last Tour), provided the joy of seeing the characters brought to life and given perfect-fit vocal talent. It also re-ordered some of the events of the first two light novels; giving it a better feel. Of course, each medium had its own weakness - the light novels can get very repetitive (like goblin slaying! I guess that's the point), and the writing (or translation) isn't always that great. The anime gets hobbled by some bad CGI scenes (not Berserk
bad, but still bad), and the manga, in its focus on the 'hardness', loses some of the...umm, 'softness', I guess? Not going to lie, the manga was pretty damn strong.

Ok, on to the review... Til next time! ~Hach

What could one expect out of a prequel story centering on everyone's favorite, methodically myopic, goblin-killing adventurer? Goblin Slayer's modus operandi is a formula that has worked for nine novels already. Kumo Kagyu has made some inroads in developing the evolving story around his single-minded warrior - that the uptick in goblin population ties in to re-evolving demonic forces in the world, that actions are being taken to port over the little critters as shock troops of sorts to disrupt local populaces, etc. It's slow going at times, but it's always fun to see the new and inventive ways the pragmatic G.S. comes up with to dispatch these hated vermin. Also, while there is not a lot of evolution regarding the backup cast - the party of adventurers re-uses the same jokes over and over, Cow Girl and Guild Girl are just perennial members of his ever-growing harem, etc. - it stays fun, if not fresh, because we've come to care about the characters.

So, again, what to expect from a backstory? I mean, of course it is fun to see developed, bad-ass characters way back when they were getting started, but what else? Would we see more of the traumatic event (the devastation of the village Goblin Slayer grew up in; the rape and murder of his sister before his eyes) that formed him into the reticent killing machine he is now? Would we see more of the training with the abusive old rhea (the series' version of a halfling) who took him in and trained him?

Actually, while those events are referenced briefly, Goblin Slayer Year One plays out like most of the other novels....same formula, just hit the Rewind button. It's Kumo Kagyu playing it safe, but it's still good stuff.

Year One traces from G.S.'s first registering at the Guild, and follows him on his first few quests. That is, that is the core focus of his aspect of the book. The rest of the book serves as a year one for
our beloved secondary cast as well. It's fun to see those initial awkward reactions to this young, oddball adventures; and, of course, the best parts are watching him learn via trial and error during the quests themselves. Here he learns about the importance of sword lengths, weapons durability, importance of mobility over straight protection in armor, etc. We see his iconic helmet in its original form; with two awkward horns that made it more trouble than it was worth (although it had a cool, Dragon Quest aesthetic).

Another change in this new series is a new artist for cover/interior illustrations. Where the original series was handled masterfully by Noboru Kannatuki, the Year One light novel series enlists the deft hand of Shingo Adachi. Adachi does a fine job, employs a masterful color palette, and offers us poignant younger portrayals of the characters.

 It's really hard to find things to knock in a series that utilizes a formula solidified via a successful track record. If anything, I could say I wanted something more, something daring.

Also, while we expect to see the snippets of the other background characters in their younger forms, a large chunk of this novel is dedicated to what I'll call the 'Rock Eater' segment. While done well; featuring the emotional powerhouse moment of the novel, let's be honest; it was superfluous to the origin of Goblin Slayer himself. Still, it was a strong vignette in its own right.

And there you have it. The writing is engaging as always, if not powerful. Kamo Kagyu has a distinctive style; and if you've liked one of his novels, you can enjoy them all.

You can argue that the Year One series isn't completely necessary, but it's fun nonetheless. Let's see how Volume 2 pans out.


Cover:

Not bad at all; but no offense to the cute-as-a-button Cow Girl, young Goblin Slayer should be at the fore of this volume.

Now, as much as I like this cover, when I pre-ordered it, they were showing this as the potential cover. And, wow, holy cow why didn't they use this cover???

And this was being shown as the cover for Volume 2:

Yeah, that's young Sword Maiden and the party she rolled with when they defeated the Demon Lord (part of this tale appears in the novel as well). Now that's a great cover.