Goblin Slayer – When a D&D Campaign Comes to Life
Author: Neil (Team Animehood UK)
This is my review of Goblin Slayer, an anime released in 2018. The anime is an action-adventure fantasy series with two seasons and a movie.
The anime starts off as a typical adventure, similar to a campaign in Dungeons & Dragons, where adventurers join a party and take on quests. The anime itself feels like a D&D campaign brought to life. Instead of sitting around a table with maps, miniature figures, rolling dice, and role-playing, you get to see the adventure unfold directly on screen.
The anime makes you feel like part of the adventure as it continues. Throughout the story, you meet new characters—similar to meeting new NPCs or PCs in D&D—while traveling to new locations and exploring uncharted areas. These range from dense forests to the depths of caves and ancient ruins left untouched by time. The story builds up at a steady pace, showing the main character doing what he knows best.
The manga of the anime goes into more detail about how the main character became the person you see throughout the series. It shows his hardships and experiences in much greater depth, explaining how he developed his skills and mindset.
The background music and opening themes of the anime really help bring the scenes to life. Whether the characters are entering a new city or exploring dungeons, the music enhances the atmosphere. When the action begins, the soundtrack creates feelings of dread, calm, or excitement depending on the moment.
The attention to detail in the atmosphere of the locations is also very well done. The places the characters visit feel believable, almost as if you were there yourself. The sound design—such as echoes in caves, noises in buildings, or the ambience in dungeons—adds a lot to the immersion.
The environments are well designed, with a lot of effort put into making them feel realistic. Many of these locations appear abandoned or rarely visited, except by adventurers willing to risk their lives exploring dangerous dungeons filled with unknown threats lurking in the depths.
My Personal Conclusion
This anime has brought a lot of inspiration to me when playing Dungeons & Dragons. It even influenced how I choose my main class in the campaigns I play in. I really enjoyed the character development and rich storytelling.
The anime can be dark at times, but it tells the story of a world filled with struggles and hardships that its characters must deal with on a daily basis. It shows how those experiences affect them and how they cope with the challenges they face.
Overall, this is an anime I would highly recommend, and I would personally give it a 10/10 rating.