Episode six begins with a party of three adventurers defeating a Skeletor look alike and his minions. It’s cool hearing about the exploits of other adventurers in the world, fleshing everything out a bit. The Hero herself is a redheaded hothead who defeats everyone with her Holy Sword. I’m quite certain we’ll inevitably meet her on Goblin Slayer’s adventurers, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Goblin Slayer is on his way up in the world, meeting adventurers of increasingly greater renown. From the initial party of the elf, dwarf, and lizard man to taking the request of the Sword Maiden herself, Goblin Slayer has done quite well for himself!
Entering the Guild Hall, Goblin Slayer tells his party of the request he received. Now this is quite the character change in itself, with the once lone wolf now informing his party before departing. Old Goblin Slayer would’ve left without a word, either succeeding or dying in the process. But the fact that he came to his party’s table and gave them a choice to join him, is great! Granted, the party determines that it’s not really a choice, since it’s either go with Goblin Slayer to kill goblins, or leave him to kill goblins by himself, possible throwing him into a dangerous situation all alone. He really is blessed to have such a good friends.
The party journeys to Water Town, a name as brilliant as the names of all other characters, and there we are introduced to the Sword Maiden. A legendary warrior of the blade, famed for being in the party that slayed the resurrected demon lord, the Sword Maiden is quite the daunting figure. Personally, I think her character design looked more stunning in the manga, but the anime adaptation has done alright too. She presents the quest to our party, explaining the presence of goblins beneath the town. Unfortunately, the military is both occupied by the demon lord and also doesn’t care for handling goblin infestations. I completely understand the circumstances, as there’s hordes of demons roaming the wilderness, but I can’t wait for a crazy Goblin Warlord to come to power and shake the world to its core. That’ll show em.
As they fight many more goblins than they expected in the sewers, something quite extraordinary happens in the form of a goblin boat! Roaming through the sewers of Water Town is a well crafted boat with blood thirsty goblins on board! What’s even better is that there’s this pirate goblin that was all dressed up like a captain, too bad he took Goblin Slayer’s sword throw straight into the head. It’s pretty cool to see some variety in the goblin fighting, and trying to figure out how Goblin Slayer will get himself out of the situation is always amusing. His solution this time? Tear gas. TEAR GAS. What does he do after? Jump onto the boat. Now this is badass Goblin Slayer at his finest, jumping into the fray and cutting down armored goblins as their eyes are streaming tears. Also major respect to Elf Archer for being able to change between her high quality arrows and goblin arrows on the fly. Lizard Man also holds his own quite well, using his tail as a giant club! Gah, I love fantasy.
Things get even better as a Swamp Dragon enters the fray, or in other other words a sewer crocodile with a light on its tail, but Swamp Dragon sounds way cooler. Faced with a killer crocodile on one side, and a goblin fleet on the other, Goblin Slayer does what we were all thinking, and lures the Swamp Dragon towards the goblins. The end result is a goblin dinner for the crocodile, and a number of revelations from Goblin Slayer himself. He deduces that the goblins in the sewers were taught how to use boats, and were also not aware of the Swamp Dragon’s presence. Why would goblins settle and multiply in a location with a Swamp Dragon? Goblin Slayer slays goblins not only with brute force, but with his logical deduction!
Overall, a solid episode with plenty of action, and a nice hook for the next episode!