Goblin Slayer

In a world of fantasy, adventurers come from far and wide to join the Guild. They complete contracts to earn gold and glory. An inexperienced priestess joins her first adventuring party, but comes into danger after her first contract involving goblins goes wrong. As the rest of her party is either wiped out or taken out of commission, she is saved by a man known as Goblin Slayer, an adventurer whose only purpose is the eradication of goblins with extreme prejudice.

The characters in this story do not carry proper names but are named by their classes.

Goblin Slayer (ゴブリンスレイヤー, Goburin Sureiyā)

Voiced by: Yūichirō Umehara[2] (Japanese); Brad Hawkins[3] (English)

An experienced silver ranked adventurer who only concerns himself with hunting goblins (小鬼 (ゴブリン), goburin, lit. "little demon"), to the point where the Guild has awarded him a Specialist classification due to both the sheer amount of goblins that he has killed as well as his work in studying their habits and biology. The jobs he takes only involve goblins and he takes no others, though he often gets roped into more dire quests for reasons beyond his control.

He uses equipment that would seem lacking for an adventurer of his rank, and is often judged as unprofessional due to this. His choice of disheveled equipment serves a purpose, as his swords and armor are routinely broken. Expensive equipment would be wasted fighting goblins. It also revealed that his choice of armaments is to prevent goblins from getting high quality equipments should he die in combat against them. He also reveals in volume four that he wears a magical ring that allows him to breathe underwater. Dwarf Shaman noted that his equipment is perfectly suited for taking on Goblins in their dark and cramped lairs.

His style of combat relies more on pragmatism such as setting traps, using a weapon against its user, and taking whatever advantage that may come. He even uses his own imagination to re-purpose a protection spell in order to kill all the goblins in a burning elven fortress.

His most defining trait is the hatred of goblins that drives him and his actions. His motivation is revenge, as his family and village were massacred by goblins, causing him to dedicate his life to the eradication of goblins everywhere. The sole survivor of the attack, he was soon taken in by Master who taught him the skills needed to kill goblins.

Five years later, he applied for the adventurers' Guild and was taken in by the uncle of his childhood friend, Cow Girl. He uses his income as an adventurer to pay for his stay. Though he is open to the idea of there being genuinely good goblins somewhere in the world, he believes that until proven otherwise, they can only be assumed to be evil due to the death and destruction they cause.

Priestess (女神官, Onna Shinkan)

Voiced by: Yui Ogura[2] (Japanese); Hayden Daviau[3] (English)

The main female protagonist. She is initially a 15-year-old porcelain ranked adventurer, the lowest rank, as she had just joined. Her personality consists of being young, kind, and generally helpful. She is capable of performing healing magic, miracle of holy light, and protective spells with a high amount of proficiency. After her first goblin hunt rapidly goes downhill, she is saved by Goblin Slayer and joins him as a new party. Even after the horrifying events of her first quest, she still wishes to be an adventurer and help her party however she can. As she fights alongside Goblin Slayer, her proficiency with magic improves and she ranks up as an adventurer. Her backstory is that of an orphan raised in a temple into priesthood along with other orphans like her.

Cow Girl (牛飼娘, Ushikai Musume)

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi[2] (Japanese); Brittany Lauda[3] (English)

Goblin Slayer's childhood best friend and a farm hand on her uncle's farm. Her uncle took her in his farm as an assistant at first, but adopted her after her and the Goblin Slayer's families were massacred by Goblins. She clearly cares deeply for Goblin Slayer, though he seems oblivious to the depths of her affection.

Guild Girl (受付嬢, Uketsukejō)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida[2] (Japanese); Sara Ragsdale[3] (English)

A young woman who runs the Guild's front office as a receptionist and hands out contracts to adventurers. She shows concern for the villages pleading for help against the goblins, and is exasperated at how few experienced adventurers would take such jobs. This problem would leave inexperienced rookies to die from them, or worse. She holds great amounts of respect for Goblin Slayer, due to his willingness to take on many goblin contracts others would not touch, and eventually develops feelings for him.

High Elf Archer (妖精弓手 (エルフ), Erufu)

Voiced by: Nao Tōyama[2] (Japanese); Mallorie Rodak[3] (English)

A 2000 year old High Elf (上森人 (ハイエルフ), hai erufu, lit. "high forest (hu)man") adventurer of Ranger (野伏 (レンジャー), renjā) class. She came with Dwarf Shaman and Lizard Priest to find Goblin Slayer and recruit his help. They face some trouble early in the story as they are unable to pronounce "Goblin Slayer" and refer to him by other names (mostly Orcbolg and Beardcutter), until they find him. They reveal their objective; due to the increase in other demon monsters, there are not enough people to deal with goblins and the elf army cannot mobilize for mere goblins as it would create suspicion and panic. They wish to hire Goblin Slayer to help them kill goblins. She initially looks down on Goblin Slayer, due to his unkempt and weak appearance, but later comes to respect him, when she sees him in battle. She initially comes off as naive, believing that Goblin Slayer is an affront to the idea of an adventurer because he does not actually go on what she considers to be adventures. After their encounter with Ogre she comes to realize just how strong and brave Goblin Slayer is and becomes determined to make him go on a true adventure with her and the rest of their party. She is a light-weight when it comes to drinking. She is a Silver ranked adventurer.

Dwarf Shaman (鉱人道士 (ドワーフ), Dowāfu)

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura[2] (Japanese); Barry Yandell[3] (English)

A 107 year old Dwarf (鉱人 (ドワーフ), dowāfu, lit. "ore (hu)man") adventurer of spellcaster (精霊使い (シャーマン), spellcaster, lit. "spirit user") class and party member with High Elf and Lizard Priest. He is a cheerful and happy person and is almost always arguing with High Elf Archer. As a Dwarf, he is good with metal, stone, and alcohol. At first glance, he is able to tell that Goblin Slayer is experienced and strong. He sometimes proves more knowledgeable than High Elf, despite being much younger. He is Silver ranked adventurer.

Lizard Priest (蜥蜴僧侶 (リザードマン), Rizādoman)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita[2] (Japanese); Josh Bangle[3] (English)

A Lizardman (蜥蜴人 (リザードマン), rizādoman) adventurer and party member with High Elf and Dwarf Shaman. Like Priestess, he can use healing magic, but he also uses a sword to fight and can summon skeletal familiars to assist him in battle. He often acts as a mediator between Dwarf and High Elf, stopping their arguments. He is a very calm and composed person. He cares deeply about nature due to his religion. He is also extremely enamored with the taste of cheese, which he finds exotic as his people do not raise livestock. His intention is to become a dragon. Like the dwarf and high elf he is also a Silver ranked adventurer.

Witch (魔女, Majo)

Voiced by: Yōko Hikasa[2] (Japanese); Amanda Gish[3] (English)

A sorceress who is an acquaintance of Goblin Slayer. She is Spearman's partner. She speaks very slowly, pausing between each word. She has enough magical power to not care about wasting it and even uses costly magic (due to it having a usage quota) just to light her pipe.

Spearman (槍使い, Yari Tsukai)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka[2] (Japanese); Kyle Igneczi[3] (English)

A warrior who usually belittles Goblin Slayer for his habit of hunting only goblins despite being a Silver Rank adventurer. He is Witch's partner. He has a crush on Guild girl. Spearman has the reputation of being the strongest adventurer of the borderlands.

Sword Maiden (剣の乙女, Tsurugi no Otome)

Voiced by: Aya Endō (Japanese); Meg McClain[3] (English)

One of the heroes who helped defeat the previous Demon Lord, and now the highest authority in Water Town, the 25-year-old Sword Maiden had no innate talents like the other heroes, so she developed and honed her abilities from scratch instead. She was blinded and raped by goblins after being captured by them once, and since then she has a deep fear of them, thus hiring Goblin Slayer and his friends to deal with goblins lurking under the city. She commands an alligator familiar which protects the city sewers from goblin attacks. She develops strong romantic feelings for Goblin Slayer. She is a gold ranked adventurer and the archbishop of Supreme God.

Noble Fencer (ノーブルフェンサー, Nōburu Fensā)

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka[4]

A swordswoman of noble origin, she left her home to become an adventurer until her party is slain by goblins and she is captured by them. She is rescued by Goblin Slayer's party by request of her parents and assists them to dispose of the goblins to avenge her fallen comrades.

Goblin Slayer was posted on an online textboard starting from October 2012, as a work that combined ASCII art with dialogue (The format is known as "Yaruo Thread" on Japanese internet).[5] The series was then rewritten into the format of a novel and submitted to competitions organized by publishers. As such, the novel version was completed before the online version. The novel was subsequently amended to match the ending of the online version, which was created according to real time feedback from users on the internet.[6] Although the novel version failed to win awards in the Fujimi Fantasia Contest, it was picked up by GA Bunko editors when the author enrolled his other works into their competition. As such the work started publishing commercially via GA Bunko.[7][8][9]

The author and the publisher both consider the ASCII art version to be distinct from the novel. They do not consider the published novel to be based on the online version. Instead the published novel is said to be based on the version that was submitted to Fujimi Fantasia Contest.[10][11]

The light novel ranked fifth in 2017 in Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, in the bunkobon category.[39]

The first volume of the manga reached 39th place on the weekly Oricon manga rankings, selling 20,360 copies in its first week.[40]

• Official light novel website at GA Bunko (in Japanese)
• Official manga website at Monthly Big Gangan (in Japanese)
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Goblin Slayer (light novel) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia