'Goblin Slayer' Reveals Major Censorship Changes

The Fall 2018 anime season is packed to the brim with major returns and premieres, but the standout among these new releases is the mysterious Goblin Slayer. Setting itself up to be the darkest series of the season, the premiere unleashes a gross level of brutality.

But there were a few changes from the brutal events of the manga, which were major, but the anime was more effective with its scenes thanks to the censorship of a certain traumatic event.

Goblin Slayer is set in an MMO-like fantasy world. There are adventurers fighting monsters, magic, potions, and even an adventurer's guild. A young Priestess sets out on her very first mission with a plucky young group, but she (and fans) quickly find out they are woefully unprepared. When they set out to rescue some kidnapped girls from goblins, the four strong group was brutally tortured and massacred.

The massacre happens in the original manga in pretty much the same fashion as one girl is poisoned beyond saving (before being stripped of her clothes and later mercy killed), a boy is chopped into pieces when his sword (which was too long) gets caught in something, and one girl is sexually assaulted by the goblins. In the manga, the sexual assault is seen as is and that's as distressing as you would think.

In the anime, fans see as the goblins position the young girl in a particular way before the scene cuts to the goblin fingers burying into her skin and she screams in pain. It's highly unforgiving, and the implication is that these goblins have been doing the same to the other kidnapped girls this young crew was trying to save.

Much of this manga's brutality and grosser details make it into the anime, and thankfully the titular Goblin Slayer shows up before too long to clean up the goblin horde. Though, it's a lot more violent in practice than see here.

The censorship only makes the situation harder to watch, especially when you consider that these character's backstories have been removed from the anime's portrayal of this massacre. You don't need nudity in order to fully grasp what kind of world Goblin Slayer is set in.

Goblin Slayer was first created by Kumo Kagyu with illustrations provided by Noboru Kannatsuki back in 2016. The light novel series tells the story of Priestess as the naive girl goes adventuring with a party in their fantastical world. However, things go south when the group is ambushed by Goblins. With her party slaughtered, Priestess is saved by a hero known as Goblin Slayer whose goal in life is to eradicate the goblin race with extreme prejudice.

Produced by WHITE FOX, the anime is directed by Takaharu Ozaki (Girls' Last Tour). Hideyuki Kurata (Made in Abyss, Read or Die) will handle the series composition and is writing the scripts with Yousuke Koroda (My Hero Academia). Takashi Nagayoshi (Girls' Last Tour) is designing the series' characters, and Mili is composing the opening theme.