The first episode exists to break you. Goblin Slayer knows exactly what it's doing, it shows you why this man has devoted his entire life to genocide, then never lets you use that knowledge as moral comfort. The goblins aren't monsters you watch him slay from a distance; they're a plague that demands the kind of person willing to burn villages and poison wells, and the show trusts you to sit with what that costs him, and what it costs everyone around him.

A 15-year-old priestess celebrates her first day as a Porcelain-ranked adventurer by joining a party of eager but inexperienced rookies. Their first job is to track down goblins behind the disappearance of village women, creatures most adventurers ignore as the weakest of monsters. An ambush in a cave leaves her alone and facing death, until an armored warrior called the Goblin Slayer arrives, saves her and wipes out the entire nest. A Silver-ranked adventurer who hunts nothing but goblins, he will use any method needed to wipe them out, and he lets her join him on goblin work for the guild. As rumors of his deeds spread, others come looking for him, including an elf with a request, and a party forms around him with a dwarf shaman and a lizardman. The result is a dark fantasy of action and adventure.