The Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown movie came out in 2020, and it’s confirmed that the Goblin Slayer Season 2 release date is in 2023, but what many anime fans want to see is Goblin Slayer’s face. After all, both the anime’s first season and the Goblin Slayer manga teased us all by hinting at what Orcsbolg looks like, but did not reveal all the details.
The battle to protect the village against the Goblin Lord and his horde of minions was climactic enough, but when Priestess asked the titular character to remove his helmet at the end it was the first time most of the other characters had seen Goblin Slayer’s face. It was declared that “this is the face of a warrior” and all of the girls were excited to see this surprisingly handsome face.
The problem was, the anime has only given us side views or scenes where his face is only partially shown. Some fans are hoping that Goblin Slayer Season 2 will animate GS’s face in full form, but that may not be the case.
After all, series author Kagyu Kumo purposefully did not give the characters any names since he “thought it would be better to give each reader the space to fill in the blanks with their own names for the characters.” So, going by that logic, perhaps Goblin Slayer’s face reveal will never happen since anime fans are supposed to fill in the gap with their imagination.
One Reddit user has a fan theory for how Goblin Slayer’s face reveal ties into his identity and how he is developing as a person. GS’s tragic past has caused him to become distanced from his own humanity even as he became obsessed with killing goblins.
Right now, Goblin Slayer’s identity is absorbed by his professional desire in the adventurer’s guild to drive all goblins to extinction. He maintains this professional identity even when he’s at home with Cow Girl or enjoying time with his friends.
“Until he forms one that separates his professional and personal life, we will never get to see his personal face, the one underneath the helmet, because his professional one, the helmet, covers it,” wrote TheAnonymousDoughnut.
If that’s the case, even Goblin Slayer Season 3 won’t reveal Goblin Slayer’s face to the real world since GS still has a long way to go in regaining his human identity. Thankfully, we can turn to Goblin Slayer fanfiction art to get an idea of what he might look like.
Some anime fans felt this fan art was inconsistent with the character since “his eyes are far too joyful and enlightened. This is not consistent with his personality because he has seen and experienced traumatic things.” Instead, it’s believed that another artist captured Goblin Slayer’s tragic soul.
There is one major exception to the official series not showing Goblin Slayer’s face. The Goblin Slayer: Year One manga does show his face at various angles when he’s younger and as a child. But even then part of his face is usually obscured by hair or shadows. It’s even pointed out that adventurers who don’t wear a helmet do so in order to build up their reputation.
As for seeing the fully grown adult version animated, anime fans will just have to wait and see where the Goblin Slayer anime takes us. Stay tuned!