Geared Greetings Island Guests! Just when I thought I was out they PULLED me back in! It’s a famous movie quote.. from I think Godfather.. one of those kinds of movies anyway! Yet it also applies to this episode of Slime! FINALLY I had an episode I could enjoy again! I am really grateful for that. This show was about to lose me! Yet I am back!
The Summary
We begin this episode exactly where the last episode left off! Rimuru is standing in front of his class and they aren’t being very respectful to him, freezing out the new teacher like classical kids stuff! Which is quite cute! Rimuru then summons Ranga to command some respect and it kind of works! They fear him and say their names.. but to earn their trust Rimuru must first gain their respect! This is achieved by a one on one against all the children. Hoping that they might burn out some of that magic energy that is killing them. And thus we get introduced to a few new characters in a fairly organic way! I especially like Chloe Aubert who attacks with her plushies and the other girl who fights as quite the clever mage. Using alteration and evocation at the same time! That is quite cool! I also like how the boys more or less reflect the Barbarian, The Monk and The Fighter in a way and everyone feels quite distinct. Kenya feels quite like Shizu so I was afraid they would all be “imprinted” on her and mimc her in some shape, way or form but no this is quite the diverse troupe.
The children get defeated easily by Rimuru and he takes an antagonistic stance with them.. saying they will never surpass him! He gets them fired up. Then we get a timeskip a few years later. Rimuru visits Treyni because he will try to put natural spirits inside the children, much like what happened to Shizu, but hopefully less harmful. She knows of the place but does not know an entrance.. so for the entire timeskip Rimuru is stuck without a clue! A picnic however leads to new discoveries. When a Dragon attacks the capital, Rimuru saves a slightly shady merchant, who invites him to his home. Yuuki says the guy is safe so Rimuru and his kids go to visit the merchant. A trade deal with the town might be established. A woman living with the merchant (not sure if she is his wife) offers the child a prayer. It draws Rimuru’s attention because that prayer talks about Nature Spirits. The slime pays the woman, for the info and travels with the children.. in an attempt to keep them safe.
The Positives
So this episode is much much MUCH better, then the past five episodes! While there are still a few silly writing moments , the show does benefit from the smaller scope of things. I hate to say it but it’s writing isn’t strong enough to do the large political things this show tried to do before! Rimuru’s stories can be cute.. but the show has been aiming for this larger than life, interconnected world. It isn’t strong enough! This episode ditches that feeling and makes the story much more self contained around Rimuru! It doesn’t feel like the world revolves around Rimuru anymore and I am very thankful for it. The children’s style of fighting is cute as well! You really feel like you see children play fight only this time it’s real.. but it has that level of being unrefined. That makes this episode feel a lot cosier and the jokes land because of it! Rimuru bribing the children with Manga works a lot better than him spitting out an entire library for Yuuki! It just cute!
I also must say I like the overpowered Rimuru a lot better than the underpowered one. The dragon our slime protagonist fights gets one shotted by him so easily! It feels so much better than the whole Charybdis fight. As much as I can appreciate there being more powerful creatures than Rimuru, when you don’t have consequences, which is a fine choice to make lots of other anime make as well, there is no point. Making Rimuru more OP and feel powerful again makes it so much more comfy.. there isn’t that sense of let down and you just end up smiling! The pay off is right because we want to see Rimuru do well! This episode nails that appeal this show had for me .. so I really like it!
The Negatives
The episode does suffer a bit from the same writing flaws the previous episode does, but it feels less obnoxious. However like last episode it does strain your ability to suspend your disbelief. As fun as Chloe’s puppetry is , how did those plushies survive playing with her friends? Why is that Rimuru who sees a dragon approach town it takes him EXACTLY enough time to catch up to the dragon while he is that much more powerful. It isn’t bad. I just saw it done better so I think it is fair to shout it out. Stuff like how Rimuru now can make Manga without having to have eaten paper first, maybe he had it prepared, I am not sure! It’s a chain of events that just feels a bit too easy! I compare it to Bofuri and Digimon, where the story is also very straight forward but the story in Digimon is more molded around the characters, here it sometimes feels like the other way around.
The other negative is the excessive narration Rimuru does in this episode. Normally he does narrate events happening in his village, but on a much bigger scale. You can not show building a village because a real time visual doesn’t represent that. So of course Rimuru has to narrate. However in this episode it is very present and not for stuff you have to use it for. For example Rimuru goes on a long talk on how he paid the woman for her info. Why is that narrated? We see the scene happen. Sure it happens in the back end of the episode and it bridges into traveling but it happens a lot of times. It feels very “expositionny” It is a far cry from the bad stuff in the past few episodes, just a bit sloppy!
The Score
Compared with the “I want to Drop this” episodes of the past few weeks, this felt like a total breath of fresh air. My critiques mostly stem from me being soured to the show so much! I am in that place where I am happy that it went the route it went.. but I am also kind of sour that THIS is all I wanted. I never needed this to be that super deep series with factions and betrayals and other stuff. The fact that this show can be this charming.. made me miss that so much and that is both feels amazing.. but also kinda painful! The flaws this episode have I’d easily forgive.. if it came anywhere but after the Charybdis arc.
What we got was a great episode, that was fun, it did what it had to do, did some clever and colourful things.. whose only gripe is that it feels a bit “lazy”. I want to make sure Chloe is fine.. so she can be a great mamma to her plushies and have a lot of fun playing with them. I want to see if they get a better spirit guardian then the Ifrit..because this plan.. I am not sure about this plan! This episode made me go from “I will finish the season but will pass on the second season to, I might watch the second season when it comes out.. at least give it a chance.. So while I can’t justify my highest score.. the effect that this episode has had on me is huge!
Pinkie's Paradise 