Tag: Slime

Animini: That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime – Episode 22 – Conquering the Labyrinth

Sweet island guests, today’s Animi cocktail will be served in a slightly cracked coconut. It will have a few bitter tones but overall will provide a sweet experience.  My Arceus , how annoying are the female Demon Lords in this show!  If I ever get reincarnated into THAT world please let me be a rope so I can strangle them!  That being said Slime offered a fairly okay episode again this week! While not great it is certainly nowhere near as shiit(ake-soy-sauce )  as the last arc.

The Summary

Despite Shizu suffering quite a bit due to being inhabited by a superior spirit , Rimuru still things this is the best way to let these kids live longer so he travels with them to the maze that holds the Spirit Queen, to find spirits he can put inside his class, she can help him summon. When the group enters the maze they are prepared for a maze-like place filled with traps. It turns out to be a straight hallway that is heavily enchanted, maybe they will end up wandering forever. Suddenly a voice begins echoing and laughing in their head, saying they are going to die here and trying to invoke fear. It works pretty well on Chloe, but the rest of the kids doesn’t seem all that scared, much to the chagrin of the voice.  Rimuru tells  what they are here to do and the voice chuckles thinking that sounds fun.  Suddenly the  ruins light up and a kind of portal appears.. well more like a Bifrost.. but either way Rimuru and his kids are invited to a new location! There the voice will give them a test! A fight against a pink mecha thing! YAY Pink represent!

Rimuru decides to talk the spirit out of it saying if the voice doesn’t make the Golem back down he will be forced to destroy it.. the spirit doesn’t believe he can do it and makes the Golem trying to kill Rimuru , who promptly ensnares and torches my beautiful new pink friend! It was great to have you here while it lasted, Golem-Chan! Rimuru then threatens to burn down the entity in their heads as well. A pixie shows up! She tells everyone she is Demon Lord Ramiris and she is like Milim..on caffeine pills. By all means just like with Milm she should be a character I really love but she mostly got on my nerves. Rimuru thinks she is too weak to be a demon lord but after she reveals Milim visited her fellow Demon Lord to tell about her new bestie Rimuru opens up to the idea. She is a lot wiser and has more support like abilities that might make her amazing after all. A lot of talking happens and she is bribed with a lot of cookies.  Since it is revealed Ramiris is also the Queen of spirits.. and like 20 other things.. (kind of like Denny was in Game of Thrones)  she tells Rimuru she is a neutral being and she will help him summon spirits to save the kids.  Which functions kind of weirdly but we are left with the children preparing for the ritual.

The Positives

The fact that the pink Golem was one of my highlights kind of shows quite well where I am in terms of liking this episode. I liked it fine.. but the element that got me most excited was that the creator coloured in something pink! I guess it works with Ramiris personality well.  But still I was most excited about a visual choice and a one minute encounter.  That being said on the design front this episode was truly excellent. I do very much like Ramiris design, she is cute but dark enough looking to indeed sell that she is a “fallen” queen.  Her personality is similar enough for me to believe she is friends with Milim and that Milim would come brag to her as I can easily imagine them being friendly but also have a fair bit of rivalry.  The magic maze , while not a maze was designed pretty nicely and I liked the idea of Rimuru exploring a dungeon  for once. Of course the colourful pixies floating around helped as well.  Design wise great episode.

I also like , in theory , how flawed these Demon Lords are,  it makes it feel an achievable status for pretty much everyone, making me believe that Rimuru at one point will get it.. probably because one of them will stupid enough to attack and end up being absorbed.  It leaves the path of progress open for Rimuru as I really feel that to progress beyond his current limitations he will probably need to absorb a Demon Lord.   Like I said in earlier reviews I am kind of unhappy that they tossed in so many creatures more powerful than Rimuru if there are no consequences to this. I am happy if you do it and there are consequences but if nothing bad happens anyway you might as well just keep him powerful, now it just feels like the plot is treading water.. but people like Ramiris show me.. there is hope for Rimuru to evolve. One will mess up and further the plot.. eventually.  I am also quite curious to see what kind of spirit these children will get so at least I am excited for this , semi final ish episode coming up. (As far as I know the other two episodes are set in a time before Rimuru) 

The Negatives

This isn’t a very strong episode for me however. The plot stalls several times. My biggest gripe is that they do the whole Charybdis thing again.. the Golem is said to be super powerful and that it might kill Rimuru if he fails to dodge.. he dodges twice.. then pretty much One Shots the thing again.  I am fine with him One shotting the thing.. but if we first get an explanation on how dangerous this thing is and how most of Rimuru’s magic won’t be effective , you start to expect a real fight but no.. he just kills it in one hit. I still do not mind the kill but I just feel the warnings before have become wasted. There is no need to think about how to defeat a monster if you already know! It is just bad writing to draw out an episode or a manga page. I don’t like it. It happens several times as well, Rimuru explains how hard this place will be to navigate… they get invited to progress immediately, Ramiris explains it is hard to summon a spirit, if they fail they will just create a new spirit they can use. So much safety nets that contradict earlier dialogue, making a lot of the text empty.

I have not made it a secret that I do not particularly enjoy Milim, while I do feel her personality was a bit much, she at least had the oomph to back it up.. she was just used very wrong.  Ramiris is even more annoying. There is this “Boy Who Cried Wolf” element to her that once again makes all her dialogue feel a bit “filler”  I am not even sure she is actually a Demon Lord. She shows up in the intro as her own separate presence. I just find her quite unpleasant to be around with or something! Not sure the character just doesn’t really work for me!  I like her level of peppiness.. but the whole punch throwing thing has been done since Scrappy Doo.. in fact he is a perfect analogy for her and there are a lot of people who do not like Scrappy Doo! Ramiris kind of annoyed me more! Like the Scrappy Doo , from the Third Scooby Doo movie in which he becomes the villain!  Just no!

The Score

Overall I am left with a mediocre episode that is in between Fine-Apple and Okiwi to me.
I did enjoy the Pink Golem a lot, and it is a beautiful episode to watch. It is nice to see some more classical fantasy elements such as dungeons exploring pop up more , at least on the main cast.   We have mostly seen action on a large scale. For a series that references Dragon Quest so much, it felt more like Slime, Total War or Slime Fantasy Tactics than as Slime Quest to me. While I do like the village growth it is quite good to see an adventure like this happen as well and it nails the location and the looks pretty much on the head. Definitely  this is one of the prettier episodes to watch!  Battles overall do look pretty in this show even though they are quite short and this one is no exception! Great choreography as well! 

However, everything that happens feels rather hollow and I do not blame the action, I blame the poor set up.. it feels extremely contradictory for me. “This Enemy is really strong” ..Oneshot. “This maze is super dangerous”….. “Please follow the shiny lights to get to the next area where your test will begin”. It’s like looking forward to a bag of crisps, what is in there is pretty good.. but once you open it and realise that half of the bag is filled with air you also kinda feel scammed. The annoying Fairy doesn’t do this episode any favours either.  While I do like her design and I would not mind her having this personality as much if she was the only one to have it, her being basically a copy of Milim but smart instead of strong..  makes her feel more throwaway and annoying. In fact it is because of the fact that she brings so little new to the table I will say this episode is not good enough to be fine-apple!

Animini: That Time I Reicarnated as a Slime – Episode 21 Shizu-san’s Students

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!

Animini: That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime – Episode 20 – Yuuki Kagurazaka

Steamless Salutations, my dear island guests! That is right.. we are out of coals and for the moment are without steam.. This is all a very convoluted way to say that this show itself, for me personally, is quickly running out of steam as well. As this show has since the defeat of the Orc-lord for me personally quickly devolved from a series I really love and have fun with.. to just a series I dislike that I don’t like it enough! While the potential is still there.. and the set up is still great.. I feel the writing talent is really lacking.

The Summary

After turning the Megalodons that accompanied Charbdis into sushi and other amazing foods the town of Rimuru has a great party to celebrate their victory over Charybdis. Or I guess over the Megalodons because Mlim just one shot the monster that is supposed to rival a demon lord.. of course the government officials don’t partake in drinking and show off their boobs in a hot-tub again instead. Rimuru asks Milim why she became a demon lord and tells she can’t remember.. while three episodes before she proclaimed it was to perpetually fight strong people. Maybe it is her being more genuine here.. maybe it is inconsistent writing.. but the scene doesn’t go anywhere. Milim suddenly remembers she has to work.. changes into clothes as the group claps for her and she zooms off. Everyone wishes for her to return soon, though Rimuru is kind of okay she is gone for now or so it seems. That night Rimuru has a nightmare of sorts.. a vision that shows Shizu wants him to train the children she was training. Feeling compelled to do so Rimuru leaves the town of Rimuru behind for a bit and goes to the realms capital to find the school that Shizu worked on. 

Now I am pretty sure that this doesn’t make much sense timewise. Rimuru apparently has been in the other world for two years now and I think Shizu trained these kids way before Rimuru came here. But I might have misinterpreted a line or two.. it felt weird to me that these kids were still 10 year old.  From what I gathered kids are summoned to this world around the age of 10.. to become powerful warriors but because their body can not hold the power it explodes at one point.. no longer than five years after they arrived. So how are these kids all 10 year olds..still if Shizu thought them 2 years ago?! I am not sure.  Regardless Rimuru first visits the headmaster of the school.. who is the kid that taught Shizu the line about Slime.. he is an other-worlder as well.. The two get acquainted, Rimuru makes him some Manga from Memory and the two weeb out for a moment. He then offers Rimuru the job to teach these children to do right by Shizu. The moment Rimuru walks in the classroom he is almost killed by an ultimate attack wondering why these dying kids have so much energy.

The Positives

Milim not being a permanent addition to the group and her going to do her own thing was a welcome change, even though she got adopted into the village it is nice to see that there is at least some form of consistency in the fact that Mlim still is a demon lord and has her tasks to do.  In a way it is also nice to see Rimuru leave the village.. even though the building of the city is what at this point had me most invested in this show, the change of scenery to a more urban setting works nice and the machinations of the huge city are compelling, fun and creative. The show is pretty good at world creation.. not world building.. but world creation,  as in coming up with new interesting elements to create a fantastical world filled with diverse places.. they don’t connect all that well.. but as far as imagination goes this show really does well. I also like the idea that the concept of Isekai is rather common in this world and there are two ways to do this. It in a way spoofs how many Isekai shows there are and shows how likely it is that you end up in such a world. I personally would have loved to see this concept be taken a bit further as all Other-worlders now come from earth and I would have liked to see them draw people from other worlds as well.. especially since earthlings explode at a certain age.. but I still admire the creativity poured in it all.  I also like seeing Rimuru excited about something simple as Glass.. though this is later a bit negated. It makes him feel a bit normal again.

I also very much liked the level of geekism on display. Rimuru and Yuuki , the headmaster person thingy  really geek out and they discuss real life geeky things. No Snoka Koala and Peepsie .. Yuuki flat out asks Rimuru how many Final Fantasy Games there are now.. to which he replies.. 19.. which makes me wonder.. does he live in the future or does he kind X2 and 13, 2 and 3.. if so he has to count Crisis core as well to reach 19 but why would you call crisis core?!  Or does he count Final Fantasy IV the After years?!  Who knows! At one point there even is a Salt Bae Meme I think. The show does know who it’s audience is and pleases them, the people that matter in this world think like us and act like us and that adds a lot of relatability to this episode and gives it some much needed charm.

The Negatives

The writing though… isn’t good! It isn’t good at all. The Milim thing seems like one of the easiest contradictions but like I said.. I don’t get how these kids fit in the timeline of Shizu. With the stories Eren told before it doesn’t seem likely these kids are 10 still? Or is it that they are brought here when they are five and explode around the age of 10?! It could be.. because that is certainly implied at the end.. but Shizu is a summon as well, and she did not die.  The logic is that if you are transported to the new world you are given a new body that gathers power.. and eventually it becomes to much and says “pop”  sort of speak.. but then why would someone as powerful as a Demon Lord summon Shizu and stuff an Efreet down her body.. would that not make matters worse? If the Demon Lord knows putting a demon in them helps.. why would the countries not know this?! It’s not like they care for the humans they summon, they are intended as weapons so how would that cross a line?! I don’t see it make any sense.

This bad writing also applies to Rimuru in this episode. Does he have a photographic memory now that he can produce all these Manga’s he has ever read? If he has had that perfect memory due to great Sage.. why does he not ask Great Sage why he does not ask school books he read, or maybe to put a documentary he saw on making things to paper.  He could ask Great Sage how people in manga would take down a monster like the one he is facing to get a strategy.. it just feels like something he could have used. If he is this impressed by glass.. why doesn’t he make it inside himself.. all he needs is sand. Rimuru gets past a checkpoint showing his ID while masked, which also doesn’t make too much sense. He has a reference from Veldt sure.. but wasn’t it established those types of mask were worn by Majin? Would you really let someone walk through like that? Must have been one hell of a reference. Finally I find it kind of weird that teaching kids, will be the arc you will end season 1 on.  Should season one not just be about making the village.. as much as I hated the Charybdis arc… I think it would have been much better if the final four episodes were spend on fleshing that out more. Also what happened to that whole just a helpful slime rumor plotline?! It seems completely overwritten by the fake ID thing.

The Score

While I do see an improvement from the last few episodes I think this show is written super poorly, this arc should have happened before Charbdis at the very least,  Probably even before the Orc-Lord arc.. Now so much things so not make sense to me. Even if we say normally these kids die at around of the age of 10, the Shizu arc happend early in RImuru’s time here.. so I will assume.. maybe an half year in or so.  That means 1,5 years have passed which is at least a third of the time these kids have spend in this world.. How can they still remember Shizu so fondly, even at best she has been dead for a good year. These are small kids..their first reaction would not be.. this person kind of looks like Shizu. Had they been raised properly I could kind of understand but they are shown to be kind of childish otherwise..so it all just fits together really poorly.

In the end we got is like an artwork of a hobby painter trying to mimic a Picasso. It’s not a masterpiece.. but it is something interesting to look at.. it just does not make a beaverdam lick of sense if you look closer.  I will admit I have fun with slime.. sortoff.. during my watch but as soon as the episode passed I feel like.. wait.. but this.. and this.. and this.  So perhaps I am watching this show wrongly.. perhaps it is a show to bing a couple of episodes and when you are tired you just go to bed. However I have fallen out of love with this show hard… I feel like the Mangaka really tries to mimic how Oda builds his worlds in One Piece, with stuff happening everywhere in the world .. showing there is more to the world than just our heroes. For what it is worth he shows in this episode he can create interesting locations and interesting elements.. however.. when you pivot them all around the main character.. it doesn’t feel like a living world anymore. Oda’s villlains will act DESPITE  of Luffy’s existence and that is why that amazng world building works..once more this episode introduces a new interesting element.. but by letting it revolve around Rimuru it doesn’t stand on it’s own.. and it feels like a way to pad out your Manga,, and that is why this episode is sub-par for me.

Animini: That Time I got Reincarnated as A Slime -Episode 17- The Gathering

Dear Island Guests.. Last episode from Slime was a fairly weak one that was very much saved by it’s good first half. The second half of the episode was very bad and bland however and to be honest I half expected this week’s episode to be the same. I was thinking with Milim  being introduced this show might have lost his shine  for me.. but what is that.. this week brought a glimmer of hope.   For this week I found Milim.. quite entertaining.

The Summary

Rimuru city has rathered the attention of several groups of people, this includes the humans of two countries and some of the demon lords. In this episode we see a lord travel to Rimuru to speak with him followed by those three human adventures that fought the Efreet along with Rimura and Shizuna. Like always these adventurers get in trouble but this time they seem to be rescued by  the mercenaries of another country!  As they prepare for a big battle Gobta steps in wanting to eat the creature that is giving them trouble.  He easily defeats it and the surprised humans are invited to join them at the village.  Before they arrive though there happens to be a little scuffle in town as a henchman of another demon lord shows up.

Phobio punches the face of Rigurd.. angry that he hurt the minions of her besty Milim beats the living daylight out of him.  Rimuru, wanting to prevent war, scolds her for it and she cries as she has to miss lunch!  Eventually he allows her to have lunch anyways as negotiations start. They don’t go well as Phobio refuses to believe a slime can be that powerful and he just wants to rule over the village instead. This doesn’t happen of course creating tension between Rimuru and the Demon Lords. Milim gets tricked into telling what she knows about these people in return for a new weapon.  A little later the humans arrive and they start negotiations as well seemingly going quite peaceful, talking about establishing trade.  Rimuru also wants the mercenaries to become his underlings and pretend like they defeated the Orcling with a friendly monster ally that kind of helped them in order to give him more favourable propaganda. The Merc agrees and joins team Rimuru.  We end the episode with a conversation between a demon lord and female clown discussing the release of a creature whose power can rival that of the Demon lords and with an evil grin the episode ends.

The Positives

This was a much better episode than the one that came before and it has to do with a much better pacing. I might have told the story out of order a bit above but that was mostly done to put all events on a kind of similar timeline.   However since we are dealing with two events.. three if we count the final scene we have a much more narrative episode.  Apparently the creators here can only keep a single plotline interesting for about 10 minutes and that is fine…. because of the comedy element you can not overplay your hand and need to drop a situation faster than you would in a drama situation and this episode does that very nicely.  The last episode.. not so much where the first part was the battle with Milim and the second part her settling in.. however the flaws she had were the same source of comedy for both thus it felt stale. While Milim is still that same character, there is more comedy than just her. Gobta one-shotting an immense creature, Rimuru not being able to convince a guy he is so much more powerful, the shock of the humans when they discover a slime is in an alliance with the dwarfs. 

The Milim comedy in this episode is pretty nice! Her explosive character and immense power here bring a contribution to the escalation of a situation.. yet in turn also provides usefulness. It’s an exchange.. The character is not just a detriment to the city.  I do like how the city advances. I told it before. .and in this episode we do see that happening again. We also see Shuna take a bit of a role as Hostess for guests in town and diplomatic meetings, so it is nice to see her step up. Overall all the characters really progress for the better in this episode and that is where the strength of this show lies. It’s a show about progress, getting stronger and a prettier village better roles. The comedy  is there to make it “not boring”  the action is there to pick up the pace and make stuff happen.. but by now we are actually watching to see a slime build his little “kingdom”  This episode really plays into that and it’s a very good episode because of it .

The Negatives

It is not an excellent episode though! There are some oversights I am willing to forgive but the fact that Eren and her group almost get no attention from Rimuru and kind of act reluctant to go back to him in the first place feels weird. They were on quite good terms, bonded together and they cried over the loss of a mutual friend. Here they are just background sprites and that bothered me quite a bit. The episode is pretty densely packed with content so I get why it happened but at least acknowledge them a bit. Gabiru being fine when he was punched by a Demon Lord seems a bit odd to me as well.. it turns out he is actually hurt and just toughing it out sure, but I am not sure if that is in line with his character or skill level. Then again they do make their potions so okay..  There does seem to be some inconsistent power scaling though.  It makes sense since everyone is so powerful, but I wish there was a bit more logic.

Milim is mostly fixed for me in this episode. She loses the skimpy outfit, her behaviour is less obnoxious. She isn’t exactly great though. Her being more powerful then Rimuru is not played into very well, the fear they have for Milim isn’t done very well.. she gets really downplayed in this episode. Sure she is easy to control but basically it is the group sitting on on nuke with a short fuse. Yet here she is just being treated like a spoiled child that can be pacified with a Sandwich.. it kinda takes the tension and the role of the character away. I can get it fading over time but the second episode after her introduction it’s a tad fast. Now she more feels like an exposition bomb. I was also quite annoyed that Eren was glossed over completly! I really like her character and her party.. yet this week they are just means to and end to string other characters together.

The Score

A much better episode, than last week, yet still one that has it flaws. It is however a very feel good episode and this is just such a smile inducing episode. I really love how the village and the little country grows and these new alliances are great and making enemies along the way makes sense. I just feel like there could be a little bit more consistency and care into the details, into the roles characters have. Let Milim be that nuke and seriously mess up things.. don’t half and half it. Let Eren be welcomed back into the village as the adorable klutz that is Rimuru’s link to the human world. Let Gabiru be the loser that constantly gets punched around.. don’t let him though things out.. put him in the hospital.. make it so that they constantly need to use potions on him!

That however is much more a gripe with the series as a whole then with this episode specifically.. on their own these offences aren’t that big. Sure I know it could use a bit more care, but I smile widely still. I loved the clumsy Eren scene , even if she wasn’t talked to by Rimuru, I loved seeing Vesta being so proud of his achievement and growing into another person. I love the small fixes to Milim showing that this really is a show about progress. It all felt satisfying from beginning to end! All those other gripes I have .. just stem from taking the cheap way out just a TAD to much rather than going for the well written option. So it’s a great episode but to cheap to be a star.

Animini: That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime -Episode 16- Demon Lord Milim Attacks

Very few Isekai shows feel as wholesome and whimsical as  Slime to me! The episode we feature in today’s Animini to me shows exactly that “feel good” vibe I love this show so much for.. yet it also shows some of the shows weakest points for me! A great episode to be the first to break off from my bulk Sunday review!

The Summary

This episode picks up right after establishing the great Jura Alliance. Gazel Dwargo gifts Rimuru the scientist “Vesta”  whom we have seen earlier in .. I think it was episode 4! But I am too lazy to double check! The asshat guy .. now redeemed becomes a scientist for the village. We also see the Lizard Folk join Rimuru City and finally Gabiru’s sister is named as well.. which transforms her into a very humanoid person with a little dragon fang and some wings. Gabiru evolves further and gets some wings while he is being made a herb farmer down in some caves. Vesta is made the village scientist charged with making potions from those herbs.. like we saw Rimuru do in the very first episode of the show. The village proserpours but it also seems to have gathered some unwanted attention from the demon lords. A pink haired girl in particular takes interest in Rimuru , the Great Jura Alliance and the absence of the great Dragon Veldora and rushes over.

We quickly find out that she is the first person that is stronger than Rimuru. Even while holding back she has 10x the magicules he has. When the ogres attack the Demon Lord known as Milim she quickly beats them without much effort prompting Rimuru to join the fight. Knowing he does not have a chance he decides to feed her honey instead to appease her. Bribing her to give her some more.. as he discovered she has a very childish nature.  He also notices she is flat.. probably because she is so kid like!  Milim likes the honey and the two start talking and Milim asks Rimuru to become a Demon Lord, which he tells he has no interest in. This prompts her into believing he has more fun than Demon Lords who just can fight strong people.. and she joins the village proclaiming herself to be Rimuru’s bestie.. and she gives Gabiru a proper asswhooping.. Finally! She decides to live in the village which Rimuru’s council tells him might invoke the wrath of the other demon lords.. but Rimuru is mostly glad he subdued this powder keg of a woman. 

The Positives

Overall this was a very fun episode that  featured a lot of callbacks, easter eggs, call references and I really do like the character of Milim.. She has pink hair so that already is a plus and she is a type of person I really like. A super strong character but lacking the right persona to  actually take full advantage of that strength. I really do like these types of characters as they allow for character growth without powers spontaneously manifesting.  
In last week’s episode I also mentioned how I liked the growth of the town that once again is given some proper attention. The idea of making the potions one of their main trade goods is great and really ties in with the person Rimuru is.  Plus what we have seen before.. it feels well established and earned. Having Gabiru fail miserably at the task makes it funnier. Vesta being involved in the potions feels like poetic justice.. so from a writing perspective this episode does really well. 

The brief moment of action was also very appealing to me, from Milim’s aura being something very monstrous and explosive to the fake out with Rimuru doing his honey summoning technique. My favourite bit was when Milim punched Gabiru in the face. That hit felt so viceral and the powerful glow she gets in her eyes makes her feel strong.. and similar to Rimuru in a sense.. there is a sense of a tale that still needs to be told surrounding that. I do like the human rendition of the lizard folks as well..I have a weakness for girls with tails or fangs, and while it is a bit of a shame to see them not depicted as Lizards anymore the whole Lizard look lacked the personality they can put into these humanoid forms.  I am not sure I agree with the idea of making her human as a concept..  but for me it did work. I have been known for not liking Lizard people too much though so that may be personal bias.  I do like lizard elements.  All in all I say this episode made a few clever choices that brought a lot of flair and persona to the table for some characters.

The Negatives

I dislike .. a lot.. that Milim wears a barely anything outfit… I dislike that they made Shion’s boobs jiggle in the hottub and I dislike that every female surrounding Rimuru has to be hot and judged by their breast size.  I get this will appeal to some people who like that kind of stuff but I found it obnoxiously present. If Milim is indeed so childish why not reflect it a bit in her outfit as well .. give her a more kidlike outfit.. Why does she have to show so much skin?! It seems to conflict with everything else about her. There is a hot tub scene where Rimuru is alone with the ogre girls and Milim and it feels odd. Shuna seems more uptight.. which makes sense for a princess ..but before she was depicted as more shy and very forgiving yet for some reason she is a real stickler against a demon lord swimming in a hot tub..it felt a bit forced to produce a boob joke later on.

While the storytelling of the episode is great and the visuals are mostly nice, I do think the second half of the episode drags on a bit. That is because this episode does a few “false endings” .. Rimuru says some words in conclusion of a situation that feel like an ending “And that is how a Demon Lord joined our village”,  “So I became besties with a Demon Lord” and the likes after which we mostly get just casual conversations between characters that do not really add anything. I do not mind the idle conversation but I would have placed the Hot-tub scene BEFORE the big speech so we can end on a high note.  Now I ended up checking the timeline twice to see if I had much longer to go because in the end I got bored and wanted the episode to end.. not because it’s  a bad episode persé but because they concluded the episode at the 16 minute mark and the final 7 minutes just give it episode length. It could have been mixed a bit better.

The Score

In the end I have a bit mixed feelings about this episode. In the end I think it is a fine episode because it very much did keep me entertained for the majority of its runtime. It just blew the final few minutes and I honestly felt there was too much of an emphasis on fan-service in this episode.  I wonder what the little slimes were around Rimuru when he was in the tub. Are they actual slimes or where they like bath toys? I am not sure!  It’s perfect light entertainment but it is also an episode that does not hold up when exposed to a more scrutinous eye. 

As this episode most likely is aimed to introduce us to the known villains for the rest of the season we also saw too little for it to have properly done that.  Yet despite those flaws I had a lot of fun with new and old elements being reintroduced. The fact that Rimuru doesn’t always need power to defeat someone is great and the fact he has met someone stronger than him makes this world feel more alive.  So if you are watching the show still by episode 16 I do not think any of these offences it makes are unforgivable.. it just could have been done a bit better, which I know because the show has been better many times over. It does get a positive score from me..  but of the “good” scores it is in the lower range!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 8

Hello my sweet lovely island guests!  Today I am back for you with more anime episode reviews.. mostly of stuff that isn’t relevant any longer but I have fun doing this so I will keep going on! Where last week we had a rather disappointing experience this week blew my socks off! In the good sense. The weird thing wasn’t I wasn’t even wearing any socks!

Would you look at that, BNA did an amazing episode again. While the last episode was definitely a stinker for me this episode brought what I had so longed for  in this series. Another format to bring about a change of events. A connection to the actual plot and some background into characters that are not Michiru or Nazuna. This week is focussed all around Shirou and his amazing secret. I will be discussing this secret in the next paragraph so spoiler warning for that.  It was the change of pace I needed what made it more believable.. rather than having path cross on accident , both Shirou and Michiru have reasons to be involved in the incident that is centralised in this episode.  It leads in a natural progression for Michiru, a logical development between her and Nazuna and a whole lot of character development for Shirou. The stuff unfolding has been set up for quite a while now and finally we begin to say some pay off.  No deus ex machina needed but story I could get deeply invested into! The fight scene was pretty amazing as well! It’s nice to see my main girl step up as well!

Now.. this fight leads to a BIG reveal.. one that is about as surprising as water coming out of my faucet after turning it open.  Last chance to avoid spoilers! You know this already though!
Anyway so it turns out Shirou is Ginrou the beast god!?! OMG I never would have suspected it! .. We get some back story about a miracle that made him into the wolf god thing he is .. and that looked amazing. I loved those visuals!  Shirou’s story was my favorite part of this episode. It even was a pretty generic and not even that rivettingly told story ..so that says how good it was for me!  I loved it despite the generic plot!  I am a sucker for odd visuals though!  The whole story book like visuals were great!  It also explains Shirou’s character quite well.  Throughout this story we also see a few parts beginning to move! I got reaffirmation that Boris is connected to the human Alan! I am not sure how yet.. but he seems to be working for them ..testing a new drug thing! There really were a lot of great moments here! I could pick quite a few. 

The moment I liked least was when Barbara began to tell she was trapped in a concentration camp in Germany during the second world war. It makes sense in the narrative of that world but it kind of felt like a drag by the hair analogy! We already know beast man are being oppressed and discriminated against.. you do not have to tell us it happened in the past because you just did!  Also the crow was also in that concentration camp, it has been genetically altered to live longer, which I feel was a bit of a throwaway reveal.  While I do love the episode.. the plot moved too slowly in the sense for the  series. We are introduced to yet another plot thing.. being a drug that turns you into a wild growing Kaiju and while gears begin to connect there is to much left to be resolved in four episodes.. unless they are going to completely throw the series feeling for pacing overboard. We moved forward but the emphasis was on backstory so not a whole lot happened. While I loved that about the episode I now am certain it will hurt the series in the end for me. Still as an episode it was excellent.

Episode Score:

While I disliked  episode 2 for being uneventful , this episode is completely different. Perhaps even less happened… but I loved it! I loved this episode so much! It and Slime are about tied for the best watch of the week! In the second episode of the show we saw Samurai Flamenco being picked up by social media and this week Masayoshi has to deal with the fallout of that. People suspect he might be  Samurai Flamenco based on a poll.. and as a result he is invited to some sort of talk show. When the REAL Samurai Flamenco reveals himself there.. and it’s Masayoshi’s  favorite Sentai actor, he is faced with a deep dilemma!  Not only does he have to keep his identity secret, now he might just have to take his alter ego’s identity away from the man who inspired him to be like this in the first place! It’s such a tiny plot but it is filled full of character building moments.

My favorite moment is during the talk show Masayoshi is one. When the fake Samurai is revealed. We first get a misdirect that they have found out it’s actually our protagonist that is the real life sentai, but if you payed attention to the episode title you already know a faker shows up! The fake ranger is actually a common trope in the actual sentai genre so it is funny to see it done this early with such a fledgling hero! It also makes perfect sense. The way the scene itself unfolds is perfect as well. So much becomes clear in this one scene. We can see the character of Jouji Kaname being established in this very cool seen, we see Maya watching from afar, noticing it’s another character, we see Masayoshi’s agent make a connection between her client this man and the axe toy she found in papers she picked up at his place.. and more than likely making the connection to his hidden identity! Within a few seconds so many plotlines open  up and that will even lead into more interesting plotlines such as Gotou realing digging dressing up as the Samurai character.  I am looking forward to it all. 

The actual showdown between Samurai Flamenco and the Fake feels a bit off to me though.  While I do get what trope the series is going for.. with the heartfelt speech awakening the  “evil ranger” to the path of good again the way Joiji acts kind of  ruined the punchline of that trope for me. He “acts” as if he was just giving the boy a trial.. while he should actually be emotionally touched this is never really shown .. we do not know what parts are an act and what not. As a result I found the reveal to be more annoying than epical!  The seen thereafter made things up.. with Red Axe saying Samurai Flamenco is his apprentice.. if this becomes an actual plot line that could be very interesting.. if this is a throwaway line I might like it less.

Time will tell, I have high hopes but the showdown was less than stellar. Our model boy is just a tad to helpless and when someone acts over the heartfelt message it kinda ruins the message. Still fun to see and the final shot where Gotou is dressed up as the Samurai is amazing as well. To confuse the agent Masayoshi lets him play a body double so he can walk into her office, throwing off her suspicion for now. Yet that isn’t the biggest HECK YES! When Gotou stands there on the rooftops as a superhero he feels awesome! HECK YES! Again a single line that opens so much options for this show in the future! I like it!

Episode Score:

I loved this! The episode was weird, cute, had trippy visuals, unlikely events and proper setup for the future! While normally I think second episodes tend to be the weakest of the early five , this episode completely trumped the first episode for me, and I already really liked that one! The slime gets a name of Rimuru by the storm dragon Veldora, who in return gets a family name it shares with the slime! Oh my Arceus that is so cute! With his new name the slime devours the prison that keeps Veldora in.. and Veldora as well as they begin an adventure to set the dragon free. A search that leads the slime to obtaining very powerful water based skills and encountering a cute goblin village.. as well as some adventurers.
The goblins are in trouble because since their god, assumingly Veldora , disappeared from the world dire wolves have been running amuck and killing their villagers including their local hero.  Since Rimuru has such a powerful aura they offer him their loyalty in return for his aid against the wolves. A two tier episode that really shined for me!  I got what I wanted and just a bit more!

My favorite scene is definitely the bromance seen between a slime and  the dragon resulting in the dragon being absorbed, prison and all by the slime!  I really like their interaction together and  can’t help myself but to be thoroughly amused by the odd pairing.  The pairing feels so right! Like Tom and Jerry being a cat and a mouse.. for some weird reason a slime eating a dragon feels just as right. I’d almost ship them if I would not just want them to be wholesome buddies! Such a cute moment! I squeeed with joy! The scene in the goblin village was pretty good as well. I love how suddenly the show shifted from comical and light to actual hardship and suffering for them with a legit emotional moment! FOR GOBLINS!.. If you are a DnD player you know that is an extreme rarity! That brief moment when the Goblins told about their strife it reminded me of the writing style of Eiichiro Oda , the creator of One Piece and I do not think I need to give it a bigger compliment than that. The new spells Rimuru learns seem great and thematical enough and it has that same .. experiment vibe I loved so much with Maple in Bofuri as well. Earning something by playing around is just something that makes me really excited!

I don’t really have a big negative moment in this episode, but since I try to use a format of, episode summary, positives, negatives now,  I guess I will use this bit to pick for two tiny nitpicks.  The first is the weird cutaway we had when our jolly slime ate the dragon. We cut to two humans talking.  I assume these will be the bad guys based on the intro ..which is lovely by the way but shows a lot of enemies and allies,  but I could not read a vibe from them at all. I am also not sure what to think about their design. A bit generic humans whose voice was a bit lost to me. I could have done without the scene and just found out it was a thing later. This mostly just raised questions to me.  The second nitpick I have is that the monsters are maybe depicted just a tinsey tiny bit to cutesie! Based on the intro Rimuru will hang out with monsters for the most part, like oni and goblins, as a result though the goblins look a bit to “sweet” to still be called goblins, I do like the visual style but if this is going in the direction I suspect I could have liked it if allies are ugly for once.   Still that is such a minor thing I can happily live without it.. I just would have liked it even more if the goblins were fugly beyond anything. Amazing Episode!

Episode Score:

My least favorite view of the lot! That doesn’t mean it’s bad , in fact this epsiode was still quite good! It just was the least impressive.. but impressive still. In this episode Bam still has to survive until 200 regulars are murdered but he gets help from a blue haired kid with a bag filled with power ars and a knife named Khun. He is being hunted by a giant crocodile named Rak for having such a powerful weapon. Due to a turn of events they suddenly find themselves being forced to team up  and they have to trick him into doing that!  After which they are transported to a break room! A game host like fellow shows up and thinks to many succeeded the test and summons a barrier they have to break through! If a team member  doesn’t make it through the entire team is eliminated. Bam is not affected by the barrier and gets a chance to ask some questions about this strange game. Once more this really reminded me of Hunter x Hunter even more so this episode Bam is due to his amnesia quite a lot like Gon, he has abilities he is very much aware of. Khun is a lot like Killua.. a white haired boy with assassin skills and who allegedly is a bit evil! That game guy who showed up even reminded me a bit of Hisoka! Not sure who Rak would be in that analogy though!

My favorite moment would definitely be the way Bam enforces Rak to team up with him. Using his code of honor against him not to attack an unarmed opponent he creates a stalemate that pushes the three towards a time limit and making Rak an ally. Khun convincing him to fight Bam when he is stronger helped with that and I am happy we see a show where brain does seem to  outclass brawn for now.  Which seems to be a theme in the episode. During the barrier trial everyone who tried to force their way in had trouble.. only the strongest could press trough  while those becoming calm and collect  did it with relative ease! Yet it also doesn’t completely work like that as we see a character confidently walking into the barrier and starting to bleed. We get introduced to a mysterious green skinned girl with a tail and a two katana samurai who faced her before.. as some of the most promising candidates to climb the tower. They don’t say a lot and fight each other for a bit using tricks and wits. Not just skill!  If this direction is kept I am happy.

While the barrier trial was done fairly well, the fact that Bam was unaffected by it kinda irked me off as well. He already has a legendary blade, an ability to see things others can’t he is from another world and everyone seems to sense talent in him.  Is it really needed to give him this as well?! I guess it is is because the matter that made up the barrier seems an important element in the tower but still  it was a bit of a Gary Stue moment enforced by how serious the other characters all seem to take it. No jaw drops, no NANI!!  The game guy knows more and only whispers.. “so a monster has appeared” while I really do like that line I could not help but feel like any sense of tension was taken away from me as the other two cleary state they can walk through it without problems.

I do not care that much about the rest yet that it adds stuff for me. I am also still unsure about the visuals! I do like the green girl and Rak but Bam’s design I find kind of bland, Khum has something visually that makes me go meh as well. I notice it’s different and I do not love it but I am not sure yet I hate it either. It keeps me from losing myself in the episode enough to be a negative though. Still  A very decent episode that just had to compete with four better ones. I forgot to mention! I found the opening very boring and unappealing!

Episode Score:

Last week’s episode was rather terrible I had little good to say about that and this week’s episode really made that up for me again. It seems the even episodes are quite good while the odd episodes impress me way less. We take a break from Hikaru which is something I needed to be honest after how he treated Akiri! It is even brought up he acted like a piece of posterior droppings.  In the few moments we see Hikaru we still seem him not care about Akiri and saying Go is not for girls and not for her.. but Sai schools him! Thankfully someone steps up! That’s all I wanted! The rest of the episode is focused on Akira Touya and how he is integrating in the Go Club! His amazing brain and skill make him a treat to the tournament third Seed and made hm rather unpopular amongst the club. This leads to the third seat challenging Touya for a match but him being beaten as he realises he might have to give up on his dream!  It’s a sad scene but it also depicts Akira as a strong character, he knows what he does is a bit shitty but in order to grow as  player to achieve what he wants he must join that club and defeat Hikaru. As he makes his way in.. resent against him grows.

My favorite moment episode is Akira’s duel against the third Seed.. the match was so silent and just some music as stones click on the board. These two both have reasons why they can not lose and why they have to win and that is seen on their faces.. when Touya inevitable wins we also see his opponent break something that surely also would have happened the other way around. These people really care much about Go!.Sai stepping up for Akiri was great as well, telling about how everyone  played Go in his age.  We also see Hikaru set up some growth behind the screens by buying some Go study materials.  I think it  the perspective change is a really clever way to keep the focus where the most interesting things are unfolding rather than just showing us nothing .. like what happened in the episode before. The episode also does a great job to depict that Ivory Tower feeling Touya must be experiencing. He can’t be beaten by these people he never could the only challenge he had was Hikaru. Well at least in his mind. This episode really made me warm up to him a bit instead of depicting him as a crybaby.

The finale of this episode however was a fairly big weak point! I had a major gripe with it that pushed the episode from amazing to just very good for me.  The school team Touya works for wants to embarrass him! Teach him humility! Previously it was established how important winning was and that now is withdrawn in favor of old teammates.. that feels a bit off to me but sure I can buy it.. what I can’t buy however is that some of them seem to be willing to break his arms and let his assistant play for him and then beating him in his weakened and pained state just so they can claim they won. That in their eyes would embarrass him so much he would have to leave them alone. If he loses with a 40 degrees fever because they trick him .. it would make him less of a player?!

  I honestly do not get why breaking his arm and challenging him to a match would discredit him.. also why would you hate the guy so much you want to to that?! While I get it sucks for one guy to lose a spot on the team it would mean your team  has much bigger chances of losing..  and you also care about winning.. so  yeah the way his antagonists are set up is not something I completely buy yet! Just a tad to evil! Still a great episode with just the last two minutes putting a shark in the water. They did not jump it yet.. but they sure as well are building a ramp to do so! I still try to imagine this here.. the checker club breaking a exchange students arms to beat him in checkers seems a bit excessive.

Episode Score:

And with that we close the book on yet another Saturday Morning! I skipped breakfast this time I haven’t been feeling that hungry lately, this afternoon about when this post goes up I will be making Pita Bread Hamburgers though! I am working hard on a blog restyle which should drop 20 days before my blogs anniversary! That way I can prepare something special! Working on that too!
My muscles are giving me some trouble lately sometimes I walk like Gregory House with that my update is done! From now on I will put some of my events here! I hope your next week will be awesome!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure 7

It is time to discuss anime I watched again! Week 7 of bringing back Saturday morning cartoons was a bit different, I allowed myself a break to make some delicious Omelette Au Fromage, with cubed bacon and spinach filling. It was a really nice way to celebrate two new shows adding to the line up. Welcome “That Time I reincarnated as a Slime” and “Tower of God” to my lineup! I was happy with both my rule-break as well as my new additions because..those were the best part of my Saturday morning

An albatross flies over japanese skies and is threatened to be shot down for not having the right documentation.. he claims he can’t help it because of instincts.. but because of being awarded human rights  he needs passports and proper regulations. He goes to land in Anima city..but he crashes due to a storm coming up.. and what do you know.. he crashes straight onto Michiru’s bed. It’s been a dream of Michiru to fly so seeing her first flying type beast man fascinates her. Quickly bonding as he invites her for a flight… at that time we see the Mayor asking Shirou to look into some flying beast man terrorists… jeez.. I am so surprised! BNA is SO lazily written at times. The colliding plot lines thing happens in EVERY single episode. It invalidates so much of Michuru’s life for me.. I don’t believe that this would happen EVERY single time we see the tanuki discover something about herself. This really annoyed me! 

Good! This series used to be like that too my guy!

The lesson in this episode also doesn’t land for me at all. Basically it says beastman are annoyed that they now that they are seen as equals in human society have to follow their rules while it sometimes goes against their instincts. They are other life forms that should be held to other rules. I strongly disagree. I mean yes I get that birds should be allowed to be migratory..but if you have the power to look human, this is nothing but mere safety precautions. If I go to a muslim country I can’t expect them to allow atheist to break some of their religious  laws simply because I do not believe in Allah! If I go to India I do not go and eat a cow.. simply because I have a doctors note that says I should eat more red meat. No a country determines the rules. Those rules can be crooked and may require change.. but  this really pales to issues real people are having here! The Albatross can even freely fly across the country.. he just has to go to the ground and fill in some paperwork to do so.. to get a tourist visa.  So his reason to become a terrorist and threaten the Major of Anima City to bury his people who got shot while ignoring a 3 minute paperwork job really did not land.
It really made the world building seem flimsy and poorly thought off. I get someone has needs.. but because of the entire plot of the episode they proof this rule is valid!

Shirou by now also just exist to punch guys Michiru hangs out with

Of course the whole encounter is deeply tied in with the church as well.. who most likely hired a terrorist to kill the human financer of the city.. The blond bad guy who owns the chemical comany.. just so they can save him.. in order to be granted asylum. We get the obvious fake out, like really obvious, and Michiru learns how to make wings and fly.  Nazuna can turn into a better more shiny bird though and the Priestess Death Rube.. as Nazuna is also known as is now the hero of the city. Like always.. the life and development of Michiru is given some love and attention.. this feels like her and sprouting wings seems fitting and in line with her nature. It’s as if someone created a really amazing character and loved it very much..but then threw a very cheap world around her.  The episode was watchable, the new character design was pretty sleak.. but it also feels super obvious. I’d say this is about as enjoyable as riding one of those really cheap fair. .haunted house rides. It looks really cool from the outside but inside it’s filled with plastic spiders and easy to predict moments that completly kill any immersion you could have had. BAD Episode.

I suspected they might be the same person..clearly I was wrong

Score:

This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. In general a second episode of anime I always find rather underwhelming. Episode 1 usually is an amuse bouche of what is to come and in episode 2 you often have to do so much ground work in a setting that it oftenly is not very action packed.  This episode felt like that at least for the first two thirds. The third act was very strong. The first act mostly depicts how Masayoshi struggles  being a hero and while I had a lot of fun with seeing it , not a lot happens. He scares a guy by sneaking up on him and scolding him for littering and he prevents a woman from putting her trash outside forty minutes early.  Which she did because she wanted to sleep in.  While it is fun.. we do not see a payoff to this directly, it comes back in the third act. Which in hindsight makes this a lot better.. but while viewing it I couldn’t help but frown. At this time we suddenly feel very distant from Masayoshi. Goto hears some complaints and just sighs and we see them bonding as bro’s for a bit until we move to the second act. It isn’t a bad act..but due to the way the obnoxious hook is let go.. it felt kinda unrewarding (about 8 minutes in)

You should not have such faboulous hair in the rain either!

While hanging out Masayoshi’s agent shows up. Ishihara has a new gig for Masayoshi being an extra for some idol girl group.. which based on the opening credits and what happens next will gain some importance later on.  We see the his tale that he feels uncomfortable being a model being validated here when he has a hard time to contain his nerves. Which is a nice way to establish his character.The episode really does do a great job in setting up Masayoshi as a character… it just doesn’t do a whole lot of anything else. We are introduced to the idol girl Maya who admittedly is quite cute and I can see here becoming very important to Masayoshi! To calm his nerves we see him sing/mumble a sentai song which she does seem to recognise. Singing about an axe, I am not  sure if it’s an actual sentai show .. but the axe comes back in all three the acts. Unfortunately  Maya’s fascination with our protagonist is kinda brushed off and glossed over. I am sure it will come back but now about 15 minutes in I have yet to see anything happen yet. 

An accurate depiction of how wild this epssode is so far!

The third act makes up for this with a very cute resolution of the first act. Goto invites his new friend for sushi to talk about the complaints concerning Samurai Flamenco asking him to shelve the idea for a bit. Which obviously Masayoshi doesn’t want to do. Goto asks him about why he wants to stop these petty crimes and again I see a call back to Tarantino like dialogue when they begin to talk about Umbrella theft.. which is very common in Japan. You just take an umbrella for the rain. Masayoshi never uses one.. because he once stole an Umbrella of a young boy who got the flu from walking through the cold. This made him vilianise himself so hard he can not let go of any petty crime. Rules exist for a reason and he wants to keep them all. There is a beautiful pureness to this. Goto got drunk from their outing and on their way out.. he notices his umbrella is gone.

Awww shucks I bet this would make great Yaoi

However there is a cute strap of his girlfriend on that Umbrella which makes it worth more to him. We see our boy play the noble hero getting Goto his umbrella back. It brings the two closer together. It’s beautiful and funny to see how the hero will not even run a single red light and his justice is done within the complete confines of the rules. ..except for vigilantism I guess..but he doesn’t really move on the turf of law enforcers either.. he just gives offenders a stern talking too.  It was a beautiful way to wrap up this episode and gave it the kick of action that it needed. I kinda wish the first act and the second act were swapped as I think that would have been even more beautiful and a bit less fragmented. All in all a quite enjoyable episode.. that suffers from having to much to set up. 

I got nothing.. can you think of a funny for this one?!
Too invested in the last part to screen cap!

Score:

Foovay recommended this one to me and I must say , this was my favorite watch of the day. It was also the weirdest. There were so many tones and voices in this episode. We begin with the death of the main character. I mean .. that is not a spoiler .. you need to die to be reincarnated. This actually happens rather vicious and bloody.  Thirty Seven Year old virgin Satoru is having an outing with a coworker and his new girlfriend when a random assailant charges at them with a knife. Satoru jumps in front of his colleague and saves his life.. at the cost of his own. As he lays there dying he wishes he would not feel pain.. complains about heat and cold and worries about the safety off his hard drive and electronic devices. This all registers with a voice in his head who grants him these wishes for the next time he is reborn.
He shall have a body that feels no pain, heat or cold and one that will be a predator! This all leads him into being born as a slime! I really felt for the guy that stab looked so painful and not comedic at all! I was really surprised. 

You are on Pinkie’s Paradise! Rejoice..also do my dishes!

Through a lot of surreal visuals we see him move into another world and discover some of his skills , talking more to the voice in his head which sounds an awful lot like a computer  voice.  I love these types of visuals, it really made me question what was going on.. and that is a sentiment that I really like to feel. The revelation that he is a slime is always not very dragged out.  Which is nice, the title spoils that to us already so it’s kinda good that it doesn’t linger. This moves into some Bofuri-like cute moments of the slime dissolving a flower just because it’s the only fun there is to be had and slowly discovering it’s abilities. This would be my favorite moment of the episode. There is just something about characters experimenting with their new bodies or powers that really charm me. The slime also emotes wonderfully well a lot better than i expected though it is nowhere nearly as cute as the Dragon Quest slimes. Based on the opening  which we find at the ending of the episode this time, he will later transform into a boyish girl person thing akin to Kirito in Gun gale. I might be wrong though. I am pretty sure a slime would be genderfluid.

I know right.. that last joke was funny!

The final part of the episode we have the little blob learn how to see using magical perception.. having eating some magical rocks he can learn that ability I would assume. The Dragon Veldora gives him this skill if he promises not to be scared of him… which is a very nice moment and my second favorite moment. The dragon has been so lonely and is very happy to have someone for company for a bit. It seems that the slime will be on the “bad guy” side.. but  it doesn’t (yet at least) depict the dragon as evil. He might lie.. but he could just have been put here for being a monster. He destroyed a town sure.. but he had been sealed away with a lot of force.  I see a lot of promise in this format. I do like the visuals and the designs so far as well. Our main character being of a somewhat older age makes him credible to some life experiences and gives him much more proper motivation to try a different lifestyle than say.. a 14 year old who got hit by a truck. The way skills are used might be very fun.. it looks to be and I can not wait to see more! This could be a very interesting show to me with the right amount of cute, intrigue and magic and trippy visuals! Next week I will find out more.

That’s a dragon who breathes air! Beware!

Score:

I thought this would be a Isekai.. but it seems it is closer to a magical fantasy action show.  Bam and his dear friend Rachel are from ..the other side of some gate.. but the semantics aren’t fully clear to me yet. They do seem to live in a world without a sky. Rachel who dreams to see the stars one day therefor wishes to climb the legendary tower of god.. on top there is basically god  but also  whatever you seek.  However to climb this tower you must face some tough challenges in many life or death situations. Bam gets a magic sword that is into him.. or something and so he must explore and prove his worth! His friend went ahead and now he works hard to catch up.

For lots and lots of love! Or money..whatever I find first..

This at least seems to me to be the plot of the show and it feels very different from what I have seen so far. Both designwise as storywise the story seems to follow a few different beats as your run of the mill anime! Probably due to it’s Korean influences.  We see a skeletal bunny be some sort of trial master. In honesty he could be a character from Hollow Knight.. he looks exactly like that.. just larger or with more human dimensions. Ban is given a trial that people even on the 20th level have issues against so it seems he is being treated unfair. This draws the attention of some princess.  This whole scene fascinated me.. I think her name was Jahad but that might be a title .. I am not sure yet. She objects to him doing the trial but to Ban, Rachel is his entire world.. so she decides to give him a royal blade. Without thinking a moment longer he walks into the trial! He will see Rachel again. So far I like Ban, he is more silent than your usual main character nowadays.. we really get a great sense of his determination in this first episode.

I am pretty sure that is NOT an Eel

My favorite moment is when Ban is trying to break some orb in the area a giant steel eel lives.. or at leats thats what it’s called. We do not see his strikes persé.. we see why he strikes. We see the reason of his strength, which I found a lovely poetic scene. We also see his cries call out the eel thing again.. signifying we see a man with a deep passion here a deep care for the woman he is after and he will not easily be stopped! Yet his cause will also put him into danger. Jahad and her navigator.. see things going awry so in a burst of desperation to ask the sword for help.. he does so and she answers. Hugging him unleashing her powers.

Where is that shadow coming from, she is litteraly bathing in light!

For now it seems like she accepted him simply for being pretty! I do hope this remains true! I would love for an all powerful sword to be so petty! With the sword unlocked he clears the trial and is immediatly booted in the next trial! A surival game where half of the trialist have to be eliminated. This begins to introduce us to some characters I saw in other peoples screenshots and the opening credits so I bet episode 2 will be important! I am at least hungry for more even though I am not the biggest fan of the character designs yet. Except for the sword lady!

Well at least it will be easier to walk on then!

Score:


This episode was never going to be as great as episode 6, that episode was so amazing so this one was bound to let me down a bit but boy…. this was a rough one to finish. While it does a great job a setting up Hikaru’s desire to stand on his own two feet and not be depended on Sai as much I feel like that was already established in the previous episode. So this episode just really focuses on validating that. In a way where nothing happens. They start to found a Go club in their own school and somehow Akiri is in it but the club is not official yet and they need new members so they make a poster.. which people remove which angers Hikaru. While it seems in line with his character to get into these tantrums.. he himself did not care about Go before at all  so I’d imagine he could at least relate to others a bit more. Hikaru was the worst thing in this episode if I am honest.

Okay , the poster wasn’t very good either!

We see him lash out at Akiri for no reasons as all and it comes at the cost of his drive to learn the game. He is improving but he overshouts that emotion  all the time. When Akiri asks to be thought to play the game he goes ape-shit at her when she makes an illegal move.  I felt so bad for the girl, his unwillingness to teach her seems to clash with what this episode is about .. making new people enthused about Go. I know this is a bit the way their established relation goes but if that is true why would Tsutsui teach Akiri instead. See her get into this.We cut away to a while later and you’d expect her to be upset.  Instead she just takes Hikaru’s verbal rage  and makes a nice colourful poster which is cute and I am happy to see more Akiri but it all felt so inconsequential. 

I have known these rules for a week! You are Trash Akiri! Ignorant Trash! A WEEK!

Akira meanwhile notices that Hikaru doesn’t come to the Go “café”  anymore  so he decides to join his school club in order to face Hikaru in tournaments. Reason is that Hikaru blows him off for a duel as he wants to meet him on his own strength. Which is the best thing this episode does.. but doesn’t Sai have a problem with this?  He wants to perfect the divine move and the strongest opponent he can currently face says he has gotten a lot stronger. Last episode we see Sai beg to play and now without him mentioning a single thing we see him stick by Hikaru’s  call to do everything himself . I really would have liked a more 50/50 divide here.

That outfit doesn’t look very becoming on Akrii

Hikaru was told to learn from how Sai plays to better and that synergy made the last episode so beautiful he could begin to see the flow of the stones..so why is that suddenly turned to 0 so hard. The whole Akira’s Go club not accepting him because he is to good and taking their spot makes sense and I think the whole difference between those who play with passion and those who play for credit can offer interesting plotlines in the future.. but that thing relegated to be a voice over while he walks through a hall and we see trophies. It just didn’t land.. nothing really did in this episode for me. I am glad Hikaru is coming into his own but for me he took a step back from where he was last week. This week some of Hikaru definitely lost some Moku. At least I think that is the term!  Not awful just very meh!

His best weapon is his Blue Eyes…wait wrong anime?! Huh!?

Score:

A bit of a disappointing week. Now before people go all defensive, the episode of Hikaru and Samurai Flamenco can still end up being amazing in the bigger picture, they just did not offer me much as stand alone episodes. I still really like their respective series and their potential.
BNA.. however is really showing it’s cracks. I just can’t get over the same trope being used each week. It’s weird how these last two episodes took such a nose dive for me. Michiru is still an amazing character and I would love to see more about her life, I just don’t think this world is clever enough let alone the main story thread. Maybe next week I will be proven wrong though.

Such a nice Screenshot from Slime to cap things off with!


I Totally want a Slime Pet: Dragon Quest Your Story Review

Collectable Monster Enthousiast, Movie Fan, Anime followers and gamer. These are all words I could use to describe myself with. So when a movie shows up that appeals to all of these assets I have to see it! While this movie slipped under my radar a little netflix Browse brought this movie to my attention and I am so glad it did! I loved this movie so much! 

I got into the Dragon Quest series quite late into my life and into the series. The first game I played was Journey of the Cursed King on PS II , but I was blown away by the charm of this series. The art, the music the world building and even the fact that all the spells had such unique names. I love the fantasy genre and a High Fantasy, Anime Like adventure with characters designed by Akira Toriyama quickly become something I could not resist. Now I have played plenty but V eluded me so far. I just never found it on sale or in stores. This movie is mostly inspired on the adventures of that particular Dragon Quest. A game that let you add monsters to your party and fight by your side, but also that allowed you to get married and get characters pregnant and fight along your offspring. While nowadays this is nothing special back in the days of the SNES it was something very unique.

Netflix doesn’t let me capture screengrabs and google did not find me a correct scene.. so here’s just a random game screenshot!

This movie opens with the birth of main character Luca.. depicted as if it was played on the SNES. Seeing Luca’s earliest moments in life in 16 bit graphics with all dialogue happening in text boxes. A nice way to open up for those nostalgic about the game, but in hindsight also a very smart choice given the route this movie takes. We follow Luca trough and in weird ways even beyond the adventures of this iconic Dragon Quest game. We see him grow from a young boy, up until a grown man with an 8 year old son. What immediately stands out is that these characters have lost the design of Akira Toriyama and traded it in for something more akin to the style of the latest Pokémon Movie. A stylistic choice people have kind of critiqued but which I prefer when it comes to 3d animation to be honest.At least when you also go for more real texturing.  I prefer a bit of a western look on characters Alla Disney.. as opposed to how characters look in Jump Force for example.. they feel a bit more natural. More.. flowing. 

After Pokémon this style grew on me! Best of both worlds or something

Luckily in nearly all ages of his life, Luca is assisted by his Sabertooth Purrcy and the adorable slime Gootrude.  Every monster seems straight out of these games and that to me is enough! Especially if we consider the message of this movie. Sure these characters could be more in line with how Toriyama designed them and there would be nothing wrong with that choice either.. but we can play them in in 3d or 2d like that in one of the many remakes. Gootrude especially demonstrates how great these animations are. Morphin, changing shapes and showing so much emotion without barely making a sound.  I love Gootrude! I want one of my own! The iconic slime design is something that should not be missing from a Dragon Quest movie and they know it.  Each scene the slime  wasa highlight for me . From the first introduction where it follows the “party”  escaping from their live in servitude, up to its final scene. It never not made me happy, but simply just being animated, and that is what this movie in a way does.

N’awww I want one so bad I bet it’s really nice to hug in summer

Since this movie spans about roughly 30 years as well as deals with some identity struggles of our hero you can guess the pacing of this movie is a bit of an odd one. We see about ten seperate quests resolve, as well as some side questing that is actually cut a lot in montage like how Bofuri did it. While catering  more towards the light hearted side and a bit of a younger audience.. at first it seems. Lethal spells barely leave an impact and if the main hero is near death he just is a bit charred like how Ash looks when he gets flamethrowered by his Charizard.

The romance is also rather Disney ish. Nothing complex , just winning a girl by telling you love them or wish to marry them. Luca has the choice between two girls who also in the games can both be romanced and taken on as a main companion. I felt his pain at the decision as I am always bad in these sorts of things! It was weird at first, because I did not really feel like watching through a movie..  the way things are told, the way decisions are made it still felt like a video game. 

Would you choose Nera?! Let me know in the comments!

This results in the weird pacing that honestly could make me condemn it as a movie. We get zero explanation how spells work, they just appear.. as if the characters level up, they focus on scenes a game would focus on rather than scenes a movie would focus on. As a movie the blossoming relationship between Luca and the girl he ends up choosing could be a much greater focal point, but we see him discover his feelings through quests, events and poisons. Dialogue feels wooden at times rushed.. as if it is still NPC dialogue. Which might sound like a flaw but I actually loved it. This isn’t as much a game adaptation as it is a movie cut together from cutscenes and gameplay as it were.  It results in a super fast movie which you definitely need to keep an eye on, because many scenes are in fact interconnected that really made me want to play more JRPG’s. Even in it’s plot devices it doesn’t deviate from being a game. Characters can use the Zoom spell to teleport to previously visited areas, healing items are still a thing and motivations do not really change. Spells don’t really work differently as they would in the game.

Or would you rather make babies with Bianca? Let me know in the comments because this stuff matters!

At one point when I saw Luca cast Swoosh I began to tell myself.. I kind of wish they would use these spells a bit more creatively.. you know break the boundaries from Videogame character to actual hero and just seconds later he cast Kaswoosh .. a tornado and rode it up using the storm to move his sword to the enemy. I get an urge and this movie abided.  At the moment I felt the movie might be TOO video gamey, that issue got a resolve as well. A odd plot twist polarised the audience , with people either loving or hating it.. I fell on the loving side. It comes out of nowhere yet at the same time the build up has been there , not just from the writing itself but in the concept of the very movie itself. Whatever gripes I had  were immediately expunged. It was truly amazing and the conclusion this movie ended on was a message I very strongly resonated with. At every single turn.. at every single twist and at every single decision those movie made, that made me doubt, the next scene they explained to me why.. and I was like.. oh clever! I like! I feel tired from watching this high speed train and weird experience but I feel extremely satisfied as well.

Again Netflix ruined me placing a neat tornado action shot here! So here is satisfied family instead

This movie to me was truly something special while on paper not being that great of a movie. This is much more a love letter to the series throughout the  eyes of a fan. While some people found it condescending towards fans I think the writer of the movie basically self inserted himself as the audience and more. In a way we all have been that main character. Not necessarily in this game but if you ever played a JRPG you know so well how these things go you can still recognise the trope. From simple loot quest because they are needed to progress the main story, to moral choices, characters that will never let stuff go because of the way NPC’s are written. It’s all in here! Almost as if I am the player. The combat fluidity, the sound effects used, there is so much to find and love about this that it really amazed me.

The villain of this movie looks way creepier than in the game 10/10 Nightmare Fuel

At the center of it all is the AMAZING Dragon Quest soundtrack that shines in all its glory. The main quest playing when our hero embarks on a new adventure, the fight theme playing when he is fighting for his life. The correct music playing in towns and it also feeling like a RPG town. It reminded me off when I first left Midgar in Final Fantasy and entered Nibelheim for the first time. That same quaint atmosphere, with room for some minor quests that are set in town and in the local nearby areas it just clicked to me. I might not have played this game, but I have played games like this and that is enough to recognise those tropes to love what is going on. When Luca fights a big monster named Björn and the boss theme of the series starts playing I stood up and shouted “Yes YES!” I could have clapped but that would be silly by myself! This movie is Dragon Quest done as a movie.. instead of a movie done about Dragon Quest.

So this makes the fourth smash character that has a video game movie if we omit Pac-man from Pixels

That sounds confusing huh! This is much more a movie about a video game than basicly anything else I have seen so far. Detective Pikachu follows the story of a game, Sonic is a movie about a character of a game, Mario just used the name of a game , Assassins Creed used a mythos of a game and everything Uwe Boll makes… well  I guess that is what happens if you play a video game while taking a poo, then shoving the poo in a movie projector. No this movie is really about the game, I noticed that I kept this movie as spoiler free as I possibly could because I want JRPG lovers to see this gam..uhm movie. I would not go as far as call this the best video game movie of all times.. because.. it’s not that much of a movie. Sonic is better in that perspective.  While I heard some say by changing designs and by carrying this message it is speaking very lowly of the fans I think this is utter non sense. Had they did this exact same thing to my favorite Jrpg ever, Chrono Trigger or one the “Tales of” games I would be so happy.

I feel Purrcy would have really bad breath with all those weird things to eat

This movie made me think like I always do..it made me see the other side of my moral choices in video games, the ones that are normally glossed over. A quest we refuse to take, a romance we do not pursue just because we rather chase another character. It has an impact on an NPC’s life .. can I only be ruled by what I want.. can a character ever  be more to me than it should. In a way a movie like this brings our favorite characters to live. It brings worlds we love to live, despite that there might be pacing issues, odd design choices to accommodate other things, despite not having all that much of a story. On reason I talked about the plot is because it’s a JRPG its kinda irrelevant. Hero has to stop the big evil and save his mother, for this he needs to find a magic sword and a legendary hero.  You can replace all these elements and it would still be as awesome, save a princess, find a special and a mentor to teach him said spell. It would not change a single thing about this movie because it is fully build on atmosphere.

I bet Bjorn has worse breath though


In a way it’s like the slime companion of the actual Dragon Quest V (I looked this up) It may look simple, there isn’t much depth to it and it kind of weird, yet for those who love the genre it is an excellent choice. It doesn’t have the power other movies have, but it makes up for it in spades with spirit. Endgame you can have some doubts about yet it somehow feels right.
This movie made me proud to be me, to be a gamer. It reminded me off the importance of heroes like Luca and great side characters like Bianca, Nera and in my main game characters like Marle and Frog.  It’s easy to see them as just video game characters, bits of programmed blobs of text that feel nothing no matter the choices you make.

When the main character is not in a burning town area, are the people still suffering?

Yet these characters mean so much to many people that in a way they are more real than you and me! To me their feelings always mattered. Like how I nickname Pokémon that I am never going to use regardless, because they should at least get that token of affection. In Sword and Shield I do take my unused Pokémon to camp to play with them so they never feel lonely.I’ll always take Aerith on a date instead of Tifa. The journeys we take make some characters more real to us than we care to admit. I felt more sad for Arche Klein of Tales of Phantasia than seeing a same sort of story on reality tv.

Eeeek Pinkie Watches reality tv?!

This movie is a testament to our experience as gamers, a sign,  that there are others like me out there who feel like this. It confirmed to me that we as geeks, can learn lessons from our favorite characters and that the games we play DO matter. It made me proud to be gamer, because I have fought so many adventures with many amazing friends! I experienced adventures that the general populous can only dream off and to me it’s just as real as what Chad gains in muscle at the local gym.

So now it’s time for my score?! How do you think you did Gootrude?!
Hints of Starfruit in this cocktail, if you like weird endings that are set up well! I had a blast with this movie