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!
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!
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.
Steam Powered Salutations and engine sounds driving out my frustrations. Slime has been in a slump during this whole Charybdis mini-arc and in this episode we get the finale. One big final battle filled with cool visuals and people making their last stand.. Let’s close this arc off in style… or turn Charybdis in Sin from Final Fantasy X and have the OP character that is NOT the main character oneshot it..that will close it off as well. The weird thing is .. I kinda like that it went this way.. but also not?!
The Summary
Rimuru’s troops fight Charybdis and the Megalodon in this episode. Along with some troops sent by Gazel Dwargo on Pegasi the final battle goes relatively smoothly showing how far everyone has come along. Turning those Megalodon into mince meat within the first four minutes of the episode. Only Gobta’s group of tiny goblins struggles and a disappointed master looks onto him, finishing the creature off. Shion, Ranga, Souhei and the Pegasus Knights take down the other Megalodon and Souhei is called a dreamboat again. I love how into him Rimuru is still and he is an insanely capable guy! When everything is said and done and the sharks lie in defeat Sin.. I mean Charbdis is beginning to shoot it’s scales at people swarming them and cutting them up. It is time for Rimuru to step in.
Rimuru fights Charybdis on his own but doesn’t manage to do enough damage because this monster has “ultra” regeneration. Rimuru uses a new ability called gluttony to absorb all the cells and the group now can go for all out attacks… which is skipped. We see people laying on the floor all tired out and Rimuru guesses that they did no more than 30% damage to the thing. The monster yells the name Milim in frustration and Rimuru realises the thing is not here for him but for Milim.. seeing that Phobio is inside he now asks Milim to join the frey and take it down carefully. Trying to save Phobio.. she one shots it and saves Phobio and Demon Lord Carrion shows up t o take back his apprentice.. after shoving his head through the floor hard. He seems like a swell guy and calls himself the king of all beasts and happily enters a non aggression pact with Rimuru. Milim is happy she did Milim stuff. So all is well that ends well.
The Positives
By the brief summary and some critical lines you may have already noticed I was not the biggest fan of this episode, but in fairness.. I do like this episode best in the current mini arc. There are lots of satisfying actions and Milim is actually fun in this episode and USED for what she is set up to be used for. I like how she is eager to fight and the irony of Rimuru denying it from her because he suspects the creature is after him. Rimuru has been very central and this form of “arrogance” is somewhat entertaining. I don’t like it from his angle.. but more on that later. I do like this episode from Milims angle though.. her apathy and not caring if people die is something I kind of enjoy! She can sleep while peoples life are in danger.. because Rimuru orders her to stand down. It’s on him.. and because of this weakness on his side I really liked it as a positive on hers. I also quite like how Charbdis who is said to have the strength of a Demon Lord gets squished so easily.. showing that that analogy might be true.. but demon lords vary so much in power.. it does not say anything. I do enjoy that kind of power scaling. Especially since RImuru was not good enough to face it. It implies higher stakes later on.
I really enjoyed a lot of the fight scenes.. though most of the truly satisfying action was against the Megalodons instead of against Sin.. I mean Charybdis. Glutonny was sweet to see as well and Carrion’s raw physical strength also had a nice impact. I was not bored this episode. Shion Souhei and Ranga making a stand against the scales wasn’t bad either.. so in terms of events.. all of them provided ample entertainment. Milim’s final attack was a bit lackluster.. but hey she was holdhing back so that actually works for me.. it can be lackluster if it’s meant to be I guess. Though it did not feel satisfying.. I can live with this .. I think! The fact that Clayman is being outed as the possible instigator in this event is also interesting and will help drive the plot further. So there is excitement on both a visual and narrative level. However.. there is a big problem.. with the engine that drives this episode.
The Negatives
Where this show really fails for me is with consequences.. there are non.. for no one. If Rimuru was not in this episode nothing would have really changed..okay Phobio might be dead.. but he would not because that is not how this show is written. Rimuru makes a tactical error in this episode assuming it is him the calamity creature is after.. as a result HE wants to be the one to deal with it. I already think this is a bit out of character for RImuru because the entire idea of all these alliances and bonds and stuff is so he can keep everyone safe and the reason he adopted Milim in his village is to keep the village safe from big threats beyond him. Yet for some reason he wants to fight for himself.. his followers kind of made him. The fact that Phobio is inside does not change that image so letting Milim fight now.. fits neither mindset. Not the mindset to look like a strong leader, not the mindset to keep everyone safe. To make matters worse they make a joke that people do not believe Milim is a Demon Lord and she is just one of the tools at Rimuru’s disposal.. so this plan was useless TWO TIMES over.
A bad plan I am fine with.. but then let there be consequences.. let Ranga die in the attack , heck even Shion or Souhei, let the city of Dwargon be mad that he risked their lives while he had such a weapon. Let there be something.. but no everyone gets neatly potioned up and when Milim one shots the monster everyone is okay with it. So what is the point of this episode then?! Rimuru doesn’t seem to learn from his misinterpretation, Milim doesn’t change and no one is hurt and no trust was violated so the status quo has not changed at all since they met Milim.. everything is still the same.. like we are trampling water. To add insult to injury we also see Treyni walk up to the group unscathed. Her sister told them they were fighting the calamity but would lose.. but losing against a giant calamity style creature .. apparently also means walk away unharmed. So all we get is entertainment ..but with no impact.. I am happy to be entertained. I also like the intro and outro.. that keeps me entertained as well.. and this last arc is basically just like a 60 minute intro song.
The Score
I did like what I saw.. I just did not like what I saw between the lines.. and for an episode it was still entertaining.. it just was very superficial and empty.. like the eggshells of a cool painted easter egg sitting on your plate in pretty colours. This episode is really greasy Kebab.. as long as you eat it you enjoy yourself.. but as soon as that final bite has been taking the regret and the slightly icky after taste comes in. Does that make Kebab bad food.. no not really! So I don’t think it is really a bad episode either.. It’s just a bit to fillery for my taste. Not as in.. not relevant to the plot.. but it has the same circle of no consequence a filler arc has.
I am happy this did not turn out to be the final story in the first season because if that was true I will be honest I would probably not return for season two. So I am kind of happy this stuff happened the way it did now we can move on , into better and more epic things. I love that it’s light.. but I also loved that I cried for Shizu.. I love when the village grows and when new monsters get added and I want more of that. So all in all I have very mixed feelings about this episode. It serves my needs very well.. but it is also nothing. So I will just say that it is okay. Depending on your mood and your need for continuity this can either be a perfectly fine episode to turn your brain off… or a frustrating one if you want to see anything in terms of character growth or overall development. It exists.. and for a show you hold dear just having an extra episode can be good enough.. for me that sentiment went out of the window with the last two episodes though.
Konichi-well-this-hasn’t-certainly-been-my-best-week-for-anime everyone! I haven’t been impressed with Slime for a fair few episodes now ..well two to be exact.. it just feels longer because of the move.. but still this current chain of events of Slime feels a bit Meh to me. Where last episode could at least keep me entertained.. This episode was the equivalent of shaking a can of cheap peanuts to check if there are more. “This can’t be all right?” I shook the can with all my might and no additional peanuts dropped out.. it still was a fairly okay snack.. but more and more Slime is devolving into just that for me.. a snack! Bear in mind though I watched this after that shower, and after Digimon and Samurai Flamenco had such “bummer” episodes.
The Summary
Phobio, that beast guy ..is really angry at Milim for insulting him and punching him. Everyone in his beast troup thinks it would be best to discuss a peace with the Slime creature because they have craftsmanship that completely blows theirs out of the water.. but Phobio can’t seem to let his thirst for vengeance go. He wants to attack the village.. in his own name so he doesn’t involve his Lord.. but also that.. by doing that he can tell his lord that at least something .. happened?!? He wants to make his lord proud..but because Milim is there and she annoys him.. peace was never an option. Two members of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance show up.. being Tear and Footman who tell Phobio he can be strong enough to be a demon Lord by freeing the creature Charybdis and claiming his power.. hungry for vengeance the beastman things on this and eventually agrees. Sending home his troops because they should not be involved. He then follows the two masked Majinn to a Mysterious cave.
Clearly the two are setting him up to be some kind of sacrifice to release this powerful being.. which I think.. ends up working.. as we see the creature take flight just a little while later. Tear also killed some young dragons which they fed to Charybdiss so it can spawn 12 Flying Megalodon.. so now we got one organic sky fortress that is rumored to be the son of Veldora with 12 flying sharks heading for the village of Rimuru. The Dryad try to stop him but seem to be growing weaker by the minute.. so Treyni’s sister tries to contact the village. She is covered by a murderous aura.. which apparently comes from Charybdiss being close.. so there are a few trust issues at first. Milim offers to take down the Calamity class creature..but Rimuru’s followers ask her to stay out and let Rimuru resolve this instead. To prove his worth to the humans so they can establish trade roads in good trust. Rimuru doesn’t seem on board with this idea but eventually asks Milim to stay out of this, making everyone else fight at a mountain that is at a crossroads to Dwargon Rimuru and whatever direction the monster is flying in from. Battleplans are being made and that is where this episode ends.
The Positives
I am not happy with this episode! There is so much wrong with it.. and I mean SO much! It is however not without it’s merrits. Eren and her group finally get some nice interaction with Rimuru which I had been craving for last week. The hot-tub scene this week is actually pretty funny with the humans liking this village so much they basically are taking a vacation in town and the girls taking a bath so much that even Shuna is beginning to give up etiquette. The comedy this week is quite solid! The jokes with Milim are also fairly succesful. Her drive to prove herself to her besty and not being able to hurts her which feels in character.. but now she is adapted enough not to cause a tantrum. So we just see her switch in her battle outfit.. and then being upset. I do like that! It makes sense Milim would wear her battle outfit underneath her clothes just so she can clobber enemies! I had a good chuckle.
The manipulation that Tear and Footman do towards Phobio is also quite nice, the dialogue is nicely written and you can sense them testing the waters to find the correct buttons to press. Digging deeper and deeper getting underneath his skin, eventually you know there is no more escape for him.. they successfully manipulated him into doing their bidding. His troup caring for their leader and trying to talk him out of it also made this scene a lot more interesting… they do make them a bit too “goody-good” for my taste.. because with this mentality the conflict of the week before would never really have happened.. but all in all they do a good job of fleshing out this group and making you feel that the bigger evil took a win here today. Ill intent has prevailed. I do think Phobio could have Ill intent enough.. but making the Harlequin Alliance more depraved gives us something to worry about in the future and I do like that. Rimuru establishing his beef with the Demon Lord Leon was also one of the episode highlights.. Unfortunately that is also where those end.
The Negatives
Jeez-Louise there was a lot of stupidity in this episode. While some scenes were very strongly written .. the big picture is completely messed up and kind of angered me. Let me start with the very idea of Rimuru fighting Charybdis without Milim. That feels insanely stupid..instead he is going to risk his own citizens and that of his only ally… just to proof their worth for a trade deal?! .. How about protecting the lives of everyone in this village?! Didn’t you adopt Milim into the village for exactly these kinds of situations?! What’s the point of her being there if you are not going to use her?! I do get that for the tension arc in the show you need to pull these kinds of Shenanigans …but that could have been done so much better. Say for example that Charybdiss can absorb the energy of Demon Lords.. so Milim CAN’T be there.. or make clear that it is after her and it will become super powerful if it succeeds. Rimuru so far always wants to fight using every strategic advantage he has.. so no using your nuke ..at least as a backup seems.. odd and just done in favour of the show’s tension.
Other than that.. the episode was also quite boring. We did not see what happened to Phobio, seeing him being consumed by darkness and transformation would have been super cool, we do not see the fight of the dryads against Charybdis. .not getting a sneak peak of its abilities, instead we just get exposition and bathhouse scenes. Why does Charybdis have to have flying sharks, it seems kind of random.. and I do like random but this doesn’t feel whacky enough.. the design of Charybdis is very otherworldly so I would have loved to see matching adds… just big sharks.. is kinda boring. We do not see what happens to Phobio’s group, we do not see Tear feed Charybdis those dragons, all the important stuff happens trough exposition and we get “the girls having a holding the breath contest” or “Rimuru talking about trade routes”. I like both scenes but when you find out what was happening at the same time.. I can not help but feeling quite screwed over.. you showed the wrong thing. I get the other thing is harder to animate but this really felt like a cop-out.
The Score
I had a few chuckles with this episode of Slime.. it still has its charm and I still want to see the rest of the show.. I do feel like next episode it will pick up again..but this block of three episodes has been fairly weak! They all have something to offer.. stand alone and it has enough charisma to sell itself.. but that doesn’t change the fact that it made some big fudge-ups in terms of how the story is connected.. character roles and overall narrative flow of things. It feels a bit directionless… as if the writer was throwing stuff against the wall and see what sticks. Thus Milim feels a bit like an overpowered Jarjar and Rimuru’s actions don’t make that much sense.. and that is a shame, because there is so much you can do here.
I do feel that the writer tried to take a page from Oda’s book and create a long lasting epic, in the same vein as One Piece.. with introducing new hurdles to overcome. I do feel that letting Rimuru go after the Demon Lords instead of all this new stuff would be more satisfying. Now we get one Demon Lord awakening an Eldritch abomination basically to fight Rimuru, while another doesn’t even seem to know he is a slime sending a footsoldier to deal with him. Which could make sense..if not everyone has heard of Rimuru.. but both the dwarves and the humans also heard of a slime defeating the Orc Lord.. and since the demon Lords still are in an Alliance and can’t interfere with each other,,, this seems a very improbable chain of events. Oda makes the world move separate from the main characters as well but he writes them as to how they interact with the world.. here everything moves seperate but it’s written how they interact with Rimuru and we get a less cohesive world as a result.. and in this episode that caused a major conflict for me that made this one of my least favourite in the series so far.
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.
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!
Hello again my dear mortals! This week will be crazy for me so content is going to be a bit strange here. I am settling into my new place and while I am writing this I am working a lot on getting the final things packed! EggSandwich being a pal provided me some relief! How? He nominated me for The Bubble Tag! Of course for Halloween Month I am doing it a bit different! My Bubble.. is a strictly spooky one!
The Rules
Lyn the Otaku Author created this tag! It is a great idea and such an orginal tag that provides some good spirits in these strange times! Which people would we lock ourselves in with!.. Well I am fairly late to the bubble party and so.. I am not sure if the people what would be in my bubble can be trusted! So I made a new one! A bubble of people with whom I .. assuming we would befriend each other.. would stand a good change to stay safe! You can’t become sick if you become undead!
Other than giving him credit which I’ll happily do I shall also provide you with another shout out to EggSandwhich who tagged me for this! I will do a monster special version of this tag for Halloween but the actual one I will be tackling as soon as I return from my moving week. Here are the rules for those wanting a copy pasteble thingy
Put ‘The Bubble Tag’ somewhere in the post title and as a tag on the post.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their post.
Select up to nine people, real or fictional to join you in your bubble.
Nominate five bloggers.
Stay safe.
The Bubble
Thus it is time to craft my bubble. For this specific version of the tag I will only use monsters! Though the word is the biggest sense of the word. Vampires, ghosts, or anything occult goes. If there is some way you can call it a monster, other than in the personality sense.. it is allowed! So here we go! What bubble will we create?! Here are my 9 picks!
Vampire Willow (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Let’s start with my most dangerous choice here.. but Hubba Hubba! Vampire Willow is something I am extremely into! In the episode where she gets “isekaid” we see her having some semblance of a redeemable persona.. before she gets killed. Still.. she is undead.. she is a lesbian.. and she does have a facination.. of sorts with pink girls. While I would have to give up on the sun to be with her. it would mean I am in no danger anymore! Can’t get sick if I am undead! She would probably not be the one I’d let me turn.. because.. I do not fully trust her and ..well her vampirism form is akin to dying and a demon living in your body! She is one of the few people in the world I would wrinkle the sheets with and let’s be honest, besides the internet and games there isn’t that much else to do right now! At least not in the Netherlands. While I love gaming.. she is here for variety!
Jeanette Voerman (Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines)
Jeannette would be my ideal sire! She is a Malkavian Vampire which provides a healthy dose of insanity on top of your personality! The Vampire the Masquerade vampires keep their old personality but I’d see the things in a whole new way. I would get incredible insights in how the world truly works. Jeanette is incredibly fun and volatile as well, you never know what you will get around her .. which makes things rather exciting and a whole lot less stale ..also stable which Google Docs suggest to me is the word I was looking for! She would be a great insane big sister type!
Eucliwood Hellscythe (Is This a Zombie)
Having two rather insane vampire chicks that I adore live in my house means I have a high risk of death..with the way the world is right now.. and not just the pandemic.. I also risk death. So it is always good to have a necromancer at your side. Given how Jeanette probabaly never will shut up it is also nice to have a quiet person in the house! I could just draw with her or sip tea in silence! She can bring me back as a zombie.. which is better than nothing! At least I know it would not ruin my magical girl chances!
4. Wisemon (Digimon)
Wisemon is a powerful digimon that can mess with time! So he is a great backup if Eucliwood fails me.. and my plan backfires. However Wisemon also has the power to be anywhere in time.. so he can get me the good take-away before it’s gone, he can get my Cyberpunk 2077 before anybody else does and he can get me all my shows that will get delayed! It will be a hassle but.. it is something! I am pretty sure he can also reset my internet bundle on my phone so I can use it as a hotspot where-ever my bubble might be! That way I could have a bubble in the woods or on a tropical island!
Mii-kun (How to Keep A Mummy)
Mii-kun is mostly here because it is so cute! Still undead though so it is also perfectly safe to keep it around as well. With 9 people things tend to get crowded so it is best to take this into account. Mii-kun takes no space, isn’t too noisy and is mostly just fun to be around! He will also be a very good distraction for Jeanette who is sure to love the heck out of Mii-kun. I also want to see if I can teach it to hum the Mii-Channel theme! So It gives me a mission.
Ryuugajou Nanana (Nanana’s Burried Treasure)
A “ghost” girl that is into gaming and in return only wants pudding seems easy to please. Sure she has expensive tastes.. but we got Wisemon who can reset my bank account to a moment prior to a transaction. Just by ordering to the front door she would probably rush over to receive those puddings ..and my other groceries! Besides that she is a gamer and I do love to play video games so we could play Mario Party together or bond over some Smash Bros Ultimate. She would be the ultimate partner to finally play Overcooked with! And if I can ever venture into the world she may tell me about some super valuable relics to boot! So heck yeah she is in my bubble!
Brook (One Piece)
I assume at one point humanity will even grow more stir crazy at it is.. so eventually the internet will be done.. luckily Wisemon can connect to the wifi of yesterday and such .. but the monster has to sleep at some point! So we need entertainment for that time and Brook is perfect! his music is catchy and he is Skeleton! So we can use his ribcage as a jewelry cabinet and such! He is no slouch in fending off the looters either. He sings some jaunty tunes and I can see him develop a beautiful friendship with Mii Kun.. and who knows alongside him maybe one day my dreams to become an idol girl can come true!
Dark Magician Girl(Yu-Gi-Oh)
So is this one a monster? Well yes of course she is a monster in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh, she even has her own squad of magical girls as an archetype these days! Perfect opportunity for me to get recruited into the squad. Magician Girl Pinkie! If not DMG seems to love to play analogue games. She might make good Waifu Material as well, in case Willow doesn’t work out! She is like the ultimate 2d! Even in her own universe she is most of the time 2d! Which means she is easy to store in my house! She doesn’t take up space unless I want her to! She has played with capsules/figures/cards and dice so she truly is a pretty good game master, so with her in my deck I never get bored!
Rimuru Tempest
Two Vampires, A skeleton, A ghost a mummy, A witch, A necromancer and an overgrown Jawa! That is some pretty solid squad..I figured I would add a cute little dragon Maid .. to cook and clean for us.. but this would leave me with a few problems. First of all.. it would be to Harem like and I don’t want that. Secondly.. with Tohru present everything would devolve into utter and complete chaos! I am not a great bubble leader! I am a great lieutenant, a second in command but I am the weakest off all of these by far. My leadership would not be accepted and some are to chaotic for me to control! So I need a strong person, that is also a classical monster. Since the Blob is a thing Rimuru would absolutely work as a monster. His special skill besides being super overpowered is making a community out of monsters so tadaa it’s perfect! Our leader will be Rimuru.
To Be Continued
Tohru would be the 10th Nakama we sneak in because DMG is a card and we can hide her and Mii-Kun easily enough! That being said this would not be my actual “real” Bubble.. that one I shall return to when I get back from moving.. that is the one that I will use to nominate 5 people to do this tag. Until then you can self nominate by being a Coconut or by commenting that you want to take on this tag! I hope my Bubble will not burst! Arceus knows that a guy called Murphy is going crazy at the idea of this being my actual bubbl.
Who do you think will be in my real one? Who would be in your monster bubble? What are you doing for Halloween this year?! Let me know in the comments and I will see you all in my next post! This is Pinkie and her Dragon Maid she hid illegally in her bubble signing off!
Hello lovely Mortals! This sunday we will briefly take a dive back into regular content! Although I say normal! I am doing a lite version of my Anime Adventure as I had so much stuff to do I could not finish the entire block! I am very busy packing , making phone calls and setting everything up for my move! A wall of boxes is in front of my writing spot right now as more and more cabinets slowly become empty storage. My neighbour seems to be moving away as well! Regardless Saturday Anime Adventure for the time being will just be an episode of the shows airing on CrunchyRoll. At least until I have more time again on my weekends. In november I will see if I will split Saturday Anime Adventure into additional weekly content (thus more content per day with one short anime post and a longer post on other subjects). Would you rather see seperate reviews or continue to see them grouped let me know in the comments! Now onto the episodes!
Digimon Episode 9: The Ultimate Digimon Attacks
I still can not believe how good this show is and how much I like it. The show takes a very different approach to the old show but I feel this show could never be so good without the other show. It’s almost as if I am watching an “ultimate” remake of this story.
Plot
The episode begins with Ogremon getting a hologram mission from Devimon! The latter is not amused with Ogremon’s failed attempts to kill the Chosen Ones. Ogremon reacts coldly but once the cal is over he yells in anger over his broken horn swearing revenge. We then move back to the fortress our heroes have invaded in the last episode. Taichi is reading the digiscript and says that the holy digimon are in the hands of darkness. Which leads them to believe they are on the right continent now because these fortresses of evil were meant to kept them out from freeing the holy digimon. Kairi and Takeru are clearly not in the digital world so it seems like this time Angemon and Angewoman might have to be rescued before we even see them. Ogremon attacks right after the kids finish reading the script and challenges Taichi and Agumon to an honorable match. They agree but as soon as they bein Devimon’s troops attack. Which overwhelms the other chosen ones. Koshiro and Kabuterimon save everyone with the last of Kabuterimon’s energy; he has finally caught up to the group and is welcomed for their rescue. However the evil Digimon won’t stop and that is when they are saved by Ogremon.
Ogremon just wants an honourable fight with the one digimon he fought that managed to claim his horn. An honourable vengeance.. he wants to have fun with their fight! This chases Devimon’s troops off and the match between him and Greymon continues. Both seem to have great fun and in the end Greymon comes out victorious even going as far as breaking off another horn. But then a missile impacts and damages Ogremon greatly. An ultimate level digimon steps out of the water. Note that this is an Ultimate in the dubbing sense.. in the original Japanese name it would be called a Perfect. While the name Ultimate in Japan is used for what we call a Mega form! Greymon is a Champion in english and an Adult in Japanese, MetalGreymon is an Ultimate to the rest of the world but a perfect to Japanese while Wargreymon is an Ultimate in Japanese.. but a Mega in English! Confusing right?! While in english Digimon digivolve and in Japanese just evolve the subtitle of this series coins the term Evolve.. thus following the japanese rules, when it comes to forms the translation seems to follow the dub rules. Since I can not verify if they are renamed/reclassified in japanese as a rule I will use whatever my subtitle/translations says. This monster overwhelms the group quite easily and Ogremon uses his signature move to show them the way.. before jumping into the ultimate MetalTyranomon’s attack and detonating it point blank.
Strengths
I love how this show is paced, we know of the existence of Ultimates already so the show makes no real secret of it. It respects that a lot of it’s lore is already established but also doesn’t shy away from addressing it still. Just without the fluff this time. I do wonder how this will work with Devimon as it seems we might get Metalgreymon in the next episode. Devimon being just a champion, also seems to have control over some ultimate ones so could it be he will evolve into NeoDevimon or heck even evolve into Myotismon? Both are possibilities here and it could tie stories together so well! It has so much potential but is also risking overstepping and fumbling. For now I am super excited. Koshiro joining just before their potential biggest battle is great and it makes sense as a meet up spot. It’s nice to see him finally join the gang and get a safe that tops that of Yamato’s. Once again everyone plays their role.
There is also a good dose of humor in this episode. Joe introducing himself to Koshiro as the leader, Mimi trying to be in the foreground when meeting Koshiro, it feels so much more as if everyone constantly is in character now. Joe feels he is responsible for the group, Mimi much more keeps up with her princess thing and overall the level of consistency is great. This also shows in the battle scene. The group gets pinned down by an aerial bombardment. However they are in a fortress so they would have cover. However moments earlier Ogremon just trashes the tower they are standing in to make a statement and get their attention. Thus taking their cover away and creating the next problem. This is much more pleasant than say.. the same digimon also shooting away the roof.. as it would have given a very obvious window! No party was prepared and it resulted in trouble. Yamato and Gabumon managed to get away because they are much more battle-honed and have more of a focus on speed. Reasons are shown why he is slightly ahead of the pack!
The visuals were also very strong! The show does a great job showing the height difference between your average Ultimate and the Digimon as they currently are, making them immediately feel overwhelmed. It is also shown that even at the maximum of his strength Greymon can’t even make a dent against this monster. It is not said or spoken like in most anime.. it is simply shown! My favourite moment was the fight between Ogremon and Greymon. It uses aura’s , expressions in eyes, wind and other effects to tell a story! The fact that they don’t use special attack after special attack really shows they are having fun in this contest of strength and it feels like Courage is pitted against the sin of Pride here which leads into an interesting matchup and a great episode!
Weaknesses
Not a lot of noteworthy weaknesses for this episode from me. I slightly dislike how invisible Sora was this time but had Biyoman digivolve here I am sure it should have died so I can see why they did it.. I just feel so far they have put Sora a bit up there with Yamato and Taichi and her being absent from a chance to fight felt a bit of a miss to me. But timing and all. I am also worried about their ultimate villain being a champion level facing off against potential Ultimates plus Omnimon already being a thing. My negatives are nothing directly one this episode but more worries for the future. I would love to see a slower paced episode without a battle in here somewhere soon though.
Overall
Very strong episode! It doesn’t reach the perfect score for me as it is YET another action episode but it at least was one heck of an episode! Despite it’s focus on action the show does introduce some wit and lore each episode and I haven’t seem to much stereotypical events yet and those that do feel well earned or are explained good enough. The fact that Devimon seems to have possession over Angemon and Angewoman could lead into an amazing story given how Devimon was beaten with the help of Angemon in the first place and this time that outcome MIGHT not be available. Ogremon turning good early also seems to introduce the group with loss fairly early one as I doubt he can recover from this attack! Raising the tension. Death usually comes fairly late in a series of Digimon making the first half feel a bit “magical girlish” but here we are constantly learning new things and progressing. The fight between Agumon and Ogremon has Dragonball Z like qualities and I mean that in the good way. It has that Cinematic feel to it. While we can fault Dragon Ball Z for it’s writing the action shots oftenly were quite good so saying this took a page from their book is a very big compliment. This show continues to show it’s charm trough every episode!
Samurai Flamenco Episode 16: Wandering Hero
I love Moe so much! She is such a great character and she really is to good for this world! I love her! I might have found another potential Waifu candidate as this episode might have left me smitten.
Plot
Masayoshi is the wandering Hero from the title accused of terrorismn and with a nation wide search going out for him he is scared to turn to Goto. He does not want to endanger his friends now that everything he fought for seems to be worth nothing. Meanwhile the Flamenco girls reunite and we see Mari snap against her two friends telling them she is sickened by Moe’s face for embarrassing her. Moe because she would give her life without a second thought in her mind to save the woman she loves made Mari look bad because she could not do the same. She realises Moe was the true hero and not her and it sickens her to the core that she is that bad person.It sickens her she can not be a hero! So she tells Moe to never show her face to her again or take it off if she ever wants Mari to look at her again. Mari runs off to the base of King Torture to reflect on things .Having a mental breakdown where she vommits on the floor crying disgusted by herself .. much more than by Moe. When her two friends sneak up we see Moe wear a paper bag over her head.
Moe knew exactly where Mari would be as she loves her so much and knows her better than Mari knows herself. She .. in the paperbag and all tells Mari that she did not make a heroic choice but a selfish choice just like Mari did.. because she loves Mari so much that there was no way she would want to go on living without her. Bless that girl… Mari reconciles with her and the two begin to violently make out while Mari is covered in vomit and Moe is all teared up. Mizuki is asked to join in the group hug.. and potentially into the kissing as well, I am not sure. Meanwhile the flamengers are interrogated and we hear how they are doing trough the mouth of Jouji’s wife. She doesn’t acknowledge Sakura as a Flamenger though and doesn’t offer her any support in these tough times. She tells her husband she might have to bake him cake if she has to. We cut away and next we see Masayoshi finding a newspaper saying that Jouji is to be executed for his crimes against Japan. Soon after the desperate former hero passes out from starvation.
He wakes up in a homeless man’s tent and finds out that this in fact is one of the guys that he rescued as Samurai Flamenco when he just got started. It seems that the man is in the know that he indeed picked up Japan’s most wanted terrorrist who is his hero but not a lot is revealed. The man tells him a story on how is was framed by a buisness associate and friend and then lost all his money.. when his eyesight got bad he could not get his money back and his family left him and he had no one left to turn to. He was unhappy but trough Samurai Flamenco’s selfless risk he began to help others around him, who began to help him in return and now he lived much happier. Reinvigorated by these words Masayoshi gets asked if he has people who support him and he answers yes! He flees the tent when police show up aided by the old beggar man, and goes to Goto’s house who welcomes with open arms.
Strengths
I cried happily in this episode! I was so happy to see Mari and Moe make up.. but I also cried when I saw Moe suffer so much! She is such a amazing person! She is a true little angel! A very gay little angle! The scene with her with the paper bag over my head was my favourite thing this episode. It felt so unreal to see such a cute voice come from a paper bag and it is great to see Moe despite how much she has been through to choose for Mari still. She chooses her words to comfort Mari but also to defend herself. She reveals that you don’t have to be a hero to do the right thing but also that even in doing the right thing you can still choose for yourself. Moe isn’t a hero who does things to be a hero, she is a hero because others matter to her more than herself and no matter what happens she will always be there for them. Mari before her breakdown was equally a hero but on other terms. Even if she had been trough a lot she always found the strength to get back up on stage or in the Flamenco girl costume and that is something Moe would never be able to do. A hero can exist in many ways!
Masayoshi’s talk with the homeless man who was just a background detail in an older episode was also great. We had this amazing shift in scope when he became an actual Sentai and he had to save the country and to an extent t he world even, but now that he has been tricked It all seems to have been taken away. However this episode shows us how Masayoshi already changed the world as a hero on the smaller scale. It doesn’t matter what you are called or what title you have. It is your actions that define who you are. If one calls you a villain doesn’t mean you are that to everyone. A person is bigger than just a title the state slaps onto him. That is what I got out of this at least and it is a powerful message that is much more in spirit with how this show started out than the mediocre Flamenger arc. This is what I want this show to be! It is not a story about people constantly bettering themselves it is people fighting for what they believe in and finding a worth in that belief even if it isn’t widely embraced. Very strong episode!
Weaknesses
I would lie if I said I had none because there was one plotpoint that annoyed me to no end. It was the fact that Jojii’s wife did not acknowledge Sakura as a Flamenger. Yes I get she tries to sleep with your husband but it was shown he never did anything with that..at least to my knowledge. Sure she tries to do something unsavory and harmful to the person who is trying to help.. but these people are scared and might be executed, she still fought for the safety of Japan which I feel is bigger than her trying to snipe your romance. Given how she is referred to as Lady Axe I feel she should have at least that bit of hero spirit to show Sakura who the bigger person is. Perhaps I am strict here because Sakura is the Pink Ranger but I do feel it is a very poor choice on Lady Axe’s end to make Sakura suffer, given that she already had to live with the fact that her family cast her out for being an adulterer..let alone now that she is a terrorist. In an episode that is all about friendship and reunions this sticks out to me like a sore thumb. Understandable sure.. but bad in this episode.
Overall
Another perfect score for Samurai Flamenco! It is great to see it return to what made this show so amazing to me in the first place. The fact that the president’s plans are very vague and Lady Axe was super selfish do not ruin the episode for me. Perfection does not exist and if an episode has to be flawed I rather have it slip up with Lady Axe than with Moe and Mari or Masayoshi. This episode me me cry with joy and I feel truly touched.. if that happens I was so invested that minor offences do not matter. Mari’s moment of glory will be in my head for a while! It was really beautiful! Memorable and engaging?! Highest score!
That Time I reincarnated as a Slime Episode 15: The Jura Forest Alliance
Slime has an odd way of satisfying me, in the same way I like building villages in Sim City or maybe more an RTS like scenario like Warcraft 3, growth is an amazing thing to experience in Slime, even though we know how powerful Rimuru is we see the progression of his little town. I want to see more of that!
Plot
This episode is told in a more narrative shape with Rimuru telling the viewer what happened after the fight with the Orc Disaster. We see him welcome the Orcs in his ranks as well after a meeting with both the Lizardman and the Ogre’s.. of course Treyni is also there. Since Rimuru took the since of the orcs upon himself everyone agrees that they can stay as long as they make themselves useful to Rimuru. This leads to the great Jura Alliance being formed. Rimuru names the son of Geld, Geld in honour of his father and that piglike creature then becomes the Orc King instead of the Orc Lord. He also names all the other 15.000 Orcs and goes into sleep mode again. When he wakes up he continues to tell us what new features his now small city has. They have a sewage system, they are making roads , they are establishing trade with other nations and there even is some sort of “government” in place with the Ogre’s having titles. The only thing the village seems to be missing is a name…and roads.. cause they are still just starting to make it.
Then Souei shows up and tells a 100 pegasus knights are almost in the city. They are led by the Hero King of the Dwarven nation Gazel Dwargo. He wants to find out Rimuru’s motive and while Rimuru offers collaboration from the start the king wants nothing off it. The only way Rimuru can prove his heart is by honourable combat. If Rimuru defends against Gazel’s chain of attack he wins! The man turns out to be a student of the old man Ogre, who also thought Rimuru so being familiar with this technique Rimuru stops the attack. This convinces King Dwargo that Rimuru is not evil and he offers Rimuru a treaty not only acknowledging his little town but even acknowledging the Jura forest as his domain/country. This forces Rimuru to name his country and decides to call it the Jura Tempest Federation. Benimaru then tells him this town and the nations capital should be called Rimuru..
Strengths
I can be a lot more brief about this episode as it was a nice and simple episode. It was an exposition episode done well. Not a lot happens yet a lot happens. We just fast forward to the slow progression stuff and now actually see RImuru’s village becoming more. I still really like the concept of having a nation of monsters and that idea is expanded upon here. I am also happy to see that Gabiru got exiled for trying to usurp the throne. His father gifts him the magic trident thing though to keep him safe on his journey! A touching end.. that still gives at least some punishment to the horrible ..but deep down not so terrible Lizardman. I like how this series feels a bit like the map part of a total war game or the city management aspect of one of those mobile games with alliances and sending armies and such. Just with some spectacular action from OP characters to make it less stale.
I also like how surprisingly the humanoids doesn’t seem to be Rimuru’s enemies. Instead the focus lies on this mysterious demon lord whose eyebrows do not math his hair. The one who wields the crystal ball. It seems he is being set up as the season finale boss but what do I know! It is nice to see this approach as it does avoid a bit of cliché Warcraft like thinking. I like how Treyni functioned as a judge and it reminded me of an almost pokémon like match when Rimuru fought Dwargo , it gives the combat a more playful element and some good spirit. A very nice exposition episode and I was proud to see the village grow almost in a manner as if I had build it myself. So I guess Rimuru is “my boy”!
Weaknesses
I had a few gripes with this episode, for example every Ogre’s function is explained except for Shuna’s function she is called a Princess .. most likely because the title was preexisting but what are her tasks?! Treyni’s role in this alliance is also unclear. Her goal is to protect the forest and Rimuru can do that but the fact that they have to build homes for 15.000 would harm the woods because a city is built in them would it not?! Also 15.000 orcs that means there are so many orcs that they would take up the major demographic in the city but that is never shown. There are quite a few elements that seem rather sloppily tagged in in this timeskip.
What is this demon lords goal?! Why do we care about him?! Why does that clown figure that worked with Gelmud teleport out of a conversation while he still has a full glass of wine on the table. It isn’t exactly bad but a lot of details are glossed over in this episode. If you want to emphasise a conversation is at an end let him drink his final sip of wine instead of depicting him next to a full glass. If you tell what everyone does don’t skip on one! Wasn’t the crafting Ogre a leather and hide expert? Why is his rank Sword Smith. or something like that. Again there are no major flaws, just a series of pinpricks that all seem to address the same little annoying little spot. It makes sense that these things happen given how this show is paced over days or weeks of development even though there is clearly a bigger story being told that the small story doesn’t matter as much.. but it does stand out.
Overall
I enjoyed myself a lot with this episode but I am not sure I could actually call it a good episode. There are things …. off about it. Not only the inconsistencies but a few plot beats being awfully convenient as well. Yet while these flaws are clear to me, this really had a good quality! I felt pride.. an emotion that is almost strange to me, that this village has come this far. I liked the idea of roads so much that I was almost disappointed that I did not see it this episode. For some strange reason the faith of the town of RImuru is something I really care for.
As if it is my own little Minecraft project. Just more entertaining, better looking.. and without Smash Bros representation. It is a nice change of pace to see a hero shift from protecting a town to establishing one. There is something powerful about forming new friendships and opening your heart to new people and growing because of it that just makes my kokoro swell with satisfaction and pride! That is the way Rimuru! You are the hero we all need! I never thought Village builder the anime would be for me.. but apparently it very much is!
Berry good is the score based on entertainment value, it would score a Fineapple from a more objective stance.
Unfortunately that was all the time I had for anime this week and probably the next coming weeks. Tuesday will most likely be a skipped post day as my family will come on over to help me pack, clean and move things to the trash all day and with tabletop role-play evening on Monday planned I do not think I have the time to schedule that post ahead. I have a cute little Halloween story readyish but I still need to do image work so you will most likely see my Halloween story in the week of the 19th. For the coming week I will create new Pokémon life, review a movie about a killer condom and I play yet another scary game! Like I said earlier I am considering splitting the Saturday Anime Adventure into smaller individual reviews for extra ..more bitesized content! Let me know how you feel about that in the comments! if they work again!Have a great next week!
We had Sunny’s first post this week! I signed my lease and now per November I will officially be moving and I can already tell it will cost me a few blog posts here and there! There is quite a lot to do and I am super excited for it but it is also quite stressful. So much to do so many elements I need to account for! Just one more month! So… it is also important to relax! Luckily I could kick up my feet and enjoy 100+ minutes of great anime! In this week’s instalment of my anime adventure!
Digimon Adventure Episode 8
I love this show, it really is great! there is no doubt about it! Once again this episode managed to show us what a character really is about while also making great narrative progress and the choices being made here are pretty smart and exciting again. However a few odd choices make this episode a bit harder to believe than last week’s episode.
Riding Ikkakumon, the group of Taichi, Sora, Mimi and Joe make it across the water. However a Fortress is blocking their way. A military grade blokkade. A pair of Solarmon which are a recolour of Hagurumon will lead to an apelike digimon to fire at them with his special attack as well as summon hordes of tankmon! When the group gets in trouble they are saved by Yamato (Matt) and Gabumon. Lone ranger style, he plans to sneak into the fortress and take down Gorillamon. However with the hordes of Tankdramon out there he finds himself overwhelmed and has to rely on his newfound allies. Experiencing something new to him.. he thinks of them fondly as everyone helps Yamato get closer and closer to Gorillamon. Empowering Garurumon with the power of friendship he eventually manages to take down the threat Together they took down the fort and with a proud roar of Garurumon atop of the tower. Mimi and Joe now can take down the Tankdramon.. using their abilities to attack bigger crowds to their advantage and also giving us a cute Mimi and Joe moment that reminded me of Chopper and Usopp from One Piece! Yet there also is a fair bit of interaction with Mimi and Yamato! Could that be a thing?! Inside however Agumon finds a secret lab that seems to contain a part of the ancient tablet with more information about the holy Digimon.
So this episode was Yamato’s episode and the way they let him use his crest .. at least the one he had in the old series of friendship was pretty sweet. The visuals used for the pacing and even that awkward focus on Taichi flickering smiling in Yamato’s eyes.. it feels much less like a rivalry and the beginning of an actual friendship here. In fact I believe we might be setting up to get “Ultimate” evolutions already. Everyone seems to possess the ability already this time their digivice has the symbol of their crest and the threat that is created this time seems much more real. While I like that concept it does worry me for Devimon, will he pose a challenge… will he evolve?! Was he just an easter egg?! Regardless we see the kids grow in a rapid pace and I really do like that.. given the circumstances they are in it seems like they pick up stuff at a believable pace. The fact that we also immediately establish Yamato’s roll as a sort of speedy infiltrator who breaks through the enemies lines really works wonders. However once more it is established he can not handle this alone from the get go.. everyone yet again has their role to play. This episode is action packed and the way the music is used was amazing. It felt so satisfying! Mimi got a good joke again where she got attached to the luxury of a towel.. Joe gets it destroyed by trying to use it as a white flag and while Mimi mopes, Palmon reveals it was actually Sora’s towel that Mimi just “took” for herself. Keeping that queenly quality intact.
Unlike last time however I do have a gripe with this episode. Joe and Mimi fairly easily took down 20 Champion form Digimon. Tankmon even! These are Data Attribute Digimon who should be resistant to Vaccine Attribute digimon like Ikakumon. Togemon CAN be a virus attribute and thus be more effective but it more often than not is a Data attribute. So it does feel weird how 2 champions and take down 20 without much effort. They do make smart use of their Area of Effect style attacks..but it feels a bit much. Where before all Digimon more or less can take down one digimon of their level. They do fix this somewhat by seemingly giving the “wild” digimon less special attacks to work with and we can see the chosen ones empower their digimon trough their digivice but I think 5 tankmon would have been enough.It is a bit of a shift in digimon logic towards more of a situation how Digmon works in the Digimon World or Cyber Sleuth games and while I appreciate that I felt it lacked precedence. Had the Digidestined commented.. wow we are becoming really strong, I would have been fine with it but now a sense of the “frailty” of the classic Digimon is gone.
The frailty however is traded in for some pretty epic scenes and much more grand scale battles. You really sense someone wishes to see the Chosen Ones dead. It becomes bigger than your average monster of the week and I do really like that feeling. The chosen ones feel much more in the control seat this time around and this episode did make me miss the humility of the old show a bit! Yet never was I not entertained.
Samurai Flamenco Episode 15
This episode both made so much sense to me and not much sense at all. It really does feel like something that would happen in a season change between Sentai shows again and while super clever from a Meta Stance.. in universe I could not help but to have some questions.
Masayoshi faces off against his look-alike who is revealed to only be his metaphorical brother. He has a tail! They talk for a bit and after Masayoshi convinces From Beyond Flamenco he has a right to be there and the will to fight, From Beyond Flamenco commits suicide by letting Masayoshi shoot him. This causes all the evil to vanish but the drilll inside mount Fuji! By sacrificing Flamen Robo the group manages to stop the drill before Japan is destroyed. We see the classical ranger season close up with people giving up their power and returning to their daily life.. when suddenly the government comes hunting after the Flamengers. Pink Green and Black get arrested and Blue suffers a off camera defeat at the hands of the Prime Minister of Japan… being completely beaten. The only one who gets away is Masayoshi who is aided by an american hero! He is declared an enemy of the state and we see people he used to be close with react to the news. Something is very wrong! The Prime Minister wished to use the disaster to get re-elected..but now has a too low approval rating..but at 72% it seems he should be good! What is he actually planning! The show keeps us in the dark as Masayoshi tries to go into hiding.
This episode was fascinating. It had all of the elements of how Sentai shows usually wrap up! It felt rushed, with a very odd plot-twist and with a ban on all vigilante activities in effect, Samurai Flamenco seems truly defeated. It is a great way to go into a “third” season of sorts and it very much reminded me of the narrative structure of power rangers. The Tarantino like dialogue returns and their is plenty of enjoyable action and mystery. My favourite scene is how the flamengers say goodbye to each other in front of their decommissioned base with an epic power walk.. just for Masayoshi to return to visiting his grandpa’s grave. The new hero introduced is hilarious as well. Trying to get Masayoshi away from the police safely he drives this super garish american truck! He sings the american anthem to calm Masayoshi down and in a way he really reminds me of All Might.. but with more Sentai camp.. there is a lot that works here.. if we view this as a Sentai show and watch it on a very meta level. It does indeed remind me of why Akiba -Rangers worked so well for me …but where that show stays very ridiculous this one sometimes tries to eat a cake and have it to.
There are so many logic leaps in this episode. Why did Fron Beyond Flamenco commit suicide, if the goverment wanted Japan to be in trouble why not decommision vigilantes as soon as Samurai first showed up, why give them award first and then brand them as enemies of the state.. that sounds like you weren’t clever enough to notice at first! It really does seem that the government had better options to betray the flamengers before. If you want viewers’ approval why not evacuate innocents before VIP’s then you say it could not happen because the Flamengers asked people to fight with them.. I do not know but I felt like there were more effective plans. Overly complex plans are part of the Sentai Tropes, sure.. but the show always puts these tropes more in the context of the real world.. so this just felt weird to me! I bet all will be explained before long..but right now.. I feel things are becoming a bit messy.
While I deeply enjoyed the events that unfolded I had very big trouble with how everything unfolded. The villains were defeated very easily and Japan just turns hostile against Flamenco while he saved the town first. He goes from idolised to being completely hated again, and the evidence the provide for this is his conversation with Beyond Flamenco. Which proves he looks like a bad guy!? How?! A guy that looks like an orange disolving people with extremely acidic OJ exists as well as a monster that is the AK48 of monsters. Why would you assume that the fact that a copycat with a tail existing means the other guy is evil?! So many weird monster abilities have been shown yet no one in Japan thinks.. maybe this monster can mimic faces? Maybe they took his face to confuse us?! I had a hard time believing it all and as a result never gotten that settled into the episode! It’s a good episode..it just lacks that golden touch that makes this show into what it is.
That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime Episode 14
I thought Gabiru was going to die… but he did not! He got saved by Rimiru.Which is a shame! He gets a bit of a redemption arc this episode alongside the one he got last episode but I still really do not like him! It seems we are nearly done with him though! As the Lizardmen War arc is wrapping up.
Gelmud appears on the battlefield and explains to Gabiru he needs to die! He wants to feed the orc so many people so he can evolve once again.. into a full Demon Lord. Transforming form an Orc Lord into an Orc Disaster. While Rimuru easily wipes the floor with Gelmud we see the Lord just stare at the one sided fight. Geld the Orc .. likes the idea of becoming an Orc disaster and decides to eat what he thinks will get him there fastest. He decapitates and eats Gelmud! Who has been hinting at doing his masters bidding! Keeping that identity secret and taking it to his grave. Now an Orc Disaster Geld is only consumed by hunger even more! This means Rimuru has no chance but to kill him.. and aided by the Ogre’s who now can’t damage the Orc enough because he is super regenerative …Rimuru at first struggles with this fight. Showing us a new trick of letting the great Sage fight for him Rimuru becomes a dominating force once more but after the Great Sage makes a misplay and tries to burn the orc with the power of the Efreet.. to which he is immune, Rimuru has to take over. His plan .. Devour the devourer! Thus as Geld becomes more and more covered in slime and falling prey to Predator.. we see a flashback of him being a pretty good guy! But falling to sin! Rimuru reassures him he will take on that sin but that Geld needs to die! After an argument we see Geld’s skin dissolve and with Rimuru promising to do his people right in the end..he gives up and gets consumed! People cheer as Rimuru is the victor.
This episode delivered on a lot of good action! The Gelmud vs Rimuru fight was cathartic and the Majin got what he deserved. The Ogre’s versus the Orc disaster was futile but had amazing visuals and shows how amazing the Ogre’s are once again as they could damage him pretty bad…he could just regenerate faster. Great Sage versus the Orc Lord was visceral and filled with all sorts of clean special effects that made it look very spectacular. We see so many abilities being used it really feels like a battlefield, even if we are only seeing one versus one fights the scope of the battle is much bigger. While one sided like most Isekai the visuals still made it all feel exciting and I think that is important for an overpowered Isekai like this. It’s fine to have an untouchable main character..but if we can not get the thrill of an equal fight just go ham and display some crazy abilities! Something Isekai Cheat Magician does wrong for example. We get lightning bolts, dark fire, “Ultra Instinct Sign Rimuru” , We get Efreet Mode Rimuru , We get a clash of noxious Orc aura with a bright silver slime. While it might not be thrilling what we see on screen it certainly is badass.
I did enjoy the episode and the pretty visuals, I liked how Gabiru was touched by his allies giving their lives for him, the orcs doing the same for the king they believed in and Gabiru really wanting to save his allies rather than get himself to safety.. I liked the badass action.. but I missed the humor of the show. The only real joke that was made was Rimuru having his face resting underneath Shion’s boobs again. Other than that it is mostly just a bit “witty” spiderman like banter. I missed those moments of Rimururu fawning over Souei, or people looking stupefied over how easy he actually ate a Demon Lord class foe. I also kind of disliked how both Geld and Gabiru both got completely redeemed. It’s nice that Rimuru doesn’t have a bad person in him ..but please let someone be a bit more flawed. Have Gabriu stay a selfish bastard and let him rot in jail.. let Geld actually be a war hungry ORc who did not rip off his own arm to feed children.. but lost it in a fight to eat a pair of children. It almost felt a bit “christmassy to finish this episode and during the flashback I did find myself losing interest in this episode”
The badass action kept me glued to the screen for most of the episode so I can not say it’s bad.. it is better than fine actually, as the issue I had with this episode might have just been something I was not in the mood for! I wanted more badassness as a drug, but it ended with a moment of wholesomeness that just stopped it being perfect for me! I love Christmas, don’t get me wrong.. I just don’t want that christmas spirit all year long.
Flip Flappers Episode 10
Okay I was wrong about Mimi but the moment I saw that flashback I knew exactly how things went! That’s amazing! And the implications! The implications! Well I am not sure about the implications actually .. but it ‘s nice to see it’s all connected.
This episode has a much simpler plot than most episodes! So here we go! Yayaka is recovering in the medbay and the evil organisation she belongs to attacks Flip Flap to get her back and also takes Cocona to get the shard that is embedded in her leg! As the base is overrun the Amorphous twins reveal to Cocona that Yayaka became her friend for fake reasons while Papika got her memory back and remembers Mimi finally! This leads Cocona to believe she is also just a replacement for Mimi to Papika and no one really cares for her.. as she flees the base and leaves everyone who betrayed her behind.. we see a flashback of Papika and Mimi bonding and discover Mimi is not that amorphous girl.. no she looks very very much like Cocona.. hanging out with Salt the three have fun together.. with Salt romantically interested in Mimi. Mimi and Papika partner up in the past as Papika and Cocona break up in the present. When it turns out that Cocona’s grandma is secretly a robot belonging to the evil organisation and she orders her to be captured and anxiety attack triggers all the amorphous shards not fed to the evil machine to fly into Cocona destroying robot grandma and the other evil robots.. from a broken mirror we see Mimi talking to Cocona that Mamma will protect her now!
Wow.. Mimi is Cocona’s mother .. so I was right that Pure Illusion is very much linked to Cocona.. I was wrong about Mimi being evil though! But this probably means Salt is Cocona’s father?! He isn’t a very good dad then! But well I bet he shares her (old) eye colour hidden behind those sunglasses. I am almost certain of it! I am slightly annoyed that it was yet ANOTHER break up episode.. that’s like 3 in 10 episodes or so and now Papika has to swoop in again.. but this time I completely understand! I get she felt like this. She is a test subject to both Flip Flap and the other organisation. I do not get why that other organisation exists yet though and this episode really made me intrigued. It’s like I have been tossed a very tasty worm and I am about to delve into it, hook line and sinker, I am a fish in this case by the way! It feels like we are really picking up in terms of story. Since the amorphous pieces allow you to control pure Illusion I believe these shards are part of Mimi?! She seemed to control Pure Illusion, and once they flew to Cocona she got her mother’s eye colour?! I do like this feeling of being so invested into something and I really hope she and Papika can work things out and that Yayaka is safe! I was so invested that I forgot to pay attention to what I particularly liked.
I do dislike how often Papika and Cocona split up though! I do get that Cocona feels deceived here.. but Papika has also proven to care for Cocona several times over. I get our protagonist feels betrayed. I just feel really REALLY bad for Papika. She tries so hard and gets so far.. but in the end it doesn’t even matter. I really would have preferred to see the conflict go in a way where Cocona wants nothing to do with Flip Flap but Papika can’t give it up and then Cocona taking her leave. Telling Papika she hates her feels a bit much after all the love the girl showed her.. and love I think Cocona should realise is sincere. The conflict of the last episode even dealt with that. That being said Cocona seems least aversive of Papika and I am glad at that, I just can’t escape the feeling that for a two protagonist series The orange haired girl sometimes becomes to much of a side character and her actions “stick” less.
I really adored the episode overall, there was a lot of enjoyable action and reveals and I was thoroughly entertained. My gripe seems big but I am also fine with this turn of events.. It’s more that I really would have liked Papika to be appreciated. It reminds me of a friendship I had and while I did not use my friends for a weird organization led by their dad.. I did a lot for a few friends and then none of that mattered..because I went to an event I really REALLY liked while they had to work. I was so villainized for it. Like myself I think Papika should have more leeway here.. and because it felt the past did not matter I like this episode slightly less than I could have.
Hikaru no Go Episode 20
This was a very interesting episode to me! It clearly sets up events for an upcoming arc and it also feels like we finally have arrived at the meat of the story. Hikaru’s chase of Akira is brought to new levels.. but it comes at a price.. and I like it.
After meeting with the First Board of Kaijo School Hikaru is called out for being too whimsical! He finds out that Touya Akira already has become a pro and that if things do not change soon he will completely be out of his reach. Hikaru has to get serious. To do so he has to become an Insei.. with no patience in his heart he tries to register for the “december” exam. Given that we see it being fall during a few walking sequences that is only a few months away. There are problems though! The registration has closed, Hikaru lacks a sponsor and he needs to log three games at least, to participate. A big wig in the Go world, whose name I keep forgetting, but we’ve seen him before around Touya Senior, takes interest in the boy and decides to sponsor him. When Hikaru goes to tell his friends they tell him he can’t be an Insei and participate in amateur tournaments. Now he has to face a dilemma to chase his “rival” or continue to stick with his friends. With Mitani seeming to push him towards the tournament but Tsutsui being a bit more silent.
The episode sets up a very interesting Dilemma and I really appreciated the weight this episode had. It feels like we are finally not just getting an arc but also as if we are finally reaching the next stage of the “main” storyline. Where the first few episodes almost feel like a first act, the high school tournament arc functioning as the inciting incident/ second act and where the internet go arc “wrapped up” the introduction part…. this feels like the first act of a “meatier” story. As a result this episode has so much weight. Becoming my favourite watch of the day as a result. Hikau’s character traits make him very different from the other Insei candidates which results in him finally coming more into the role of the “actual” protagonist. While I liked the tiny arcs it feels as if I could really use a bit of a bigger story. This episode provides that for me with some interesting visuals again to convey a time pressure and we got a very solid episode.
This episode once again had very little lows for me. I like the direction it has taken throughout. The only dislike I have is how the third Go girl is introduced. She is a bitch of a bulky chubby..masculine female and the animation lingers on displaying her “ugliness” as a form of comedy and I would think this show is above those cheapshots. Sai does his childlike thing again…but this time I do think it makes more sense. I like how he gets excited about silly technology! I do not like it when he gets childish over Go! It feels conflicting with what we have seen of him before. This episode knows when to make him serious and when to make him silly better than the previous one. Another mild issue I had is something in the writing that almost feels like a mistake to me?! It’s the fact that everyone is so shocked that Hikaru is taking the exam because Insei can’t participate in amateur tournaments. However becoming an Insei is hard and Hikaru at this time is not at that level yet. From what I understood at least people usually fail their first Insei exams as most do not pass their first Pro exam.. it feels more like an experience they need to go through to get good enough? So why does everyone assume Hikaru will become an Insei first try?! It feels a bit foreshadowing.. as if the characters have knowledge they should not have. As if I enlisted to get a house somewhere and people already started giving me housewarming gifts.
Most of my issues are mostly ponderings though, the only thing I did dislike is the “ugly focus” but since we haven’t seen anything of the character yet I will let it slide for now! Hopefully they keep focus on her and don’t repeat the joke again and she is just a token to fill in a spot so the girls can play. Who knows if Hikaru becomes an Insei this early there might not even be a school tournament. I am at least very happy that the story is getting some serious meat on it’s bones!
That was a pretty great watch still! Obviously after perfect week I would have a few minor issues here and there this week..because in the face of perfection you can not help but stand out! Still it was amazing! Next week I will meet my sister and we will trash some of my old stuff I do not need to take to my new place. With the move happening somewhere in the next month you can expect me to miss a post here and there because real life stuff will get in the way.
As for blog content, you will see a new Anime versus Western TV show Cross-over (Part 1 out of 2) we will discuss the final Blood Rayne movie and we when October starts I will start doing a lot of Halloween themed content. Most of my content wil be about Spooky Stuff! Saturday Anime Adventure will keep going .. during the month.. as long as I am not doing moving activities..and since people mostly can help in the weekend, expect to see a few skips on that in the weeks to come! I will try to have a replacement ready though but time will tell! I hope you will have an amazing next week!
Pinkie's Paradise 