Episode 42
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Damn, that was one talk saturated episode. It's kind of a pity how pretty much every scene with Clayman in, of late, has made him look less and less like a serious opponent. Of course the episode itself then went as far as calling him a small fry who doesn't know what he's doing. While you could say it makes sure everybody understands he's not the real/final evil boss, it also ruins the significance of this whole confrontation. Clayman has been, so far, behind quite a lot of trouble and was introduced as a master manipulator a long time ago, so I feel it's a pity he fell from grace before even facing Rimuru eye to eye. In dramaturgy, a nefarious enemy, such as a manipulator, actually should be left with few scenes and direct exposition, and instead have lots of insinuation, unless the real identity is kept well hidden. If you allow the audience to get even a little inside the head of such a villain, it quickly flattens everything.
There was dialogue in Clayman's section?! All I saw was the demon lord of thigh gaps, Frey.
Guy and Leon also don't really act like I expected them to, from their backstories. Guy is the demon lord who stopped Milim's initial rampage. Leon summoned Shizu and tortured her with Ifrit. Yet they both kind of act like idiots. Guy is very much a 90s shonen anime type...guy. Cromwell is apparently more of a gray type of demon lord, rather than pure evil. Serious, but not malicious.
Guy being voiced by Ishida Akira (Xellos, that douchebag clown from Soul Hunter, and countless other shady villains and non-villains) is of course the most fitting actor for him. And Fukuyama Jun for Cromwell.
Yeah, it kinda sucks that they are already de-escalating the tension of Walpurgis. Everyone hates Clayman, everyone wants to see his comeuppance, nobody is going to defend him. It's pretty much set up to be Rimuru's victory, with only Milim being a problem, and they've already completely explained why she's turned her back on Rimuru and did what she did.
I wasn't expecting some kinda death god brawl at Walpurgis anyway.
I'm just REALLY looking forward to him diplomacying with other demon lords.
FFS Come on!
Now Clayman is just a giant fool who doesn't even know that it was Rimuru who killed the 20000 soldiers and turned into a Demon Lord?
:|
It's SO not fun to watch a villain run into his guaranteed demise. Ugh. As if this anime wasn't too one-sided in favor of the heroes already.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
It becomes fun for me the instant they showed he's a dipshit asshole.
As soon as he started kicking Millim around I was like, "Oh, yeah, you're a fucking moron. I'm gonna love watching you get torn apart."
The Lilim control is so lame, too. Giving Lilum an excuse for her mass murder. Uhuh ...
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
I'm not sure if you are trying to refer to Milim, but her mass murdering action happened a thousand years ago. Clayman didn't even exist back then. It was some nation or another that had her companion dragon killed, resulting in Milim going berserk and slaughtering enough people to collapse the nation and make her a demon lord. During this incident Milim hasn't mass murdered anyone. If she had, Clayman wouldn't need to send his army in to do that.
Wait.
Clayman sat at home and sent an army off to another country to kill people.. and expected to receive those souls somehow and become a True Demon Lord sitting at home?
That doesn't make sense.
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Yeah, I also thought it makes limited sense. Wasn't his original plan to have Jura Tempest and Falmuth have a war, resulting in massive casualties, which would give Clayman the souls... somehow? If we assume only individuals with the demon lord seed (or whatever it was called) (or those who are already demon lords) can actually harvest souls, then it might make a bit more sense. Basically Clayman could just go to the battlefield afterwards and collect the soul energy before it dissipates. That would suit his cowardly style. It's like it never visited his mind someone else could do the same before him, someone else actually already present there.
Just watched 39-42
It's easier in a clump as each episode on its own is not very satisfying. The dialog just doesn't entice me, and Rimuru's cast are a bit to 'Rimuru-sama!' dependent to be endearing enough to carry on their own. I get that the characters have to piece things together due to imperfect information, but I'd prefer the summation once in a while after the fact instead of the slow paced proposals of theories all the time.
Is there an anime equivalent term for a helicopter parent? If not, I say we coin one just for Slime, because this show has, time and time again, bent over backwards to keep the mean 'ol danger and tension away from Rimuru- as if the audience wouldn't stand for it or something. It's a weird fascination that only sticks out because it is so prevalent. Plenty of power fantasy does this, but Slime feels like it goes a step further: "Not only can our hero overcome these odds to save the day with his/her awesomeness, but that present danger itself has already been defanged, in case there was any doubt about just who is supposed to be winning here!" It's weird.
Milim... how have you survived for so long when you take friendly candy from strangers? Or strange candy from friends?
Clayman is looking more like a clown each episode, and there is really no reason for it, other than to stoke the flames of justice in the audience who aren't convinced he is a bad guy yet.
Seems like teleportation is a pretty standard demon lord skill, and he has cross-eyed video conferencing with his own middle finger, so... Maybe he could work something out?
The length/pacing of this story really isn't doing it any favors, so I hope something about it changes soon. Even the potential face to face with Cromwell has been deflated- I'm pretty sure there was an arc about the pain he caused someone or something...
I feel like the biggest offender here is Raphael.
It was one thing when Rimuru gained new powers from eating other things, and had to apply the(admittedly OP) powers he had to solve problems. But now Raphael just "makes up" new powers on a whim whenever a new challenge appears. Often by nonsensically "fusing" powers together.
It's not even like Rimuru is like "Hey, if I combined this with this, I could do that! Raphael, start researching that." It's just, Rimuru: "Too bad I can't-", Raphael: "I've already invented that."
Yeah, Raphael is more or less the ultimate form of ruining any tension.
Episode 43
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It's a pity all expectations and tension had been removed so well beforehand. Imagine if the story had been such that there would have still been thousands of civilian lives at stake, and you could have seen the battle going either way. Of course such a plot would have been majorly different, but, man, would that have been interesting! Now even that Yamza guy, or whatever his name was, feels utterly irrelevant. It's simply impossible to even imagine anything bad happening to any of the central character or their operations. When Clayman himself was reduced into a fool, everyone under him feels like that as well. The only little things still somewhat more intriguing unknowns are the two other clowns (in addition to Laplace), Tear and Footman, but, lo and behold, they as well were already busy running away.
If Rimuru wasn't 100% asexual, there could be at least a little bit of flirting between his character and the various ladies, but of course in such a Christian light novel the MC needs to be as pure as a monk sworn in celibacy. So, Shuna hanging around Rimuru means nothing.
I'm being too negative about this, haha. I'm sure I'll be more positive once Milim appears on screen again.
It's really obvious the Tensei Slime animators didn't have the funding, time, or knowledge to animate a lamia correctly, so they just have her wiggle around a little bit here and there and make thrusts fully from her upper torso.
Albis still best Beastketeer, and I don't mean just because she's the leader.
I'd be less worried about Milim's followers being killed, honestly. There's only 100 of them, and they all willingly choose to worship/serve Milim, prone to considerable random acts of violence before she became best buddies with Rimuru. One of them got an arm cleanly severed off by the asshole that Albis is fighting, and they weren't traumatized by it, they just reattached it casually, as if it happens whenever Milim throws a tantrum.
It probably does. At least before the Tempest-forged dampening mittens.
The chief priest among the Milim worshippers seemed far more eager to fight than the commander of the whole army, Yamza. After all, Yamza was already attempting to flee before even witnessing a single strong enemy combatant, while the chief priest was criticising the soldiers for being so miserably weak. Milim worshippers were there only for the logistics, but the bald man was eager to face someone strong. So, no, I don't feel bad for the Milim worshippers right now. Actually I felt bad for them when they got all of their food stolen. That was the funniest part of this whole campaign because it demonstrated how back home Milim only gets to eat raw vegetables, whereas in Jura Tempest she's able to enjoy Shuna's cooking, plus myriad other delicacies from two worlds. No wonder she likes Jura Tempest.
Ugh, sooooo boring :/ There's literally no point to not skip through the episode, because you KNOW that nothing exciting is about to happen. This anime is kind of the reverse of Overlord where one side is so overwhelmingly at advantage that all the battles become boring (except that Rimuru is not the good guy the author tries to paint him as).
That scene where Gobuta was discussing the lamia lady was literally "oh no, you go first, you're way more awesome than me!", right after doing something awesome himself. ARENT WE ALL AWESOME?!!?!?!?! :/
I kept myself from mentioning this, but yes. Having an asexual hero for this setting is just another of my big frustrations. It's not even Ichika-levels, they literally neutered Rimuru when he turned from man to slime :/ And he's fine with it, too?! ugh. It'd be way more fun if Rimuru made use of his popularity. Or if at least he chose one wife, because the constant low-quality harem-shit is annoying, because it'll bever lead to anything.
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court