「シズ」 (Shizu)
“Shizu”

“I’m not a bad slime!”

General Impressions

Boy, were my emotions all over the place this week. But I mean that in the best way possible since so many different things were going on. Starting in chronological order, boy am I happy to see our boy Gobuta finally show us his true worth. As one of the few hobgoblins whose looks didn’t really change, I’m glad that he was instead bestowed with some innate skills that give him a leg up on the competition. While it remains to be seen just how good he can do on the battlefield, I have a feeling that someone who is capable of figuring out how to summon their wolf will be able to show us some impressive things.

Moving on to our four travelers from the Adventurer’s Guild, I was ecstatic to see that we weren’t given some stupid scenario where they just assume all monsters are bad. Sure, three out of the four probably exist to just give us some comedic relief, but nonetheless it still feels good to see some humans finally added into the mix. That said, who would have thought that we’d meet Shizu (Rimuru’s destined girl) so quickly? And who would have thought that’d she also be someone from Japan? Different time period than Rimuru sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s also from the same world as him! Hopefully we’ll get to see some touching moments between the two if the story will give them some time to reminisce about the world that they came from. It also doesn’t hurt that Shizu is pretty darn good with that sword of hers too.

Overall, another damn good episode that just keeps on rolling forward. We have Rimuru’s village quickly expanding into something that’s similar to a city and there’s more than enough manpower ready to turn that into reality; there’s some new characters just waiting to show us what they can do; and the new girl who’s destined to be with Rimuru has a insanely traumatic past and apparently the fire demon Ifrit somewhere inside of her. Luckily it looks like we won’t have to wait too long to see just what that flashback at the end of the episode was about since next week’s preview makes it sound like something big is about to go down. In any case, I’ll catch you guys then!

Spoiler talk below, don’t open if you don’t want spoilers.
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Preview

34 Comments

  1. I’m really liking this show so far. One thing I don’t understand, though, is that if Shizu is from the WWII era, how come she identified what Rimuru said as a line from Dragon Quest?

    Angelus
      1. I think it’s still clumsy. Just because someone else mentions a cultural reference doesn’t make it your own cultural reference. Nor does it make it something you yourself would laugh at.

        Rathje
      2. It’s just an imitation of saying that quote in a funny way referencing w/e that is. she just laughed at the way he said that. ppl without entertainment can laugh at anything since their tolerance for comedy is low. just think of how much stupid shit u can find funny as a kid

        yodad
  2. I’m not a bad slime!

    I had no idea of the reference, so I didn’t understand Shizu’s initial reaction.
    Speaking of Shizu, I like how it was on her mind and as soon as Rimuru approached
    her, she turned the conversation to ask if the line was from a game. Great writing,
    and adds an interesting persona to her character – that gentle, kind assertiveness.

    Also, several mysteries about her are apparent:
    — why is she there – is she on a “mission”;
    — twice she was “weakened” – is that the curse, and
    — how the heck can she see through that mask?!

    Anyway, anyone notice how good the SFX are in this series? And also, Rimuru providing
    his own story narration adds an interesting twist to the story – it’s almost like we’re
    watching a retelling of his reincarnation from his point of view after it’s all done.
    This is probably one of those very subtle language “writing styles” that is difficult
    to accurately translate but if you consider the series’ title, it’s in the past tense
    (in English).

    I hope that it’s correct that it’s two cour – I and spoiled by the ED as I really want
    to see how Rimuru get his “human” form, who are the horned people, what happened to their
    village — aaaahh!!

    So much anticipation – I can’t wait ’till next Monday!

    mac65
    1. Speaking of Shizu, I like how it was on her mind and as soon as Rimuru approached
      her, she turned the conversation to ask if the line was from a game. Great writing,
      and adds an interesting persona to her character – that gentle, kind assertiveness.

      I dont get why it is great writing. Could you explain?

      Kinai
      1. Because it shows that she was thinking about the “joke”
        the whole time and as soon as she had the opportunity to
        ask him about it, almost blurted out her question about it.
        She didn’t ask him about it in a “oh, BTW” manner. There
        was a certain comical tension about the interaction and
        the writing portrayed that well, IMHO.

        Anyway, that’s how I read the mood in the Anime – others may
        see a different view. Good writing is just being able
        (among many other things) to compress a point of view (read –
        emotion) in as few words as possible without having to explain
        every detail either by narration or the characters explaining
        themselves.

        This series is doing a great job so far, IMHO…

        mac65
    1. … How? They just have anime face. She’s a pretty young girl and human Rimuru is a cute androgynous boy. Aside from them both having similar hair, I’m not seeing much resemblance.

      Guile
  3. I wanna say it again, this anime adaption is not rush to the end and I thankful for that. many anime shows that adapted from novels are super rush to end and must concluded everything in 12 episodes (1 season), and the studio often cut most details out to the point that it feels like we are just watching summary of several novel books.
    this anime, each episode ended in the way that don’t strictly follow how the novel chapter or manga chapter end, (the studio let the air time decide where to end the story).

    pmnt
  4. Being the destined girl and all, being some sort of hero, plus that mask that gave her a scary-serious kind of feeling – I was totally not expecting to like her at all because I expected she would be the common proper/overly serious type of character that the MC has to spend effort to win over because plot dictates so. But what I got instead was a honestly cute girl (that smile!), who goes at her own pace but feels innocent and yet not stupid – and she’s also strong.

    I feel like in most shows the MC would have to try hard to get close to the strong hero girl to get the info he needs, and she would be extremely distrustful of him (especially given his current state) and he’ll have to prove his worth yadayada before she finally joins his group or whatever usually happens. Here he just saves them, they immediately start off on good terms, and the whole you’re from Japan right? thing is already out of the way and it’s just perfect! She became likable and easy to symphatize with in an instant. And I don’t swing that way, but her unmasked smile was godlike and totally won me over in that instant. If this is the first of the bunch of interesting characters Rimuru will meet and add to party from now on, I’m extremely excited to see more.

    ZJZJ
  5. I think it was amazing to see Shizu looking at post war peaceful, prosperous Japan and that it brought a bit of happiness to her…
    I think someone spirited away in Warsaw 1944 or Dresden 1945 would be happy to see united Europe being oasis of peace too.

    ewok40k
  6. Shizu is the first of the “moe” female principle character designs you been seeing in the OP who makes her proper appearance in the episode, and boy is she awesome! Also it’s revealed she’s the little girl who appears in the prologue in Episode 1! Rimuru showing her the tragedies and revivals modern Japan experienced was a mature touch, I honestly never thought that kind of historial commentary would be mentioned in an anime like this.

    starss
    1. Actually, those kinds of “tragedies” and “historical commentary” always make their way into Japanese anime.

      It’s the WW2 “tragedies” in Shanghai, Chanking (now called Chongqing), Manila, etc, etc, etc that never get a mention in Japanese anime.

      You’ll see plenty of Japanese waxing rhapsodic about their presumed “victim-status” and “civilian bombing”. In fact, the Japanese were the girst and greatest purveyors of civilian bombing – the early and BIG advocates of targeting “soft” civilian targets.

      We’re not talking about the American bombings like Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which targeted military industrial areas of those cities and whose civilian casualties were collateral damage.

      We’re talking about targeting targets of opportunity such as suburban residential areas and commercial districts, specifically to eliminate and demoralize the indigenous populace.

      One could argue this Japanese tactic – which began in 1932 and ran all through to 1941 till the end of the war – was a “legitimate” military tactic in terms of pure efficacy. It was effective after a fashion, but I doubt that’s a point that most here can maturely discuss (in which case, you shouldn’t be talking about “mature” content to begin with). What cannot be argued is that the Japanese have any basis for agonizing over “civilian casualties”, least of all their own, either in specific target choices or in the fact that they incurred MAGNITUDES more non-combatant casualties per combatant killed.

      By contrast, roughly 40% of the 50,000 directly killed by Hiroshima bomb were in military uniform (The Japanese have tried inflating numbers ever since). And the majority of the other 60% worked in one way shape or form for the Imperial Japanese Army, who’s Headquarters was the staging point and assembly for all of Japan’s Armed forces being funneled to Kyushu (in preparation for the inevitable Operation Downfall).

      Nagasaki, btw, was the Imperial Naval version of Hiroshima with more industry.

      And decades later, 80 year-olds who were “near” the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and died of old age were added to the official (and bogus) Japanese tallies of the “civilian bombing” of Hiroshima, while “ghost” statistics with no documented supporting evidence or carbon dating verification tried to inflate immediate blast-effects further.

      That pretty much tells you all you need to know about the Japanese and their fake anime “historical commentary”. It would be laughable if so many people didn’t WANT to believe it were true – and have gone so far out on a self-righteous limb that they now feel they have no choice in upholding a corrupt and distorted history.

      Jerry
      1. this is correct, especially that whole Nanking incident. . .if anyone has seen the pictures (everyone should see them) of the victims and cities. . .yeah, theres a reason why asia pretty much hated the Japanese for a L O N G time.

        dropped
      2. “Hated”? I think “hate” is still pretty accurate, certainly for some parts of China. But perhaps China is just as good at playing the victim as Japan. And really I think that’s a very human trait throughout history for the losing side of any conflict, be it military or whatever.

        Angelus
  7. It’s a little too convenient that all four dwarves are super talented at different crucial aspects of village-building, don’t you think? Weren’t the three younger ones apprentices or mine workers or something? Why is one a master armorsmith, one a master builder, and one a master artisan?

    Guile
    1. Because plot… They weren’t miners, they had ran out of materials. As for apprentices, I guess it was more of a case of trying to help their brother with the unreasonable order. Still, very convenient and plot-devicey how well spread their expertise is, but I don’t mind.

      Aizen
    2. Yeah, they aren’t all blacksmiths which should’ve been explained better. Just the old man is, the others are better at other things. Though it isn’t really that Rimu got artisians, he managed to get geniuses. That’s why the Dwarven King wants to be good friends with Rimu. Because it isn’t just guys who are good at their craft but guys who are just damn gifted at craftsmenship.

      In fact it was more a plot devices to get the Dwarven King on Rimu’s side, than it was to get Rimu all the people he needs. Hell, there’s… You know what, I’ll leave that spoiler entirely out of this. Let’s just saw the Dwarven King probably planned that entire scenario the moment he found out about Rimu.

      Dorian S.
  8. kinda like Deathmarch here, i wish we would see more episodes than are in production. some later arcs, like rimuru going mad, would have been a blast. but still, the animation is great, so it’s a fun watch.

    Larcek

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