「狂いゆく歯車」 (Kurui Yuku Haguruma)
“The Gears Spin Out of Control”

Another fantastic episode that can’t help but tease what’s soon to come.

General Impressions

Boy, this episode did a great job at being a huge tease. Not that I’m saying being a tease is necessarily a bad thing, but boy am I excited for things to come. Because for those of you who didn’t catch it, there’s about to be an all-out-war going on in the forest and Rimuru will be the one who it’ll all revolve around. At least, that’ll be the game plan as soon as we deal with the headache known as Gabiru.

After watching the episode a second time with fresh eyes, I realized that as annoying as Gabiru is, it’s not too hard to cut him a little slack when you consider what he’s basing some of his actions on. As the son of the chieftain, I’m sure he’s grown up with his peers having high expectations of him. Toss in how he doesn’t seem to be the sharpest spoon in the fork drawer and you almost feel bad for how badly he’s let himself be mind washed by those sneaky majins. However, even with all that in mind, I have to admit that I can’t wait to see his stupid actions come to bite him in the butt.

Because, as powerful as one may be, I love how the story has made it clear that rational thinking and a little forethought can go much further than just parading a true display of strength. Using both Rimuru and the Lizardmen’s chieftain as prime examples, you have to love how they’re able to use their wisdom to try and plan multiple steps ahead. Be it consulting the smart members of their council or realizing when an olive branch with a side of strawberry shortcake is being extended to you, the “smarts” of these leaders really help keep things fresh compared to just watching endless battles that would require the power levels of each new threat to exponentially rise.

Anyways, with things as they are now, I can’t wait to see what next week’s episode has in store for us. Hopefully Rimuru and the rest of his crew arrive before Gabiru does something extremely stupid and causes things to snowball into something even worse than it already is. But as pessimistic as I am, I’ll believe (for now) that Gabiru will be able to at least hold off the immediate threat. Here’s to me hoping I’m not wrong.

 

Preview

24 Comments

  1. I love how the story has made it clear that rational thinking and a little forethought can go much further than just parading a true display of strength.

    This. Also the same reason why Arslan is so engaging to watch.

    Kimberly
  2. Coming up next week for Rimuru :

    “The Beacons of Lizardmen ! The Beacons are lit! The Lizardmen calls for aid.”

    “And Rohan will answer.”
    .
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    I can’t resist putting Rohan in it. Too epic.

    danes256
  3. As dumb as he is, I still really like what they’re doing with Gabiru. He’s a rare example of someone with an ego that isn’t automatically evil. Most times the arrogant fool is so full-up on himself that he’s just a bad guy by default, but here we can see that Gabiru is trying to do good… but he’s just really bad at it. Someone who strokes his ego is a friend he’ll listen to, someone who points out he’s not the hottest thing around is a problem because LIZARDMEN ROCK!! He’s a patriot, just a very dumb one.

    I also love me some Treyni. Her attitude was too fun with how she just sat back. She needs Rimuru and Rimuru needs her, she knows that Rimuru is smart enough to understand that on his own so she doesn’t even bother playing coy or desperate. Just snacks on potato chips and tea until she can tell what she knows, which she knows will be enough. For a first meeting she was showing a weird sort of trust that was honestly pretty sexy.

    Aex
    1. Well, the only Bad side so far, is that these Lizard Men look down on others and see them above all.. They even did not “respect” the Orc Messenger.. as you saw with your own eyes

      Worldwidedepp
    2. Yes, I like that too. Gabiru is egotistical, but the show lampshades that his troupe’s constant praise is to blame in part for it. He’s also too quick to blindly trust the evil clown, but from his point of view he’s a messenger of Lord Gelmud, the guy who saw promise in him and gave him a name. And such messenger appealed to his sense of patriotism: the Orc Lord is coming and he’s convinced his father’s strategy will get everyone killed.

      Of course, he’s wrong and stupid. But isn’t history full of similar cases? Before Cannae, many in Rome hated Fabius’s strategy to avoid a direct clash with Hannibal’s army. When elections came, they elected consuls that promised a glorious battle to defeat the Carthaginians. The result was a complete disaster.

      Also, love the contrast between the clown and Souei. Both come to the Lizardmen as envoys of their masters, both look quite sinister and both bring news about the Orc Lord. But whereas the clown appeals to a shared connection, and is friendly and cheerful, Souei appeals to force, and almost murdered a guard who disrespected his master.

      Had Souei not mentioned the dryads, a third observer could believe that he serves the Bad Guy.

      Mistic
  4. https://randomc.net/image/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken%20-%2012%20-%2009.jpg
    The dryad knows too much. Calling Rimuru by his dragon-given name? That’s letting the cat out of the bag.

    https://randomc.net/image/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken%20-%2012%20-%2031.jpg
    Meanwhile, this guy is going to get everyone else killed. Stereotypical Prince Fool. And Gabiru burns just about every bridge he comes to, thanks to his fawning audience. I foresee massive casualties of any Lizardmen left outdoors next episode, and then the Orc army infiltrating the Lizardmen “labyrinth” of tunnels by sheer force of numbers.

    Rimuru and company to the rescue!

    jhpace1
    1. Dryads are the caretakers of the forest who know everything that transpires in it; the cave that Veldora was in as well as the goblin village are all technically in the forest and Rimuru and others have said the “Tempest” name numerous times now, so it wouldn’t be hard for a Dryad to learn it.

      HalfDemonInuyasha
  5. As the one who received the Storm Dragon Veldora’s protection

    As far as I know, in the Anime, no one else knew about Rimuru’s relationship w/Veldora,
    but yet no one batted an eye when Treyni made that proclamation. It’s kinda a big deal
    since the lack of Veldora provided the opportunity for the Orc’s invasion, and I’m pretty
    sure this was common knowledge, you’d think people there would gasp or something at the
    announcement. And Veldora disappearance was still a mystery to everyone, how would Rimuru
    have Veldora’s protection?
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Don’t get me wrong, this is a great adaptation so far – sound effect quality, voice acting,
    and even the animation is fairly consistent and of very good visual quality.

    Again, my biggest complaint is the 7 days between each episode. As we approach the
    new year, I hope they won’t skip a week – I’ll be sad waiting two week for the next
    installment!

    mac65
  6. Halfway in, and we’re finally in the thick of the main storyline, with only the action to wait for! The funny highlight was of course the lizardmen mistaking Gobta as the leader!

    Why hasn’t any company made a figurine or bust of Shion carrying Rinmuru under her bosom yet??

    starss
  7. The lizardmen don’t take their oaths of fealty to their leaders very seriously, do they? What do they have that would make the demon lord and his majins bother wiping them out? Or are they just rations for the orcs on their way to their real target?

    Kling Klang
    1. To be fair, it sounds like only the younger Lizardmen participated in the coup, and they are following the chieftain’s son who’s the heir-apparent, so they probably tell themselves that this is just a “slightly aggressive” changing of the guard. At least they didn’t kill anybody…

      Aex
  8. Instead, what’s more important here is that the orc lord shares his unique skill with all the other orcs he commands. The orc lord’s unique skill is known as Starved and it works in a very similar way to Rimuru’s Predator, except it also comes with a constant debuff.

    When the orc army defeats opponents, they eat their corpses and subsequently gain the strength of those they’ve devoured. They also use this skill on their own fallen comrades. However, it’s unclear if they obtain the unique skills of those they devour in the same way that Rimuru does.

    My guess is that this isn’t the case, because if it was, that would be an insanely broken unique skill. Rimuru’s unique skill is already broken as it is, but imagine if everyone under Rimuru was also given the Predator skill simply by having him as their master.

    So, by using the Starved unique skill, the orc army is able to continuously power itself up as it progresses forward. When they defeat enemies, they become stronger as a whole, and when they lose comrades, they don’t necessarily lose strength because it’s redistributed between the survivors.

    For example, if 199,999 of the 200,000 orcs were killed, but the one remaining orc ate the corpses of all those who had died, there wouldn’t merely be one orc left, it would be one orc with the power of 200,000, so it’s as if none of them were ever defeated. And, that orc would have the additional power of whatever else it ate.

    However, I did mention that this unique skill comes with a considerable debuff, and that’s the fact that the entire orc army is always starving. While this is certainly a debuff, it also makes the unique skill more powerful because it drives the army to always be searching for new prey, which will then be converted into power.

    But, at the same time, if the army runs into a vast, unpopulated region, they’ll all die of starvation.

    Rimuru and the gang also learn from the dryad that it seems to be this starvation which is the driving force behind the movements of the orcs. Instead of the orcs having a specific target and plan of attack, they appear to simply be going on a rampage throughout the forest in an attempt to find more food.

    If this is indeed the case, then it brings up the question of, what was the majin who created the orc lord after? Was this majin simply trying to cause chaos throughout the land, or is there a specific reason he created this ravenous army of orcs?

    Bertz
    1. As someone who reads the novel, I can say that the actual reason for the making of the Orc Lord probably won’t be properly explained until much further down (maybe have to wait until next season), but it does tie in with the main story plot. 🙂

      But to your other two questions, the short answer is “yes” to both of them. The future antagonist have a specific goal in mind, and to achieve it the antagonist needs someone (in this case the Orc Lord) to cause chaos (or rather, deaths, to be more precise) throughout the region for him/her. Saying more beyond this would probably spoil the plot. 😛

      dhRPGamer
  9. “the smarts of these leaders really help keep things fresh compared to just watching endless battles that would require the power levels of each new threat to exponentially rise.” – True words. I am so tired of that myself. Love when fights require some smarts. Reminds me of Arslan and that other one like Arslan that i can’t recall the name of :-). Great episode. Please kill of Gabiru…he frustrates me to levels I am even surprised at myself at.

    Kurik
  10. Woah I was gonna say Gabiru was the highlight of the ep until I read the blogger finds him annoying ????. He was indeed the most grounded in his fighting, and I was gripped by his inner monologue.

    … so Shion’s secretary outfit just …. appears without explanation. A modern-day design is inserted into this olde-inspired fantasy setting and no one questions it… yeah I know I keep harping on this but MAN. Never has an anime that’s so good puzzles me so much! Also yeah the Kirins are OP now.

    starss

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