「救われる魂」 (Sukuwareru Tamashii)
“Saved Souls”

So I guess this was basically the end, two episodes early?

The crux of fiction is usually tension, and let’s be honest with ourselves: there wasn’t much here. Each of the kids got a spirit of some kind, mostly without fuss, save for Chloe, where there was very much some fuss. I think the whole thrust of this episode was one detail: Chloe is someone important. That’s what the weird spirit tells us, that’s what all the ominous foreshadowing tells us, and that’s pretty much all it tells us. Because did they just skip a whole subplot from the source material?? Whoa. Didn’t expect that.

After which we got a slide show in remembrance of these two seasons, followed by a what they’re up to now epilogue. Even though there are two episodes left! Once again: whoa. I did not realize I’d be covering basically the finale! Though it looks like there are two “extras” afterwards, which will cover … something. So I’ll leave the finale thoughts to someone who’s blogged more than a couple episodes. As is, I’m left with relatively little to say, other than Rimuru is broken (as usual), Ramiris is less annoying than her initial impression, and Kenya’s spirit is probably going to bug him to no end (if it gets to talk after this), which is great. Other than that, I guess this is another happy ending(?) for Rimuru and crew. Hopefully those extra episodes will let us actually enjoy a couple last episodes back in the city of Rimuru before the anime comes to a close.

My second novel, Freelance Heroics, is available! (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Third book in progress now! Sign up for my email list for updates. At stephenwgee.com, the last two posts: Celebrities’ Political Opinions, An Author’s Review of: Freelance Heroics.

 

Preview

35 Comments

  1. I can not believe, I expected them to show that scene Show Spoiler ▼

    they could have done an incredible final, but NO, they decided to ruin it with a summary and occupy two episodes of the season for some stupid extras.

    I do not know if in a possible second season they pick up the parts that skipped the manga or if will animated that scene, but I feel that the director let him import the direction of history and just wanted to adapt to reach the manga and a mini arc that is a waste in itself for the lost details, this could have become a true example of isekai, but once again the lack of ambition and direction made it lose itself in the sea of mediocrities that the industry creates annually.

    I hope that “Kumo ga desu ga nanika” and “honzuki no gekokujou” have better luck… not, only seeing at the PV you know they will be equally disappointing or worse.
    I have lost faith in the industry again T___T

    Bertz
    1. I certainly hope Honzuki no gekokujou gets better treatment, it would be a real pity otherwise, as it is one novel that really hooked me once it got things started, and then managed to flow consistently. I do not have very high or low expectations of it but, what makes you think it will be a bad adaptation?

      Slime started great and as an anime-only for this it felt alright and even a good adaptation, even with some changes here and there (which I always check discussion threads for). But something felt lacking in excitement the later episodes, and even not knowing the source material I can certainly feel that it is something that could have been a lot better but didn’t get a chance to showcase what it was worth due to issues. It might be even more disappointing to have your expectations met and slowly raised over time only to come down in a “oh… that was… normal… I suppose”, than for it to have been simply decent throughout with a bit of small issues.

      ZJZJ
      1. The director is the same as the world trigger, which simply does not stand out in anything or pay attention to any of his animes, the PV showed a poor visual work and animation.

        Bertz
  2. The way that Rimuru was saying “yes~” to The Great Sage during the spirit anointing process was really funny.

    Very sad the show will come to an end though, and I don’t think I would pick up the novel either, depending on how far it’s translated.

    Bambi
      1. wild mass guessing:
        Show Spoiler ▼

        ewok40k
    1. https://randomc.net/image/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
      I expect a harem one day. Does anyone know what happens to our slime in the end? He ate orcs and other beasts, our slime should enter mating season
      https://randomc.net/image/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken/Tensei%20shitara%20Slime%20Datta%20Ken%20-%2023%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
      Sort of sad to say goodbye, I did sort of hope they got enough manga. Are we able to identify any manga our slime made this episode?

      Greed
  3. If this is really the end (save for a few “filler” episodes), then I have to say I’m certainly disappointed. I mean, it’s not like this series was ever some great amazingly written masterpiece, but it was a fun watch, for the most part. It just really peaked at the Orc Lord Arc imo. This whole thing kept getting better and better up until that point, and then just went downhill every “arc” from then on, leaving a little of a bad taste in my mouth.

    The Millim Arc could have been good when it was revealed how strong she was, but then she just eats food and turns into a kid. The carybdys or whatever, Arc was so anti climactic that it bordered on pointless. In fact, after introducing the animal “Demon Lord” it was kinda the final nail in the coffin for “Demon Lords” in this thing, even before the fairy one. The Orc Lord as a Demon Lord was this big threat, and even though it was ended fairly easily, as this series does, it at least had gravity to it. After that, apparently demon lords are just regular guys, not evil at all, or even threats really, I guess. Then finally, the last Arc was so without drama or development of any kind, that it honestly bordered on filler.

    For me, I’ll remember this series as some great entertainment for about 15 episodes. The rest I could of honestly done without; don’t regret watching it though, just not memorable.

    hjerry2000
    1. The pacing really was confusing. It was like they planned for a detailed 12 episodes, then got told they really had 25 so they stretched out what they’d already done to 15 and didn’t know how to handle the rest, so they resorted to the usual LN-to-anime formula of hitting 90% of the high notes.

      Even if it meant the start was a little more rushed (like maybe 1.5x speed instead of 1x) I wish they’d planned a little better. Then we wouldn’t have had meaningless awkward pauses like beast-dude getting fooled into Charybdis or this episode’s montage, and probably could’ve fit in the whole chapters they cut from Vol.3 and Vol.4.

      It’s really confusing why next episode is an “Extra” when it’s going to cover something they skipped THIS episode. Just keep everything in order…

      Aex
    2. To be honest, a series like this was always going to have trouble down the stretch. Rimuru is so crazy powerful that he can sap the tension out of any conflict, but especially once he got a ton of high-quality allies, it becomes even harder. The Charybdis bit was a good example of this, even before Millim came in and solved the problem for them.

      That said, the fun part was seeing Rimuru + all those competent allies working together! I’da given them more tricky situations that can’t be solved by brute strength (in this, the let’s-save-these-kids arc was a good idea … they just took Rimuru out of his city, which is the best part, and then rushed too much, so it didn’t work too well) to chew on myself.

  4. Also, can someone possibly explain for me what was up with the character at the end, who was shown in the original OP, but we never saw, or saw fight Rimiru like in the OP.

    Was this just a production issue? Did they plan to adapt this but had to leave it out for some reason? The whole “ending” feels rushed and sloppy to me, so I wonder if there were problems and they had to change their plans.

    hjerry2000
    1. If we’re being honest, probably Rimuru (he could eat her spells), but I’d put my money on the White Devil anyway. She doesn’t play nice when she decides to get serious.

      Also, I’m pretty sure she could blow up the planet.

    2. Neither. They are both too professional to fight fights they don’t have to, and too smart to not recognize which is which.

      But if some circumstances forced them to duke it out, my money is on the White Devil too. Rimuru is too laid back and lack a certain killing intent. He would hesitate to hit the girl with full power from the start. She wouldn’t.

      puppygod
  5. Apparently this season covered the 1st 4 volumes.
    There’s 13 LN volumes in Japan, so no shortage of source material.

    However, there are suspicions that Kodansha, who publishes Slime’s manga version, may prevent more seasons from being made sooner. The monthly manga is far behind the anime’s ending, and Kodansha doesn’t want a rival adaptation stealing the manga’s sales potential.

    zztop
  6. Gotta say that the first half was strong (not perfect) story telling,
    but it feels like so much of the depth of the story was left out in the
    adaptation that it really washed the overall effect.

    The best example I can think of you buy a paint-by-numbers painting,
    start painting with only a random selection of a couple of the numbers
    but don’t finish all of the numbers, then hang it on your wall.

    Technically the image is there, but there’s no colour — much like how
    the series progressed, but replace colour with “charm.” Little charming
    details like dressing Rimiru up by the girls, while not part of the plot,
    definitely was part of the charm of the source material.

    Some things in the Manga about Gabiru being rejected by the high spirit
    (when he said “hello”, somewhere in chapter 48) was very funny and illustrated
    the real fickleness of the high spirits and the challenge that Rimiru was
    up against in trying to save the children. Also, the three adventures. Also…

    Anyway, we’ll see how these last two complete this adaptation. Hard to
    imagine a second season working with the same adaptation formula – I’ve
    read a head a bit and it’s good because of it’s charm which I fear would
    be missed if done by the same director / staff.

    mac65
  7. There’s a lot that’s fun about this story. But there’s no question that it had sucky plot-writing. Nonetheless, it was worth watching in a brainless dumb-fun sort of way.

    Rathje
  8. Didn’t expect Stilts to cover what is basically the final episode of an anime this season. 😀
    The 2nd half of the episodewas a bit confusing as I didn’t know who the characters were that had brief appearances.
    I guess some bad guy and right at the end the (current?) Hero of the world?

    boingman
    1. Also confirms both remaining episodes to be disposable filler; maybe the armor “for another time” episode will be an OVA?

      Hopefully, the time to plan will let them better spread the story out, so it doesn’t wane in the latter episodes like this one did; definitely plan to watch it.

      hjerry2000

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