Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita – 04

「ゴブリンスタンピードはオオゴトでした」 (Goburin Sutanpīdo wa Ōgoto Deshita)
“The Terrifying Goblin Stampede”

Woah! Tons of lore in this episode! The whole exposition with the gods leading up to the explanation of the god of chaos was just *chef’s kiss.* Even though the exposition was dulled out rather quickly, it wasn’t the hardest to keep up with. First, there were the gods of elemental prouesse, that from there created 72 gods of different stature. From there 10 gods arose as the strongest of them all. However, the goddess of chaos remained as one of the original 10. She is responsible for creating dungeons as a sort of balancing act for humanity. However, there was also another important fact. Sorry to do this comparison again but I’ve been sort of obsessed with Rings of Power so it’s fresh on my mind.

Think about Sauron, (sorry I haven’t read the books) at least in the movies and this new series, he’s sort of known as this Lovecraftian entity; a god that sweeps through darkness and invades the heart of men, sooner rather than later when the time is ripe taking a body and manifesting himself in mortal flesh. I won’t spoil TROP in case you haven’t watched it, but the gist of it stands tall. Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita also has a big baddie, but is no longer here. And the explanation they gave was quite satisfying. So unlike Sauron, this war god has clearly died and left his influence across the land. His body and spirit were fractured into a million pieces, and from there, goblins and orcs were born, aka all the evil in the world. Which is a satisfactory conclusion but clearly lets out the part where you get to foreshadow his return in a big way.

So yeah I don’t know if this is an apt comparison, but it’s something along those lines for sure, Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita for sure takes inspiration from Buddhist mythology, whereas TLORD takes inspiration from Mythology, Christianity, and Philology. Tolkien was not interested in mirroring any other works of fantasy fiction, but instead creating his own world. At least from how I see it. So his inspirations are not other books, but poetry and Christian theology. The ten main gods *opens the episode, skims to exposition, checks notes*

The gods of the sun, moon, sea, land, fire, storm, forest, and beasts. Sort of remind me of the ten great buddhas, however, it might be a stretch. The god of the underworld created the Cycle of Samsara, which is a direct reference to the cycle of birth and rebirth in Hinduism. Which also shares the same name. Everything after that I’ve already covered somewhere up top.

So yeah that’s the lore Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita is building and so far it’s been fascinating to watch, and a breath of fresh air I so desperately needed. Okay, enough lore talk let’s get to the episode proper. Fran being a badass is really doing it for me she’s just hauling those goblins left and right, it’s quite satisfying to see, literally cutting them in half. However is it weird that Fran is taking Shishou to the bath now, especially since the sword is implied to be a boy! However my triggers aside I was searching for reference clues about the lore and found things I should not have read, aka spoilers regarding some of the systems of this word. That’s not the important part, I read that some fans say Fran and Shishou’s relationship is more akin to that of father and daughter and given Fran is canonically 12-13 years old, I guess it’s okay. However, she’s rubbing his back instead of the other way around. We must remember Japan’s sensibilities to this kind of stuff are very different from ours, and maybe the author just tried to imbue a wholesome moment for their relationship. Maybe it’s nothing more than a disciple and master situation. I want to believe. That sword has hands though!

Let’s not think about that too hard and just accept it for face value. Right before the episode ends we get a big reveal that the goblin DM has actually summoned a super powerful monster because he lucked out in the gacha, more and more I start to think that this is a sort of f2p MMO but that is neither here nor there. Let’s just pretend it’s not. Well, Fran walks in head first not before using her flying skill that lets her hope through the air and use a fire elemental skill that exploded all the goblins at the entrance and allowed her to enter through.

What sort of power-up will she have after defeating the big baddie inside the dungeon, I for one cannot wait and hold the pause with bated breath, until next week my little cat friend!

Full-length images: 39.

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