That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 24

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 24

Black and the Mask

Today’s episode of TenSura was both good and bad. For the most part, I found the actual content of the episode to be good, but the placement of the episode in the series and the foreshadowing at the end of the episode definitely detracted from the overall experience.

As I mentioned in last week’s review, episode 23 would have been the perfect place to stop for this season of the series. However, there are still two episodes after it, today’s being one of them. Well, this week my feelings on that subject haven’t changed.

While I don’t think this episode, and probably the next, should have been cut from the season, I do think they should have been placed somewhere else. Yes, this episode doesn’t directly deal with the events at hand, but that doesn’t mean it should be awkwardly tagged on to the end of the season like an afterthought.

I think it would have fit in much better either just before the arc in which Rimuru goes to teach Shizu’s students, or somewhere in the middle of that arc as a one-episode break. Side or back stories of characters should be included when they’re most relevant or will have the most impact, not simply at the end.

Shizue Azawa vs. Black from the anime series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Shizu vs. Black

But, while this side story is viewed from Shizu’s perspective, it’s not actually about her at all. Instead it’s about a new character who is referred to as Noir, Kuro, and Black all at varying times of the episode. Just to be clear, these are all the same name, just in French, Japanese, and English, so they really should have stuck to one.

At the very least, Black, as I’ll be referring to him for simplicity’s sake, seems to be a fairly interesting character. He’s a Demon who was summoned specifically to hunt and kill other Demons it seems, which could be a cool dynamic as long as it’s done right (which I doubt it will be).

The Ocarina Mask of Time

My guess is that the most entertaining part of the episode for most viewers is going to be the fight between Black and Shizu. However, despite how nice it was to finally see some real combat in this series, the big take-away from their fight was what we learned about Shizu’s mask.

If you’ve been around this blog before, especially my reviews of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, then you’ll know that time-based abilities are the most overpowered ones possible. And, in today’s episode of TenSura we learn that Shizu’s, not Rimuru’s, mask actually has a time-based ability.

Previously the mask was just explained as being capable of suppressing the wearer’s power level and restricting their magicules, but apparently that wasn’t enough. So just how does this mask of time work?

Well, it’s not entirely clear just yet. What we do know is that when Black attacks Shizu’s mask by lunging at it with his right arm, the instant after he makes contact with it his arm is removed from the rest of his body and he retreats.

So, what happened? Since we know the mask has some time-based ability, my best bet is that it’s either able to stop time, or alter the recent past. If time stoppage is indeed how it works, then what we saw was simply Shizu stopping time, cutting off Black’s arm, and then resuming time where it left off.

However, while this is certainly an extremely powerful ability, the ability to alter the recent past is arguably even better. If this is what actually happened, then that means upon Black making contact with the mask, the mask rewound time and then inserted an alternate timeline in which Black’s arm was cut off rather than touching the mask.

While the end result is the same in both of these scenarios, the implication of the latter is that this is an automatic function which essentially erases all possibility for the wearer to be killed by external forces. So, if you’re someone who didn’t think Rimuru was overpowered enough, what about now?

Demon Taxonomy

With the introduction of the Demon known as Black, we also learn a bit about the different classifications of Demons. And, the first thing I should remind you all about this topic is that Demon Lords don’t actually have anything to do with Demons.

In fact, not a single Demon Lord we’ve met so far has been described as a demon, and in some cases they’ve even explicitly been described as members of other races. This is basically just like how the Ten Commandments from The Seven Deadly Sins also don’t necessarily have to be Demons.

Starting from the bottom of the list, we have the Lesser Demons. These Demons basically look like Baphomet, which is the goat-headed deity we now associate with Satanism and the occult. Lesser Demons also don’t appear to be all that strong when up against a well-coordinated and prepared group.

Greater Demon Orthos from the anime series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Greater Demon Orthos

Next up on the list we have the Greater Demons, which as their name implies, are greater than the Lesser Demons. It’s not quite clear what the “true” form of these Greater Demons is, but if Orthos is any indication, then they appear to be a mix of a Lesser Demon and Human.

Greater Demons are notably stronger than Lesser Demons, as is shown by the fact Orthos was able to take over an entire kingdom. But, even Greater Demons like Orthos are no match for the next type of Demon simply known as the Progenitors.

With a title like that, we can assume that all other Demons are descendants of the three Progenitors. Interestingly, despite their immense power, the three progenitors aren’t even named monsters, and instead are referred to by the colors associated with them. These are Rouge, Blanc, and Noir (Red, White, and Black).

So, the Demon Black is actually the Progenitor Black. And, we’re even told that Orthos is the underling of Rouge, so we can infer that Rouge is the Demon which he was attempting to resurrect by sacrificing Shizu.

How to Raise a Boring Isekai

Now, at this point you’re probably wondering when I was going to start actually complaining about the episode. Yes, I complained about the placement of this episode in the season. And, yes, there was implied complaining in my discussion of Shizu’s mask. But, now get ready for the big one.

Just in case you thought that maybe, just maybe Black was going to end up being the antagonist I’ve been wanting in this series from the beginning, TenSura swoops in to let you know that isn’t the case. He could have been such a good character if he was a morally ambiguous antagonist, but no.

No, instead, we’re told that in the second season (which has already been announced) that Rimuru is going to summon Black and give him the name Diablo. Talk about setting up a cliffhanger for the next season in episode 23 and then revealing that the cliff is actually a gentle slope in episode 24.

For a second I actually forgot that this series doesn’t include conflict and thought that meaningful antagonists existed. People have been telling me for months that this is just the intro of the series and that it gets better, and I actually got baited into believing them for a second there.

There’s literally no reason for the cliffhanger of episode 23 to have been redacted like it was in this episode. There’s literally no explanation that could possibly make that choice acceptable. And yet, I’m sure someone will try to tell me otherwise.

Conclusion

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime? Good? Bad? Mediocre? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments, and while you’re down there, let’s play a little game of trivia:

What’s the name of the main character from the anime I referenced in today’s section titles? The first one to get it right gets a special Discord role.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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