That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 9

Attack of the Ogres

In this episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, or TenSura, we get another glimpse at what this anime could have been. In a previous post, I mentioned how this series would have actually been a good ecchi anime due to the initial concept, and in this episode we see how it could have been a good action anime.

And before you scroll down to the comments to tell me how this series is ecchi, comedy, or even action, no, it isn’t. This is a shounen fantasy.

During this episode, Rimuru fights against a group of ogres, or oni as I’ll be referring to them from here on out, and we actually see some fairly decent fight animation because he’s not using his overpowered abilities. By contrast, go back and watch the fight against Ifrit which was terrible.

Overpowered protagonists are nothing new in the isekai genre, as I believe I showcased in a previous episode review by listing off a bunch of anime with the same exact concept, but it actually detracts from the series in many cases. It works in series like Overlord and Demon Lord, but not TenSura and SAO.

With a protagonist as powerful as Rimuru, there will never actually be any meaningful conflict involving him, and this makes every fight he’s a part of boring to watch. However, as I mentioned, we got a glimpse at what this anime could have been this week.

When fighting the oni, Rimuru holds back and only uses his most powerful abilities at the end to scare the oni into submission by showing off his true strength. Before that, he uses some of the abilities he got at the start of the series, which are powerful, but nothing too insane.

For example, he knocks out one oni with a stun spore-like move which seems to have limited range, he ties up another with his steel silk which may be a bit too strong, and he deflects a sword and punches its wielder with his body armor skill used on his forearm.

Even with just these three active abilities Rimuru would be a powerful adversary as we see during this fight due to his passive abilities. But, these are also the weakest active abilities he has at his disposal.

I’d much rather watch a fight in which Rimuru had to combine abilities like these in various ways to defeat his opponents then watch him one-shot anything by using one of his more powerful attacks. It would make the fights more interesting, and also give a reason to include some good fight choreography and animation.

Rimuru’s New Abilities

Rimuru gained a couple of new abilities in this episode thanks to using his Predator skill on both Ifrit and Shizu. Along with the abilities we’re shown in the episode, he undoubtedly gained many more abilities from these two considering how powerful they were implied to be.

First up, we have the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (shadow clone technique) from Naruto. Rimuru uses this ability while in his new human form, but we can assume he’s capable of using it no matter what form he takes. However, unlike Naruto’s shadow clones, Rimuru’s don’t appear to be capable of movement.

This is the only ability which we’re shown that came from Ifrit, which is strange because this doesn’t even seem to be something unique to him. He was a fire spirit, so one would assume Rimuru would show off some sort of special fire skill he acquired from him, but no.

Rimuru is also able to change the age and sex of his shadow clones, and presumably his own human form. He tests out making his shadow clone an adult male and adult female, but decides that keeping his human form as an androgynous child is the best option, because anime, I guess?

Before he was reincarnated in the fantasy world, Rimuru was a 37-year-old man, so you would think that he would stick with the adult male body type, but apparently not. Also, he’s not some rom-com, harem, teenage protagonist, so why does he get so flustered when seeing the adult female shadow clone? Because this is a shounen series, that’s why.

Honestly, although I knew it wasn’t going to happen, I was hoping to see him choose to go with the adult female body type. I knew this was impossible due to what we see in the OP and ED, and the fact that the shounen target audience can’t “relate” to that, but it would have been nice.

Think about it, do we ever get a strong, female protagonist in fantasy anime, especially isekai? There has to be one, but I can’t think of any female protagonist in a fantasy with strong fighting abilities, instead of just a “strong heart” or the power of friendship.

Of course, there are great male protagonists such as Kazuma or Koyomi from KonoSuba and Monogatari respectively, but for the most part I tend to identify with female protagonists more because they’re usually more realistic characters. Male protagonists have become little more than a trope.

The next new ability we see I’ll refer to as Amaterasu to match the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. This ability allows Rimuru to cast a powerful, black, fire magic, which is said to be much stronger than your standard fire. But, while this is a fire ability, it doesn’t come from Ifrit.

Instead, this ability was passed down to Rimuru by Shizu, who created it with one of her other special abilities that allowed her to combine abilities into new ones. From this, we can assume Rimuru also has this combining ability, and will use it in the future to power-up his current abilities.

It’s almost like the writer thought that Rimuru wasn’t nearly powerful enough when he gave him this new combining ability.

The Six Oni

There are six oni who attack the goblins and tempest wolves while they’re out hunting. Of these six, five of them appear to be characters who will be sticking around because they’re featured in the OP and ED. The sixth oni is likely going to be sent back to their homeland as an emissary or something.

The oni don’t yet have names, so instead I’ll be referring to them by their classes, or at least what their classes appear to be. The first oni, and one which I don’t believe will be sticking around, is the berserker. He’s the one who gets knocked out by Rimuru’s paralyzing ability.

Next we have what I’ll be calling the warrior oni. She’s the female oni who wields a mace and wears her hair in a ponytail. Her fighting style reminds me of a berserker as well, but her appearance makes me think this isn’t what her class really is. She’s taken out by Rimuru’s steel silk.

The third oni to be dispatched is the ninja oni. As the name implies, he’s dressed as your stereotypical ninja and uses a katana to fight. His sword is broken and then he’s taken out by Rimuru using his body armor ability.

The next three oni aren’t defeated and appear to be more important. First we have the oni prince, the strong, red-haired oni who wears samurai armor and wields a sword. He’s also shown to be proficient at fire magic, but this has no effect on Rimuru.

His sister, the pink-haired oni, is the princess and specializes in non-lethal magic. She initially puts multiple goblins and tempest wolves to sleep, and to prevent her from doing any more harm, Rimuru has Ranga shadow her while he fights the other five oni.

The final oni is the martial artist. He’s an elder and adviser to the prince. Of all the oni listed here, he seems to be the strongest despite his age simply due to his skill and experience. He manages to cut off Rimuru’s arm without his presence being noticed, but since Rimuru is a slime, it doesn’t really matter.

Conclusion

This episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was pretty good, but it still wasn’t anything too special. Other than including some decent fight animation, the series continued to stick to pandering to its audience, and because of that, it will never be as good as most believe it to be.

So, what did you think of this week’s episode? Would you be more interested in it if Rimuru wasn’t completely overpowered, or do you like having no real conflict? Also, which body type would you want Rimuru to use? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.