That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 23

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 23

Saved Souls

It’s been four days since the last proper episode review, and so I’m ready to get back into it, even if the series on the menu for today is TenSura. And, believe me when I say this week’s episode was pretty bad considering there are still two more episodes left in the season.

The first two-thirds of the episode were fine, and that’s what the majority of today’s discussion is going to be focused on. So, I’d like to start off with a brief word on the final third of the episode because this is what made the episode bad in my mind.

There are still two episodes left in the season, so why was this the seasonal wrap-up episode? Typically there are two different ways to end a season, either you have an episode that wraps everything up (which are generally boring) or you have an action-packed episode with a cliffhanger to get viewers excited for the next season.

But, for some reason TenSura seems to be opting for both of these. This week’s episode included a recap of the entire season so far, the introduction of a new, mysterious character, and, along with the conclusion of the current arc, a conclusion to multiple, long-running plot lines.

All things considered, this should have been the final episode of the season. However, with two episodes remaining we know that this isn’t the case. This new character is probably going to be fully introduced, and I can only assume that the real final episode is going to leave off on a cliffhanger.

So, the question I pose to the creators of the TenSura anime is this: Why did you choose to end the season this way? Today’s episode felt like a natural cut-off point, so why add more? Even if episode 25 turns out to be a good cut-off point as well, then they should have just gone with that and not made episode 23 into a “final episode” as well.

Anyway, the majority of the episode had to do with Rimuru’s students summoning their very own Superior Spirits, so that’s what the rest of this review is going to be about.

Gale Gibson

First up we have Gale Gibson, and with him, my predictions from last week were wrong right from the start. With a name like “Gale” and no current affinity for elemental magic, I assumed that he would bond with a Wind Spirit and gain an affinity for Wind magic.

But, no, Gale bonds with an Earth Spirit, throwing all anime character naming conventions out the window (I have a post covering this topic coming soon by the way). But, maybe this was a commentary on anime naming conventions shown by subverting the usual tropes (I doubt it).

Alright, but if we ignore the fact that Gale bonded with an Earth Spirit rather than a Wind Spirit, the rest of his summoning wasn’t all that special. He was only able to summon Inferior Spirits, but Rimuru combined them into a Superior Spirit for him to bond with.

Alice Rondo

Next up we have Alice Rondo, who, like Gale, was unable to summon a Superior Spirit on her own. Instead, she summoned a bunch of Inferior Spirits and, once again, Rimuru combined them into a Superior Spirit to bond with her.

However, that doesn’t mean everything went as expected with Alice’s summoning. We were previously introduced to four different elemental Spirits, Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. Because of this, and the fact that Alice uses her magic to control golems, I expected her to have an affinity for Earth magic.

But, no, she doesn’t end up with an Earth Spirit like Gale. Instead, she summons and bonds with a never-before-mentioned type of Spirit known as a Space Spirit. As far as I can tell, this is essentially the same thing as if they were called Dark Spirits, so they don’t actually have anything to do with space.

Kenya Misaki

With Kenya, we’re then introduced to yet another type of Spirit, a Light Spirit. At least this time around there was a bit of precedent for this Spirit type because it seems to be the opposite of the Space Spirit. But, I was certain Kenya was going to bond with a Fire Spirit considering he only uses Fire magic.

The Superior Light Spirit summoned by Kenya Misaki from the anime series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
The Superior Light Spirit summoned by Kenya

And, Kenya was the first of the children to actually summon a true Superior Spirit. In fact, he didn’t even have to do anything to summon this Superior Spirit, it summoned itself when it sensed his latent ability.

So, not only was Kenya recognized by a Superior Spirit instead of the Inferior Spirits we saw previously, but this spirit also seems to think extremely highly of him. The spirit even mentions that with his help, Kenya may even be able to become a hero like Shizu once was.

But, if Gale’s Spirit summoning was supposed to be some sort of subversion of tropes, Kenya’s in anything but. The fact that the loud-mouthed, hot-tempered, young boy with spiky, brightly colored hair has some crazy, latent potential is peak shounen. He’s Naruto.

Ryota Sekiguchi

When I was predicting what kinds of Spirits would inhabit each of the children last week, I wasn’t sure exactly which kind was going to bond with Ryota considering his berserker-like magic. But, I can safely say that I would have never expected what he actually bonded with.

In another twist, Ryota actually bonds with a dual-type Water and Wind Superior Spirit. However, like most of his classmates, he was only able to summon Inferior Spirits which Rimuru had to combine into a single Superior Spirit.

Because Ryota’s Water/Wind Spirit was created via Rimuru’s Degenerate ability, it’s unclear if dual-type Spirits actually exist out in the wild or if this is one-of-a-kind. The Fairy Queen didn’t comment on it, however, so I’ll take that as confirmation that these Spirits actually exist.

Chloe Aubert

The final student to attempt summoning a Superior Spirit is Chloe Aubert. I’ve probably pointed this out in previous episode reviews, but she looks just like a miniature Shizu. In fact, even Rimuru mentioned that she looked familiar when he first met her, likely hinting at this as well.

So, it makes sense that the Spirit Chloe summons doesn’t seem to be a regular spirit. We aren’t told exactly what it is, but whatever inhabits her is extremely powerful, from the future, and seems to be connected to Shizu in some way.

But, this spirit didn’t just seem to be connected to Shizu, it also seemed to be connected to the Storm Dragon Veldora sealed within Rimuru. Perhaps this is the spirit of the Hero and both Shizu, and now Chloe, have inherited the Hero’s power.

Chloe Aubert receiving Shizu's mask from Rimuru Tempest in the anime series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Chloe receiving Shizu’s mask from Rimuru

At the end of the episode, while saying goodbye to his students before heading back to the Jura Tempest Federation, Rimuru ends up giving Shizu’s mask to Chloe. He later says that he doesn’t fully understand why he did this, but that it felt like it was what he was supposed to do.

It’s possible that he saw a bit of Shizu in Chloe and that’s why he gave her the mask. However, I think it’s more likely that this particular mask is the sign of the hero. My guess is that this mask is drawn to whoever the current Hero is.

Think about it, this mask was passed down from Shizu’s mentor (a hero), to Shizu (who became a hero), and then to Rimuru (who took Shizu into his body), and now to Chloe (who seems to have the Hero’s spirit implanted in her).

Conclusion

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime? Did you have the same issue with the ending of the episode as I did? And, what do you think the significance of the “Spirit” Chloe summoned is? Let me know down in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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