Walpurgis

When I think of Walpurgis, I think of the calamity-level witch from Madoka Magica. But in TenSura, Walpurgis is a lot less interesting. Rather than a world-ending witch, it’s simply the name for a conference of demon lords — and not even real demon lords, at that.

In That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 Episode 40, Ramiris explains that if three demon lords agree to call for a Walpurgis, all of the other demon lords are obligated to show up. And the topic of discussion is whatever the demon lords who called Walpurgis decide.

This time around, it was Clayman, Milim, and Frey who called for a Walpurgis, with Rimuru as the topic of discussion. Specifically, the meeting is going to focus on how Rimuru has claimed himself as a demon lord, and then allegedly broke the non-aggression pact between the demon lords.

When you consider that Clayman isn’t even a real demon lord, his actions are pretty pathetic. But, I guess being a demon lord in name only has its perks. After all, he was able to get both Milim and Frey to go along with his plan somehow.

What’s still a bit unclear to me, though, is what the point of this Walpurgis really is. Milim has already taken down Carrion and Clayman’s forces are going to reach Eurazania in two days. That’s before the Walpurgis is set to occur in three days’ time.

It seems a bit odd to hold the Walpurgis after you’ve already wiped out the nation of another demon lord. Unless, of course, the Walpurgis is just being called so that Clayman can act like he followed the proper procedure. I’m sure keeping up appearances is important among demon lords.

True Demon Lords

I’ll get to discussing Clayman specifically in the following section. For now, let’s just take a look at the claim made by Ramiris that there are “demon lords” and there are true demon lords. But what’s odd is that there doesn’t seem to be a difference between the two from a diplomatic standpoint.

What I mean by that is that it doesn’t appear to matter whether someone is a true demon lord or a demon lord in name only. As long as they hold the title of demon lord, they can control a demon lord domain, forge mutual pacts with other demon lords, and even call for a Walpurgis.

With that said, there does appear to be a fundamental difference between the two types of demon lord. Rimuru is a true demon lord because he massacred a bunch of people to receive the title and stat boosts associated with it. False demon lords haven’t done that.

We don’t actually know what gives a false demon lord the right to take on the demon lord title just yet. If I had to guess, it’s just that they’re powerful enough to refer to themselves in that way. Of course, this then begs the question, “Why wouldn’t the true demon lords put a stop to that?”

If I was a true demon lord and some random guy who wasn’t a demon lord started calling himself one and acting like he had the same authority as me, I’d probably make an example out of him. I find it hard to believe the false demon lords are truly on the same level as the true demon lords.

So, who are the true demon lords? Rimuru and Milim definitely are. Aside from those two, I’d say Kazaream and Valentine probably are as well. Cromwell, Carrion, and Frey might be. I doubt Ramiris is. And Clayman obviously isn’t.

Fake Demon Lord Clayman

Remember when I said that false demon lords were probably strong enough to be allowed to claim that title? Clayman may be an exception. I’ve said this in the past about him — and people disagreed with me in the comments — but Clayman doesn’t seem like a real threat.

He’s always just hiding away in his castle within his domain. We’ve actually never seen him outside of his castle. Is that because he’s afraid of leaving? It seems like it. He’s even sent his majin to Eurazania on his behalf instead of going himself.

On top of all that, he’s attempting to become a true demon lord in such a roundabout way that it makes me doubt he could become one by normal means. I’m having a hard time believing Clayman could have annihilated the Falmuth army as Rimuru did.

Look, I’m sure that Clayman will eventually become a threat since he’s been in the series for a while. Maybe he’ll actually succeed in becoming a true demon lord. But if Rimuru was to go up against Clayman now, I think Rimuru would win.

Of course, Rimuru is a true demon lord now, so he’s bound to be stronger than a false demon lord like Clayman. But even if Rimuru fought Clayman before becoming a true demon lord, I still think he would win.

I will say, though, that I’d be completely fine if Clayman never actually becomes a threat. Having fake demon lords running around just makes me doubt all the others. I’d rather Clayman just get defeated soon so we can move on to the true demon lords as antagonists.

Conclusion

What do you think about That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 Episode 40? Do you think Clayman calling a Walpurgis is just to appease the other demon lords? Or is there more to his plan? And which demon lords do you think are true demon lords? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 41 is available now.

Demon Lord Recount

I would say that it’s embarrassing to have to start off this review of TenSura Season 2 Part 2 Episode 39 with a correction of the Episode 38 review. But I don’t care enough about this series to be concerned about being wrong. Anyway, let me set the record straight.

If you read the previous review, you may recall that I said there were eight demon lords, including Rimuru. Well, that’s incorrect. It turns out that there are at least 10 demon lords, but probably more. 11 or 12 seems like a more realistic number to me.

I’m not going to lie, I completely forgot that Ramiris was a demon lord. So, if we add her to the count from last week, we get nine. But, in this episode, Ramiris also states that she’s one of the “10 Great Demon Lords.” So that’s where I’m getting the lower bound of 10 from.

The reason I say that 10 is the low estimate is that I seriously doubt the “10 Great Demon Lords” grouping includes Rimuru since he just awakened. Therefore, Rimuru would be the 11th demon lord. But what about the 12th that I suggested?

Last week, the demon lord Kazaream was revived. Since that demon lord was dead, sealed, or otherwise out of commission, I’m not sure if they’re included in the “10 Great Demon Lords” either. If they aren’t, then they would be the 12th current demon lord.

Also, last week it was mentioned that there used to be seven demon lords. It’s unclear whether these seven are distinct from the 10 which Ramiris is a part of. The seven demon lords could refer to an older and separate group that Kazaream, Valentine, and probably Millim were part of.

Time to Build Another Nation

At the end of the day, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a city-builder anime. It’s not about adventure or action. It’s about diplomacy and upgrading the city of Tempest. But, Tempest is pretty upgraded at this point. If it gets upgraded any more, it’s just going to be a modern city.

So, naturally, it’s time to move on and begin building a new city and country to go with it. Rimuru’s already built a nation from scratch, though. This time, he plans to tear down the nation of Falmuth and rebuild it with Youm as its king.

How Rimuru plans to take over Falmuth is pretty “evil.” I mean, he already slaughtered 20,000 soldiers from the country, most of whom would have liked to surrender. And now, he wants to throw their country into a civil war with the goal of swooping in after both sides have killed each other.

We don’t really get any indication that Rimuru’s allies are thinking about this, but Rimuru’s actions have to be on their minds, right? Sure, the elf guy asks what Rimuru plans to accomplish with his demon lord powers. But that’s a very general question that’s more lip service than anything else.

The question they should be asking is, “will my country end up like Falmuth?” If Rimuru wanted to, he could slaughter the armies of his allies. He could also tear down their countries from the inside by instigating civil wars. And as they’ve seen, he doesn’t have any reservations about taking these actions.

If anything goes wrong in their countries, they’ll have to consider the possibility that RImuru is pulling the strings from the shadows. To be fair, Rimuru effectively rules over all of his allies already. If they do anything to go against what he wants, they’ll be destroyed.

What is Clayman Doing?

I’ve expressed my confusion over everything the demon lord Clayman is doing a few times now over the course of this season (including Part 1). In this episode, he refers to his awakening and how he plans to kill a bunch of people to achieve it.

To me, that sounds like his plan is to level up to a super demon lord (title pending). We know that it takes a massive amount of souls to become a demon lord in the first place. Clayman should have already accomplished that considering his title.

So does it take even more souls to become something more than a demon lord? If that’s the case, why was he trying to turn the orc lord into a new demon lord? Based on what he’s said, that doesn’t seem like it would help him accomplish his goal.

I’ve also considered that perhaps killing another demon lord is one way to level up as a demon lord. If it takes X amount of souls to become a demon lord, maybe every demon lord still contains that amount of souls. So if you kill a demon lord, it’s the same as killing X amount of people.

That still doesn’t explain why Clayman has sent Millim and Frey to take down Carrion, though. You’d think if that was how it worked, Clayman would want to take him down. Unless Clayman is weaker than Carrion and needs Millim and Frey to weaken him first.

But, then there’s still Clayman’s relationships with the other demon lords that don’t make sense. I don’t think Clayman is actually controlling Millim, just tricking her. But Clayman does serve Kazaream and Laplace implied he may be being controlled by someone else.

If I had to guess, Laplace was referring to Yuuki Kagurazaka — the one who revived Kazaream.

Conclusion

What do you think of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 Episode 39? Have any other demon lords been named who I’m forgetting? There should be at least one more. And do you think Clayman is being controlled? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 40 is available now.

The Generic Isekai Protagonist

I’m not going to lie to you; TenSura Season 2 Part 2 Episode 38 isn’t good. Basically, the entire episode just focused on Rimuru telling his allies about his new Demon Lord status and the unsealing of Veldora — so things that we as the viewers already knew.

Also, the only “big” part of all that I would say is when they were all talking about Hinata. All of Rimuru’s allies said that they’d heard she was a model knight and couldn’t understand why she would attack Rimuru as she did.

Well, I guess they all forgot that the church hates monsters. I don’t understand why they were all so perplexed about a holy knight fighting against a monster that the church designated as an enemy. That makes complete sense to me.

Anyway, for the rest of this review, I’m going to be focusing on the first portion of the episode that deals with demon lords and a newly revealed antagonist. Starting with the latter, the revelation that Yuuki is actually some evil mastermind was probably the stupidest twist of this series so far.

For all intents and purposes, he’s the generic isekai protagonist. I mean, just look at him. His character design screams “generic protagonist.” And on top of that, we already know that he was also summoned into this world from our own.

But, really, I just don’t understand why Yuuki would be revealed to be the apparent main antagonist of the series. Why have someone so bland be the primary enemy? From what we were told, he’s the leader of multiple demon lords, including Clayman. It seems like a pretty bad narrative decision if you ask me.

The Seven Demon Lords

In this episode, we got the names of two more demon lords and the acknowledgment that there were seven demon lords at some point. So, let’s take a look at the known demon lords in the series right now and how they’re connected.

The four main demon lords who we’ve seen and heard about multiple times throughout the series are Milim, Clayman, Carrion, and Frey. As far as I remember, these are the only demon lords with domains designated on the continental map.

Also, as I believe I mentioned in my review of Episode 37, I’m pretty sure it was previously stated that these four demon lords created boundaries between their domains specifically because Clayman, Carrion, and Frey wanted to keep Milim out of their business.

Another demon lord who was mentioned in this episode, and who I’m pretty sure we’ve heard of before, is Cromwell. I’ve mixed him up with Clayman in the past, but I think Cromwell is the one who Shizu wanted Rimuru to kill in her place.

That’s five demon lords accounted for, so what about the final two? They were just introduced in this episode. First up, we have Valentine, who’s both a vampire and the leader of the church and the human race. And second, we have Kazaream.

In addition to those seven demon lords, there’s now also an eighth: Rimuru. So when Kazaream mentions a time when there were seven demon lords, (s)he isn’t saying that because there are fewer now. As it turns out, there are actually more.

I’ve also considered the possibility of there being additional demon lords beyond just Rimuru. If Yuuki is the leader of multiple demon lords, wouldn’t he be one as well? I’m not sure, because as I’ll explain more in the next section…

I Still Don’t Understand the Demon Lord System

Demon lords are weird. Why are they weird? Because they’re so individual. There’s not really a good way to group them all into a single category other than by saying they’re demon lords. What it means to be a demon lord seems to be different for each of them.

Carrion is the demon lord aside from Rimuru whom I would say is most similar to Rimuru. From what we’ve seen of him, he just wants to rule over his country of beastmen. That’s the same as Rimuru ruling over his country of monsters.

Milim is another demon lord whose motivations we have a pretty good idea about. She’s referred to as the oldest and strongest of the demon lords, and she just wants to fight against beings as powerful as she is.

However, for some reason, Milim has teamed up with Clayman and Frey to take down Carrion. We don’t know why this is yet, but Frey and Clayman seem like odd allies for Milim to have. Frey’s been described as a more evil version of Carrion, and Clayman is your stereotypical villain (sort of).

What makes Clayman weird is that he’s also a member of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance, which serves under Kazaream. And Kazaream serves Yuuki. So Clayman is multiple rungs down the ladder in that regard.

We don’t know what either Cromwell’s or Kazaream’s goals are. And while Valentine’s goals are also pretty ambiguous, we know that he’s “pretending” to be the leader of the church despite viewing humans as food. It’s probably so he has an infinite supply of food.

I’m still confused about how all of these demon lords fit together. Like, Clayman is Kazaream’s underling but is also in a mutual alliance with Milim (who’s apparently the strongest of them all) and Frey. Also, if three demon lords come together, they can do something called Walpurgis.

Conclusion

What do you think about TenSura Season 2 Part 2 Episode 38? Is this a good episode in your mind? Was the reveal that Yuuki is the “main” antagonist a good or bad twist? And do you understand the whole demon lord thing more than I do? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 39 is available now.

Veldora in the Flesh

The second season of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is back with a second part, and I haven’t even written my review of the first part of the season as a whole yet. So, with that in mind, I’ll probably just do one review of the entire second season once this part is complete.

Anyway, this part of the season begins with Episode 37 of the series overall, and it’s not exactly the most exciting episode. I mean, I didn’t really expect it to be since the first episode of a new “season” rarely is. But, it would have been nice for something to happen.

Instead, the series picks up where it left off just three months ago. Veldora is unsealed by Rimuru, given a human form, and accompanies Rimuru to the capital city of Tempest. Once there, we learn that Veldora was the leader of the forest before Rimuru showed up.

I’m pretty sure we already knew that Jura Forest was Veldora’s domain, but I believe this is the first time we’ve heard that he actually ruled over its inhabitants. With that said, Veldora doesn’t appear to have any interest in resuming his rule.

What Veldora’s role is going to be moving forward is a bit unclear. I don’t see him being one of Rimuru’s normal allies with an actual role within the country. In that sense, he’d be more similar to someone like Milim. But unlike Milim, he’ll probably stick around Rimuru.

I guess his job is simply to lend his name to anything that has to do with Rimuru. Veldora is known around the continent at the very least. So if people hear that the new demon lord has teamed up with Veldora, I guess that gives Rimuru a bit more ammunition for negotiations.

Demon Lord Announcement

Speaking of demon lords, Rimuru plans to announce the fact that he’s become the newest demon lord to the world. However, since both the Dwarves and Elves already knew he was a demon lord, I’d have to assume that most of the other major countries do as well.

I mean, didn’t he just turn into a demon lord like a day ago? It couldn’t have been more than a week ago, and envoys from both of those nations showed up with that knowledge. My guess is that the other demon lords also all know about it — whether because they were told or they could “feel” the awakening of a new demon lord.

And, if that’s the case, it’s probably only a matter of time before Milim shows up to confront Rimuru. Remember, she’s allied herself with Clayman for some unknown reason. I assume it’s because she wanted a new demon lord to awaken so that she could fight them, though.

Either way, it will be interesting to see Milim’s reaction to Rimuru successfully reviving all of his citizens who died. After all, when she became a demon lord in order to revive her pet dragon, it was resurrected as a monster without a soul and she was forced to kill it again herself.

Will Rimuru’s success impress Milim? Will it make her angry? It’s probably been so long that Milim has already come to terms with the fact the resurrection of her dragon failed. Instead, I’m guessing she’ll view the fact that Rimuru succeeded where she failed to be proof that he’s a worthy opponent for her.

Oh, and there was also a mention of the demon lord’s throne. Does this mean all the demon lords are vying to be the one true demon lord? That could make sense, but as far as we know, they generally keep out of each others’ ways.

Dwarves and Elves

Going back to the fact that envoys from both the Dwarves and Elves showed up in the Jura Forest, this could mean that Rimuru is going to be the demon lord who “reigns” over their countries. Obviously, I don’t think that means he’ll actually control them.

Instead, I’m thinking of it more like how the Emperors in One Piece each have islands that are under their protection. While Rimuru won’t be directly controlling these additional countries, they’ll likely fall within his demon lord domain, which protects them from the other demon lords.

The issue is that I still don’t really get what the point of the demon lords is. We now know that it’s a title anyone can technically get as long as they meet certain requirements. But what does it mean to be a demon lord? They’re a group, but also very individualistic.

It would be easy to say that the purpose of a demon lord is to rule over their domain. But as we’ve already seen, that doesn’t quite explain it. Clayman doesn’t appear to rule over people. He just sits in his castle and plots evil deeds.

Carrion and Freya (I think that’s the other one) do seem to be legitimate rulers of their domains. Then there’s Milim, who just does whatever she wants. Technically she has a domain, but that’s just because the other demon lords wanted to keep her out of their business.

I believe it was initially explained that the demon lords agreed to the boundaries of their territories specifically to protect themselves against Milim. But, what’s the ultimate goal of a demon lord? It doesn’t seem to be as clear-cut as the goal of a Hero, for example.

Conclusion

What do you think of the first episode of TenSura Season 2 Part 2? Would you have liked for some action to be sprinkled in? I know this isn’t an action series, but I would have liked for there to be something to pique my interest.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 38 is available now.

War of the Demon Lords

TenSura Season 2 Episode 36 is the final episode of the second season. At least, I think it’s the final episode of the second season. Considering the first season was 24 episodes long, it’s possible that this second season will have another cour later.

I’m not sure and I’m not going to check because it doesn’t really matter. The anime is done for now, and when it comes back, I’ll watch it.

Anyway, the major event of this episode was the declaration of war from Milim to Carrion. As we’ve been told in the past, the various Demon Lords generally stick to their own domains rather than clash with each other. So, this is an odd development in that regard.

However, I’m fairly confident in saying that back in Season 1, it was explained that Milim travels around in search of worthy opponents. I’m pretty sure that’s why she originally showed up in Jura Forest after hearing about Rimuru’s rise to power.

So from that perspective, Milim declaring war on Carrion isn’t all that surprising. After all, who better to give Milim a good fight than another Demon Lord? But at the same time, when we see the difference in power between Milim and Carrion, it’s pretty clear that even the other Demon Lords don’t stand a chance against her.

Now it makes sense why everyone just kind of leaves Milim alone. None of the countries bother her from what we know, including the Holy Church. And it’s very possible that the Demon Lord domains were created to keep Milim specifically in check.

I mean, what are you supposed to do if you get on her bad side? She can literally wipe your country off the continent and has done so in the past.

Demon Lord Alliance

The weirder thing than Milim declaring war on Carrion is the fact that Milim is teaming up with other Demon Lords. Earlier in the season, we saw Milim hanging out with Clayman, so it’s not like this development came as a surprise.

But the fact that Milim would hang out with Clayman at all is weird. They don’t seem to have anything in common aside from being Demon Lords. And as far as we know right now, Clayman is the weakest of the Demon Lords. What does Milim gain by allying with him?

Well, I think what Milim stands to gain is another Demon Lord potentially on par with herself. If my memory serves me correctly, Clayman has been attempting to create other Demon Lords from behind the scenes throughout the series so far.

Clayman’s first attempt at creating a Demon Lord was the Orc Lord. Ultimately, the Orc Lord was defeated by Rimuru. But, Clayman’s second attempt at creating a Demon Lord seems to have worked. Wasn’t he the one behind the allied countries attacking Tempest?

If we’re to believe that Clayman’s goal is to turn Rimuru into a Demon Lord, then I could see why Milim would join him. And if Clayman antagonizes Rimuru into fighting against other Demon Lords, Rimuru may eventually become on par with Milim, thus giving her a worthy opponent.

Why Clayman would want another Demon Lord is still unclear. Also, why Demon Lord Frey would be teaming up with Milim and Clayman isn’t known. It’s hard to believe that all three of them have a common goal.

What’s more likely to me is that they’re using each other. Clayman is using them for something. Milim is using them to find an opponent to fight (and maybe kill her?). And Frey is perhaps just standing by to pick up the pieces of whatever domains get destroyed in the process.

The One Unleashed

The part of the episode that really makes me think that there may be another cour of this season later on in the year rather than nothing until Season 3 is the introduction of Veldora. It seems really odd to introduce his human form like that right at the end of the season.

Now, I get it. It’s a cliffhanger. But I don’t think it’s a good cliffhanger. Veldora being unsealed as the final part of the episode doesn’t make me think “what’s going to happen next?” It makes me think, “oh, Veldora is finally here.”

If the episode had ended with Rimuru and Veldora heading off in the direction of Clayman’s domain, then it would have been a good cliffhanger. But that’s not how it ended. It didn’t end with whatever’s coming next being set up.

To be honest, I don’t like Veldora’s humanoid design. It’s boring. He doesn’t look very different from a bunch of other characters in this series. And his humanoid design has nothing in common with his dragon design, which is strange.

Also, now that Veldora is here, does that make Rimuru the second strongest Demon Lord? Rimuru was already extremely strong before becoming a Demon Lord and has only gotten stronger by gaining that title. And now we’re told that Veldora himself can hold the western nations at bay.

So wouldn’t the pair of them working together be able to beat at least some of the other Demon Lords? I mean, Milim is only half-dragon and she’s that strong. Veldora is 100% dragon. Though, I guess you could argue Milim has defeated a dragon in the past.

Conclusion

What do you think of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Episode 36? Was this a good place for the season to end? Why do you think Milim, Frey, and Clayman have teamed up? And What are your thoughts on Veldora’s character design? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman, Key Mochi~, and Rob for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika, Senpai, and Kouhai tiers respectively this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 37 is available now.