That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 10

The Orc Lord

Another week, another boring episode of TenSura. Three things happened in this week’s episode: we learned about the orcs, the oni were named, and we were introduced to the lizardmen. This may sound like a lot, but I promise you, none of it was revolutionary.

I get it, TenSura isn’t really trying to be anything unique as far as isekai go because if the author deviated too much from the standard, then it’s unlikely his work would have been published. And, the only reason the protagonist is a slime is because he needed just a little something to make his generic isekai stand out  from the rest.

Taking risks is, well, risky. A new and unique series has no guarantee of success, and taking the tried and true route is a much safer bet. But, that doesn’t mean a generic series has to be so generic that it doesn’t do anything different from any other series in the same genre.

I have a love-hate relationship with isekai anime, and they make up at least 10% of all the anime I’ve seen, although I could argue that the percentage is even higher. The real problem with TenSura is that it panders too much to the beginner anime viewer as opposed to someone who’s become familiar with the tropes it introduces.

Orcs Travel Fast

Of everything that happens in this episode, the most interesting part involves the orc army which wiped out the oni village and is making its way through the forest. In fact, despite what I just said, this large army of otherwise unorganized monsters being led by a “champion” among them isn’t something we typically see in isekai.

But, it is fairly common in other kinds of fantasy, so can I really say it’s unique?

Either way, the idea that these orcs would normally have been no match for the oni, and only ended up defeating them because they were led by a champion among them, could make for an interesting development in the near future. At least, if the orc champion has a way to prevent himself from simply being eaten by Rimuru.

I’d like to tell you that there’s going to be a good fight scene between the orc champion and Rimuru, but let’s be honest, it’s not going to happen. We could get a good fight if someone else, such as Benimaru (who I’ll get to shortly) fights the orc champion, but not if Rimuru is involved.

In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way we might see a really good fight involving Rimuru is if he has to fight against an extremely powerful human. Because he was once a human, he won’t want to kill them and so won’t be going all out, much like in his mini fight against the oni.

Naming the Oni

Rimuru gives the oni prince the option to stay with him and be members of the goblin village until they’re able to work together to bring down the orc champion and get revenge for the fallen oni. The prince accepts, but with the condition that after their goal is complete, he and the other oni can leave if they so choose.

With their contract out of the way, Rimuru then goes about naming the oni as he’s done for the rest of the unnamed monsters in his village. However, what he wasn’t told beforehand is that naming superior monsters, like oni, uses up a much larger amount of magicules.

Although he blacks out before even naming the first oni, he awakes to find that he gave the six of them names while unconscious. These names are Benimaru, Shuna, Shion, Souei, Hakurou, and Kurobe (prince, princess, warrior, assassin, martial artist, and berserker respectively).

Upon receiving their names, the oni evolved into kijin, just as the goblins evolved into hobgoblins and goblinas. Unfortunately, the oni lost their more demon-like appearances when they evolved and now appear much more human, and therefore less interesting.

But, despite them now appearing more human, we can assume that their power has increased just like it did for the hobgoblins and tempest wolves. However, we didn’t really know the full extent of their power to begin with, so unless their new abilities are explicitly stated, we’ll never really know how this evolution affected them.

Lizardmen Arc 2.0

Remember the lizardmen arc from Overlord II which took up at least one-third of the season and had almost nothing to do with the rest of the series? Well, it looks like we’re in for a similar ride.

Unlike Overlord II’s lizardmen arc, however, this one probably isn’t going to last as long (percentage-wise) and probably isn’t going to completely forget about the main cast of characters. But, I still think it’s going to be fairly similar in that the end result will be the subjugation of the lizardmen.

In Overlord II they were conquered by force, but here they’ll likely become Rimuru’s allies, albeit allies who are considered to be beneath him, and therefore be conquered by diplomatic means. Upon hearing of the advance of the orc army, the lizardmen chieftain sends his son out to forge alliances with the nearby goblin settlements.

In the next episode, this lizardmen entourage will reach Rimuru’s village, where they will likely underestimate Rimuru in some way, then beg for his forgiveness and help once they realize his true strength. You know, just like every other race he’s encountered other than the goblins, who recognized his strength from the start.

Once Rimuru allies himself with these lizardmen, the timer on their relevance is going to begin ticking down. I just don’t see them playing any kind of significant role after the orc champion is defeated, and they’ll probably be all but forgotten by the time the arc ends, just like their Overlord counterparts.

I’d say that these lizardmen are going to be sacrificed to the orcs to illustrate how powerful the enemy army is, again, like the lizardmen of Overlord are sacrificed to show us Ainz’s strength, but it just doesn’t seem necessary this time. The oni village being wiped out is proof enough that the enemy is powerful.

As a final note on the lizardmen, and forgive me for once again comparing them to those found in Overlord, the son of the chieftain was named by the same demon lord general who named Rigur’s brother. Just as the brother of the lizardmen chief in Overlord was special, so to is the son of the chief in TenSura.

Conclusion

We haven’t really seen much of the lizardmen society yet, but, assuming we see more of it before they’re written out of the story, I wouldn’t be against breaking down their social structure like I did with the dwarves. If this is something you’d be interested in, let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.