That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 2

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 2

Introduction

Before, and even after, the first episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime aired, I thought this series was going to be a somewhat unique spin on the isekai genre. Unfortunately, with this week’s episode, I’ve begun to realize that this is going to be a fairly standard series.

Comedy can be a great way to make an isekai stand out, and although this series isn’t tagged as a comedy, the first episode had me thinking it would still be playing a central role. I mean, how could an anime about a guy who was reincarnated as a slime not be a comedy?

At this point it seems clear that comedy isn’t going to be a central genre of the series. It’s also not an ecchi series, which would be the other obvious genre for an anime about a slime monster, since they’re often shown dissolving the clothes of female characters.

So without comedy or ecchi, what’s left for this series? Well, as the tags suggest, it’s simply a shounen fantasy isekai. And I know that I’m a shounen fan, as are many of my readers, but let’s be honest, a standard fantasy shounen just isn’t going to make it big.

In fact, the only shounen in my current top 10 is Fullmetal Alchemist, which should say a lot considering the shounen genre is my primary interest in anime. So let’s take a look at how this second episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime made me realize that this series isn’t going to be all I hoped it would be.

Meeting the Goblins

Satoru Mikami and the Storm Dragon, Veldora decide that the best way to break Veldora out of his confinement is to have Satoru use his Predator skill to eat Veldora and the magic shield around him whole. Once inside Satoru’s stomach, Veldora will work on breaking the seal from the inside, while Satoru does from the outside.

Before they go ahead with this plan, Veldora suggests that they each give each other a name as a way to show that they’re equals. Satoru gives Veldora the family name of Tempest, making him Veldora Tempest from now on.

In response, Veldora gives Satoru the name of Rimuru as a new first name, and Tempest as a new family name, making him Rimuru Tempest. From what I could find, Rimuru doesn’t actually mean anything in particular, and seems to simply be a name that Veldora made up.

Once their naming is complete, Rimuru gains some extra skills simply due to being named, and then proceeds to swallow Veldora whole. He then begins searching for a way out of the cave and fights a bunch of different monsters along the way.

Each time he defeats a monster, which seems to usually be in one shot, he consumes it and gains its abilities as well as the ability to transform into it at will. This is where the true overpowered nature of Rimuru’s Predator ability comes into play.

As a side note, in the OP we see that Rimuru has a human form along with his slime form, though this hasn’t yet been introduced in the series itself. It will be interesting to see exactly how Rimuru acquires this ability. I’d like to see it come from him consuming a human, but that seems a bit too dark for the series.

After racking up a bunch of new abilities and powerful monsters to transform into, Rimuru escapes from the cave by sneaking out of a large door that was left open by some adventurers who made their way inside. Maybe these random adventurers are going to be who he receives his human form from in the future.

Rimuru Tempest's aura from the anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Rimuru Tempest

Once outside of the cave, Rimuru is quickly confronted by a group of goblins who refer to him as a powerful being and ask for his help. While he doesn’t understand what made them think he was powerful at first, he later learns that he’s been giving off an immense aura which they can see.

For now, it’s unclear whether this aura is actually coming from Veldora, who’s still inside Rimuru’s stomach, or if this is Rimuru’s own aura and has been built up due to him powering up by consuming monsters. Either way, the goblins see Rimuru as an extremely powerful monster and hope he will protect them from direwolves.

Though he would help them anyway, he plays to their perceptions and asks them what he’ll get in return for his protection. The goblins respond by telling him they’ll give him their loyalty and serve him for the rest of their lives.

In the next episode, Rimuru is going to help the goblins fight against the direwolves, though it’s unclear to me exactly why he plans on making the goblins fight as well. It seems obvious that Rimuru is powerful enough at this point to take on the direwolves by himself.

Conclusion

So now that we know That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime isn’t actually going to be a comedy, the fact that Rimuru is already extremely strong, and has an ability that will only make him stronger as the series progresses, is a bad thing.

Overpowered protagonists are usually a bad thing because we as the viewers know that there’s never any real danger to them. If an isekai protagonist is going to be overpowered, there has to be something that makes up for this immense power, they can’t simply be a hero.

For example, Diablo in How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is the most powerful being around, but since the series is a comedy his power is actually used to parody other overpowered isekai protagonists most of the time. On the other hand we have Ainz from Overlord who is powerful, but is also technically the villain of the series, not the hero.

While I don’t think this series is going to be as good as I once hoped, I do plan to continue these weekly reviews of it. However, if at some point the series becomes too generic and unbearable, there’s a possibility that I’ll replace it with something else like one of the moe series I’m watching this season.

If you enjoyed this post, let me know by clicking the like button down below. While you’re down there, you can also tell me your thoughts on the second episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, or on the series in general so far.

If you’re interested in weekly posts about a non-shounen series from this season, you can let me know in the comment section of this post as well. And, if that’s the case, be sure to follow me on Twitter because that’s where I’ll have a poll to decide which series replaces this one if the time ever comes.

My review of the next episode is available here.

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