That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Episode 13

All right, it's finally time for the big showdown! Well, it's actually time for some minor skirmishes between the supporting cast and some low-ranking baddies, but I'll take whatever I can get at this point. Before the battle really gets going, Rimuru meets the daughter of the Lizardman chieftain and makes the alliance official. Souei dashes off to spring the chieftain from his jail cell, while the rest of the crew rides on to face the Orcs. Meanwhile, Gabiru finds himself in a one-on-one fight with an Orc General, and is on the brink of defeat when he's saved by Gobta and Ranga. Rimuru watches from above while Benimaru and the other Kijin cut loose with their newly evolved powers, and Treyni ensures that Gelmud and Laplace are too busy running from her to interfere with the battle. Of course, given that Rimuru doesn't find the Orc Lord until the end of the episode, the real fight is only just getting started.

In terms of pure action, this is a pretty good episode. While all of the fight scenes are reasonably well-presented, Gabiru's duel with the Orc General is especially noteworthy. Both their physical and magical attacks feature some impressive animation, and I particularly like the creepy magic mouths that the Orc General summons. Aside from just looking cool, the visual design of this skill is a good match for the fear-inducing concept of being eaten by a horde of monsters, and it's a creative departure from what one might expect from an Orc. A baddie that large would normally just stomp around and smash stuff, so having him use a bit of magic is a welcome surprise. This showdown also stands out by virtue of its dramatic tension; Gabiru and the General are close enough in terms of fighting prowess to make the outcome uncertain, and that in turn makes their duel more exciting to watch.

The same can't be said of some of the other fights, which primarily feature Ranga and the Kijin mowing down dozens upon dozens of Orcs. With the balance of power so clearly weighted in the good guys' favor, there's never any real question of who's going to come out on top. As a result, this episode quickly shifts from a tense battle to a convenient excuse for Rimuru's buddies to show off their skills. To be fair, they look pretty good doing it, and there's a certain amount of satisfaction to be had in watching the Kijin get some payback on the Orcs that destroyed their old village. Still, without the credible possibility of a bad outcome, it's harder to get swept up in the action happening on-screen. If anything, the timely arrival of Gobta and Ranga brings Gabiru's duel to an anticlimactic finish. For my money, it would have been cooler to see him win or lose against the Orc General on his own merit, and then have the cavalry ride in to mop up the rest of the Orcs. If we're going to start treating Gabiru as a serious character, let's at least let the guy have a full action scene to himself.

As everything plays out, this episode gives off the persistent and accurate impression that we're watching the opening act of a much larger conflict, which is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, the fact that major players like Rimuru and the Orc Lord haven't yet entered the fray helps to mitigate any sense of disappointment with these easy victories. If the heavy hitters haven't thrown a punch, then there's still plenty of time for a truly intense fight scene further down the line. On the other hand, that means we have to wait another week for the battle that most of the audience presumably came to see. That'll be less of a problem for folks who wait and marathon the whole series later on, but it's a bit of a letdown for those of us in the simulcast crowd, especially since it's already taken so long to get this conflict rolling. At this point, I feel like I've been waiting forever to see Rimuru fight the Orc Lord.

Much like the opening band at a rock concert, this episode puts on a decent show and gets the audience in the right mood, but it's not really what people are here to see. While there's a little bit of drama in Gabiru's duel and a hint of satisfaction in watching the Kijin cut loose, the headlining act of Rimuru and the Orc Lord will need to deliver both of those things on a much grander scale. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime can start dropping hints about Gelmud's ominous-looking boss if it wants to, but next week's episode needs to focus the vast majority of its efforts on delivering a worthy climax to what has now been four weeks of buildup.

Rating: B

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.