That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Episode 17

In this episode, Rimuru finds himself trapped in a never-ending cycle of meetings. Vesta completes his work on developing a mass-production version of Rimuru's healing potions, though for the moment this doesn't do much apart from giving the nation a potential trading opportunity. Once that brainstorming session wraps up, Rimuru deals with some overly aggressive scouts sent by Carrion, one of Milim's fellow Demon Lords. The revolving door of new arrivals keeps going with groups from the human nations of Blumund and Falmuth, both of which are keen to find out whether or not Rimuru poses a threat. While all of this plays out, another Demon Lord named Clayman hatches some plans of his own, including the revival of an especially dangerous monster.

Well, folks, we're entering our third consecutive week of Rimuru's adventures in diplomacy, and at this point the formula is starting to wear pretty thin. We've now gone through the routine of new folks showing up to test Rimuru's strength and/or trustworthiness with Gazel, Milim, the Carrion crew, and the combined representatives of Blumund and Falmuth. That's enough repetition to turn this scenario into a running joke, and I'd probably be happier if That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime treated it as such. The fact that Fuze and Youm's groups run into each other on their way into town is practically a punchline already. Sadly, the series isn't playing this recurring cycle for laughs; each encounter presents Rimuru with a new problem to solve, and each dilemma has potentially serious long-term consequences. That takes us out of self-aware comedy territory and leaves us watching the series throw new conflicts at the wall until something sticks.

Even if you ignore the repetition, these latest negotiations simply aren't as compelling as their predecessors. Gazel's return forced Rimuru to grapple with the idea of leading a nation instead of just supervising an informal group of followers, and Milim's introduction offered enough entertainment to carry the day. By comparison, these latest groups are pretty forgettable. Carrion's minions might talk a big game, but they're too weak to come across as a real threat without their Demon Lord boss around to back them up. The inclusion of Kaval, Eren, and Gido among the human scouting party is a fun idea on paper, but they don't get enough screen time to provide the kind of amusement they offered during Shizu's story arc. Fuze's attitude towards Rimuru essentially goes from neutral to vaguely positive over the course of the episode, so there's not much excitement to be found there. The one genuine point of interest here is Rimuru's plan to have Youm take credit for killing the Orc Lord, but this doesn't do much in the big scheme of things apart from making things slightly more convenient for the protagonists. Between the lack of clear narrative consequences and the minimal entertainment value, I can't help but think the series would've been better off condensing this material down into a quick montage instead of dragging it out in detail.

That leaves us with Clayman, who returns to the screen after delivering a couple of ominous lines at the end of the Orc Lord storyline and making a quick appearance at the Demon Lord conference. The show looks like it's setting him up as the next primary antagonist, which is all well and good, but there some issues in presentation here. For starters, if Clayman is the big baddie, then I fail to see the point of introducing Carrion's minions; even without their presence, Rimuru already had plenty of motivation to press Milim for more information about the Demon Lords. Also, the previous episode implied that simply forging an alliance with Milim was enough to make Rimuru a target for the other Demon Lords, so the new subplot of reviving Charybdis seems superfluous. Wouldn't it be simpler to just have Clayman go after Rimuru in order to restore the demonic balance of power? It feels like the series is making this storyline more crowded and complicated than it needs to be, and the extra factions aren't contributing anything of value to the narrative.

I've been frustrated by That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime's pacing before, but its other “slow start” episodes were at least fun or interesting to watch. Between the frequent reuse of the diplomacy scenario and the needlessly convoluted storyline, this is the first time I've been genuinely bored while watching this show. While there are a few amusing moments in this episode, the fact of the matter is that we're just watching the same thing over and over, and it's getting less compelling each time. The sooner Rimuru gets out of the meeting room and picks an enemy to fight, the better.

Rating: C+

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