We are so back.
We open on a quick recap of the founding ceremony of the Jura Tempest federation which we watched in the second half of season 3. With the opening of a coliseum and several other fun events it was a great success, turning the once tiny goblin village into a proper hub of civilization. All of the important characters are shown doing their various jobs throughout this episode and both Masayuuki as well as Mjollmile are shown to be great assets. Can I take this moment to talk about Aoyama Yutaka’s fantastic performance in this role? Mjollmile is the type of character that would be grating and annoying when voiced by a less talented voice actor, but the personality that Yutaka brings to this wonderfully shady merchant really makes him stand out as a memorable character. I’m blown away by the performance every single time. Besides seeing that Rimuru and his friends are working hard on building the first trains in this world, we also get a quick look at the antagonists for this season. The Rozzo family seem to be the main focus for now, but we also see Yuuki, Kagari and the rest of the moderate harlequin alliance. As much as Yuuki is being made out to be a bad guy – and he definitely is an ‘ends justify the means’ type of character – his actions are ultimately headed towards the same goal as Rimuru has. The Rozzos, Rimuru and Yuuki all want dominion over the west. Maybe Rimuru is much less direct in his approach, but his economic dominance has already caused one kingdom to fall and many others to jump in line with him. I can’t help but like Yuuki and his team, but we’ll see how common of a threat he will end up being in this season.
And since we’re in the first episode of a new season where I doubt too much is going to happen, let’s mainly have a look at the opening today. And any theories I have based on the opening are purely from what I think and probably wrong, considering I haven’t actually read the novels yet.
We open on a shot of Veldora, who is undoubtedly going to play a major role later on in the series, as he’s mostly been pushed aside for now due to being too powerful for the story to be any interesting with him around. Luckily he’s got his good looks to carry his popularity for a while. We see several of the cast going about their day including Shion, Shuna, Diablo, Milim and Ramiris, who are all close with Rimuru. Rimuru himself is enjoying the fruits of his labor, walking through a thriving city while eating all sorts of dishes from his home world. We transition from Ramiris flying to the camera to what looks to be a bunch of spirits in her labyrinth. Perhaps we’ll gain some new friends or there will be some issue in the labyrinth this season? From there, we get some looks into Rimuru’s research, and seeing him in a room full of bodies like he’s the lead scientist at Germa66 makes me wonder what he has planned. When I first saw this shot I thought this was going to be a peek into what Leon might be doing, as the synopsis for these seasons mentions that he’ll be doing something as well, but it does clearly show Rimuru himself, so who knows. We quickly move past this shot to the dream of every person on the autism spectrum, trains. With the railway to Eurazania being started, this should make travel and trade much quicker and safer. Speaking of safety, Rimuru has moved the kids to his own town now that he knows Yuuki can’t be trusted with their safety. While the lightspeed hero is busy promoting the dungeon, we get our first shot of Mariabell Rozzo. Although I don’t think any of her powers have been confirmed yet, we heavily lean into a vampire and mind control aesthetic with the light up eyes and the blood everywhere. Speaking of which, I’m not planning to cover the ending since it doesn’t seem like there’s much of value there, but the sand coming from Mariabell Rozzo there does make it look like she’s pissing herself something fierce. Really awkward choice in my opinion.
We move on to a shot of a young girl walking with her baby dragon. I would assume this to be Milim as a child, as we know her backstory is a tragic one that involves the death of her dragon and the botched revival as the ascended to demon lord. It was the same ritual that Rimuru used to revive his friends after the attack by the Falmuth kingdom, although in Rimuru’s case it succeeded because the magical barrier kept everyone’s souls stuck in the city. We see the dragon a few more times in this opening and it makes me wonder if we’ll end up seeing someone manipulate this dragon into having to fight with Milim at some point. That would be quite sad. We then see Yuuki and Rimuru clash and I’m curious if Yuuki’s shining red eyes are just his normal eyes lit up by the moonlight or if there is some sort of control happening here. I don’t think Yuuki would benefit too much from a direct fight with Rimuru since it will just send a hoard of monsters into Engrassia to fight him, but who knows. We also saw Rimuru fight with Hinata in the openings long before she ever really fought him, so this could be a hint for an event in a couple of seasons from now. Your guess is as good as mine.
Next we get a montage of monsters fighting against the aforementioned dragon as Yuuki and Rimuru duel on its back. Diablo, Benimaru, Shion, Shuna, Ranga and Gobta all get to show off their prowess, before Milim goes in and delivers the final blow. Or she would if she didn’t waver, and she sadly looks on at the dragon she once saw as a friend. If Yuuki is behind this I might have to take back my earlier comments about liking his character, cause that would be cruel beyond necessity. We’re then reminded that Hinata, Kagari and Luminous Valentine are part of the story and if my hunch that Rozzos are vampires is correct then I wonder if she has something to do with them. I should really look at a map of the Tensura world as the anime and Crunchyroll’s subs do a poor job with giving your a proper legend whenever it’s on screen.
With that, the opening comes to an end and we have finished the first episode. Like I said at the start of the episode, very little happened that we couldn’t have derived from the final episodes of season 3, but it was a great way to ease back into the show. I’m excited for the series to properly start in the next couple of episodes and I hope you’ll be here every week alongside me.
Opal Kaharis 