So starting off the fight we do our classic split into fighting partners. The unknown knight fights against Ranga and Gobta and is so angry at Rimuru and his team that he doesn’t even let the goblin wolf finish his monologue. All that training under Milim and all the hardship and he doesn’t even get his moment. Yuuki faces off against Shion who immediately taunts him but Yuuki seems unfazed by the taunt, easily blocking her attack. The last of Maribel’s minions is a – seemingly – deceased Gaiye, the arrogant adventurer that kept getting in Rimuru’s way throughout this and last season without having much actual success. It seems that he’s been fully puppeteered by Maribel and I suppose Maribel expected Rimuru to struggle with Gaiye, but instead he takes him out in a single quick hit. It looks like Maribel is suddenly in way over her head, but I can’t help but think there’s more to her than we see right here. It would be kind of funny if she pulled out all these plots only to get defeated easily, leaving the released dragon to be the real problem of this arc. The way the opening is structured does make it seem like there is still quite a bit of fighting ahead of us, so I doubt Maribel will go silently into the night here, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much. I am constantly wrong when it comes to predicting what will happen next, so there’s lots here that can still surprise me.
Another holy field to nerf the monsters of Tempest, do these people never learn? At least he gets Maribel to give up on trying to control him and instead move on to plan B. Kill Rimuru. Yuuki has the strength to make Shion take a step back which is an incredible feat on its own. She worries for Rimuru who is probably the last person anyone should have to worry about. I’m starting to think that Maribel doesn’t know that Rimuru is an otherworlder. She keeps talking about the difference in intellect between humans and monsters and I’m sure this is a parallel to the difference between peasants and nobility back in Europe where she’s from, but putting aside that some of the monsters we’ve encountered are of course quite intelligent and kind, Rimuru is still a human at his core. It also confirms here that those with ultimate skills cannot be overtaken by Maribel’s greed which all but confirms that Yuuki is not actually under her control. I cannot imagine the grandmaster and his grand machinations not having an ultimate skill or two of his own. If he doesn’t have any ultimate skills how is he ever going to be a good foil for Rimuru?
At least Rimuru gives her one more chance to back down, but someone whose entire personality is based around Greed is not going to just step down quietly. This is where we get to one of the parts of the show that I often find seriously lacking. The actual fighting feels rather bland. It’s not poorly animated by any means, but after a year of incredible fights in shows like One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen and other seasons it feels like this anime focuses far too much on the content and not enough on the fighting. It is originally a book after all. With Yuuki taking out Shion pretty easily, it is now time for Yuuki and Rimuru to face off. Maribel transferred her strength to Yuuki and I wonder if that is more permanent than it seems, explaining Yuuki’s deal with the devil. I’m going to look like such a fool when it turns out that Yuuki was truly under Maribel’s control all this time and I’m making a million excuses for his behavior. While Maribel runs off, Rimuru experiences the first properly dangerous fight we’ve seen him have since his first duel with Hinata. Yuuki is no pushover. Okay but once the fighting starts in earnest his eyes are no longer red. Maybe I’m smart after all!!!
So with the power of friendship, a severely wounded Yuuki manages to break Maribel’s curse of greed and return to his senses. There’s no need for him to be knocked unconscious and he can get healed back up to normal. We do learn the valuable bit of information that he can turn his anti-skill on and off at will. So maybe he truly doesn’t have an ultimate skill at all but then there is still no way that the greed ability would work on someone who counters all abilities. Either way, it seems that for the time being, Yuuki has returned to his senses and back to being a lovable guild master.
In the meantime, Maribel has been traveling to the center of the ruins where the supposed magical source was that they told her about. They’ve been lying to Maribel all this time and as we say in Dutch “now the monkey comes out of the sleeve.” That means that the truth is now revealed. Yuuki was indeed acting this entire time, but it does surprise me that even Kagali was not aware of this little subplot that Yuuki was engaging in. At least I did call out to some extent that Yuuki wanted to take control of Maribel’s skill which he does as he kills her. His goal – which we already knew – is to be king of this world which he sees as his own little playground. With Maribel dead, we still have the dragon to deal with, and I’m curious how much of the fighting in the opening is actually real, because it looks like a lot of fighting goes down in a big city and we’ve seen none of that so far. Or is this like some of the older One Piece openings where they just show us some random fighting that doesn’t actually happen?
Opal Kaharis 