Obvious spoiler warning for the Blue Period anime.
Blue Period will probably not end up being my number 1 anime of the fall 2021 season. I’m not even positive it will be in the top 3. But before I get completely distracted, I do want to talk about it a little bit. Not so much a proper review, but just a good old-fashioned rant about something I really enjoyed.
Because Blue Period blew my mind. I didn’t expect to enjoy this anime half as much as I did, but as someone who values art highly, watching shows like this always makes me feel a sense of pride. It’s as if it’s reaffirming that what I’m doing is something good. Writing is a very different art from from painting, of course, but it’s still art. Pouring your thoughts and emotions and ideas into a project for others to see is the second best feeling there is. The best feeling is when other people then turn around and see what you meant. As I’m growing older, I’m gaining more understanding for literature, even though I initially didn’t like it much. I think an issue with literature is that not every teacher is good, or willing, at explaining that it’s an extremely subjective course. My latest literature teacher was this over enthusiastic French man who only spoke French and English, no Dutch, but he would basically let you derive whatever meaning you wanted from the books we read, as long as you could defend it. And I aced his course. Other years I struggled so much, but once I realized that it’s all subjective I started to excel.
But enough about that, I want to gush a little bit more about what I liked. When Yaguchi cried tears of joy when Yotasuke acknowledged his skills I cried with him. When Yaguchi wasn’t super confident that he was even fully through it made me laugh because I could understand where he was coming from. I absolutely adore his friend group who were made out to be these borderline delinquents at the start of the show but turned out to be the best bros out there. His parents, his teacher, his senpai, everyone showed how proud they were. And that rush of inspiration he got during the exam, the stress he felt, it all felt so real.
And I haven’t even talked about his friend Ryuji/Yuka (the show uses both names regularly, so I’m mentioning both here) and their story arc. Seeing a character like that in an anime is fantastic. Japan isn’t exactly known for being particularly progressive on this issue, so I found it a breath of fresh air to have a character like that in the show that wasn’t just there score points, but felt like a solid part of the narrative.
If I want to give my final thoughts on this show, assuming I won’t revisit it in the future, then it’s as follows. Blue Period is a very well written drama show with realistic characters and a believable storyline. It doesn’t avoid any important issues but faces them head-on. I don’t believe I’m speaking out of turn when I say that this anime should appeal to most people who consider themselves an artist, and to many who don’t as well. It made me laugh and cry, which not every anime manages to pull off, and it is a show I don’t think I’ll forget anytime soon.
It’s already almost November, and with the spooky season soon behind us it’s time to get cozy and start preparing for the cold winter. At least over here it still gets a bit cold in winter, although not as much as when I was younger. Damn you global warming. But it’s still a good time to bring out your candles and your mood lighting, make a hot drink and snuggle up to watch your favorite anime. And what better to accompany it than the best of the new season. And I’ll help you out by recommending 5 shows that I think are worth your time. This isn’t the first time we’re doing this, you know what to expect, so let’s open the door to a new season!
I’ve played so much D&D I would 100% check that door for traps
A Quiet life in the Countryside
I don’t even have to look it up to know that this anime is a light novel adaptation, seeing as its full name is Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside. That’s definitely up there with some of the longer names for shows, but I don’t think it’s a record per se. The anime follows Red, brother of the hero and former member of the hero’s party. He was kicked out by one of his teammates, much to the chagrin of some of the other members. He then decides to go chill in the countryside and become a pharmacist. Not long after is he joined by Rit, who is a princess and a former member of their party. She left the house so as to avoid a fight over the throne and keep the peace. Together they set up shop and they get along well. What I appreciate about this show is that not only is it not an unnecessary Isekai, it’s also featuring characters who seem fairly mature. Last season had a similar anime, but it just felt underwhelming because of the characters to me. This seems to flow a lot nicer, and I adore Rit and Red’s interactions already. Definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a nice flowing slice of life fantasy!
Shiawase~~
Blue Period
I’ve always had a soft spot for art. And I take the term art very broadly. Classical art isn’t quite my thing, but I am very jealous of people who can draw amazing things, or play instruments. Maybe I should learn to play an instrument at some point. Putting that aside, Blue Period follows Yatora’s journey from a complete beginner in art to aiming to get into art school. What pleasantly surprised me so far is the interesting array of characters. They all seem very different and believable nonetheless. The drama hits you hard from the very start, and I won’t spoil anything, but I’m a big fan of Ruka as a character already. I hope we get to see a lot more of them. There isn’t much to say about this show, it’s good, it’s interesting, and it makes you feel really invested immediately. Definitely give it a watch if you like a good drama show.
Art and literature are vague as hell and so subjective that it’s difficult to relate sometimes.
Taishou Otome Otogibanashi
This show is just undeniably adorable. Tamahiko gets disowned by his father after he loses the use of one of his arms in an accident which also takes the life of his mother. He gets sent off to a family vacation home in the countryside. He also gets sent a bride, because this is early 1900s Japan, so anything goes. His bride is a few years younger than him, but not by too much. I’ve seen weirder shows for sure. What I really like about this show is that not only is it very laid-back, but the characters so far seem to act their age. They’re very much still a bunch of children thrown into a strange situation and making the best they can out of it. Yuzu is undeniably mature for her age, and Tamahiko and his sister, Tamako, who shows up in episode 22, also show that they grew up in a household that was cold and unloving. I definitely want to see more of this, and I’m curious to see the introduction of the other characters in the opening.
Take your time and enjoy!
The Faraway Paladin
I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this show initially because the first two episodes, although interesting, didn’t really wow me per se. The third episode felt a lot more solid, and I thought it was cool to finally see what this prologue of the series was leading towards. Will grew up in a ruined city, raised by three undead creatures. Gus the ghost, Mary the Mummy and Blood the Skeleton. Of course, because it’s 2021 and this is an anime, Will has his memories from before reincarnating, and it so far seems to be completely irrelevant except for the fact that he was conscious for the first few years when he was a baby. I don’t even remember the circumstances around his death in the first place, that’s how forgettable it was. Having said that, everything that happens after that moment has been good. The worldbuilding has been slow but interesting, and the three undead caretakers seem to have very interesting personalities as well. At the conclusion of episode 3 we see things kicking up a gear in speed and at this point I’m definitely invested. If you like fantasy shows, give this a shot since it definitely looks promising!
You’re telling me Will is not a skeleton? Spooky month ruined.
Komi-San can’t Communicate
So I’ve seen images from this manga pop up for a couple years now, and it’s always piqued my interest a little bit but not enough to pick up the manga. I do know that it’s been quite popular, so when I heard it was getting an anime it definitely stayed on my radar. I don’t know what platform is picking this up, since with my very limited availability of anime over here I generally sail the high seas out of necessity. It also seems that the websites where I usually watch shows don’t upload it on a proper schedule yet, so it’s been a bit hard to come by. Having said that, I am enjoying it so far!
I know that feeling, Komi.
And that really is all there is to it this season. I know there are some good sequels airing right now. I’m personally watching Mushoku Tensei, Demon Slayer, Isekai Shokudou and more, but I tend to keep these posts to new shows as much as possible. I’m not watching a large amount, but I’m catching up on some old shows as well, so I don’t have a large “stalled” list going into the new year. Are there any shows I didn’t talk about that I should? Let me know in the comments, and I hope I helped you find some shows to watch!
We’re already 13 volumes into this series! And as you might remember, things turned scary at the end of the previous volume. Chise found an unconscious Lucy near the riverbank while the class from the academy was on a camping trip. Not only that, a scary looking cyclops-like being showed up, looming over our protagonists. And that’s exactly where we start this volume.
Elias recognizes the creature as a creature that comes from the sea and kills humans that perceive it. Not exactly someone you’d hang around for a conversation with. So Chise makes a run for it back to camp, where the professor has already sensed something is wrong, and some of her classmates come running up. With tips from Elias, Chise decides to ask a Eachuisge, a horse-like fae for help in luring the creature into the nearby loch. With the help of her classmate Rían they manage to do so successfully, with Chise offering up her hair as a form of payment.
And just like that, the camping trip comes to an end.
And what do you know, when the college contacts the one relative that Lucy has left, it turns out to be Seth, the very person who sold Chise to Elias. It’s a small world after all. The two seem to not be on great terms, but Lucy is still far too weak to protest for long. After leaving the infirmary, Chise encounters Philomela, whose name I’ll never not struggle with. They talk for a little bit and the latter vanishes when her classmates show up. Not long after we see her teleporting about the place, we get a shot of a seemingly important book being destroyed. I wonder who’s responsible.
And from there on out things quickly escalate. One of the teachers seems to be ambushed in the halls, Seth’s friend who’s secretly keeping an eye on the perimeter gets unsuccessfully murdered and even a witch shows up. Not to mention the creepy masked figure who is seemingly after Seth and Lucy from the way he speaks. I’m curious to see how this escalates. I initially thought that Philomela stole the book trying to frame Lucy for it, but I’m not so certain anymore. Maybe the final chapters will give more of a clear look into what happened. Let’s have a look.
The shadowy figures turn out to indeed be after Seth and Lucy, to finish the job in a way. I wonder if they’re being held hostage and are doing this for that particular reason, or there is something else to it. Perhaps the Webster family did something to these people and this was their revenge. We’ll hopefully find out soon enough, but for now Chise, Lucy and Seth manage to just barely escape with their lives, with a little bit, but not too much, assistance from Elias, and some quick thinking on Chise’s part.
And like that everyone seems to get out of here alive. Marielle confirms that the tome is in some way being used to target members of the academy, albeit she is unsure why. Philomela’s family is still not particularly nice and Lucy and Seth still don’t like each other. Things are ramping up and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. What do you think so far? Let me know in the comments down below.
I love doing these quick reviews, but I generally prefer talking about shows I would recommend in these. I know there’s merit in objective reviewing and showing both sides of the coin, but that’s not what I like to do. Not when writing a review, at least. I like to just gush about the shows I really enjoyed. So there are definitely a few shows I’m skipping out on. Some I will talk about in a larger review, but that’s for later, I’m in no rush. Today I want to talk about two shows I enjoyed, and one that I enjoyed less.
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
There is a running theme in a lot of modern anime about people being stuck in a rut, unhappy in their life and all around miserable. I suspect this is because they want to make anime relatable, and what’s more relatable than the feeling that you’re wasting away your precious time on earth doing a job you don’t enjoy just so you can afford basic necessities! Uramichi Oniisan tells the story of the titular Uramichi who works as a gymnast in a popular children’s television show. Together with several others, some of whom he’s known since college, they film episodes with the children and do songs and other skits. You’ve all been children before, you know the drill. On stage they are very professional, but their inner thoughts come leaking out from time to time, which is very funny. But at its core, Uramichi Oniisan is about living your life the best you can, and doing what you can. They may not be happy, but they all take pride in their work, and appreciate each other’s companionship. Each of the main characters in this show is relatable in some way, and that’s what makes the show so good. I had a blast watching this, even though it hit painfully close to home sometimes. I highly recommend Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan!
That’s the moral of the story right there!
Peach Boy Riverside.
What an interesting premise this show had. I had it recommended earlier on this season as well, as shows to watch out for. Too bad that shortly afterwards I completely lost track of what was going on. For some reason the director decided to air the episodes out of order. I’ve seen some people say on reddit that it added to the suspense, but I hard disagree with that. I just felt like I missed episodes for most of the season and was constantly confused about what was going on. I mean no disrespect to the show and its creators, but a seasonal anime that doesn’t particularly stand out as amazing doesn’t take up enough space in my memory for me to remember every detail properly when you give me them out of order. I just want to sit down, unwind and watch humans kill ogres. Instead I need to do university level math to figure out which part of the timeline we’re at. Not to mention that the final episode was not final at all, so it just left me wondering what I just watched. And that’s the sad part. In about a month or two you can ask me what Peach Boy Riverside was trying to say, and I probably couldn’t tell you. Something about ogres and humans wanting to coexist except they don’t actually want that? Either way, I’d suggest skipping this one.
You only say that because you didn’t see her command a bunch of freaky eyes.
Bokutachi no Remake.
So I praised the writing of this show early on, and this is another case of me speaking too soon. Although phrasing it like that makes it sound a bit harsher than I mean it. Bokutachi no Remake was a very enjoyable show, but I feel like it was bumbling towards the story it was trying to tell a bit awkwardly. The early episodes were great. Our main character gets sent back in time (which is a premise I adore, by the way) to live the life he wanted to live but never did. As someone who only found out about their autism late in life, I feel like going back in time armed with a lot of the cognitive behavioral therapy tricks I’ve learned over the years would make things very different. But enough about me. Halfway through the season the story takes a certain turn I won’t spoil for those of you who want to watch it, and after that it always felt a bit forced to me. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and it could very well just be a personal thing that other people have no issues with. Regardless, this show has a lot to like, and the voice actress for Shinoaki has such a soothing voice that I could listen to it on loop. Even though it wasn’t perfect, I’d still definitely recommend this show. The first half is really, really good!
That’s a very random chair, just next to the runway.
Volume 12 cover, showing Philomela in the background
Hello everyone! As you might have noticed, it has been a little while since I last posted a volume review here. I know I promised I’d do one every two weeks, and I’m hoping to once again commit to doing so, but it hasn’t been very successful lately. I can only apologize. Truth is, I did read this 12th volume a little while ago and I was fully planning to do a review shortly after, but it just didn’t end up working out. But better late than never, I suppose. Let’s get to it!
This volume mainly sees more misadventures at the academy and starts off as such. Chise and her new classmates are all still outside recovering from finding out that Zoe has snakes for hair. To be fair, that would come as quite a shock to me as well, but then again I don’t live in a fantastical world filled with magical creatures. At least as far as I know. The only thing out of place are the voices in my head. Now as I’ve said, this volume focuses a lot on the interpersonal relationships between the different families of alchemists at the academy. Philomela’s family works for Veronica’s family and Lucy’s family seems to be down to just Lucy.
What I find more interesting is the relationship growth between Alice and Renfred, Alice and Chise, and Chise and Elias. Alice spends the night at their place and Chise and Elias talk on the roof in the middle of the night. Their relationship is improving steadily after being off to a very rocky start. But enough about that, it’s road trip time! This won’t go wrong, I bet.
The big part of camp seems to go by fairly uneventfully. Elias and Ruth are there to protect Chise if things go wrong. Chise does have a run in with a strange fae but doesn’t really try to interact with it. Then during the final night Lucy disappears, because of course she does. There wouldn’t be a point to this mini arc if nothing happened during it. Luckily, Chise finds Lucy rather quickly, but the poor girl seems to be completely drained of magic. Chise should be the perfect candidate to nurse her back to health, but right as she’s about to head back to camp we are treated to one of the most haunting panels in the entire manga so far. What looks to be a giant one-eyed centaur fae casually walks into frame as chills run down Chise’s spine. This moment kind of surprised me, I figured something more related to Lucy being unable to wake up quickly was going to happen, but instead of that, things escalated a lot faster.
I wasn’t too excited by most of this volume. It felt like it was tying up loose threads and setting up new ones, but it felt like a mish-mash of stories. Hopefully we get a more linear plotline in the next volume. There’s only 2 volumes left on my shelf, hopefully three by the time I finish the other two, but by the time we get to volume 15, I’m going to have to think of a different series to look at. I’m still not sure yet. I’m currently reading The Anthropocene Reviewed by the wonderful John Green, but that’s not really the kind of book I would review. So far I would give it five stars, and he’d appreciate me using a 5-star rating scale to review his book that is all about reviews. But enough about that. If you’re still reading along, what do you think of the direction the manga is taking at this point in time? Let me know in the comments down below and I will hopefully see you here again in two weeks! Thanks for reading.
It’s that time of the season again. We’ve just finished up the summer season anime, and it’s time to take a look back at what we watched and if we would recommend it to other people. I didn’t watch a great amount of new shows this season. At least not new ones that ended. But I have watched a couple, and I would like to talk about some of them for a bit. So without further ado, here’s what I thought of the Isekai shows that aired this past season.
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
Well, this one seems to have hit the mark at least.
Souma has been summoned from modern day Japan to help a Kingdom that’s on the verge of collapse. Upon appearing he is crowned king and the previous ruler retires. Souma however, being from modern day Japan, isn’t exactly the kind of hero they expected to summon. He’s not a warrior, or a powerful mage or some great hero. He’s just a bloke that’s pretty clever, to put it bluntly. He uses his wit and social skills to convince the people around him, and recruit the right people for the right job. So far it seems to be a success. He has been able to gather allies, team up with multiple parties that were slightly adverse to a new king, and stave off the danger. A lot of my issues with this show retain more to my personal stance on politics. Souma feels very manipulative in the way he deals with people. A lot of his victories feel kind of cheap, almost as if all he does is manipulate the people around him into wanting to work for him. Maybe I’m too harsh on this show, but I struggled enjoying several of the episodes. I’d write this one off as a generic Isekai show with potential in the long run.
Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
And that’s how this entire season feels. There wasn’t enough time to properly develop the story.
Seirei Gensouki follows orphan Rio, who gains memories from his life on earth where he, as Haruto, died in a freak accident. He was on a bus that got hit by a train. It’s borderline comical in how over the top it is. Either way, his memories slowly fuse into one person. After accidentally saving the princess he is allowed into the local magic school where he is mostly looked down upon. After getting into trouble he flees town and goes to visit the elves and spirits in the forest. He then moves to Yagumo, which seems to be more Japan-inspired. I mentioned this in the image caption, but Seirei Gensouki feels like it has a fun story to tell, but just doesn’t get it out quite right. It also suffers from Kirito-syndrome, where the main character is somehow the coolest, most powerful person in the room. I’m a big fan of overpowered characters, but they need to have a good flaw. I found Kirito in the later seasons of SAO quite fun. He had to go through trauma to become more of a believable character. Rio/Haruto seems to breeze through life, collecting waifus wherever he sees the opportunity. I might buy the novels at some point to see if my suspicions that they have better pacing are true, but there’s several other novels higher on my wishlist, so it’ll probably take a while. For now, I would recommend this show, but set expectations accordingly.
Oh dear, it’s self-aware
Putting all jokes aside, when I started watching this season’s batch of anime I did not expect Tsukimichi to be along some of the more enjoyable shows. Just like Seirei Gensouki and Realist Hero it runs into some issues with its pacing. At this point in the reviews you might have realized that I am an absolute sucker for good world building and would not mind spending several episodes on one discussion about an upcoming fight (Looking at you, Tensura). Regardless, I’m not one to shy away from good action and some solid banter either, and Tsukimichi delivers on both. Makoto is sent to a new world, but the goddess in charge thinks he’s too ugly and banishes him to live with the demi-humans. It’s a bit harsh, but he does end up with some great companions because of it. He quickly makes servants out of two of the greatest creatures in the area and they start building up an empire in a pocket realm. Unfortunately for Makoto, things don’t go well since although he’s still very much connected to the goddess, she doesn’t like him. Tsukimichi suffers from some of the same issues as the other two shows, as I mentioned, but I feel like it flows a bit better overall. Not to mention, the story hooks seem more interesting than in Realist Hero, and I love both Tomoe and Mio’s designs. All three of these anime show potential, but none quite seem to hit the mark. Regardless, I’d still recommend Tsukimichi, if only for the absolute banger of an opening theme. I can listen to that song all day!
But how did you enjoy these shows? Or are you not a fan of Isekai shows in general? I think the genre is coming into its own overtime, and we’ve left some of the bad ones behind us now. (that or I’m just not watching the bad ones). Either way, leave a comment on what you think down below and as always; thanks for reading!
My keyboard is in need of cleaning. I’ll be honest that I haven’t really done so often. I’ve cleaned the top of the keys regularly of course, but underneath it looks less appealing, so to speak. The main reason why this is of importance is because my “o” key regularly gets stuck and gives twice the input. So if you see some weird double O’s in this text, I apologize in advance. I’ll try to fix most of them if I spot them. At worst it’s a minor inconvenience. Speaking of minor inconveniences, Clayman ended up being even less impactful than I expected. His entire story arc seemed to revolve around no one actually wanting to work with him, and it turns out even Frey and Milim weren’t actually on his side. I’m starting to almost feel bad for the guy, if I’m honest. If only he didn’t see the one final chance he was given as an opportunity to do even more damage. At this point he’s being manipulated by everyone involved. If only he listened to his few allies in the Moderate Harlequin alliance.
Beretta undid one of Clayman’s creations so fast it wasn’t even seen.
I’m going to keep this review short, since I’ll be doing an extensive review of the entire season next week (which should come out on Friday instead of Wednesday or Thursday, so do keep that in mind). The main thing they did this episode was show the different fights. Shion is seen kicking ass against Clayman, so that Rimuru doesn’t even have to make his hands dirty. Veldora entertains Milim, and both him and Raphael are shushed when they try to tell Rimuru that Milim is not actually mind controlled. Rimuru wins Raphael back a bit this episode, but I do think he needs to be careful about constantly pissing off the all knowing voice in his head.
Bring your niece to work day?
Clayman, now no longer having any allies in range, gets manipulated one last time, this time by Raphael. For a moment I thought that maybe Raphael was offering him some sort of deal outside of Rimuru’s knowledge, which would have been a fascinating development to the story, but alas, it was something done with Rimuru’s knowledge, to set up for the next stage of the fight. In next week’s conclusion we’ll probably watch Rimuru comfortably defeat Clayman, and then the story goes back towards the status quo. I can’t wait to see what’s next in the volumes, but we’ll have to be patient for that. It does bother me a little bit that we are heading fast towards an “all was well and they lived happily ever after” situation. I do like my stories to be a little bit more gritty than this. There seem to be no consequences to any of the bad decisions made, and everything always goes Rimuru’s way. That’s obviously a shonen hallmark at this point, so it’s nothing new, but it’s something that shows like Demon Slayer and to an extent Jujutsu Kaisen do extremely well. There’s bigger stakes involved when characters actually die when they are killed (I’m looking at you, literally every character in One Piece besides the two obvious exceptions). Regardless, I thought this episode was good fun, but it wasn’t as mind blowing as I would have hoped. Next week is the conclusion and although I’m sad to see it go, I am looking forward to finding a new show to discuss weekly. I might do Demon Slayer’s new season, but I’m not sure about that yet. I want to do something that’s only one cour, because I’m eyeing up JoJo Part 5 as well, that’s coming in Winter. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what to keep up with during fall in the comments down below, and I hope to see you here next week for the conclusion of this show.
So this man was Carrion after all, and Raphael was about to point that out to Rimuru when he shushed her.It’s kind of sad that they did actually all care about each other.
After two months and nine episodes of build-up, we’re finally here! It’s time for Walpurgis. This episode covers the debate itself and sets up the fight that we’ve been waiting for all season. Let’s go through it step by step and I’ll give you my thoughts. First we are once again introduced to all the demon lords present. I gave the entire list last week so I’ll spare you a repeat.
Our small slime is all grown up and scary looking now.Clayman is not as intimidating as he likes to think
To favor a more lengthy episode we skip the opening this week, which I never have qualms about, even if the opening is a banger. Clayman tells the banquet his made up story about how he is the victim and his poor subordinate Myuran (I’m still not sure how to spell her name) was murdered by Rimuru. Not only that, he implicates Milim as the main aggressor towards Carrion. It’s basically a long story about how he’s never done anything wrong without showing any proof.
Rimuru telling it like it is
Rimuru explains his side of the story and shows some footage of Clayman’s people being abused and then quickly defeated by Rimuru’s people. His biggest arguments include Myuran not being dead, Yamza being turned into a small Charybdis and the clowns speaking about the plan being bad and how they shouldn’t have been involved. The clowns mention Yuuki (I presume) but don’t name him. Raphael tries to explain to Rimuru what is going on but he dismisses her too quickly as usual. He basically has an all knowing ally that keeps shushing. Clayman keeps stringing lies to defend himself but this can now only end in a fight.
The big showdown is happening
Guy Crimson creates a barrier for the two groups to fight in, and they both squad up. Rimuru has less people but when he tries to call on Beretta the barrier is already there. A lot of the fights seem fairly evenly matched, except for Rimuru versus Milim. The latter being on the attack the entire time. Clayman barely has to get his own hands dirty as he lets his minions fight everyone. Rimuru is trying desperately to figure out how to make Milim snap out of it, but once again he doesn’t listen to Raphael and thus misses out on important information. I get that we like skipping the hints in the loading screen, but Rimuru should really stop doing so.
Just let the all knowing voice in your head finish her sentences
The last important bit of this episode is that we learn about Noir, or Diablo, being even more powerful and important than we already thought. Him and Beretta are from the same demon family and from what I could glance, Diablo might even be of a similar stature to Guy. It makes me even more curious about Diablo.
Beretta speaks her mind
The last point I want to make, and I feel like I’m repeating myself, is that I really enjoyed the long set-up. I’m seeing this season get very bad reviews and I feel like it’s unwaranted. This anime is slower than some other shonen shows, but I think the shows that jump from action to action to action get painfully boring after a while. I think good build-up is needed to make for good fights. Else there is no narrative weight. Now we have all of the information we need to be fully invested and I’m a big fan. It makes the pay-off that much more satisfying in my opinion.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, who shows up to save the day:
It’s everyone’s favorite tsundere ancient dragon!
My opinion on this show is clear by now, do you all agree that it’s been a fun ride to get here, or are you more on the side of some of the reviews I saw, that things have been too slow? I’d love to know your opinion! And of course, I hope to see you all here again next week. Hopefully it’s not as warm out by then, because it took my all to find the energy to write this!
Things are finally advancing quickly, after a very enjoyable, but slow start to the season. Since this episode really set the stage for the upcoming discussions, I think it’s for the best to look at this episode a little bit differently than normal. I will be skipping around through what happens today, so bear with me.
Veldora’s attention span has passed, back to manga
Shuna, Hakuo and Soei go to Clayman’s castle to take control of it while Clayman is at Walpurgis. The person guarding the castle is Adalman, the wight king (not the white king, like my subtitles said). He has an army of undead. Unfortunately for him, he is a bad match for Shuna, who not only uses holy magic that is very effective against the undead, but she’s also angry right now. She realizes after a while that Adalman used to be a priest, and we get a small bit of insight into his past. He used to believe in the god Luminus, but was turned into an undead creature by the former/recently returned demon lord Kazareem (the blonde lady that was with Yuuki and Laplace a few episodes ago.) He ends up being no match for Shuna. As a matter of fact, after Shuna inadvertently undoes his binding spell, he asks to be brought to her “god” as in Rimuru.
All the other ogres are very strong, so it’s no surprise that Shuna is far from a push-over, but that was amazing.
I like analyzing the deeper meaning behind things. I would never say I’m particularly good at it, I had to resit some of my literature classes in uni several times before I got a passing grade, but when the source material is interesting to me, I do enjoy looking for hidden things that might be there on purpose, or are there just by coincidence. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of Clayman’s people fall so easily. Yamza was an opportunist that was ready to run as soon when things went south. Tear, Footman and Laplace seem to be on the same team as him mostly because they have a common leader figure in Kazareem, but none of them seem to really trust Clayman or think him competent. Frey seems to have been lured in by promises of power by Clayman, but without her help he would have never been able to brainwash Milim. Even the followers of Milim seemed fine with jumping ship when it got to it, and now we learn that another one of his lackeys, Adalman, was only there because he was bound by his own past, and not because he actually wanted to work with Clayman. I think it’s fitting that all of his allies go down easily when he never bothered to give them a good reason to work for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Clayman himself goes down easily after Rimuru figures out how to get Milim back in control of her own mind.
One more for the fanclub, and a pretty strong one at that!
And that brings us to the last part of this episode, that mixes in with the discussions had early on; the start of Walpurgis, the demon lords’ banquet. Misery, one of Guy’s maids, picks up the different demon lords and brings them to the discussion table. And here we meet all of the other demon lords, some for the first time.
Guy Crimson seems to be the oldest demon lord in attendance and from what we’ve been hinted at is probably the strongest person in the room. He seemed like a nice bloke when he was talking to Leon in a previous episode though.
The giant demon lord, Dagruel. We know very little about him except that he’s seemingly very powerful and his footsteps are loud enough to cause light tremors.
The Vampire demon lord, Valentine. I’ve highlighted the people in his party as well, because Rimuru pretty much confirms that the maid (the one on the left, the blue haired on on the right is Rain, Guy’s maid) is the stronger one there. So she is probably the real demon lord that Veldora pissed off ages ago.
I’m grouping Dino and Ramiris together for this one, since we know a lot about Ramiris and very little about Dino. All we know is that they’re on friendly terms. Dino is the lazy one that Ramiris spoke about earlier this episode. He seems like a nice person so far. Ramiris we’ve met so many times that I don’t need to talk about her much here.
We’ve already met Frey in a previous episode, when she put the mindcontrolling necklace on Milim. I do have to wonder what her endgame is, since there’s no way she believes Clayman can keep Milim under control right? There has to be another layer to this. That or she’s just not very smart, which is also a possibility of course. Shion does mention that the lion looking man behind her could be Carrion, since he looks like beastfolk. I wonder what’s up with that. Raphael seems to agree, but Rimuru shuts her down too quickly and she hmmmpfs away.
Leon Cromwell. The man, the myth, the bellend. He is the one responsible for Shizu’s condition and then death. He doesn’t seem to harbor any real emotions about the situation. He seems to have a very clear moral code, although not one that’s particularly good. The two don’t get off on a great start though, but Rimuru does get invited over to his place for a discussion. If he leaves here alive. That’s not ominous at all.
Last but not least, we have Milim, wearing her mind control necklace, and Clayman, the main villain of this arc. I wonder if that magical looking fox is like the conch in Lord of the flies or something completely unrelated. Either way, as soon as Clayman disrespects Milim, which he’s obviously doing to make a show out of his control over her, every other demon lord in the room looks on with disapproval.
With Carrion missing, that’s all 10 demon lords that are expected to attend, in attendance. The only ones not included her, that we know of, are the female vampire that is with Valentine, who might be the real powerful one as well as Demon Lord Kazareem, who is presumed dead at this point in time. Rimuru doesn’t count yet since he became a demon lord only after this meeting was called, but he was still invited, so that’s nice of them.
I hope this brings everyone back up to speed, I sure could use the reminder of who everyone involved was. Next week’s episode is called Walpurgis, and with all the fighting seeming mostly out of the way, we’re finally going to get into the thick of it. I can’t wait to see what kind of politics happen here. The fights, although they looked better this week, don’t interest me a great deal this season, I’m all here for the politics. Who is on whose side, who is going to fall, and who is going to rise. I also, upon further thought, don’t think the guy behind Frey is too directly related to Carrion, seeing as a large part of Clayman’s plan is to convince everyone that Rimuru killed Carrion and has to die for that reason. Or perhaps that is the way in which Frey is going to show her real colors. Maybe she holds a grudge against Clayman and has been working with him to betray him at the last second. Or I’m totally wrong, but that’s the fun in this, is it not? I am glad I got this review out in time, since it was an absolute banger of an episode, and I hope to see you all here again next week!
Edit – It’s very late and I can’t seem to figure out the formatting around some of the demon lord images. I apologize that it looks a bit chaotic and I hope to get back to this post to fix it at a later date.
So after 7 full episodes of build-up we finally get into the fights themselves. I’ve seen a fair bit of discourse on reddit over the weeks about how this show is taking too long to build up and it’s spent 7 episodes on 1 episode of pay-off. I agree with this sentiment in theory, but not for this particular show. I’m a big fan of good world-building, and I feel like Slime is doing a fairly decent job at this so far. I’m very excited about the political aspect of this show, and less about the fighting. The fights haven’t looked particularly impressive either, which is unfortunate but not surprising. Anyway, moving on to the episode itself. This episode covers three main fights, one of which got me quite excited.
Father Middray is very confident, and rightfully so. Suphia and Gabiru are no match for himGabiru is unfamiliar with modesty himself
The first fight was by far the least interesting to me. Very quickly it was obvious that this would be resolved through mainly talking, and that is exactly what ended up happening .Gabiru does get the better of Hermes, who is seemingly fairly strong, but the two of them do not seem to be a match of Middray. Having said that, it’s good to remember that despite being a bit of a joke character, Gabiru means business. We do learn some more about the dragon faithful and where their power comes from. They’re a similar species to Gabiru although not quite through the same path. Gabiru mentions that his sister looks more like a human, which I think alludes to her strength. I bet she’s the strongest out of the dragonewts.
Going from a fight where they talk about true strenght to a bloke relying on his magic items is a bit on the nose, isn’t it?
To no one’s surprise, Yamza ended up being a pushover. He says he’s on equal footing with Albis, but he’s not really. He has to rely on two powerful items and still gets rolled over like a small fry. Clayman has more plans for him though, and ends up turning him into a smaller version of Charybdis. That looks like a bad way to go. Also, this pretty much confirms that Clayman is fully aware of what is happening on the battlefield. Does his remaining confidence stem from the power he holds over Milim or does he have another ace up his sleeve. Regardless, I couldn’t think about this too much because I was distracted by a certain snake lady. I mean, come on, look at that design, how can you not immediately turn into a degenerate.hat suspected, Yamza ended up being the biggest pushover of the bunch.
Step, I mean slither on me, please.
When everyone gets ready to deal with the big new threat, Benimaru shows up and deals with it like it’s no problem. I love me some powerful main characters, but it is starting to get slightly ridiculous. One thing I like about Slime is that it has no issue killing off bad guys, but I’d like if there were more serious consequences for the main cast. Everyone on the good guys’ side seems to be surviving. As much as I loved Shion being revived, it did kind of take away the stakes.
Moving on from that, Benimaru threatens to fight father Middray, but luckily Gabiru and Suphia manage to diffuse the situation. We learn a lot about how powerful people are. Middray seems to be the best fighter present in a duel of sorts, but if it’s a fight to the death Benimaru would have the edge. It’s good to know that Milim’s people are strong enough to deal with Rimuru’s people. I expect Milim to be the least likely to have many strong underlings.
Crisis averted
Now we move on to the final fight, and it was the one I was most curious about. Ever since I’ve read Tokyo Ghoul (which I highly recommend, just not in the form of the anime) I’ve had a very fair distrust of clowns. I think it’s just smarter to assume that clowns are behind all that’s wrong in the world, just to be safe. It’s the same with these clowns. Laplace has so far been shown to be the most cunning of the three, but I have a feeling all three of them are a step above Clayman. Tear and Footman do manage to deal with Phobio and Geld pretty easily, before taking their leave.
Menacing
I really thought either Geld or Phobio would be killed or seriously wounded in this fight, and I’m kind of disappointed this didn’t happen. Benimaru seems to think he outsmarted the clowns by tricking them, but I don’t think he did. It feels like someone pretending to be smarter than they are. I hope the clowns end up being big trouble in the future. I am glad Geld is fine though, he was my favorite character in the spin-off. But imagine if he was seriously injured and the young goblin girl took care of him. That would be adorable.
I really hope we’ll get to Walpurgis next episode, that’s what I’ve really been looking forward to. That brings me to the following; I don’t know if there will be an episode review next week. Tensura airs on Tuesday evenings for me, and I’m flying out to the UK early Wednesday. I might do a quick review, but no promises. I hope you understand.
If we spend another episode on one of Clayman’s underlings I will be a little bit disappointed.
