English Dub Review: By the Grace of the Gods “Starting the Business, with the Slimes”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After a big adventure inside the abandoned mines with his fellow adventurer’s, Ryoma decides to cut ties with the Jamil family in order to make his own way in the town of Gamul. Eliaria and her family aren’t happy about his decision, but decide to respect it… as long as he agrees to follow three key rules and stay at the inn with them.

Once that’s worked out, Ryoma strikes out to start up a business of his own. Utilizing the amazing work of the scavenger slimes, he’s able to clean stains out of even the dirtiest of clothing, and so he becomes an entrepreneurial laundry man. With some help from Serge the merchant, he’s able to start getting his business plans underway with a location, workers, and more.

Our Take:

Last week By the Grace of the Gods gifted us with a pretty exhilarating episode — at least, it was about as exhilarating as this show seems likely to get. So it’s no surprise that Starting the Business, with the Slimes is a downgrade in terms of raw excitement and pacing. It’s more focused on Ryoma’s plans for the future and how he’s going to make a living than battle action sequences. And since the show was running out of new creatures to live in the caves, maybe that’s a good thing.

Ryoma decision to split with the Jamil family takes centerstage at the start, which is good. It is a big deal when you remember that the Jamil family has been behind Ryoma from day one — he wouldn’t even be adventuring in the town of Gamul without their guidance. His choice to separate from them comes a little bit from out of nowhere, since there’s been no real indication of conflict or tension between them in past episodes. But Ryoma is technically an adult man, so it’s no wonder he doesn’t want to be saddled with babysitting Eliaria all the time.

With that breakup out of the way, he’s able to focus his energy on his new true passion: cleaning clothes! After finding out that his special slimes could get rid of even the toughest goblin goop stains, Ryoma has had an idea in the back of his mind to use those talents to make his living. It’s a little strange, since he’s already making a living going on quests thanks to the adventurer’s guild, but hey, maybe he’s more cut out for the laundry life.

It’s fun to see him hanging around with Serge instead of the Jamil family. Not because Serge is a great character or anything — he’s just as toothless as everyone else. But it’s a welcome change of pace from the Duke’s family and their boogie lifestyle. Ryoma even has time to make another visit to the gods, which turns out to be the highlight of the episode due to its comedic revelation that the gods visited Ryoma’s real home world and fell in love with a Jpop girl group.

Next week’s episode is likely to include a lot of laundry stuff, so buckle up buttercups and bring your scrub brushes! Oh, and we’ll hopefully learn more about Ryoma and his potential “infantile regression” as well… wonder what that’s all about. Surely not a random plot development that will enable him to get together with Eliaria, right?