English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: “Tales: Veldora’s Journal 2”

Overview: Veldora (Chris Rager) and Ifrit (Chris Guerrero) witness the tragic events that unfolded in the nation of Tempest to Rimuru (Brittany Karbowski) and his friends.

Our Take: Despite this being the premiere of the season’s second cour, it is not the long-awaited return of everyone’s favorite happy-go-lucky blue slime that most had hoped for. Because when you grind this episode down to its bare magicules, it’s pretty much just your run-of-the-mill recap episode that features a montage of all major events that occurred in the first cour. However, while by no means nothing to write home about, there are a few interesting tidbits to be had.

These intriguing insights come from Veldora and Ifrit’s play by play. These powerful entities have been mostly MIA for most of the series due to being absorbed by Rimuru. But with their reaction to recent events, we’re able to gauge a bit about them and each of their own unique perspectives. 

Ifrit was always nothing more than a mindless bloodthirsty monster, so suffice to say I was quite taken aback when he came off as much more dignified and intellectual. One worry that I had was that change wouldn’t be addressed, thankfully that wasn’t the case, as Rimuru’s heart and actions proved to be what changed the fire demon’s vile nature. With all the strife and hardships Rimuru has been through, this works well enough, not to mention it also simultaneously works as the reasoning for how incompatible he and Shizu were originally. Also Veldora’s contempt towards humans is interesting as well as it paints a picture for how he may handle future changes with them later down the road. Not to mention due to his huge power increase from Rimuru’s demon lord transformation and special move developed, how much of an asset he will end up being as well building even more excitement for his role and the rest of the season as a whole.