English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “Battle at the Goblin Village”

Here there be gerblins.

Overview (Spoilers!) 

Rimaru visits the wounded goblins and heals them by eating them, slapping on some healing potion, and spitting them out. Rimaru then recommends that the goblins fortify their village with a fence. Refusing to take Rimaru as a threat, the direwolves swarm the village, but they get caught in “steel thread” that Rimaru produced. The head direwolf leaps at Rimaru, cutting through the steel thread with his teeth, but gets caught in Rimaru’s “sticky thread” instead. Rimaru kills the wolf, eats him, and mimics him. The pack now vows to serve Rimaru!

Rimaru tells the goblins and wolves to pair up and work together, but they don’t know how to divide tasks when the monsters don’t have names, so they promise to name each goblin and wolf. Rimaru names the village elder and his son “Rigord” and “Rigor,” after the warrior Rigor who died, and the two weep with joy. Rimaru gives the rest goblin-themed names—Gobta, Gobchi, Gobsu, Gobte, Gobzo. They all rejoice too, and Rigord seems surprised that Rimaru would try to give everyone a name in one sitting.

Rimaru names the direwolf prince “Ranga”—and then suddenly melts into a pile of goo. Great Sage warns them that their magical reserves have fallen below the minimum limit, and Rimaru promptly enters sleep mode. When they awaken three days later, a goblin girl is tending to them. She fetches Rigord, who is now young and buff?! It turns out that, when named, monsters evolve into something more powerful. Ranga shows up, now much bigger. Because the direwolves are all connected and act as one entity, their entire pack has evolved with Ranga. They are now called the tempest wolves.

Rimaru sets some ground rules for the village—no attacking humans, no infighting, no belittling other races—and puts Rigord in charge. They assign jobs to the rest of the village, but those assigned to make houses and clothing aren’t doing a great job. Rimaru sets out to visit Dwargon, home of the dwarves, to ask for help with building and sewing.

Our Take

This show makes my day every time I watch it, and this week’s installment is no exception. “Battle at the Goblin Village” is so funny and weird and clever that I have very few things to criticize about it. The character interactions are quirky and amusing, the magical elements are intriguing, and the pacing is perfect—we get to see Rimaru’s creative methods of fighting for just long enough that it doesn’t become a generic, boring fight scene.

The animation is very successful. The goblins are super cute, and after their upgrade, they look similar enough to be recognizable but different enough that it’s clear something went down. Ranga’s evolved look—he’s bigger, but also has weird 80s leg warmers and a unicorn horn—made me laugh out loud. And Rimaru’s embarrassed blushing is adorable.

I also like that the importance of naming was foreshadowed last week when Rimaru felt that something changed deep in their soul when Veldora named them. Despite their careless distribution of names to the village, it’s clear that their choices bear immense weight—Rigord is named after his village’s greatest warrior and becomes insanely buff, and Ranga’s storm-themed name grants him wind powers. Rimaru’s naiveté when it comes to just how powerful they are is pretty amusing, and it also sets the stage for some really interesting plots later on. It’s such a nice contrast to the protagonist of the last isekai I reviewed—Yuuto Suoh is very aware of his own superiority, whereas Rimaru can’t seem to take their own power seriously and just wants to have fun with it.

Of course, Rimaru is at it again this week with the cute, funny slogans. When Rigor declares that the goblins are willing to sacrifice their lives for this battle, Rimaru responds, “No need to get worked up. Just be chill.” In an attempt to really embrace their role as temporary leader of this village, they don a fake gray mustache and scold in their best teacher voice, “It took five whole minutes for everyone to settle down and stop gabbing!” And the silly pop culture nods are back, this time referencing Oprah: “You get a potion and you get a potion!” cries Rimaru.

There are some great visual gags in this episode, too. A slime perched in front of their goblin army, ready to protect them from harm, is such a weird mental image when taken out of context. After Rimaru transforms back form mimicking the wolf king, the slime has little wolf ears and a tail, and it’s super cute. Then there’s the moment where Rimaru is worried Ranga might be upset because they killed his father, but Rimaru notices that all the dogs’ tails are wagging: “I’m no expert on body language,” they say, “but they don’t seem upset.” And when Ranga evolves, he wags his tail so hard that he blows Rimaru off a cliff. Plus, it’s super fun to watch all the goblins weeping with joy at the idea of being named—I especially like Rigor’s little dance of anticipation while waiting in line. “Man,” says Rimaru, “these guys are way emotional today.”

But yeah, Rimaru is the star of this show. They’re flying by the seat of their pants, making up names and plans on the spot, and it’s wonderful to watch. I love how sometimes their solutions to problems are delightfully creative—such as the way they use their skills in battle—and sometimes they can’t even think of a good wolf name without running through their head the names of random stuff found around them in nature.

The only bad thing I can really say about this episode is the fanservice. We were doing so well with not having any fanservice. We were two for two episodes. But as soon as a girl goblin evolves, Rimaru is checking her out, and we get a head-on shot of her boobs bouncing in the wind. Sigh. At least Rimaru has the sense to say that the revealing clothes the goblins wear aren’t appropriate, and they need to learn how to construct outfits better.

Setting that aside, this episode is good, silly fun, and I can’t wait for all the laughing I’m going to do next week.