English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “Shizu”

Roll a dexterity check to sidestep the giant ants!

Overview (Spoilers!)

Guildmaster Fuze meets with the three humans from episode two (Eren, Kaval, and Gido). They’ve just returned from a harrowing and exhausting mission, and they report that Veldora is gone. Fuze gives them three days off before they’re required to search the Forest of Jura. While they’re spouting rage at his demands, a mysterious woman—the Hero Lord we’ve seen before—overhears and asks to join them. She introduces herself as Shizu.

Rimuru shows off their new move Black Lightning to Ranga, reminiscing about the past few weeks—Kaijin joined the goblin village as its resident blacksmith, and the three dwarf brothers taught the goblins how to make armor, crafts, and homes. 500 new goblins arrived, thrilled to join the village, and Rimuru named each one of them. Now, Gobta teaches the other goblins how to summon a tempest wolf, a skill he’d discovered in the dwarven prison.

Rigor tells Rimuru that humans have been spotted in the forest. Giant ants chase Eren, Kaval, and Gido, but Shizu slays them effortlessly with her flaming sword. Rimuru destroys the last one with Black Lightning, realizing that she’s the woman they’re destined to be with.

The humans return to the goblin village as guests. Introductions are made, the threesome explains their mission, and Rimuru infers that Shizu must be Japanese. That evening, Shizu and Rimuru share stories of how they came to this kingdom: Shizu was summoned here—meaning she’s being used as weapon and is possibly cursed—from Japan during World War II. To cheer her up, Rimuru shows her memories of modern-day Japan.

After Rimuru leaves, Shizu remembers the day she was summoned to this kingdom. Weak and covered in burns, she was written off as a failure by her summoner—until he offered her body to Ifrit, a fire demon.

Our Take

So we open on the humans receiving a new mission from Fuze. Their names flash across the screen when we first see their faces, to make sure the audience knows what these three jokesters are called. And then, in case we weren’t quite sure of their names already, they meet Shizu, and they introduce themselves again. And then… they meet Rimuru… and all four of them say their names… and they explain the mission they got from Fuze… again…

Honestly, this episode could have been five minutes long, because there’s so much unnecessary repetition here. The last episode, Rimuru saw Shizu and determined that she looked Japanese. This week, they hear her name and think “That sounds Japanese. I bet this woman is Japanese.” They make a reference to a Japanese video game and note that she laughs at it. Later, Shizu reiterates that she got the reference, and then Rimuru asks if she’s from Japan, and she says yes. Dear LORD. Let the audience figure out SOME things on our own.

Then there are the three humans. They’re clearly supposed to be bumbling bickering fools, but they’re not all that funny. Honestly, they would be a lot more interesting if they weren’t all totally indistinguishable from each other. None of them have a unique personality or backstory or anything that could possibly get me invested. There are some cute nods to DND here that I appreciate—the humans each have a DND-style class, either a fighter or sorcerer or thief. But we never get to see these talents in action, and it’s pretty disappointing.

So as this episode’s name would suggest, Shizu is the star here. Her backstory is intriguing—I like that, although she’s from Japan, she and Rimuru won’t be able to completely connect because she knows nothing of the world past the 1940s. Watching her gaze with wonder at Japan’s progress in the late twentieth century—at bullet trains and Tokyo Tower and smiling people in suits—is genuinely touching. “It looks like New York City,” she says, staring at Tokyo in awe, and our screens are filled with the sparkling lights of the city.

So yeah, I’m sold on Shizu. I like that she eats through her mask. I like that we see her befriending a pack of kids in the ending song. I like that there are still mysteries left to uncover about her. It almost makes up for Rimuru’s obsession with her boobs.

Also, god, I’m so mad that Rimuru left Gobta behind in Dwargon and forced him to find his own way home. What if he hadn’t figured out how to summon his tempest wolf? Would he have just rotted in that prison cell forever? How am I supposed to be sympathetic towards Rimuru after that? I guess it’s supposed to be funny that Rimuru constantly puts Gobta down for his lack of skills, but it feels more mean-spirited than comedic.

“Shizu” boasts nice animation and a reasonably successful storyline, but it doesn’t pack the same comedic punch as the first three episodes. Honestly, I barely laughed at all (well, maybe a little at Rimuru asking “What’s up, my guy?”). And let’s be honest—That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is never going to be a dramatic masterpiece. If it can’t be funny, what’s the point?