English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “The Jura Forest Alliance”

Together now.

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

In the peace talks after the battle, Rimuru explains that they don’t want to charge the orcs with any crime. Rimuru puts forward a proposal for a mutually-beneficial alliance between all monsters living in the forest of Jura: the orcs will contribute their labor in exchange for food and resources. Treyni appoints Rimuru as the new chancellor of Jura.

An orc with a cool mohawk—Geld’s son—prostrates before Benimaru, begging the ogres to take his head as penance for the orcs’ misdeeds against them. Benimaru describes the new roles that Rimuru has given the ogres in their society; as head of the military, Benimaru feels it would be wrong to kill a skilled warrior. The orc promises to serve Rimuru faithfully. Overhearing this conversation, Rimuru names the orc “Geld,” and he evolves into an orc king. Rimuru spends the next ten days naming 150,000 orcs. Jesus. They also name the lizardman chief “Abiru.”

Abiru exiles Gabiru for treason and forbids him from calling himself a lizardman. Three of Gabiru’s men follow him. Clayman—the mastermind behind the scheme to create a new demon lord—sips some wine while Laplace offers his help towards any future endeavors.

Three months later, the high orcs help to build homes in the village. Thanks to their “bangin’” new aqueduct, the town now has running water and sewage systems. The orcs also build roads and a public bath. Suddenly, a swarm of Pegasus knights descend on the village. Gazel Dwargo is leading the charge, intending to fight Rimuru one-on-one to determine their worth. Treyni stands as witness to their battle. Although Gazel’s swordplay skills far outrank Rimuru’s, Rimuru is able to win by correctly predicting and defending against Gazel’s attack. Gazel determines that Rimuru is not malicious. Rimuru explains that they learned Gazel’s moves from their swordplay master, who uses the same move all the time; as it turns out, Hakuro was Gazel’s master too.

That night, at a celebratory feast, Gazel asks Rimuru to enter into a treaty between Rimuru’s nation and the dwarven kingdom. Rimuru names their nation the Jura Tempest Federation. Rigord declares that their village should be called Rimuru, and that it should serve as the JTF’s capital.

Our Take

Why does this episode feel so much like a history lesson? Political alliances are formed, infrastructure is built, and nations are named, but there’s very little in the way of character work here—or even in the way of plot. And hey, wasn’t this series supposed to be a comedy at one point?

What works about That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is largely how weird the premise is, but in this episode, there’s nothing odd or unique to be found. I mean, the ideal of everyone working together to the best of their ability makes for a nice message, but it doesn’t allow room for much conflict, and it certainly isn’t very interesting to watch. Everyone’s worship of Rimuru is even less interesting. This is the fatal flaw of so many isekai series, even more so than the weird titty stuff—if the main character is perfect in every way, with everything coming easily to them, this will naturally lead to an unbelievable and undynamic storyline. I mean, Geld is the second character who dedicates his life to serving Rimuru despite the fact that Rimuru killed his father. Am I the only person who finds this hard to believe?

I don’t get why Rimuru is so freaked out about the idea of being chancellor of Jura—I mean, they’re already leader of a village and doing a cracking job of it. I don’t get why Treyni is so comfortable handing the reigns over to them when everyone else seems in awe of the dryads’ power (Even Rimuru thinks, “Shouldn’t that be Treyni’s job?”). I don’t get why Rimuru didn’t name the other lizardmen. I don’t get what happened to Gelmud (Why isn’t he hanging out with Clayman and Laplace? Where did he go? Did they write him out of the series because of all the Vic Mignogna controversy going on right now?).

As for the positives… the new intro and ending song are fun, and they promise to introduce a whole host of cool new characters (although I really would like if this show tried to focus on developing the ones we already have first). The dub dialogue, chock full of 2019isms, still has the power to make me smile (Rimuru’s lines this week include “Benimaru sure is a gracious dude” and “Bite me”). I like that the new Geld has a mohawk. I like the message about the power of rehabilitation, that it’s better to put the orcs to work than punish them for the crimes they committed while starving. It’s almost Les Mis-esque—if Jean Valjean stole a loaf of bread from Rimuru, I’m sure he’d be treated with similar amnesty.

But once again, Rimuru assures their victory in a battle without drawing on their own unique talents. They don’t beat Gazel because of Predator, or Great Sage, or any of the abilities they’ve gained from other characters over the course of the series—they win because of swordplay skills they learned completely offscreen, ones that have never been mentioned before now. The idea that Hakuro was Gazel’s master too is just a wee bit too convenient to be interesting, and this reveal robs us of what could have been a fun and well-choreographed fight. Ah well.

I guess some people might enjoy watching Rimuru serve as founding parent of their new nation, but I think I’ll stick to Hamilton.