English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “The One Who Devours All”

“I’ll eat the sins of all your people.”

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

Suddenly Gelmud crashes down from the sky, berating Rimuru for interfering in his plans. After making fun of Gabiru, Gelmud introduces the Orc Lord Geld. Gelmud attacks Gabiru, and three lizard-men sacrifice themselves to protect him. Gelmud reveals that he named all these monsters only so that the Orc Lord would have strong enemies to devour; he uses a strong skill against Gabiru, but Rimuru easily blocks the attack. Rimuru hands out some healing potions for the fallen lizards and ties up Gelmud, punching him a few times for good measure.

Gelmud calls upon Geld, but the Orc Lord beheads and devours his master. Then Geld evolves into a Demon Lord called the Orc Disaster. Shion and Hakuro take him on, but even after Hakuro beheads Geld, he just heals himself. Souei, Benimaru, and Ranga combine their considerable strengths, but Geld survives their attack. He devours a lesser orc and re-purposes Gelmud’s “Death March Dance Attack,” but Rimuru blocks it.

Rimuru tells Great Sage to take over their body. Though Geld attacks full force, Great Sage calculates the best possible movements, and Rimuru is able to slice off Geld’s arm. Geld heals and grabs Rimuru, who erupts both of them into flames. Unfortunately, Geld has fire resistance. Rimuru takes over once again and transforms into a slime, coating Geld’s body in order to eat him first.

In a barren desert, an orc king cuts off his arm to feed a group of starving children before heading into the forest to search for food. After days of travelling, he collapses from hunger—and is found by Gelmud.

The orc king—Geld—tells Rimuru that Gelmud lied to him, told him that the people he ate would not die. Geld claims that he is the greater devourer because he had to be, to prevent his people from starving. Rimuru still insists on killing Geld, but promises to take care of the orcs. Before he dies, Geld appears in a luscious pasture, claiming his hunger has finally been sated. Although the war is over, Benimaru still wants to serve Rimuru.

Our Take

Boy, there sure are a lot of characters in this show with names that begin with G.

That aside, this is one of the best episodes of Slime in a long while. It’s one long battle, but the attacks are interesting, the animation is attractive, and there are even a few funny one-liners.

Best of all, we get to see Rimuru utilize their wide array of skills in order to outsmart an enemy. I really enjoy the idea that Rimuru can use Great Sage to put themselves “on autopilot” in order to fight in the most calculated way possible—but even Great Sage can be fallible, and it’s the human side of Rimuru that figures out what to do. In this battle, everyone’s strongest skills are at play, and the episode is stronger for it. Although it does seem a little forced for Rimuru to not get involved until the very end. Despite Predator and Great Sage, it honestly seems like Rimuru’s greatest skill is networking. Why do the work if you can get other people to do it for you, eh?

I also enjoy the way this episode subverts our view of the Orc Lord. Previously, Geld was presented in a purely negative light, as greedy and gluttonous at the expense of others. But in the end, Rimuru learns that Geld just wanted to ensure his people’s survival and safety. Both Rimuru and Geld are associated with eating, and both use it to protect their own. I’m trying to come up with some deep metaphor here about society’s attitudes towards gluttony—That we shouldn’t judge poor people who are fixated on money, because it isn’t as form of greed if they’re trying to survive? That it’s just okay to eat a lot?—but at the end of the day, I’m not really sure there’s a clear message here. Yet there is a touching send-off for the Orc Lord that manages to make even the least plausible character sympathetic, and it’s pretty damn funny that the emotional climax of this episode is Rimuru and Geld arguing about who can eat more.

Some other funny moments: Rimuru interrupts Great Sage because they already know who Gelmud is. Gelmud tells Gabiru to “Shut up, you stupid lizard!” Geld doesn’t understand Gelmud’s plans. Gelmud is taken out by a mere few punches. Rimuru tells him, “You can’t kill anyone with that weak-sauce move.”

The animation in this episode, too, is very successful. Gelmud’s skill “Death March Dance” makes the screen swell with hot pink light. Rimuru combats the attack with their own aquamarine slime, sparks flying around their hair as they gaze steadily forward. It’s an extremely epic shot, as is the moment when Rimuru reverts from their massive slime form back into their human body, sparkling and complete with longer hair. It’s incredible, too, to watch Rimuru/Great Sage’s eyes glow red as they seamlessly dodge each of Geld’s glowing orange attacks. They’re majestic, which is a weird thing to say about a slime monster, but it’s certainly true here.

At times, though, this episode can get pretty grisly. Two characters are beheaded onscreen. We see Geld’s teeth ripping into his subordinate’s flesh in great detail. And when Rimuru devours Geld, we watch as the flesh slowly eats away from the Orc Lord’s bones. As somebody who can’t stomach gore, it wasn’t quite disturbing me enough for me to look away—I mean, at the end of the day, this is a cartoon—but damn. I still would never in a million years show this episode to a child. There’s also a new ending song that’s pretty catchy, but it’s disappointingly accompanied by a mashup of old ED animation and old clips from the show, rather than any new sequences to feast our eyes on.

There are a lot of wonderful twists at play here. I assumed the “one who devours all” from the name of this episode would refer to Geld, but of course, the true winner of that title is Rimuru. And with so many skills at their disposal borrowed from immensely powerful monsters, it’s pretty rewarding that the best trump card Rimuru has at their disposal is their slime form, the one thing people tend to underestimate most.

There are a few things I fail to understand here. What, exactly, is the definition of a demon lord on this show? Usually they seem to be humanoid, but orcs can also evolve into them? And what are the rules about the creatures Rimuru eats? Veldora and Ifrit didn’t die, so why did Geld?

I also really think this show would benefit from building up the relationships between characters. Rimuru and Shizue’s short-lived friendship was meaningful, but Rimuru’s relationship with everyone else in their village is mostly master/subordinate. It would be a lot more rewarding to watch Benimaru swear his loyalty to Rimuru if I knew more about their friendship—or about Benimaru at all. But this episode does succeed in making me feel for the Orc Lord, which is a massive feat all on its own.

It doesn’t quite sate my appetite for more hilarious Slime episodes, but I do hope you enjoy the delicious morsels this episode has to offer.