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

 

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

In order to summon spirits, the kids must pray. Gale goes first, but instead of a full spirit, he summons small traces of energy that have flaked off one. Using Great Sage to guild their skills, Rimuru eats the small yellow spirit lights and combines them into a new, artificial, earth-based spirit. Then they unite the new spirit and Gale’s body. It seems to work, with no ill effects. Gale’s body has been stabilized.

Rimuru does the same for Alice. Her spirit lights are purple, and her spirit has space properties. Before Kenya has even begun to pray, a full-fledged spirit floats into the room. Playful and flamboyant, he declares that he’s a spirit of light before zooming into Kenya’s body.

Ryota summons spirit fragments that are blue and green, with properties of wind and water. When Chloe steps into the circle, blushing furiously, she declares her love for Rimuru, who defers her underage confession by saying they like her too. When Chloe prays, an immensely powerful spirit materializes, soaring around the room. Ramiris can sense that the spirit is dangerous and possibly from the future, though she doesn’t do a great job of explaining. While Rimuru watches the spirit, flickers of light transform her body into Shizu and bring to mind Veldora; before they can stop her, she combines with Chloe. Rimuru pretends it was all part of their plan. The kids have been saved! They chill with some fairies and celebrate.

Rimuru builds a new golem for Ramiris and summons a demon to inhabit the shell, but we don’t get to see that fight. Instead, we’re treated to a long recap of the season and a montage showing each of Rimuru’s friends going about their lives. Yuuki asks for Rimuru’s secrets, but Rimuru gifts him a mountain of manga instead. Surrounded by green mist, a new villain longs to rise to power with Rimuru’s help. Rimuru thinks of Shizu.

Rimuru bids the kids goodbye to head back to their village, leaving their students in Yuuki’s care. The kids all cry. Chloe is inconsolable, so Rimuru gives her Shizu’s mask. The kids don’t think that’s fair, but they’re placated by a gift of robes. Rimuru rides off on Ranga, reflecting on their journey. Someone is spying on them, but that’s a problem for next season. 

Our Take

Next week’s episode of Slime is an “extra” episode that will focus on Shizu’s past (no spoilers!), so “Saved Souls” is, in essence, our season one finale. And all things considered, it’s a pretty underwhelming one. Nearly half the episode is made up of recap or montages that don’t add much to the plot. Honestly, you can watch the first 13 minutes of this episode and then turn it off without missing anything at all.

The opening sequence is compelling if only because of all the pretty lights. When Rimuru puts a hand on Gale’s shoulder, both of them glow with a white halo that evokes religious imagery, especially because Gale is bent in prayer. It’s an interesting choice, certainly, to end the season on such a gentle, contemplative note after so many cracked jokes and battles fought. But this season maintains the suspense of the best battles—I truly couldn’t wait to see what kind of spirit each kid would summon, waiting with bated breath to see if their prayers would be answered.

And after all that tension, the solution is almost… too easy. Once again, Rimuru meets absolutely no resistance in reaching their goal, and the one battle they do fight happens comically off-screen. Not that I’m a big lover of this show’s battle scenes, but it’s pretty darn anticlimactic. We get a lot of hints that something might go wrong—the spirit that showed up before Kenya even began his prayers, Ramiris’s anxious face throughout the whole process, her insistence that Chloe’s spirit is dangerous, the fact that Rimuru is clearly way too cocky and ignoring obviously suspicious signs. Hopefully, this will all come back into play next season (oh yeah, did you hear season two is confirmed?), because otherwise, that’s a whole lot of red herrings.

Also, why do we keep seeing Veldora’s face flash on the screen? I thought it was an indication that he’ll be coming out soon (now that would have made for a season finale), but dropping so many hints that aren’t explained at all just makes the season feel unfinished. And I identify strongly when Rimuru says “I am so lost!” at Ramiris’s explanation of Chloe’s spirit: “I think… maybe that thing was born in the future. It’s kind of like a spirit, but it came from the future.” What? What possibly could have given her that impression?

That being said, the scene does succeed in some comedic moments. I chuckled when the adorable chibi of Rimuru asks Great Sage, “Is it just me or do you sound kind of smug right now?” and Great Sage peevishly replies, “It’s just you.” Rimuru’s flippant voice while talking about the time they “got stabbed to death” is amusing. And Meli Grant kills it as the Spirit of Light, using a voice that’s just as campy and fun as the character is (Speaking of which, I love this random androgynous gleeful-as-hell fairy dude. Will we get to see more of him? I sure hope so!).

On the other hand… I’ll pass on the teacher-student romance. I’m really glad Rimuru turned Chloe down (thank god, because if they didn’t, I would have immediately lost all respect for the character and this show). But seriously, who was watching at home and thought, “You know what this show needs? An eight-year-old confessing her love to a 37-year-old! Yeah, that sounds like a good plan!” Count me out.

The recap is unnecessary, too long, and feels like it was just thrown in there to save on animation and script budget. Of course, Rimuru personally delivers us some recap in their thoughts to end the show as well, in case we haven’t spoon-fed quite enough summary already. A shot of Rimuru gazing down at Shizu’s mask is reused in two different scenes. The sequence of various characters’ day-to-day lives doesn’t teach us anything new about any of them, and the ending song plays over it instead of a new song. The robes Rimuru gifts the kids are very clearly lifted straight from Harry Potter, and I’m still not sure why the kids suddenly think it’s fair that they all got robes and Chloe got a robe and a mask.

 Rimuru may still not be a bad slime (slurp), but this episode could have been better.