The pacing of this season is really off.
The pacing of this season is really off.
It's the same in the LNs, many volumes are just slow with world building and long unnecessary scenes of things we really already know about, etc., but usually have a nice payoff in the end... just that the pacing sucks.Originally Posted by Ryllharu
I mean this season specifically sucks with pacing. Episodes are ending at the wrong spots most of the time. They're dropping big reveals at the quarter marks of episodes. Or resolving issues within the same episode, only to blur other events that aren't particularly weighty across episodes.
The only thing they've gotten right is the Hinata fight and this last episode ending on Rimuru and team about to launch their counter-offensive.
The manga is much better storyboarded out.
Ah, in that context, yes that too. I just wouldn't call that pace, or maybe it is? But I see what you mean.
Ep 34
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An episode of slime hasn't felt this quick in a very long time.
Or satisfyingly brutal in... ever. I particularly liked Orc Lord vs Berserker. "You can regenerate? Good, you'll feel more than one punch."
I don't get why Rimuru put on a mask though...
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
I would've liked if they expanded a bit on the thought acceleration skill as the otherworlder got killed. Seemed like he would feel the pain and death for a very long time and as it's going slow the pain is more excruciating. Have to wonder if Hakurou waited specifically for him to activate that skill before he killed him. Just the same as the berserker dude which his skills worked against him as as a torture device.
I would've liked to see some blood as Rimuru is killing the army, just seems too clean and also impersonal. Hopefully he has more in store than just this.
Some of the action was very PG, some were more violent... not sure why it couldn't be violent all the time. I also thought that Benimaru was going to fight against a much larger army. I think they made an animation mistake here. He was supposed to fight something close to 100, it looked much less than that.
Regardless, glad to see some cool action once again and the monsters not holding back. Regardless, looks like there's a majin there that could pose a threat, but probably not. At least it's someone Rimuru's underlings had to be wary of.
Last edited by Munsu; Tue, 03-16-2021 at 11:55 AM.
Well, if there's no mass rez asspull after this, then color me surprised.
Too bad nobody got to fight the girl.
I wonder if this wizard will actually be a threat as, as with Rimuru, he has the ability to collect powers.
I didn't like this. The behavior towards their enemies felt 100% out of tone with the rest of the series.
I enjoyed the death of those 3 obnoxious otherworldler, sure. But you cannot tell me that all those soldiers were "bad" people. They're part of a country's army and they gotta do what they're ordered to. And most, if not all, don't even understand that their was some foul play about the whole initial incident.
I'm not saying that I dislike what happened PER SE, but ... it's just a conspicuous coincidence that two heroes from two anime have gona full-Overlord within the same week. And while Kumoko's acts can be debated, Rimuru has gone full-Ainz.
They'll probably do some weak explanation later on how NOW there will be peace with humans, but realistically, you cannot go back from such a cruel massacre.
Ah well ...
That was a total cop out imo. I kept thinking "how will they counter the girl's instadeath ability?" :/
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
I'm actually WAY more supportive of Rimuru than I am of Kumoko.[removed spoiler from other series] These people set fire to Rimuru's city and killed a bunch of his friends. This retaliation feels EARNED.
[removed spoiler from other series] But Rimuru's actions are very much human here. And yeah, maybe he could parse out the genuinely evil ones from the unwitting pawns. But that won't bring his friends back.
Well...you say that. But the US and Japan have been at peace for a long time now. And what Rimuru is doing is much less severe than what the US did to Japan.
I mean...ideally, you send the ninja guy in to slit her throat before she can talk.
Last edited by Munsu; Tue, 03-16-2021 at 03:43 PM.
First you were complaining about how you "already knew" a few episodes ago how everything was going to pan out, everyone was going to be friends yadda yadda. Now you complain that it went a different route. That road had been paved for quite a few episodes now...
As for the instadeath, it was already countered when she first used it... don't care how they would've handled it this time around. You have stronger fighters around as it is.
You keep brining full-Ainz, full-Overlord when things couldn't have been any different. I think you have forgotten everything about that series or have a huge misconception on what went on in that series from the get go. But this is not the place for it.
Most people are being given an instant, painless death from Megiddo. So there is a clear contrast to the deaths of the assholes that were maintaining the two magic fields, the Otherworlders, and the general army.
Benimaru killed them all with fire, sliced them and burned them alive as they were still dying, the dragonewts did too, with plenty of stabbing in between. The female dragonewts ninja-wired them painfully to death, and the last team just viciously cut them all down.
We can assume, as Geld inferred, that the last guy (now dead and possessed by the wizard) will die significantly more painful deaths. Especially regenerators. Geld was just beating on the guy, then letting him heal for a few seconds. But what if he healed up in pretzel shape? The asshole Cavalry leader with the wizard will also die painfully, I'm sure, since the former is the one who directly killed Shion and was openly attacking children, and the wizard's nefarious trap magics were just witnessed by Geld and Hakuoro. Both of those two are part of some shitty evil plan to harvest Otherworlder's skills (which is some shady-as-fuck shit, and drastically more evil than what Rimuru's folks are up to).
I think MFauli has it all wrong. The wizard and the cavalry guy are the "comically evil" badguys. They summon and harvest children from other worlds to take their unique skills.
As for Rimuru, he's killing most with a merciful, single, swift strike. The first few thousand died without really having any idea what's going on at all. After the first 5,000, the remaining ones are only now starting to realize that people are dying around them. But even they are dead before it fully registers.
There's 15,000 to go. We haven't even seen the rest of the slaughter yet.
Worth noting that Rimuru cast an anti-magic shield, and is inside it casting Megiddo. They've hinted visually at what it really is.
Last edited by Ryllharu; Tue, 03-16-2021 at 04:20 PM. Reason: typos
They were pretty good fights in the episode. It's kind of weird the otherworlders were so full of themselves after having once beaten the severely weakened opponents inside the anti-monster/anti-magic field. I guess it just showed their lack of character.
They are soldiers of an invading army. It doesn't really matter if they are good or bad. If they win, they will write the history (and be the good guys), if they lose, they will be written off the history (as the bad guys). Those who grab a sword must be ready to die by a sword as well. They have got no right to complain.
All I will add is: None of you should ever be giving orders to an army ;/
"She's the only non-loli girl in the show, your honor!" will be my defense in court
Incidentally, the ones being killed NOW committed a cruel massacre themselves as you put it... It would be nice if you would sit back for a few minutes and reflect on how REAL history has developed and how war and peace have come along between nations. And you should stop grouping all human nations into the same bucket, it'll make it easier to understand how peace with humans can occur without some "weak" explanation.
No anime fan should ever have any authority ever...
Don't worry, I'd never command a whole army. I am, however, a reservist NCO. No offence, but a person without a military training isn't really suited to criticise those with in RL military matters, unless it's something ridiculously bad.
For what it's worth, military training in your back pocket typically only makes anime looks stupider. It's exactly the same as with any other expertise, 90% of time, or more. You enjoy the average shows a whole lot more if you don't know much about the theme in RL. If you do, you'll spot mistakes, gross simplifications, and all that stuff nonstop. But then again, that's why they say to turn off your brain when watching fictional TV shows.
"You are making less and less sense." -some Orc Lord
If it's not Isuzu-chan Mii~
Just fight it out with your fists like real men!
Peace.
So I had another disconnect with what this show is trying to go for tonally this episode...
One of the first things Rimuru said as he floated over the enemy camp was "these are the ones who killed Shion"... Well, unless your autopsy produced about 10,000+ stab wounds, only one or two soldiers actually killed her I would argue. Assuming he meant they are responsible for her death, I would suggest that their command structure shoulders a much larger portion of the blame in calling the attack. Normally simple semantics, but Rimuru is uniquely qualified to single out the actual responsible decision makers that have caused this destruction short of killing anybody that wears the banner, but he chose essentially genocide against an opponent that could not resist him. I understand that this show has been building to this conflict as a set piece, but so far Slime Isekai has, through diplomatic maneuvering, shown that those with reason can be... reasoned with, or at least worth the effort to try.
He then says "there is no need for forgiveness" before beginning his spell. I hope he is more trying to convince himself than actually believing that- he just said last episode that the deaths were due to his own incompetency, as his followers fell over themselves to council him that he is not in the wrong at all. He seems to have internalized it somewhat, so why not show some of that same compassion to the hapless attackers who would have already been killed by the monster kingdom if they were not under orders to do no harm? Because Rimuru needs to kill a large portion of people to become a demon lord and maybe resurrect some side characters; that's why.
The difference in aggression, I suppose, is that the nation of Falmuth(sp?) was expecting a war (with casualties) to preserve their economic interests- not very defensible morally except maybe to its mercantile class. Rimuru, on the other hand, was expecting a slaughter out of reclamation of territory, potential resurrection of allies, and likely some resentment, though I can't know beyond his words how he personally feels. It looks more noble due to the circumstances, but It doesn't feel so when the 'cool one-sided anime fights' are against opponents I have reason to believe can't all be complicit. It is not catharsis but sympathy I feel, and it didn't have to be this way. He could have held a quorum where the kingdom outright denied his (the monster's) claim to life, and there would have been a proper setup for retaliation, I feel. Without stately interactions these events feel like just a means to the end of 'kicking the bad guys out'. I know I'm asking too much from a two-cour anime season of a light novel adaptation, but the details like showing how the solders are all silently 'headshot' by floating water particles felt more like the opening strike from, ironically, a monster invasion. This is still entertaining, even the conflict itself, it's just that the world building has suffered a bit, is all, or Rimuru is really letting the power he possesses corrupt his perspective.
The Otherworlders didn't last very long in a real fight- I forgot that even among them, Rimuru is an anomaly in power. He really did catch all of the breaks, huh?
I don't mean to be dour; I'm engaged more now than any time earlier this season and I hope the storytelling gets back to being a bit more thoughtful.
Last edited by neflight86; Thu, 03-18-2021 at 11:24 AM. Reason: misuse of a double-negative
If Falmuth hadn't attacked, Rimuru City denizens wouldn't have died. Rimuru would have had no need to gather 10,000 human souls to become a demon lord in order to resurrect his people. It's as simple as that. It all began with Falmuth and it will all end with Falmuth. I can't say the scene of thousands of soldiers dying like that would have been glorious or anything, but since it was a direct consequence of the invading forces' own actions, I don't view it as unjust.
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