The vast majority of anime series get around 12 or 13 episodes per season. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is one of the lucky exceptions, returning for its second season with 24 episodes. For the first season the higher episode count was a definite advantage, with the show introducing us to a huge number of characters, most of whom were brought to life successfully and we got to know them well over the course of the season. For the second season, 24 episodes felt like too much of a luxury. A lot more characters are added into the mix, making this a very confusing show to follow, and the pace of the action is very slow for the majority of the season, with some mid-season excitement, and the final few episodes really take off, but otherwise this one tried my patience.

It really didn’t help that the best character in this whole show was basically written out. So we need to talk again about the problem of Milim. She is absolutely magnificent, the liveliest, funniest, most entertaining, charismatic character in the series. She also happens to be a Demon Lord, who is incredibly powerful. In order to make the battles mean anything at all, the first season saw Rimuru banning Milim from getting involved, which was clearly very silly writing but was necessary to allow the show to pack any kind of a dramatic punch whatsoever. For the second season she’s just absent. Frustratingly, she features strongly in the closing title sequence, so each week I was waiting for her to appear. She doesn’t really show up until the last few episodes, and isn’t acting like her usual self until almost the very end. When she rejoins the narrative it’s a moment of huge triumph, but it does highlight how tedious this whole show has been without her, most of the time. I don’t think I want to continue with this anime, but I would gladly watch the Milim Show. So what if the most powerful girl on the planet can’t afford enough material for a pair of undercrackers that covers her butt? I think she’s fabulous.

Without Milim to instantly solve all of Rimuru’s problems, things get really, really bad for him. The first half of the season builds up to a tragedy, with an attacking army wiping out a huge number of his allies. During the first season, this was a show that suffered from the usual isekai temptation of overpowering the hero, and for the second season we actually get some real drama with Rimuru out of his depth and unable to save his friends… and then he brings them all back to life and becomes a Demon Lord.

I have to admit, this was all a great moment of triumph, and quite emotional to see Rimuru’s friends saved after all, but if you wanted any serious jeopardy from this show it ends right there. For the rest of the show, we’re right back in the realms of a hero who is so powerful that the threat to him never seems credible. This is then dealt with by having whole episodes centring around other characters entirely, getting far too far away from the original premise of the show. Whole episodes went by without a single character I was interested in watching. The second half of the season does build to an exciting conclusion, with Rimuru facing off against the Demon Lord who has been manipulating forces to act against him, and the battle sequences are undeniably impressive, but nothing feels particularly dangerous after Rimuru basically becomes one of a handful of the most powerful creatures in the world. With Rimuru reunited with Milim, and on good terms with the other Demon Lords, it’s hard to see how the series can ever provide credible threats again.

So this is my jumping off point for Slime. I’m pleased to have stuck around for Milim’s eventual reappearance, but the 20-odd episodes to get to that point were just too much of a slog. I’ll wait for an isekai series where the writers actually show some restraint, and don’t make the hero the strongest person on the planet within a short space of time… and if one of those exists, I’m yet to find it.   RP