That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2

Episode 41

“In which a dragon realizes he's accidentally tuned out three episodes worth of exposition.”

There is a major problem with this episode: The more information that is dished out, the less things make sense.

Last episode, Ramiris stated that all the Demon Lords were invited to Walpurgis and that the topic of the meeting would be Rimuru (and how to punish him for his supposed crimes). It seemed obvious that Rimuru would go, as he had proof that Clayman was lying—i.e., Mjurran—and trying to play the other Demon Lords. But going to the meeting would mean he wouldn't be present to fend off Clayman's army, thus setting up a dilemma for our heroes to figure out.

However, this episode reveals that no such dilemma existed; Rimuru simply hadn't intended on going to Walpurgis at all. Yet, for some reason, when making the plans for the battle, he did not include himself in them. There's no in-universe explanation for why this is but the meta reason is obvious: so he'd be free to go to Walpurgis when he figured out that he wanted to go to Walpurgis. In other words, this is contrived writing at its worst.

Then there's the whole issue about becoming a True Demon Lord. Last episode, Raphael said Clayman would fail in his bid regardless of how many his army killed. This initially made sense since, unlike Milim and Rimuru, Clayman would be hundreds of miles away from the slaughter, keeping his hands clean all the while. However, this episode reveals that what Raphael apparently meant by "fail" was “succeed 78% of the time.” This begs the question of how Clayman would be able to collect all those souls in the middle of his meeting with the other Demon Lords—which is, of course, simply left unaddressed.

However, these oversights appear minor compared with the world-changing implications that come from Rimuru's newest overpowered spell: Perfect Transport Technique. This new spell shatters the previously-established rules that limited the use of his old teleport ability—i.e, the fact that it could only be used on himself and between places he had been to before. Now, he could technically be present at both the battle and the Walpurgis meeting—teleporting between the two like a person in a sitcom trying to be on two dates at once. But that's just the start.

In the episode, we see Rimuru teleport at least 10,000 refugees to Tempest in a single night and then follow that up by teleporting his army of 20,000 to the battlefield without any signs of strain. If he can do this, why bother to evacuate the population or send an army to fight at all? Why not teleport the entire enemy army into the middle of an ocean in the middle of the night? Even if that's not an option for some reason, there's nothing to stop Rimuru from teleporting 1000 tons of rock a mile above the enemy camp—or lava from an active volcano, for that matter. If his troops must be used, they can attack the flanks or supply lines and then disappear to safety in an instant.

What I am trying to say here is that the ability to teleport things en masse completely alters the nature of warfare to the point where waging a normal battle, with the lives of your own troops at stake, is not only completely unnecessary but also immoral. Rimuru sending his men to fight a traditional battle is him sending people to die who don't need to. Hell, with the civilian population entirely evacuated, there is no need for a battle at all. Let the enemy waste their energy and supplies marching ever deeper into a land bereft of the people they're tasked with genociding. Then, when Walpurgis is over, Rimuru can do to them what he did to the army of Falmuth if needed.

But let's be real here. The reason this battle is occurring is a meta one: to give us a big action scene and the supporting cast something to do while Rimuru is talking with the Demon Lords. And I'm not going to lie, this is the kind of contrived storytelling that really shatters my suspension of disbelief.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• This episode should be used as a warning to all aspiring fantasy authors. Before you introduce any new kind of magic, spend a few days thinking about the implications lest they break both your story and the fictional world you created

• It's surprisingly wholesome to see that the dryads really do revere Ramiris—they're not just trying to placate her for Rimuru sake.

• Rimuru is insane for deciding to bring Shion with him to diplomatic talks. We've already seen how badly that goes—remember how she got drunk at the last one? If she's gonna throw a hissy fit at being left out, then she can take it out on the enemy at the battlefield.

• The orcs had to spend the night before battle building an entire refugee camp for over 10,000 people. Way to send exhausted troops into battle, Rimuru.

• It's interesting that Rimuru's army is organized not like a modern army but rather like a pre-Napoleon one. I wonder if this was by design or coincidence.

• Does Milim actually care if her people starve? She's never really seemed to care about the responsibilities of being a Demon Lord that we've seen.

• The ability to instantly summon Death, the Destroyer of Worlds (i.e., Veldora) whenever you want isn't a trump card, it's a trump tactical nuke.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.