That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Episode 5

In this episode, our heroes learn the importance of not beating up members of the nobility, even if they totally have it coming. All seems to be going well for Rimuru and the dwarves at their drinking party until an uninvited guest shows up. Vesta, the minister who deliberately gave Kaijin the impossible order for longswords, takes exception to Rimuru's presence and picks a fight with the group. Kaijin knocks him out with a couple of well-placed punches, but this short-term solution has the unfortunate side effect of landing our heroes on jail. Their rigged trial leads to a guilty verdict, but the dwarf king Gazel Dwargo chooses to exile Kaijin and his assistants instead of imprisoning them. This frees them up to join Rimuru in his mission to rebuild the Goblin village, while Vesta faces a severe punishment for his deceit.

Some parts of this episode feel a bit stale, especially early on. Vesta's smug, monster-bashing rant in the bar is identical to any number of speeches made by upper-class baddies trying to push around humble protagonists. His lines are so shallow and obnoxious that the show's intentions are obvious right away. It's still vaguely satisfying to watch Kaijin knock Vesta's lights out, but it feels more like an inevitable outcome than a pleasant surprise. The group's crooked proxy defender is even worse; this character's sole reason for existence is to screw over Kaijin and company, and he doesn't even do a convincing job of it. I'm all for giving the heroes a comically corrupt attorney, but a little originality would have gone a long way here. Simply having the defender parrot the prosecution's argument feels like a case of lazy writing.

On the upside, this episode turns out to be reasonably clever once you get past those canned elements. Kaijin's comments about Vesta are somewhat surprising in the aftermath of the minister's “cheesy bad guy” introduction, but they're an important first step in bringing some nuance to this conflict. Having Kaijin see some good in Vesta adds a hint of regret to their otherwise antagonistic relationship, and their shared backstory opens the door for an unexpected outcome at the trial. Instead of letting Rimuru play the hero by breaking the group out of jail or making a passionate courtroom argument, the show uses Kaijin's connection to Gazel Dwargo to take things in a different direction. Not only does Gazel possess the basic intelligence needed to see through the sham trial, he comes up with a way to let Kaijin off the hook without making the court look bad. This paints Gazel as a competent ruler, rather than just an intimidating figurehead, and it maintains this episode's focus on Kaijin and Vesta instead of forcing Rimuru to upstage them.

Along with sidestepping the old “invincible protagonist solves everything” pitfall, the trial also sets up one of the show's most emotional scenes thus far. If Kaijin's comments about Vesta not being a bad guy seemed odd at the time, they suddenly make sense during the minister's conversation with Gazel. The delivery may be overly dramatic at times, but this scene still succeeds at making the viewer feel some genuine sympathy for Vesta once he realizes he's lost Gazel's trust. In place of the smug satisfaction of watching the villain get what he deserves, we're left with the sense that none of the characters really wanted things to end like this: Kaijin has lost his home, Gazel has been forced to push away two people who were loyal to him, and Vesta has lost the chance to serve the king he admires. It's a surprisingly melancholy resolution for an otherwise lighthearted series, and it reinforces the impression that this show can handle a few serious moments in between all the slimy hijinks.

It's always nice to see a genre title successfully diverge from the beaten path, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime does some genuinely neat stuff this week. By casting Rimuru as more of an observer, this episode is able to deliver a compelling conflict between characters who don't have the luxury of gaining new abilities by eating stuff. Sure, the writing gets heavy-handed with Vesta's initial appearance and his legal lackey is a weak caricature at best, but these flaws are outweighed by the story arc's emotional conclusion. Shizu's crystal ball cameo suggests that her story might finally be intersecting with Rimuru's journey, and this week's successful foray into dramatic territory has me excited for what might happen in their first meeting.

Rating: B+

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