That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Episode 22

Rimuru and his students enter the Labyrinth leading to the Dwelling of Spirits this week, and it doesn't take long for the first obstacle to appear. A hidden foe sends a powerful golem after the group, and Rimuru must defeat it in order to proceed deeper into the labyrinth. He promptly reduces the machine to rubble, which sufficiently impresses its creator. She introduces herself as Ramiris of the Labyrinth, and she happens to be both a Demon Lord and the Queen of Spirits. Rimuru talks Ramiris into helping him in his quest to summon superior sprits for the kids, and she takes him straight to the Dwelling of Spirits. Now all that's left is to actually perform the summoning and pair up the students and spirits, which may be the toughest challenge of all.

The opening scenes of this episode do a nice job of setting an ominous atmosphere, which is no small feat considering how accustomed the audience has become to Rimuru's no-sweat victories. The fact that he doesn't offer the students any guarantee of success and even goes so far as to set up a contingency plan with Ranga suggests that Rimuru is taking the dangers of the Labyrinth seriously, and that mentality carries over to the viewer. The layout and appearance of the Labyrinth further increase the tension by being the exact opposite of what one might expect. A complex network of traps and secret passages would have been no big deal, but there's something unsettling and sinister about a single hallway with nothing in it. It suggests that the Labyrinth's owner wants intruders to come inside, and that sends up bright red danger flags on an instinctive level. Of course, all this buildup leads to nothing more than a quick and easy action scene, which is kind of a letdown, but at least it's a compelling journey up to that point.

That brings us up to the introduction of Ramiris, who becomes a more intriguing character as the episode unfolds. To be fair, she makes an underwhelming first impression, so there's plenty of built-in room for improvement. In the early going, Ramiris comes across as watered-down version of Milim, with all of the repetitive “too small to be a Demon Lord” jokes and none of the unchecked strength that made Milim an effective agent of chaos. Ramiris is essentially all bark and no bite once her fantasy mech is out of the picture, so her over-the-top personality isn't good for much aside from a lukewarm comedy routine. The good news is that she starts to show some depth once she's done yelling at Rimuru, and the backstory of how a Queen of Spirits became a Demon Lord seems like it'd be worth telling if the series had more time to spare. By the end of the episode, Ramiris develops into a character that the audience can take reasonably seriously, which is important considering how much information she has to convey.

As far as the business of summoning spirits goes, Ramiris doesn't give us a whole lot to chew on beyond confirming that Rimuru's plan is by no means a guaranteed success. On the other hand, she drops some major hints about the Demon Lords in general and Leon in particular. Her comments about falling from grace suggest that becoming a Demon Lord is not necessarily a conscious choice, but rather a potential outcome of the quest for power. If that is the case, then Rimuru's ever-expanding arsenal of skills could put him at risk of going down the same path if he's not careful. Even more intriguing is the suggestion that Leon was originally a Hero, and that he had an interest in summoning a specific individual from another world. Assuming Ramiris isn't just blowing hot air, it's entirely possible that Rimuru and Leon are destined to have a “we're not so different after all” moment, which would present an interesting moral dilemma for our hero. We'd likely need multiple sequel seasons for any of this foreshadowing to pay off, but it's food for thought all the same.

This episode does a serviceable job of advancing the plot, and while there haven't been any huge twists so far, I'm willing to bet That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime still has something up its sleeve. The big question is what the spirit-summoning process will look like, and whether or not Rimuru will have to make any difficult decisions before all is said and done. My hope is that there will be more to it than just bonking some centuries-old elementals on the head and asking for their help, and that the process will draw out the personalities of Rimuru's students beyond what we've seen thus far. With just a few episodes remaining, we'll find out soon enough.

Rating: B

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