Episodes 49-51 – That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3

These first three episodes showcase what I love most about this series and how too much of a good thing can hurt your story. They are all about the intended and unintended consequences that have arisen due to Rimuru’s actions so far—most specifically in the war with Falmuth and at the Demon Lords’ Banquet.

The first episode is a deep dive into how Diablos (on Rimuru’s orders) officially ends the war with Falmuth and sets the kingdom up for a civil war soon—one that will certainly leave it a puppet state of Tempest. It’s a solid, rather focused episode that does a good job of showing how the Falmuth leadership is both tricked and strong-armed into setting up their destruction.

The problem with the other two episodes is that they do not have this focus. Rather, we jump from group to group, seeing how they interpret the recent events and discuss what they plan to do going forward. This is all good information to have. It helps us better understand Tempest’s enemies and their motivations. However, it is also highly confusing.

It is hard to keep track of what each group knows (as opposed to what we, the viewers, know thanks to our nearly omniscient viewpoint). It’s also tough to follow the actual order of events—especially during Walpurgis. There was a war, a castle invasion, a royal assassination, and the birth/death of a new Demon Lord. These things took place at approximately the same time in wildly different locations.

Then you add to that the numerous not-so-important things that get screen time as we check in with every single member of Rimuru’s entourage to hear about what they’ve been up to. It’s so much that you start to feel like you should be taking notes.

And if all that wasn’t enough, we get a huge chunk of Hinata’s back story in the middle. It’s supposed to explain how such a righteous and stubborn person ended up as a minion of a Demon Lord/vampire. Yet, not enough time is spent on the story so it becomes “I was defeated in battle so I pledged my loyalty”—even though that doesn’t fit with what we see of the character in the flashback. Not to mention that completely skipping over the fight between Hinata and Luminous Valentine robs us of seeing how strong they are—both compared to each other and in general. It feels like we got an over-abridged version of Hinata’s past devoid of the necessary nuance to make it sensible.

To sum it all up, almost everything we cover in these episodes seems important—not only as a review of last season but also as a setup for things to come. It’s just the way that this information is given to us that is the problem. It’s the shotgun approach to storytelling—like just by throwing enough plot points at random, some of them are bound to hit their mark. Hopefully, we can move the plot forward now that we’ve spent three episodes on this. And who knows, Rimuru’s little coronation party may just be the perfect stage to get things going.

Episode 49 Rating:

Episode 50 Rating:

Episode 51 Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Hinata’s fighting for her perfect utopia where everyone is equal and can live in peace—except for monsters because, despite having their own society and civilization, they just don’t count as people.

• Please, keep trying to make me sympathize with Geld and his issues motivating his newly acquired slave labor. I insist.

• I know it’s supposed to be a joke about Rimuru’s leadership style (and its effect on everyone else) but surely the idea of everyone just passing the dirty jobs off on their subordinates and running away is going to come back and bite them in the ass someday, right?

• Have we heard about a looming war with the angels before? I honestly don’t remember. Heck, I don’t even remember if angels have ever even been mentioned before at all. (Though, as demons obviously exist, it does stand to reason that angels do too.)

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.