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While this isn’t a boring episode by any means, it is a frustrating one. Not because of bad writing or anything like that but simply because of Rimuru just being himself. You see, Rimuru, despite his seemingly boundless luck and power is a pretty terrible ruler. The reason Tempest has grown into an emerging superpower has less to do with Rimuru’s leadership and more to do with him having supremely competent subordinates. While he does give his country direction, he is completely ignorant of the details and implications of his orders.
In this episode, he both dramatically strengthens and weakens his country on the international stage. On one hand, showing off Tempest culture—its food and art—is a good thing. After all, if the rich and powerful value things made by non-humans, then it’s likely these ideas will trickle down to the lower classes as well.
However, on the other hand, his lack of interest in what his scientists have been doing led to the leaders of nearly every neighboring nation learning how to mass produce the Hipokute herb—the key ingredient in high-quality healing potions. Now, this might not have been a problem if it weren’t for the fact that HEALING POTIONS ARE TEMPEST’S MAIN EXPORT. Rimuru better hope that his festival leads to a major shift in Tempest’s economy like he’s been hoping because he’s crippled it as it currently stands. We don’t know how long it takes for normal grass to become the Hipokute herb in a magicule-rich environment but that’s exactly how much time his near monopoly on potions will last.
Then we get the surprise conflict of the episode, briefly set up last week. Tempest is experiencing a liquidity crisis. They have tons of money but none is in a form that can be used to pay the masses—i.e., it’s either treasure or in a denomination so high it’s nearly impossible to break down into smaller denominations in a hurry.
Honestly, this is a great little dilemma for Rimuru to face. The merchants involved are in a win-win situation (and so is whoever is backing them). Either Tempest overpays them in raw gold or Tempest looks like a country that is unable to honor their debts. Regardless, Tempest would come out of their big celebration with eggs on their face.
And for once in this series, there is no easy answer. Rimuru doesn’t have a brilliant idea nor does Raphael tell him how to fix everything. However, I don’t think his order to “Do your best to fix things but first let’s all get drunk” is the best way to handle things. I hope this comes back to bite him in the ass. It’d be nice to have Rimuru lose for once—even in a way as minor as this.
Outside of Rimuru’s leadership foibles, this episode and the last one have perhaps inadvertently, shown something interesting about Rimuru as a character: his lack of actual friends. Don’t get me wrong, he has plenty of companions (read: “subordinates”) and tons of sycophants. He has world leaders and demon lords he’s on equal terms. I’d even argue that, with Veldora and Milim, he has a family—though most of his energy towards them is spent keeping them out of trouble.
But friends? Those he can be himself around without a care in the world? Those are few and far between. Perhaps this is why Shizu meant so much to him despite the limited time they spent together. She could see both the Japanese man he once was and the fantasy world slime he had become. At this point in the story, only two people can see him on this level—Hinata and Yuuki.
They don’t treat him as a god-king or anything similar—and because they share a similar life experience, only they can see him as a normal person like themselves. This, in turn, allows them to be frank with him and call him on his mistakes. Keeping all this in mind, perhaps this is why Rimuru seems to be giving Yuuki the benefit of the doubt despite the suspicions placed upon him. He has so few people in his life who see him as a normal person that losing even one would be a huge blow to him emotionally.
Rating:
Random Thoughts:
• Confession time: The orchestra bit got to me. I know we have more than a few Earthlings in the story but are we supposed to believe that all musical instruments native to the fantasy world have been supplanted by ones from Earth? Moreover, who could have even made them? Just because I can play piano and describe in the most basic terms how one works, that doesn’t mean I could explain how to build one—much less get one with the same sound. Now take that to the level of a full orchestra with the myriad of instruments included and my suspension of disbelief is shattered.
• I had forgotten that Hinata and Yuuki wouldn’t age at all. Not only are they immortal but they will never grow beyond their teenage bodies. That sounds like a real mixed bag right there.
• As Rimuru is also an otherworlder, does that mean he’s immortal as well—even though he was reincarnated rather than physically transported?
• If I were Dwargo, I’d be irate with Rimuru. After all, you know what other country makes major profits off of potions?
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
