Episode 8: I'm not crying, you're crying!
Okay, so I'm crying, but just because it's so sad.
Rimmuru and Shizu really were destination to be together forever... man, isn't a prophecy twist a bitch sometimes?
RIP Shizu.
With this, we've reached the end of the first novel. But it's just the start of the fun. Things are going to get really hectic soon.
No, that definitely happened in the novel.
Edited by Shlugo_the_great on Nov 19th 2018 at 8:02:12 PM
Damn that was a profoundly bad an episode. This show already has a problem with a bit too much telling over showing, but episode eight was just tell tell tell about people you barely knew. If you give the viewer no time to get to know a character, they're not going to care about what ever happens to them. Especially if all you do is tell their story in a way that's basically a quick synopsis of their back story.
This show has felt like it's constantly on fast forward for a while now, but it hasn't been quite this apparent before.
Actually having read the novels, it's felt like its been going at a leisurely pace. Eight episodes for the first volume is a lot. Compare something like Dan Machi which covered the first five volumes (okay, four and a half given they completely skipped the second half of volume 4) in twelve episodes.
2-3 volumes per cour is pretty much the norm for most light novel adaptations these days and at the rate it's going Slime's only going to manage half of that.
Edited by KnightofLsama on Nov 19th 2018 at 9:54:43 PM
Episode 8:
Damn, despite the episode has some exposition, all in all, I feel really bad for Shizu just like Stan Lee's death. I'm glad that they spent their last moments with happiness as for Shizu, despite being miserable at first, she still have a happiness in her last moments especially with the Guild trio. And we now see Rimuru's human form which is cute and even then, he also cries about Shizu's death too and the best burial for Shizu is merge with her. Luckily it still have its lighthearted moments as Rimuru is still nice towards the three guild people by giving them a great equipment. Also, damn! That ending though, I wonder what's the deal with that mysterious guy to the point he tries to manipulate an orge so that he could overtake the Forest of Jura.
"Making screw-ups and mistakes was I ever really good at. Because everything I touch went to hell."Reading the manga right now. Gotta say, the protagonist really contrasts with those of the other two isekai stories I'm reading right now, Overlord and Kumo. I guess it's targeted to a younger audience? Or maybe the author just has a less bleak worldview.
How is the anime? Reading the current page I gather that at the very least it isn't rushed.
Edited by Arha on Nov 20th 2018 at 12:54:51 PM
This is a near-ubiquitous problem with light novels and their adaptations. I'm not sure if that was really the issue here, though; most of the exposition in episode 8 just added onto things we'd already been shown. Leon's evilness was made very clear before anyone mentioned he's a demon lord, for example.
The main reason this didn't work for me was that Shizue wasn't much of a character before this episode; Action Girl with a Dark and Troubled Past and a mild personality, that's about all we got. After some last-minute additional backstory, she dies. Unexpected, but only because we barely knew her, so playing this as an epic tragedy is dubious. I didn't understand how the human-adventurer-trio got so worked up about her death; they only met her a few days ago and knew much less about her than we did. Pretty much any other named character, even one of those adventurers, would have a better shot at feeling like a tragic loss if they died, because they all have some human (or wolf) characteristics beyond common tropes.
But, well, cute girls have a certain effect on people, even if they're not well-written. On a related note, though I like most things about this series, the way female characters are written is definitely its weakest point. Ice-mage-girl is alright, but the rest of them are kind of a disaster, existing mostly for fanservice and, in Shizue's case, tragedy-service. And also fanservice, I mean, look at that outfit. That PG-rated elf brothel, jeebus. It's far from the bottom of the barrel *cough*goblinslayer*cough* but the difference between male and female characters in this show is extremely conspicuous.
I get the feeling that the author of Kumo isn't really that cynical. Most of the plot could be solved by better communication because nobody is really that terrible of a person except for two people, one of whom is the reason people aren't communicating. But that's neither here nor there.
Shizue isn't really any more fleshed out in the manga, either, which led to the same problem for me. Why is Rimuru so concerned about her last wishes and why are the adventurers so respectful and sad about it? Maybe she's more fleshed out in the light novel.
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That was more or less the point I was making, so agreed. My reason for bringing up the show just repeatedly telling about things being especially problematic here is that it tried to get the viewer to care about Shizu, but you can't make her a believable character the audience is invested in if you simply rattle off her backstory in a 10 minute cliffnotes spiel. And yeah, I found the trio's sudden devotion to her just as baffling.
Also, when I said that the show feels like it's constantly on fast forward, I didn't quite mean it in the sense that it's progressing too fast with its plot. It's more that it feels like the show is skipping all these small moments in good narratives that make the world and characters work. Watching the show makes me feel like it's simply working off a highlights reel, I'm getting an abbreviated version of the story.
I haven't read the original work so I don't have any idea if such moments are even present in the original, but this too is something emblematic to light novel adaptations, especially to these isekai ones.
Yeah, that's very true. It does feel like a lot of isekais nowadays want to cash in on the whole cheeky-semi-parody thing, so they throw in the laundry list of standard tropes while winking, but then all you really have is the standard laundry list of tropes.
I don't particularly dislike this show, but it's not doing anything revolutionary. Ignoring female characters is at least marginally better than using them as torture porn fodder, at least.
It's been fun. refraining myself from the talk regarding gender issues in anime because it would bring nothing but trouble for me
@Red Savant Although have to admit that I do like the Slime adaptation. I do kind of agree with you that it hasn't been doing anything revolutionary so far but ah well.
Anyways, for the author of the Slime, I don't know if he has a positive view of the world though but that would be interesting :P Any proof that he has the positive view of the world in your guys opinion.
Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Nov 21st 2018 at 8:23:53 PM
"Making screw-ups and mistakes was I ever really good at. Because everything I touch went to hell."I've been thinking he has a positive world view because the MC basically solves everything with honesty and good intentions 90% of the time, most enemies aren't killed and everyone forgives each other for everything. Parts of the story remind me a bit of Overlord and Kumo, so I was comparing them mentally.
In Overlord the MC is a straight villain protagonist mass murdering psychopath and there are barely any truly heroic individuals. Pretty much everyone is a bastard out for themselves or at best their small in group. The story basically revels in murder and chaos. Characters can be quirky but they're still pretty evil.
In Kumo the MC is sympathetic and has her good sides, but still definitely evil in the web novel because of a combination of factors I probably shouldn't get into in another thread. The body count is pretty high. And you can't talk through every problem: Sometimes there's no magic third solution. Sometimes people make terrible mistakes. Sometimes people have incompatible values.
So to me this feels like a basically straight isekai story, only the hero just happens to be slightly older, less emotional and is a monster, but monster doesn't really mean much beyond Cute Monster Girl because everyone has roughly the same values. Like Clarste said, there's this kind of underlying assumption that if everyone sat down and talked their problems out the world would be a much better place.
Edit: Anyway, I think I'll check out the anime after I read the light novels.
Edited by Arha on Nov 21st 2018 at 12:21:00 PM

Holy shit I don't remember the part with the girl and Pizu from the novel or manga. What the fuck Leon? Seriously, fuck Leon!
The fight was badass, Rimmuru learning a new attack and fire everywhere, even the Dunce Trio put in a good showing. Best part was Great Sage sighing at Rimmuru for forgetting he has fire resistance.
Next episode gonna be pivotal so stay tuned folks!