What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 13.
So how’s this episode? You know, I complain a lot about the lizardmen in this show—actually that’s not strictly true I dislike Gabiru and his ‘yes men’, the female lizardman (lizardwoman?) shows a lot of initiative in seeking out Rimuru and the others to alert them of the news of Gabiru’s usurping of his father and the chaos that has caused their people.
Okay, so what happens in the episode? Well… a whole heck of a lot to be honest. The action in this episode is off the scale in terms of quality and quantity. There’s no less than five separate action based encounters some small, some large but all with a substantial narrative impact on the series. I could go through them all but I’ll focus on what I think is the obviously most important one, and the largest in scale–the rescue of Gabiru and the defeat of the Orc General. First of all, for all the shit I give Gabiru as a character, he shows real bravery in the face of overwhelming odds and doesn’t abandon the goblin soldiers he had previously recruited from other towns, so points in his favour for that bit of leadership prowess. Now, whether he faced the Orc General because his ego was so inflated that he actually thought he could beat him or just to save face in front of his men is up to debate, but he did face off and that too speaks to his character.
Oh~ sounds like someone’s warming to Gabiru? Hey, it’s not my fault that the show suddenly started writing him better! Besides, he’s the catalyst for what is (up to this point) the most impressive action scene this show has given us!
Well go on then, tell us about it! Okay so basically the Orc General is about to deliver a finishing blow to Gabiru when Gobta of all people (erm, monsters) deflects the blow–reinforcing Gabiru’s misconception that Gobta is the ~true~ leader of Rimuru’s village. Then Ranga joins the party and all hell breaks loose around as Benimaru starts dropping straight-up weapons of mass destruction on the orc army, meanwhile Ranga unleashes literal tornadoes and levels up to a ‘Tempest Storm Wolf’ for his contribution. Also meanwhile Hakuro cuts a swathe through a thousand orcs without breaking a sweat and Shion uses a sword that’s bigger than herself (and that’s saying something) to decimate a fair share of the baddies too! All of this goes on while Rimuru (with wings equipped) watches overhead, like a general commanding his troops. It’s interesting that Rimuru remains non-combative for pretty much the whole episode, but it works because it lets everyone else in the cast have a moment to shine. Because, let’s face it, if Rimuru was down there he’d probably kill all the orcs in half a second with a single move.
Isn’t that bad though, that there’s a character overlooking who could just eliminate the enemy army so easily and yet doesn’t? I mean ~maybe~ if you want to be like that about it. But the way I see it is that these are people (ugh- “MONSTERS”) who want to be useful, who want to prove their worth and who desire to fight and so Rimuru hanging back and giving them the autonomy to literally fight their own battles is important. Almost as important as Rimuru coming up against the Orc Lord as teased at the end of this episode–big things are coming next week and I’m excited as heck!
Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:
Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review
Slime Is On Their Side – Episode 2 Review
A Name Brings Great Chance – Episode 3 Review
Elf-Care – Episode 4 Review
The King’s Justice – Episode 5 Review
Building Connections – Episode 6 Review
Burning Away The Past – Episode 7 Review
Ashes To Ashes, Slime To Slime – Episode 8 Review
Ogre-Reacting – Episode 9 Review
Un-Makeover – Episode 10 Review
Truth and Allies – Episode 11 Review
Hungry For Blood – Episode 12 Review
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Anime QandA 
Great take! I think it’s also pretty clear that keeping Rimaru in reserve is prudent in case a sudden trump card gets played on the enemy side. You don’t want your own ace potentially distracted or neutralized at that moment.
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True, good point!
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