That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 8 Review
There’s no real surprise that an anime with reincarnation in the title is looking at the idea of endings and new beginnings. What is surprising is the way “That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime” is committed to the idea of one life coming to an end opening the path to something new. While earlier in the season I most definitely took a swing at this show for the reincarnation gimmick, and from a character point of view I stand by that because the whole past life thing is almost irrelevant to who Rimuru is becoming, from a thematic point of view Slime is actually a lot more consistent than it first appeared.
The obvious ending and beginning is Rimuru Tempest, formally Mikami Satoru (a point they finally reminded us of in episode 8). Stabbed in episode one, Satoru awakens in a cave as a slime and begins his new life in his new form and body. While the transition is fairly seamless and ultimately didn’t feel very weighty, it does set a theme in place that we have seen this show return to again and again since the first episode.
I’d like to discuss Veldora, just because dragons are kind of cool and all, but that story doesn’t feel anywhere near finished yet and to be honest I’m not sure where it is going so I’m just going to leave that one alone and skip right on to the dwarves.
Kaijin is fairly dissatisfied with where he is given the persecution he receives from his former subordinate. He positively jumps at the opportunity to travel with Rimuru which originally just would have been a choice for him to make. However, the sham trial and subsequent banishment more or less bring his former life to a definitive close whether he’d made the choice or not. Once again though, we see that the end of one life has opened the door to another, and in both of these cases losing something and leaving it behind isn’t seen as a tragedy when it leads to new opportunities.
And now we come to this current episode which is really why I was thinking about this at all. Shizu, or Shizue, has finally come to the end of her road. For ten minutes of this episode (half the run time) we hear her story and what she has done over the long life she has lived in this world. We hear her final request to Rimuru that he devour her. We see her happiness at being reunited with her mother. A lot of this glosses over the fact that she did just die and then her corpse was eaten, but that would kind of be a downer in an otherwise fairly upbeat series so the focus is entirely on the positive.
However, what is the new beginning?
Well, we finally found an answer to something that had been bothering me from the OP, though I’m guessing fans of the source knew all along. I wondered how Rimuru would acquire a human form given we already knew he had to eat something to copy it. I couldn’t imagine Rimuru eating a human given one of his first steps was to ban his followers from attacking people.Also, despite Rimuru being a slime now, it just didn’t sit right that a former human might actually eat another (I guess they could go there, but it just doesn’t seem to fit).
So, at episode 8, Rimuru finally has a human form he can use and in the narration at the end declares that the story is about to begin. I’m not sure how many stories get away with 8 episodes before declaring they are going to start, but despite the slow start this series has had, I will admit I’m pretty interested in where they will go next. Every door that has closed so far in this series has opened up so many more wonderful possibilities and I really hope the story explores them.
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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Parapara Memo 
- Episode 1 – Strictly Set Up
- Episode 2 – So I Ate A Dragon and A Snake And A Bat Thing…
- Episode 3 – Submissive Wolves and Buff Goblins
- Episode 4 – Dwarven Blacksmiths and Giggling Elves
- Episode 5 – Past Wrongs and Future Destinies
- Episode 6 – The Importance of Pacing To Build Tension
- Episode 7 – Miraculous Survival of the Slime
- Episode 8 – 3 Ways Slime Is Exploring Endings and Beginnings
- Episode 9 – Watch The Slime Playing with Powers and Defeating Ogres
- Episode 10 – Slime, Ogres and Lizardmen; The Coming Conflict Looks Colourful
- Episode 11 – The Worst Way To Learn the Skill of Diplomacy
- Episode 12 – How Even The Best Laid Plans Can Be Derailed by Idiots
- Episode 13 – War: Crushing March of the Overpowered Monsters
- Episode 14 – The Fitting End of the Orc Lord Courtesy of the Slime
- Episode 15 – The Accidental Creation of a Slime Nation
- Episode 16 – Can You Catch More Demon Lords with Honey?
- Episode 17 – That Time The Powerful Slime Decided To Dabble in Diplomacy
- Episode 18 – The Slime, The Demon Lord and The Flying Sharks?
- Episode 19 – That Time We Defeated a Catastrophe Without Really Trying
- Episode 20 – Well It’s Been Fun, But Now We’ll Count Down Until The End
- Episode 21 – Who Would Have Thought That All You Need Is A Dog And Unlimited Power?
- Episode 22 – That Time We Found a Fairy Who is a Demon Lord?
- Episode 23 – That Time The Show Ended And The Audience Wondered Why?
- Episode 24 (Extra) – And Then Shizue Stole the Anime Right Out From Under Rimuru
- Episode 24.5 (Padding) – Now Worth The Slime
- Images from:
Okay, now this show is beginning to sound interesting! I might need to check it out after all. . .
It took awhile but it seems like it finally got there. I think this is a show that would have benefited from a binge watch. Individual episodes early on were setting things up (and there was potential which is why I kept watching) but weren’t overly satisfying by themselves. However, looking back, they’ve all built up to the point we are now at and that journey as a whole has been pretty solid.
I was surprised but glad for these 8 episodes of basically prologue. Other series (Ragnarok) would have burned through this in an episode in a half, but I do think Slime is gonna benefit for it. This last episode was just great and well worth some of the slower ones previously. Shizu’s death hit me way harder than expected, and from something that is “generic isekai trash” that is a major accomplishment.
I still think they could possibly have moved faster during the first couple of episodes, though I probably would have liked the dwarf bit to have been expanded. Still, despite having felt detached from this show for so long, it managed to keep me watching, and as you said, the payoff in this episode was quite superb.