The family we make.
As we pick up after Halkara’s ridiculous knocking out of the demon king and subsequent imprisonment, the other characters (also potentially facing death) are fretting about how to save her and hatch a plot to wake up the demon king and have her over-turn the sentence. That sounds a lot more tense and interesting than it ends up being but the real bonus of the whole sequence is the brief turn by the red-dragon girl into a cute-mini dragon. Can I just say I want one? In plush form preferably. Which in honesty is probably the point behind it but anyway.
Anyway, the plan involves mixing up some bitter green medicine that will apparently shock the demon-king awake and so Azusa, badly disguised as a demon doctor, goes to meet with the demon king. I’m guessing this sequence was more or less a desire to put Azusa in a sexy doctor costume complete with demon-horns and tail because it is clearly a bonkers plan with zero chance of success and honestly it is seen through almost instantly.
However, when subterfuge fails, Azusa brute forces her way through and this was a nice reminder that Azusa has in fact maxed out her level. I’m still not entirely sure how the level system works and why demons who have probably lived longer than 300 years aren’t stronger than a highland witch who only ever killed slimes but I don’t think we’re particularly supposed to be concerned with the specifics. Azusa is max level and she more or less wipes out the guards without breaking a sweat. Even Beelzebub is impressed.
The confrontation with the demon king turns out a little differently than expected after she challenges Azusa to a duel to prove her intention not to kill her. Like Azusa, I’m questioning the logic here but given the demon king’s reactions after being beaten I’m guessing logic isn’t her greatest asset even if she is quite the devious one. The fight does at least have Azusa forced to dodge for once and while the outcome is never really in question it does at least leave you wondering if Azusa might even take an injury (I’m more surprised that she let her hat get cut to be honest).
All of that happens pretty quickly and honestly, was enjoyable enough. The rest of the episode very much falls into meh territory when it doesn’t make decisions that actually made me eye-roll. The Demon-King ends up demanding Azusa play the role of an older sister and she’s getting very exhilarated at the idea of someone who might give her orders and not just do as she, the demon king, says. There’s also a scene of Azusa kissing and then hugging the members of her ‘family’. All of this before we actually get to the award ceremony which was kind of the reason Azusa and family travelled to the demon king’s palace in the first place.
Honestly, the ceremony was the low point as we see a return of the blue dragon and then through a series of incredibly contrived plot points the blue dragon girl joins Azusa’s merry band of free-loaders (sorry, family members) and they all get back on the flying whale (or the sister of the original flying whale) and head back to the highlands.
It wasn’t a bad episode by any means but the addition of the blue dragon girl into this already over-cluttered cast of trope characters who don’t seem to get much fleshing out wasn’t exactly a winner for me.
Images used for review from: I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. Dir. N Kimura. Revoroot. 2021.
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Karandi James
I quite enjoyed the fight and Azusa breaking into the Demon King’s room, but that was about it. Beelzebub needs more time with Azusa.
Yep, Azusa getting into the room and then fighting the demon king worked. Everything after that was very… well meh seems like the best description and I really didn’t want the blue dragon being a regular character.
She’s actually kind of funny in the next one, but she’s no Beelzebub.