You know, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Tensura 2 part 2, but the episode this week definitely gave me my very favourite moment from this franchise and one of the best laughs I’ve had this season.
While I was expecting a climatic smack down this week, I wasn’t expecting some of the best comedy moments from the season to occur during the course of the episode. And yet, Tensura 2 delivered some decent fights and for some reason finally remembered it is supposed to be a comedy.
Veldora has felt a little, okay a lot, underused since his release from his prison. Admittedly, the concept of an all powerful evil dragon becoming addicted to manga is very much in line with Tensura 2’s usual desire to give us opposite features and play it for laughs, but he’s really not done much at all.
Yet, in one hilarious fight sequence with Milim he’s managed to make me laugh and has made him my pick for best character of the season. Here’s a dragon fighting a demon-lord and having a blast doing it while calling out a range of attack names straight out of other manga and anime. It was perfect and if the rest of the season had even been half this entertaining That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 would have been quite the enjoyable watch.
Was the penultimate episode of Tensura 2 Part 2 enough?
If we look at this episode of Tensura 2 simply as a way to get to the final episode of the season, it serves its purpose well. It is a fun and exciting episode, allows some of our cast to show off some moves and resolves all but a handful of issues. It also leaves us with a villain transforming into a monstrous form right at the end giving us something to look forward to next week even though the outcome seems a foregone conclusion.
Still, this episode probably isn’t going to make you forget the slow grind to get here. Nor will it overcome the fact that the reason this episode was so fun is because we really did narrow the focus down to a handful of cast members from the giant cast. So many characters are nowhere to be seen having been sent off on other missions (some we’ve seen the outcome of).
More importantly, this episode of Tensura 2 finally addresses the whole Milim getting brainwashed issue and Milim, when she’s Milim, is always a bit of a fun character. She instantly lifts the mood in the final third of this episode and helps to remind us how much fun this anime can be.
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If I was to raise one complaint about this episode, and it really isn’t a complaint, it is that Rimuru doesn’t do much. He directs his forces and he did undo one of Clayman’s spells, but it is quite clear they’ve held off on Rimuru really getting involved in the fight and saved that for the final showdown. It’s a pretty predictable move and the end result is you have to wonder whether or not this all could have been over if Rimuru had decided to deal with things more directly.
Instead he is kind of reduced to over the top reactions that aren’t quite as funny as some of the other moments in the episode.
Naturally, because it seems Clayman’s time is coming to a close, we suddenly get some more backstory. Too little, too late to make me care about the smug jerk and his inevitable defeat. But I guess it is a standard trope of the genre I just hope they don’t fill the next episode with it and rather just get on with ending this particular arc. It would be nice also to see the core cast reunite one final time before the season’s end.
Anyway, what did you enjoy about the episode and what do you want to see in the final?
Images from: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2. Dir. Y Kikuchi. 8bit. 2021.
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Karandi James
Gotta love Raphael-San showing such range of character. I swear there was a moment I could clearly see her smug doya expression as she thrust her chest out in pride… Despite being depicted as a morphing circular graphic.
All of the characters felt a bit more alive in this episode.