spoilers for both parts of Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken 2nd Season Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken has always struggled at maintaining the same level of interest when it gets going as it has whenever a new arc or season starts. The best story has long since come and gone with the end of Slime S1s first . Since the series has shifted its focus from being about a cute slime starting and maintaining a kingdom to facing a new wave of outside threats to his everexpanding kingdom of diplomacy its been more difficult to let the series off scotfree for any mistakes as things get more serious. This is where the 2nd Part of Slime S2 should have been a success. This is the series first real attempt at entertaining a farce. The outcome is a foregone conclusion and its about how a scheming upstart Demon Lords plans crumble under the weight of his own hubris as hes outplayed by an equally egotistical narrowminded and unaware slime. Theres no pretense of fake stakes until we near the end and none of the new characters are so unbelievably tacky as to damage the series like in S2 Part 1. In all fairness this is probably the best installment overall compared to S1 or S2P1 but not by much. Slime is still a disappointingly mediocre series only carried by what little charm it has left as well as the decent audiovisuals despite the visual end of that statement becoming dangerously inconsistent once again. 8bit continues being the head studio behind this adaptation and like with Part 1 the visuals are a step back from Season 1. At times the art style feels a bit different compared to usual and unlike P1 there arent any new or interesting visual shakeups to speak of outside of there being more onscreen interactions between Rimuru and Great Sage. There are a couple of pretty backgrounds once again and theres less awful CGI. Unfortunately theres a similar lack of decent action cuts let alone nicelooking fights. By the time we reach the penultimate episode some of the action sequences are as bad as the Rimuru vs Hinata battle from Part 1 episode 6. The designs are still fairly decent for an isekai but the action animation is still ranging from mediocre to subpar like in P1. There are barely any good cuts and most of them are localized in the final two episodes like the firstperson perspective shot of Clayman getting repeatedly slugged by Rimuru or Veldora performing a Kamehameha. Even then those bits are surrounded by other moments of bad fight animation. It really does feel like the production peaked in the early episodes and the final one...again. Considering that several episodes in the back half either largely or primarily consist of fights this issue is not only unfortunate but a contributing factor to the show growing dull before and sometimes during Walpurgis. Musically speaking things do fare better. There are a couple new pieces that continue to be solid for the scenes they accompany. If youve watched the series up to this point the OST is as solid as youd expect. Additionally both the new OP and ED are superior to what came in Part 1. Like Flames by MindaRyn is a solid actionpacked banger especially when they improve the visuals for the last few episodes while Reincarnate by Takuma Terashima is at least better than the garbage from P1. Theyre not quite as memorable or engaging as S1s OPs or EDs but they are a step up and thats what counts. What counts more however is the writing. If nothing else P2 is probably funnier than P1. Unfortunately its a bit of a doubleedged sword in execution. The first half largely consists of meetings and deliberations to the point of weariness so its perfectly fine to punctuate those with gags that show off some character chemistry. The big loveable oaf Veldora was practically built for these moments and the same can be said for the returning pixie Demon Lord Ramiris. Rimuru constantly threatening to spoil the manga theyre reading is probably the best running joke of the entire series. There are fun new dynamics being explored on top of the tried and true ones weve come to expect from this show. They do become more of a hindrance in the back half when the show still tries to come off as serious despite the farce. Its mainly a problem towards the end of the show when Walpurgis hits and they interrupt or deflate the fight scenes with jokes. Its difficult to get invested in the cathartic beatdowns when the show deflates itself like this and isnt good at selling the farcical nature of the current conflict. It tries to entertain the idea of Clayman being a threat towards the end despite constantly undercutting him with gag ends and punchlines during Walpurgis so why even bother pretending this isnt a farce? Speaking of Walpurgis the general plot is certainly better than the previous arc. After the Farmus invasion and Animal Kingdom devastation that Clayman had a hand in orchestrating Rimuru begins planning his revenge when he hears of Walpurgis: an event in which a Demon Lord council is called in by the agreement of 3 members. Both Rimuru and Clayman are upstart Demon Lords with Clayman trying to gather up sacrifices by screwing Rimurus kingdom and allies over and Rimuru has not only achieved this status but has cut off Claymans main line of communication by replacing Myulans heart. Ultimately this arc documents Claymans unknowing fall from grace in real time as he smugly believes hes got Rimuru pinned down despite being so in over his head that he cant see the proverbial sword of damocles hanging over him. Interestingly enough Rimuru himself is rather ignorant and narrowminded as well. Sure hes doing better than Clayman but by the time he brings Shion and Ranga to Walpurgis with him on account of needing to choose two fellow representatives it becomes clear that at least some of whom hes about to speak to have a much better grasp of the situation than him. Chief among these members is Guy Crimson who aside from sounding like an ArcSystemWorks fighting game protagonist is an entertaining fellow who knows how this whole charade has played out for the most part. Anything he doesnt know is largely unimportant or contextual at best to Rimuru and Clayman but he knows that this whole thing is a ploy to screw Clayman over. He knows Millim was never actually under Claymans control and that she didnt actually kill Carrion when she fought him and wrecked his kingdom. Millim was just in on the act Frey and the others set up so that once Claymans at the height of his big scheme to become a Demon Lord and get revenge on all those who mocked him and called him weak hed be outed as a total fool before finally getting executed. Hell even Rimurus Great Sage that resides within him and an idiot like Shion start understanding the situation better than him despite his insistence to the contrary. Sure Rimuru does defeat Clayman hell even Shion does multiple times before he ascends but that doesnt mean Rimuru doesnt have egg on his face once everythings revealed. Amusing as this is Walpurgis still isnt as entertaining as it can be. Since the fights are lackluster there isnt as much catharsis in seeing Clayman get his ass handed to him. He actually gets his own flashback power of friendship second wind once he remembers he shoulda relied on the rest of his Clown party more and that he was among their weakest. While a villainous example of this shite trope is more interesting and there is a moment in the beginning where one of them Laplace urges him to be careful of assuming he has as much control over Millim as he thinks he does there should have been more interactions between them. At no point do we need to feel super sympathetic for the scheming bastard but it would be more engaging considering the bond does exist and it does propel him to one last stand before he gets wiped for good. The group has been a thorn in Rimurus side since the Orc Disaster arc and their new boss Yuki from the school arc is revealed to be the ultimate bad guy of the series. There are some surprisingly compelling moments with Clayman refusing to sell his friends or clients out or how Laplace deals with the man who smugly informs him of Claymans death but why couldnt we explore them and their dynamic more beforehand? Oh wait. Theres no time. The adaptation has always suffered from structuring and pacing issues. Apparently this entire adaptation was supposed to be either 4 cours or 1 cour depending on if you were the studio or the producers respectively and it took forever for them to agree to a 24ep S1 and 2 splitcours later on. By that time S1 was almost over. Of course S2 would struggle in terms of pacing. Both parts are adapting a volume in 12 episodes while also picking up on what S1 had to skip and they somehow feel too slow in some places while skipping over or rushing others. Part 2 doesnt suffer from this nearly as bad as Part 1 does but there are some elements that had to slip through the cracks. Remember in the end of the first half of P2 when Diablo/Kuro Myulan Youm and co. were set to get to Farmus to start a civil war and take it over only for them to never show up again until the final scenes montage? Apparently in the manga we cut back to them a few times but in the anime thats clearly not the case. There are other minor oddities like the fact that Suphia a tiger can fly or how they never explain how Shion felt a sense of familiarity with Carrions disguised presence to the point of trying to ask Rimuru if it was him when weve never been told or shown that they met before. However they and the mostly lame evil bad guy lackeys at Claymans disposal are minor issues. All thats left to cover is the cast. Every returning character is as youd expect and perhaps in top form outside of Rimuru being perhaps a bit too cocky and narrowminded compared to usual. Shuna actually gets a moment to be capable and even show that her views on Rimuru are a bit more grounded than everyone else who just views him as infallible. Most of the new guys are kinda just ok or whatever outside of Guy and the one really angry humanoid dragonewt who leads Millims followership. Honestly the banter is what saves a lot of the characters at this point considering most of them are pretty milquetoast or lame otherwise. This especially applies to Rimuru now that Veldora and Ramiris are thrown back into the mix. He and Millim are more entertaining when being pestered by their friends for whatever reason or nagged on by other Demon Lords considering they pretty much needlessly fucked everything up for everyone. Its a fresh change of pace from all the Rimuru circlejerking most of the cast did...and sadly still do to obnoxious degrees. The returning Veldora is even more likable and fun than Rimuru ever was considering hes this boisterous big bro meathead powerhouse constantly getting distracted by manga and whatnot. He was hilarious when finally given a humanoid form at the end of Part 1 and kept that energy going throughout the entirety of Part 2. A similar if not even greater amount of props must be handed out to Clayman. This utter clown is the first time a villain in this series has anything going for them. He was a somewhat entertaining puppypuncher schemer in Part 1 but in Part 2 its somewhat entertaining seeing him maintain that while being clueless as to how deep he is in the shitter. Even more amusing is the lengths hed go to posture and make himself seem intimidating when hes flying off the handle against a clearly superior Rimuru or beating up Millim whos just acting. This man is an utter joke and its a good thing the show took the more farcical route in this case. However the final two episodes do present another side to him that was a bit too lightly suggested regarding his closeness with his unit. Theres the aforementioned power of friendship second wind he has but then theres also him telling Rimuru that hed never betray a friend or client when the bluehaired war criminal tries to interrogate him for information before killing him off. Clayman was already way better than say the otherworlders or the king of Farmus from Part 1 but this was the first time he was genuinely compelling rather than just satisfying to watch get house by his own petard. Him apologizing to Laplace in his head as hes dying was icing on the cake. No wonder Laplace snaps once a subordinate of a different Demon Lord smugly informs him of the bad news. Actually Laplace himself really ascended this time as while he was a malevolent powerhouse there wasnt much interesting or entertaining regarding him prior to what Clayman brought out of everyone. Laplace killing the lackey in a fit of rage countering every counterattack from the man before showing him his beautifully juicy heart and crushing it as the gorgeous vermillion gushes out of it was sick Him thinking about how the rest of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance will feel when they learn the news as hes laughing and crying sealed the entire scene. Once again in Slimes final moments it showcases what it had the potential to be. Fun and satisfying as that is its nonetheless frustrating that the series always seems to stumble for a while beforehand. Maybe with better and more consistent presentation this season would be more than just a mixed bag but when has Slime ever been known for its consistency? TenSura is forever too disappointing and rough to truly become good but too competent and likable to be too hard on. Its hard to straightup abandon this series but its hard not to get bored or frustrated when it gets into the thick of things and cant present or execute things too well. Its forever trapped in or perhaps settling for mediocrity and reserving its best for the earliest and latest moments of any given entry. A lot of the action is mediocre to bad outside of a few particularly sick cuts. Most of the charm is gone aside from some of the gags and banter the main characters have. Things always start out fun get boring or frustrating in the middle and come out the other end better than before like it didnt almost ruin itself. Oh Slime what in the world are we to do with you?