At long last, I got around to watching the next season of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. The twelve episodes of season 2 part 2 flew by, and I compiled this review whilst watching. The usual format for my anime reviews will be used. We will examine five categories-- visuals, audio, story, characters, and enjoyment-- and average them out for a final overall score. Let's begin.
Note: This review only covers season 2 part 2. My review for s2 part 1 can be found here.
Visuals: 8
The visuals have not changed in any significant way since the first half of season two. They are still bright and bursting with color and creative designs. The animations for different magic attacks are also beautiful and colorful. As for backgrounds and scenery, a simple art style is used that resembles watercolor art. The characters all have great designs, but compared to the characters who appeared in the first half of season 2, this half's new faces were not as exciting to me. The designs for Middray and Yamza, for example, are not as cool as I some of the previously introduced characters.
I believe the visuals in TenSura easily deserve a score of 7 normally. But since I was so impressed with the animation of the magical fight scenes, I'm bumping it up to 8. Seriously, some of those attacks and explosions are like candy for the eyes.
Story: 6
I was originally going to give this category a score of 5, which is unusually low for TenSura. It's because there's a big issue within the story category: the pacing. I mentioned in my last review that TenSura is not a thrilling anime. It's about Rimuru developing his country, the nation of Tempest, over time. Even understanding that, however, the pacing was still terrible in season 2 part 2. It literally took until about episode 7 for any action or fighting to happen. The first five episodes were only full of talking, meetings, and getting ready for war. Quite frankly, it was boring. Starting at about episode eight, the pace improves and stays consistent. Still, because of the terrible pacing in the majority of the episodes, I'm forced to give a low score for the story category.
It's worth noting there is more to the story category than just pacing. The general story of the season-- defeating Clayman and his army-- was good. General plot is a factor in the score for this category. Other factors include world building, believability, and content balance. TenSura did alright on most of these fronts; and for world-building and lore, it did excellently. The world of TenSura is rich with history, races, characters, hierarchies, magic systems, and more. In terms of content balance, what I mean is that there was a balance between seriousness and lightheartedness. Again, TenSura did a decent job with that. Because of these redeeming qualities, the story category got bumped up from 5 to 6.
Audio: 8
The audio in TenSura is excellent. To start with, the opening is an awesome rock song with a female vocalist. It's called "Like Flames" by MindaRyn. I love it! The ending song is "Reincarnate" by Takuma Terashima. I'm not quite as fond of that song or the vocal style used in it. I noticed a lot of good instrumental music in the background at various points in the season. I don't know the OST tracks very well yet, so I can't tell you the names of the scores; but believe me that they sound amazing. Some of the battle music would be great for motivation background music or workout music.
The Japanese voice-acting in TenSura is pretty good, although not the most stunning I've ever heard by any stretch of the imagination. Miho Okasaki does a stupendous job playing the star of the anime, Rimuru Tempest. Berretta was voiced by Ayako Kawasumi, best known for playing Saber/Arturia in the Fate series. Jun Fukuyama, best known for his roles in Assassination Classroom and Code Geass, did the voice of Leon Cromwell. Two other talented veterans of voice-acting appeared as well: Akira Ishida as Guy Crimson, and Takehito Koyasu as Clayman. I also think most of the core cast did a good job, including Mao Ichimichi as Shion. With all this terrific voice-acting, plus the music, it's no wonder the audio category gets an 8.
Characters: 7
While I love the core cast of TenSura, none of them are very well developed in a psychological sense. It's not that kind of show. The characters don't have more than a surface level of personality and quirks, and it still works. (The exception is Rimuru, a relatively "deep" character.) That's one issue within the character category. A related issue is the overabundance of characters. There are just far too many minor characters being shown and names being introduced at every point in the story. Keeping them all straight is a major headache.
Despite these issues, I have a positive view of the character category. It's primarily because I adore the character of Rimuru and I believe it well-written. He brings so much to the show. In addition, I find the core group of his followers extremely lovable. Many other minor characters have concepts or short stories that make them interesting, too. Some mostly new characters that had relevance in this season include Yamza, Middray, Leon, and Guy. The core members of Rimuru's fighting force each had their own moment or two to shine, including Shuna, Shion, Benimaru, and Gobta. And let's not forget Veldora, another important character in this season. His comic relief was spot-on. Hopefully, it's now clear that the character category deserves a score of 7.
Personal Enjoyment: 7
Overall, I definitely enjoyed this season of TenSura, but there were a few elements worth mentioning which irked me. The first thing that bothered me was the pacing. I was sometimes bored. I felt some less significant annoyance at certain overused character jokes-- mostly, the one about Shion's cooking. Lastly, there is the character design for Milim. The design sexualizes her extremely young-looking body to an absurd degree. A little bit of fanservice is fine-- I don't mind Shion or Frey, for example. But Milim looks like a child, so I don't know why the show gave her such a revealing and hyper-sexualized appearance. It irks me indeed.
Those annoyances aside, I enjoyed the rest of the anime. The action in this series, while always a long time coming, is always good. I enjoyed the voice-acting, the songs, and some of the humor. Several of the characters, including Rimuru, are dear to me. It's always a joy to see them and their interactions. For an example of something in this season that I particularly enjoyed, take the fight between Shuna and the undead skeleton commander. I loved the fact that little, soft-spoken Shuna got to fight in this season. She really kicked ass. There was a lot to appreciate and have fun with in this season of TenSura.
Overall Score: 7.2/10.0
The overall score is the average of the five numbers for the categories discussed above. While a score in the 6s range would be "Fine/Average," a score in the 7s range is definitely "Good/Enjoyable." Compared to the previous season, my score for this season went down by 0.2. That can be attributed to the frankly terrible plot pacing. This season was still a lot of fun, though. I'm very impressed with it. That's it for today.
Thanks for reading~