Warning: Spoilers for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 3 has come to an end, adapting three more books from the lengthy light novel series. While the season definitely had its share of highlights, it couldn't quite live up to the excitement offered by previous seasons and featured some pacing issues which led to an uneven experience.
Reincarnated as a Slime season 3 began by adapting the Saint-Monster Confrontation arc, which featured an anticipated showdown between Rimuru and Hinata Sakaguchi, a fellow otherworlder from Japan who wields tremendous power of her own. After that conflict was resolved, it moved into an arc centered on preparations for the Tempest opening festival, introducing Rimuru and his goals to the world at large. That was followed by the actual festival itself, bringing together many familiar characters, with some meeting for the first time.
Slime Season 3 Suffered from Pacing Issues
Slime's Story Often felt Dragged Out Unnecessarily
With a name like the "Saint-Monster Confrontation Arc," it would be reasonable to expect far more conflict than was actually seen in the series. It was a lot of (deliberately cultivated) misunderstanding, which had both sides fretting about the possibility of war, but it was apparent to the audience from quite early on that neither side here was actually eager to fight. This led to a great many meeting scenes, both for Rimuru's and Hinata's groups, where they hypothesized and discussed what the other might be thinking.
Much of this speculation turned out to be moot, however, as the conflict was orchestrated by a small group within the Western Holy Church who didn't want to see peaceful relations with Tempest and hoped to get rid of Hinata, whom they were jealous of. For as much preparation as there was, however, the actual battle was fairly short, and didn't really feel like it adequately delivered on all that was built up. The season might've benefited from more extensive battle scenes, as they provided some of the only action to be found in season 3 as a whole.
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The actual execution of the end of the arc was quite enjoyable, but it just felt like it took too long to get there. Many of the machinations of the Seven Days Clergy were pretty apparent from the start, so it didn't come across as a slowly unraveling mystery as much as it did a rather obvious plot by some highly suspicious characters who Hinata already didn't trust.
The Festival Arc is Slime's Slice of Life At Its Best
The Festival Brought a Wide Variety of Activities to Tempest
The latter half of Slime season 3 focused on Rimuru's big festival. While it, too, was plagued with extensive meeting scenes (mostly set in the same rather dull conference room), the actual festival and all its events were quite entertaining. That's not to say all the meeting scenes need to be done away with, but something could be done to help liven up these scenes animation-wise, as they can get boring to watch when each episode has a meeting in the same room.
The festival helped showcase just how far Rimuru has already been able to bring Tempest, revealing the fruits of their research on magic and engineering. The core of Slime is and will always be the nation-building aspect, and the festival was a celebration of all the work that Rimuru has put in so far towards that end, helping to really drive home how amazing his achievements have been. Rimuru's plans from here are even bigger and bolder, aiming to lift up neighboring nations like Falmenace and Blumund by making them hubs of economic activity, all stemming from Tempest.
The festival preparations also made good use of familiar characters, such as Ramiris and her aid in developing the dungeon, which Rimuru hopes will be a big draw for adventurers. The festival itself was an excellent opportunity for characters to fraternize with one another in combinations fans hadn't really seen before, such as Hinata with Shizu's students, revealing new aspects of some of their personalities. With the series having so many characters now, it's nice to give them all a chance to shine, especially outside of battle.
Opinions on Slime Season 3 Depend on What One Likes About It
Slime Season 3 Was Low On Action, But High In World-building
Season 3 of Reincarnated as a Slime objectively had less action sequences than either of its preceding seasons, which may have been disappointing to some fans. However, it's important to remember that Rimuru is a Demon Lord now; that's a title that one doesn't just challenge casually in this world, so it makes sense that fewer people would be coming out against him directly in combat. Slime is and has always been focused on establishing its world and Rimuru's nation-building mission first, and this season had plenty of that kind of content to it.
Those expecting lots of action scenes and epic battles were likely to be disappointed with the season overall, but this is straight from the source material. Just adding battles for the sake of fight scenes really wouldn't have worked with the kind of content that made up season 3, as this season was meant to be more about politics and establishing Tempest as a regional power worthy of respect. Even moments like the martial arts tournament were intended more for comedy than action, and trying to change them just to provide more action would've likely fallen flat.
All in all, Slime season 3 has some good content for those who like what the series has to offer outside of battle, but the pacing of this content and the sheer number of identical meeting room scenes brings it down somewhat. The season may well be enjoyed better now that it can be binge-watched, as there's no longer a need to wait a week between episodes, which made the slow pacing even more dire than it was. Season 3 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is overall a good addition to the series, even if it's not absolutely perfect.
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9.7/10
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
TV-14
Animation
Action
Adventure
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is an action-adventure isekai anime based on the original novels written by Fuse. Living a standard life with no actual forward trajectory, Satoru Mikami's humdrum life is thrown into chaos when he is stabbed to death during a daily walk. However, Satoru's life is spared when he is reborn into the body of an all-powerful slime in a fantasy world where he gets a second chance at living a more fulfilling - albeit bizarre - life.
- Cast
- Brittney Karbowski , Alexis Tipton , Anthony Bowling , Apphia Yu , Brandon Potter , Brittany Lauda , Bruce DuBose , Charles Campbell , Chris Rager , Colleen Clinkenbeard
- Release Date
- October 5, 2018
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll
- Writers
- Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
- Directors
- Yasuhito Kikuchi
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Creator(s)
- Yasuhito Kikuchi