Warning: Spoilers for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 That time I got reincarnated as a slime
Season 3 has come to an end, adapting three more books of the long light novel series. While this season definitely had its share of highlights, it didn’t quite live up to the excitement offered by previous seasons and featured some pacing issues that 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 underworlder from Japan who wields immense power. After the 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. Then there was 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 much more conflict than in the series. There was a lot of (deliberately cultivated) misunderstanding, which both sides fretted about the possibility of war, but it was clear to the audience from very early on that neither side here was really eager to fight. This led to a lot of meeting scenes, for both Rimuru and Hinata’s groups, where they hypothesized and discussed what the other might be thinking.
Much of the speculation turned out to be violent, however, as the conflict was orchestrated by a small group in the Western Holy Church who did not 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 had been built up. The season could have benefited from more extensive battle scenes, as they provided some of the only action to be found in season 3 as a whole.
Related
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 Claire were pretty clear from the beginning, so it didn’t come across as a slowly unraveling mystery as much as it was a fairly obvious plot by some highly suspicious characters that Hinata did not trust.
The Ark Festival is slime’s slice of life at its best
The festival brought a wide variety of activities to storm
The last half of Slime Season 3 focused on Rimuru’s Great Festival. Although it is also plagued with extensive meeting scenes (mostly set in the same rather boring conference room), the actual festival and all its events are quite entertaining. This is not to say that all the meeting scenes need to be removed, but something could be done to help the scenes animation-wise, because they can become boring to watch when every episode has a meeting in the same room.
The festival helped showcase just how far Rimuru had been able to bring Tempest, revealing the fruits of their research on magic and engineering. The heart of Slime is and always will be the nation-building aspect, and the festival was a celebration of all the work Rimuru has put in so far towards this end, helping to really drive home how amazing his achievements have been.. Rimuru’s plans from here are even bigger and bolder, aiming to uplift neighboring nations like Falmenace and Blumund by making them hubs of economic activity, all stemming from Tempest.
The festival preparations also make good use of familiar characters, such as Ramiris and her help 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 that 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 on world-building
Season 3 of Reincarnated as a slime Objectively has less action sequences than either of the previous seasons, which may be disappointing for some fans. However, it is important to remember that Rimuru is a Demon Lord now; This is a title that can’t just be challenged casually in the world, so it makes sense that fewer people would come out against it directly in combat. Slime is and has always been focused on establishing his world and Rimuru’s nation-building mission first, and this season has plenty of that kind of content.
Those expecting a lot of action scenes and epic battles are likely to be disappointed with the season overall, but this is straight from the source material. Just adding battles for action scenes really wouldn’t have worked with the kind of content that was comprised of season 3, as the 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 are intended more for comedy than action, and trying to change them just to provide more action would likely fall flat.
total, Slime Season 3 has some good content for those who like what the series has to offer outside of battle, but the pacing of the content and the sheer number of identical meeting room scenes bring it down a bit. The season can be enjoyed better now that it can be watched, because there is no longer a need to wait a week between episodes, which made the slow pacing even more difficult 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 entirely perfect.