TenSura – 44 – Game Recognize Game

This episode focused on three battles between Rimuru’s various subordinates and those of Clayman and/or Milim. It also doesn’t have a single moment of Rimuru blabbering in it, which might just make it the best episode of TenSura Season 2 Part 2 by default!

Interestingly enough, we start with a member of Team Slime getting their butt kicked; specifically Suphia. The buttkicker is one Father Middray, while his student Hermes gets soundly defeated by Gabiru (whose adorable syncophants are never far away).

This first battle is all about mutual respect and admiration, as Middray reveals that he and the other priests of the Dragon Faithful are just another kind of Dragonewt just like Gabiru. When things go south one of the other battles, they actually join forces to provide aid to the vulnerable.

While Middray and Gabiru are content not to kill each other, Albis is under no such constraints when it comes to Yamza or his underlings. She upgrades to her second form, turns the weakers ones into stone with purple lightning, and then they shatter in the air or on the ground.

Yamza reveals his biden card—a doohickey on his arm that lets him clone himself—but Albis just turns the doohickey to stone and shatters it. Defeated, Yamza surrenders, but Clayman pulls the strings and makes him eat a glowing orb that turns him into a lesser form of the previously deeated uber-boss Charybdis.

Just when it looks like Albis is in real trouble, Benimaru drops in, slices Charybdis with one slash, then quickly disposes of it with a massive flare. He then rushes to the strongest person he senses—Father Middray—only for Gabiru and Suphia to hold him back and tell him they were about to join forces.

Of the three battles, this one is the most interesting, probably because it isn’t a battle at all, just a bunch of cool people basking in their coolness. There may be no one cooler than Middray; ironic considering how red hot his head was last week. Oh sure, these guys could get serious, throw hands, and cause quite a bit of destruction and distress in their wakes, but…they just don’t see the point. To quote T-Pain: I like that!

That leaves us the third and briefest battle, the one between Phobio/Geld and Tear/Footman. Not surprisingly, the Harlequins are no slouches, and also arrogant as all get out. They declare that it wasn’t in their orders to kill them, even though they totally could, so they withdraw for now, basically taking the draw.

Both Phobio and Geld are upset, but they’re not that mad, especially when as far as Benimaru is concerned, the operation was a success. Geld kept Phobio safe and revealed Clayman’s hand. They may be flat on their backs in the forest having been on the wrong end of a butt-kicking, but they’ll live to fight—and fight a little better—another day.

TenSura – 43 – Harder to Lose Than to Win

After helping Treyni evolve into a Dryas Doll Dryad so she can leave Jura forest as Ramiris’ escort, Rimuru goes over the final preparations for Benimaru’s fight. Turns out after Rimuru became a Demon Lord Benimaru was gifted a rare skill that allows him to read the enemy’s every move, thus assuring victory.

Nevertheless, there’s no reason not to take certain precautions, especially where a trickster like Clayman is concerned; someone who will only get more dangerous the more cornered he gets. That’s why Shuna, an accomplished magic user, volunteers to accompany Benimaru, Souei, and Hakurou…but not before she’s done hand-sewing Rimuru’s Walpurgis suit!

When Clayman’s forces approach from the bottom of a canyon as planned, Benimaru knows that victory is all but assured. Gabiru’s lizardmen and Souei’s ninjas mop up whoever doesn’t fall down the sinkholes created by Geld’s Orc soldiers.

The Beastketeers subordinate themselves to Benimaru specifically so they can see combat on the front lines, in order to get revenge for what happened to their beloved Lord Carrion.

Gabiru and his pals team up with Suphia, presumably to face off against Father Middray and his student. Phobio seeks out Tear and Footman, who are a lot tougher than they look, but Phobio’s no slouch either, plus he has Geld backing him up. I love how arrogant the harlequins are, but again, they have the skills to back it up. Of all the foes Rimuru’s forces clash with this week, they’re the most concerning.

Less so is Yamza, who despite being one of the “Five Fingers” (such a lame name!) is far more concerned with retreating in such a way as to save face in the eyes of his master, Clayman. It’s admirable that he’s able to think many moves ahead, but his plans of slipping away are dashed by Albis. It’s clear that she, along with her fellow Beasketeers, are as eager for action as we the viewers are!

All of Rimuru’s main and secondary lieutenants and allies get chances to shine, even Gobta, who saves Albis from a sneak attack and demonstrates that despite his cartoonish looks and lack of confidence, he’s pretty much a match for Yamza…he just needs to apply himself!

After being forced to sit around and wait while all of the pieces of this arc are painstakingly set up, it’s exhilarating to watch those pieces suddenly set into motion, like a wonderful piece of clockwork. I can’t wait to see what next week brings as each of these little isolated battles progress and evolve.

TenSura – 40 – Here We Don’t Go Again

One third of TenSura’s second season’s second cour has now been one long glorified infodump, featuring nothing but people standing and sitting around discussing things. There’s even a brief recap of last week’s talking, before we go right back into the next stage of talking. Who in their right mind would think this is acceptable method of storytelling?

Ramiris, who showed up and fell asleep last week, finally wakes up and offers some details about the threat to Tempest that probably isn’t any threat at all. Considering what happened the last time an enemy tried a coordinated attack on Tempest, it went…poorly. That, along with this constant parade of drab meetings, saps any potential drama or peril regarding another attack.

If there’s one improvement to this episode over the previous three, it’s that at least Rimuru & Co. go somewhere other than the conference room or gazebo. They hang out in the hot springs, then have a meal in the spa’s dining room. And as annoying and grating as Ramiris is, it is exceedingly cute watching Treyni and her sister pamper her.

With the announcement that Clayman may be launching an attack on Eurazania and not Tempest, and that Rimuru & Co. are too far away to lend any timely aid to the refugees there, there finally seems to be some momentum towards actual things maybe possibly happening next week. But I’ll still expect more meetings and more talking until shown otherwise. I’ve already been fooled for the better part of a month. Enough’s enough!

TenSura – 25 (S2 E01) – Brandy in the Bath

TenSura returns after a rambling first season finale, multiple OVAs, and full-length recap, only to give us a tedious, redundant, and lazily-executed clip show (it’s literally just clips of past events flying by), followed by a woefully generic opening theme. Thankfully things look up from that rough start, but it’s clear TenSura remains quite unconcerned with exercising airtime discipline in between big arcs.

Once Rimuru leaves the five kids in the care of Tiss-sensei, the main order of business is establishing diplomatic relations with the Animal Kingdom of Eurazania. Rimuru tries on a number of outfits to send off his delegation, led by a much-matured Benimaru, and when his speech is too short, he adds a bit more to the end of it, somehow moving Rigurd and Gabiru to tears.

With Benimaru’s delegation properly sent off, focus shifts to preparing the assembly hall for the arrival of Eurazania’s delegation. Vesta uses his noble background to help ensure all the diplomatic “i’s” and “t’s” are dotted and crossed, while underlings like Treyni announce that the Eurazanians are five days away.

That means they won’t arrive before Youm and his two buddies, who have aligned themselves with Rimuru and Tempest and have been spreading the word to other humans that the monsters of Tempest are nothing to fear. Rimuru welcomes them with brandy and a hot bath, again demonstrating that comfort and relaxation are chief tenets of the Tempest lifestyle.

The next day, Rimuru and his retinue welcome the Eurazanians, who arrive in a procession of gaudy carriages drawn by giant fluffy tigers. The delegates who have come on behalf of Demon Lord Carrion are the Three Beastketeers: Albis, Suphia, and Grucius. Among the three, Suphia is the most outspoken, and the anti-slime insults fly with abandon.

Rimuru asks Youm to fight the rude and fiery Suphia, but Shion steps forward and fights her instead, without her sword, resulting in the episode’s first cool fight between overpowered warriors. The second fight begins shortly thereafter when Grucius, “runt” of the Beastketeers, takes on Youm in a daggers-vs.-sword duel.

Rimuru had hoped things would go a little more smoothly and less violently, but there can be no diplomatic progress without mutual respect, so it becomes necessary to prove to the Beastketeers that the warriors of Tempest should be respected. Or as Seraph from The Matrix Reloaded once said: “You do not truly know someone until you fight them.”