TenSura – 27 – Bonds Through Brandy

While we initially see the king in his standard position on the throne in full armor, Rimuru’s meeting with him is a far more casual affair, the two sitting across from a coffee table as equals. Dwargo is pleased to hear that Kaijin, the brothers, and Vesta have all found a place where they can exercise their talents to their fullest.

He also has nothing but good things to say about the apple brandy Shuna presents to him, which gives Rimuru to mention that they’re in trade talks with Eurazania. This impresses Dwargo, who is now at the stage of friendship with Rimuru that he has no need to check his drink for poison. Shion gets into it and demonstrates what a messy drunk she is, but Dwargo isn’t offended. Heck, he’s entertained.

The next day, Rimuru gives his big speech to the myriad peoples of Dwargon in his slime form. Shion is sufficiently sobered up to hold him up high so those in the back can hear his message of mutual respect and excitement over the new alliance between their nations. Dwargo later awards him zero points for coming off far too friendly and humble than a leader of a great nation should be, but the bottom line is, the speech is a success—the people of Dwargon have heard Rimuru and like him.

That night, Rimuru arranges a boys’ night out with the goblins and dwarves at the Elf Paradise hostess club. While I realize that deep down Rimuru is still a salaryman and takes these kinds of rituals seriously, the fact that Gobta and his fellow riders look way too young to be in such a club made the scene a bit awkward.

Granted, this isn’t a brothel, and if Rimuru, the goblins, and dwarves are literally objectifying them by regarding them as lovely jewels in a wood-lined treasure chest, at least the women don’t seem to be exploited; indeed, they’ll happily teast Gobta until his nose is drained of blood. The club manager is also happy to sell the apple brandy and research how much people will pay for it, so Rimuru gets another potential revenue stream out of the business.

I can also forgive the subtle skeeviness of the club scene because the boys are ultimately caught by Shuna and Shion, as one of the elves was too pure-hearted to lie about what they were up to that night. The two women are rightfully hurt that they wouldn’t so much as tell them where they were going, which only indicates they knew they wouldn’t be pleased about it, but that’s no excuse for their secrecy. Rimuru’s punishment is to endure a week of Shion’s cooking. Sounds fair!

From there we travel to what I believe to be the human kingdom of Falmuth, which, if King Dwargo is right, may someday be supplanted by Tempest as the continent’s main trading hub…whether Rimuru wants it that way or not. For now it’s a pretty bustling city, and Youm and his party of champions are walking along when his friend Isaac introduces Youm to his sister Myulan, the wizard we saw who is working for Clayman.

Myulan requests that she join Youm’s party. When he says he has enough magic users (and one of his more sexist comrades mutters that they have no need for a woman) Myulan decides to demonstrate her power to Youm in a duel between them. Myulan wins in an total cakewalk, with Youm ending up waist-deep in the ground and enveloped in a magical wind funnel.

Youm is convinced not only by Myulan offensive capability, but the insights she can offer into improving his clearly-lacking magical defense. They shake hands to make it official: Demon Lord Clayman now has a mole in the party of one of Rimuru Tempest’s best human friends. [Grabs popcorn and apple brandy]…This should be interesting!

TenSura – 26 – Smooth Sailing

Suphia and Shion’s sizing-up duel starts to grow out of control when Albis, transforming into a serpent woman, breaks up their fight. Both she and Suphia are satisfied that Tempest is a nation worth cooperating with. Unfortunately, Shion loses control of her Magic Bullet, which threatens to destroy everything within a large radius. Thankfully, Rimuru is there to swallow up the bullet with Gluttony, further impressing his guests.

That night in the new reception hall, Rimuru throws a feast, but learns that Albis and Suphia are primarily interested in drinking every drop of the apple brandy prepared in their honor. When Rimuru brings up the limits of fruit harvesting, the Eurazanians offer the first trade inroad: their ample fruit crops. As long as the liquor keeps flowing, the Beastketeers will be happy. The rest of their delegation meets with Shuna, the Riders, and the Dwarves, all of whom are happy to share their knowledge.

After the Eurazanian delegations departs, Youm and his men head out as well, just as Benimaru & Co. return from Eurazania with good news. If Tempest has one weakness, agriculture, which happens to be one of their new animal friends’ greatest strengths. Rimuru will have the next delegation focus on farming, and Benimaru tells him Rigur is up to the task of leading that delegation.

With that, Rimuru heads off on his own diplomatic mission, an official state visit to the Dwarven Kingdom, accompanied by Shuna, Kaijin, the Dwarf brothers, the Goblin Riders, and Shion…who threw a temper tantrum until Rimuru allowed her to come. On the way they see how much progress Lord Geld and the Orcs have made repaving the roads destroyed by Charybdis.

King Gazel seems happy to see Rimuru, an indication that things are going very well diplomatically for the Jura Tempest Federation. Of course, there has to be some kind of obstacle to continued success in the future, and we get a hint of that at the very end, as Lord Clayman watches a crystal ball report from Myulan, one of his spies.

Of course, as with all conflicts in TenSura, it won’t be a matter of whether Rimuru & Co. can come out on top, but how they end up doing so, while keeping their nation and its relationships strong. So ends another feel-good, functional, but not particularly exhilarating outing.

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.”