TenSura – 29 – Falling For Her Deceit

Youm wakes up in Mjurran’s lap after getting his ass handed to him in training session. He says he can get used to such a thing, and while Mjurran pushes him off and asks him to stop joking, the fact is, he isn’t joking. Of course, this means everything is going according to Clayman’s plan: Youm not only trusts his spy and puppet implicitly, he’s fallen for her.

Clayman couldn’t care less if Mjurran has fallen for Youm, and Mjurran isn’t even sure Clayman will hold up his end of their bargain. But if there’s a chance she can save Youm—and all the people of Tempest—by obeying Clayman, that’s what she’s going to do.

Benimaru is nominally in charge of the nation with Rimuru still on his way back—it’s the rare episode where the slime doesn’t appear at all. They get a cryptic message via crystal from Albus asking for permission to send their refugees to Tempest, as Milim is about to declare war on Eurazania.

This, while Souei reports 100 knights from Falmuth are on their way to Tempest. As Benimaru attempts to contact Rimuru, the three bad-tempered otherworlders arrive in the city, and are outraged that monsters are enjoying a higher quality of life than they have.

The Three Jerketeers were instructed to stir up some anti-monster shit, and Kirara does this by falsely accusing Gobzo of touching her butt, then pretends to be knocked down by him. This causes an adverse reaction to the other humans around them. I’d really rather not have anime portray a woman lying when IRL it’s so difficult to come forward with legit accusations, but let’s just chalk it up to Kirara being an piece of shit human.

Gobta arrives and deescalates, but angers Kirara even further when he trusts Gobzo’s word over hers because “he’s a friend”. Kirara actually has a point there; just because you’re a friend and believe it’s out of character doesn’t mean someone didn’t do something. Of course, we know full well Gobzo didn’t do it. Gobta is able to calm the crowd, which causes Kirara to break out her Unique Skill “Bewilder” to control their minds.

It fails thanks to Shuna, who nullifies it, declaring that such unpleasant abilities are forbidden in Tempest, due to the widespread harm they can cause. Shuna catches the eye of Shougo, who apparently gets off by torturing and dominating women. Shion can see the sleaze in his eyes and warns him and the other two to leave immediately, or else. Shougo takes it as an invitation to a fight, Shion obliges, and Kyouya uses it as an opportunity to try his own Unique Skills, “Severer” and “All Seeing Eye”.

As this is going down, Clayman delivers Mjurran her orders via telepathy: she’s to turn the capital into an anti-magic area in order to cut the nation off from outside communications. Mjurran prepares to obey, but is stopped in an alley by Grucius, who just received word of Milim declaring war on his country. She says she’s busy and runs off, now understanding why Clayman wants this done so soon.

Grucius chases her down and outs her as a Majin just as Youm appears behind her, demanding to “know more”. Mjurran, who has taken on her Majin form, fully expects Youm to wash his hands of her, but instead, he hugs her, assuring her that he’ll “keep falling for her deceit” over and over. His confession of love is quite abrupt, but she’s not altogether opposed.

The problem is, Clayman has her heart and is controlling her strings. Youm and everyone else she cares about is already in his guillotine, and only by following his orders can she hope to get them out of it. So as Youm and Grucius bicker over her, she unleashes her power, creating an anti-magic barrier around the city. At the same time, Reyheim and his holy warriors who have arrived at the outskirts summon a second barrier that falls over the first.

Instantly, Benimaru’s crystal ball goes dead before he can contact Rimuru, while Shion, currently toying with Shougo, suddenly feels all of her strength leaving her body. As long as those barriers are in place, Kirara, Shougo and Kyouya are probably the most powerful three individuals in a city they couldn’t care less about, full of monsters they don’t consider real people. It goes without saying this is just plain bad news.

Rimuru really dropped the ball on this by focusing on friendly relations and not taking steps to counter all of the less-friendly moves against him and his nation. It’s unlikely he’ll be able to solve this crisis with diplomacy, and while he is supremely powerful in this world, so are the three Otherworlders. But first things first: he needs to get home, like right now!

TenSura – 28 – A War Full of Holes

From Dwargon Rimuru returns to Ingrassia where he announces his five students have passed the exams and will move on to the next grade…but Tiss-sensei will be their teacher from now on. I know Rimuru is doing this because he trusts Tiss with their further education and is a busy slime leader, but as the other events of this episode prove, it’s probably a good thing that he’s returning to Tempest soon.

Youm returns to Tempest before Rimuru, and Clayman’s spy Myulan (AKA Mjurran) soaks up the place like a sponge. You can see she’s somewhat unnerved at how nice everyone is to her. When it’s Youm, she can call him stupid, but even powerful Kijin are offering her friendship. To her eyes, the Federation is a direct threat to many other nations, but only because she cannot yet see any other way forward.

Rimuru is diving into the deep end of the commerce and trade pool by making deals left and right while his nation becomes an all-too-enticing potential new hub of trade. He fails to realize that this is an aggressive act in and of itself, even if not intended to be, especially considering his is a nation of “monsters” the human nations simply do not trust.

And because, say, the Kingdom of Falmuth sees Tempest as a direct threat to their very survival, let alone their continued future as an economic powerhouse, the King and his royal council devise a plan to subjugate Tempest. This is done during your typical “dour guys sitting at a table planning shit” scene.

Archbishop Reyheim announces that the Western Holy Church has already recognized the monster nation as an affront to their God, giving them religious cover. They can call it a Holy War to stoke the support of the masses, most of whom already fear the monsters.

In an interesting wrinkle, Falmuth’s advance attack will inlclude their stable of three Offworlders from in Shougo, Kyouya, and Kirara. Unlike Rimuru, they’ve retained their regular Japanese forms and look down on this new world with contempt as vastly inferior to theirs. Kirara in particular misses cosmetics and the internet.

I believe we’ve heard murmurs about others like Rimuru from Japan, but that we meet them in the flesh for the first time really drive home the fact that Rimiru is about to face the biggest challenge to great experiment, as like him they all possess insanely powerful abilities.

At the same time, there’s a pettiness, complacency, even laziness about the attitudes of these three. This world didn’t have manga, so Rimuru created it, along with the onsen and all the other things inspired by his world. It seems these three would rather bitch and complain than put in the effort to create homes away from home.

At least Kyouya seems the least content with their situation, and intends to use the coming war with Tempest as a vehicle to gain his freedom from Falmuth. They call Shougo “Berserk”, while Kirara’s deemed the scariest of all of them, so it seems easier for them to spread chaos, hatred, and destruction—the polar opposite of Rimuru’s designs for peace, love, and cooperation.

Rimuru wants to create a happy, prosperous world for all races; the other three just want to watch the world burn. After all, it’s not their world, so who cares? Speaking of chaos, Milim Nava makes her first appearance of the season, standing in Clayman’s office. Yeah, Rimuru really doesn’t have time to continue teaching the kids!

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.