That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S4 Ep 4 Review
You know what’s one of my favorite things about Slime Tensura? It’s not the fighting, or the power-scaling, or the fanservice. It’s the politics. As the series has progressed and Rimuru becomes more important, the story shifts away from fighting to dealing with nation-building as the human-turned-slime works to build a world for humans and monsters to live in peace. And that means that there’s going to be people taking advantage of him and trying to take him down, and he’s got to put them in their place. Case in point, the Rozzo family has just used their influence on the nations to the west to invite Rimuru to join their international club as part of a plan to get him under their control. But they don’t know who they’re messing with.
So after they managed to send Team Green Fury packing, the avatar quartet, humorously, didn’t stop there. They liked hunting adventurers so much that they got carried away and went on an absolute tear, to the point that people are calling them the “Dungeon Dominators.” Unfortunately for them, that lands them in hot water for neglecting their other roles, with Millim being the first to suffer. It turns out she snuck off to Tempest to get out of her Demon Lord duties, leading to Frey to have to drag her back home to do her homework.
Poor Millim! I know how you feel about hating homework! And shame on her friends for selling her out like that. At least Rimuru gets some karma when Shuna realizes he’s been goofing off in the Dungeon.
But with that out of the way, Rimuru has to face the more important task at hand: the Rozzo family and the Western Council.
Made up of the human nations located to the west of the Jura Forest, the Council of the West is sort of like a fusion of the real-life United Nations and groups such as NATO. They’re an economic and political alliance meant to help the whole of humanity prosper, and the rise of the Monster nation of Tempest has been of great concern to them. Unfortunately, much like the UN, their effectiveness and competency vary a lot.
The latter half of the episode is all about the Council members arguing about whether to invite Tempest to join. Can they be trusted? What’s to stop Rimuru from wiping them all out? How can we use them for our own benefit? Some of them even question if Rimuru is as strong as they say he is. Hinata was invited to serve as a witness on Rimuru’s behalf, but her thoughts are exactly what the viewers are meant to feel about this: not impressed. It’s clear that they’re only thinking about their own interests and looking down on Rimuru. It becomes even more apparent when they suggest inviting Tempesr to join so its military power can serve as a check on the Eastern Empire, a name that keeps popping up in conversations lately.
Even if Mariabel’s monologues didn’t confirm it, it’s pretty obvious that the Council is being puppeted by the Rozzo family with the way they talk. The manipulation becomes even more apparent when Hinata is approached by the Prince of Englassia and asked to serve as his bodyguard and fight Rimuru if the time comes.
Those fools know not what they are doing. They’re lucky that Rimuru is so chill, or else he would torch them all. Hinata was right to bail out of this.
So, Rimuru and the others are getting invited by the Council to see if they will let him join. Given how useless they were, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes one look at them and says “Nah, we’re good!” Good thing that they’re leaving Shion behind! If she went and someone insulted Rimuru, she would level the city.
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