I get by with a little help from my friends.
Creative Staff
Story: Fuse
Art: Mitz Vah
Translation/Adaptation: Kevin Gifford
What They Say
A MEETING OF DEMONIC MINDS!
Newly minted demon lord Rimuru has received word of a special assembly of all ten demon lords known as the Walpurgis Council. It just so happens that the topic of this particular meeting is how best to punish Rimuru for assuming his new title without their permission.
Fortunately, he’s got friends in high places who are willing to vouch for his authenticity, and this council could be the perfect opportunity to get revenge on the demon lord Clayman for the violence he brought to Tempest. Is this blobby big shot cunning enough to kill two birds with one stone?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Conflict was inevitable with the growing strength of Rimuru and the country of Jura/Tempest in general. Trouble just keeps landing on Rimuru’s doorstep. In dealing with the fallout of becoming powerful enough to declare himself a demon lord, Rimuru’s friends in the beast kingdom are dealt a staggering blow as Carillion is taken out by a very uncharacteristically behaving Milim.
From there, things only escalate.
From the very beginning of this volume we’re introduced to the next biggest challenger, and likely the forces that have been pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The former demon lord Kazalim has been reborn, aided by an unknown operator whose identity remains hidden from the reader. Clayman inherited Kazalim’s domain, and thus they all have a keen interest in seeing him succeed. There is a bit of misdirection though, as it appears that the forces at the center of the Western Empire are not a holy being but a demon lord.
From there a familiar pattern emerges in the storytelling of this volume. Rimuru and his forces gather information to take on Clayman even as Clayman’s forces work to march on Carillion’s former kingdom and plant false evidence of a plot against other demon lords. In the middle of that preparation, Clayman calls for a demon lord council to commence, and Rimuru is invited to attend. It’s his own chance to take out Clayman and to become recognized among his peers.
Then the battle begins, and what a battle it is.
One of my largest complaints about the story prior to this volume was that we never saw the underlings give it their all and fight. The payoff for waiting this long was we finally get to see them act in all their overpowered glory. Nearly every member of Rimuru’s team gets to have a shining moment of badassery as they divide and conquer the forces against them. Even Shuna goes out and manages to show off that she is no pushover either. The enemies are also shown to have some real depth and motivations, which is always appreciated. If they were all just lunatics then what would be the point? Even Clayman and the Moderate Jesters are shown to have motives beyond just being evil.
One complaint I do still have is how Rimuru seems to view women. Now, I have to remember that the dude was a 38-year-old virgin when he was killed and his interactions with women were probably limited. There’s a lot of sentences that read a bit… archaic in a ‘she’s a shining example of her sex’ sort of way. It doesn’t help that most of the side characters in the story all fit into goofy tropes rather than have their own rich personalities. Shion remains the dumb brute, Rimiris and Milim are whiney despite having enough power to destroy the earth, and the other ladies are just aloof. Not that the men fair any better, with most of the demon lords being either dumbasses or masterminds. Despite the missteps in how he views most of his friends, Rimuru remains a likable leader as he lucks his way into absolute power.
An important part of this volume is finally meeting the other demon lords, which gives us readers a good idea of just how powerful Rimuru is in comparison to the other forces in the world. Guy Crimson is clearly the most powerful, or perhaps Milim still is. The fact is Rimuru would stand no chance against the majority of the other demon lords so the fact that he went the ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ route was smart. Watching Rimuru suss out the head games at the council is fun, watching him finally get revenge against Clayman even more so.
Yen includes the usual fold-out color illustration at the front of the novel, featuring Rimuru’s crew looking like bosses and the demon lords on the reverse. This volume is a whopping 359 pages long and stands nearly double-thick to other light novels on my shelf. With that many words a few typos do sneak through, but props to translator Kevin Gifford for managing this massive project. Even the author’s note even ended up running long due to how the pages were laid out in Japan. A cute two-page comic finishes out the volume.
In Summary
This volume of Slime shows that a leader is only as strong as the people working under them. While Rimuru remains an overpowered nightmare, the personality quirks of those he is dealing with and the meeting of other demon lords firmly establishes a new power dynamic. Rimuru doesn’t want more power for power’s sake, unlike the other demon lords. He desires harmony, and anything standing in the way of that or harming his friends must be crushed. This is probably the strongest volume of Slime to date, full of action from every side and plenty of trickery, backstabbing, and alliance making.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13 +
Released By: Yen On
Release Date: August 20, 2019
MSRP: $14.00 US / $18.50 CAN
