The Slime series always has a fairly tough balancing act to follow. On one hand it needs to provide you with a lot of action and hype but on the other hand Rimuru has already surpassed almost every character in the verse so it can be tough to have a satisfying opponent. Ultimately this spinoff adventure just rolls with it. Nobody is ever actually a threat to Rimuru and at no point are you really worried about the side characters so it just ends up being a fun side adventure that is pretty much stress free. I’d say it ends up working out pretty well though. The series really excels in this niche.

The adventure starts off with Rimuru being sent on a mission to go and resolve a dispute between two princes that is threatening to tear the country asunder. He doesn’t really care about this mission all that much but is ultimately talked into it. Basically each prince thinks that the other is acting unreasonably and Princess Zenobia has ended up being poisoned. There are suspects on both sides and the King seems to have lost all reason so he won’t be any help here. The whole situation is more than a little fishy so Rimuru will need to play detective. Curing Zenobia is the easy part but finding out who is the true culprit could be slightly more difficult. Can he find this out in time to keep the country from fighting?

Well if he was only a detective then it might be a little tough but he’s so powerful that he basically cheats. At one point he has his minions just fight off one of the prince’s advancing forces to buy a little time. For a split second it seems like his fighters are having a bit of trouble so I was glad that it turned out that they were holding back. I’m cool with humans matching them in terms of pure swordplay but in overall ability? Nah that would have been a stretch.

Not to say that there are no powerful villains here though. We do have some vampires/demons running around whose abilities are the real deal. While Rimuru would still deal with them quickly enough, it makes sense that the minions could have a tough time. In the end Rimuru looks pretty good here. He can be a bit hit or miss for me as I liked him a lot in season 2 but not as much in season 1. It’s safe to say that he has come a long way as the series went on and by this point he’s a consistently likable character.

The film couldn’t resist the urge to throw in some more original characters though so one of his allies here is a guy named Paolo. Paolo is super weak but means well. The guy is genuine in wanting to use his skills and I guess comparing him to Rimuru isn’t fair but it would be nice if the guy thought about things more before jumping into action. The series does spare some time to have Rimuru give him advice which helps out in the end. It was a pretty nice little bit of character development and it’s always nice when a film/miniseries can squeeze in a stand alone character arc like this.

The highlight of the special is definitely the quick fight between two demon lords who still haven’t done much in the present. As soon as the issue of vampires came up you could bet that this fight was going to be coming sooner than later. At least with one of them, the other demon lord strikes me as more of a troll who just likes to cause a scene. It does add even more connections to the big budget movie though. They share so many plot elements that it feels like they just wanted to do the same adventure twice. Hey that’s cool with me of course but then Diablo should have gotten a fight here again too. The guy earned it.

Rimuru’s disguise is also one of the best that I’ve seen for a lead in terms of being able to trick everyone so it’s ironic that it basically doesn’t work from the start. The one time a disguise can be perfect because the main character is a shape shifter is ruined because one of the characters can see souls. Ah well, I guess that kind of thing just happens.

Zenobia was a pretty good princess all things considered. She had plans of her own and did a good job of not cracking under pressure. She took some fairly massive risks like letting the villains drug her as she pretended to be asleep but the fact that she had actual abilities was cool. The two princes also weren’t bad. I don’t think you will remember them a whole lot after a while though because they’re a bit generic. One was tempted by the dark side and the other is your classic tough guy.

As this special is part mystery you can expect quite a few plot twists though and those work out well. It should go without saying that the animation is pretty good here. There isn’t as much time for the animators to flex here but the brief fights that we do get are good. The characters are always on model and the special effects are on point. The soundtrack is pretty good but mainly just stuff from the TV show. I guess they wouldn’t want to make a whole new ost for something short like this.

Overall, Basically you will definitely enjoy this title if you already like the Slime series. If you are new to the franchise this would definitely be quite the way to start it. It’s stand alone enough where you’ll understand all the main story beats and the rest you can pick up from context clues. Like I said it’s fairly low stakes and just a good chance to see the characters solving a problem and having fun. It works as more background as we see Rimuru develop into a solid king that everyone respects. So that’s fun and it’s always cool to see everyone’s reaction when they find out what a big shot the guy is. Rimuru is certainly unassuming all the time. I’m definitely ready for season 3 to come out already with more adventures for the gang. Whether they are serious action adventures or just a quick breather like this one, they’re always fun.

Overall 7/10