As a big fan of the first season, I gotta say I was thoroughly disappointed with this season of slime isekai. Not only did we have ~3 filler episodes at the start of the series, but the overall pacing has been sub-par, especially when compared to the 1st season. Guess that's what happens when you're dangerously close to where the manga currently is and you're not planning on taking a long-ass break like Black Clover.
What the 1st season excelled at, including pacing and the blending of action and worldbuilding, has been performed very mediocrely this season. However, I will say a lot of these issues can be chalked up to the horrible production Slime has gone through overall: for those that don't know, we were never supposed to get a season 2, but the higher-ups relented after seeing the success and popularity of season 1.
Story: 4/10
I still enjoy the premise of the story: typical isekai setting, but our reincarnated protagonist is very pure and wholesome instead. The 1st season was very clearly a wholesome take on the generic isekai genre, and this season was very clearly meant to start flipping that on its head. While that the tone did start to change this season, I can't say I was a fan of how it was done.
As I mentioned before, season 1 was meant to be the only anime adaptation of the manga/light novel. As a result, it ended up skipping the content we see in the first 3-ish episodes. Why they decided to include this I have no fucking clue, since it didn't add enough development to the story to justify taking up ~3 episodes worth of time, especially when you consider the other content they chose to skip in later episodes that actually would've provided more insight into the world, story, or other facets. If you consider how horrible the higher-ups behind Slime are, it's pretty clear that this shit was added to stall and milk more money.
Aside from the filler episodes we got, the overall pacing this season has been subpar. Hinata vs Rimuru took much longer than it needed to, and I literally spat out my lunch laughing when I saw Myulan posing for like 3 minutes straight or so, just spitting out a very empty monologue. Like what am I watching right now? As I brought up earlier, moments from the manga were skipped for god knows why that could've added much more depth. Myulan's romance with Youm was better developed: it feels very random in the anime. After the attack on Tempest and Rimuru's return, we had more interactions between Rimuru and humans willing to help like the merchant from Blumund: this provided way more character development for Rimuru that we never got to see in the anime. We also completely skipped Ranga and Gruciu's conversation about demon lords, which adds a LOT to worldbuilding.
Most importantly, I absolutely hated how they handled Rimuru's interaction with the Falmuth army and king. The manga portrayed everything in a much more sinister, horrific tone befitting of Rimuru's rage at the time, while the anime went with a very light-hearted, and comedic even approach. In the anime, Rimuru has a long-ass civil conversation with the king before chopping his arm off. In the manga, Rimuru exudes a demon lord aura, before immediately cutting off the fat fuck's arm the second he starts talking big. The difference in directional choice here is staggering and baffling, with the overall direction for episodes 10 and 11 was decent at best, just like the pacing for the whole season.
Art: 6/10
While the animation has been mostly nice, I was really 50/50 on the animation of Rimuru's attack on the Falmuth army. The animation for merciless and meggido was sick. But the animation (or lack thereof) afterwards was quite sad.
I could list so many ways they could've gone about making the episode much darker, making Rimuru more evil and scary, etc. etc. but I won't bother. I just implore you to check out chapters 65 and 66 if you're really interested. It'll give you a sense of how much violence/horror was censored and fluffed up in the anime (Geld vs. Shogo was significantly more bloody and gruesome than the animation made it out to be) as well as how much better content later on (compared to the first 3 episodes) that added to worldbuilding was skipped.
Sound: 6/10
Just like the animation, the sound and use of OSTs were good at most points, but there were some that really stuck out as being poor taste. Specifically, the music being played over Rimuru's slaughter using Megiddo. Why are we getting cheerful music here? This is supposed to be a very dark moment and a crucial turning point for Rimuru. Playing optimistic, happy music doesn't really fit in thematically at all.
That being said, I will applaud Gobta's voice actor for killing it during the death reveal scene, and the use of OST in the background. Very fitting, and one of few actually dark scenes executed properly this season.
Character: 4/10
A lot of crucial character moments were not done right or just outright skipped, especially for Rimuru the fucking protagonist of all people.
Just look at chapter 66, and tell me Rimuru isn't an absolute chad or badass. He not only has to hold himself back from killing the king outright the moment they meet, but he constantly intimidates and pressures him, making it very clear who's boss and who isn't. Rimuru in the anime? Has some tea with the king, remains collected even when the king is spewing bullshit, etc. etc. We never see Rimuru close to snapping or starting to live up to his name as a demon lord.
I get that Rimuru is normally supposed to be like this: calm, collected, willing to try peaceful options first, but the whole point of this arc was to show that even he could snap when pushed to his absolute limits. This is also a big turning point since he's gotta realize that peace won't be as applicable to everyone as he would like it to be, and also since he actually has to kill humans now. We just don't get this same character development in the anime. If I never read the manga, I wouldn't even assume Rimuru has undergone some sort of change: he looks and acts almost exactly the same as before.
Even the crucial introduction of Noir/Diablo is rather subpar: we skip over a lot of his initial interactions with Rimuru after being summoned, which leads to rather mediocre character development for him. Likewise, a lot of small character interactions amongst each other or with Rimuru were skipped, which makes Rimuru's primary group seem significantly more one-dimensional than they actually are.
Enjoyment: 5/10
This season of Slime is nowhere as good as the 1st season, especially when you consider how much better of a job they could've done. If you truly want to enlighten yourself, I suggest you read chapters 63-68 of the manga: it'll really make you realize how many amazing moments were delivered in a sub-par moment or skipped entirely. Moments that I was really looking forward to seeing animated, like Rimuru's demonic aura and slaughtering of the army, were completely flipped around and ignored/replaced with much more light-hearted fantasy shit. Disgusting. Interesting and meaningful character interactions were forgone for 3 filler episodes. Again, disgusting. All that being said though, this season is a serviceable adaptation of the manga content. But that's about it: mediocre when it could've been so much more, and that's more depressing than it is disgusting.
