Perhaps they use the word "initially" very, very loosely, but what ACTUALLY happens is our main character is completely, utterly, laughably overpowered within just the first episode or two and only gets more ludicrously powerful from there. This show is falsely advertised as starting out weak and from the bottom and slowly, with great struggle and sacrifice, beginning to gain power. In reality, Rimuru Tempest is Kirito levels of overpowered from very early on and the entire show revolves around everyone around him bowing down to his untouchable strength and swearing fealty without much of a fight. It's another generic isekai where the main character is conveniently among the most powerful beings in the entire world and the fate of races, countries and perhaps the entire world around him rests on his shoulders.
As a whole, while I wouldn't cite it as my FAVORITE genre, isekai has consistently been the SAFEST genre of anime for my wife and I in that we almost always enjoy them, even the unremarkable ones, and it's very rare for us to find one we legitimately dislike. We've seen a ton of them, as you can see by checking out my list, and I mention all of this as a prelude to my opinion that there isn't anything about this anime in particular, highly regarded as it is, that stands out as being special or memorable amongst an ever-crowded field of genre contemporaries. It cannot measure up to the gorgeous visuals of Grimgar, the world-building of Log Horizon, the combat or emotional punch of Sword Art Online, the comedic moments of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon or the darker more mature tone of Goblin Slayer. You're left with a program that, while not a blatant failure at anything, simply isn't amazing at anything either and fails to distinguish itself.
Something I personally didn't care for, and perhaps it's just a classic viewer versus target audience mismatch, is what felt to me like a blatantly more juvenile tone as a whole, and definitely far too much "Bro, what?" and "Bestie for restie" and similar clearly aimed at teenagers ways of speaking throughout the entire program. The target audience for this is clearly younger than I am, and that's fine, but in that same breath I'd tell you this is perhaps not the correct isekai for the mature adult viewer. The second season does have a somewhat darker tone than the first, which I appreciated, but at no point is this truly a dark anime, nor does the obnoxious "cool if you're 15 or younger" manner of speaking ever let up.
While unwaveringly portrayed as the protagonist who we're supposed to be rooting for, I'm not all that convinced that Rimuru Tempest is all that great of a person. In the second season he commits cold-blooded, merciless genocide and this is not questioned or pushed back on by any of his numerous underlings. He had a reason for doing it, and he told us it's right and it's okay, and therefore it is and we support him. Since his humor and manner of speaking fell really flat for me, combining that with what came off to me as very self-righteous, power-hungry decisions throughout the entirety of the show, I found this main character difficult to connect with or be enchanted by. He never seems to think twice about his right or his worthiness to command so many and to hold the fate of so many in his hands. He simply moves forward, growing stronger all the time, and is always 100% self-assured in everything he does. He never truly feels threatened by any enemy and there's never a fight he's not absolutely certain he will win, which simply harkens back to my point about him being overpowered- he is and he knows it, and he exploits it to the max throughout the show and never hits so much as a speed bump. The show also grants him countless ridiculously convenient benefits, such as introducing an underling out of nowhere, himself super overpowered, who immediately swears his loyalty to Rimuru Tempest and does his bidding without second thought.
This review probably made it sound like I really disliked this show, and that isn't the case. Judging by its score here on MAL it's definitely overrated, but that's not the same as me disliking it. It does have most of the bread and butter of what makes isekai so appealing in the first place- an enormous cast of characters, many different races, skills/leveling/progression, fantasy elements, etc- but for me there simply wasn't anything about this program that pushed it over the top of the numerous others that I've watched and enjoyed, and as a whole I found it just a bit too immature and aimed at too young of an audience for my personal taste. I thought it was OKAY, and I'll watch the third season whenever it's available to me, but if a friend asked me to give them a list of five isekai I think they should consider watching, this definitely wouldn't be on it. Meh...
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7~
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7 and not a fraction of a point more
