That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - Episode 30 Review - Rimuru vs. Hinata Sakaguchi

Warning: Spoilers up to the end of TenSura Episode 30 (Season 2 Ep 6) follow.

This episode picks up right where the previous episode left off. We discover why Rimuru didn’t rush to the rescue of Tempest nation. It isn’t just because barriers at Tempest cut off the kijin’s connection to him. Rimuru is in some serious hot water himself!

The ep begins with a scene that ended Season 1 - Rimuru says goodbye to his Freedom Academy students. Honestly, I feel the timeline has been a little confusing this season. Now it makes sense that we caught a glimpse of Hinata Sakaguchi last season and haven’t seen her reappear until now - she wasn’t biding her time, skulking in the shadows, as literally no time has passed since the end of season 1! And we finally get to see that she is every bit the powerful antagonist that we expected her to be. Although Shizu was her teacher back in the day, it looks like Hinata is much stronger than her.

How do we know she’s much stronger? In this first meeting between her and Rimuru, she doesn’t mess around. Before even letting her presence be known, she slams Rimuru with a couple barriers that severely limit his powers. Somehow, Souei is able to teleport to Rimuru for a quick second. But he looks beaten up and gets cut off. His short appearance simply serves to make Rimuru aware that Tempest is in trouble at that very moment, which means he needs to get there as soon as possible.

Back to the rundown of Rimuru’s fight with Hinata. Because of the barriers, Rimuru can’t use spatial magic to escape the area. And Ranga can’t come out of his shadow to help. Actually, Hinata’s so strong and fast, I doubt Ranga could have done much to protect his master. 

Hinata has a brilliant and dizzying sword attack called Dead End Rainbow that hurts Rimuru on a spiritual level. Combine that with her Gluttony-like technique called Usurp that takes out Ifrit, as well as the barriers greatly weakening Rimuru, and well, our favorite slime has more than met his match.

It’s nice to have an exciting fight, but I find it annoying as to why the fight is happening. Hinata refuses to listen to Rimuru, and Rimuru is taking forever to say anything that would make Hinata stand down. It’s frustrating for us, the anime viewers, who know they shouldn’t be fighting one another. Hopefully they’re allies by the next ep. I’d hate this misunderstanding to drag on too long.

Meanwhile, Gobta, Hakurou (and maybe Shion) are wounded pretty badly fighting King Falmuth’s forces as Rimuru Town burns. Which again adds to my frustration. I demand vengeance! Especially against those A-hole Otherworlders!

(image source: Amazon)