Bingo 5: Monsters
This bingo slot is sort of a gimme, base level since most of the protagonists are from a place now called “Tempest, land of monsters”; everyone is some kind of video game creature like goblins, dire-wolves, dragon, or in the main character’s case, he’s a slime (as in the lowest level of dungeon monster), overpowered to the point of practically invincible, but still a slime. The current situation also feature a gathering of demon lords, all whom might be literal, and at least one of whom is metaphorically monstrous in some way (so also thematic for those sections).
Major boss-level slime RImuru mostly just want wants his people to be able to live in peace, which is unlikely anytime soon. After a major attack by humans but also with some demon involvement, Rimuru has gone through the ritual to become an actual Demon Lord himself and now faces a gathering with the other Demon Lords, thus politics. One Demon Lord in particular seems to have it out for Rimuru and the only apparent reason is that Clayman can’t seem to beat Rimuru via all the sneakiness he’s been attempting, so now it’s time for the open confrontation.
This is fairly standard fantasy stuff, but what bugs me a little bit is there’s virtually no hint as to Clayman’s motives beyond some generic power trip. Even when Clayman is forced to fight Rimuru one on one, there’s still no real reason for it, and he’s got such a generic bad guy personality that there’s no real interest in the fight which is likely going to be predictable (the volume ends t=with the face off).
Most of the other groups (basically RImuru’s people versus random assortment of threats that are probably related to Clayman) have some more interesting bits; Shuna the princess-like priestess actually saves her guards using until now unknown fighting skills, and the somewhat mysterious demon summoned by Rimuru currently known as Diablo has some hints about who/what he really is.
Rimuru’s focus on saving Milim, another demon lord and sort of friend who’s part dragon, from what he suspects is magical influence makes a little progress but that too has not much information suggested, although Rimuru does get a hint. A handful of the other monsters involved sort get overlooked when someone more powerful intervenes in their fight via magic, which is too bad in a way since it misses the chance to individualize some of the fighting, but it also makes sense not to prolong those fights too much and end them in Rimuru’s favor to focus on the Clayman-Rimuru fight that’s going to probably be the next volume or few.
Overall, the story is finally going somewhere and I like the hints about the major demons, one of whom seems like he’ll sit and watch, and the other who has taken a side. I’m just hoping that the main boss fight doesn’t drag on for too long and that maybe things get a little more personality.
