Bingo 6: Politics
In the world today, I don’t want to have to deal with real-life politics, so I won’t. I’m going to have a look at a manga volume that emphasizes the treachery of fantasy politics. The general premise of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was initially an almost middle age ordinary guy being reincarnated in a fantasy world as the titular slime (weakest of beings). It quickly transitions to the slime (who takes the name Rimuru) becoming a leader of pretty diverse group of non-humans. They’ve since become a nation, and are having to deal with other countries, and increasingly, humans.
In volume 21, Rimuru is now the Demon Lord of the Jura Forest, and he is trying to avoid war with the kingdom of Falmouth which is largely human. Several of the humans from Falmuth seem like they’d like to also avoid a pointlessly violent conflict, but forces within Falmuth seem to keep forcing the conflict. Messages are being intercepted and altered, false narratives abound, journalists are being dragged around with the main Falmuth forces to record everything, and several of the more reasonable characters are starting to suspect interference. Politics much?
The demon Diablo (one of RImuru’s folks) is facing off with antagonists in the main Falmuth camp which includes the king and the journalists he (the king) brought along, as well as some elite forces. At least two groups of Rimuru’s followers and allies are facing off against various groups from Falmuth as well, and in both cases the monsters keep trying to reason and talk facts, while the humans mostly stick to their narrative that they have been told (and in some cases might actually believe). No possibility for modern political parallels here, nope, none at all…As for Rimuru, he’s facing off against a human he’d tried to make peace with before, but that’s not going too well for him, although Captain Hinata (said human) seems to sort of feel the same way.
By the end of this volume, one big reveal about potential manipulative interference has been revealed, Rimuru’s people are mostly together, and another power walks on scene on the final two pages presumably to shake things up once more.
