English Dub Review: Re:Monster “Re:Ject”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

A group of elves try getting Gobrou and the goblins to help them against oncoming humans, but Gobrou instead absorbs their forces and killing the men. Gobkichi finally gets to Level 100, gaining red skin and horns, making him a minotaur and able to train with Gobrou again, though he still loses. Later, a mysterious figure approaches Gobrou with a mysterious item. The older goblins decide to leave, but Gobrou gives them a parting gift to make sure they’re safe. Also he gets the ability to tame monsters. And then skeletons and kobolds attack.

OUR TAKE

So, last episode I mainly had an issue with how the bulk of it consisted of just showing Gobrou get multiple power ups and bang tons of women as if that is the equivalent of an actual story.
Now we’re onto the next episode and there’s a bit less of that, yet a problem still remains that has become a bit clearer. Every episode thus far has just felt like a list of stuff happening, not a story that is developing. Every couple or so minutes there is a title card to mark the passage of a day, which we’re up to sixty of now, but each day is made up of a monster being beaten or a character getting a new ability or a new species showing up. Those ARE all things that happen in fantasy stories like this, but they’re usually things placed around a more interconnected narrative of a character having their morals tested or growing/changing as a person. So, it occurs to me that not a lot of that is happening in this show so far. Essentially, we are watching the dry notes of someone marking their progress in playing some sort of fantasy themed version of The Sims.

Gobrou, for all his big power ups and taking leadership of his fellow goblins, has really just gotten more cocky and confident, which the story has given him every reason to be because all he does is win, win, win no matter what, and just about every other goblin has done nothing but encourage it. The only meaningful exception is Gobkichi, who is always working to be his rival in strength, but even then doesn’t have any big insecurity about that which would lead him to take any drastic action, at least not yet. Not that it would necessarily be better if he WAS that way, in fact it would potentially be pretty cliche, but it would at least make him more distinct as a character amongst all of Gobrou’s groupies. It’s actually part of what made most of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime so annoying, since it focused so much on Rimiru amassing unlimited abilities and sexy and powerful people who all loved him totally and unconditionally instead of putting him in situations that tested his character. And maybe that’s the unfortunate fate that awaits Re:Monster as it continues, but we’re only a third of the way through, so things still have time to change course.