Tensura Season 1 Episode 2 Explained: Rimuru Tempest and Meeting the Goblins
Full spoilers for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 1 Episode 2, "Meeting the Goblins." If you haven't watched, stop here.
This is the second entry in this blog's backfill series working through That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime from the beginning. Episode 1 covered the premiere: a stabbed office worker waking up as a slime in a cave, discovering the Great Sage and Predator abilities, and striking up an unlikely alliance with the sealed Storm Dragon Veldora. Episode 2 picks up right where that left off, and it's the episode where the slime protagonist gets a name, leaves the cave for the first time, and starts becoming something closer to the character this franchise is actually about.
When and where it aired
"Meeting the Goblins" (Japanese: "Goburin-tachi to no Deai") aired October 9, 2018, continuing the Tokyo MX late-night broadcast slot that carried the premiere the week before. Per Wikipedia's episode list for the season, this is the second episode of the run, following directly on from "The Storm Dragon, Veldora."
Who made it
According to Wikipedia's episode-list and season 1 pages, this installment was directed by Shintaro Inokawa, with Masashi Kojima handling the storyboard and Ryōma Ebata again credited as chief animation director — carrying over the character-design work he'd done for the series overall into a hands-on animation role for this specific episode. Eight Bit remained the production studio, and the broader series staff (Yasuhito Kikuchi as series director, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu on series composition) continued in their roles from the premiere, though this episode's specific credits belong to Inokawa and Kojima rather than being asserted as Kikuchi's individual episode work.
A name, at last
The most consequential thing to happen in this episode isn't an action beat — it's a naming. Veldora, amused by and increasingly fond of the strange, talkative slime who's been keeping him company in his sealed cave, gives his new companion a name: Rimuru. In turn, Rimuru extends the gesture back, giving them both a shared family name — Tempest — tying the two together as something like kin. Wikipedia's own synopsis of the episode confirms this beat directly, describing the protagonist as given the new name of Rimuru Tempest, with Veldora receiving the Tempest surname in return. It's a small scene by action standards, but it's the moment the story's protagonist actually becomes Rimuru Tempest in any meaningful sense, rather than just "the reincarnated slime." Everything this blog has already covered in Season 4 — the Jura Tempest Federation, the Demon Lord politics, the sprawling cast of monster generals — ultimately traces back to a dragon and a slime deciding, almost as an afterthought, to name each other.
Naming carries real narrative weight in this franchise beyond simple courtesy; across the series, giving a monster a name is repeatedly treated as an act that fundamentally changes and empowers whatever receives it. That this episode opens with Rimuru and Veldora naming each other, rather than the more common one-directional master-and-pet framing, sets up the more reciprocal, partnership-flavored relationship the two maintain for the rest of the story.
Freeing Veldora, in theory
With names exchanged, the episode turns to the practical problem still sitting between the two of them: Veldora remains sealed by the "Infinity Prison," a seal that's kept him trapped in the cave for centuries. According to fan-community sourcing around the episode, Rimuru uses the Predator skill to pull Veldora into what's described as his internal "stomach" — the same absorption-and-analysis mechanic introduced in the premiere — in an attempt to study the seal from the inside and find some way to break it. That same fan-community sourcing describes the resulting effort as violent enough to send a shockwave rippling out across the nations surrounding the Jura Forest, though that specific detail hasn't been independently verified through a primary outlet here and should be treated as secondary, not confirmed reporting.
Whatever exactly happens mechanically, the seal doesn't come apart cleanly in this episode. Veldora isn't freed outright here — the attempt matters more as another demonstration of how far Predator's utility extends (it's not just a combat tool; it's an analytical one too) than as a resolved plot beat. That unresolved thread is presumably one this backfill series will circle back to in a later episode.
Out of the cave
The episode's other major development is Rimuru's actual departure from the cave that's been the entire setting so far. Per Wikipedia's synopsis, the exit comes courtesy of three human adventurers who arrive to investigate Veldora's seal and whereabouts, opening up the cave entrance that had otherwise kept Rimuru (and Veldora) boxed in.
Whatever the precise mechanism, the effect is clear from Wikipedia's own synopsis: Rimuru ends up outside, in the Jura Forest proper, for the first time since waking up in this world. That's a meaningful widening of the story's scope — the premiere was claustrophobic almost by design, confined entirely to a cave and a conversation with a dragon, and this episode is where that starts to open up into the wider fantasy world the franchise is actually set in.
The goblins and the Direwolf problem
Outside the cave, Rimuru runs into a goblin settlement, and this is where the episode's title comes from. Wikipedia's synopsis lays out the core of it plainly: the goblins have lost their guardian deity — implicitly Veldora, whose presence in the region had evidently functioned as a kind of protective force even while sealed — and without that protection, they've become vulnerable to an encroaching pack of Direwolves. Sensing Rimuru's aura and evidently reading it as a sign of real power, the goblins approach and ask for help.
It's a modest, almost humble first contact with the world's inhabitants, and that's arguably the point. Rimuru isn't riding in as an obvious conquering hero; the goblins are a small, threatened community looking for any protection they can get, and a slime radiating unusual power is enough to make them take notice and ask. According to fan-community sourcing, the village chief specifically petitions Rimuru to deal with the Direwolf pack, and Rimuru reportedly ends up fighting and defeating the pack's leader, with the surviving wolves subsequently becoming subordinates rather than continuing enemies. That outcome hasn't been independently confirmed through a primary source here, though — it's aggregated fan-community detail rather than something directly verified, so it's worth holding loosely until a primary account can back it up.
Why this episode matters structurally
Taken together, the naming scene and the goblin encounter do the real work of turning Episode 1's premise into an ongoing story. A premiere can get away with being a two-hander confined to a cave; a series can't stay there indefinitely. This episode is the hinge — Rimuru gets an identity that sticks for the rest of the franchise, gets a physical space to occupy beyond the cave, and gets introduced to the basic shape of what will become his role in the setting: someone unassuming who nonetheless draws in communities that need protecting and ends up, almost by circumstance more than ambition, becoming responsible for them. The goblins asking for help here is a small-scale preview of the much larger nation-building the Season 4 material this blog has already covered eventually grows out of.
It's also worth noting what this episode deliberately doesn't do. Veldora isn't freed. Rimuru doesn't yet have anything resembling the sprawling cast of monster generals or the Jura Tempest Federation infrastructure from later in the series. The Direwolf conflict, even in its hedged, fan-sourced form, is framed as a local, immediate problem — not a sweeping one. The show is still building outward one deliberate step at a time rather than skipping ahead to its eventual scale.
What this episode confirms and doesn't
To be clear about sourcing: the broadcast date of October 9, 2018, the episode's English and Japanese titles, Shintaro Inokawa's director credit, Masashi Kojima's storyboard credit, and Ryōma Ebata's chief animation director credit are drawn from Wikipedia's episode list and season 1 page. The core confirmed plot beats — Rimuru being renamed and taking the Tempest family name, and the goblins seeking protection from Direwolves after losing their guardian deity — are drawn from Wikipedia's own episode synopsis. The more granular plot details — pulling Veldora into the Predator "stomach" to study the seal, a resulting shockwave felt across the Jura Forest region, the specific mechanism of three human adventurers opening the cave, and the fight against the Direwolf pack leader ending with the surviving wolves becoming subordinates — reflect fan-community sourcing rather than a primary outlet's direct reporting, and are presented here as background context rather than confirmed fact. No manga chapter or light novel volume correspondence is being asserted for this episode, since nothing in the available sourcing confirmed one. MyAnimeList's episode numbering for this entry wasn't used as a sourcing basis here, since its URL numbering doesn't map cleanly onto broadcast episode order for this series.
Where to watch
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 1 remains available on Crunchyroll, with this episode accessible as the second installment of the original 2018 broadcast run.
What's next
With names exchanged, the cave left behind, and a goblin village asking for help, the next episode should pick up the Direwolf conflict directly and start showing what Rimuru's abilities look like in actual combat rather than exploration and negotiation. This backfill series will keep moving forward episode by episode from here, continuing to build the throughline toward the Season 4 material this blog has already covered.
Expect Rimuru to formally take up the goblins' cause against the Direwolf threat, start building out a small but growing community around the village, and keep testing what Great Sage and Predator can actually accomplish now that he's out in the open world.