Tensura Season 1 Episode 8 Explained: Inherited Will
Full spoilers for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 1 Episode 8, "Inherited Will." If you haven't watched, stop here.
This is the eighth entry in this blog's backfill series working through That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime from the beginning. Episode 7 ended with a fire spirit separated from Shizu and held inside Rimuru, which solved the immediate danger and left a much quieter question behind: what happens to Shizu now? Episode 8 answers it, and per Wikipedia's synopsis it is an episode about endings, about what gets passed on, and, in its last lines, about the start of something much worse.
A note on sourcing before the plot. This post relies on Wikipedia's season 1 episode list and on The Geekly Grind, a small outlet whose piece is a combined review of Episodes 7 through 9. Its plot summary covers Episodes 7 and 8 together, so details from it are credited to the outlet and not pinned to individual scenes. No Anime News Network review is used, and no light novel or manga comparison is made.
When it aired and who made it
According to Wikipedia's episode list for the season, "Inherited Will" (受け継がれる想い, "Uketsugareru Omoi") aired November 20, 2018. Wikipedia credits Takumi Dōyama as director, Katsumi Terahigashi with the storyboard, and Takashi Mamezuka as chief animation director.
As with the earlier entries, the episode table credits no writer for this episode, so this post does not attribute the script to anyone. The director, storyboard artist and chief animation director are all different names from the ones Wikipedia lists for Episode 7.
Wikipedia's official synopsis
Wikipedia's synopsis for the episode reads, in full: "Shizu tells Rimuru about someone known as the Hero who took her in and showed her the right path before mysteriously disappearing one day. Sensing her life is coming to an end, Shizu, not wishing her body to remain in this world, asks Rimuru to eat her, giving him the ability to take a human form that resembles a younger version of Shizu. He then informs the others of Shizu's death. The three say their farewells to Shizu through Rimuru's human form and receive new weapons from him before leaving. As Rimuru decides to seek out information on Leon in order to convey Shizu's final words to him, a masked man named Gelmud recruits an orc that he names Geld with the intention of bringing forth a great orc disaster in the forest."
Five sentences, and the sections below take them in order: a mentor's story and a request, the announcement of a death, a farewell, a quest, and a cut to a scene unrelated to the mourning.
The Hero and Shizu's story
The synopsis opens with Shizu talking. She tells Rimuru "about someone known as the Hero who took her in and showed her the right path before mysteriously disappearing one day." That is everything the synopsis says about this figure, and it is everything this post will say about him or her. The synopsis gives the title and no name, and this post does not guess at an identity.
The Geekly Grind's plot summary fills in more of the surrounding history, though it is a single source and, as noted, it covers Episodes 7 and 8 in one go. According to that outlet, Shizu asks Rimuru to listen to her story so that it is known she lived and tried to do good for the world. It says she served as a close aide to the Demon Lord Leon Cromwell, who summoned her from Japan more than 50 years earlier, and that she once killed one of her dearest friends while possessed by Ifrit. After meeting a masked hero, the outlet says, she resolved to change, and she went on to run a school for children who had been teleported from another world. The outlet adds that she hoped Leon could answer whether those children could be returned home.
Some of this overlaps with the earlier posts, where Wikipedia's synopses name Leon Cromwell as her summoner and describe a friend killed by Ifrit. The masked hero, the school and the question about sending children home are new here, and they rest on the Geekly Grind alone.
Asking to be eaten
The center of the episode, per Wikipedia, is a request. "Sensing her life is coming to an end, Shizu, not wishing her body to remain in this world, asks Rimuru to eat her." It is a striking sentence, and what makes it work is the logic given for it: Shizu does not want her body to stay behind.
The Geekly Grind frames it in its own terms. It says Shizu asks Rimuru to consume her with Predator so that she can "rest within him." That exact phrase is the outlet's, and it is a gentler description than the blunt "eat her" in Wikipedia's synopsis. The two are describing the same request from different angles, one by what Rimuru does and one by what Shizu hopes it means.
The same outlet describes her death in a single line, saying that "Shizu's hair goes to white and she passes peacefully in her sleep." The Wikipedia synopsis, for its part, says only that Shizu senses her life is coming to an end and that Rimuru later informs the others "of Shizu's death." It does not describe how she dies, so the hair detail and the peaceful passing are the Geekly Grind's account alone.
Inside Rimuru
One more detail from the Geekly Grind: it says that inside Rimuru's stomach, "Shizu comes to consciousness and embraces her long-lost Mother." This comes from that one outlet, the Wikipedia synopsis does not mention it, and no other source was checked for it, so treat it as a single-source description rather than something confirmed.
Rimuru's human form
The request has a consequence. According to Wikipedia, eating Shizu gives Rimuru "the ability to take a human form that resembles a younger version of Shizu." The Geekly Grind describes it more generally. In that outlet's account, Rimuru takes a humanoid shape for the first time since arriving in this world, and he can switch between humanoid and slime forms.
These are two descriptions of the same development, and this post keeps them separate rather than merging them. Wikipedia says the form resembles a younger version of Shizu. The Geekly Grind says humanoid, and says he can change back and forth. Neither gives more detail on what the form looks like.
Farewells and new weapons
After the transformation, the synopsis says Rimuru "informs the others of Shizu's death." The others are not named in the synopsis at this point, though the next sentence refers to "the three," and the Episode 6 synopsis introduced Eren, Kaval and Gido as the adventurer group that Shizu asked to join. This post reads "the three" as that trio, but note that this is an inference from the surrounding synopses, not something the Episode 8 synopsis states in as many words.
Then comes the farewell: "The three say their farewells to Shizu through Rimuru's human form and receive new weapons from him before leaving." The Geekly Grind agrees on the shape of it. It says the trio ask Rimuru, in his human form, to let each of them thank "Shizu" for mentoring them, and that as a parting gift Rimuru has Kaijin and the dwarves craft premium-grade equipment for them.
Per both sources, then, Rimuru's new form is put to use at once as a way for the trio to speak to Shizu. The Geekly Grind is the only source for the mentoring detail and for Kaijin and the dwarves making the weapons; Wikipedia says only that the three "receive new weapons from him."
Leon, and a different kind of closing hook
The synopsis's last sentence is two scenes joined by a comma. First: "As Rimuru decides to seek out information on Leon in order to convey Shizu's final words to him." Rimuru sets himself a goal, and it is a personal one rather than a heroic one. Leon is the demon king Wikipedia's Episode 6 synopsis names as Shizu's summoner. According to the Geekly Grind, Shizu hoped he could answer whether the children from her school could be sent home, so there is a loose thread already attached to his name. The synopsis does not say what Shizu's final words are, and this post will not invent them.
Second, and abruptly: "a masked man named Gelmud recruits an orc that he names Geld with the intention of bringing forth a great orc disaster in the forest." That is where the synopsis stops. The spellings here follow Wikipedia. The synopsis gives three facts: a masked man called Gelmud, an orc he names Geld, and an intention to bring about a "great orc disaster" in the forest. It says nothing about the scale of the disaster, nothing about what Geld is or becomes, and nothing about how Gelmud and Rimuru's circle are connected, so none of that is claimed here.
What can be said is that the synopsis puts the grief and the hook in the same final line: a mournful quest on one side, a villain's plan on the other.
What one outlet says
Only one review of Episode 8 was verified for this post. The Geekly Grind is a small outlet, and its piece is a combined review of Episodes 7 through 9, so what follows is one outlet's opinion and not a consensus.
The reviewer, credited as Mithrandiel, writes: "Just when you think you've got a handle on this show, it just has to go and deliver a gem like episode 8. Despite being a bit rushed at points, the Shizu arc ultimately wrapped up masterfully, with an impactful goodbye to a character that will no doubt shape our protagonists actions for many episodes to come."
The review also says: "We're familiar with redemption stories, but what makes Shizu's narrative even more engaging is the various plot threads that are tied so closely into her background. There's suggestion of being able to return to one's previous world, the mysterious Hero that defeated Veldora serving as her mentor, and of course, her service to a Demon Lord. I'm certainly interested in seeing these different storylines unpacked in time."
The praise comes with a caveat the reviewer states himself, that the arc is "a bit rushed at points." The review is also where the Hero is described as having defeated Veldora, a claim attributed here to that outlet alone. It is one reviewer's reading, written about a three-episode stretch, and it should be weighed that way.
How it connects back to Episode 7
Wikipedia's Episode 7 synopsis ends with Rimuru using Predator to swallow Ifrit, "separating him from Shizu in the process and trapping him inside of his stomach along with Veldora." Episode 8's synopsis then has Shizu telling Rimuru her story and making her request. It does not say how the two of them reached that point, and this post does not either. But Predator, the ability that held the fire spirit in the previous episode, is the same ability that Shizu, per the Geekly Grind, asks Rimuru to use on her.
That link is a reading of the sources, not an official statement. As for Episode 6, its synopsis ends with Rimuru not knowing that Leon had made Shizu the vessel of Ifrit. Episode 8's synopsis ends with Rimuru resolving to seek out information on Leon so he can pass on her final words.
What this post confirms and doesn't
To be clear about sourcing: the title, Japanese title, transliteration, air date of November 20, 2018, and the credits for Takumi Dōyama, Katsumi Terahigashi and Takashi Mamezuka come from Wikipedia. The official synopsis, including the Hero, Shizu's request, Rimuru's younger-Shizu human form, the farewells, the new weapons, Leon, Gelmud and Geld, is Wikipedia's. The Geekly Grind supplies the review quotes, the "rest within him" phrasing, the hair and peaceful-passing detail, the stomach reunion, the humanoid form with switching, the Kaijin and dwarf-crafted equipment, and Shizu's wider history. That outlet's plot summary covers Episodes 7 and 8 together, and its stomach scene is not corroborated elsewhere in the sources used.
Not covered, because it was not verified: any score or verdict from a major outlet, any comparison to the light novels or manga, the Hero's identity, what Geld becomes or how big the orc disaster is, any viewing figures, streaming or dub information, voice actors, and anything about Episode 9's content.
There is currently no character page for Shizu, Leon Cromwell, Gelmud or Geld on this site, so none of them are linked here.
What's next
Wikipedia lists Episode 9 as "Attack of the Ogres." That title is the only thing checked for it, so this post does not describe its events. Given where Episode 8's synopsis ends, with Rimuru looking for Leon and Gelmud preparing his orc, there are plainly several threads in motion. This series will pick up Episode 9 next.
Wikipedia lists Episode 9 as "Attack of the Ogres." This post only checked that title, not a synopsis, so it does not say what happens in it. The next entry in this backfill series picks up there.