Tensura Season 4 Episode 1 – Japanese Fans Brace for Another Council-Heavy Cour
Overview
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4 (the 5-cour Eight Bit adaptation) premiered on April 3, 2026. Episode 1 introduces Maribel Rosso as the new arc antagonist and immediately drops viewers into yet another council scene — a Tensura tradition that the fanbase loves to hate.
This article translates Japanese fan reactions from the 5ch 'Hoshoku 109' thread for episode 1. Topics include: anxiety about the pacing of a 2-cour adaptation without enough source material, debate over Maribel's effectiveness as a villain compared to fan-favorite Clayman, jokes about the mandatory council scenes ('I searched the thread for the word council — 111 hits and counting'), and the running observation that Tensura without councils would leave nothing behind.
Japanese Fan Reactions (17)
The manga isn't built up enough but they're doing 2 cours? This is going to turn into massive extension/padding territory.
This cour has ruins-exploration, the Maribel battle, and the Three Demons — lots of motion. Won't turn into a council-only anime, hopefully. Tonally hoping we can at least reach the Holy City.
Trying to fit 2 cours without going past the manga is going to end up either with thin filler content OR another nightmare of councils-on-councils. The first 2 seasons had genuinely good story and pacing — I really don't want this to deteriorate further.
The Empire arc onward is constant battle. Will the animation hold up? Now with AI in-betweening reducing workload, maybe.
I dropped the manga partway and accidentally learned the ending elsewhere, so I lost motivation to keep reading.
Maribel is just a low-tier mook with no real menace. Clayman, on the other hand, was a genuinely good villain.
Eastern Empire characters will start showing up here and there, planting seeds — and the power-level inflation gets brutal this season.
More important than Maribel is the Yuuki battle — depends on how much animation resources they pour into it.
Wait, the original novel ended? I gave up around vol 19. After the Empire arc the author clearly wanted to wrap it up fast and it became unfun. They should've just added the demon girls and done some breezy council content.
Honestly, Chuyou Doukeren and Yuuki seem dull... what we actually want to see is Rimuru's dominance and the Adalman/Ranga/Diablo combat highlights.
I turned on the TV thinking 'oh Tensura's on'... and it's another council scene. Lol. Are you kidding me.
Episode 1 done. Maribel is the enemy but feels like a heroine the way she's being treated.
Too many characters — Eren-chan didn't appear in either the OP or the main episode. Chloe-chan and Alice-chan made the OP cut and got immediate screen time, so they should get more focus.
>>16 So the main villain this round is a meganeko... I mean a meganaki (Inori) brat? Up to the ED... seriously, what a 'show-me-up' meganaki villain.
I searched this thread for the word 'council' (kaigi) — it shows up 111 times. At this rate we'll hit 200 by the end.
Battle scenes don't need to be 10+ seconds. 'They fought, they won' is enough. Skip ahead and give us the magic-train opening / tourism episode.
The original ended, but the author seems eager to write side stories. The magic-train-creation arc and magic-train travel episode might get written eventually.
Source:■