The Labyrinth Is Opened is Tempest’s theme-park launch, complete with cheaters, trapdoors, revival bracelets, and Gaiye learning that dryads do not take customer-service complaints. Veldora waits on floor 100 like a bored raid boss.
Previous: Season 3 Episode 22 — Settling the Score with the Hero · Hub: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Hook
The Labyrinth Is Opened is Tempest’s theme-park launch, complete with cheaters, trapdoors, revival bracelets, and Gaiye learning that dryads do not take customer-service complaints. Veldora waits on floor 100 like a bored raid boss.
This page is the sequential stop after Episode 22 — not a random recap dump. Scores below are for this 24 minutes only.
Quick Information
- Anime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Season / Episode: Season 3, Episode 23 (overall #71)
- English title: The Labyrinth Is Opened
- Japanese episode title: 迷宮開放
- Runtime: ~24 minutes
- Studio: 8bit
- Original air date: September 20, 2024
- Kagex score: 8.7 / 10
- Where to watch legally: Crunchyroll (region-dependent)
Should You Watch It?
Watch it if you like the dungeon as a toy. It is a multi-party crawl with Rimuru as angry GM. Skip only if game-design episodes bore you; you will miss why Gaiye is done as a joke threat. Required after the Veldora containment episode. Fun, petty, a little vicious at the end.
Beginner-friendly? No as a start point. Watch from Season 1 Episode 1. This installment assumes you already know Tempest’s core cast — Rimuru at minimum.
Bottom line: sequential viewers should not skip “The Labyrinth Is Opened.” Fight-only watchers may feel the talkier stretches; nation-building fans will not.
Spoiler Warning
Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 23 (“The Labyrinth Is Opened”) follow. Stop above for a clean first watch. This page does not spoil later episodes.
Story Recap
Doors open
Day three. The dungeon is public. Team Great Lightning, Kabal’s party, and Team Lightspeed get maps. Gaiye joins to humiliate Rimuru, which annoys Diablo and Shion until Rimuru benches them. Four dryads watch four groups. Items are for sale so people do not stay dead. Gard demos the revival bracelet by letting Gaiye kill him, which pisses Rimuru off even as the tech works. The park is open. The customers are already the problem.
The GM gets grief
Team Great Lightning falls through a trapdoor. Kabal’s party slides around traps because Eren bribed Ramiris to nerf Rimuru’s rooms. He is furious in the most dungeon-master way. Team Lightspeed drops to floor four via trapdoors. Gaiye has a treasure-sense skill. Great Lightning wipes a few times. Kabal’s group beats bats on floor two, grabs a sword, whistles home. Rimuru files a mental note to delete some trapdoors. Veldora waits on 100, still unread by the player base.
Gaiye versus customer service
Team Lightspeed beats a spider, loots a sword, whistles out. Gaiye is late to that chest and demands Delta, his dryad, respawn the boss. She cannot. He attacks her. She overpowers him, kills the bracelet, kills him, and sends him back with no rewards. Gard warns the field: follow the rules. Great Lightning trapdoors again. Rimuru announces that full clears can challenge him. Then they party. Tomorrow he still has to pay the staff. The dungeon has a TOS, and it bites.
Why the petty violence works
Gaiye has been a heel for two episodes. Letting a dryad execute the EULA on him is catharsis. Ramiris taking a bribe is the labyrinth’s first corruption scandal, played as comedy. Masayuki’s team looking competent is the hero brand surviving a video-game. Veldora’s boredom is the containment plan working too well.
A park with teeth
Public opening is the Founding Festival’s last toy. It also previews Season 4’s dungeon evolution: save points, avatars, people trying to break the economy. For now it is a successful launch with one banned customer. Rimuru still has invoices. The Rossos still have a duke.
Story Analysis
This is Rimuru playing Minecraft GM on continental television. Comedy is the bribe and Gaiye’s death. Emotion is thin, which is fine. Petty justice is the feeling. Pacing is split-screen crawls. World-building is the rule set becoming diegetic law: bracelets, whistles, dryad referees, anti-cheat.
The announcement that beating the dungeon earns a Rimuru fight is the same wager he gave Masayuki, now a product feature. Veldora as unused final boss is funny and a little sad. The episode knows it is a video game and leans in.
Character Analysis
Rimuru is furious creative director. Ramiris is the easily bribed engine. Veldora is unused content. Gaiye is the banwave. Delta is customer service with a kill switch. Gard is the crash-test dummy. Kabal’s party (Eren especially) are the exploiters. Team Lightspeed is the competent speedrun. Team Great Lightning is the tutorial death counter. Diablo and Shion want to murder Gaiye the old-fashioned way. Masayuki’s crew being in the crawl keeps the hero plot in the hole.
World Building
The labyrinth is now a public institution with referees. Revival is an itemized service. Whistles are fast-travel. Dryads can void your run. Bribing the labyrinth fairy is possible, which is a balance problem. Trapdoors are too strong in v1. Full-clear equals a Demon Lord match is official policy. Floor 100 is a True Dragon who wants players. Anti-cheat is lethal and reversible, which is the bracelet’s whole philosophy.
Nothing here is later-arc homework. If a name or rule is only teased, it stays a tease.
Animation
Multi-party dungeon variety: traps, bats, spider, dryad smackdown. Needs readable floor-to-floor changes more than one sakuga fight. Gaiye versus Delta should sting. Veldora waiting is a still, lonely shot. A game-episode look. 8bit can have fun with monster-of-the-week layouts.
Kagex animation score for this episode: 8.4 / 10 — peaks vs average cuts, not a sakuga clip ranking.
Music and Voice Acting
Score 8.3. 8bit’s TV mix leans on Elements Garden sting + silence. Japanese track is the reference for Rimuru’s dual register (cute slime vs office-brain). Dub timing varies by season; don’t wait on it to judge the episode.
Hidden Details
- Rimuru planning to remove trapdoors is patch notes as character growth.
- Voiding Gaiye’s bracelet is the fine print from Episode 14 becoming justice.
- Veldora getting zero challengers is why Hinata will later send Crusaders in to farm him.
Best Moments
- Gard letting Gaiye murder him as a product demo.
- Ramiris taking Eren’s bribe and Rimuru’s soul leaving his body.
- Delta deleting a heel’s run.
Pros & Cons
Pros: Specific to “The Labyrinth Is Opened” —
A gleeful dungeon-launch episode with a justified murder-by-TOS. Watch it for the toy and for Gaiye finally losing to the rules.
Cons: Requires earlier episodes. Viewers who only want climax fights may call the political / logistics scenes slow even when they are load-bearing.
Final Verdict
Kagex overall: 8.7 / 10 —
A gleeful dungeon-launch episode with a justified murder-by-TOS. Watch it for the toy and for Gaiye finally losing to the rules.
- Story: 8.5
- Characters: 8.6
- Animation: 8.4
- Music: 8.3
- Enjoyment: 8.8
Delta handling Gaiye is top-tier spite comedy. I also felt bad for Veldora waiting on 100 like a streamer with zero viewers.
What to Expect Next
Merchants want dwarven coins, a duke offers a poisoned loan, and the Council of the West sends a letter.
Next: Season 3 Episode 24 — After the Festival. Watch legally on Crunchyroll.
FAQ
Do I need to watch Season 3 Episode 23?
Yes if you are watching the TV series in order. Skipping “The Labyrinth Is Opened” leaves a hole later episodes assume you have.
What is the Japanese title?
迷宮開放 — Crunchyroll English title is “The Labyrinth Is Opened.”
When did it air?
September 20, 2024 in Japan. ~24 minutes. Studio 8bit.
Is this Season 3 filler?
No. Tensura’s “quiet” hours are usually nation, diplomacy, or setup — not recap filler.
Where does this sit in the overall count?
Overall TV episode 71 of the main series (S1–S3 are 72; Season 4 continues from 73).
Should I watch Slime Diaries first?
No. Diaries is optional comedy. This review is the main TV track.
Where are character guides?
Tensura characters — Rimuru, Veldora, Milim, and the Tempest officers.
Where are facts / spoilers for the franchise?
Fact and Spoilers on the hub. This episode page stays inside Episode 23.
Keep exploring
- Tensura anime hub
- Season 1 review
- Overall review
- Previous: Season 3 Episode 22 — Settling the Score with the Hero
- Next: Season 3 Episode 24 — After the Festival
- Characters
- Fact and Spoilers
Your turn
Was “The Labyrinth Is Opened” a continue episode or a skip-risk for you? Favorite beat? Who should get the next character page?
Sources: Crunchyroll episode titles; Wikipedia list of Tensura episodes; official Tensura anime site.
