Meeting of Both Sides is the episode where a peace talk dies in committee. Hinata wants to negotiate. Three of the Seven Luminaries hand her a Dragon Buster and a crystal that makes Rimuru look like he challenged her. Reyhiem’s real message never arrives. He does.
Previous: Season 3 Episode 4 — Everyone Has a Part to Play · Hub: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Hook
Meeting of Both Sides is the episode where a peace talk dies in committee. Hinata wants to negotiate. Three of the Seven Luminaries hand her a Dragon Buster and a crystal that makes Rimuru look like he challenged her. Reyhiem’s real message never arrives. He does.
This page is the sequential stop after Episode 4 — 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 5 (overall #53)
- English title: Meeting of Both Sides
- Japanese episode title: 両翼会議
- Runtime: ~24 minutes
- Studio: 8bit
- Original air date: May 3, 2024
- Kagex score: 8.6 / 10
- Where to watch legally: Crunchyroll (region-dependent)
Should You Watch It?
Watch this. It is the hinge of the first cour, still mostly talking, but every later sword swing hangs on this crystal. If you skip it, the Hinata duel is just “paladin versus slime again.” With it, you are watching two people get socially engineered. Not beginner-friendly without Season 2, and not a fight week.
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 “Meeting of Both Sides.” Fight-only watchers may feel the talkier stretches; nation-building fans will not.
Spoiler Warning
Spoilers for Season 3 Episode 5 (“Meeting of Both Sides”) follow. Stop above for a clean first watch. This page does not spoil later episodes.
Story Recap
Saints in the war room
Hinata, Nikolaus Spertus, and the Ten Great Saints argue Veldora, Rimuru, and Falmuth while Louis watches. Hinata regrets not listening the first time and smells Eastern merchants in both Tempest and Lubelius. Luminous’s order is do not attack. The Saints hate that. Hinata still chooses negotiation. That choice matters because the episode is about to steal it from her. She is not marching because she is a zealot. She is marching because someone is about to show her a clip.
Reyhiem’s wrong movie
Reyhiem arrives to deliver Rimuru’s message. Three Seven Luminaries sit in. He talks about how dangerous Rimuru is and the truth of Falmuth’s defeat, then plays a crystal that shows Rimuru challenging Hinata. It is not the message he meant. He is shocked. She is suspicious and still agrees to the challenge, because a Saint cannot ignore a Demon Lord calling her out in front of the Church. The Luminaries smile, support her, and gift the Dragon Buster. If you have been waiting for the season’s villains to have a face, they have a conference table now.
Nikolaus already knows
Nikolaus doubts this will go well. Hinata goes anyway. That is the tragedy engine: the one person in the room who smells the trap is not the one holding the new holy sword. The Dragon Buster is framed as a tool for a True Dragon problem. It is a rigged bomb with a nicer name. The episode lets you sit with that without a villain laugh track. Bureaucratic evil is the Seven Days’ whole brand.
Tempest gets the RSVP
Rimuru learns Hinata is coming with Saints. He is confused that his message did not land. Diablo appears with the rest of the sentence: Reyhiem was murdered. The peace mail is now a corpse plus a duel. Rimuru’s confusion is the point. He did not challenge her. She did not want a war. The audience has more information than either lead, which is how Tensura likes its political arcs — you watch competent people walk into a room someone else arranged.
Both sides, one script
The title is cruel. Both sides did meet. They just met the Luminaries’ version of each other. Hinata leaves Lubelius as a champion with a cursed prop. Rimuru stays in Tempest holding a dead messenger. Season 3’s first cour is no longer “will they talk.” It is “how much blood gets spilled before Luminous shows up to grade the homework.”
Story Analysis
This is the best pure-plot episode of the early cour. No padding, no festival homework. A forged recording as a casus belli is a mean trick, and the show plays it straight. Hinata’s desire to negotiate makes her more heroic, not less, because she still takes the bait when the Church’s optics demand it. Rimuru’s delayed “wait, that is not what I said” is almost sitcom timing until Diablo adds murder.
Pacing is tight for a meeting episode. Emotion sits in Reyhiem’s shock at his own crystal. Mystery becomes a named faction: Seven Luminaries. World-building is Church hardware — Dragon Buster as sacred tech that can be sabotaged. The series is arguing that holy institutions can be captured by their own middle management. That is sharper than another Demon Lord punching bag.
Character Analysis
Hinata is trying to be the adult and still gets handed a duel. Nikolaus is the skeptic who cannot stop the vote. The Ten Great Saints are peer pressure in armor. The three Luminaries are the episode’s actual antagonists: they do not debate, they edit. Reyhiem is a tragic extra — loyal enough to travel, disposable enough to be rewritten. Diablo is the one who brings Rimuru the murder. Rimuru is confused rather than furious, which is more dangerous; confused Rimuru still prepares a battlefield. Louis watching in secret keeps Luminous’s court in the shot without giving her the scene yet.
World Building
The Western Holy Church has internal factions that can override a Saint’s judgment with a crystal and a relic. The Seven Luminaries sit close enough to Luminous’s cult to impersonate divine policy. A Dragon Buster existing at all says the Church has been planning True Dragon violence as hardware, not metaphor. Messenger murder as statecraft tells you Falmuth and Lubelius are both leaky. Rimuru’s original message is now an unrecoverable primary source. In this world, whoever holds the crystal holds the war.
Nothing here is later-arc homework. If a name or rule is only teased, it stays a tease.
Animation
Council blocking, crystal playback, relic presentation. 8bit makes the Dragon Buster look important without a fight. Reyhiem’s face on the swapped message is the acting win. Lubelius interiors stay ornate and cold. A dialogue episode that still has a visual villain prop, which helps.
Kagex animation score for this episode: 8.1 / 10 — peaks vs average cuts, not a sakuga clip ranking.
Music and Voice Acting
Score 8.2. 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
- Hinata agrees despite suspicion — the show is telling you optics can beat instinct in a Church.
- The Dragon Buster is gifted immediately after the crystal, like a matching set.
- Diablo learning Reyhiem is dead before Rimuru even finishes being confused is Diablo’s information network flex.
Best Moments
- The crystal playing the wrong Rimuru.
- Nikolaus’s quiet “this will not go well” as Hinata takes the sword.
- Diablo walking in with “your messenger is dead.”
Pros & Cons
Pros: Specific to “Meeting of Both Sides” —
The cour’s turning episode: a negotiation dies on a forged highlight reel. Watch it even if you hate meetings. The later duel is fan service; this is the crime.
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: 8.6 / 10 —
The cour’s turning episode: a negotiation dies on a forged highlight reel. Watch it even if you hate meetings. The later duel is fan service; this is the crime.
- Story: 8.8
- Characters: 8.6
- Animation: 8.1
- Music: 8.2
- Enjoyment: 8.5
This is the one that made me sit up. Forged media as a holy war trigger is nasty in a way Tensura does not always go for. Hinata taking the bait while smelling the bait is painfully in-character.
What to Expect Next
Armies start walking, and Tempest has two weeks to plan a fight they still do not want to turn into a massacre.
Next: Season 3 Episode 6 — Those Approaching. Watch legally on Crunchyroll.
FAQ
Do I need to watch Season 3 Episode 5?
Yes if you are watching the TV series in order. Skipping “Meeting of Both Sides” leaves a hole later episodes assume you have.
What is the Japanese title?
両翼会議 — Crunchyroll English title is “Meeting of Both Sides.”
When did it air?
May 3, 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 53 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 5.
Keep exploring
- Tensura anime hub
- Season 1 review
- Overall review
- Previous: Season 3 Episode 4 — Everyone Has a Part to Play
- Next: Season 3 Episode 6 — Those Approaching
- Characters
- Fact and Spoilers
Your turn
Was “Meeting of Both Sides” 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.
