light novel – Page 2

Ogre-Reacting – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 9 Review

Ogre-Reacting – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 9

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 9.

So how’s this episode? Too often I feel like my reviews of this show–more than any other show I cover week-to-week–almost feel like a reaction to other reviews/opinions, rather than reviewing the episode itself. So in the interest of not being a person who’s endlessly defending a show against other people’s opinions I’m instead going to review the show like I’ve not seen anyone’s complaints about it!

Whatever fills out the spaces between the screencaps… that’s all that anyone pays attention to anyway. Harsh, but fair.

So what happens in the episode anyway? Rimuru transforms into his human self and tries to figure out if he’s a boy or a girl–turns out he’s genderless–which you know, makes sense considering slimes (probably) are, but still an interesting thing to bring up. After realising that his human form has taste buds (and therefore can actually taste food) he asks that his tribe prepare a great feast to celebrate! After playing around with some new abilities he got from Shizu he receives a call (via telepathy?) from his direwolf Ranga that trouble is brewing!

What’s the trouble? Well the tribe hunting party has been beset upon by a group of ogre’s! And first of all let me just say I love how varied the designs are for the ogre’s–if the goblin’s seemed a little bit samesy–then the ogre’s definitely don’t have the same problem. Also, I ~love~ the sexy tall ogre Shion–I mean I loved her from the first time seeing her in the credits but getting to actually see her in action was everything I could have hoped for!

She can crush my bones to make her bread if you know what I mean…

Uh-huh… please get to the point. So they’re having a scuffle because the ogre’s believe Rimuru (who’s now wearing Shizu’s mask in an effort to utilize its magic dampening abilities to hide his intensely powerful aura) is responsible for sending a horde of pigs into their village and decimating it. They have a fight–Rimuru easily incapacitating the ogre attackers–but he doesn’t want to fight, he just wants everyone to get along! Eventually he manages to convince them of his innocence, with the help of a cute pink ogre girl called Shuna, who realises that he’s not the one they’re looking for. Afterwards Rimuru invites them all to join their feast–and that’s it. The whole episode.

She’s cute! He’s a bit of a loud mouth douche, but I’m sure he’ll come good.

Okay, you sound disappointed. I’m not, rather, I wasn’t while watching it, I was having a good ol’ time! I liked Rimuru’s creative ways of non-lethally incapacitating his opponents, I enjoyed the banter, I especially enjoyed the ogres. But yeah, while I’ve often defended the pacing of this show, I think they could have gotten to the point a heck of a lot quicker. Like I get it, the head ogre was angry and wanted vengeance and wasn’t willing to listen to reason, but it didn’t need to take as long as it did to just get to ~neutral~ again. But really, this is only a complaint if you’re watching this week-to-week, in a binge this probably feels fine! And as I said I enjoyed the episode enough what this amounts to is a nitpick at best. Great episode, more sexy ogre action please!

I mean, hard to disagree with the facts.

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review
Slime Is On Their Side – Episode 2 Review
A Name Brings Great Chance – Episode 3 Review
Elf-Care – Episode 4 Review
The King’s Justice – Episode 5 Review
Building Connections – Episode 6 Review
Burning Away The Past – Episode 7 Review
Ashes To Ashes, Slime To Slime – Episode 8 Review

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Ashes to Ashes, Slime to Slime – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 8 Review

Ashes to Ashes, Slime to Slime – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 8

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 8.

So how’s this episode? I cried. Yup, that’s right, I did.

Oh no, what happens? Well, spoilers, obviously. But damn it, they killed Shizu! We finally get a cute, strong girl on this show and they damn well kill her off! I ~probably~ should have seen it coming, but it still caught me off guard, guess I’m not used to watching shows that kill off characters for good.

That’s pretty serious. Are you mad that they killed her off? I would be if they didn’t do such a damn fine job of it all. Like the episode took its time with her death scene, it was emotional and raw and honest and even kind of beautiful. But it was the moment after she’s absorbed into Rimuru where she’s running through the fog and then sees her house and her mother, and then she’s a little girl again and, oh god… here come those tears again!

Wait. She was “absorbed into Rimuru”? It was her dying wish, she didn’t want to be buried in the ground of this other world that she was summoned to. She knew she could rest easy within the gelatinous bosom of her lord and saviour Rimuru. I mean I say that half-jokingly but if we’re to take what Shizu saw as being ~real~ that is to say something that she’s actually experiencing and not just her last dying thoughts then Rimuru is basically a god with the power of gifting people heaven after death. But I’m probably not meant to think about that too hard, right?

Uh-huh. So what about the rest of the episode? If anyone were to complain about previous episodes being too slow, you know what fine, that’s a fair call. This show takes its time with just about everything. But I couldn’t imagine a more perfectly paced and respectful (but not morose) episode than this, so many show’s disregard the impact of the death of a character–or hurry it along out of the way and try and brighten it up with the next scene. But this episode took its time and it’s like a proper eulogy for Shizu and I loved that about it.

But she was only in the show for like, 3 episodes, how attached can you get to her? I was attached after one episode, but I’ll address that complaint–she was important to lots of people, not just amongst our cast of characters but to so many people during her life as a teacher–yes we only see those scenes now on her deathbed but they are still important, they show a rich and storied life and it’s hard not to feel the sorrow for that life being suddenly extinguished. But arguably, the biggest impact Shizu will live is due to him using the “predator” ability to absorb her. Because of that he now has a human form that he can switch to, that of a pale, light blue-haired girl. Now Shizu will always be a part of Rimuru and that’s kind of beautiful.

Got ‘Hinamatsuri’ vibes from this “introduction”.

Well you obviously feel strongly about this. Anything else you wanted to add? There’s an interesting bit of narration at the end of the episode that gives the sense that these past 8 episodes have just been something of an extended prologue to the series that is to come. Which I mean, is kind of what i’ve been saying all along but whatever I’m not one to play “I told you so”. With the appearance of a mysterious masked figure in the desert and the ‘creation’ of a powerful new foe, it’ll be interesting to see where the show goes next. As for this episode specifically, I loved it–not much else to say but that!

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

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Burning Away The Past – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 7 Review

Burning Away The Past – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 7

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 7.

So how’s this episode? It’s very good. It hits all the right emotional beats, it’s exciting and surprisingly tense given that our protagonist is an unkillable super slime. But this show is acutely aware of this fact–and so puts the people ~around~ Rimuru in varying degrees of peril instead in order to elicit that much needed tension. Though it’s not perfect–and I’ll get back to that in a minute.

So what happens then? Well we get a better look into Shizu’s backstory with her childhood upon first being summoned to this fantasy world. Basically the flame demon god Ifrit–which inhabits her kind of overrides all her sense of reason when it “comes out” and she’s ended up frying a lot of friends in the process–something that understandably haunts her. She tries to hold it in but after years (decades even) of trying to contain that side of her, Ifrit fully awakens and begins causing problems, burning the newly built Goblin town to the ground.

What do they do to stop her/it? For one thing I’m glad the three adventurers she was travelling with don’t just turn the other way and run–even though that’d be the smart thing to do, they know they’re outclassed but they’re going to fight all the same! They’re also aware that Shizu hasn’t suddenly turned traitor on them and that this is a separate (albeit one who was using Shizu as a vessel) entity and she’s not to blame for what’s happening. Predictably though, they’re defeated and carried off the battlefield by a direwolf, leaving Rimuru to battle the fire demon whose mere presence is so intensely hot that the ground below him turns to lava.

Little Shizu was so adorable, too bad this flashback scene ends in tragedy.

Okay then, so what does Rimuru do to stop Ifrit? I’m not sure why Rimuru acted as “dumb” as he did in this episode, first he tries some of his most basic attacks against the demon–which fail. Then he actually worries he’s about to die when engulfed in one of the demon’s fire attacks. And they don’t even rationalise it in that he’s worried what’s happened to Shizu and that’s why he’s not thinking straight, he just has a massive series of dumb moments before realising he can use his “Predator” ability to straight up absorb and contain Ifrit like he did with Veldora the tempest dragon. I mean at least he realises how stupid he was and even Sage (the all knowing voice in his head) makes a snarky sound too–so at the least the show is aware of his shortcomings in this moment.

Right. Anything else you wanted to add? So the episode ends with Shizu lying on the ground and we’re left wondering if she lived or died. I mean I hope she’s okay, because I really like her character but who can say for sure? Regardless this was another very high quality episode and it’ll be interesting to see where they go from here!

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

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Building Connections – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 6 Review

Building Connections – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 6

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 6.

So how’s this episode? It’s excellent–probably my favourite one so far.

Wow, high praise–so how much fan service is in it? None whatsoever.

What?! Who are you and what have you done with the real Cactus Matt? Ha ha. But I’m dead serious, this episode managed to capture an ineffable quality that I couldn’t help but be enraptured by while also introducing us to Shizu–a fellow Japanese person who was summoned to this world to be used as a weapon.

An early contender for best girl of this show. Guess we’ll have to meet the others first to get a definitive answer on that though!

Oh? Well that’s pretty interesting! Care to go into detail on that? Well the episode only gives us a teaser–undoubtedly there’s more to come in the next episode but what we do learn (and what was teased in the very first scene of the first episode) is that Shizu was just a child living in WW2 era Japan and was in the midst of escaping a bombing raid with her mother when she was “summoned” via a torrent of swirling fire to the fantasy world that this series is set. And I love the fact that there’s seemingly multiple ways of people coming to this world from ours, it’s not just all the same way and it’s not just one person like so many isekai tend to be.

And what about the rest of the episode? What was so “ineffable” about it? If it’s “ineffable” that means I have trouble putting it into words, doesn’t it?

True, but I mean do at least try will you? That is your job after all… Rimuru returns to the goblin village to find at least 3 other goblin tribes have joined their village seeking refuge from the growing threat of monsters in the surrounding woods. He’s hesitant to let them stay because it makes his–and everyone else’s–jobs more difficult but he knows if he turns them away they’ll become monster chow. So he let’s them stay and we see as slow but gradual process is being made on turning the place into a place worth living. And I ~love~ the whole ‘building a town’ from scratch thing that’s going on. It taps into a very specific love I have of town building sims like ‘SimCity’ and variants but also just that primal desire to create.

We’ll build a casino on the left and an international airport on the right.

Doesn’t seem so “ineffable” after all. Anything else? We’re also re-introduced to the scouting adventurers that Rimuru (briefly) encountered at the cave entrance back in Episode 2. And I love these guys, they’ve got a great dynamic and even if they aren’t around for long it was fun to have some more ‘human’ characters around for once!

That sounded kinda racist. Yeah it did a bit, didn’t it? Apologies to any non-humans who were offended by that remark!

But have you ever been ‘stuff your face’ hungry?

What was your favourite moment of the episode? I’m glad you asked (almost like I planned that). I genuinely shed some tears when Rimuru ‘shared his memories’ with Shizu–showing her a very brief clip-show of how far Japan has come since WW2 and that it’s now a place of peace for everyone. It was very sweet of Rimuru and while obviously helping in endearing Shizu to Rimuru it also served as outlying Rimuru’s goal going forward. He wants to be able to bring peace to this world too–a noble goal indeed!

Conveniently gets around having to explain to her what skyscrapers are.

Seems like nothing but praise for the episode, huh? Oh I could nitpick if you force my hand. The scene with Shizu, while emotional was over far too quick in my opinion. I’d have been happy if it went a few more minutes, but then again we’re probably getting a whole episode about her next week so I can’t be too greedy. Also Rimuru’s new goal of bringing peace–seemingly comes out of nowhere–or rather maybe it’s just his way of trying to win the heart of this new girl whose life has seemingly known nothing but combat. Regardless, I still think this episode was strong, as I have thought so of the previous and look forward to watching more!

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

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The King’s Justice – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 5 Review

The King’s Justice – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 5

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 5.

So how’s this episode? I think I really love this show.

Okay, why? Maybe I’ll explain what happens in the episode first. So while Rimuru and his new dwarven drinking buddies are living it up in the ‘sexy elf bar’, a minister named Vesta (the political kind) stops by to antagonise one of the blacksmiths Kaijin who he has a long and troubled history, he also acts like a dick to Rimruru. Kaijin doesn’t take kindly for the way his new friend is being treated and and clocks Vesta unconscious. They all end up in prison as a result, and then have a trial before the hero king Gazel Dwargo. The king takes into consideration his own history with Kaijin (he used to be one of his elite guards) and exiles the lot of them from the kingdom. But the most interesting thing is the amount of time the show spends after the exile on the strained to breaking point relationship between the king and the minister Vesta.

What’s so interesting about it? They could have easily spent ten seconds on a scene saying “Vesta you’re exiled for being a lying dick”. But instead they actually humanise Vesta’s actions—incredibly selfish and dickish as they may have been—and have him breaking down in front of the king. Here’s a character who was only introduced like 10 minutes previously and he’s afforded such character development—and not only that it’s well written and compelling stuff. I think that’s something that’s incredibly unique about this show is that it takes its time to make ~everyone~ in this world more substantial than they first appear. Probably a result of this being an incredibly faithful light novel adaptation, but it’s still something to behold nonetheless. Like, who knows if we’ll ever even see Vesta again but his brief appearance was compelling.

I never expected to be moved by a one-episode villain character, but here we are.

But why spend so much time on fleshing out a character that has little to no impact on the current narrative situation? So what, he should have just been a cardboard cut-out bad guy? Yes, its arguable time could be spent on moving the plot forward—after all it’s episode 5 and we’ve met precisely two of the dozens of characters that feature in the opening credits but I respect this show’s restraint in storytelling. Maybe it won’t pay off—maybe this show will be unsuccessful in sales in Japan and we’ll have a 24-episode season that spent way too long with insignificant details and lengthy world building. Or maybe it’ll run for many seasons to come and we’ll look back on these little details and marvel at how they’re connected to things 2 or 3 seasons from now. The failure in episodic reviewing is not envisioning the bigger picture and seeking instant gratification. I haven’t read the light novels (nor will I ever) but this series feels like so much set-up that’s inevitably going to lead to great things and I’m happy to be patient and wait for it to come, whether it’s in the next cour or in seasons yet decided.

You can’t blame people for wanting more on an episode-by-episode basis though, you can’t expect people to be patient for something they don’t even know exists. To me, it’s like sitting through the first 90 minutes of the first’ Lord of the Rings’ film (which is ~3 hours if you didn’t know) and complaining that they haven’t gotten very far yet!

That’s not the first time you’ve brought up the ‘Lord of the Rings’—this isn’t the Lord of the Rings… I’m just saying I think people have unrealistic expectations of a show that’s obviously more content to take its time than others. You want another comparison that’s not ‘Lord of the Rings’? Okay, it’s like watching a 20+ episode arc of a shonen series and wondering why they haven’t gotten to the top of the tower to defeat the bad guy after only 5 episodes. Things build at different paces, things takes different routes, fiction isn’t a straight line where the protagonist runs from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ with no detours.

*Pretty* sure he could escape from that, even without his over-powered powers.

I think you need to stop arguing against other people’s criticisms of a show and just review the show that exists. If you’re going to do this every damn review it’s going to get tiresome. I’m sorry; I guess I was just in the mood to rant.

Fine. Anything else you want to add? Also, I kind of get the sense this series knows people’s attention ~might~ be waning because not only does it hint at future things to come with an ambiguous fortune telling scene that teases new characters, but the ED visuals are different in that rather the simple ‘repeating scenes from the episode we just watched’ shtick that the previous four episodes did. We get new visuals which tease more action and characters! Either way, regardless of this new tease this episode is great, just like all the others and I can’t wait ‘til next week!

So many new faces among some familiar ones!

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review
Slime Is On Their Side – Episode 2 Review
A Name Brings Great Chance – Episode 3 Review
Elf-Care – Episode 4 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Elf-Care – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 4 Review

Elf-Care – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 4

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 4.

So how’s this episode? It’s the breast one yet; sorry I mean the best one yet. I mean the plot’s still moving slowly but it’s only the tit of the iceberg—tip, tip of the iceberg! Ahem, sorry it’s just my mammary of this episode a bit of a jiggly haze, argh, all these damn typos I’m making a total boob of myself!

Preoccupied thoughts huh? Listen, I’m not going to pretend like this show isn’t taking its sweet time getting to an ~actual~ plot—but like I said in my episode 2 review and my episode 3 review—I don’t care. I’m used to slice of life shows, I could have a whole season of Rimuru just bouncing around with his over-powered little self getting out of sticky situations.

And do these “sticky situations” you speak of involve breasts in this particular episode? What ever gave you that idea?!

Don’t play dumb. Okay, yes, this episode has a particularly fan service heavy ending scene at a sexy Elven establishment in the Dwarf city that Rimuru and his friends have found themselves at. And so ~excuse me~ if I’m just a little bit happy that we’re finally getting some eye candy after an absolute drought of it (excluding Goblina from last episode).

Don’t be alarmed by the young-looking ones, they are elves and this is an anime so they’re probably 2000 years old.

Yeah that’s all well and good, nobody’s going to fault you for being happy about boobs (to your face at least) but presumably there’s the whole rest of the episode you should be talking about? Rimuru and his goblin x wolf crew ride up on the dwarven city of Dwargon, get into some trouble with some “tough guys”. Rimuru and Gobta are thrown in jail but Rimuru helps out some injured family members of the head prison guard. In return Rimuru is introduced to the local blacksmith, who Rimuru also helps out and is rewarded with the help he needs to help the goblin x direwolf village prosper as well as the aforementioned bevvy of elven boobs at an “elf bar”.

Sorry nothing sexy here. I mean, unless you’ve got a sword fetish?

Why’d you put inverted commas around “elf bar”? Well that’s what the wiki synopsis said, but this is more like a ‘hostess club’ but I guess that’s not really a concept many people in the West would be familiar with.

Uh-huh. So overall thoughts on the episode the whole episode—not just the elf boobs? Tch! I’m consistently enjoying this show, slow pace and all, the fact that Rimuru seemingly is one of the most overpowered protagonists as far as having a convenient answer for (almost) every situation doesn’t deter me in the slightest. If anything this whole series is sort of some ~karmic~ reward for both having lived a life as a virgin and sacrificing his life for someone who ‘arguably’ had a lot more to live for (that being his work colleague from Episode 1). Sure there’s probably all manner of more deserving people in the world if you ~really~ want to be serious and pedantic about it and it’s absolutely pandering to its Japanese target audience—but who cares?! I’m having a lot of fun with this show and that’s all that matters to me.

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review
Slime Is On Their Side – Episode 2 Review
A Name Brings Great Chance – Episode 3 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

A Name Brings Great Change – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 3 Review

A Name Brings Great Change – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 3

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 3.

So how’s this episode? Surprisingly deep.

Oh? And how’s that? Well to give a quick summation of the episodes events, our Slime protagonist Rimuru decides to help fight the direwolves who are threatening to wipe out the Goblins. He does so, killing a bunch and then their leader before asserting his dominance with a newly acquired ability from the deceased pack leader. Rather than run away though the pack submits—so now he has two tribes under his rule. Then in what I consider to be potentially the episodes most game-changing development Rimuru decides to give them all names to make it easier to tell them apart. But it’s a big deal for these goblins and direwolves because as it turns out a name doesn’t just confer title it confers status and power.

So they all level up basically? That’s the ~surface~ level interpretation but there’s a lot more to it than that and of course I’m going completely on a tangent that may not have been intended by the writer nor something that will have any actual bearing on the story so just go with it.

Go on then. Rimuru is in a position to effect real social change in what is presumably a generic fantasy world with the tropes and hierarchical set up that puts humans (and presumably elves too) at the top—with monsters like goblins being the downtrodden “lesser races”. But suddenly all that can be torn down and shaken up, if Rimuru has the power to basically ‘evolve’ monster classes into more powerful variants, but ones with conscious thoughts and hopes and dreams it stands to reason that some of these otherwise nameless monsters will strive for higher status in society. And how do you think the higher-up races like humans and elves (who let’s face it, are probably racist anyway) are going to react to these so-called “monsters” suddenly wanting ~more~? If that isn’t a set-up for drama, I don’t know what is!

Uh-huh… but all that’s just presumption, none of that might come to fruition? This is true, but it still makes for an interesting thought. Does it not?

I suppose so. So you going to review the ~actual~ content of the episode and not the stuff you “presume”? It’s good, fun, more of the same really. It’s taking its time which as I said last week, I actually enjoy. In some respects it reminds me of The Lord of The Rings and this is just the start of a long journey to come. I also enjoyed the new Goblin designs, especially the female ones (I think they’re called ‘Goblinas’ now), very bouncy, me likey.

You know sometimes you have me fooled into thinking you’re capable of thought-provoking discourse and then you go and follow it up with phrases like “very bouncy, me likey”… Hey, at least I’m honest about what I like!

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review
Slime Is On Their Side – Episode 2 Review

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Slime Is On Their Side – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 2 Review

Slime Is On Their Side – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 2

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 2.

How’s this episode? Much like our titular protagonist, it’s bouncing along at a slow but steady pace, this is definitely a show that isn’t in a hurry to get anywhere and I kind of appreciate that, especially compared to ~some~ light novel adaptations (*cough*The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar*cough*) which feel like they’re adaptation massive sections of story in short spans of running time. That said, this absolutely feels like a show that benefits from being binge-watched rather than week-to-week.

Unlikely friends. (You can hardly see the little slime, he looks like a rock!)

So what happens in it? After some more chatting with the tsun-dragon where it’s decided they should give each other names, dragon calls slime Rimuru and Rimuru calls dragon Tempest. They decide the best course of action—rather than leave Tempest alone in his ‘prison’—is for Rimuru to absorb the dragon, prison and all, until they can find a way to release the spell that’s trapping him. Inadvertently, the disappearance of the dragon precipitates a chain reaction as lower level monsters have become unsettled. I enjoyed the fact we got a glimpse at a city official speaking with a guild leader—the series is slowly expanding its scope—but again, at it’s own deliberate pace.

Does Rimuru actually leave the cave? Yes, he finally leaves and stumbles across a Goblin village, who rather than attack him, they all bow down to him, in frightened awe of the terrifying ~aura~ he apparently emits. He meets with the village elder and we learn that these goblins used to worship the dragon as a god until it disappeared, and with its disappearance Direwolves came and started slaughtering the goblin fighters trying to protect the villagers. They beg Rimuru to help them out of their dire predicament, and he obliges earning the goblin tribe’s fealty.

I can’t be the only one who noticed how well defined these Goblin’s butts are?

And that’s the whole episode? More or less—I was surprised how quickly I was endeared to the goblins, I mean you don’t expect goblins to be characters you can sympathise with their usually mindless objects of scorn expected to be slain, but I like these guys! And I’m glad Rimuru continues to be such a nice guy, uh, slime. Other than that there’s not much else to say, the pacing’s only a problem if your impatient otherwise it’s an entertaining, steadily paced adventure that’s only just beginning!

How it feels when you realise you’ve been walking around with food stuck in your teeth.

Previous The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Reviews:

Slife After Death – Episode 1 Review

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Slife After Death – ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 1 Review

Slife After Death – An Anime QandA Review of ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime’ Episode 1

What’s the show? That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Episode 1.

And… well I feel almost silly asking but what’s this new show about? Yup, it’s pretty much all there in the title, isn’t it?! A guy dies in real world Japan, ends up reincarnated in a fantasy world in classic isekai fashion, except he’s not a man anymore he’s a ~slime~, i.e. the lowest of low-level enemies in RPG’s the world over!

So a pretty simple concept then, huh? Well kind of, what’s surprising to me is not only how much time they spent establishing the fact our protagonist was more-or-less responsible for his reincarnation as a slime due to his dying thoughts and words after being stabbed by a knife wielding maniac. But also how intrinsic all his new forged abilities as a slime would be important to his new life going forward.

How’s that then? How’s what?

How do the protagonists dying words and thoughts end up reincarnating him as a slime in a fantasy world? Well it’s sort of ~vaguely~ unexplained at this early stage in the anime, basically as he’s bleeding out on the sidewalk from a stab would and he begins commenting on things like being cold and being in pain and a ‘voice’ inside him begins giving him the attributes that will combat these negative ~feelings~ in his new life, like being immune to physical damage, having no blood, pain nullification and elemental resistances.

Okay, I mean that explains why he reincarnates as a slime but I’m still at a loss to how? Karmic justice, yin and yang, etcetera, it’s all deeply engrained in Japanese society. So our protagonist, takes a blade to save the life of his younger kohai therefore ‘earning’ a second life of his choosing, but as to how this happens? Well there’s a hint in the episode that I gleaned which could be absolutely bull or it could be exactly what they were intending. Basically our protagonist is a 37-year old virgin and there’s that old internet “meme” about if you turn 30 and are still a virgin you become a wizard, turn 40 and you’re a great sage, well this anime leans into it in what is some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. That voice in his head that determines his reincarnated attributes seems in some way ~connected~ to the fact that he has magical abilities due to having remained a virgin for so long.

There’s some really dynamic visuals in this show.

I don’t even know what to say that… Not to cast presumptions but this series is appealing to its target audience (in Japan) pretty accurately…

Uh-huh… so what happens after our protagonist dies and is reincarnated as a slime then? There’s an adjustment period as he’s finding his feet… or rather lackthereof. I mean kudos where kudos is due I never thought I’d be able to empathise with a slime, even one with the mind of a human being. And then after what seems like a hundred ‘tutorials’ on life as a slime we finally meet a new character in this ~fantasy world~ he’s found himself in. It’s a big f***ing dragon, and the two talk for a bunch and it turns out the dragon’s a bit of a tsun and, um…

What? Okay, so I love the idea of this series, I love the ‘execution’ of this concept, ~visually~ it’s top notch—especially the various animated visual cues with regard to our protagonist and the “skills” he’s learning. But man this episode is ~way~ too heavy on the exposition. It’s almost literally 25 minutes of inner-monologue and dialogue and I just wanted them to hurry up and get to something more interesting! I realise that for some people this might be a hard concept to rationalise or contextualise but I felt like this could have been done in half the time and been as twice as good! But then again maybe I’m being impatient—maybe this is exactly the amount of set-up we need for the eventual widening of this shows scope.

Handy that the slime can make visual symbols like that to make up for a lack of a face.

Well if you have complai— No! You know what, I don’t like how nit-picky this review is, this show does well to establish a tone and takes its time with its concept because it’s a faithful adaption of its source material (presumably—it certainly seems so if the 24 episode count on wikipedia is anything to go by!). I’m reminded of ‘Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon’ and if this show can seek to encapsulate any measure of the magic that series had then we should all be so lucky! This show is funny and smart and entertaining and quirky and I ~eagerly~ look forward to next week’s episode!

He’s responsible for the bad pun, not me!

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