As I’ve been reviewing anime a lot lately and will likely continue to, I think it’d be a good idea to not just go over older anime but also ones going on right now.
This won’t be a typical Roast or Recommend, though much of the criteria will be the same in reviewing it. Since these shows I’ll be talking about in this series aren’t complete, this will be more of a talk about whether these shows currently on are worth watching or not.
For my first one of these, I will be looking at That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (I’ll be just calling it “Slime” for short).
Slime has a pretty simple premise. It is about a 37-year old man who gets killed in a stabbing and is reincarnated in another world as an overpowered slime, as he got his powers and traits in that world based upon his final wishes as he was dying in his world.
His main ability is predator, which lets him absorb people and other monsters in his slime and gain all their abilities and the ability to transform into them as well. He also has some other abilities that help him become super overpowered.
But instead of use his overpowered nature for evil, he decides to instead use it for good and build up a struggling goblin village from scratch basically and try to form a peaceful world.
I absolutely love the characters in this anime. We are introduced to so many characters throughout from all different monster classes, and they all bring their own perspective and angle on the world they are living in, which makes for good world building, especially since we are learning about this world right alongside our good slimy buddy Rimuru.
We meet dragons, goblins, dwarves, wolves, elves, lizard men, ogres, orcs, dryads, demon lords and even humans. And each of these class of monsters thinks differently and has different intentions and motivations. All these different angles and perspectives make for very interesting and dynamic world-building that is very satisfying while not being too over-the-top.
And our main character, Rimuru Tempest, is a great protagonist for the series. Rimuru is an overpowered little slime monster that wants nothing but peace and doesn’t want to resort to violence. A lot of monsters don’t take him seriously because he’s just a slime that doesn’t make the best first impressions always, but he is always able to show his worthiness without needing to absolutely overpower others.
It’s actually kind of nice to see a main character like this that has all this power but would prefer not to use it at every chance they get. Usually characters like Rimuru show off their power at every opportunity. Our slime buddy just prefers to talk things out and do is diplomatically. It’s different but it actually works. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I don’t love when Rimuru gets it into high gear and actually shows off all the power he has. And it happens often enough to keep people entertained while not being an overused element.
And I have to give a shoutout to Milim. She is a great character as well. She doesn’t come on until later on a bit (trying not to spoil too much), but she is so jumpy and full of life and she just wants to be “besties” with Rimuru despite the fact she can easily defeat Rimuru in a fight since she’s a uber-powerful demon lord that is at least ten times stronger than him and a very scary threat. Instead, she is a delight when she’s on-screen. She is a terrific combination of totally adorable and yet super cool both at the same time.
The animation and art in this anime is strong as well in my opinion. While it may look off-putting to some at first, I had my questions about it at first too, you’ll find quickly that it grows on you and it fits the feeling and tone of the anime well, which is important. The fight scenes look good and crisp and it’s produced pretty well overall. I’ve definitely seen better, but I’ve also seen way worse. I think it’s really good animation and art overall.
The story is pretty simplistic so far. I hope it gets more complex later on. And it looks like the meat of the story is still to come. I have enjoyed the story so far though. It hasn’t been heavy at all, but it’s not totally boring and forgettable either. It’s easy to understand without too much happening at once. It keeps a mainly linear path and has had some good stories to tell so far. The stories within the overall story have been very strong.
Based on the discussions about the anime I’ve seen and based on what I’ve watched from the anime, I can easily say that it does what it is supposed to do very well. Let me explain.
I am pretty convinced that this anime has just taken all the typical tropes about the isekai genre of anime (anime that places main character(s) in another world) and just kind of projected them out but in a more funny and light way than we see typically. There are definitely isekai tropes in here, like overpowered main character that is almost morally perfect is the big one. But it is handled with such a different tone and style than a lot of the others.
The beauty of it is that it embraces that it is isekai. That genre gets a bad rap for its growing staleness after the genre peaked a few years ago. So most isekai tries something totally different and almost changes its identity entirely so it loses what it is. I love how Slime just fully embraces exactly what it is and doesn’t attempt to fundamentally change itself just to avoid a label. And the way they go about embracing it is not stale at all. They fully understand what it is and they almost parody the genre at times.
I won’t lie, when I first looked at this anime’s title I told myself that it was probably something I wouldn’t watch because it sounded silly. But then I saw a lot of people talking about how surprisingly good it is and I thought it may be good to give it a chance. Even then I still didn’t have any expectation that I’d like it. But I began watching it and got sucked in after a couple of episodes as I found myself having a very good time watching it as I was laughing and feeling good. And that is where this anime hits the mark. It makes you laugh and smile and it is always an enjoyable watch, even if it’s an episode that doesn’t have much to it.
It’s a quality, light-hearted series that does a lot of things well to keep people entertained for 20 minutes at a time. It might not have the deepest concepts or the best story, but it is a very enjoyable watch nonetheless. It has its own way of pulling you in and keeping you engaged with it. I think if you get past it’s annoyingly long name and check it out, you will really enjoy this anime. It has a lot going for it, and it’s potential has yet to be reached quite yet. It should get really good soon too, so now is a good time to jump into it.
Should you try it: Definitely yes
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