Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken

Insert obligatory pretentious quote here because I’m not good at starting a review. The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime or TenSuru is an anime that slipped into the radar of ever hungry anime watchers in October 2018. Since then, the anime has been praised as being a wholesome isekai deviating from the norm and positing a new and refreshed take on the genre. So, imagine my confoundment when only the first 5-6 episodes held true to the preceding sentence. After the first 6 episodes it turns into your typical harem loli bait. Allow me to elaborate. The anime starts off pretty good actually withour protagonist (who is a not-so-social-virgin at 37) dying, with his dying wish being “If I ever get reborn, I want to be OP af and want to screw as many girls as I like”; to be fair, I would probably also wish something along those lines. After citing his wish, “the great sage” reincarnates him into another world as the most OP slime ever. Stuff happens and he ends up saving a tsundere dragon from eternal imprisonment by eating him and also saves a village of goblins from direwolves. He, then names all the goblins and direwolves and takes it upon himself to create an ideal living environment for the monsters to live in. Just because he worked as a “contractor” in his previous life, he’s able to plan out a whole city mostly by himself. He also becomes an expert in holding a conversation even though he was lonely and awkward in his previous life. I don’t know how that works, but good for him right? After planning a whole city mostly by himself, begins the directionless adventure of the slime. This is one of the main problems with this show, it does not know what it wants to be. There’s no overarching narrative, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but audiences at least need a sense of direction of movement in order not to be bored. There was something about there being a demon lord or something, idk it’s probably the same guy that’s present in every other isekai. What the show does is, it makes one of the characters say “Demon Lord” in some way or the other and the anime is like “well that’s enough plot progression for one episode. Who wants tiddies?”. Instead of actual plot we get “plot”. Not “plot” plot, but PLOT. Every girl the slime ever comes across is infatuated with him because we need to construct a harem or it will not be an isekai. Thus, the slime turns into chad slime and is swimming in tiddies, literally. The second problem with the show is that the danger does not feel real. Since the slime, who gets the name Rimuru by the way, is as OP as Goku in his Rainbow Super Saiyan Ultra Instinct Super Saiyan Legendary Super Saiyan God Ultra BS Level 5 form, nobody stands a chance against him. Anyone who challenges him, gets their ass handed to them in about 5 milliseconds. The fights usually go like this: 1.Rimuru’s henchmen fighting evil guy. 2.Evil Guy: You are just cannon fodder. 3.Henchmen lose; evil guy laughs; Rimuru arrives. 4.Evil Guy: You’re just a slime, you can’t do anything. 5.Rimuru beats the shit out of evil guy. 6.Evil Guy: *gasp* *starts following Rimuru for no reason* Seriously, everyone who ever comes in contact with Rimuru becomes as loyal to him as you’re to anime. There’s this direwolf whose father is killed by Rimuru, but he’s like “meh, shit happens. You killed my father and dozens of my friends with whom I’ve spent my life till now, but you gave me a name so I instantly forgot about them”. The comedy is ehhh??? I know comedy is subjective, but I can distinguish between well written comedy that isn’t funny just to me and just plain bad comedy. There’s this character who doesn’t speak and just says “mmmhh” and whenever he does that Rimuru goes “Speak up, man”. It was funny the first time but became annoying after it was repeated for a million times. There’s this lizardman who’s arguably the most irksome character in the show because his only purpose in life seems to be to make stupid decisions for the sake of tasteless humour. But, the most annoying part is that those actions, those asinine actions that he takes in the show which we took for granted, actually contribute to plot progression. He overthrows his father, the king of the lizardmen, from the throne during an invasion just because 3 of his henchmen told him that he is strong *annoyed nose exhale*. The characters are painfully mediocre. Except for one female character, all others are there just to show some cleavage and get wet over Rimuru for no goddamn reason. Rimuru himself isn’t that interesting of a character. We never get an explanation to his motivation or what he wants to do, he just does whatever is presented to him. That’s weak writing. If your character holds his/her characterisation only in the context of the story then that’s weak character writing. There’s not even much to write as the characters are the definition of average. If they were on either end of the spectrum you would have something to say about them, but the characters in this show don’t have much of a personality. Only one character gets anything resembling a backstory which was so cursory that I forgot about it as soon as it happened. The characters are introduced as some kind of badasses only to further paint them as only superficially badass. There’s a character who tames the orcs and has a calm demeanour in his first scene but loses his mind when his plan fails. He’s portrayed as smart and shrewd but isn’t even able to figure out that his own slave is going to kill him. The female cast consists of useless fanservice character #1, useless fanservice character #2, useless fanservice character #3 up to useless fanservice character #10, and Shizue. You can literally replace the female cast with boobs and it wouldn’t make a dent of a difference. Every female in this show, in one way or another, is only present to hold Rimuru between her boobs or to get angry for absolutely no reason in order to provide “comic relief”. I’ve put comic relief if massive quotations because all it does is annoy the viewer or pad for time as every episode needs to be 20 minutes long. The “comic relief” usually (and by usually I mean all the time) consists of girls vying to get wet over Rimuru or having other characters eat food that they’ve prepared; usually (and by usually I mean all the time) the food is very unpalatable and causes the person eating said food to faint. As you can see these are entirely new concepts that have never been executed or seen before in any anime, ever. There’s a demon loli who runs around in bikinis blowing up whatever she wishes and is supposed to be a “demon lord” who are apparently the most OP people in the world. The demon loli is defeated by Rimuru by stuffing her mouth with honey; a feat which is applauded by his loyal followers quoting it as “A feat which only Rimuru-sama can accomplish” *exasperated sigh*. The demon loli (that’s what I’m gonna call her because she was only present in the show to appeal to pedos and was such a superfluous character that I don’t even remember her name and can’t be bothered to search for it), becomes besties with Rimuru because, well, we need an excuse to shoehorn in a loli with enough helium in her voice to lead to dizziness, nausea, vomiting, loss of consciousness and ultimately death. You might be thinking that despite shitting on this show why have I still given it a 4/10. Well, that’s because even though everything about this anime is utterly mediocre, I still had an urge to click the next episode and ended up finishing it in a day so it gets some points there. Even though the fights themselves can’t be considered anything other than one sided massacre, they were still fun to watch. Oh, almost forgot. The music is ok, the OPs and EDs are just fine and with the exception of one piece (which I just can’t seem to be able to find), all the others are forgettable. The animation is pretty solid though, especially during the fights. But, what good is animation when the majority of the show is as bland and tasteless as frozen dry fruits. Tl;dr If isekai is your thing, then go for it, but again if you really like isekai then you’ve probably already watched it. If you don’t like isekai and are going to try it because you’ve heard so many good things about it, then I’d recommend you to refrain from watching it. This is another one of those mediocre isekai that has been hyped to high heavens by the anime community. It’s literally like any other isekai.

Life can be harsh and I’m sure most of us think so in some way or another. The typical everyman at adult age works an 8-5 schedule on weekdays to make a living. Satoru Mikami is a very ordinary person until he gets reincarnated as a slime after being killed in a knife attack. As tragic as that sounds, it may not be a harsh life after all. Isn’t life just full of surprises? After being turned into a light novel, Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime) is one of the few isekai shows that I genuinely looked forwardto this year. While it subscribes to usual fantasy gimmicks, this show also does a unique job at entertaining the audience through its charismatic main lead, world fiction, and creative storytelling. I refer this show as more of a fantasy isekai, one that has a slime as the superstar. Can the isekai genre really have potential to be more than just what's on paper? It certainly could for some franchises. This show is one of them. Satoru is reborn as a slime and his role is crucial to everything around him. Taking on the alias “Rimuru”, he makes up for his appeal through a variety of personality traits: kind, witty, laidback, sarcastic, courageous, and among others. When you look at all these character personalities together, Rimuru can be very likable. In the early portion of the show, we see Rimuru’s charisma and being able to lead supernatural creatures without fear. He even gives names to his new friends while showing his compassion. Rimuru is built to be special in the show. This is established through his immense abilities (such his Predator skill), where viewers can easily point fingers at him for being overpowered. Indeed, this isn’t an overstatement. In most of his battles, they are more like curb stomp face offs where Rimuru dominates his opponents. From isekai shows in today’s world, overpowered characters aren’t uncommon. What actually sets Rimuru apart is his unnatural charisma and human behavior. The witty conversations and small talks he engages with others often makes his fights much entertaining than they should be. Even in serious conflicts, Rimuru finds time to make jokes while being strategic enough to formulate a plan. Now, that my friends, is setting a likeable isekai protagonist by example. Yet, this show can be a tearjerker at times too. The emotional context draws important value with a character named Shizu. After a titanic battle against a demon known as Ifrit, we learn about her past and Rimuru even inherits her will. Taking on her form, Rimuru realizes that he can’t save everyone regardless how powerful he is. It sets the path of his journey to keep promises such as being a mentor for younger kids. In the latter half of the show, Rimuru finds a group of children with magical potential and tries to lead them as a positive role model. Even as an isekai show established with such a powerful protagonist, its character cast shouldn’t be overlooked. We meet a variety of characters with colorful personalities during Rimuru’s adventures. Some of the most noticeable ones includes his allies such as Shion, Shuna, Gobuta, Benimaru, Ranga, and later on, the Demon Lord Millim. Through Rimuru’s character interactions, it’s easy to see how his charisma inspires others. Many of Rimuru’s followers shows great respect for him and similarly, he deeply cares about them. Even Millim, a Demon Lord with overwhelming powers, takes a liking to him as the two forms an unlikely alliance. Respect of course isn’t just demanded but earned. Thanks to Rimuru’s abilities, he manages to make alliances with the most unlikely races. Under Rimuru’s leadership, he even sets forth to build a new country with his allies. The central element of storytelling relies on Rimuru’s way of showing his will. He proves this throug his actions and words. Really, by the end of the show, I felt like I understood Rimuru far more than I originally anticipated. Despite my love for the show’s witty humor, colorful character cast, and storytelling, I should point out the anime still suffers from pitfalls. Fan service scenes with baths are common and Rimuru is still vulnerable to earthly desires in the fantasy world. In fact, I dare say the author made the monster girls as cute and sexy as possible. Millim and Shion are prime examples for their character designs. Just take a close look at them. Millim is pretty much half naked in her default outfit while Shion gives more of a mature lady vibe. Like most fantasy isekai, elves are characterized as desirable by males. This is shown early in the show when Rimuru encounters them and finds himself in brief moments of lust. While the storytelling has adequate development and carries an emotional weight, it’s hard to say that it’s great writing. In fact, many of Rimuru’s battles are extremely predictable even against the strongest of adversaries. In most of those fights, you should certainly expect Rimuru to be the winner. While the series also gives some of its supporting cast time to shine, most of the spotlight falls under our little slime-kun. Perhaps a bit too much... Finally, 8-bit is back. After years of mediocre light novel adaptations like Infinite Stratos and Knight’s & Magic, Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken’s sets a bar for being a marvelous example of world fiction. The magical world contains fruitful amount of content such as the various nations we see. Tempest is the most prominent one ruled by Rimuru. Located in the Jura Forest, it’s a prime example of a monster country filled with larger than life characters. Meanwhile, other locations such as Brumund Kingdom and Dwargon reminds me of the high fantasy elements of the isekai genre. While the visual quality can look a bit cartoonish at times, it remains vibrant, bright, and contains a fine degree of palette. It suits for this particular show with its lighthearted humor. The character designs are of course worth mentioning in the case of Rimuru, the Demon Lords, his monster allies, and the infamous Veldora Tempest. At times, I feel like the author really put his thought into making them look as otherwordly as possible. The battle choreography also delivers a visual direction of what isekai shows should be. Nothing too groundbreaking but being able to showcase what characters’ abilities can really do. You should definitely not expect a DBZ-level style of action quality but be prepared for some jawbreaking cinematography. Don’t you just wish life was simpler these days? Looking back at Rimuru’s adventure, I confess that I am a bit envious of his life. He is so carefree despite being an such a prominent figure in his world. Whether taking on the form of a slime, human, or Shizu, Rimuru makes everything look so easy. As such, watching this show felt like an easy way of passing time and enjoying what the author creator wanted us to experience. Now I wish life was easier.

Mikami Satoru’s (Rimuru Tempest’s) top search results: 1) Japanese Spooge-casters (newscasters) 2) AppleJack(ing) Off (My Little Pony Futa) 3) Slime Stuff (self-explanatory) 4) Grew Grew Cock fO`shO (spirit gun!)5) Legends of the Galactic Queero’s (starring Yang in the putang — otherwise known as Reinhard’s vagina) But enough giggles for one afternoon, what do these words bring to mind? Squishy. Amorphous. Pliable. Flaccid. No. This is not an explanation of Rimuru “The Slime” Tempest’s appearance — or a Donkey Kong dong Shlong — rather, it’s a succinct description of That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime’s (henceforth, will be referred to as just “Slime”) unstructured plot and the easily influenced cast of characters. Now before the various facets of the show in question are taken apart to illuminate its numerous failures, one must give credit where credit is due. For Mikami Satoru (Rimuru Tempest) to have the wherewithal to instruct his friend to destroy his hard drive — due to the massive amounts of downloaded pornography, allegedly — in the midst of his final moments on earth, was nothing short of being hilarious and befitting of the modern day virgin. But as well-timed as this joke was, it bamboozled the viewer into thinking that Slime’s story would entail more adult-oriented humor, instead of a puerile adventure about freeing a dragon (Veldora) from an Endless Prison. Besides this subterfuge, Slime grants Rimuru with — no exaggeration — the most ridiculously over-powered “cheat code” in the existence of Isekai. Although, at first, Rimuru is perceived as a relatively weak, helpless being, his ability to absorb literally anything to amass new skills is ridiculously “broken.” Furthermore, Rimuru can alter his appearance on demand and can later combine different abilities to forge new, stronger spells/attacks. Plus he can create potions for healing, various weapons for killing, and manipulate time itself. Still, though. This does little justice to the wide array of skills he displays throughout the series. Literally, if you can think of it, Rimuru either possesses it or can ascertain it through his absorptive powers. “Why is this a problem, though?” People, typically, can not acquire new skills on the drop of a dime. It takes time and a great deal of dedication. Take Naruto, for example. Even though humans will never produce a Rasengan in their life (a terrible pity), they can empathize with Naruto’s hard work and determination in mastering the difficult, new skill. Rimuru, on the other hand, appropriates spells/powers rather effortlessly, making his “arduous” journey difficult to empathize with. To put it another way: imagine the smartest person you knew growing up, and how effortlessly they achieved straight “A’s.” Their accomplishments seem watered down because they are expected given their superior intelligence, rather than achieved through rigorous persistence. This is the same dilemma the viewer is faced with when watching Slime. Rimuru, to the detriment of the series, is too perfect and no task seems formidable enough to properly challenge him. Furthermore, as far as characterization goes, Rimuru is as bland as oatmeal without milk (that’s right, dry out of the bag mother f—ker’s). He presumably lived 37 years as a human, but routinely acts like a child — especially in the presence of voluptuous women. Due to him possessing incredible powers, having an altruistic mindset, and not having any discernible personality (besides being a kind individual), he immediately evoked comparisons to the Gary Stu complex. Which hits the nail right on the head! What’s worse, is that Rimuru — the focal point of Slime — experienced diminutive growth/development throughout the course of the series. He is the veritable vanilla protagonist in this metaphorical Slime sundae (ewww!) that was so sorely missing in delicious toppings (what am I talking about?). The remaining cast of characters, woefully, failed to elicit any fond memories, as the writing staff seemed more concerned about character quantity, rather than quality. Essentially, each character get’s their five minutes of “useful” screen time, and then they are effectively disregarded to clear the way for even more characters. Besides Shizue Izawa — who had a mildly interesting backstory — every character is easily forgettable, becoming a distant memory after the end of each episode. Until they come back in another episode and you’re like, “oh, they still exist?” In terms of the plot, it proceeded like clockwork. Various problems occurred to create “tension,” but no situation felt insurmountable. Rimuru, per the hero obligation, spouted useless, uninspiring lines, such as: “If I don’t don’t kill him now, it really will be a disaster,” to substantiate the stigma of the boring, invincible hero archetype. It also perpetuated the overall laziness of modern day anime writers. Their inability to craft new, interesting stories and layered characters — with a semblance of authenticity — demonstrate their lack of ambition and willingness to take bold risks. Slime is an anemic mimicry that never breaks free from its own constraints, hamstringing its potential to inspire excitement and joy in the viewing audience. Instead of a “hot mess,” Slime is just a mess. A wet, goopy mess.

As someone with literally thousands of hours of playtime in the Sid Meier's Civilization series over the years, I very much appreciated this anime. Isekai series are a standard staple in the anime industry nowadays and managing to stand out from the crowd can be easier said than done. Generally the way people do this is by giving some sort of twist to an otherwise quite generic setup, which in the case of Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken is quite simply that the protagonist gets reincarnated as a slime of all things once he gets transported to this particular fantasy world. However, it is important tounderstand that that part is *NOT* what makes this anime stand out from most other isekai series. Rather it is how likeable the protagonist is as a character and most importantly the general style and execution of its story. You see, regardless of what kind of twist people like to throw into their isekai novels, in general they still boil down to a similar end goal. You normally have some sort of greater peril to tackle or evil demon lord for the MC to defeat and in the process of doing so he'll get his own harem etcetera; it's all very shounen-like in terms of writing. But Slime isn't really like that. Instead, this anime is much more relaxed and focuses on completely different kinds of challenges. In essence, watching Slime is like watching a let's play of a fantasy version of a game of Sid Meier's Civilization. At the beginning of the story, our protagonist Rimuru comes across a poor goblin village, very basic and currently suffering from attacks by nearby wolf packs in the forest. He offers to help the tribe, and in the process not only manages to deal with the threat of the wolves, but by using his powers he's able to help the goblins domesticate them and join forces for mutual benefit. After being chosen as the new leader of the tribe due to his accomplishments, Rimuru starts the long and arduous task of trying to transform the village into something greater. This is a large part of what the anime is truly about: the evolution of civilization. Over the course of story we get to see more and more races join the village as it grows into a larger town. We get to see the establishment of culture and diplomacy with other nations, the progression of science and infrastructure, the birth of an independent country and the political negotiations of a fresh, multi-species society with the rest of the world. It's all quite fascinating to watch and it makes me wonder why this is such a rare thing to see in anime. It's not only rare but at least if you ask me, it's also a hell of a lot more interesting than a group of people feeding off the power of friendship to go overthrow some evil demon lord or whatnot. Now that is not to say that Slime doesn't have its fair share of action and clashes with hostile forces as well, but they are generally more large-scale conflicts with other nations. Also, while it is undeniable that Rimuru is ridiculously strong due to his completely broken Predator ability that lets him devour anything, I never felt that this was much of a drawback for the anime. Even if he may be overpowered, at the end of the day the eventual goal of the anime isn't just to defeat a bunch of enemies. The main challenges of this story are not ones that can simply be solved with brute force; they are a lot more sophisticated in nature, and I appreciate that a lot. Unfortunately the second half of Slime isn't quite as good as the first half as there are less challenges standing in the way both in terms of peaceful and hostile ones. It feels a bit more slice of life-like and also contains a bit of a side arc that I don't really think did a whole lot good for the anime as a whole. I did have the show scored as a 9 for the majority of its airing but ultimately I had to chop off a point towards the end for this fact alone. Nevertheless, with a second season already confirmed, I can only hope that it finds its footing again once that comes around. Ultimately, Slime is a great isekai show for the simple reason that it's focused on what it's simply like to start a new life in a new world—as well as the aforementioned evolution of society—without having to turn the story into a generic shounen fantasy adventure in the process. It's just a fun anime in general, and Rimuru's cheerful, smug and smart outlook on the world does a great deal for its overall enjoyment value as well. The show certainly wouldn't be the same without him. Overall, it's a very enjoyable and surprisingly creative show which is always cheerful, light-hearted and relaxing, without any excessive drama needed. Definitely recommended.

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