There’s no denying that isekai stories just keep coming out. Now stop me if you’ve heard this one before… Ordinary guy living his ordinary life gets stabbed by ordinary robber and awakens in a magical world where he has a whole bunch of power. Granted he at least doesn’t have his smart phone with him and he is no longer human but we’re still not walking into original territory. So rather than looking at the plot, because we all know this plot, the question with this becomes whether it is doing it well and is it worth the time or are should we just wait for the next isekai release?
And the answer is pretty much that I’m undecided. I was kind of liking the protagonist of this story as the 37 year old human. He was pretty generic but worked well enough. And then they killed him off and left us with a pretty poor joke as he requested that his kouhai destroy his hard drive and then we were off to the new world which gave us two problems. One I’d just bothered to get to know a character who died and second that his voice changed fairly soon after the transition and I was kind of enjoying his original voice.
The reincarnation sequence was pretty but there’s no denying that we’re very much taking the game mechanics so present in these kinds of novels and direct narrating skill acquisition which isn’t exactly thrilling viewing. Nor is his first moments waking up as a slime.
However, this episode did have a couple of undeniable hooks. The first one is that the slime meets a dragon. I’m a sucker for dragon stories and while most of them end up pretty rubbish seeing a dragon still makes me pretty happy and I sit just that little closer to the screen and hope that maybe this time the dragon isn’t actually going to spend the majority of the show masquerading as a cute girl. The second was the OP that they played at the end of the episode because some of the fight sequences and magic present in that look like it will get really interesting.
Basically, this episode is set up and gives us enough information to be ready for the story but does little else and it isn’t amazing. But, there is enough potential promise that I’ll give it a little longer to sort itself out and just keep my fingers crossed it isn’t on the same level as The Master of Ragnarok.
- Episode 1 – Strictly Set Up
- Episode 2 – So I Ate A Dragon and A Snake And A Bat Thing…
- Episode 3 – Submissive Wolves and Buff Goblins
- Episode 4 – Dwarven Blacksmiths and Giggling Elves
- Episode 5 – Past Wrongs and Future Destinies
- Episode 6 – The Importance of Pacing To Build Tension
- Episode 7 – Miraculous Survival of the Slime
- Episode 8 – 3 Ways Slime Is Exploring Endings and Beginnings
- Episode 9 – Watch The Slime Playing with Powers and Defeating Ogres
- Episode 10 – Slime, Ogres and Lizardmen; The Coming Conflict Looks Colourful
- Episode 11 – The Worst Way To Learn the Skill of Diplomacy
- Episode 12 – How Even The Best Laid Plans Can Be Derailed by Idiots
- Episode 13 – War: Crushing March of the Overpowered Monsters
- Episode 14 – The Fitting End of the Orc Lord Courtesy of the Slime
- Episode 15 – The Accidental Creation of a Slime Nation
- Episode 16 – Can You Catch More Demon Lords with Honey?
- Episode 17 – That Time The Powerful Slime Decided To Dabble in Diplomacy
- Episode 18 – The Slime, The Demon Lord and The Flying Sharks?
- Episode 19 – That Time We Defeated a Catastrophe Without Really Trying
- Episode 20 – Well It’s Been Fun, But Now We’ll Count Down Until The End
- Episode 21 – Who Would Have Thought That All You Need Is A Dog And Unlimited Power?
- Episode 22 – That Time We Found a Fairy Who is a Demon Lord?
- Episode 23 – That Time The Show Ended And The Audience Wondered Why?
- Episode 24 (Extra) – And Then Shizue Stole the Anime Right Out From Under Rimuru
- Episode 24.5 (Padding) – Now Worth The Slime
- Images from: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. Dir. Y Kikuchi. 8Bit. 2018.
Hmm I’ve been hearing a lot about this anime but didn’t know if it was worth checking out. I usually avoid the overhyped anime (like Kill la Kill or One Punch Man) but your review changed my mind. I’m going to check out at least episode one.
I still don’t think I’m quite as into this show as many other viewers. It’s sitting very middle of the pack for me in terms of shows I’ve started. Part of that is it is competing with the sheer amount of hype it had before it started and it just isn’t quite living up to that, and the other part is that there are others shows I was really looking forward to that have come out and just all seem that little bit more interesting than this one so far.
I can understand that. What gets hyped usually doesn’t live up to it, while the sleeper hits slowly creep into our hearts. I know that was cheesy but…shows without much buzz tend to be better. Way more authentic. I still need to watch episode one though, I’m at a backlog for a lot of things lol
I feel like that every new season because there’s just so much out. I was trying to catch every premiere available to me but in the end I skipped Rerided because of how many episodes came out early and the reviews weren’t great and I also skipped Double Decker because I haven’t seen Tiger and Bunny yet. Otherwise I’ve at least tried most shows (though in one instance that meant less than two minutes into the episode before I called it a drop). There’s just never enough time to try everything.
Wow at least you are trying though. Nowadays I only watch one or two anime, and those are usually additional seasons to one’s I’ve been watching for years. I’ve been trying to get back into anime, there’s just so much to sort through.
I basically felt the reverse – I mean, we’ve only just met Satoru. He seems decent, but aside from saving the life of a woman he hasn’t really gotten to know, I could care less about this present day stuff, because it’s even more clearly setup than the rest of the episode is. I even laughed a bit during the death scene because Satoru valuing his computer over his life was a bit too melodramatic in my opinion and made me chuckle for (possibly) the wrong reason.
However, once Satoru’s in slime form, he’s a bit more expressive (in part due to his general lack of a face) and the story really seems to pick up from that point, even if it’s got a huge helping of exposition and clearly broken skills on top.
Then again, I think the ED (eventual OP) sold me the most, due to how inventive and dynamic Rimuru changing from human to slime and back again looks as a part of the plot.
The OP (played at the end) is probably what made me most hopeful about where this might go. It certainly looks like it will pick up and get more interesting as it goes so hopefully it will.
I’m following the manga and the story is pretty interesting. Didn’t know that they are releasing an anime for it, but I do hope that this anime will live up to the manga version.
A lot of people who have read the source seem excited for this so I’m hoping it picks up now that its established its setting.
The source is a lightnovel though or Webnovel, if you’re picky
https://cardboardtranslations.com/projects/tensei-shitara-ken-deshita/
I enjoyed the episode dedicated to set up, something Master of Ragnarok didn’t have. I’m hooked to see where this goes, and I’m curious to see if this is gonna be something like Knight’s and Magic.
One of things I liked about Ragnarok was it just got into its story rather than wasting time on set up that ultimately isn’t that important. It was one of the only things I liked about Ragnarok on reflection, but I did appreciate that we were plunged straight into the story.
I agree that Ragnarok did a good thing by just assusming (correctly) that the auidance for this show has been around the Isekai block a few times. However it doesn’t compensate skipping over the start with anything of value in it’s middle, and it makes the choice to skip, in my mind, a flaw where it could have been a boon.
Haha….you are right, the story does sound slightly familiar in some ways 😂😂 Don’t think I will follow this one, with so many other animes that are still coming out, but I will be following your reviews to see if I will change my mind at some point😊
This one has a lot of fans from the source so it might pick up. I guess we will see what next week does.
I thought the episode was basically fine. The tsundere dragon was amusing. But otherwise, there wasn’t much to talk about just yet. Plenty of questions, especially raised by the OP. But I can see the potential of it.
There’s definitely potential but it wasn’t a fantastic start. Not a lot that really grabbed me. Still I am kind of hopeful.