(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. When you think about beginner monsters to fight at the start of a game what’s the one monster that comes to mind, slime. Yep, when it comes to video games particularly RPGs the first monster that the player usually faces is the slime monster. Which is appropriate, they’re easy to draw, small, kinda cute, and not really all that strong or menacing. They’re a good introduction to the game you’re about to play. Which is why it’s so strange and amazing that they would become so popular thanks to one anime called That Time I Got Reincarnated as Slime. Light novel series written by Fuse in 2014 with a number of mangas written by him as well, That Time I Got Reincarnated as Slime came out at a perfect time for isekai anime. What do I mean by that? Well let’s ask the expert herself, Yume.
*Yume appears*
(Yume): Hello everyone. It’s been far too long. You see back in 2018 everyone was starting to get tired of isekai. They were starting to become repetitive, lackluster, and unimaginative. Everyone believed that we had finally scraped the bottom of the barrel of isekai stories, but this anime came and revitalized the genre showing us that there’s still creative scenarios to explore with this genre.
(Nitsuj): And it came from the most unlikely studio, 8-Bit. While I wouldn’t call their work terrible the track record hasn’t really been all that good. Infinite Stratos, Walkure Romanze, Grisaia no Kajitsu, Rewrite, and Absolute Duo just to name a few. These are all animes that I’ve reviewed and even though I don’t hate them, I didn’t enjoy them as much as I would have hoped. But 8-Bit went all out for this anime and it shows as it received praise from everyone and was even my favorite anime of 2018.
(Yume): Let’s see why you shouldn’t underestimate the power of slime and take a look at The Time I Got Reincarnated as Slime.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Nitsuj): The first opening is “Nameless story” by Takuma Terashima.
(Yume): One of the best openings from 2018 that you didn’t put on the list.
(Nitsuj): Yeah, yeah, I heard all of the complaints about me not putting this on the Top 11 Anime Openings of 2018 list well here you go. Looking back this opening is very good. The beat of the song is great and Takuma is a great singer. I’ve never heard the guy sing before but he’s really good. I think my favorite part of the song is the beginning as it sets the mood perfectly for adventure, excitement, and fun times to come.
The ending is “Another colony” by TRUE. This is another good song that a lot of people liked. Truth be told, I actually found myself liking the ending more than the opening. I don’t know, there was just something very soothing and enjoyable about this song after every episode. The lyrics are very beautiful, meaningful and really hit home after a certain episode which we’ll get into later.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): The anime starts off in present day Tokyo with our main Satoru voiced by Takuma Terashima (Shiroe from Log Horizon), a 37-year-old white collar worker who’s never had a girlfriend his whole life (Nitsuj: Virgin) and lives a normal boring life. We see him go meet up with his junior and his girlfriend who invite him out for lunch when all of a sudden, a madman comes running down the street with a knife. Satoru protects his junior by pushing him out of the way and takes the stab in the back where he dies from blood loss (Nitsuj: Remember me. . .as a main character). Before dying he tells his junior to live a good life and wipe his hard drive (Nitsuj: The dying wish of every man). As Satoru dies some strange system known as the Great Sage speaks to him and he gets transported into another world where he gets reincarnated as a slime (the cute blue kind, not that green stuff used by Nickelodeon. Scene here: https://youtu.be/lXGCiNIVVF0). While Satoru (now voiced by Miho Okasaki) may be a slime, he does have a few abilities that separates him from the average slime. On top of being resistant to just about everything, he has the ability to think like a normal human being, anything he eats he gains knowledge of it and can even gain the abilities of it (Nitsuj: So he’s like Kirby? (Yume): In a way, yes). Plus, whatever damage he takes, his body will automatically heal itself and he can store and make items in his body as well as pull them out when he needs them (Nitsuj: Wow, that is one overpowered slime). As he explores the cave he’s in eating up all the herbs and valuable minerals, he comes across a dragon named Veldora the Storm Dragon and one of the last true dragons of this world. He teaches Satoru how to use magic sense which allows him to see everything now and Veldora figures out that he was a being reincarnated from another world. Veldora tells Satoru about how he was sealed 300 years ago by a powerful hero for sort of destroying a town (Nitsuj: Sort of? The whole place was burning). He’s now been alone and sealed in a cave for 300 years and now wants a friend to talk to. Satoru volunteers to be his friend, but Veldora puts on the tsundere act and refuses to be friends with a slime (Nitsuj: Shockingly, this would not be the weirdest friendship I’ve seen in anime) until Satoru is about to leave and then Veldora agrees to be his friend (scene here: https://youtu.be/_6GsPhnMvqE). Back in our world, we see Satoru’s junior honor his last wish and wipes Satoru’s hard drive by throwing his desktop into a bathtub full of water (Nitsuj: There goes a good man. (Yume): Please don’t try this at home).
Episode 2 opens up Veldora and Satoru giving themselves a family name which will bind them together and serve as divine protection for Satoru. They decide on the name Tempest and Veldora gives Satoru a new name (Nitsuj: Yeah, Satoru’s your slave name), Rimuru (scene here: https://youtu.be/ni292FFWFM4). After that, Rimuru tries to release the seal on Veldora but has no luck. The only way to break the seal is to analyze it from both sides so Rimuru makes the suggestion that he eats Veldora that way he can analyze it on his side while Veldora tries to destroy the seal on his side. The only downsides are there’s no telling how long this will take and during that time Rimuru won’t be able to see Veldora (seems pretty sad saying goodbye to a friend he just met). Veldora decides to go through with Rimuru’s plan and gets eaten (Nitsuj: He truly is a smaller, cuter, and more intelligent version of Kirby). Little did Rimuru know that by eating Veldora he had upset the balance of the forest they were in. It turns out Veldora was keeping the monsters in check as well as protecting the land from invaders (Nitsuj: Really? One sealed dragon was keeping everything in check?). Now that he’s gone, monsters are attacking, and the kingdoms of the land believe that their enemies will take advantage of this and try to attack (oops). Back in the cave, Rimuru spends a few weeks trying to find the exit and learning a bunch of new skills by defeating and absorbing monsters. Skills such as poison breath, web-slinging (Nitsuj: Spider-Slime), water blade, and learning how to speak (scene here: https://youtu.be/2R6hxtBLXlA). He eventually finds the exit and manages to escape just as a bunch of adventurers are entering the cave to investigate the disappearance of Veldora (he got slimed). Once he’s outside in the forest, he gets approached by goblins who can sense and see his powerful aura and beg him for help in protecting their village from direwolves that have been attacking them (Nitsuj: Wow, these goblins are weak. (Yume): Certainly not as dangerous as the goblins from another anime we know). The goblins offer him their loyalty and he agrees to help them thus becoming their leader and guardian (it’s kind of adorable).
In episode 3 Rimuru heals the goblins that got injured from the previous direwolves’ attack and then tells everyone to fortify the village (for tonight. . .we dine on direwolf meat). The direwolves attack at night where Rimuru protects the village using his wire thread to catch the wolves in a trap. The leader of the wolves finally enters the battle where he faces off against Rimuru and if you were hoping for a long and vicious battle between wolf and slime, sorry to disappoint you. Instead, Rimuru traps the wolf in his spider thread and then chops his head off (Nitsuj: A short fight but I like the strategic aspect of it). With their leader defeated, the rest of the wolves submit to Rimuru (scene here: https://youtu.be/S6F-WgYPP88, submitting to slime, this is gonna be a strange anime) and join the goblin village. Rimuru decides to pair the direwolves and goblins up with one another that way they can get to know one another and he also gives them names which everyone is excited about (I know I was when I got my name). During the naming process he passes out and remains passed out for 3 days. It turns out in this world, giving names to monsters uses up one’s magicules (magic molecules) and when you use up too much you pass out (I guess you could equate it to using up too much MP). Not only that, but the monsters go up a rank and evolve becoming stronger (Nitsuj: How strong are we talking? (Yume): Wait till you see the elder). After three days of resting, Rimuru wakes and sees the evolved village with the males becoming muscle bound hobgoblins and the females becoming mature young ladies (Nitsuj: Hot goblin girls! (Yume): There’s a jacked-up hobgoblin right in front of you and the first thing you notice are the women? (Nitsuj): Yes, I’m getting my priorities straight). The wolves have also evolved and become the Tempest tribe remaining completely royal to Rimuru (scene here: https://youtu.be/CF2f5RzMuqY). After this, Rimuru gives the tribe rules to follow (no fighting others or looking down on other races) and gives them jobs to benefit the village. The only real trouble they have is making houses and clothing. The elder recommends they get help from the dwarves, so the episode ends with Rimuru heading out to see the dwarves with an escort.
Episode 4 is a rather fun and relaxing episode. So, I can’t believe I’m about to say this (Nitsuj: One of the many perks of this job), but a slime and a bunch of goblins who are riding wolves, are heading up north to the kingdom of the dwarves. Under normal circumstances it would take the goblins 2 months to reach the kingdom, but thanks to the direwolves it only takes them 3 days. On their way there, we find out that the place welcomes all races so that’ll have no trouble getting inside and be safe. Rimuru and Gobta wait in line for entry when all a sudden a bunch of adventurers pick a fight with him (they’re so weak that they’re picking a fight with slime. (Nitsuj): Damn rookies get worse every year). Rimuru turns into a direwolf and scares them off and in the process scares everyone else around him so that he and Gobta get arrested and locked up for disturbing the peace (scene here: https://youtu.be/RkH5fdl2nwU). He tells his side of the story which checks out with other witnesses, so it seems like he’ll be released but before that can happen a few miners get hurt and there’s not enough potions for them to use. Luckily, Rimuru has them covered and gives them high quality potion to use. As a thank you, the guard releases Rimuru (justice for slime) and introduces him to his brother, Kaijin, a skilled blacksmith who’s in trouble. He’s been ordered by a minister to craft 20 longswords in 5 days (Nitsuj: Impossible. As someone who’s been around craftsmen and seen the work and process that they do, this task is impossible) and he doesn’t have the minerals to make it. Luckily, Rimuru has everything he needs and even goes a step further by absorbing one of the swords and using the minerals inside of him to craft 20 longswords himself. As a thank you, Kaijin agrees to go to Rimuru’s village with his peers to teach them their skills. To celebrate their new friendship, he takes Rimuru to an elf host club (Nitsuj: I’m going into this with low expectations) filled with cute elf girls who are all over him (scene here: https://youtu.be/1EdLMsKAzaU. (Nitsuj): Expectations have been exceeded tremendously).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 opens up with Rimuru and the others still in the elf host club where one of the elves (Nitsuj: The dark-skinned hottie) reads Rimuru’s fortune and shows him the woman he’s destined to be with. While Rimuru doesn’t recognize the woman at all, he can tell that she’s Japanese which means there’s a possibility that she was reincarnated into this world as well. Their fun time gets stopped by Vesta the minister who gave Kaijin the impossible task of making those 20 longswords. We see that he’s a very high-strung man who was envious of Kaijin’s relationship with the king (Nitsuj: Oh my. (Yume): Not the least bit what you’re thinking) so he tried to get on the king’s good side by working in the labs where an experiment literally blew up in his face. Vesta somehow put all the blame on Kaijin and Kaijin resigned from his duty as a knight. Despite Kaijin out of his way, Vesta continues to be petty and continues to bother Kaijin by giving him impossible tasks to make him look bad (Nitsuj: Wow, he has no life). Once Vesta sees Rimuru, he pours alcohol on him but Rimuru doesn’t retaliate in order to not cause trouble but Kaijin does and punches the hell out of Vesta. This results in him and everyone else getting arrested (I can understand Kaijin but why Rimuru? It’s because he’s a slime isn’t it?). The next day, they go before the king Gazef where their lawyer has been paid off by Vesta to make them out to be the bad guys who assaulted Vesta the moment they saw him. Just before Kaijin is about to be sentenced to 20 years of mining, Gazef offers him a chance to return to his side but Kaijin says no saying that he’s found someone worth serving and doesn’t want to lose that. Gazef changes Kaijin’s sentence into banishment and he has to leave the kingdom immediately along with Rimuru and the others (Nitsuj: They got off easy). As for Vesta, Gazef saw through his lies and fires him from his position as minister. Rimuru and the others leave the kingdom and get ready to head back to the goblin village with Gazef sending one of his spies after them to keep an eye on Rimuru as he senses his immense power.
(Nitsuj): In episode 6 a few weeks have gone by and the goblin village is growing. New goblins from the forest have come to join Rimuru’s village and the village has begun building new houses to accommodate everyone. In another part of the story we return to those adventurers we saw in episode 2 named Kavel, Eren, and Gido who have returned from their excursion in the cave (boy, you guys missed a lot) and are given new orders to investigate the surrounding forest. Despite being tired from their excursion (Yume: You can rest when your dead) they agree to go and joining them is another adventurer named Shizu who hides her face behind a mask. They rest for 3 days and go to the forest where they get attacked by giant fire ants (the scariest out of all the ants). Shizu fights them with her fire sword (Yume: Fight fire with fire) and manages to beat all of them except for one which gets the jump on her but she gets saved by Rimuru (saved by a slime. Wait till the guild here’s about this). Rimuru brings them back to the village where we discover that Shizu is the woman he’s destined to be with (scene here: https://youtu.be/cbES8lTOd08). They get some alone time where they figure out that they’re both Japanese except they come from different eras and came to this world differently. Rimuru was reincarnated in this world after his death but Shizu was summoned to this world while she was escaping the bombings from a war (most likely WW2). She didn’t die in the bombings, she was just summoned to this world to be used as a weapon for war and the people who summoned her infused her body with a fire spirit called Ifrit. Rimuru shows Shizu his memories (Yume: Woah, keep it clean) of the world where he shows her that after the war the country was at peace and had an economic boom (Yume: Until a certain mad dog convinced a young politician to impose taxes on the country which destroyed the economic bubble).
Episode 7 is a really exciting episode. Ifrit takes over Shizu’s body and attacks everyone. Rimuru fights against the fire spirit using ice magic and it gets discovered that he’s immune to fire (can’t get hurt physically, resistant to aliments, and immune to fire and possibly other elements. If Rimuru was a Pokémon, he be the most OP Pokémon out there. (Yume): I want it). Rimuru manages to tie up Ifrit and eat it where Ifrit comes face to face with Veldora (welcome come to hell) and Shizu is unconscious (scene here: https://youtu.be/6Lrfecah3U4).
Episode 8 gives us our sad episode as Shizu is slowly dying. The years of keeping Ifrit in check have taken a toll on her body and now that Ifrit is gone her body is rapidly aging (Yume: Aww~, their ship sank so fast. I guess I’ll have to settle for the fanart). As Shizu lays in bed, she tells Rimuru her story into how she came to this world and became the slave of the demon lord Leon, was saved by the Hero (who is a woman) who mysteriously vanished on her one day, became the instructor of a school for other children who were summoned, and spent a majority of her life traveling the world and helping others (she lived an action-packed life). For her final wish, she asks Rimuru to find Leon and asks him if he acknowledged her existence (Yume: I’m sure he’ll ask, who was she again?) and she also asks Rimuru to eat her that way she can continue to live on inside him. He promises to find Leon (and punch him) and once Shizu takes her last breath he eats her where he gains human form and has the appearance of a young male Shizu (he’s a trap). Rimuru tells the adventurers what happened and they thank him for honoring the wish of Shizu as well as say their farewell to her. The three decide it’s time to leave and report what they discovered but before leaving Rimuru gives them new armor and everything. Rimuru creates a tombstone to honor Shizu (scene here: https://youtu.be/bqlWvdctDlY) and we end by cutting to the desert where a masked man gives a pig warrior the name “Geld” and orders him to attack Rimuru’s forest.
Episodes 9-11
In the first half of episode 9 Rimuru tests out his human form as well as the spells he inherited from Shizu. The first thing Rimuru discovers is that he is androgynous (rule 34 will fix that for you) and his senses aren’t as sharp as when he’s a slime (scene here: https://youtu.be/MIC5KE6aXnc). He can also hide his aura using Shizu’s mask as the mask is imbued with magic that hides magic (Yume: Magic-ception or inprivate browsing? You decide). While testing out Shizu’s power in the cave, he gets a call from Ranga asking for help. Rimuru arrives onto the scene where ogres have invaded the forest and believe that Rimuru is working with some majins who are working with orcs who attacked the ogre clan and who wore masks similar to the one Rimuru has. Rimuru takes on the ogres while Ranga takes on the ogre priestess (don’t lewd the priestess Ranga. (Yume): That’s Rule 34’s job. (Nitsuj): Now you’re getting it). Rimuru tries to reason with them but they don’t listen and fight him where Rimuru takes out the three escorts leaving only the prince and his swordmaster where Rimuru releases his true powers in the hopes of getting them to stop and talk but the prince refuses to yield and prepares to fight to the death (Yume: Men. They always have to do things the stubborn way). Thankfully, the ogre priestess (his sister) manages to get him to calm down and listen to reason (if he wanted to kill you he would have killed you by now) where he realizes that he made a mistake in judgement and apologizes. Rimuru forgives him and the others and he invites them back to the village for a feast (scene here: https://youtu.be/SHXbLbBzVDI).
In episode 10 we find out that the ogres were attacked by orcs who were being led by a majin (they lost to a bunch of pigs. (Yume): They were being led by Ganon). The ogres believe that the orcs are working with a demon lord and are determined to avenge their clan that was killed in the attack. Rimuru offers to bring them in as his subordinates and help them and the leader of the ogres is torn on what to do. On the one hand him joining up with Rimuru will help him out greatly. He gains a strong ally, new power and gets one step closer to achieving his goals but at the same time he’s forced to acknowledge his own weaknesses. He’s an ogre, a strong creature who enjoys the battlefield and needs no ones help. By accepting Rimuru’s offer he’s forced to acknowledge that he is weak and not strong enough to lead his clan and exact vengeance on his own (it’s a tough pill he has to swallow. He hates to take it but he has to). The ogres agree to be Rimuru’s subordinates and they receive new names. The leader earns the name Benimaru (Yume: Hottie), his sister is Shuna, the other female ogre is Shion (she became hot, no surprise there), the old ogre is Hakurou, the ninja ogre is Souei (Yume: Sexy), and the muscle-bound ogre is Kurobe (he’s less scarier now). Not only did they get stronger but they became kijin (the next step in ogre evolution) and after Rimuru named them all he passed out from using up so many magicules (Yume: Ogres were already powerful monsters so giving them a name resulted in Rimuru using up a bunch of magicules. Scene here: https://youtu.be/xQxzdqr4qMc). Meanwhile, we see the orcs make their way to the marshlands of the forest which is home of the lizardmen. The orcs have a number of 200,000 troops (that’s a lot of bacon) and the lizardmen chief believes that the orcs are being led by an orc lord a creature said to only show up every few centuries and can devour the fears and terrors of his allies. The chief sends his son Gabiru out to ask the other creatures of the forest for help and his first stop is the goblin villages.
Episode 11 is a quick and simple episode. We get a few laughs at the beginning with Shion and Shuna fighting over Rimuru and finding out that Shion can’t cook and almost killed Gobta with her cooking (scene here: https://youtu.be/ITElAmQoZlI, well that’ll be a good weapon). Gabiru finally reaches their village where right away everyone dislikes the guy and wants to kill him (Yume: Turn him into boots). He even pisses off Ranga by insulting Rimuru but stays cool and challenging Rimuru to a fight with Ranga on the line. Ranga manages to stay cool and instead of ripping Gabiru apart, he instead has Gobta (who recovered from Shion’s cooking and gained poison resistance) fight in place of Rimuru. The fight is over in a flash as Gobta takes Gabiru out with a spinning hook kick to the back of the head (scene here: https://youtu.be/RlVO7YLzULY). The lizardmen retreat and while Rimuru is open to the idea of an alliance with the lizardmen he has no intention of being Gabiru’s underling. That night, as they talk about what to do about the orc invasion, they receive a visit from Treyni a dryad who asks Rimuru to defeat the orc lord (scene here: https://youtu.be/A1C71eQdtF8).
And this seems like a good place to stop for now, because the next episodes are gonna be nothing short of awesome. Play us out Yume.
(Yume): We’ll be back next week to review the second part. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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