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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a wholesome world-building anime that allows a viewer to watch and feel enjoyment for the characters inside. The anime passes off as a comedy but where it truly shines is in its intense battle scenes and its incredible storytelling. Also, the companionship that Rimuru gets with the many different species of animals living in the forest is s sparkling moment of the anime. Let's hop into it.

For those unaware of the plot of the Anime, here is an oversimplified version of the plot, since it is a comedy-type series it doesn't really spoil much, but if ... you already have seen the first season then you can skip to the review section:

The Anime starts with a middle-aged man named Satoru Mikami walking down the street and meeting up with his friend from work. He exclaims that he doesn't have (and has never had) a girlfriend. His friend meets up with him in an attempt to show off his girlfriend to Satoru and suddenly a random man wielding a knife comes charging down the street aiming his knife at Satoru's girlfriend, Satoru jumps in the way and is murdered by this man. In an attempt at comedy, Satoru exclaims to his friend to destroy his hard drive. While Satoru is dying, he recites his pain to a voice in his head, and in his next life, he receives resistance to all of these status effects (such as stab resistance, fire resistance, slime body, etc...). Then he proceeds to be reincarnated as a slime. The series continues, he meets a mighty dragon (Veldora) in a cave who he swallows to attempt to break a seal (and potentially bring him back later in the series). This dragon dubs him the name Rimuru Tempest. Rimuru escapes the cave, finds a goblin village, fights off some dire wolves who have been attacking it, and names all of the wolves and goblins. Turns out that naming a being in this world means that the being will evolve into a more superior form. Rimuru visits the dwarven kingdom in an attempt to find a builder, a seamstress, and a blacksmith. to help develop his village He ends up getting arrested and exiled with those three people. They go back to the village where they encounter an adventurer group of four humans who interact with Rimuru and stay in his village. After fighting off the inner demons (A curse) within one of them (Shizu) Rimuru releases her from the burden of this curse and swallows her. (She asked him to, calm down) (more on this later). This allows Rimuru to gain a human form. Rimuru fights an orc lord, (with the help of a demon lord) fought a Medalodon, and trained some kids as per the late Shizu's wishes.

Review:

First, let's talk about the isekai event. As the Isekai genre has evolved it seems the method for killing off the main character at the beginning has devolved. In Mushoku Tensei the MC is killed by a truck (Truck-kun), In Another World With My Smartphone was an accidental bolt of lightning, and in Slime it was a random guy with a knife. The writers could have given some context as to why this happened or just simply chosen another way to off the MC. This opening scene also seemed very rushed as Satoru was stabbed literally three minutes in. The audience needs time to build a connection with the MC before he dies, that's what makes his death meaningful to viewers. While he was dying the comedy kicked in and made a lot of sense what was happening with him picking his abilities.

Next, let's talk about the comedy and wholesomeness between episodes 1-6. At the dwarven kingdom, Rimuru made friends with citizens there and had a blast. If you remember, he had never had practical experience with a woman, with changed when he was practically getting fondled by the ladies at the elf bar. Even when he gets arrested, the series includes comedy to try and not be that serious, and it's a genius move. The fight scenes were also a spectacle during this section of the show, masterfully crafted.

Now, I'd like to talk about the genius behind writing Shizu's death. Shizu had been possessed by the fire demon Ifrit, which had been forcefully fused with her when she was young by the demon lord Leon Cromwell. The fusion caused her tremendous suffering throughout her life, resulting in uncontrollable outbursts of destructive fire magic. Eventually, Rimuru manages to extract Ifrit from Shizu, leaving her in a weakened state due to the prolonged possession. After these events, Shizu spends some time traveling with Rimuru and his followers. During this period, Shizu, aware that her life was nearing its end due to the side effects of the prolonged possession, asked Rimuru to absorb her so that she could be freed from her suffering and her life force could live on within Rimuru. Moved by her request and feeling a deep connection to her (as she was the Japanese person whom Rimuru's original form, Satoru Mikami, was destined to be united with according to the prophecy by the dragon Veldora), Rimuru agreed. In doing so, Rimuru not only absorbed Shizu's body, but also her skills and memories, gaining a human form in the process, which resembled a genderless version of Shizu. The amount of work that was put into this is astounding, this complexity is on par with an anime like Log Horizon.

Between episodes 9-19, the fighting scenes and stories behind the people that Rimuru fights are incredible. When Rimuru fights the Orgres, Rimuru shows his decisive and incredible power and allows him to befriend the strongest set of allies that he will have for a long time. The story behind the Orc Lord that only became an Orc Lord to help feed his starving race was incredibly written, the cherry on top was that Rimuru decided to shoulder the burden of the Orc Lord when he eventually swallowed him. For this entire Anime, Rimuru had been the most overpowered being, but when he tries to fight a demon lord named Milim, he realizes that he is no match for her. Realizing this, he instead befriends her. This shows that it isn't just the basic "OP MC" trope found in most isekais. Finally, the fight against the Medalodon with Milim was on par with many battle scenes from the beginning of the show but didn't see the intensity and thoroughness that the orc lord fight had.

Now if this show remained going at the current pace, then I would have given it a 10/10 but the issue here is the last 5 episodes. Per Shizu's request, Rimuru trains a group of children to become good with magic and at combat. The issue here is that these kids had no real time for an introduction meaning that the watcher doesn't really care for them. You can't just introduce a random cast of characters and throw them into combat because the watcher doesn't really care much for the result. Also for the past 20 episodes of the series, we had been seeing fighting of the highest quality and intensity. Watching these kids fight in comparison is very underwhelming and "lame". This is one of the main problems with an anime like Log Horizon as well. And they also never return to this plotline in season two making this a filler arc. Now I'm not saying that this is unwatchable, I'm just saying that it is not at the same level of enjoyment as what had been previously shown in the series.

Overall That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a very wholesome and comedy-driven show. Most of its fight scenes are incredible in animation and audio and are given plenty of contexts. For the most part, its lighthearted comedy allows for restraint in the series. And most importantly the Anime is not that serious meaning that it can be a feel-good watch.


It's a 9/10

Log Horizon works. Some call it the "better SAO" but comparing it to SAO is unfair. SAO (arguably) started the Isekai genre and its writing was in its adolescence, Log Horizon is one of the best works of the Isekai genre. Log Horizon is good for many reasons other than just the basic Isekai trope, it's a series of wits, comedy, and the perfect amount of romance. Let's dive into it:


Log Horizon starts with Shiroe and 30,000 other Japanese gamers getting teleported into a game known as Elder Tales. This event would be known as the apocalypse. Here's where it gets interesting though, in many ... other isekai's, this is where the protagonist might go on to raise his/her's level or build a harem but Log Horizon does it differently. We are introduced to the three big characters of the series: Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Akastuki. They decide to venture to the town of Susukino to rescue a member of one of Shiroe's friend's guilds: The Crescent Moon Alliance. Once Shiroe arrives in the town he views the guild there vandalizing and terrorizing the NPC's living there (more on this later). It is then we are introduced to another of the signature characters of the series, Nyanta. The guild in Susukino doesn't want to give up the girl within the city that Shiroe and the others are rescuing and thus a fight breaks out, and through Shiroe's intelligence and the overwhelming teamwork of the party they are able to win a near-impossible 20v4 fight. On the way home from Suskino, they stay the night in an NPC's barn. This NPC has two kids and tells Shiroe stories about his life and his kids. Now I know this sounds like a plot synopsis, but let us start diving into what truly separates Log Horizon from other animes.

The first thing is the Round Table Conference and the brilliance behind concocting it and the reason as well. Remember from the synopsis above that the Guild in Suskino was vandalizing and terrorizing the citizens. This was the first straw, the second was when people started killing other players in the game, and the final straw was when Shiroe observed a guild named Hamlin that was enslaving young children, giving them food and a place to live in return for their exp potions which they would sell off to higher rank players. Their living conditions were horrible and the leaders of the guild forced the kids to fight and gather resources every day. Now a sane person on the outside might ask the question: Why are people resorting to such violence? Well, I'm glad you asked. Log Horizon takes a realistic approach to its anime. In the first episode, Shiro said "We may know how to play this world as a game but we don't know how to live in it" (Log Horizon 1). After the apocalypse occurs, the adventures get scared, they don't want to exterminate monsters because they need to learn how to live with their circumstances. And once people achieved this living, the second problem arose: What to do? See, everyone is bored and has nothing to do. Normally, (in real life) the task of finding things to do are kept up with trying to earn a living. Shiroe soon points out that doing this is too easy as all someone would have to do to have 3 meals and an Inn room would be to kill 6 goblins in combat. What ends up happening is that (because there are no set-out rules against it in the game) the adventures start vandalizing and terrorizing the people of the land (NPC's) and resorting to otherwise criminal acts such as killing other players and kidnapping simply because there is nothing else to do and it's the lawless environment and lack of real consequences for actions that lead to this behavior. Shiroe see's this and devises a plan. He realizes that there needs to be a governing body that can set out laws to forbid otherwise criminal acts and add more activities and increase the price of daily goods. One issue though, to create this governing body, he needs no corruption and no one person to have greater power over the other. And through strategic genius and business deals (watch the show to see this) he gets enough money to purchase the guild building which holds the bank and guild registration area. If someone were to be blacklisted from this building, then it would essentially halt their progress by freezing their assets. He calls many strong guilds to the building where he asks them to make a Round Table Conference, all of this while he is orchestrating and coordinating an escape of a vast amount kids from the Hamlin guild.

One of the most important things that was revealed at the Round Table Conference (and Shiroes trump card) was that the NPCs were actually real people. Shiroe had realized this when he had stayed the night in that old man's barn, his justification was that game devs don't write back stories for background characters, these people had actual lives and were real people. And seeing as how these NPC's (now called people of the land) were getting terrorized for a good portion of time now due to a lack of things to do, Shiroe believed that they were planning a revolt. This would be bad for the adventurers because the people of the land were a group of people that could beat the adventures just with sheer numbers alone. And as Shiroe pointed out "We rely on the people of the land to survive, but I'm pretty sure they could do just fine without us" (Log Horizon 9). If they didn't govern themselves fast then they might face a revolt against someone they could not win against. If you cannot tell, this alone should be enough to convince you of this series' complexity,

This is simply one example of the thought put into the scenes of Log Horizon. Further in the series, Shiroe (through diplomacy) negotiates with the people of the land to become a self-governing nation within its territory, and the group of kids Shiroe saved venture off to raise their level. And just as with the round table, I could also explain in great detail the complexity involved within these scenes too, but through season 1 it is shown how truly brilliant Shiroe is and the different relationships he forges as well. This anime is so good that even the filler episodes are good.

One last thing I'd like to mention, this series explores the lives of many different characters and their pasts. These character moments work perfectly in season 1 but then turn to filler trash in season 2. So what's the real difference between SAO and Log Horizon? Log Horizon takes a realist standpoint on the "trapped in a game trope" and furthers it by making the character moments to die for while also maintaining a perfect balance between diplomacy and battle scenes.