Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken

Lonely thirty-seven-year-old Satoru Mikami is stuck in a dead-end job, unhappy with his mundane life, but after dying at the hands of a robber, he awakens to a fresh start in a fantasy realm...as a slime monster! As he acclimates to his goopy new existence, his exploits with the other monsters set off a chain of events that will change his new world forever!

(Source: Yen Press)

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Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken has been published in English as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime by Yen Press under the Yen On imprint since December 19, 2017.

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Reviews

Sep 17, 2023

Chanki_33

Recommended

Preliminary (6/184 eps)

Man, this gets amazing volume after volume, although I read in English translation so I likely would have stopped after Vol.16 (which is the latest official translation till today) but I moved further and read fan translations and even Vol.20, which I was not able to find even the fan one, I read the one which gets translated by the AI or different apps.
Yea it gets a bit boring during the Founder festival arc considering the whole story but after that it stars to get amazing and thrilling bit by bit (excluding Vol. 17).
I really hope even if the story of Rimuru ends the ...

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Mar 24, 2023

menkers

Recommended

Preliminary (90/184 eps)

"I Reincarnated as a Slime" is a popular Japanese light novel series written by Fuse and illustrated by Mitz Vah. The series has been adapted into a manga, anime, and spin-off series, and has gained a significant following among readers who are drawn to its unique premise and engaging storytelling.

The story follows a man who is reincarnated as a slime in a fantasy world after being killed by a criminal. As a slime, he gains a variety of unique abilities and sets out to explore the world and make new friends. Along the way, he encounters various other creatures, including monsters, demons, and humans, and ...

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Mar 13, 2026

IchUndAnime

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (20/184 eps)

Once I watched the anime of "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken", and I loved it. The second and third seasons weren’t quite as good anymore, but maybe the manga would be better! So I read it and was satisfied, even if I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I had been about the first season of the anime. When more and more YouTube videos started spoiling things that hadn’t yet been mentioned in the manga, I began the light novel… and damn, I’m disappointed.

In "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken", the story follows the slime Rimuru, who—thanks to his cute and somewhat naïve personality—befriends many incredible individuals. In ... the end, this not only makes him powerful but also leads him to begin building a nation according to our worlds standards. So even when there is an enemy who is too strong for him, Rimuru can rely on his friends—or even on his own character—because with his extremely likable personality, he can befriend almost anyone.

What I just described is, for me, the ideal version of "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken". I didn’t read/watch it because I loved the fights, but because I found Rimuru likable and the characters so interesting that I wanted to see less of a “story” full of battles and dangers and more festivals, planning, and friendship. The things between the fights are what kept me attached to this franchise, while the story and battles felt more like a framework for those moments.

So it probably won’t be surprising that it frustrated me immensely when the anime, starting around season two, began focusing more and more on the fights, the dangers, and the overarching story. At the time, I assumed that the more relaxed moments had simply been cut because the anime wanted to focus on action. Many adaptations do that, even if I personally didn’t like it. Accordingly, I was really happy when I started the manga and quickly found the relaxed scenes I had been missing.
But ever since I began the light novel, I’ve realized that I had misjudged the situation. By now I no longer have the impression that the adaptation cut the unimportant, relaxed moments; instead, I’m fairly certain that the story itself simply has the unfortunate habit of repeatedly having rather long arcs that revolve only around fighting and war. While I can understand this to some degree — after all, it would be strange if Rimuru threw a festival in the middle of a war — I still don’t like it and wish those arcs were shorter.

After repeatedly encountering arcs that I loved and others that I hated, the story itself started to bother me more and more. The best example is the lack of a real goal. Slice-of-life stories can work without one, but stories with an actual plot (stories that are more than just relaxed moments or cool characters) quickly fall apart, in my opinion, if there isn’t some kind of objective. Defeating the great evil, conquering the world, or whatever. "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken" even has the incredibly annoying habit of never really settling on a single antagonist. Once the last one is defeated, a new one somehow appears, often with the claim that this new enemy was actually behind the previous antagonist all along. As a result, it repeatedly feels like you’re about to reach a goal, only for someone to pick up the goalpost and move it two kilometers further away. That’s annoying.

Finally, "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken" begins introducing things into the world that I absolutely hate. Admittedly this is a personal preference, but I despise it when fantasy worlds suddenly contain modern technology. I want to see fantasy, not tanks.. so why does this new enemy suddenly have a tank?!
Without wanting to spoil exactly what happens, "Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken" does exactly that: Suddenly someone has modern technology, even though nothing like it had appeared anywhere in the high-fantasy region around Rimuru and his nation before. In my opinion that not only makes no sense, it also destroys the high-fantasy dream world. It would be just as strange if Sauron suddenly attacked the hobbits with an AK-47 while his army wiped out enemy territories with ICBMs. No thanks, I neither need nor want that.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m far from finished: I’m currently only reading volume 12 out of 20. I’ll probably keep reading, but I simply wanted to vent my frustration about a work that, for a certain time, counted among my favorites but is now in danger of losing that place.

7 out of 10 potato points.

Edit: A small edit because I wanted to vent my feelings somewhere. Even though I was frustrated when I wrote this review, I was still in high spirits and kept reading with enthusiasm, even when I didn’t like a particular arc. That enthusiasm was rewarded again and again with truly amazing arcs.
However, I’ve now reached a point where I just can’t take it anymore. The reason is Volume 14 of the light novel, which is, by far, the worst part of the story. It basically goes on and on, explaining in excessive detail — and with far too many words — that much of what was said in the previous volume was essentially wrong, all while preparing the next big showdown between Rimuru and the next major antagonist.
As I said, this became really exhausting — so much so that I completely lost the motivation to keep reading. This volume feels like the embodiment of everything I disliked about many earlier chapters and arcs. On top of that, it’s extremely long and pushes everything I hated to an 11 out of 10. If I decide to continue reading, I will definitely skip a large portion of this book. This obviously results in me lowering my rating.

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Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
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