English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “Shizu-san’s Students”

We love you, Slime-sensei.

Overview (Spoilers Below!)

Rimuru takes roll call, but the students refuse to respond—until Ranga frightens them into submission. Rimuru announces a series of one-on-one battles, the students versus their teacher. Kenya volunteers to go first. Rimuru is hoping that the fight will burn off some of the kids’ excess magicule energy and save them.

Although Kenya’s attacks are fast, Rimuru easily doges them all, including the fire that Kenya shoots from his blade. The bookish Chloe goes next, and Rimuru thinks they’ve seen her before. She summons a ball of water that surrounds Rimuru, blades bobbing in the waves. Rimuru uses the skill “magic manipulation” to escape.

Next up is Gale, who fires a magic bullet at Rimuru. The docile Ryota uses a body enhancement skill to charge at his teacher, totally out-of-control. Alice is a golum-master who controls her stuffed animals using puppetry. As Rimuru defeats the kids, each one of them bursts into tears, but none of their magicule energy is reduced. Even so, Rimuru vows to save them, showing the students Shizu’s mask. The kids put their trust in Rimuru, right as Rimuru remembers that Shizu was once in their shoes. They think that they might be able to save the kids if a spirit inhabits them, like Ifrit.

Rimuru warps back to the forest to speak with Treyni, who suggests going to a place called the Dwelling of Spirits. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know how to get there. Rimuru sees Shizu in a dream.

One month later, Rimuru takes the kids on a picnic, offering a manga volume as reward for combat training. Rimuru defeats them all, obviously. Out of nowhere, a sky dragon appears, heading straight for the capitol. Flying after the beast, Rimuru disguises themself.

Human archers are no match for the dragon, but Rimuru easily sucks it into their void and flies away. The city’s humans mistake them for a hero. Afterwards, the wealthy merchant Mjolmire serves dinner to Rimuru and their students as a thank you. Rimuru invites him to their town to help with selling stuff. On their way out, a woman gives the children a blessing from the Dwelling of Spirits—and tells Rimuru where it is!

Our Take

Boy, these kids are cute. Slime does a great job of introducing us to each of their personalities in turn, so that I feel like I have a good sense of who all of Rimuru’s students are. They really do feel like real little kids—Kenya pretending to choke himself at the thought of a quiz is so real. Of course, it’s also hilarious when you consider that these are essentially terminally ill children living in a dangerous fantasy world, and even they hate tests more than anything. Chloe’s constant refrain of “All I wanna do is read my book,” Ryota’s quiet voice contrasted with his wild magic, and Alice’s shouty outbursts quickly endear all of them to me.

Rimuru, too, continues to be absolutely adorable as they zip effortlessly around the courtyard to avoid the kids’ attacks. Their utter shock at Chloe’s ferocity is also so charming—“She’s so young,” they think in horror, “and yet so frightening!” Once again, the dialogue in this episode is sure to draw tons of laughs. Rimuru flippantly declares “Nope!” in response to a kid’s attack. Once they successfully defeat all their students, Rimuru announces, “As the five of you have just witnessed, I am swole.” And I even chuckled at Treyni’s answer to Rimuru’s inquiry about where to find some spirits: “You could always try a place called the Dwelling of Spirits, which is ruled over by the Queen of Spirits.” Gee, Treyni, I wonder if spirits live there? On a totally unrelated note, the sound effect of Rimuru warping to the forest manages to give off both the impression of something mechanical and something magical, loud and resonating. I love it.

Mjolmire is funny from the moment he steps onscreen. His character design is flashy and colorful, with a bushy moustache, a blonde streak of hair, and a bright purple and yellow ensemble. When the dragon approaches, he says, “Damn. Is this the end of my handsome existence?” There are too many fighter types in this show if you ask me—give me an arrogant, flamboyant merchant any day.

A few minor details don’t sit right with me, though. I have a hard time believing that no one thought of telling the kids to use their magic to let off magicules before. At the beginning of the picnic scene, Rimuru’s lip flaps don’t match the words coming out of their mouth at all. I’m still not totally sure why Rimuru wanted to disguise themself as… essentially just a taller version of themself during the dragon fight. Speaking of which, the dragon doesn’t really move at all, which is a wasted opportunity for some animation. It’s a little too convenient that Rimuru just happened to stumble on the answer to two of their major dilemmas—someone to help their village with sales and someone to point out the Dwelling of Spirits—both at the same time. And, ugh. Did Alice really need to say, “Aren’t you supposed to take it easy on a lady?” Are we really supposed to believe that Shizu, tortured hero and female warrior, would have taught her that?

All that aside, I really did enjoy this episode. Getting to see Rimuru in their new role as teacher is a nice change after so many battles and so much diplomatic kingdom-building. Hopefully the adventure becomes even more varied from here on out, and the students get even more chances to show their stuff!