English Dub Review: THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME THE MOVIE: SCARLET BOND

Anime films are tricky, because they need to balance out whether or not viewers are faithful to its TV series and for That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime there is a lot of TV. For starters, this film takes place after the show’s second season, and then the franchise last year debuted a spin-off called The Slime Diaries which is more of a light-hearted take on this universe.

In any case, the franchise largely follows Rimaru who is a reincarnated slime that seldom is in her slime form and more than likely in her demon lord form. Together with her team she meets Hiiro who comes asking for help against a dangerous enemy threatening his country.

After his people were wiped out by the Orcs, Hiiro was sure he was the last of the Ogres. Since then, he’s found a home in the small nation of Raja in service to their young queen. However, things are not going well for the city-state. A mysterious curse has repeatedly fouled their water source and their queen’s health is clearly declining. But when Hiiro heads off in search of aid, he runs across the Orcs responsible for the deaths of all those he held dear in the nearby country of Tempest.

As expected, there’s quite a bit of flashbacks in the near two-hour anime adventure film so as to serve a multitude of purposes, give fans insight on the grand mythos that the TV series has already laid out, as well as the film’s. Because of this, the plot of the actual film gets a bit convoluted and is unable to properly get out of its way as everything seems rushed and not very well thought out.  Fortunately for us, the action sequences are *chef’s kiss*, saved largely for the climax.

The English dub cast is status quo from the series and features actors that are the usual go-to for Crunchyroll including Austin Tindle, Daman Mills, Tia Ballard, Ian Sinclair, and Brittney Karbowski returning in the lead role as Rimaru. Nobody is blowing me away with their performances here, but serviceable nonetheless.

Overall, nothing’s blowing me away here. The aforementioned plot issues muddle the experience for me, however, the die-hard fans of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime should find enough to keep them satiated until more of the series is produced.