English Dub Review: Re:Monster “Re:Born”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tomokui Kanata is stabbed to death by a strange woman in the middle of a high tech city, but awakens reincarnated into the body of a small goblin and renamed Gobrou. While he struggles at first, he retains a skill from his previous life that allows him to absorb the abilities of whatever he eats, which quickly enables him to level up rapidly. He also gains two friends among the goblin children, a boy named Gobkichi and a girl named Gobmi, who become an effective hunting trio. Within Gobrou’s first three weeks, he and his friends are able to reach Level 100 and become Hobgoblins, which drastically changes their appearances and increases their strength.

OUR TAKE

So, I’ll be blunt. This first episode is basically just the first episode of “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” but with very slight tweaks…is what I WOULD be saying if I didn’t check the years both stories started and found that Re:Monster actually predates Slime by a couple years, starting in 2011 whereas Slime began in 2013. Which I guess means that Slime ripped THIS off but somehow beat it to the punch on becoming an anime, which must really suck for the creator of Re:Monster because the similarities in these first episodes are EERILY similar, down to the protagonist being suddenly stabbed to death, having an ability absorption skill and the way the leveling up, and skill gaining text is seen as some mysterious other voice. I’ve watched a ton of other Isekai and these are the only two times I’ve seen the Level Up interpreted this way. Then again, this seems to be another case where an Isekai didn’t really need to be an Isekai, considering the fact that Tomokui/Gobrou is reincarnated from a previous life doesn’t really make much difference on the story going on in THIS life. It really only matters in that it gives him a New Game+ on things and will make him stand out and get ahead easier as things escalate. Which I guess is the main fantasy of these things?

But yeah, like the start of every Isekai show, we’re really just in the tutorial levels at the moment. Odd that Level 100 seems so easy to get to in this world, though. It’s not really treated like some legendary achievement, just kind of uncommon because most goblins don’t think to work that hard or don’t live long enough to get that far. Not to mention that none of them have a skill absorption ability to build on like Gobrou had in his past life as Tomokui, where he apparently had several other overpowered skills that he seems to have lost on the way over here. That raises the question of what the heck kind of world he came from, since it seems to not be a typical world that many other Isekai protagonists start in, but MAYBE that will play into events down the line. The Opening acknowledges his past life at least, but then there’s I Shall Survive Using Potions where the past life takes up the majority of the OP and has ZERO to do with the events of the show. So…yippee, another Isekai. See you next week.