English Dub Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime “The Tragedy of M”

OVERVIEW

During a typical day of being fought over by Shuna and Shion, Rimiru decides to figure out how to create pillows that feel as squishy as his slime form, leading to a fun time at the beach that’s interrupted by a monster attack.

OUR TAKE

The holiday season gets a pleasant surprise with the release of another of the Slime OVAs. And as someone who hasn’t watched a single full episode of this series before, it was surprisingly easy to follow. I’m certainly familiar with the premise of the show, that being a dude getting killed in the real world and then becoming a slime creature in the next life before gaining amazing powers, but never got around to actually giving it a shot prior to this. Thankfully this special isn’t exactly meant to represent the best of the show that some fans may already be aware of, since this feels like a pretty disposable beach episode that ramps up the fanservice and widdles down the characters to their basest character traits. Rimiru is the even-headed mediator, the ogre girls are each trying to get in his good graces, the guy characters are diligent servents, and so on.

This has its upsides and downsides, naturally. If you’re a fan of the visuals and character designs and, for some reason, don’t have access to porn while using the internet, this episode will be great for holding you over until your connection is fixed. And naturally, if you’re a pre-existing fan of the series overall, getting more of these characters at all will probably just be a nice in general to have until the second season starts airing. Given the success of the series in popularity, having a second season seems more like a when than an if, but this will hopefully tide you over until then. It’s got what, I assume, is plenty of what one enjoys about the show condensed into a tight twenty minutes.

On the other hand, if you’re a newcomer to “Slime” like I am, I can’t imagine that this will really help sell the show for what I hear are its better parts. Supposedly the story has plenty of heart in addition to its well animated action and sleek looking character designs, which do not really come off here with pretty lazy gags about poor cooking or hot girls getting the male lead’s attention. Granted, this isn’t exactly meant to be much more THAN a fun little side story to keep people aware of the series’ existence once the DVD’s come out, but I can’t help but wonder if there wasn’t something more heartfelt and serious to throw in here instead of this dime a dozen trip to the beach. At least those feeling the frost bite right now can think warm thoughts by thinking of the beach here, but that’s about it.