When the otaku mc who had no girlfriend and questionable content in his PC died by the stab of a passerby robber, I thought this was going to be a parody. Turns out it is not. I have always disliked stories where mc dies and gets reincarnated again because the significance of death is lost from that moment. This makes any life threatening situations meaningless - why would you care about someone's death if they might just get reincarnated again? But surprisingly, the story hooks you on despite the cliched start because the struggle of the characters is not merely to survive, but to build a country where everyone exists peacefully via diplomacy and talk.
The main character changes his personality by about 180 degrees once he becomes a slime. He is no longer brooding over his past, no regrets in his previous life and becomes a very cheerful character. But that is for the best because his cheerful mood and how he takes most of the things lightly makes the show enjoyable.
But there are many problems that become evident as the story goes on. The characters of this show come off as very superficial. There is a character that serves as the main motivation for the actions of Rimuru. This character gets the most development in the story so far. Rimuru lacks any backstory or personal developments to make him interesting. There is nothing really special about any other characters. The character interactions are interesting but very predictable. They are directly taken from your typical RPG setting with stiff roles. Most of the characters lose all relevence soon after they are introduced.
Somehow all the female monsters in this series end up becoming very cute (even if they aren't initially when they are introduced) - it is as if the anime thinks that we can't like them if they look different. There is also some fanservice thrown around for good measure. Whether that is good or bad is upto the viewers and how they like their anime. But there is no forced romance or harem elements allowing this to be one of the better isekai out there.
**Spoilers from here onwards**
The first half of the season introduces the world Rimuru is in and gives an idea about the various species, their kingdoms and the relationships between them. The Orc Lord story is honestly well done. It tells how some demon lords manipulate entire races for their personal gains. This is what made the show interesting. But once the second half of the season starts, it feels more like filler.
There is Milim - far stronger than Rimuru, but immediately becomes his ally because he gave her some honey and tasty food?! She is in there for so long and has never tasted honey before? It would work as comedy but when her friendship with Rimuru has far reaching consequences for the main plot, it just looks bad. Also how come no other demon lords, known for evil haven't manipulated her till now?
There is the half dragon thing originated from Veldora - only accounting for an unnecessary fight just to show how strong Milim is. But soon after we go to another arc where Milim is not relevent anymore. So till she or the demon lord of animal kingdom become relevent again, it only feels like pointless filler. They could have interchanged these arcs for better continuity.
There is the sky dragon which appeared from nowhere and was defeated even faster than it appeared. All the fights Rimuru was involved till then had some foreshadowing or preparations behind the curtain. This however feels like a disconnected event entirely there for the merchant to like Rimuru.
**Spoilers End Here**
The ending for the season skips some plot points and instead includes a flashback styled AMV and uses two episodes for content that should have been OVA's. The last episode is another recap episode when we already got a recap in 23rd episode. They should have used that episode for better adaptation of main story.
The animation most of the time is good looking and action scenes are great. But sometimes they start using CGI and it really looks bad. The CGI score I would give is a 5/10, barely serviceable. (For reference, 10 would be ufotable or production IG's CGI and 1 would be the berserk CGI)
There are a few memorable ost's, but most of them do not stand out. The openings and endings were good enough that I didn't skip them.
The anime is an above average adaptation. The pacing was great till 8th episode. But the adaptation is slightly rushed beyond that point.
Overall I still find it enjoyable to watch despite the obvious shortcomings. There seems to be a good underlying plot that the author has just started. Season 2 has been announced and it should be better because of all the setups in this season. It is similar to Overlord in many aspects, but far better than watching an emotionless mc slowly and inevitably take over the world.
Overall 6.5/10
