Honestly speaking I never wanted to watch the anime. Reason being, I have been following the manga of this series and it is currently in my top 10 fav manga. IDK if it's at the level of top 10 all time or top 10 currently reading series but its top 10 nonetheless. The reason I tried my best to not watch the anime is because well.. I didn't want to find the anime adaptation of a manga I loved being total crap.
The reason I find the anime adequate is because well.. I don't think its an absolutely terrible adaptation, its just not doing the manga or light novel justice. So why did I make this review? Well.. I just would like to clarify a little bit since I see a lot of terrible reviews for this show. I know I'm being biased but hopefully I can change some of you guys thoughts on this.
If you don't want to have to read a long ass review, the summary is that the show is not meant to be all amazing world building, plot and epic action filled adventure that injects you with a large dose of adrenaline per episode. Or at least in the manga per chapter. I mean episode 23 ended on i think chapter 50 something in the manga. And if what was mentioned in the other reviews are right (with the amount of people mentioning this issue.. i know this is fact), there are a lot of fan service scenes which deter a lot of viewers. Many mentions how the show is basically a huge harem plot where chicks are attracted to a slime. Ok fair enough, an acceptable argument. The issue i see here is that maybe its just me.. but i dont think there are a lot of fan service moments in the manga. I'm not denying that there isn't any.. but not so much that it hinders the story and makes you think its just a fan service-ing series.
Now in light of this.. I feel that maybe the anime increases the amount of said scenes, further reducing the amount of screen time proper, more relevant scenes can get in a single episode. Not to mention they have to cram 2 whole chapters into a single episode (assuming they don't have any episode that only covers 1 chapter), thats kinda tight to make a compelling story.
So why do I think of this despite not having watched the entire series? Again.. this is based on the reviews I've been seeing. Now to make things clear, I am not in anyway saying the other reviews are wrong, I'm just giving my two cents on this topic is all since I don't want other MAL lurkers that don't read the manga or LN to come see the review section and decided not to give this series a try. OK? Alright? Good. Let's start.
Based on what I've been reading, many seems to have very superficial understandings and information of the overall story. Be it the characterization of each well uh.. characters, and/or overall world building. A great example would be the Demon Lord Millim Nava. A review mentions her as a disaster class being that got done in by freaking candy (or honey to be more accurate). Well first of all, she is a cut above disaster, she is catastrophe class. A demon ranking so high up and rare that with the very few number of beings that can be categorized as one, the entire world just decided to not make it an official class. So far in the story there are only 2 known catastrophe class: Millim and Veldora. Ok, next. If you think that Rimuru defeating Millim with honey is BS.. Well, it kinda is BS.. But it makes sense. I mean I'm a fan of the series and all, but there is just no way Rimuru at that time and even later in the story (by later i mean waaay later like, 'not even the manga has caught up to the LN' later) he still wouldn't be able to beat Millim. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Or in this case.. gain their favour.
Now u all askin right? But lol he just fed her honey why did his followers applauded him like he did something crazy? Ughh unless didn't you read the paragraph above, i mentioned how Millim is a special being, so terrifyingly powerful that she can practically destroy KINGDOMS if she felt like it. Emphasis on the S. More than 1. Ok? Her strength is infamous throughout the world as she is a cute little girl with pony tails that can stand toe to toe with the Storm Dragon Veldora, hailed as a freaking Guardian Deity by the monsters of the Great Jura Forest. Ok? Entire nations and kingdoms needed to think twice to invade nearby kingdoms because well.. a sealed Veldora happens to be there. Veldora's very existence deters nations from invading nearby kindoms. Think about it. Most monsters would just beg for their lives if the come across a wild Millim ready for battle. Him standing up to Millim in order to protect his subordinates is a feat in itself if you think about it. Oh and if you're thinking well.. his subordinates tried to fight millim. Well they're just dumb ok. They're just willing to sacrifice their live for Rimuru that was it.
Another thing was how many characters were not very memorable. Well that's true in a way. There are so many cast member that it its difficult to keep track of them all. But can you blame them? By the end of the anime series, Rimuru had became the master and king of over 150 000 monsters. Don't forget other characters that are not affiliated or included in that 150k.
In the manga, character development of the casts were slow. But so was the pace of the plot. It was never meant to be fast. You were supposed to discover each cast personalities through the interactions they show between one another and with Rimuru. The story slowly but surely helps us peel off each layer of skin in a pace where, we didn't even notice the character development until you realize how much you've grown fond of a certain character. Maybe the anime didn't do a very good job at doing this, but hey I gave my argument earlier right. Of another thing I noticed with the anime adaptation, is that they change the dialog a bit.. You know what? Scratch that, they change a lot of the dialog. I mean, the adding entire lines to what the characters are saying in a particular scene. Well, I didn't read the Light Novels so I don't know whether I am wrong about this.. but at least in the manga there was far less irrelevant dialog.
Now the enemies are a bit of a pushover yes. Seeing as Rimuru practically solo's most of them (except Millim technically but eh). The thing is in this part of the story at least Rimuru wasn't meant to fight impossible like villains yet. This is a section where we were given an idea of the power balance in the world currently (like the demon lord keeping each other in check for example), Rimuru's overall character and him realizing that he couldn't save everyone despite being all powerful and trying to work slowly into this albeit vague goal of his by slowly learning how to be a proper leader, the personalities of the other characters, etc.
Well there are more arguments I'd like to give but they're a bit out there so lets just leave it at that. Basically:
1. the anime is giving out waay too much fan service when compared to the manga. This is very sad for me because I feel that it would do so much better without them.
2. The dialog were changed to accommodate the fan servicing model, and unfortunately not for the better. I honestly don't think the anime studio understands the characters properly when adding new dialog and/or choosing dubbers. Maybe its just me, but when I'm reading the manga, the voice I have inside my head that represent each cast, isn't found on this anime adaptation.
3. I think why many anime only watchers dislikes Rimuru as a character is well.. he seems perverted. Like your typical harem main protagonist. I'm not saying he's not, but the anime seems to exaggerates i feel like. It's not that he's perverted, more like normal(?) He has his urges and is interested in women in general. Despite this, he seems.. normal for a guy i feel. In the anime for example, back to the Millim Nava vs Rimuru scene as an example. Rimuru mentions about Millim being flat, while checking her body out. This isn't found on the manga (idk about the Light Novel). You know they add things like this. And there are many scenes where the female kijins holds Rimuru underneath their breast right. And as he speaks the kijin's plot would jiggles. At least in the anime adaptation. While reading the manga, I do notice him having plots resting on his body, but never did it seem perverted? IDK how to explain this properly but I hope you get my point.
4. The plot is meant to be slow and steady, thus requiring more screen time for each scene and/or character. The overall addition of the new dialog and fan service does not help.
5. Finally, I'm giving the adaptation a 6.5/10 since I am disappointed at the adaptation, but on the other hand i kinda expected this. So to all of you that didn't like the anime, please i implore you to try reading the manga at least. To me at least, the manga is faaar more enjoyable to go through.
Anyway, thats it for my review y'all, thanks for reading such a long as essay.
