User:IchibanPlatypus/That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Anime)

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime > That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Anime)

Original Japanese Wikipedia page >転生したらスライムだった件 (アニメ)

"That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) is a Japanese anime production made by Eight Bit (studio). "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" is an original light novel by Fuse that had a television series and movie produced.

TV Anime
Season 1 aired on TOKYO MX and other stations from October 2018 to March of 2019 with 25 episodes, along with original stories and other works by the author. Just before the airing of episode 9 on September 26th, 2018, a full page advertisement was placed in the morning edition of the Yomiuri Newspaper (National Edition) announcing the start of a new chapter.

The second season was split into two 13 week runs, part one aired from January to March of 2021, while part two went from July to September of the same year. The anime spin off "The Slime Diaries: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" was aired from April to June of 2021, along with the original anime which aired for 9 consecutive months.

In the autumn of 2023, a new original anime "Coleus' Dream", was announced with a 3 episode run time. The opening theme is performed by Takuma Terashima.

The 3rd season is scheduled to premiere in the fall of 2024. The rebroadcasting of season 1 and 2 of the series changed from over-the-air broadcasting through radio towers to using satellites and switched to the tv network Nippon TV.

Production
The main story and the spin-off are both based off of the manga.

According to an interview by Comic Natalie (an off shoot of the website Natalie) with the original author Fuse and opening artist Takuma Terashima, Fuse last heard about how adapting the story into an anime was going from the people involved in the production. When the manga was being made, the story was seemingly already moving along, "When this was officially communicated, I was happy it passed but the manuscripts deadline was 1 week ago and I haven't been able to concentrate on writing and other things, so I was given a deadline extension of 10 days." said Fuse. Terashima said that he got into the original work from the manga version. He knew from an ad banner about the original work but he didn't know the content entirely and began to read. While rereading, he thought "I have to hurry and continue reading this.". Also, Yasuki Kawakami, who is in charge of drawing the manga version, told Fuse that he is a fan of the original work when they first met.

Regarding Rimuru's previous life as Satoru Mikami, at the time of the first illustrations for the original work, Fuse said they were unpolished and disapproved of the illustrations so directions were given such as "He needs to be really cool". Furthermore, while the manga was being made, another direction Fuse gave was "Make him similar to Seishiro Sakurazuka from "Tokyo BABYLON" by (CLAMP) like a cool salaryman". When the anime was being made, it was decided after multiple retakes for Satoru to be a "I want to call myself a nice guy but I want to wait to see if I really am a nice guy" type of character.

Regarding the anime's completion, Fuse gave high praise such as "This is already beyond my expectations and turned out better than I could have hoped for" and "Something I could not have imagined was born". When she saw the performances from the first episode's post recording by the actors Tomoaki Maeno as Veldora, Terashima as Satoru, and Okasaki as Rimuru he thought, "This is already done, isn't it?" and "I'm ok with this.". Additionally, when Fuse supervised the screenplays for all of the episodes, she commented with "They came out really good". Also at the time of the manga's publication, one of Shizue's scenes was purposely not shown and removed. Fuse thought that Kazuyuki Fudeyasu's composition of the omitted scene was incorporated so well in the series that she said "Yumiri Hanamori's performance as Shizue would definitely make her cry.".

At the beginning of production, season 2 had yet to be arranged. The overall composition was also still undecided. At the script writing meeting, it was decided that the scenes which were too long and had to be skipped would be collected there in case of a second season.

In season 1 episode 4, in Rimuru's fantasy scene, a long eared elf appeared on screen highly resembling the style of "Record of Lodoss War" by (Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko). This was done by the manga artist Tsukasa Kotobuki after a request for the drawing to be "A 90's style elf around 40 years old that is fantasized about". The episode's ending credits showed permission to use the art style was acquired. After the episode's broadcast, it became a talking point on the internet.

Season 1 follows the main story up to episode 23, with episode 24 being a side story, and episode 25 is a compilation episode. Episode 24 "Side Story: Black and the mask" was written by Fuse to depict a past encounter between Diablo and Shizue to further develop the animated original story. This side story's title was argued on at the place in charge of sales with the title "Why Diablo appeared?" coming up. Even Diablo's introduction scene was being considered at the production board meeting, but considering the length, it was decided to be too much work to edit. Out of desperation, Fuse had to write Diablo's entrance to the story and give it to the person in charge. Without any inquiry to the similarity of the story and no changes added, it was accepted and the production was decided. Having considered a scenario where Season 2 might not happen, Diablo's name was revealed before hand. Originally, until episode 24 was planned, it was hastily decided to make episode 25 "Side Story: Veldora's Journal" as a compilation episode where Rimuru takes in and looks back on the main story's progression from Veldora and Ifrit's perspectives.

Characters

 * Rimuru: Miho Okasaki
 * Great Sage: Megumi Toyoguchi
 * Veldora: Tomoaki Maeno
 * Shizue: Yumiri Hanamori
 * Benimaru: Makoto Furukawa
 * Shuna: Sayaka Senbongi
 * Shion: M.A.O
 * Souei: Takuya Eguchi

Sales
The first week of sales for the season 1 Blu-ray was recorded at 5,473 units. The weekly Blu-ray anime rankings (info by ORICON) showed it ranked second, next to the first season of "Sword Art Online Alicization". The first week of sales for the anime's second season surpassed season 1's sales with a recorded 5,565 units sold. The weekly Blu-ray anime rankings (info by ORICON) showed the season 2 Blu-ray had acquired a fifth place spot.

Regarding the anime's first season broadcasted in 2018, the total sales of the "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" BD/DVD's, music CD's, original story novel's, and manga were recorded at about 3.2 billion yen. These were combined in the yearly ranking for the 2018 product year period and ranked by amount sold (info by ORICON) putting the series in tenth place.

For comparison, according to the website "Hon no hikidashi", In October of 2018, season 1 was broadcasted and the sales for the first volume of the manga grew by about 4.5 times compared to the previous month. Once again from the same site, and now quoted, "Basically, sales for the manga rose sharply coinciding with the first broadcasting of the anime. The extent of the anime's popularity caused the sales to grow immensely. It was said that sales of the original manga were a barometer for the anime's popularity with neither being an overstatement".

Internet Distribution
The short story "Ramiris is saved" is distributed on the YouTube channel "BANDAI SPIRITS/ バンダイスピリッツ".

CD's

 * That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Music from the anime, Released: 3/20/2019
 * That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Season 2 Original Soundtrack music from the anime 2, Released: 9/29/2021
 * That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime movie Soundtrack, Released: 11/25/2022
 * Movie Version: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Scarlet Bond Theme Song and Movie Soundtrack Album Scarlet Bond, Released: 11/25/2022