Review: That time I got introduced to That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime via Tears of the Azure Sea

As someone who tries to watch as many animated releases every year, I end watching a lot of anime movies. Which is great, because I love anime. But a lot of those movies are parts of long-lasting franchises, which means I sometimes have to just jump in blind. If the shows are short enough, I'll catch up before the movie (as much as I can), like I did this year with Zombie Land Saga, The Dangers in My Heart, and Hypnosis Mic. All short-enough shows to do a quick catch-up. But with That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, with more than 70 episodes, I simply did not have the time do get up to speed. So my introduction to the franchise is the second movie (coming to theaters May 1 from Crunchyroll), That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea.

This ended up being a fine place to jump in, because the movie recognizes that not everyone watching will have seen all of the show (or in my case, any of it). After a cool opening scene showing a mysterious woman stealing an even more mysterious object from an underwater kingdom, we're introduced to Rimuru, a salaryman who died and was (you guessed it) reincarnated as a slime. We get a quick run-down of the events of the show's first three seasons: Rimuru made a lot of friends, set up a kingdom where all creatures/monsters can live together in peace, and became a Demon Lord (not exactly sure what that means, but he can sprout wings and shoot magic, so maybe that).

While he is a slime, Rimuru spends most of his time in a human body, looking like a blue-haired teenage-ish boy. That's how he looks when we meet him, as he travels on a dragon airship (awesome) with a ton of companions to an island where they will (hopefully) get to relax. It's a classic anime movie set-up, sending all of the characters to a new destination, where a self-contained adventure will happen before they return to the main narrative pull of the main series. It reminded me of when I saw One Piece Film: Red without having ever seen an episode of One Piece. 

There are so many characters, most of whom don't get a lot to do, but whom I'm sure fans will be happy to see. As we see everyone on the airship, the one who caught my eye the most was Gobta, an adorable goblin character with a big nose and a bigger personality. That proved lucky for me, since he's pretty much the main character of the movie. 

Once the airship lands, the characters divide up to go enjoy themselves in various ways. One group goes fishing. Another (including an alcoholic fairy I really liked) go to drink rare liquor with the empress. And another (including Gobta and Rimuru) head to the beach. After a while, Gobta gets separated from his group while confronting the mysterious young woman from the opening, who seems to be following them. Her name is Yura, and she's a priestess with a special connection to the slumbering water dragon who serves as the guardian deity to the nearby underwater kingdom. She and Gobta form an unlikely alliance, which becomes an unlikelier friendship, and eventually verges on an unlikeliest romance. I love their dynamic and the way it grows and shifts throughout the story's various turns. If I end up checking out the show (which I very well might), Gobta will be a big reason why. I want to see more of him!

The movie has pretty much everything you want from a big-screen anime outing. There are exciting action scenes where all the characters pull out their unique cool-looking special abilities. There are some great songs that play in the background and made their way to my various playlists. The story has political intrigue, betrayals, and shocking revelations. Your buy-in may depend on your familiarity with the franchise, but even for this Slime virgin (ew), I was quite engrossed, and had a great time.

Fans will want to make sure to stay through the credits, since there's a final scene that teases what's to come. For me, it didn't mean much since it involved characters who weren't otherwise in the movie, but I bet it's exciting if you know who they are.

If you're a fan of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, I'm sure you're going to see this and have a great time, and you don't need me to recommend that you do so. But if you want to do a little taste test to see how you like this world and its massive cast of characters, I think this is a great way to do so. Even if it doesn't hook you into watching more, it's a super enjoyable self-contained adventure in its own right.