That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (also known as Tensura or simply Slime) is one of the better isekai series out there and a magnificent entry in a long line of fantasy anime. During this year’s Anime Expo, we got the opportunity to speak with Riichiro Umetsu, editor of the manga and light novel, and Shinichiro Narita, the anime’s producer. They talked about how they first encountered the series, their first impressions, and how the series has maintained its strong success across many forms of media.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Can you both talk about how you were first introduced to the series?
Umetsu-san: It was going around in the editorial world that there were plans to make Tensura into a manga. So we’d had storyboards for the manga floating around for a while. And the website, Shosetsuka ni Naro, has a lot of popular novels. I’d known about Tensura for a while, but I didn’t actually get to read it until we decided that we were going to create a manga for it.
Narita-san: I got into it first by reading the novel because it was kind of a new genre. This new platform had a brand new style of people just uploading their work. So it was slightly past the initial buzz and surge for the platform, but I read it in the form of the novel first.
Q: What was your first impression of the original work and its story?
Umetsu-san: First and foremost, Tensura felt more traditional than other novels on the platform. A lot of the popular novels on the platform back then were very fan-service-y and had a lot of lewd scenes. There were a lot of protagonists who were frustrated with the real world that basically took that emotion and said, “I’ll show you!” in the other world. But here you have a normal guy that gets transferred and kind of makes it big and rises up. And with all of the battle scenes, it makes it feel almost like a manga you’d see in Weekly Shonen Jump.
Narita-san: It’s a fantasy setting, but the protagonist is from the modern day. So the reactions he has and the dialogue he has with the other characters kind of have a sense of familiarity. Tensura’s world is pretty easy to blend into. The characters are very lively and it makes you happy just reading it.
Q: Has the reception and popularity of the series surprised you? Do you feel like the series helped set the stage for other isekai series to come forward?
Umetsu-san: Yes, we were very surprised. A lot of manga that were based on novels were school life series and it was rumored in the industry that fantasy was unpopular and not going to sell. So the fact that Tensura sold so well really surprised us. And I really feel that it made everyone remember, “Oh, this is a genre we like.” That’s how it paved the way for the resurgence of the fantasy genre and the upsurge of the isekai genre.
Narita-san: We have the third season going on already and it’s still very popular. It’s kind of surprising and makes [us] happy that it’s been a beloved series for such a long time. And I feel that it’s a great thing that it became the foundation for the isekai genre. A lot of new titles are still being compared to Tensura to this day. And it just gives the impression that it has affected the genre so much that it still is the gold standard to compare to.
Q: Slime has a lot more focus on the details of world-building compared to other shows. Doing things like showing meetings, planning sessions, and hard work. Do you feel yourself resonating with the kind of work they do in the series while doing your own work?
Umetsu-san: Yes, I resonate very well with the series. Because in the real world, you don’t just work on-site. You have to have a lot of meetings behind the scenes and you have to plan all the logistics. So actually showing that in the series might be one of the reasons why a lot of people think, “Yeah, I really get this and they resonate with it.” And that’s maybe a part of why the series is so popular.
Narita-san: Meetings and things like that are very familiar in our real-life settings as well. And it seems that during the meetings, the people that we are dealing with are kind of looking like the characters in the series.
Q: Umetsu-san, can you talk about how you and the author typically work together? What does the editorial process usually look like on your side?
Umetsu-san: We need to start with the understanding that manga and literature are very different mediums and that the methodology in expressing things changes. You start with how to transform the prose into art. You determine what part of the prose gets cut out because it will not shift into manga very well. And then, on the other hand, you determine what to expound and further delve into because you can express it as art. First, I discuss the general direction with the manga artist. And then I loop that back to the original novelist to get feedback. And because the original novelist has a very good understanding that there is a difference between the two media, as long as it is a very solid plot that we are presenting, he is usually okay with it.
Q: Narita-san, how do you and the rest of the staff ensure there is a balance of world-building and action in the anime?
Narita-san: The thing that we’re most careful about is to keep the characters animated in a very lively manner. Because it is more comfortable for the viewer to watch a very lively animation. Especially when they are moving or walking, the key point is to make sure they are moving properly, and at the same time that they are stopping at the proper moment.
Q: Who is a character that you think deserves more love from the fans?
Umetsu-san: Gobta (laughs). He is an underling, but you can kind of say he is the bad friend that you can goof off together with. He can see eye-to-eye with people, so I think he’s a character that deserves more attention.
Narita-san: So in this world of very unique characters, I would have to say Beretta. Because they are tossed around in the plot a lot, but have a very strong backbone and put in a lot of effort to keep living. So that should be a focus point. Please give them more love because they are trying their best.
We’d like to thank Shinichiro Narita and Riichiro Umetsu for taking the time to speak to us during this year’s anime expo. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is currently airing its third season on Crunchyroll.
©Taiki Kawakami, Fuse, KODANSHA/”Ten-Sura” Project
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