One thing I love about anime is the huge variety of genres we get each season. This season we’ve got an “idol” anime in which an A.I. must save humanity from a war 100 years in the future, a fun series for any guy who ever wanted attention from a cute girl, and of course fan service with busty elves, if that’s what we feel like watching. And if you like isekai stories in which tired, worn-down females from our modern world find themselves in relaxing fantasy worlds getting lots of attention from attractive characters, you have two choices: Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu (about a girl who is summoned to a magical land where she makes magic potions for handsome bishie guys) as well as today’s blog post topic, Slime 300, aka Slime Taoshite, aka I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level.
Reincarnated in a Relaxing Fantasy World After Dying from Overwork?
Poor Azusa Aizawa was a hardworking 27-year-old “corporate slave” who gave everything to the company she worked for, working as many 50 days back-to-back without taking any days off. One day she dropped dead in the middle of work, a phenomenon known as 過労死 karoshi or death from overwork, which sadly happens in Japan sometimes. In the afterlife a goddess offers to make up for the sad death by granting her everything she ever desired: to be immortal, living a “slow life” where she can live free from the stresses that killed her. She gets reincarnated into a fantasy world where she spends her days sleeping, tending her field, and killing slimes — usually the weakest monster in any RPG — to build experience slowly. Before she knows what’s happened, 300 years have passed, and she’s maxed out her level, making her the most powerful wizard in the land.
Slime Taoshite is based on a “Narou-kei” novel, meaning it originated on the popular fan novel publishing platform Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become Novelists), where it won enough appeal with fans to get acquired by SB Creative, who published it in proper light novel form starting in 2017, with the English versions being licensed by Yen Press. So this show joins other works like Redo of Healer and So I’m a Spider, So What? which also started out as user-submitted stories by fan novelists. Ten years from now, I wonder if “Narou-kei” based stories will have come to define the anime industry in the same way that the rise of light novel-based stories (as opposed to anime based on existing manga) defined the decade of the 2000s.
Slime 300 is a Relaxing Anime
One reason we seek out anime to watch is that it allows us to escape our own less-than-perfect lives, watching characters doing things we wish we were doing. And what would be a perfect life? Truly, it would be to live a life free from the stresses that bring us down every day, to be immortal and never age, to have some purpose (killing slimes and helping others who need help).
An Important Message About Maintaining Work-Life Balance
Since Azusa literally worked herself to death in her previous life, one of the themes of the anime is the joy that can be taken from living a “slow life” where we get plenty of sleep, make sure to take time for our hobbies. The idea of working all night to show how dedicated you are to your work — something that’s not uncommon in Japan — is a “hard no” for Azusa.
Slime 300 Has Some Cute Waifus
As with any slice-of-life anime, you need a few characters around for the story to meander along, and Slime Taoshite has plenty of cute characters to entertain you! There’s Azusa herself, a red-haired dragon girl named Laika who becomes Azusa’s apprentice, Alfa, and Shalsha, two “daughters” of Azusa who are incarnations of slimes she killed during her long career, plus the overworked demon lord Beelzebub, who learns a valuable lesson from Azusa about not pushing herself beyond her physical abilities.
Thanks for reading this post on the relaxing Slime 300 slice-of-life anime. Will you be watching along with the rest of us?
It’s a new month, and that means one thing: lots of awesome new anime magazines for J-List to tempt you with! We’ve got the new issue of Megumi Magazine, positively overflowing with free posters for you, plus the ecchi Dengeki Mooed, the artist-focused E2, and more. Browse all J-List’s new anime magazines here!
