Movie Review: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond (Gekijôban Tensei shitara slime datta ken)

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A really fun animated film based off the popular anime TV series.

This film works so well because it can fully immerse you in its fantasy world. The world it takes place in is wonderfully thought out and fantastically realized. It has its own rules that it follows and as the film progresses you begin to understand these rules and everything that happens no matter how fantastic makes sense in this world. Because of this and the beautifully detailed artwork, this movie makes you feel like you have visited another world and at the end of the picture, you almost don't want to leave it. The movie also benefits from likable lead characters and though this film can't expand on the more complex parts of their personalities the way a TV show can do, you get to easily root for them and care about them. The relationship between two of these main characters is pretty touching and adds some real heart to this movie. The storyline of this film, while nothing groundbreaking, moves at a fast pace and never becomes boring. The film also benefits from some fun action scenes and a delightful sense of humor.

I admit that I went into this movie not having watching the TV that this is based off of and is part of the storyline of. I have read some online articles and reviews about it so I knew the basic premise. Unfortunately for me, this film is made for fans of the TV show and is not always kind to newcomers. For the early parts of this movie, I was having trouble keeping track of who some of the characters were. Luckily as the movie went on, I began to understand who these characters were better. This film also suffers from too many characters and while I am sure some of the supporting characters have more distinct personalities in the TV show in a movie (where you can't dedicate enough time to all of them), many of them can come off as a little bland and uninteresting. The film also has a very weak villain with little interesting or fun about him and as far as I can tell this is a new character and so the fact that this movie is a part of a TV series' story, is not much of an excuse in this case. There are also parts when this story (even as simple as it is) can feel a little rushed and this movie could have probably benefited from a longer runtime. 

Despite not having watched the TV series, I still had a good time watching this Japanese animated movie, and I am sure the fans of the series will enjoy it even more.