This anime movie showcases Demon Lord Rimuru taking his crew on vacation where underling Gobta falls in love—just before an evil power almost obliterates everything. People stand up to fight for the innocent. However, there are demons, dark magic, massive destruction, a little sexual imagery and a bit of foul language to contend with.
The Tempest nation festival was a huge success. People from other nations flocked in to try their hand at the newly created Tempest dungeon. The local booths and stores were incredibly profitable. And thousands of visitors walked the streets with broad, cheery smiles on their faces.
Of course, managing all of that was no easy task. Keeping troublemakers at bay and making sure that there were no major clashes between resident monsters and outsider humans took a lot of careful planning and hard work.
So Demon Lord Rimuru Tempest, the Tempest nation’s respected leader, declares that it’s time for a well-deserved vacation.
Fortunately, Elmesia El Ru Sarion, the elven empress, offers Rimuru and his friends an absolutely free vacation on her island-city resort. With a happy cheer, the whole crew of closeknit demons and beastfolk catch the next dragon flight to the coast.
And what a gorgeous scenic retreat it is. Upon landing, some of the entourage toddle off to enjoy great views and many cups of Elmesia El Ru Sarion’s private stock of delicious liquors. And the rest visit the local beach and colorful array of small-town shops. It’s unexpectedly delightful.
Even the goggle-eyed Gobta gets an unexpected vacation reward. After accidentally getting separated from Rimuru and the others, Gobta meets a beautiful woman named Yura. And though they spar a bit at first, they soon hit it off. They joke together, eat together, ride rides together. It’s almost perfect. Except …
There’s a group of nefarious characters who want to grab Yura. She is actually the priestess of the underwater kingdom of Kaien. And she has made off with a magical flute with which she can summon a great water dragon.
So while Gobta and Yura are busy enjoying themselves, masked ninjas are gathering nearby, readying their attack. The nefarious individual behind it all is planning to snatch Yura off the street, and he’s also planning to force her into marriage and steal her dragon-summoning ability for himself. With that, he’ll make himself the most powerful person in the world!
Lord Rimuru’s restful vacation plans and Gobta’s unexpected love life are both about to be rudely interrupted.
Even though Rimuru pals around with demons (and technically is one himself), he’s really a very nice guy. All of the monsters in his crew love him dearly. He’s very powerful and ready to leap in to defend nearly anyone in need. In fact, we see all of Rimuru’s group quickly jump into battle beside him when evil arises. Together, they beat back a powerful and deadly force and save an entire nation of endangered innocents.
Gobta is willing to rush into overwhelmingly deadly circumstances to save a trapped Yura. And he declares his love for her. And though Gobta is rebuffed, we see that, secretly, his brave actions and words of kindness and love are greatly appreciated.
In this fantasy world, there are magical powers of many stripes. Magical water dragons, fire blasts, nuclear magic bombs, magical circles, demon lords and daemons are all a part of the tale. We also see fairies and angels in the character mix. And those magically imbued elements and characters are, for the most part, presented as positive things.
Rimuru earned his position as a Demon Lord sometime in the past, and he has a variety of unexplained magical powers (though he is considered a benevolent leader who works to help everyone). He casts a series of powerful spell-circle attacks and sprouts a pair of dark, batlike wings to fly around during battle.
Several demon characters gladly take orders from Rimuru and go out of their way to do his bidding and help those he protects. One demonic servant, for instance, heads off on a quest to find a subordinate who can fulfill demonic duties, such as “conquering nations,” while he is busy serving Rimuru.
We come to understand that Yura is a priestess who is able to form a soul connection with a magical water dragon. This dragon has protected the underwater nation of Kaien for eons. Yura repeatedly sings or plays a “song of prayer” to this creature and says that the people of Kaien pray fervently to it. And the magical dragon’s powers are as vast as the oceans. In fact, it can be summoned as an army of dragons. We eventually learn that Yura has been “reborn” many times over the ages.
A villain tries to forcibly marry Yura and spiritually absorb her essence, thereby gaining her ability to control the water dragon. We see images of Yura blending into the dragon’s body and this bad guy somehow absorbing Yura as well.
We see teen girls in bikinis on a beach. Other female characters wear clothing that exposes cleavage. One female demon, Shion, is very busty, and no matter what she wears, her breasts tend to bulge out of the containing fabric.
Rimuru is actually a blob-like slime monster. But all of the female monsters make it clear that they would love to have him as their mate. Someone mentions, for instance, a lover’s legend associated with the lime caves the group is boating through. All of the women’s eyes burn red at the news, and they all hurry to get closer to him. While Rimuru is in slime-form, his demon secretary, Shion, holds him in her lap with her large bosom resting on his head.
Gobta states that he wants to “find girls to smooch” on his vacation. And when he professes his feelings for Yura, it appears that they may kiss (though they’re interrupted).
We see quite a bit of battling with swords, knives, spears and wrist blades early on. When ninjas try to capture Yura, she and Gobta fight the baddies off with whatever kicks, punches or picked-up objects they can muster. But many times, they barely duck the blades slashed or thrown in their direction. They’re both kicked and pummeled repeatedly.
Yura eventually gets kidnapped and then caged and abused by two different men who want her power. One of them decides to forcibly marry her and “absorb her essence.” He manhandles her and zaps her with dark magical power when she doesn’t obey: She’s left semi-conscious after several such attacks. (You could easily interpret this onscreen torment as a symbolic representation of an abusive real-world relationship, wherein the female victim is dominated and battered.)
We see one individual get impaled by a glowing blade. We don’t see any gore in the slashing battles, but deadly blasts and blade attacks do take lives. And Gobta gets hit with a fireball that nearly kills him. (We also see him almost drown before getting rescued.)
From there, we are shown much larger and more explosive battles involving fiery rage and decimation from magical blasts. An entire mountainside gets zapped and melted away, for instance. Powerful nuclear blasts rain down. Large groups of innocents are shown quivering in fear as battles rage overhead. Scores of magically constructed dragons attack and shoot corrosive blasts. The air gets filled with explosions that must be countered by other powerful beings. Massive spell blasts rip into foes and objects.
This film can be seen in Japanese with English subtitles or dubbed in English. We screened the dubbed English version.
The word “d–n” (or “d–mit”) is used a total of eight times. People exclaim the words “crap” and “dang” a few times each as well.
There are several large dinners or banquets where characters drink mugs of a mead-like brew or glasses of wine. A group of female characters head off to sample an elven empress’ collection of liquors. Several get tipsy, and one fairy character gets roaringly drunk.
Early on in the film, Yura steals a valuable artifact. She’s later instrumental in breaking the artifact, too. A couple different people make plans to steal and abuse Yura’s powers.
If this pic’s overlong title doesn’t ring a bell, then this might not be the best matinee choice you could make.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea does at least give a slight nod to this long-running anime, movie and manga series’ backstory. You will pick up on the fact, for instance, that the central story character, Rimuru Tempest, was once a Japanese salaryman who got reincarnated as a shape-shifting slime monster in this fantasy world. He then went on to gain great power and build a nation where monsters and humans could live together.
But beyond that, you’ll probably be pretty lost story-wise. Who exactly are all the various demons, fairies, angels, goblins, direwolves and beastfolk in Rimuru’s fantasy world entourage? Fuhgedaboudit. You ain’t gonna figure it out.
For fans, however, this is essentially a love story.
Rimuru and his pals go off on vacation to an island resort. And the generally maligned goblin Gobta finally gets his chance to meet a pretty lady whom he can befriend and woo. And then some power-hungry dude comes along who wants to steal her away, destroy a civilization and achieve world domination. In other words, it’s an average Tuesday for Rimuru Tempest.
The animation here is very nice, with moments of great beauty. The story is fast-paced. And the powerful battles—featuring magical water dragons, leaping ninjas, nuclear magical blasts, demon spell-casting and blazing attacks from many creatures of great power—are explosive.
Of course, if you do take the kids to this colorful pic, you’ll probably also have to answer a few curious questions about the demon-horned ladies with the bulging cleavage—and all the booze-swilling and drunken fairies staggering about. You might have to discuss the idea of people casting spells and what the difference is between a bad red-eyed demon and a good one. For that matter, how can a Demon Lord be a hero?
So, even if you are well versed in Rimuru lore, this flick can still be a bumpy ride.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
