That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 2

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Light Novel #2

by Fuse, Mitz Vah (Illustrator)

Predatore vs Affamato: quale delle due abilità avrà la meglio? Un giorno, Satoru Mikami, un semplice impiegato trentasettenne, viene pugnalato a morte e si reincarna in un altro mondo. Si rende conto di avere le sembianze del mostro più debole di tutti: uno slime! Ma il suo destino cambia quando incontra Veldora, il Drago delle Tempeste, che gli dona un nome: Rimuru. «Ehi! Ma non l'avevi già detto nel primo volume...?!» Ah sì, scusa. Le giornate di Rimuru, così come i lavori per la costruzione della nuova città che ospiterà le bestie magiche, procedono bene. Hobgoblin, Zanne di Lupo e Nani collaborano pacificamente... ma all'improvviso compare un gruppo di Ogre. Il loro villaggio è stato distrutto e l'intera Foresta di Jura è in pericolo. L'orda di Orchi va fermata.

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Fiction, Manga, Adventure, Magic, Comedy

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2014

About the author

Name (in native language): 伏瀬

Reviews

[Lazybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously, A harem for a slime?

[Benjamín Contreras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still fun! Ignoring the overpowered trope that comes with the genre (which is really hard to do), I really appreciate the sort of community building aspect that this series has

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fans of Fantasy role playing games and JRPGs in general I think will get a kick out the series. I enjoyed this second volume every bit as much as the first. The characters and setting are great. The series itself is less about big battles as the protagonist is still super over powered. But the real enjoyment comes from following Rimuru as he builds his kingdom of monsters that is starting to rival human habitations. He’s bringing all these different monsters together and creating a story that is unique and fun.

[Cat T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some slow parts, but a fun read.

This part is a bit tiresome, sometimes, with view changes I don't much care for, but overall, I enjoyed it.

[belle ☆ﾐ (thisbellereadstoo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

light novel read

the content is pretty much the same as the web novel so i don't have additional thoughts about this light novel. each major character is designated a role in the development of this town and i enjoyed reading about the fight between ogres and rimuru at the beginning. overall, an action-packed installment with higher stakes and increment of power for rimuru.

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WEB NOVEL THOUGHTS.

- i wanted to read about the fight between rimuru and the ogres but i guess it didn't happen in the novel.
- got a greater overview and idea of the powers of the characters. benimaru is turning out to be an incredible fighter and leader of the military department, ranga is always dependable in all situations, and rimuru is just an OP character. since i've watched the anime, i knew how the fight with the orc lord, i must say that they anime did a wonderful job in humanising orc disaster. they made me sympathise a character that i thought i was going to dislike due to all the destruction they had caused.
- most of the travelling timings are cut down by the characters's abilities such as shadow step and the wolves's insane speed. i'm glad they didn't spend a huge amount of time just describing how they travelled back and forth different locations.
- as compared to the anime, this light novel provided more inner monologue by rimuru especially when he was trying to deal with naming all the newly added monsters into the coalition, and his further plans for the city.

will be reading the light novel soon.

[Lorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This light novel is great, I like the battle of Rimuru and Geld aka the orc lord. I also like the new characters like Laplace,Galib,Geld, and Trenyni. I like how Rimuru takes the blame for the orcs because of the promise he made with Geld the orc lord.

[Karla Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only 1 impression... 3rd world. There is something after learning Chinese then Japanese that I realized, that Chinese usually presents you with a sentence, hope you forgot it after a few sentences and then repeat it hoping to add sophistication to the text. And then there is a=the affirmation, as soon as a claim is boldly made, a lacky or sometimes even the person themself quickly agrees with the sentiment to try to shamelessly pass off the claim as truth. On top of that instead of fully analyzing an idea and presenting it as a mature opinion, they contemplate in the open and drag other people along before coming to a conclusion in a manner as if it was a significant accomplishment on blatantly obvious matters. Before, I thought it was because light novels were written for 12 year olds. But after years of courses spent in language classes I've concluded that Modern Japanese Literature; speech AND text are redundant and inefficient on purpose and passed off as a style, a culture. The very embodiment of 3rd world.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun novel series about a man that dies and gets reborn as an slime and how he must level up and find a way to survive. Worth a read overall and the series just gets better and better the more you read. Volume two we meet some awesome side character and the start of true power.

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit, a lot of this book was spoiled for me because I watched the anime, and in many ways I am thankful of that fact. It prepared me for a lot of the sheer overpowered characters that appear later on and the borderline Mary Sue nature of the protagonist and those who they surround themselves with.

That said, there is a lot in the novel that the anime doesn't manage to capture. Possibly the most interesting one is the fact that the protagonist, as a slime, does not feel sexual attraction. Sure, they feel a sense of what is beautiful, and still admires women who are attractive (in a very stereotypical anime fashion), but beyond the softness of a breast, or a comment about how attractive someone is, that's it. Where most protagonists would prattle on for pages about a woman in sexual terms, the protagonist of this book does not, simply because they are a slime. And realistically even if they were once human, a slime would still be attracted to slimes.

A lot of the comedy that was in the previous volume is present in this one as well. Sure, a lot of the slapstick the anime contains doesn't come across as well, but there are other parts that are equally funny and I found myself chuckling more than once as this story continued. It's one of the things that makes this series as fun as it is, and allows the reader to take it in a far more relaxed manner rather than taking everything that happens seriously. Because I will be frank, if I took the plot of this novel seriously there would be a fair bit wrong with it. (the Mary Sue protagonist, the overpowered harem, so on and so forth) But that is what makes the book good. Much like Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!, Vol. 1, the charm is in the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

There is also some charm to the characters as each grows into being a part of the protagonist's group and share in their power. They don't feel forced, nor do they feel like FUSE shoehorned them in. Everything flows organically which helps the story to move along and keeps things interesting. At no point did I question why someone was there, or why they were fighting on the side of their slime leader.

And the lizardman prince. Now there is a character one can grow to dislike, and FUSE pulls his character out perfectly. He's egotistical, narcissistic, and the perfect character for the reader to rally against. But his motivation makes sense. That said, so does the leader of the Orc army. No one is doing things in this book just because they are evil, but rather everyone has a motivation that makes sense for them. As a reader, you can sympathize with them and what drove them to take the actions that they do. They all have agency, and in a light novel, that is simply amazing!

So why not five stars? Honestly, it has to do with the sheer amount of 'look at how powerful everyone is' that goes on in the latter half of the book. There is no sense of danger, no sense that the protagonist or their people are in trouble. Instead, they do some pretty over the top moves that are pretty cool, sure, but those quickly lose interest. Mind you, if I was a tween or teenager and I picked this up, you can bet I would have drank that book up and loved every single moment of it. But as an adult, I can't help but feel that there could have been more to it.

But in the end, this was a good book, and one I recommend to anyone interesting in what makes a good isekai novel. The only reason it took me so long to read was because I was watching the anime instead, which I admit, was equally as amazing and handled FUSE's material perfectly. So if you are into isekai, or fantasy, or books you can relax around and just hang on for the ride, this series would be perfect for you.

[Aelvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rimuru and his allies are busy laying the groundwork for the city that will become their new home. But something is stirring in the Forest of Jura. An army is on the move, displacing monsters and devouring anything that they can catch. It's Rimuru's first real taste of war . . . and can his small group of followers conquer such a vast number of enemies?

It's just one thing after another for Rimuru ever since he left the caves where he was reborn. This time around, a massive army of orcs is advancing into the forest, which is upsetting the local monsters. And these are no ordinary orcs. They're being held together by an all-consuming power that has turned them into a single-minded swarm bent on only one thing: devouring everything in an attempt to fill their insatiable hunger.

I really like this arc for a number of reasons. The orcs, lizardmen, and ogres show a broader view of the Forest of Jura---and in the case of the lizardmen, a bit of civil unrest as the war creates divisive opinions on how to fight.

It also shows how names, something Rimuru takes for granted because of his memories as a human, can totally change the course of a monster's life. Perhaps in keeping with the game-like mechanics behind skills, a named monster is more powerful than its unnamed kind. And something Rimuru totally fails to notice is that a named monster is ALSO loyal to the one who named it. So in handing out names because he can't otherwise figure out how to talk to specific monsters, he's single-handedly evolving pretty much every monster he meets . . . and creating an ever-growing group of allies willing to help him with his dreams of civilization. Titles also work to boost skill---the monsters Rimuru calls "king" and "lord" grow right into that.

There's a lot of work that's going into the town Rimuru is creating, but I like that for now much of it is still so preliminary that they haven't constructed much. He's determined to do things right from the ground up.

I'm also hugely amused that Rimuru, who naturally has no sense of taste in slime form (nor, if the magic concentration is high enough, even a need to eat at all) is a real foodie. Now that he has human form, he wants to enjoy all the dishes he liked before he was killed. Figuring out how to recreate them here is problematic from a number of angles, and I like seeing how he starts to work through them.

Then there are the orcs. This large-scale war and its accompanying complications provide for a lot of great fights, not only by Rimuru but also by his allies. I'm particularly fond of the first battle in the book as well as the final battle. Rimuru's solutions shows he's growing and adapting--and also that at his heart he's just someone who wants real peace.

Overall this is a fun read, and a good continuation of the story. I rate this book Highly Recommended.

See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....

[LiteratureIsLife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this review (and others) at: https://literatureislife.com/2019/06/...

Volume 2 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime picks up shortly after Volume 1 ended. For anyone watching the anime, episodes 9 – 15 cover Volume 2. Things have calmed down a bit since the battle at end of Volume 1. In the meantime, Rimuru and the villagers have continued to expand their home. Until, of course, something bad happens. A small skirmish marks the prelude to war, with Rimuru and allies both new and old preparing for a confrontation against a massive army consuming everything in its path.

The world-building is as substantial in this Volume as the first one. We start to see more of the Forest of Jura as well as neighboring lands. This involves nearby human nations as well as monster communities. The concept of naming monsters is really hammered home here, more so than in the first book. Names increase a monster’s magic, which in turn improves them physically. It is a literally life-changing phenomenon that only a select few are normally granted. Rimuru naming every friendly monster he comes across builds instant loyalty and fosters the growth of their town.

Naming plays a big part in this book’s characterization, something else heavy in the story. Volume 2 introduces a lot of characters who become major players for the rest of the series. From the ogres on the front cover to the races involved in the war and shadowy villains lurking behind the scenes. Monsters normally do not get along but against this new threat and under Rimuru’s flag, things are changing. While Rimuru views himself as a normal guy, he puts himself in a position of leadership as his actions begin to change the world for the better.

Compared to Western novels, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime has the feel of a YA book. The age rating on the back says 14+ and that is pretty accurate. There are some darker themes in this second book, but nothing horribly descriptive. Comparatively, it is about on par with a Rick Riordan book. While by no means a great work of literature, these books are just fun. Nothing in here comes across as flawless or perfect, but the story and characters are just fun. This is by far one of the better light novel series out there and its light-hearted nature makes it a good choice for people just getting started on the isekai genre.

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rimuru has gained his human form, but while practicing his new skills, a group of ogres appear out of nowhere, making light work of the hobgoblins' defences. Stepping in, Rimuru quickly learns there is a horde of orcs marching on Jura forest aiming to eat everybody like a swarm of locust. In addition, we follow the path of Gabil, a named lizardfolk warrior charged to find allies in the coming war with the orcs. Gabil has different ideas though, ideas that unwittingly might very well mean the end to the lizardfolk in the forest.

Much like in volume, the story shines in its characters with relatively complex motivations and personalities (with a few tropes thrown in for a laugh) and interesting setting (even if at times a bit nonsensical and contradicting). It is a high paced entertaining story with lots of fights and a great climax near the end. Unlike volume 1, it contains a plot, resolved in the book.

The language use (translation?) feels better then in volume 1, some of the wording definitely changed for the better. Still it is a tad confusing at times, especially the explanations of the abilities and skills and the world is a mishmash of stuff which is not for everybody. Some of the fights dragged on a bit, sprinkled with contemplation in the middle of a fight (which is at least acknowledged as foolish once by Rimuru since it leads to a bad outcome). Little things, that do add up a bit.

All in all, a highly enjoyable read that certainly added a thing or two to the anime.

[TKHearts · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel surpasses the first in many regards, most notably in world-building. Fuse does an excellent job switching between various perspectives to show how different races function, while also subverting expectations. The characters all have a strong voice and personality, which comes through loud and clear with each change in perspective. Where the novel suffers most is in fight scenes. Due to the fantastical, videogame-like nature of the magic system, the fight scenes mostly distill to the narrator notifying us a magic skill has been used, then explaining what that skill does, especially in the second half of the book. While not every fight scene has this issue, it reoccurs often enough to start to notice. That and the tendency to have Rimuru explain the same events multiple times within the same passage prevents the novel from getting a perfect score. The novel would have benefitted from replacing these repeats with additional text about characters' body language in different scenes to better picture it playing out. However, this is still an excellent fantasy novel who's real strength draws from the unique world setting with very well thought out systems and the very strong characterizations for nearly every character.

[Vince · Rating 4 out of 5]

Differences that I found different from the anime (that actually makes sense to me):

📌 The light novel explicitly conveys the passage of time whereas in the anime you'll only notice that time have passed because of the subtle difference in the surroundings such as the finished infrastructures, roads, plaza but no exact timeline.

📌 It's explained in the novel why the Ogre Race have culture and techniques similar to Japanese.

📌 The different Art techniques are also explained

📌 Benimaru and co. swear fealty to Rimuru after he named them whereas in the anime, they finally swear their loyalty after killing the Orc Disaster. Which changed their motivation on waging war to the Orcs.

📌 Gelmud was introduced as a Demon Lord in the anime but in the light novel he was mentioned to be just a high-level magic born that's working for a Demon Lord. But his motivation is still the same, to create a Demon Lord to follow his command.

📌 And Gabiru was shockingly portrayed to be a capable warrior although idiot at times, but definitely competent which explains why he has an army of loyal followers because they see him as the strongest lizardman in their race.

[Kakuzō Akutagawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thoughts on the second volume of the light novel of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken) by Fuze and Mitz Vah.

The story: Rimuru continues managing and expanding his town, he spends a lot of time combing and discovering new abilities. By the second part of the book, a war against a ginormous tribe of cannibal orcs unleashes

Enjoyment:
The second volume was just as fun and enjoyable as the first one. One of my favorite things about the story is how much attention is put into the developments of the town because even the way they managed to do sewage systems is explained

Final verdict:
As I said, it's as good (better by a microscopic margin) as the first volume. one of my favorite quotes from this volume was "And that was the first day my name was first written in the annals of history", I must say it was pretty epic and fun to read 8/10

[Anushka Malik · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of world building and new monster species introduced in this one which was fun. The chapter list was as follows:
(The reason I add these is because this Light Novel also has a manga version, and the plot develops at a different pace in the two.)

Prologue: A Baby's Cry of Resentment
Chapter 1: Beginning of the Unrest
Chapter 2: Evolution and Occupations
Chapter 3: An Envoy and a Meeting
Chapter 4: Gears Going Wild
Chapter 5: The Great Clash
Chapter 6: The Devourer of All
Chapter 7: The Jura Forest Alliance
Epilogue: A Place of Peace

This particular saga might not be for all and I don't understand that because it has world building, magic, magical creatures, a sinister plot on the horizon, city/town building like in one of my favored video games where you level up and unlock new structures lol, and ACTIONNN (so much of it).

P.s. there's humor --good one. What more could one need?

[͏͏͏͏ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

can't say for sure if i like this volume more than the last. they're equal, not too boring but not highly entertaining either. furthermore, it lacked the oomph that i liked about tensura from the manga and anime.

infodumps about the abilities were definitely the biggest bore - they just felt like convoluted words and fantasy bullshit that didn't make much sense. the fights are another con. didn't feel any thrill, even if the novel went on-and-on about this opponent being strong and the that.

no tension nor excitement, it was just meh.

despite that, it's still entertaining enough. the best part of tensura are the characters, and definitely just seeing them interact is fun to read about.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4¼ stars. Definitely more than 4, but not enough to round up to a 5. I really like how Fuse has developed the world and the characters are growing and changing. It works for me. I still feel there is a little too much exposition about monster ranks and all and it can really feel a bit like a speed bump when reading. There is an interesting bit about that in this particular story. I wonder how much of an effect that will have on future volumes.

Verdict: If you've found the series in any of its forms to be interesting -- going with the light novels will give you further depth into this interesting little place known as the Jura Forest.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as interesting as the first book. It’s got a ton of new characters to remember, with a half dozen ogres, a dryad, a trio of lizardmen, an Orc, a demon lord, and two different magic users. The first book seemed a little more manageable.

I think it suffers a little bit from being one of those in between stories. We haven’t really met any demon lords or started any real political intrigue, it’s just a build up to a fight and then a big fight.

And there’s not much interesting body stuff like their was in the first book, with Rimiru being pretty static and not really learning a ton of new skills.

[Stephen Pilcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it a while ago so it’s not fresh in my mind, but just like the first volume, I would definitely recommend reading it. There’s a lot of great information and thoughts from Rimuru that get cut in the manga and anime, and the light novel goes a lot more in depth explaining, well, everything. I would write more but as I said, the book isn’t fresh in my mind. All I’ll say is Rimuru seems to be a lot more of a serious or a realist than the happy-go-lucky character in both manga and anime. He is still like that but when you can hear his thoughts and opinions on everything, literally everything, you get a better sense of him as a person, not just his outward joyful self.

[Yanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

well... again we see the same problem with the first volume. The author seems to lack skill to wrote properly. I saw some comments before that it is a problem on japanese language.

Despite the boring parts (that of course I skipped) this was a good read. I'd rate half a star above the first one, although there are some holes in the story (like how the hell rimu managed to name the dragon without dying due to a lack of magic, or the extremely lucky characters that seem to do everything perfect) You can manage to enjoy it if you turn your brain off a bit.

I'd read it again? No
worth the read? Yes, it's really short.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

First thoughts:

The short version? This isnt as good as the anime, so if you enjoy anime and you enjoy the isekai genre just watch that.

Otherwise its a continuation of the story of the first book, the concept and overall plotline was really good (thus: anime) but the execution was not. And the translation was.. lacking, even compared to the first book.

I have the third book in the series so ill be reading that too, but outside of a solid improvement in quality I wont be continuing past that point.

[Ana K P · Rating 3 out of 5]

More action finally and also a nice view into what Rimuru's newly joined followers think!

We also see a lot of charcater development from Rimuru who goes from thinking like a human living on earth to a monster in a fantastical world – after all, both worlds are different and have different rules which they function on.

All in all, quite fun, though I must still say that the anime brings out the character's emotions better. However the light novel explains a lot of things in more depth.

[aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yup, everything I wanted in volume 2! I loved the anime and these light novels are even better with the details you get from the actual novelization. This one finds Rimaru taking on a group of ogres and gaining more friends/subjects in the six of them. Now Rimaru's two is growing even more and gaining even more species/races of people as he just wants to live happily. I love this series and look forward to more!

[Jina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is going to be one of those rare times when I prefer the anime to the light novels (I haven't read the graphic novels, so I don't know where they will rate). While there are elements of the light novel that I would like to see in the anime, I prefer how the anime portrays things more. But I'll still keep trekking ahead in the novels, so I can find out what happens past the current seasons of the anime.

[Zarathustra Goertzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume two picks up right where the Volume one left off.

The themes are about trust as a large threat looms on the horizon, threatening to destroy the tribes in the forest. :- )

One thing I love about the book is how the various perspectives are taken, including those of 'the enemy'.

It's a bit like paradise engineering porn combined with fantasy battles

[Andrea Burrello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questo libro è ancora più bello e interessante del primo che avevo già trovato davvero bello. La storia inizia a prendere una sfumature sempre più intrigante ed onestamente adoro Rimuru e i suoi compagni, ho finito il libro in soli due giorni e non vedo l'ora di leggere il terzo volume. Libro assolutamente consigliato.

[Mathew Benham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 9hr audio book. Following Rimuru some more, as he gains many new friends, meets some odd characters and in the mist of trying to build a nation, has to defend the land before its even a village. Overall, just like the anime, I really enjoyed this series but wish there was more details. Wait the next audio book is not out yet?!!(Grumpy Face)

[Haru · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very...interesting. It's about the main character being reborn in a new world and obtaining new skills as slime. While simultaneously building up this new world. If you're into fiction manga stuff you'll love this. Easy read, enjoyable when you're board.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the volume that Rimuru / the author starts the ( unfortunately ) continuing trend of having women with large chests carry his slime body just above their navel so he can wear their boobs like a hat. It's exactly as stupid as it sounds.