That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea (2026)
[劇場版 転生したらスライムだった件 蒼海の涙編]
Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
Starring: Miho Okasaki, Megumi Toyoguchi, Saori Onishi
Synopsis:
When Rimiru and his entourage accept an invitation to a private resort by Elmesia, Gobta gets caught up in the intrigue surrounding a girl who has been tailing their party.
Impressions:
My investment in the Tensura franchise is pretty much spent, as you can tell from a lack of reviews for more recent seasons and the previous theatrical release. Is this movie going to turn things around? Well, if you know much about theatrical anime, especially franchise stuff, then you're not going to be surprised to hear that this is an original self-contained story unconnected to the main plotline that gets wrapped up within the runtime and has no lasting consequences for our characters whatsoever. Now, if all you want is to see your favorite characters on the big screen with some potentially higher budget action set pieces, then maybe you'll have a good time. However, with the cast as big as it is, many characters that show up only have brief cameos before being shuffled off the stage, to the point where you wonder why they showed up at all. I will say that Gobta and Yura have decent chemistry, but when you know nothing's going to come of their relationship, it's hard to get too invested. As for action set pieces, I honestly enjoyed the street fight early on more than the big overblown beam-o-war finale.
The story is nothing amazing, with a twist for the third act that seems to come out of left field and only seems to serve as an excuse for the aforementioned overblown finale. I honestly would've been happier to see that part excised entirely, because you know any big battle scene has no stakes whatsoever given how overpowered Rimiru is, so attempts to make the threat seem significant are laughable for anyone clued into the meta. So it goes. I didn't hate the movie and it wasn't the worst way to spend 105 minutes. Fans of the series will probably get enough out of it to make it worth their time. Because of how self-contained the story is, the little primer on the plot at the beginning is arguably enough for the uninitiated to jump in, but I don't know why you'd want to start your Tensura experience here. Take it or leave it.
Rating:50/50