The Spring 2026 Anime Preview Guide

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4

Demon Lord Rimuru's dream of creating an alliance between humans and monsters takes a step closer to being realized. As Tempest continues to prosper, Granville Rozzo and his granddaughter, Maribel Rozzo, clash with Demon Lord Rimuru over their plan to protect mankind by ruling over them. Meanwhile, in El Dorado, Demon Lord Leon works toward goals of his own. The awakening of a new Hero draws near!

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4 is based on the light novel series by Fuse and illustrator Mitz Vah. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Fridays.

I think this episode premiere showcases a lot of what I originally liked about That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. As the nation of Tempest got bigger and as the global politics of this fantasy world got more involved, it always felt like the show was at a bit of a tug-of-war with itself. Sometimes the show would lean a bit too much into the political angle and things would get overly wordy. Other times it would lean too much into the power fantasy of Rimuru who the show sometimes has difficulty creating tension around given how overpowered he has become. But when the show focuses on the development of Tempest like it's a character and how that development factors into all of these varied components of the story, that's when the series is at its best. Using the development of the town as a way of both recapping some prior events and also establishing the nation's growth as an obstacle for those on the outside has always been a simple but effective way of building tension.

I love how the development of the dungeon brought up in the last season plays a part here. The dungeon itself is a great way of playing into a lot of fantasy tropes and a legitimate attraction for the capital. This was known as a nation of monsters but the slow integration of people and adventurers every day allows the nation to be much more mixed. There's a little bit of a hint of monster prejudice still being prevalent, and I hope that still continues to play a part in future seasons because it never really felt like the show fully resolved that issue outside of just a lot of monsters being intimidating. The show is still playing with a bunch of varied ideas and there's still a chance that it will fall into previous narrative traps that it did before where it spends more time setting up those ideas than actually following through with them. But, if there's one thing that the final minutes of this episode make clear, it's how the show seems to be focusing on a central antagonist in the form of Maribel.

It looks like she's being introduced as a trump card and there is a lot of promise in her being a legitimate force based on the opening. I do still think the show is going to suffer a little bit from its power scaling issues but I hope I'm wrong. I'm curious if this girl is just that much more powerful, or if her abilities will be able to provide a more unique confrontation that Rimuru and his friends are going to have to combat. Maybe they'll be able to hit the town specifically through the dungeon or through that aforementioned prejudice that is still prevalent. It's hard to say because the show does such a good job of introducing these interesting economic and political elements and really wish it would just continue to follow through on them without losing that important human element. I think if the rest of the season is able to strike that balance similarly to this episode, then I'll find it more than enjoyable.

Calm down, everyone. Calm down, I say! We may have all feared that we might get through an entire episode of Tensura without our hero sitting down and having an exposition-filled meeting, but I can assure you that's not the case. The status quo is safe; you can put your pitchforks down.

Joking comments about the amount of time Rimuru has spent in meetings (especially last season) aside, I'm in a bit of an odd place when it comes to this episode as my last Tensura experience wasn't the previous season but rather the new movie (which I watched just a few weeks ago and seems to take place shortly after this episode while Diablos is absent). In other words, I'm coming off an enjoyable piece of Tensura media that succeeds because it's not just a retread of the TV anime. Rather, it takes a bold path (for this series at least) by focusing mainly on a single side character, developing them outside of Rimuru, and even giving them a love interest.

Then, I watch this season's premiere and get the same old, same old. Rimuru wanders around while everyone blows smoke up his ass. There are some meetings, some cute minor character beats, and an ominous tease or two of things to come. It isn't bad… but it is completely within expectations for the series.

However, what really got me was the stinger with Maribel. Her line about Tempest being the sole holdout in the west baffles me because it makes no sense. First of all, Tempest's not even in the west. Tempest runs from the middle of the continent to the east, with Milim's various territories bordering it on the south and east, while Dwargon is to the north. Secondly, to the west of Tempest are countries like Falmuth (now a Tempest puppet state), Lubelius, and Sarion. The idea that Maribel has usurped power from both Luminous Valentine and Elmesia—even if only in the shadows—seems like insanity. My only guess is that, by “The West”, Maribel means Ingracia and the numerous small kingdoms between Tempest and the Barren Lands—but I can't imagine Yuki releasing his control of Ingracia to help someone else with world conquest (his own ultimate goal), especially when it could blow back on him.

Her confusing comments aside, I do actually agree with Maribel and her grandfather on one thing: humans should rule humans—or rather, they should have a say in how they are ruled through a representative that understands their hopes and fears. Rimuru, despite once being a human and presented to all as a noble dictator, is also a man who singlehandedly murdered 60,000 humans—some for a blood ritual, others out of vengeance. Meanwhile, Lubelius is secretly ruled by a Demon Lord, Falmus is secretly ruled by Rimuru, and Blumund is so economically tied to Tempest that they could never go against them.

Or to put it another way, the vast majority of the continent, including many of the major human countries, are ruled by Demon Lords—and they aren't exactly advocating for humans and their unique circumstances. Of course, that isn't to say that Maribel, Yuki, or the mysterious rulers of the Eastern Empire would rule any better. However, it's not hard to see why disheartened or fearful humans might flock to their banners.

“Well… at least it wasn't full of meetings,” I thought to myself after watching the first episode of this new season of Reincarnated as a Slime, still shivering with fear as I recalled the offensively boring third season. I shudder to refer to it as “Boardroom Meetings: The Anime”, an experience as utterly mind-numbing in execution as it was in concept. Indeed, there's really only one proper sit-down meeting between blue slime-blob war criminal Rimuru and his varied minions. It could have been so much worse.

It could have been so much better, too. I've come to the conclusion that watching Slime is like being forced to endure a hyper-detailed Let's Play of some creator's latest Civilization play-through. I'm sure all of the intricate world-building and billions of characters are terrifically fascinating to someone who cares, but I think I stopped doing so sometime around the second half of the first season. This does beg the question of why I'm still watching, and I have to say, I'm not entirely sure.

There's just something kind of comforting about the fact that Rimuru's never in much actual trouble and neither are his friends. Sure, they come up against various problems, such as other rulers with conflicting goals, or errant demon lords with delusions of grandeur, or mysterious old men with their creepy grand-daughters (such as the newish duo who seem to be the next main antagonists), but Rimuru is never truly challenged. We know he'll always succeed, and usually without any lasting pain and sacrifice. Perhaps this season will be different... though I doubt it.

Rimuru's new dungeon is experiencing some teething problems with those lazy human adventurers complaining they're not rewarded enough for their efforts. The solution? Videogamify things up a bit with increased drop rates, rest stops, and quick-saves. How convenient. So now we're going to watch characters in a videogame-inspired fantasy world play real-life videogame analogues? That all sounds a bit Inception-y.

I may stick around for another few episodes to see if Slime has anything even slightly interesting up its gloopy sleeves this season, but I'm not convinced it will. At the moment it's coasting by as barely-satisfying comfort food.