After a run in with a robber, the 37-year-old Satoru is suddenly killed. He is reincarnated into a fantasy land, but not as a man. In fact, he is no longer even human!
He is reincarnated as a lowly slime.
After wandering, he comes across a dragon who he befriends and who gives him the new name of Rimuru. Absorbing this dragon into his slime body, promising to eventually break the seal that has bound him, gives Rimuru great magical ability.
He then continues to inadvertently befriend beleaguered fantasy creatures in the forest who are constantly threatened by humanity. Eventually, he decides to found a nation uniting these creatures in order to help them protect themselves.
An early powerhouse in the isekai genre, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime gave us our first taste of non-human isekai main characters and crafted one of the largest and easiest to love casts in the genre. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, head on down below.
Anime Like That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime
For Fans of Beloved By The Beast Tribes
The Rising of the Shield Hero
The stories tell of four heroes summoned from another world – the sword, spear, bow, and shield heroes who will prevent calamity. With darkness bearing down on them, the Kingdom of Melromarc summons these heroes from modern day Japan.
For otaku Naofumi Iwatani, unfortunately he is labeled the shield hero, the weakest of the group. Worse yet, betrayal sees him labeled as a criminal and outcasted.
With hatred and vengeance consuming him, he sets forth to grow strong.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and The Rising of the Shield Hero
- Isekai anime
- OP main character that gets skills by absorbing them from other creatures
- Main characters become champions of the beast people
- Harem elements
- Large casts with spectacular action and world-building
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and The Rising of the Shield Hero
- The Rising of the Shield Hero has a human main character that is betrayed and bitter about it
- The Rising of The Shield Hero is less the “beast nation versus everyone else” like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, and more about the main character being a hero to all, but also helping beast people unlike other heroes that don’t
- There is less of a focus on nation-building in The Rising of the Shield Hero
Overlord
As the final hour approaches in the life cycle of the MMO Yggdrasil, Momonga, a powerful wizard and leader of the dark guild Ainz Ooal Gown, is there to see it off.
However, to his surprise, the servers don’t go down and even stranger is that all the NPC characters have come alive with their own unique personalities.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Overlord
- Isekai anime
- Nation-building main characters that lead a large cast
- Non-human main characters
- Harem elements
- The main character becomes less involved in the action and more involved in administration as the series goes on
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Overlord
- Overlord is an MMO setting with the main character isekai’d into an MMO as his game character
- The nation-building in Overlord has less wholesome motives
Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy
Makoto Misumi is just an ordinary boy, but one night after learning his parents were from another world and guaranteed their travel to Japan by agreeing to give up what they care about most one day, he is transported to another world.
Unfortunately, the goddess of that world finds him ugly and in all ways repulsive.
She flings him to the corner of the world with her only gift being the ability to understand, speak, and write monster languages. With gifts from his previous worlds’ god, Tsukuyomi, and enhanced abilities from growing up in a non-magical world, Makoto sets out to make a life for himself.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Tsukimichi
- Oops! I accidentally founded a beast nation that I now have to lead
- Beast women are overly attached to the main characters
- Isekai anime
- OP protagonist
- The companions to the main character are similarly OP
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Tsukimichi
- Tsukimichi is an action isekai, but it is often primarily a comedy isekai
- The main character in Tsukimichi is the unwilling, accidental champion of the beast people
For Fans of Nation-Building
No Game No Life
In the real world, siblings Shiro and Sora are NEET shut-ins. However, in the virtual world, they are a legendary gaming duo.
One day, after a strange email, they find their reality taken away as they are transported to the realm of Tet, God of Games. Here, Shiro and Sora must play games to defeat the sixteen races of this world as well as Tet in order to become the new gods.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and No Game No Life
- Both are about creating/reinvigorating nation-states
- Isekai anime with OP main characters
- Diverse array of adventures and characters
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and No Game No Life
- No Game No Life is about playing games, so there is no combat unlike That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime
- The main characters in No Game No Life are “OP” in that they are really good at playing games while Rimiru is just traditionally powerful
- No Game No Life is about raising the human nation up against the beast nations that have dominated
Log Horizon
Thirty thousand Japanese players of the popular Elder Tale game all log in to explore the new update of their game, only to discover they are unable to log out.
The story focuses on the socially awkward college student Shiroe, a master strategist in-game, and his friends as they try to navigate their new reality.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Log Horizon
- Action anime with more focus on economics, politics, and other nation-building things
- Main characters not from a fantasy setting are stuck in a fantasy setting in not their normal bodies
- Diverse array of adventures and stories that make up an aimless overall plot
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Log Horizon
- Log Horizon is a VRMMO anime, not an isekai like That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime
- Log Horizon has a less visually diverse cast
- Log Horizon does get bogged down in long moments of exposition and goes longer periods of time without action
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
Kazuya Souma is summoned to another world rife with adventure. There, the king cedes his throne to the young hero and Souma finds himself saddled with a kingdom in decline.
Now, he shows the true might of his heroism by rehabilitating the country, not through adventure or war, but through rigorous economic administration.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
- Both series offer a strong focus on creating/maintaining a nation
- Isekai anime
- Harem elements
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom has a main character with virtually no combat ability, which is in contrast to the OP main character in That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom is about human kingdoms, not beast kingdoms
- How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom doesn’t have as much action
Farming Life in Another World
After dying of an illness, Machio Hiraku is given the opportunity to reincarnate into another world.
The god grants him a healthy body and his wish to live peacefully. Machio also asks if he can have a talent for agriculture in hopes that he can live a more fulfilling life.
The god grants him all this as well as the ability to summon a farming tool that can turn into any agricultural tool he needs, including one that makes any seeds he can think of.
Machio is sent in the middle of a forest full of dangerous creatures. Without any civilization in sight, he makes his own small farm that slowly accumulates residents that wander the woods.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Farming Life in Another World
- Both series are about building nations for outcasts
- Isekai anime
- Harem elements
- OP protagonists surrounded by similarly OP non-humans
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Farming Life in Another World
- Farming Life in Another World is only about farming/nation building, so there is minimal actual action unlike That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Farming Life In Another World is more comedy/slice of life
- The non-humans in Farming Life in Another World are less creatively designed, and mostly women
Dr. Stone
After years of unspoken feelings, Taiju Ooki is about to confess to his crush. However, at that moment, a bright green light engulfs humanity, and suddenly everyone is turned to stone.
Thousands of years later, exactly the right series of events lines up in nature and leads to teenage genius and best friend of Taiju, Senku Ishigami, to be cured.
After using the cure on Taiju, the pair set out to jump-start civilization and save humanity by speeding through all the most useful inventions of human history.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Dr. Stone
- Both are about building/rebuilding society
- Both series feature a creative cast of characters all brought together by one powerful eccentric
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Dr. Stone
- Dr. Stone is more about scientific innovation, and is not really much of an action anime
- Dr. Stone “has the spirit of” an isekai, but is not technically an isekai
- Dr. Stone follows only human characters
For Fans of Absorbing Power To Become OP
Arifureta – From Commonplace to World’s Strongest
Otaku Hajime Nagumo and several of his classmates are summoned to a fantasy world and tasked with saving mankind. However, while his classmates are gifted with great abilities, Hajime only has transmutation skills that have no real offensive use.
He is soon betrayed by a classmate and sent into an abyss filled with monsters. Resolving to not die to the darkness, he struggles to survive and teams up with an imprisoned vampire to return to the world above.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Arifureta
- Isekai anime
- Harem elements
- Main character starts incredibly weak, but becomes OP quickly
- OP protagonists that get power after absorbing it from others
- Both main characters often prefer non-humans to humans
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Arifureta
- Arifureta has a colder, edgier protagonist that was motivated to power by betrayal
- Arifureta has a more compact, less creatively designed cast
- Arifureta is not about building a nation, it is more about grumpily solving various problems while trying to go home
Reincarnated as a Sword
After his death, a man is reincarnated into a new world. However, his body is not that of a human, but rather he is a legendary sword that, after leveling up his skills, becomes stuck firmly in the middle of a dangerous forest.
Begging for a wielder to come to him, he watches a slave caravan attacked by a two-headed bear. A young catgirl named Fran flees and happens across him with the pair teaming up to slay the bear and break her enslavement.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Reincarnated as a Sword
- Isekai anime
- Non-human main characters that are, on occasion, carried around by others
- Main characters are allies to beleaguered beast people
- OP protagonist who grows more powerful with each defeated enemy
- Pretty great fantasy action anime
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Reincarnated as a Sword
- Reincarnated as a Sword has no harem element and a rather compact cast of characters compared to the expansive That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Battles really are the main and usually only focus in Reincarnated as a Sword
So I’m a Spider, So What?
On one normal day in high school, the lives of many students ended unexpectedly. Some were reincarnated as nobles or strong heroes. Others were reincarnated as wondrous fantasy creatures.
Unfortunately for one girl, she was reincarnated as a lowly cave spider.
No stranger to hardship given her difficult school life, she vows to not give up, and through an RPG system, grows stronger each day.
Similarities Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and So I’m a Spider, So What?
- Isekai anime
- Non-human main character that is a persecuted fantasy creature
- Focused on surviving human and other creature attacks
- Power is gained by defeating, absorbing other foes
Differences Between That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and So I’m a Spider, So What?
- So I’m a Spider is focused on the main character leveling, so she is not OP almost immediately like Rimiru
- So I’m a Spider is most focused on its main character fighting for her life, and not any nation-building like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- So I’m a Spider has a much smaller cast of characters
Do you have any more anime recommendations like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime? Let fans know in the comments section below.
Odd you didn’t pick up one of the biggest aspect of this show, the building of a civilization. Fuse was an civil engineer, and the story went out of his way to build the Kingdom of Tempest, starting from a lowly goblin village.
One other show with similar concept is Log Horizon where thousands of games got stucked in the online game after the latest expansion. Instead of trying to conquer the world or what not, what the players decided to do is to build an actual civilization. The city of Akihabara was able to come together and build an working city and make treaties with the former NPC who also gain sentience after the cataclysm that is the expansion.