That Time I Got Reincarnanted as a Slime: Scarlet Bond is the first feature-length movie for the Reincarnanted as a Slime anime franchise, similar to Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0. Like those other movies, Scarlet Bond is an action-packed animated adventure that introduces exciting new characters and has some serious emotional impact, but unlike those movies, Scarlet Bond fumbled with it.
For the most part, Scarlet Bond is a typical anime tie-in movie in good and not-so-good ways, from excellent animation and a large cast of familiar characters to thrilling new action sequences, hard-hitting personal stakes and new villains. The problem is that during its falling action, Scarlet Bond hesitates to kill off either Hiiro or Towa, which is too generous, even by the Slime franchise’s forgiving standards.
Scarlet Bond Undercuts Its Own Emotional Stakes
The Scarlet Bond movie’s emotional stakes were at their highest for the most important new characters, those being Queen Towa of the Raja Kingdom and Hiiro, an ogre swordsman who survived the orc attack on his village. Benimaru’s emotional stakes were rooted in his grief and rage, all because the orcs had wiped out his home village, and he sought bloody revenge. Hiiro attacked Geld near Rimuru’s city until Benimaru intervened and talked Hiiro out of it, after which Hiiro became Rimuru’s ally and got along with Geld. Then Hiiro was manipulated by Lacua, a villain serving Violet, and he nearly died at the end of Scarlet Bond. Hiiro was ready to die happy, only for Queen Towa to use her supernatural gifts to restore Hiiro mere seconds after his body crumbled into ash. Benimaru’s and Shion’s grieving process was cut incredibly short with their friend’s sudden return — and then it was Towa’s turn.
Towa nearly succumbed to her cursed tiara’s effect, only for the movie’s own villain, Violet, to mercifully give Towa another chance and bring her to life just as Towa perished. In the span of under two minutes, both major deaths in Scarlet Bond were taken back, completely shattering any emotional impact those deaths could have had. Hiiro and Towa were alive and happy as the movie wrapped up on a typically positive note, but even if Slime is based on forgiveness and second chances, this felt too generous. It’s almost unprecedented for any story, anime or not, to abruptly take back not just one but two deaths like that, and so close together no less.
Hiiro’s death could have humbled Benimaru and his fellow ogres, reminding them how fragile their lives are and how they might end up that way someday fighting Rimuru’s enemies. Hiiro’s death also would have made the ogre village’s massacre feel that much more real, with a fellow survivor appearing and then dying like that. Alternatively, Towa could have been remembered as the selfless, gracious queen who gave her life to restore Hiiro’s, only for her to cheat death just as easily. It’s one thing for Scarlet Bond to quickly resolve its earlier conflicts such as Hiiro’s revenge quest or Violet dispatching her minion Lacua, but those were just loose ends to tie up, while Hiiro’s and/or Towa’s deaths could have had a meaningful emotional and thematic impact on the story. Instead, Scarlet Bond took the merciful route, making most of the movie feel pointless as a result.
How Scarlet Bond Compares to Other Action Anime Movies
While it’s true that the overall Slime franchise is about second chances and has a positive, constructive narrative, taking back two emotional deaths like that greatly sabotaged the movie and made its ending far less memorable. The Slime movie is doing too much of a good thing, giving everyone a fairy tale ending that feels convenient, even naive, by any standards. However, other anime movies have the guts to actually kill off major characters, and that makes them far more memorable because they had more emotional payoff.
One great example of this is Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, which both introduced and killed off the flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku. He was a charismatic action star throughout the movie, then gave his life fighting the Upper Moon Akaza so Tanjiro and the others could survive. Kyojuro even died happy after delivering a short speech to a tearful Tanjiro, and then Tanjiro visited the Rengoku family estate. This sort of drama and grief is a major factor in Demon Slayer’s success, with the franchise being an admittedly typical and conventional shonen title otherwise. If Kyojuro had survived, he would have been just another demon slayer with a cool haircut.
Similarly, the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie based its emotional stakes on Satoru Gojo’s doomed friendship with Geto, as well as the dandere hero Yuta Okkotsu and his friendship with Rika, a powerful curse who had once been his female friend. They fought together against powerful curses in the movie, and in the end, Yuta had to say a tearful goodbye to his friend once again. She had died as a person, and now she was leaving him as a curse, too. Jujutsu Kaisen 0’s emotional core would have been minimal if Rika had survived after all, and the movie would feel too open-ended and too optimistic in tone. Even if Slime was optimistic and hopeful by design, its movie could and should have taken some cues from both Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and wowed its audiences with some real emotional stakes for once.
