Breaking Down the Universe of Tensura – Part I

That Time I Got Reincarnated or Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken As a Slime is originally a fantasy and isekai light novel series written by Fuse. The series was first published online on the Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let’s Become Novelists) website from 2013 to 2016.

The series has just been physically published by Micro Magazine through GC Novels. This time, Fuse’s light novel got illustrations from Mitz Vah and has been released since May 2014 until now. Currently, Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken has 18 tankoubon volumes and 2 extra novels.

As we already know that Rimuru’s adventure returned in July 2021. The second season of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime was divided into two parts. The first part was aired in winter 2020-2021. Then, the second part was scheduled to air in July 2021. The series aired from October 2018 to September 2021 with 48 episodes and 5 OVAs. The anime adaptation for Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken or also known as Tensura made him even more famous. The Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken anime was directed by Yasuhito Kikuchi and Atsushi Nakayama and produced by animation studio 8-Bit.

Tensura as a story, is more than just a light novel or an anime. It is one of those anime with a comprehensive story, character development, and world building. As a slime with unique powers, he gathers allies to build his own nation of monster. The numbers of characters in Tensura is quite massive, so there are a lot of character relationship as well as sub-plot development that completes the story.

The world building is also constructed very well, with a lot of characters coming from different countries and groups. With Rimuru’s strength, wisdom and idealistic vision, Rimuru also building his own nation inside a forest named Jura Forest and later named as Jura Tempest Federation. The story is more than just fantasy fighting but it is also has a heavy political element.

The main character of this series is Satoru Mikami (voiced by Okasaki Miho), a 37-year-old man who is an ordinary worker at the company. Living a monotonous life in Tokyo and in the midst of casual encounters with his friends, he falls victim to a random assailant on the streets and gets stabbed and then had reincarnated into a Slime in an unfamiliar place or basically in an Isekai world.

Rimuru’s story is not about his journey of being the strongest character, which is very mainstream. Here, Rimuru aims to be able to create a country of peace and tolerance for all. That becomes the main storyline of the second season of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime.

Rimuru Tempest the slime has built an entire nation, The Jura Tempest Federation, based on inclusion and cooperation. Now Rimuru urgently needs to build some diplomatic ties with the older, more established kingdoms, or at least be recognized by them.

This cultural development such as a number of celebratory festivals such as Obon, the custom of sharing fortune-telling and Otoshidama, the development of Japanese specialties such as ramen and various finished products such as clothing and crafts in Tempest is what drives the country’s economic growth to become one of the largest in the world.

More than Fighting and Unveiling Character Development, Tensura has a Strong Element in Politics

In the first season of anime Tensura, Rimuru focuses on his adventures by defeating the wolves and rescuing the goblins, he becomes the respected leader of both species, and he knows something, that by giving names to the goblins and wolves, he can make them evolve.

From that point on, he slowly gathered many comrades of various species, including dwarf smiths, ogres, orcs, lizardmen, and even a demon lord who looked young but was extremely powerful. With the help of the dryad Treyni, he unified most of the Jura Forest (originally the Jura Forest Alliance and later named as a Jura Tempest Federation), built a capital city, and began alliances with other countries.

Rimuru did his best to coordinate his allies and prepared for war, his experience with politics was clear and needed the dwarf king Gazel Dwargo to help. Rimuru was just an ordinary clerk in his previous life, but he was now learning the ropes of politics quickly. However, Gazel Dwargo and Archduke Elalude, a minister from an Elf country, were worried that he was trying to go too fast and maybe their worries were right.

Whether he can conjure up all of these allies was a problem on its own. Just as well, Gazel grew worried that Rimuru was adding too much power to his alliance. Elalude joins Gazel and Rimuru’s private conference on behalf of his people, both of them learned about Rimuru’s plans and assessed whether his people should side with Tempest. Elalude is cautious but fair and a good potential ally for Rimuru, but only if he liked what he saw.

Later in the second season we also see Rimuru Tempest try his hand at international politics and attempt to gather every ally he can in order to take on the Demon Lord Clayman, the Western Holy Church and other foes. Rimuru continues to be the undefeated leader of his newly built country in the Jura Forest. However, the second season has made it clear that other world leaders have become very wary of the new monster kingdom.

Rimuru carried out diplomacy with the Animal Kingdom led by Lord Carrison. However, the meeting turned into an all-out battle. This allowed the three Beastketeers to test the strength of Rimuru and his allies. The Beastketeers who also included Suphia and Grucius were very impressed with Rimuru’s strength and assisted him in establishing diplomatic relations with the Animal Kingdom. At the same time, the Falmuth Kingdom, a country in the west, plans to attack the monster country, Tempest, because they feel threatened by Tempest’s trade routes and technology.

The Works on Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs

Considering that Rimuru was the result of the reincarnation of an office worker, he had little understanding of diplomatic relations between countries, or in this new world a kingdom. The first location where Tempest was founded was the goblin village where Rimuru met Rigurd, Gobuta and the first generation of goblins he named.

Initially this village was threatened with destruction due to the invasion of the Direwolf. After Rimuru managed to resolve the conflict, the Goblin and Direwolf parties were finally able to make peace. In order to start the construction of the goblin village, Rimuru himself had to go to Dwargo to get experts due to the lack of skills of his subordinates. Luckily, he managed to bring Kaijin and the three dwarf brothers.

One of the first countries to recognize Tempest’s sovereignty was the Dwargon kingdom. This country can be said to be very meritorious because it has sent experts such as Kaijin, Vesta and the three dwarf brothers. In a way, without Dwargon’s help, Tempest’s development would not have progressed as rapidly as it is now. Then there is Sarion, the elven kingdom that has cooperated in technology exchange and also the Holy Empire Ruberios in the field of cultural arts. Eurazania and Farmenas have also become Tempest’s loyal partners in the distribution of agricultural produce.

Sources: CBR, Youtube