The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 2

An at-home comedy about a powerful girl who doesn't work too hard!(⋈◍ ˃ᴗ˂ ◍)。✧♡ After dying of overwork in the real world, I'm reincarnated as an immortal witch, and I spend 300 years enjoying a relaxing life. At some point, though, I end up at level 99! All those years spent killing slimes to make the money to pay the bills gave me a ton of experience points… Rumors of the level 99 witch spread, and soon I'm up to my ears in curious adventurers, duelist dragons, and even a monster girl calling me her mom! “This isn't a dojo, so don't come here to fight me…!” I've never been on an adventure, but I'm the strongest in the world… What's going to happen to my relaxing life?!

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 2 is based on a light novel series by Kisetsu Morita. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

Let me make this easy for you: if you liked season one of this show, you're gonna like this first episode. If I didn't already know that it's been four years since the first season aired and that a new studio was working on the show, I never would've guessed, because it still feels as same-y as ever. For better or for worse, it's as though nothing has changed: not the characters, not the visuals (the animation itself it looks better, but I wouldn't say it's to such an extent that you'll immediately notice), not the vibes, and especially not the episode formula.

I neither liked nor disliked the first season of this show—I love Aoi Yūki, but the show itself had its ups and downs. But I'll give credit where it's due: it's pretty refreshing watching an isekai show with an overpowered protagonist, but where said protagonist simply doesn't care about how overpowered they are. In fact, her power's only relevance is generally to bring people to her, usually to challenge her in some way. Other than that, it's totally inconsequential. She's not interested in long quests or taking down gods—she'd rather just invite them to live with her in her huge house and eat some fluffy omelets with everyone.

Well, actually, maybe I spoke too soon. Because in this episode, Azusa does, in fact, meet a very familiar goddess, and there's no invitation to live with Azusa by the end of the episode. Still, there's a few other characters this applies to, and I'm betting the goddess will join their ranks as the series continues. After all, if this series loves anything, it's side characters.

One of the trademark things in this show is how much it basks in being so predictable formulaic. Sure, plenty of anime end up being that way by accident, but it's so overt here that I have a hard time imagining that it's anything but completely intentional. You can reliably expect most episodes to boil down to being introduced to a new side character, who will either live with Azusa and co. or at least become a recurring figure in their daily lives. And this first episode is no different. It's little more than a recap, and a (re-)introduction to the goddess—or more accurately, an explanation about why she's in this world now to begin with. I definitely think we'll see more of her as the series continues, because as I said: this series loves side characters. Never mind how huge the cast already is (and how ridonkulous it's going to get by the end if it keeps introducing new characters at its current pace).

This is all to say that in a series that loves being much of the same, this first episode is—pretends to be shocked—much of the same. It's not trying to reinvent itself, be anything new, and certainly not trying to change its tone. So if chill isekai are your jam, you're probably going to like this one. But if you want something more engaging, and especially if you were hoping this series was going to change in a massive way now that it's season 2, you're probably better off looking elsewhere.

Come for the cute slice of life fantasy vibes, but stay for the FLOPPY HATS, CAPITALISM and EXISTENTIAL HORROR. Yes, Azusa the reincarnated overworked Japanese wage slave who's now a chill, immortal FLOPPY HAT-wearing witch, happy to bumble through her perfect life, fantastical creature family in tow, returns for a second season of (usually) low stakes adventures in rural living. Azusa shares her idyllic existence with her two slime spirit daughters (apparently born as a result of Azusa's relentless three-century slime entity murder spree, but let's not sweat the details), a two dragon girls, a non-corporeal spirit girl, and an apothecary elf girl (barely any men seem to exist in this universe), and she's much happier now than she ever was as a cog in the corporate machine.

The first half of the episode epitomizes the kind of vibe I expect from the show: Azusa finds a field full of rice and azuki beans, and decides to treat her beloved found family to a Japanese specialty – manju! (Small steamed buns filled with boiled azuki bean paste.) Following a few failed attempts at cooking, she succeeds in producing the desired confection, only for her daughter to reason that if marked with cute little faces, said manju could be marketed as “snack slimes” for a tidy profit, which seems to succeed. Uh, oh: CAPITALISM. So far, so Trillion Game.

Next, the gang visit the capital to check up on an “up and coming goddess” who has introduced the concept of “virtue stamp cards,” where one achieves stamps by doing good deeds. It turns out this society's debate between theists and atheists was resolved hundreds of years ago when the gods themselves turned up in person to settle the argument. That certainly simplified the study of theology, then. It did result in the establishment of the “God industry,” which sounds potentially unsettling at the very least. Yay, more CAPITALISM!

Turns out this enterprising new goddess is well-known to Azusa – she's the one who reincarnated her as an immortal seventeen-year-old back at the beginning of the first season. When she asks to speak to Azusa privately, the poor witch panics that she hasn't been a good enough person, wasting the last three centuries when she could have been more virtuous, and now she'll be forcibly reincarnated into a different world away from her kids and family. Cue distressing EXISTENTIAL HORROR. Thankfully this is extinguished after only around three seconds as the goddess doesn't really care what Azusa's been up to, she only wants to confide in someone that she's been fired. Yeah, it transpires her penchant for reincarnating everyone as beautiful, eternally youthful seventeen-year-old girls goes against some kind of Heavenly Diktat, hence her demotion to live amongst the mortals. Also, this goddess lies, because as she says “I am the law, and laws are made to be broken.” EXISTENTIAL HORROR REIGNITED.

Goddess, I love this daft show. It's so heartfelt, sweet, and silly, even more so now, considering its seriously whacked cosmology.