WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 3 of I've Been Killing Slimes and Maxed Out My Level, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Isekai fans have plenty of reasons to love the genre. On one hand, it's the ultimate escapist fantasy, where a person breaks free of their humdrum Earth life to inhabit a vast, colorful world where the sky's the limit. Most isekai protagonists take a good amount of time to explore and understand their new world, learning its ins and outs as they adventure forth. It's a tried and true formula, but one that I've Been Killing Slimes' Azusa Aizawa seems thoroughly uninterested in.
To be fair, we're only up to Episode 3 of Azusa's isekai adventure, meaning there's still time for her to explore the world beyond her home village of Flatta and see what lays beyond. She's got all the time in the world to flesh out her understanding of her new world, even if she'd rather just laze around at home.
Why Azusa Isn't Exploring Her New World
Azusa Aizawa is a bit of a homebody, and not without reason. In her previous life as a Japanese office worker, she actually died from overwork, making her determined to have the opposite experience in her new life, relaxing all day long without a care in the world. She explained that to the goddess who reincarnated her an,d for three solid centuries, Azusa did nothing but kill slimes for money, decorate her house and generally take it easy. Even when she befriended a hardworking dragon girl named Laika, Azusa urged her to take breaks and not overwork herself, teaching her that all good things will come in time.
Azusa's laidback approach to life is a constant reminder that she'll be here forever, and three centuries is like a week to her. She has spent that much time avoiding hard work, and clearly, her goal of relaxation is for the long term, and she won't give it up easily. While Azusa's lazy attitude is plenty of fun, you still have to wonder how long it'll take before she finally decides she's had enough of slacking off. There's a huge world out there beyond Azusa's highland home and Flatta, waiting to be explored. Surely 300 years is enough to get over a lifetime of overwork?
What I've Been Killing Slimes' Nanterre Could Be
I've Been Killing Slimes is basically a reverse-isekai inside a regular isekai. Fantastical monsters and characters have been coming to visit Azusa, rather than the other way around. Characters like Laika, Halkara the elf maiden and Beelzebub the fly-demon all spoke of their homelands and their native people and based on what they've said, this isekai world a colorful one indeed. Azusa has made no effort to see the elf homeland of Hrant or the demon realm, though. She's barely even interested when Halkara and Beelzebub describe them. It's up to the viewer's imagination to fill in the rest.
At least some characters are intrigued: Azusa's foster daughters Falfa and Shalsha casually crack open a heavy book and start reading into the elf nation's history. Then Beelzebub casually mentions a centuries-old dynasty of rulers in the demon realm, and she also mentions the Devil, who's (probably) at the peak of demon society.
And there's also the matter of wherever Laika came from and whether other dragons are like her and the mystery of the old highway that leads to Flatta. Where might it lead? What fantastic towns or cities are on its path? Azusa can only wonder, because she's never ventured out to go see these places. It seems like her new homeland is a complex one with a rich history and many different societies -- we could learn more about it, if only Azusa would take a trip, already.
