How Many That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Manga Volumes Are Out?
Here’s the quick answer:
- Japanese volumes: 32 (and counting)
- English volumes: 29 as of early 2026
- Status: Ongoing — new chapters are still being published
The manga is written by Fuse and illustrated by Taiki Kawakami. It has been running in Monthly Shonen Sirius — a manga magazine published by Kodansha — since 2015. (Manga chapters are published in magazines on a regular schedule, then collected into the individual volumes you buy. That’s why Japanese and English volume counts differ — it takes time to translate and release each collected volume in English.)
The English edition is also published by Kodansha, which means the same publisher handles both the Japanese and English versions. That’s generally a good sign for consistent release schedules. The English edition trails the Japanese release by a few volumes, which is completely normal. The most recent English volume landed on March 31, 2026, so the gap is steadily closing.
One thing to keep in mind: ongoing means your collection won’t be “complete” for a while. More on that later. But it also means you’re joining a living series with an active fanbase, regular new releases, and strong publisher support. That’s actually a great position to be in as a collector.
The Easiest Way to Start Collecting
With 29 English volumes available, jumping into this series requires a little planning — especially if you want physical copies. Here’s how to think about it.
Digital vs. Physical
Both formats are widely available for every English volume released so far.
Digital is the most budget-friendly path for a series this long. You can find digital volumes through platforms like Amazon’s Kindle store, BookWalker, and others. You avoid shipping costs, storage concerns, and the occasional stock headaches that come with physical manga. If you’re not attached to having books on a shelf, digital lets you catch up fast without spending as much.
Physical volumes are the standard size you’d expect from any Kodansha manga release. They look great lined up on a shelf, and the cover art across 29 volumes makes for an impressive display. The trade-off is cost: 29 individual volumes at typical manga retail adds up. Most manga volumes in this format carry a list price in the range of roughly $10–$13 each, so a full physical set is a meaningful investment.
The Digital-First Strategy
Here’s a practical approach if 29 volumes feels overwhelming: buy digital to read and catch up quickly, then collect physical copies of your favorite story arcs over time. This lets you experience the full story without a huge upfront cost, and you can build your physical shelf at whatever pace your budget allows. No rule says you have to do it all at once — and plenty of collectors take exactly this path with long-running series.
Box Sets for Bulk Buying
If buying individual volumes one at a time sounds daunting, official box sets can help you cover the early stretch in bulk: a Season 1 Part 1 box set collects Volumes 1–6 and a Season 1 Part 2 box set collects Volumes 7–11. Beyond Volume 11, you’re back to buying individual volumes as they release — but the box sets are a convenient, often more economical way to build the foundation of a collection.
Where to Start
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is available through major retailers in both physical and digital formats, and Volume 1 is the natural place to begin. The link below is for Volume 29, the latest English release:
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Key Volumes Worth Knowing About
Every volume of this series contributes to a larger story, and it genuinely rewards reading in order from the beginning. That said, certain stretches of the manga represent major turning points — the moments where the story levels up. If you’re curious about the pacing or wondering when things really take off, here’s a roadmap.
A quick note: in long-running manga, a story “arc” is a multi-volume storyline — a complete chapter within the bigger narrative. Knowing the major arcs helps you understand the series’ structure.
Volume 1: Where It All Begins
This is Rimuru’s reincarnation — the moment an ordinary Japanese office worker dies and wakes up as a slime in a fantasy world. Volume 1 lays the foundation for everything: Rimuru’s unique ability to analyze and absorb skills (called the Great Sage, a kind of built-in AI advisor), the encounter with a powerful dragon named Veldora, and the first hints of just how overpowered Rimuru’s abilities are.
It’s also where you’ll discover whether this series’ tone clicks for you. Slime balances humor, action, and surprisingly thoughtful world-building from the very first chapter. If Volume 1 grabs you, you’re in for a long and satisfying ride.
Volumes 4–5: The Orc Lord Arc
This is the first time the story truly escalates in scale. Up until this point, Rimuru has been gathering allies and establishing a home base among the monsters. The Orc Lord arc throws a genuine existential threat at the fledgling community — an army of orcs led by a catastrophically powerful leader that could wipe everything out.
What makes these volumes special isn’t just the action (though the fights deliver). It’s that Rimuru’s solution involves diplomacy, strategy, and compassion alongside raw power. The series is telling you early on what kind of story it wants to be, and it’s more interesting than a typical story where the hero just overpowers everyone.
Volumes 6–7: Nation-Building Begins
Here’s where the manga separates itself from most isekai. Rimuru stops being an adventurer and starts being a leader. The founding of the Jura Tempest Federation — the monster nation Rimuru builds from scratch — shifts the entire story’s framework. Suddenly you’re reading about trade agreements, infrastructure, diplomatic relations with human kingdoms, and the political consequences of a monster nation existing.
If the idea of “nation-building fantasy” sounds appealing to you, this is where the series fully commits to that identity. It’s also where some readers fall even deeper in love with the series, because the stakes become about community and civilization rather than just individual combat.
Volumes 11–12: The Biggest Turning Point
Without spoiling the specifics, this is the moment in the series. A hostile human kingdom launches an invasion of Rimuru’s nation that leads to devastating losses, and Rimuru’s response changes the nature of the story permanently. His transformation into a Demon Lord — one of the world’s most powerful beings, feared and respected by every nation — isn’t just a power-up. It’s a fundamental shift in who Rimuru is and how the world perceives him.
These two volumes are often cited as the peak of the series by fans, and they deliver on every level: emotional weight, jaw-dropping action, and consequences that ripple through every volume that follows. If you’ve been building your collection volume by volume, this is where it all pays off.
Volumes 18–19: Political Payoff
A summit of Demon Lords and the defeat of a major antagonist represent the culmination of a long-running political arc. Multiple threads that have been weaving through the story come together here — alliances, betrayals, and power plays among the world’s most powerful figures.
These volumes reward attentive readers who have been tracking the political maneuvering across the series. They’re deeply satisfying as a conclusion to one of the manga’s most complex storylines.
A Note on Reading Order
There’s no skip-ahead strategy here that works well. The series builds on itself in ways that make jumping to “the good parts” unsatisfying. Each arc sets up the next. The world-building in early volumes makes the political arcs meaningful. The quiet character moments make the big dramatic beats land harder.
Read in order. Start at Volume 1. Trust the process.
Watch Out for These Availability Issues
A 29-volume series that’s been running since 2015 comes with some practical buying considerations. Here’s what to keep on your radar.
Early Volumes and Stock Fluctuations
Long-running popular manga series sometimes see their earliest volumes go temporarily out of stock in physical format. This is normal — it happens with pretty much every series that crosses 20+ volumes. Retailers cycle through stock, and early volumes sit further back in the reprint queue (when a publisher orders a new batch of copies to be printed) during periods of high demand.
For a series as popular as Slime, Kodansha typically keeps new printings coming consistently. True out-of-print scarcity is unlikely for one of their biggest manga franchises. But temporary gaps between printings can make certain volumes harder to find for a few weeks at a time.
Watch for Price Gouging
When an early volume is temporarily out of stock from the publisher, third-party sellers (individual sellers on marketplace platforms, not the retailer itself) sometimes list copies at inflated prices. This is especially common for Volume 1 of any popular series.
Don’t pay significantly above the standard manga list price. If a volume is listed at double or triple the normal cost, it’s almost certainly a temporary stock gap — not genuine rarity. Wait for the reprint, or grab the digital edition to keep reading while you wait for physical stock to return.
Digital Solves Everything
If availability headaches sound annoying (and they are), digital editions sidestep the entire problem. Every English volume is available digitally through platforms like Kindle, BookWalker, and other digital manga stores. There are no stock issues, and you can start reading within minutes of purchasing. For readers who prioritize convenience and access over shelf display, digital is the stress-free path.
Will Your Collection Stay Complete?
This is the question every collector asks about an ongoing series, and the honest answer is: your collection will keep growing for a while.
The Manga Is Still Running
With 32 volumes out in Japan and no end announced, the manga has plenty of story left to tell. The English edition at 29 volumes is trailing by a few, and new English releases come out on a regular schedule. You can reasonably expect at least a couple of new volumes per year added to the English lineup.
The Source Material Factor
Here’s something useful to know: the Slime manga is actually adapting a light novel series written by Fuse. Light novels are short Japanese novels (usually with some illustrations) that tell the full story — think of them as the original written version. The manga retells that story in comic form. This means the manga isn’t making things up as it goes — there’s a defined source story that gives the adaptation a natural roadmap and eventual endpoint to build toward.
It’s hard to say exactly how many manga volumes remain before the story wraps up, but the existence of that source material means the series is working toward a planned conclusion rather than stretching indefinitely.
Anime Keeps Demand Strong
The anime adaptation of Slime has been a consistent hit, and active anime seasons drive manga sales, which in turn keeps the publisher motivated to maintain print availability and release schedules. For collectors, this is all good news — it means the series is less likely to fall into neglect or go out of print during its run.
What This Means for You
If you start collecting now, you’re committing to an ongoing series. Your shelf will need room for more volumes over the coming years. Some readers love this — there’s always something new to look forward to. Others prefer to wait for a series to finish before investing. Both approaches are valid.
The upside of jumping in now is that you can read at your own pace and be caught up by the time the next volume drops. There’s something satisfying about being current with an ongoing series and experiencing each new release as it comes out.
Is This Series Worth Collecting?
Let’s wrap up with the big question.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is one of the defining isekai manga of its era. It’s not just popular — it’s genuinely good at what it does, and what it does is broader than most stories in the genre.
What Makes It Special
The core appeal is Rimuru as a protagonist. Most isekai give you an overpowered main character who wins through combat. Rimuru wins through diplomacy, empathy, and strategic thinking as much as raw power. He builds a nation. He negotiates treaties. He turns enemies into allies. And when he does fight, the stakes are earned because the series has invested so much in the world and characters he’s protecting.
The world-building is genuinely impressive — the Jura Tempest Federation feels like a real place with real political dynamics. The supporting cast is enormous but well-managed, with characters across Rimuru’s inner circle each getting meaningful development and distinct roles within the story.
Who It’s Best For
This series is ideal for:
- Isekai fans who want more than just combat-focused storytelling
- World-building enthusiasts who enjoy seeing a society constructed from scratch
- Readers who like political intrigue mixed with their fantasy action
- Anime viewers who want to go deeper into the story than the adaptation covers
- Collectors who appreciate a long-running series with consistent quality
The Investment Question
Twenty-nine volumes (and growing) is a serious commitment — both financially and in terms of shelf space. But the consistent quality of the storytelling, the strong publisher support, and the ongoing popularity of the franchise all suggest this is a collection that will hold its value and continue to be rewarding.
If you enjoy isekai and want a sprawling fantasy epic that balances action, humor, politics, and heart, this is one of the strongest options in the genre. Grab Volume 1, give it a shot, and see if Rimuru’s world pulls you in. For most readers, it absolutely does.