Left: Slime, characteristically doing his best. Right: Darul, uncharacteristically not blushing.
Slime: I'm Slime! I'll do my best!
Darul: [blushing] …It's cute.
Slime Life is a fantasy slice-of-life manga by Megasawara, which was serialized in Shonen Jump + from 2017 to 2020 and compiled into 11 volumes. The manga begins with magic shop proprietor Darul perusing the catalogue of the "Monster Dispatch Company" in search of a new assistant. Disenchanted with the high price of golems and gargoyles, Darul muses that she'll have to settle for something cheaper, like a goblin or an imp.
What they send her is a slime named Slime. Thus begins the adventures of Slime trying his best to be useful, and Darul trying her best to find any excuse to hug his soft, squishy form.
This manga provides examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": As seen in the page quote, Slime introduces himself as such. There is no indication given that he has any other name.
- Cuddle Bug: Despite frequently despairing for her "dignity as a black mage," the most common plot in the series is Darul trying to come up with some excuse to hug Slime.
- Cute Critters Act Childlike: Slime is naïve and trusting, never cottoning on to the fact that Darul is constantly trying to manipulate him into situations where she can hug him.
- Cute Monster: Slime as low-level starter monster? Meh. Slime as low-level starter employee, looking to impress his boss? Adorable!
- Dark Is Not Evil: Darul is a black mage, has an appearance that strongly involves dark colors, especially black, and often puts up a front as a domineering jerk. However, underneath it all she's a girl that greatly enjoys adorable things, and genuinely likes having Slime as her companion, even if she'd never admit it.
- Mistress and Servant Boy: Slime Life plays with this trope. The setup is fairly straight: young (or at least, behaves young) servant comes to work for a black mage. The pay-off is unusual though; Darul manipulates Slime not because she enjoys watching him squirm, but because she finds pretty much everything he does unbearably cute. And her stated desire to "touch him" is in a completely non-erotic way, too.
- Our Fairies Are Different: Pocona the pixie, who's a child-sized Winged Humanoid with a horn on top of her forehead.
- The Rival:
- Pocona to Slime, as she wants to replace him as Darul's full-time assistant. Trouble is, Pocona's not all that much smarter than Slime.
- Yorul the demon to Darul, as they are black mages that dislike each other. However, whereas Darul is a competent dark mage with a strong liking for cute things, Yorul adheres to the image of a serious dark mage while being completely incompetent at magic.
- Sick Episode: Chapter 7, which has Darul fall sick and Slime take care of her.
- Tsundere: Darul tries so hard to come off as a "tough but fair" style boss, despite only keeping Slime around because he's adorable. Even if we weren't privy to her inner monologue, it would be apparent from her blushing expression and affectionate gestures that all she really wants is to give Slime a big hug.
