By the Grace of the Gods

By the Grace of the Gods (神達に拾われた男, Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko, "The Man Picked Up By the Gods") is a Japanese light novel series written by Roy and illustrated by Ririnra about a man who dies alone who is chosen by three gods to reincarnate into a world of fantasy, using his past knowledge combined with new powers bestowed by the gods to help others and live a bountiful life. It began serialization online in January 2014 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō, with a revised version began serialization since September 2015.

The series was later acquired by Hobby Japan, who have published eleven volumes since September 2017 under their HJ Novels imprint. A manga adaptation with art by Ranran has been serialized online via Square Enix's Manga UP! website since November 2017 and has been collected in nine tankōbon volumes. The light novel is licensed in North America by J-Novel Club, while the manga is licensed by Square Enix. An anime television series adaptation by Maho Film aired from October to December 2020. A second season is set to premiere in January 2023.

Synopsis
Under the protection of the gods, a relaxed life with slimes in another world begins! One day, the life of middle-aged Japanese businessman Ryoma Takebayashi came to a rather sudden and disappointing end. Ryoma had never had a blessed life, but after his death, three great gods sought his cooperation and reincarnated him as a child in another world with swords and magic!

Receiving a most cordial and divine welcome from the gods, Ryoma decides to live leisurely on his own in the forest for the time being. Working diligently at magic and hunting, Ryoma’s greatest passion comes to be researching his tamed slimes?! Training a variety of slimes (some newly discovered), the curtain rises on this easy going life fantasy celebrating a second life with kind people in another world!

(Source: J-Novel Club)

Novel
The series was first published online on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in January 2014 by Roy. A revised version of the series was then launched in September 2015. It was later acquired by Hobby Japan, who published the first volume as a light novel under their HJ Novels imprint in September 2017. The series is licensed in North America by J-Novel Club.

Manga
A manga adaptation of the series by Ririnra began serialization in Square Enix's Manga UP! app and website on November 29, 2017. The manga is licensed in North America by Square Enix.

Character
The main character of this work. He was a 39-year-old single SE working at a black company on Earth. From an early age, he was driven into various martial arts by his father with almost abusive rigor, and he had a serious personality and a muscular body that did not miss daily training. After his father passed away, he lived with his mother, but later her mother died and he lived alone in an apartment. Although he is not at fault, he has an unreasonable past in which he has been involved in incidents and has been forced out of his job many times. Despite his appearance, he is an otaku who loves anime and manga, and is well versed in various trivia. He also had a hobby of making figures. After reincarnation, Selelipta analyzed it with a method that was almost taboo, and found traces of distorted intervention by the gods of Earth in Ryouma's unhappy life and peculiar spirituality. According to it, many evidences were discovered that it is thought that the earth god was inducing Ryoma's circumstances to become a violent criminal as entertainment. This is a taboo act even for gods, and it seems that there are traces that the lives of multiple people other than Ryoma have been distorted, but it seems that it is difficult to pursue because the god of the earth is higher than the god of Sailfall. Ryoma was able to acquire various high tolerances by repeating self-restraint against the urge to commit crimes each time he intervened. Gain and the others have always felt unnatural about Ryouma's circumstances and personality, and as a result, Sereripta's actions proved it.

After death, his soul was transferred by Gain and others for the purpose of replenishing the magical power of the earth to Sailfall, a different world lacking magical power. Because the metastasis transferred the soul to the body of an 8-year-old boy, although he looks like a child, his mind and knowledge are in a strange state of being an Arafo male. However, he self-analyzes that his physical age is greatly influenced by his mental side, and it seems that he is not simply a child on the outside and an adult on the inside. For the time being, so that it would not be unnatural to live alone in the forest of Gana to which he was transferred, the gods told him that he was born in the Great Sea of ​​Trees, and was raised in the forest of Gana as his grandparents, the martial arts god Tigar and the sage Melia. While living alone, he used many slimes as a tamer and became immersed in slime research. In fact, Big Slime is not a single individual, but a colony, so it was necessary to make a contract with all the groups that united. As a result of that application, they are also making contracts with even larger slimes that combine more swarms. Three years after he transferred and started living in the forest, when he was 11 years old, he happened to meet Duke Jameel in the woods, which led him to become connected with the Duke's family, and they decided to settle in the city of Giml. In the city of Gimul, he registered with the Tamer Guild, the Adventurer's Guild, and the Commercial Guild, making full use of his knowledge from his previous life and the ability to use slime to open a cleaning shop for a super white company. Furthermore, as an adventurer, he will show a wide range of activities such as subjugating monsters and solving other difficult problems of the Adventurer's Guild.

Contrary to his apparent age, he has a lot of knowledge, and because of his high physical ability and track record, he has a very high reputation among the Duke and other related parties. In addition to being given the aptitude for all magic attributes, he is a versatile type who has master-level mastery of martial arts due to the influence of his previous life, and has various resistances at a high level due to the influence of the Earth God.

Abilities
Ryoma's skills in the current Web Novel and Light Novel. Note: Some skills might have higher levels than listed due to most updates to already obtained skills being mentioned vaguely.

TV Anime
An anime adaptation of the series was announced by Hobby Japan on February 20, 2020, which was later confirmed to be a television series on April 17, 2020. The series was animated by Maho Film and directed by Takeyuki Yanase, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu as story editor and screenwriter, Kaho Deguchi as character designer with Ririnra credited with the original designs, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi composing the music. While the first episode had an advanced premiere screening at Funimation-Con 2020 on July 3, 2020, the series officially ran for 12 episodes in Japan from October 4 to December 20, 2020 on Tokyo MX and BS Fuji. Azusa Tadokoro performed the opening theme "Yasashii Sekai", while MindaRyn performed the ending theme "Blue Rose knows".

The series was licensed outside of Asia by Funimation. On October 31, 2020, Funimation announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. Medialink has also licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia and streamed it on their Ani-One YouTube channel.

Staff

 * Original - Roy
 * Character draft - Ririnra
 * Director - Yuyuki Yanase
 * Series Composition/Screenplay - Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Phase 1), Yuka Yamada (Phase 2)
 * Main character design - Kaho Deguchi
 * Prop Design - Yoshio Hirose
 * Art director - Satoshi Shibata
 * Color design - Aki Watanabe
 * Cinematographer - Yukina Nomura
 * Editing - Hiromi Komine
 * 3DCG Director - Tatsuhiko Sugimoto
 * Sound Director - Masanori Tsuchiya
 * Music - Hiroaki Tsutsumi
 * Music Production - Lantis
 * Sound Production - AMG Studios
 * Music Producer - Shigeto Takeyama
 * Producers - Shuta Sasaki, Yuichiro Wada, Masaya Kuramoto, Harumi Sato, Emiko Iijima, Takahiro Fujii, Terunari Yoshie, Nobuhito Hayashi, Soji Miyagi, Mirai Yuki, Toshiyuki Miichi, Shinji Omori
 * Animation Producer - Yuki Mukai
 * Animation production - MAHO FILM
 * Production - "Man Picked Up by the Gods" Production Committee (Toei Video, Hobby Japan, Hakuhodo, MAHO FILM, Funimation, Asmik Ace, Bandai Namco Arts, Amusement Media Institute, Clockworks, Nikkatsu, Exa International, BS Fuji)

On June 4, 2021, a second season was announced. Yuka Yamada is replacing Kazuyuki Fudeyasu as the scriptwriter. It is set to premiere in January 2023.

External Link

 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Web novel at Shōsetsuka ni Narō (in Japanese)
 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Light novel official website (in Japanese)
 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Official Manga Website (in Japanese)
 * TV Anime "By the Grace of the Gods" Official Website (in Japanese)
 * TV Anime "By the Grace of the Gods Season 2" Official Website (in Japanese)
 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Official (@kamihiro_anime) - Twitter
 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Wikipedia (JP)
 * By the Grace of the Gods ─ Wikipedia (EN)

Trivia
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