Slime Farming Village
| Slime Farming Village | |||
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 Slime Farming Village title page from its original V-Jump publication | |||
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| Author | Osamu Kaneko | ||
| Publisher | Shueisha | ||
| Publication | V-Jump (Second Trial Run, Second Issue) | ||
| Demographic | Shōnen | ||
| Manga Series | |||
| Original Run | 04 December 1992 | ||
| Chapters | 1 | ||
Slime Farming Village is a two-page, single-chapter comic based in the Dragon Quest world by Osamu Kaneko, published in the second issue of the second trial run of Shueisha's V-Jump magazine, released 04 December 1992[1] in Japan.
Splash text across the top of the title page describes it as: "A heartwarming day for the Slime, the idol from Dragon Quest..."
Slime Farming Village was the first Slime-specific/branded manga by Kaneko.[2]
Synopsis
In a rural village deep in the mountains away from human settlements, a group of Slimes are hard at work on a farm harvesting seeds of agility. A blue slime is excited about this year’s great harvest. The slimes don't eat these seeds (only grass), so what do they actually do with them? They'll give them to humans and plant them again next year!
It's so hot outside, that one slime begins to melt! The other slime takes a deep breath, and blows up the melting slime like a balloon. The melting slime thinks it's going to burst!
As the two slimes depart for the day, the easily-melting slime repeats that it thought it was going to die, while the other says they melt too easily and it's going to take the day off tomorrow.
Production
Slime Farming Village's only characters are Slimes from the Dragon Quest series of video games, an enemy encountered at the very beginning of most games and originally designed by Akira Toriyama for the first Dragon Quest game on the Nintendo Famicom in 1986. The "Seed of Agility" (すばやさのたね subayasa no tane in its original Japanese) mentioned by the Slimes was first introduced in Dragon Quest III in 1988.
Slime Farming Village was produced in full color, spanning pages 170-171 of its respective V-Jump issue.
Kaneko's subsequent "Slime" series would likewise initially be produced in full color, but eventually transferring over to black and white for their future runs.
Legacy
Osamu Kaneko contributed short comics to three of the four issues from V-Jump's second trial run from 1992-1993. Slime Farming Village was the first of these three, and directly branded as Dragon Quest (in addition to specifically naming the "Slime" character and "Seed of Agility" item from the series). The next two one-shots were not specifically branded as Dragon Quest, but featured equally comical situations under the broader banner of role-playing games (that of a young magician and an weapon seller, respectively).
When V-Jump was rebooted for its monthly serialization in May 1993 (for its July 1993 issue), Kaneko returned with Slime Adventure, a series that ran for 79 chapters through to 2000. Slime Adventure was itself followed by several other popular series featuring the Slime characters from Dragon Quest for most of V-Jump's contemporary run, including Slime Dawn!! which concluded with its 68th chapter in the magazine's October 2021 issue (released that August).
Slime Farming Village — along with the weapon seller one-shot — was included as a bonus in the first collected volume of Slime Adventure.[3]
In 2019, Kaneko responded to an appreciative fan on Twitter[2] noting:
ありがとうございます。スライムの農村はスライム冒険記の前身となるマジで最初のスライム漫画なもので、なんかすごく嬉しいです。
Thank you very much. Slime Farming Village is the predecessor to Slime Adventure and is the very first Slime manga, so I'm really happy to hear that.
Notes
References
- ↑ V-Jump, November 22nd Issue, Weekly Shōnen Jump Special Edition (Second Trial Run; Issue #1). Japan: Shueisha. (p. 218)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 @sam_neco (03 December 2019). Twitter. Retrieved: 29 Octboer 2025.
- ↑ Kaneko, Osamu. Slime Adventure Volume 1. Japan: Shueisha, October 1995. ISBN 4-08-806008-3. (pp. 164-165)
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