Overall Mushoku Tense is a great anime that has beautiful artwork, finely crafted characters, and a focus less on the concept of a Heroic Leader and more on a simple question.
What if a regular person was "Isekai'ed".
The only thing I will warn about people who want to watch this is that it contains morally questionable scenes involving the main character, some that have put others off from finishing the first eleven episodes.
I would recommend everyone try this out, but I also fully understand that many won't want to watch it due to feeling uncomfortable. This is very much a mature anime and not meant for children.
From herein in I'll start going further indepth, and the sections ahead will contain spoilers about the First Cour(11 episodes) of Mushoku Tensei.
I'm not going to talk at all about the animation, or the sound design. They're both amazing and don't need further exploration. Instead I'm going to dissect exactly what it is that this series is about, what the characters are about, and how it all comes together.
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Rifujin na Magonote created Mushoku Tensei in 2012. He managed to successfully get a Light Novel created, a manga, and finally an anime.
So what, exactly, is Mushoku Tensei and what is it about?
Mushoku Tensei is a Reincarnation Isekai story. It takes the idea of a reincarnation story, wherein a character dies and then gets reborn as a baby, and combines it with the Isekai genre, which is when a person ends up on a separate planet/world/reality.
Throughout history we've seen numerous instances of Isekai, such as Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, Gulliver's Travels, and the Narnia series.
Reincarnation is also utilized throughout literature and film, though with fewer well known instances in western fiction.
In Japanese literature, Reincarnation Isekai occurs sporadically, with predominately one or the other happening but rarely both at once. More often than not they utilize a pseudo-reincarnation when combining the two, wherein the character's new body is already progressed physically to a certain age.
Mushoku Tensei chose, instead, to have the character reborn on a separate world from birth. One of the advantages of this is we encounter everything fresh much like the Main Character does, learning as he does and seeing the hardships that come with being a child in the world.
He also is not handed advantages by some deity or system, as occurs often in Japanese Literature involving Isekai. There's nobody giving him a boon, he has to earn it himself. He has to struggle to grow and learn, much like anyone else, and also adapt to situations when what he knows isn't enough.
What we see with Mushoku Tensei isn't a simple story of fantasy, it is an adventure that explores both the world it takes place in as well as Rudeus Greyrat, the protagonist of the story. We aren't merely here to watch him strut around showcasing overpowered abilities, we're there to witness him struggle with himself as much as with the world at large.
__Why Are People Not Watching It?
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Rudeus Greyrat's character is not a hero, he's not a saint, and he's most definitely not a socially adjusted and ethically sound individual. The main character of Mushoku Tensei does not have his previous sins and problems removed simply because he died.
Instead he is very much what he was before the death. Many people get hung up on the age of the main character prior to this death, believing that because he was well into his adult years he should subsequently have some firm grasp of morality.
This is a fallacy. Age in no way showcases the maturity of a person, nor does it guarantee that their behavior will be what society views as Prim and Proper.
As if that isn't bad enough Mushoku Tensei takes place in a Medieval inspired society, which means that many concepts. The society of Mushoku Tensei is not the one of Earth, it is a society wherein slavery and the usage of children as political tools is ordinary.
Which subsequently leads into...
What Sort Of World Is Mushoku Tensei Set In?
The SFW(I'm utilizing an acronym of the full name since I do not want to spoil what the name is) is, as stated above, a Medieval Fantasy setting.
That means it has all of the tropes we expect, such as long eared elf like races, dwarves, animal-human hybrids, and so on and so forth. Magic is, of course, common as well as swordsmanship and other forms of rudimentary martial arts.
It is also a patriarchal society for the most part. Men usually hold the reins of power, and though women can be powerful they're often more of an ornament than anything else.
There are nations, as well as rulers and their subjects, and they all have their own political interactions with one another. There is a long history filled with legends of numerous characters, and well established systems to keep everything progressing neatly.
The First Cour of Mushoku Tensei covers two areas of the world, but within those two areas we still only see small bits of it. We learn some aspects of the societies within those two areas, but there is more that remains untouched. We can, of course, extrapolate much about those societies and that's because of one simple thing that Mushoku Tensei thrives on.
__Show Don't Tell
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If there's one thing that gets hammered into any authors mind over and over again it's this simple line. People do not want to be told, they want to be shown, and that is a specialty of Mushoku Tensei.
We see tics in the faces of characters, movements of their bodies, actions they take in the background, and more that all tell us so much without a single word being uttered.
A man reaches to pat a kid on the head to support them, but hesitates and then puts their hand on the shoulder. A mother can't contain her excitement over how great her child seems to be, and the future he might have ahead of him.
If there's one thing that made me want to clap when watching this show it was how often they utilized this idea. I felt like the creators were treating everyone as adults, that we could fill the blanks left by what they'd shown us ourselves. Never before have I felt so relieved to not have someone say "I'm upset with you", but instead SHOW US they're upset with their body language.
This comes with the effect that when a character is upset we can ourselves become upset. When a young girl doesn't feel comfortable, but doesn't know what to say, we can almost feel ourselves squirming because of it. The amount of empathy that can leap off of the screen and into your heart is enough to leave many scared.
To some this isn't what they want. They fear that, they don't like how it makes them feel.
Yet that is the point to art. Mushoku Tensei can and will make some people pause and look inward, to realize that there might be some part of themselves they don't like mirrored on that screen. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's all the more reason why people should think deeply, because what are we if not who we are?
__So Who Are The Characters?
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__The Mind Of Rudeus Greyrat
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Rudy is the man who died on Earth and was reborn on the SFW. Prior to his death he lived a troubled life, being fat and ugly he was picked on and bullied extensively at school. The bullies didn't simply poke fun at him, they would tie him up and throw things at him. They would take pictures of him and hit him. They would spill drinks on him.
Rudy's reaction to living hell every single day of school was to withdraw. He pulled back into his own home where his parents let him stay, and he disconnected from the rest of the world. Any thought of leaving the house was gone, because outside of the home was where the bullies roamed, and that anxiety turned into a phobia.
By withdrawing away from the rest of the world there wasn't much left for Rudy. He didn't have friends, he didn't have allies, and he spent his entire life cowering in his own room too scared to face the world to leave. He comforted himself with the smallest of pleasures, trying to live in the moment of momentary happiness rather than anything else.
He was not a man when he ran away, and he only worsened. Prolonged lives involving agoraphobia and other forms of social anxiety can result in mental regressions, stunts in mental maturation, and a loss or disconnect from the ethics of society as a whole.
So when he was finally kicked out of his home by his siblings(Not shocking), he was left out in the rain with nowhere to go and no idea what to do.
Yet even he, a man who was so incapable of even living outside of moments of self-pleasure, was still able to throw himself into harms way to try and save another's life.
Rudy was not a monster on Earth, he was a broken husk of a child who everyone gave up on...including himself.
When Rudy is reborn into the Greyrat family on the SFW he's greeted with a loving family, one that wants to help him. There's a father, mother, and a maid all there to help guide him along. Yet Rudy doesn't have the social knowledge, the proper mannerisms that most would think to have, because he didn't have them on Earth. He gave up on that very idea when he withdrew from society.
This creates odd moments such as when he wears panties on his face, something he finds hilarious because to him on Earth it was hilarious. It's a common, odd, and obviously immature joke but it makes perfect sense. Everything that happens with Rudeus for the most part makes sense at a psychological level.
What we see from that point on is him growing and learning.
His parents teach him that there's love and trust in a family, and though they bungle and fail at times(Mostly the father) they're still family.
Roxy helps him learn how to step outside of the house, to understand that there's more to life than hiding from reality.
Sylphy helps him to learn how to act properly, how to not rely on the only mannerisms he knows which are from video games and manga.
Eris helps him to learn to respect women more, by quite literally beating him into the ground.
The adventures in the latter half of the first eleven episodes also help to teach Rudeus even more, as he begins to learn that the world is not a game. He's not the hero of the story, but simply another person.
The Minds Of Paul, Zenith, and Lilia
Paul Greyrat, Zenith Greyrat, and Lilia Greyrat are the Parents of the story.
Paul is a well known swordsman, respected by many and a highly skilled adventurer who has spent many years fighting and killing all manner of beast. However he is also a Greyrat, and their proficiency for the bedroom is personified well with him. Much like many young men of Earth, Paul rather enjoyed his early adulthood by finding any woman willing or not to mingle with.
Paul adequately represents a father figure in the series. He tries to help Rudy, by giving him pointers, but he falters and at times straight up fails in that role. He loves his wife and his family, but he is not a strong willed man. Enough pressure is all it takes and he'll succumb to his most basic vices.
Zenith is a woman who left her own family to be with Paul. The exact reasons aren't covered in the Anime, but suffice it to say that she knew who Paul was before marrying him and still agreed to it. There is absolute love from Zenith toward Rudeus, and she overflows with pride whenever he succeeds at anything. She might hold some regret for abandoning her family to live with Paul, but at the same time she is incapable of not admitting she loves being with him and the rest of the family.
Lilia is the maid of the family, and eventually the second wife of Paul following some night time shenanigans.
She is, easily, one of the more surreal characters in the entire show. Lilia was technically raped by Paul while they were younger, and then "enticed him" to have intercourse when Zenith was pregnant.
When it's revealed she's pregnant it's obvious to everyone who the father is, and when Zenith seems about ready to dismiss her and leave her homeless Rudeus steps in and uses Paul as the target for Zenith's wrath. This creates within Lilia a belief that Rudy, who up to that point had seemed disturbingly sexually interested, was her savior.
Simply put Lilia suffers from recurring Hero Worship. When Paul rapes her when they're younger the act causes her to not be a virgin, which in turn "taints her" and stops the nobles from being interested. So why she forgives him is that simple fact, she was protected from the worse evil. To the average person this is an awful reason, but to Lilia this is common sense.
In turn when Rudy protects her she views him much like a hero, and in turn begins to trust and idolize him to an extreme extent. She even wishes to have her own daughter(Rudy's half-sister) serve as a maid to him.
__The Mind of Roxy
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Roxy is hired to be the magical tutor for Rudeus at the youthful age of three.
Roxy is a 44 year old woman who has taken to wandering the world. She's alone in the world, and given that she's a demon race it in turn also means she faces persecution by many. Given her young looks and race Roxy constantly faces problems finding employment and trustworthy friends.
When we first encounter her she has zero belief in Rudeus being a capable pupil. He's too young, and she thinks that Zenith is simply overestimating what he can do. However when Rudeus demonstrates his competency instead of fearing him she grows excited.
Throughout our time with Roxy and Rudeus we see them entering into a Master/Pupil relationship, which in turn almost becomes like one of siblings before they finally separate. Roxy understands the quirks of Rudeus and accepts them, because she in turn knows she has her own. She doesn't hold the prejudices others might because she doesn't know what those are.
By the time she leaves Rudeus she's proud of him, but at the same time discouraged with herself. The capabilities of Rudeus with magic are so great that she can only strive to better herself, almost as though afraid she'll disappoint him when next they meet. That is what pushes her to become an even better magician, while her experience in tutoring Rudeus has encouraged her to keep doing the same profession.
When she eventually discovers that Rudeus is gone following the Turning Point incident she immediately rushes back to where his home town was. The fact that she so greatly cares for the Greyrat family is shown not only in her desperate return, but how she spends hours pouring over the wall of the dead to make sure none of them are there.
Out of the many people in Rudeus life Roxy is the one who is most impactful upon him. She helps him get over his phobias and enter the world at large, she pushes him to become a better magician(And in turn herself), and she lays the groundwork for Rudeus becoming a tutor as well. If not for Roxy he would've most likely never left the Greyrat homestead.
The Mind of Sylphiette
Sylphy is a young girl who is bullied because of her ears and hair. When Rudeus first comes across her at the age of five she's being bullied, and in some aspects Sylphy represents a mirror image to the Rudeus of Earth. To the children in town she's an easy target to vent their anger and frustrations on.
So when Rudy shows up and tries to be helpful and friendly with her she's confused, and almost panicked, because nobody except for her own family has shown her any degree of care. The solitary figure before her becomes in some essence the lighthouse through the darkness of her life, and so Sylphy becomes exceedingly attached to Rudeus.
However he doesn't know she's a girl and in turn ends up trying to force her to take a bath with him. We have one of the best moments of the series in terms of emotional showcasing in a single scene here, where Sylphy is physically uncomfortable and Rudeus fully doesn't get what's going on and just wants to take a hot bath with his friend.
The revelation that Sylphy is a girl ends up leaving him shocked, and the fact that their relationship then starts to become frayed and potentially lost in that moment is enough to make Rudeus take advice from Paul of all places.
Sylphy in turn knows that Rudy didn't mean to do what he did in any way other than being friendly. There were no ulterior motives behind his actions, and when he finally works up the understanding to apologize she readily accepts. After all, to her Rudy is her only friend in the entire world.
When Rudeus is finally sent away to be a tutor, Sylphy is left alone again. Yet instead of becoming withdrawn she instead focuses on becoming stronger. She deals with the bullies herself and then actively lingers around the Greyrat household, all the while practicing her magic so that when Rudy finally returns she can show off.
__The Mind of Eris Greyrat
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The much much distant cousin(The family line split something like two hundred years prior) of Rudeus is the exact opposite of Sylphy.
She is headstrong, aggressive, and arrogant. When people disrupt her life she in turn disrupts theirs, usually with a punch to the face. Many people have tried to teach her, but she in turn has shown little interest in being taught.
This all stems from the fact that she has been spoiled excessively, and any physical outbursts have been allowed by her parents and grandfather. Spare the rod spoil the child applies heavily here, and the fact that Eris is stronger than some adults while only a child worsens her personality.
Rudy's attempts to try and tame her are, simply put, failures. He tries to utilize a kidnapping plot, and by the end of it she's interested in magic more for the splendor of it than anything else. She doesn't care much for learning to read, or write, or count money, until Ghislaine steps in.
That is because Ghislaine is a role model that Eris wants to model herself after.
Ghislaine is powerful swordswoman that has the immediate respect of some of the strongest in the world due to her rank. Yet Ghislaine knows full well the difficulties of living without knowing currency, or even how to read or write. That experience is told to Eris, and she in turn starts to learn so she can avoid the pitfalls Ghislaine fell into.
If there's one common misconception I see about Eris by most viewers of the show it's that Rudeus is grooming, or in some way controlling, the girl.
This is the opposite of the truth. Every interaction with Eris and Rudeus is one in which Eris chooses how that interaction is going to proceed. If Rudeus steps outside of the bounds of what she wants she punishes him, forcefully.
Eris chooses what she wants to learn and when, she chooses what she wants to do and where to go, and she chooses who she lets into her inner circle of friends and who she keeps far far away.
To Eris Rudeus is not a master, nor even a teacher, he is an object. She owns Rudeus, he is her servant. So while their relationship slowly continues to deepen and grow, there is not a single moment where Rudeus controls her wherein she doesn't let him.
We also don't ever really see her wildness get tamed, she remains highly aggressive when prompted and keen on dealing with problems via force rather than negotiation. To that end she often leaves such tedious tasks to Rudeus, trusting him to work out the best strategy.
__The Mind Of Ruijerd
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When I sat down and thought about how I'd want to review this series I immediately thought on Ruijerd and who he was, and in turn felt like expanding that to my thoughts on the others.
Whenever you watch a show, or a movie, or read a work, you encounter characters. Yet quite often some will leave within you an impression that you can fully understand who that character is, you know their motives and why they do things, and you can even pick up on the subtle cues they leave.
Throughout the episodes Ruijerd is present in the first eleven we see much about who he is in the actions he takes.
Ruijerd is a man of guilt, and so we can in turn understand what drives him is of course caused by that guilt. He killed people, and he regrets it. He ruined lives, and he regrets it. He terrified the world, and he regrets it.
Yet he is also driven by vengeance. Tricked by a man he murdered so many people, innocent people, and so his actions toward those who conduct such wrongs can be startlingly excessive. If not for Rudy stepping in he would have kept doing it, yet Rudy is the one who helps to start pushing Ruijerd toward redemption.
Ruijerd views children as absolutely in need of protection, and there's a reason for that. One which is not properly explored in the anime, and is perhaps one of the few shortcomings of the show. However this combined with his wishes for vengeance, guilt, and potential redemption are all what craft the core of who he is.
The greatest moment for Ruijerd though is when he stops Rudeus from becoming the next Dead End.
During episode eleven we see Rudeus reach a critical choice. He can either yield to blackmail, potentially endangering himself and Eris and Ruijerd...or he can just kill the guy blackmailing him and cause widespread havoc and harm.
For Rudeus, who'd just seen someone die due to his own inaction, the choice was already made. He had to take action before someone he cared for would suffer.
Ruijerd stepped in at that moment and revealed himself to the city, before he in turn coerced the blackmailer to give up. What he did there saved Rudeus from becoming much like him, a man feared by many and one laden with guilt. It is a great moment where we see how easily one can step onto the wrong path, and why having others helps to keep us from going that way.
Once Again, What Is Mushoku Tensei?
Simply put it is a story of a boy becoming a man. A story of families, of coming together and of separation.
Nearly every moment of Mushoku Tensei is either a moment of meeting, growth, or departure. Very little is wasted in terms of interactions, and almost everything holds some degree of purpose behind it. Even the slowest of episodes can progress at a rapid pace because the story never stops being shown to us, rather than told.
When you watch Mushoku Tensei don't think about how perverted someone is, or how weird the world is.
It's another world, it is a society that isn't ours with completely different ethics and morality. Every action taken by someone is driven by who they are, or what they've dealt with in the past. Whether it be due to a need for attention, a sense of guilt, or a repeating failure of willpower there's nothing done that doesn't make sense within the world of the story.
And more than anything else watch as Rudeus learns how to be human.
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