It’s insane how much anime has come out this year in such high quality. Every season has had at least two bangers for me. Yuru Camp being a chill and fun show, Quintuplets making me more and more angry whenever Ichika did dumb shit and Miku being awesome, Odd Taxi being a mysterious new journey, and of course the monster of hype and Twitter drama, Attack on Titan. I’ve enjoyed every show I watched that came out this year, even my son Ex-Arm. In this year infested by great anime, there was one show that stood at the top.
As an Isekai, it follows the standard procedure, loser nerd gamer Kirito is a loser, gets run over by a truck and gets reincarnated into another world. Mushoku Tensei follows that template, but with a twist. He isn’t built as a good looking chick magnet when he gets reincarnated, but as a baby known as Rudeus. He has to grow and hone his skills instead of being born with them. This is his chance of redemption, a chance at a new life, his chance to be someone.
But there’s one issue. Just because he’s been reincarnated doesn’t mean his problems from before are gone. He’s still scared of people and what they’ll think, he doesn’t know what a healthy relationship with people is. Just because he’s in a new world doesn’t mean it’s all good. We see Rudeus go through so many problems as time goes on. Rudeus is not a good person and we see this a fair bit, whether its with his parents or a member of the opposite sex and he does some pretty disgusting things and it’s especially uncomfortable knowing that he was someone who was in his mid thirties and now in the body of a little kid do some of these things. But he learns, and even though these problems he has get solved, nobody is instantly happy. It’s human to not forgive someone after they’ve done something wrong. Rudeus constantly improves himself and he begins to treat this new life less and less as an MMORPG and a life.
It isn’t just Rudeus who has problems, everyone in this show has their own issues. Roxy is uncomfortable with her people because she doesn’t have the same abilities as they do, Paul is a great dad and cares greatly about his family but often does things from his past that hurt his wife, Sylphie gets bullied because she and her family look like Supards (a group that is rumored to have done horrible things because of a person), Ruijerd wanting to show the world that Supards aren’t bad people, and Eris needing to mature as someone who doesn’t always need people to do everything for her. That’s just a handful of the cast and the problems they have. Not only that, but all these different factions and races are all referenced and referred to and it helps the viewer build an understanding of each of them before and after they finally see them such as “what problems can occur if this one faction does this one thing to another faction”. And we see that. Like I said before, the answers don’t come instantly. It takes time.
Much like all these factions and races, we learn more and more about the world every few episodes, and it really feels like an adventure because we see our cast travelling all the time. No place looks the same, no place has the same problems.“What are the people like?” “What type of place is it?” “What is of interest there?” These are questions the cast and the viewers always face and Mushoku delivers.
Studio Bind is an entirely new animation studio that was made just for this anime and you can really see how much love and effort they pour in. Whether it’s the opening sequence showing our characters travelling and beautiful music playing in the back, the clean animation alongside the crisp sound effects, Mushoku Tensei is such a refreshing and soothing taste in the Isekai genre with every episode counting.
I had problems with the first half of the anime because problems were never resolved such as family drama and certain characters not getting enough time (Roxy cmon bruh), but I knew the anime had the power to punch right through it, and I was right. Problems I had with the first half were resolved, such as Rudeus’ issues with his dad, Paul.
Two years have passed since they last saw each other due to a blast of magic separating people. To catch up to each other, Rudeus explains the amazing journey he’s had with his party, traveling acrossing the sea and getting through a dry continent where people speak a different language, liberating and saving beast people and taking down one of the strongest people in the world, Rudeus is proud of how far he’s come. While he’s explaining it all, Paul is getting more and more upset and finally breaks down, punching Rudeus.
As Paul scolds Rudy about what he’s doing, Rudy responds by telling his father that he’s done great things. But Paul reminds him of something. “What about your family?”
Rudeus stops. Everyone has been infected by this blast of magic. So many people have gone missing.
It’s a complicated situation, and neither Rudy and Paul are in the wrong, but they’re both upset. The only way for them to understand each other is to talk. And that’s what they do. No fighting, no crazy animation between them. Just a simple talk where Rudeus asks to give him a hug like a son at the end of school.
Mushoku Tensei has done so much that other anime can’t in one season. It doesn’t play around and lets the viewer see how one thing can affect a large group. It’s been really difficult to pick an anime of the year, but with what Mushoku Tensei has done in the time it has had, the love put into it, and each episode delivering, this makes it my anime of the year.
