#Fuck it.
This season is better, which is expected after such a misstep that was part 1 for me.To be honest, I really appreciate the show divulging from isekai and just focusing on fantasy altogether,and while it still has some sense of clicheness, I think the tropes are more refined.This is probably the best time to talk about how important a first impression is.When I finished s1, I had basically every bitter thought about this franchise you could imagine.I thought it was overhyped, and problematic,and perverted and stupid,bottom line it made me bitter hearing so much praise for a show I either had no feelings towards or slightly disliked.

And going into part 2, half of the show I was insanely critical towards it,Its like getting beat up in grade school and seeing the person who beat you up walking into your college class.I was worried the anime would not win me over and even hesitated to watch this cour too.Good news though, this season really won me over alot. I'm not a die hard fan of it and while I like it now, I still think the isekai genre is oversaturated garbage. But for the first time in forever, I actually realized just what a genre like this could do. Its not perfect but I do want to see where the story goes after this.

STORY

I was at disappointed at first how uninspired the setting of MT was in my previous review, this opinion is probably the one I want to take back the most,because while a lot of things about MT feel standard fantasy wise,there are other world building elements that are really well thought of,and its beautiful art and animation really does showcase it well.I could go into detail,but dude this review is gonna be long already.

At first, I thought cour 1 was aimless plotwise, this time,it still feels a little aimless but not.Its like uhh, an rpg. The gang’s journey is to find their family but as a result they run into a lot of plot conveniences like demon girls, dog villages, and other things.Hell, the group even runs into probably the biggest villain in the entire story randomly and while we do get some world building out of it, It's hard for me to grasp onto MT’s story,It even felt like the climax came right when the show ended.What I will compliment is how an isekai like this had such a depressing note to end on which admittedly made me interested to keep watching.

SOUND

I don’t know why I didn’t touch on this before, but goddamn the sound design in this show is superb man.

#CHARACTERS(ROUND 2)

Alright sit tight once again,because here we go with the characters again.One thing I realized is how much the abhorrent humor died down, and I just realized how much s1 of Mushoku focused on perversion for humor.Most of the jokes are a miss for me personally but where it hits is the emotions from the other characters.

• MISSING IN ACTION

Sadly Ghislain isnt in this season as much. Sylphy, i dont even remember seeing.Eris’s abhorrent family isnt here so there is that.

• MALES

Also,more male characters are introduced and they all don't suck ass. Some of them are weird for sure,some of them are stereotypical bad guys but at least they don’t bang women and treat people like crap mostly.

• VATER

Oh speaking of which, Rudy’s awful father makes an appearance, and I have some beef with him still. Some dry aged beef.Rudy’s father was such an awful human being in s1 that it almost blindsided me.And somehow in this season, it converted a character I hated with a passion to someone I have no feelings towards at all. I know, it's weird.Falling off a cliff and climbing back up doesn't get you anywhere but it's technically progression I guess. I think it's just the fact that many years has passed and the circumstances going on kinda make him cheating on his wife not as important.But still,I dont get where the writer was going with something like this.Because outside of the tears, nothing still came from that moment outside of Rudeus having two sisters now.

• ERIS

. Eris really won me over a lot, like alot alot, her character goes through such development and maturing,her being the absolute worst to being a mentor figure with actual baggage in this season reminded me a lot of Noelle from Black Clover. I think what spoils her character is how she’s always sexually harassed and lewded,and also a decision she made in the final episode was just really questionable,but her character is leagues better now.

• RUDEUS THE NAKED GREY MOLE RAT

Rudeus, rudeus,rudeus,rudeus. tanked my enjoyment of S1 IMMENSLY. In my review I actually said and I quote,

“In conclusion, Rudeus sucks,and I hope he chokes on a blade, then again if he did, we would get like five more seasons of this show,because he would keep getting reincarnated”.

Damn, that quote still makes me laugh months later lol. But in this season, Rudeus goes through so much tribulation.

• RUDEUS PRAISE

He doesn’t choke on a blade but the injuries he does sustain this season is about as severe. The things I like about Rudeus now have nothing to do with him,but the plot itself which puts him through the wringer. In those situations, he really finds himself making huge decisions,and throughout each episode his kinky ass perverted nature melts away because of the dangerous situations. Instead of making his goal to sleep with some teenage girl, his goal now is to find his family,and you can really feel just how his loneliness this season ties back to his previous life,which is a fantabulous way to go for an isekai.

• RUDEUS PROBLEMS

Now despite my praise I still have some problems with Rudeus and these problems are the biggest ones I have with this season as well,

"MO' HORNY MO' PROBLEMS"
I think this show suffers from a bad case of "Horny Male Writer" syndrome. An actual medical term coined and crafted by me to describe when a male or female writer depicts overtly sexual situations that don't really add to the story,but just to tame their boners.And usually these moments are poor excuses of plot or comedy. This syndrome is a problem in not just isekai but fantasy in General.George R.R. Martin does this also,sometimes he has descriptions about a girl's pubes other times there's just graphic sex scenes that happen continuously and don't matter to the story mostly. The YA series A Court of Thrones and Roses is an exceptionally bad case of this,despite being written by a female.Its basically published erotica covered with Fantasy tropes and advertised to the teenage masses.But with Male writers ,especially in the case of……sigh…..anime, it just feels more silly, It stops all the story in its tracks just to have very unfunny and borderline gross ecchi shenanigans to appeal to the market of guys who think with their dongs.This syndrome is a majority of the reason Cour 1 of MT turned me off from the franchise,because it was ridiculous how much of that season was just infuriating ecchi crap.And as you can see from my previous review, it drove me up a wall. It's so annoying to have this very great development with a character just to turn around and be like "lol bewbs" a few minutes later.Or in MT’s case, “lol underage bewbs”.Thankful s2 toned down on this a lot but it's still there. And it's still cringey.

-Case in point 1, a demon lord is introduced this season randomly and she looks like a half naked child,but its okay because she’s a billion years old. Now good show or not, you gotta admit this is ridiculous. If Kobayashi got heat for a character like Ilulu,I don't see how people are fine with a design like this, especially when she does gross things like strip down for Rudeus.

-Case in point 2, there is a supporting female character whose entire personality is being a slut, fucking anything that moves, and even fetishizing unprotected sex.This is where I drew the line between saying MT has good characters and saying its a master class in character writing,because crap like this proves that it isnt.

-Case in point 3,not the last but one I still remember is the weird ecchi scenes where Rudeus, the mentally 40 year old man who supposedly gets better and learns from his ways, spies on Eris and some naked dog ladies while fapping in a box, ignoring the fact that Eris is like 14, the dog girls are actually slaves he saved from captivity, which is not just annoying but just straight up weird. Imagine being saved from slavery just to have your savior spying on you and beating off to you.Its not witty,its not funny, its.ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. Trying so hard not to say “cringe” for the hundredth time in a Mushoku review.

RUDY'S ....OTHER PROBLEMS
Also another problem I have is the downplaying of Rudeus’s pedofillic tendencies. Before you come for me, hear me out,because this is a serious problem I have with this franchise.This cour goes into chilling detail of his previous life, his teenhood trauma and how it caused him to become recloused for the rest of his life, but for some reason it tiptoes over his attraction to children,I mean I know it doesnt have to be a writer’s priority to touch on pedophillia,but but but but BUT the writer had the balls to make that a trait of his previous life,and despite the theme being “redemption”,the show never touches on it ever again.Rudeus never takes the time to realize why and how his perversion is another flaw he needs to work on.It just feels like he’s resisting temptation because Eris and him made a promise or some shit.As a result it kinda downplays the whole thing and makes the predatory fetishization and sexual harrassment of prepubescent girls in both seasons unselfaware and really SUSSY for sure.Just cut it out in later seasons please.

I appreciate the steamy scene at the end and how it felt respectful to the people involved and how Rudeus for the first time took maturity into consideration,but still it didn't feel as flushed out as I had wanted.

I'M STILL NOT DONE TALKING ABOUT RUDEUS LOL
My final problem with Rudeus is how overhyped of a person he is by the others around him.Half of the decisions he makes are obviously good because if he made the wrong decision he would basically be the villain.I can't really praise a character for making a decision that any normal person would obviously make.Secondly, Eris praises him too like he is some innocent being despite the entire theme around Mushoku Tensei is how he started out as awful and had to reform.Its like she forgot about the fact he harassed her constantly,almost left her for dead after being beaten to near death, and she had to punch the lights out of him too.

RUEJARD
The only thing I could get behind is how much Ruejard changed due to Rudeus and while his development isn't as apparent since he’s basically the guard dog of the show, there are some nice moments between the two that nonverbally describes his growth,and tbh Ruejard’s redemption arc beats out Rudeus’s by a hair or two,because he’s not praised as some god unlike our protag.

ROXY
Hell I think Roxy's arc is better than Rudy's too. Its really frikin gud.

#ENJOYMENT
In the end,I can finally put my disdain for this isekai in the closet.While there are still some things about it that piss me off, looking back on it as a whole, this show is a standout in its genre.But sadly the problems that it has,while it does lessen,its still prevalent enough for me to not be head over heels for this series. Maybe my thoughts will cover all of these problems when the characters fully mature and act like normal human beings.One thing this series is good at doing for an isekai is expressing and giving me "emotions". Most of the first season made grossed out,uncomfortable,pissed off and bored. Most of this season made me excited, devastated and actually sad.I know its a lot. Its weird coming out of a show you didnt like for half of it almost crying but here we are. I know you dont need to get through half a mile of crap to get to half a mile of flowers, but when something exceeds your expectations, it can be very surprising and shows that I don't hate "everything".I should probably delete my review for s1,but honestly, it's too funny to get rid of, and shows just how much this show has improved. So that's that.

Y'know, the fact that Shield Hero s2 is coming soon makes me miss this show already. I should probably do a review for Shield Hero because most of the problems i have with that isekai is almost the same as MT. Could be interesting,but I forgot most of that show.