hey wait who wrote that last part-
Many moons ago, I was falling off the anime wagon.
Nothing new was grabbing my fancy and I’ve seen all of the olds shows.
Even as I was drifting away from the anime sphere and toward the acceptable member of society sphere, I couldn’t help but hear about Jobless Reincarnation, which I’m going to break my own rule and call Mushoku Tensei because Jobless Reincarnation sounds like razor blades in my mouth, and my brain cavity.
Everyone loved it, from the worst place on the internet to my own best acquaintances.
Even with all of this hearty recommendation, I still wasn’t sure about it.
In my experience, when Anime people say something is bad, they’re usually right, but when anime people say something is good, it's a pretty mixed bag.
After giving it some thought, I decided maybe overconsumption of a medium, or consumption just for the sake of it, is the most surefire way to ruin any and all interest in that medium. Maybe I just need to take a break, come back with fresh eyes, and then I’ll see what I initially found interesting in the first place-
And man, there’s a lot to like about this show.
The most obvious strength is it’s animation. It’s downright fucking beautiful, basically all the time. Every place that the team could have cut corners, they almost never do. The team behind this series really believed in it and man does it show. It’s even more impressive when you consider the director’s last leading role was that of gamers exclamation point, a show about gamers exclamation point, which might explain some of Rudeus’ more pedophilic habits but doesn’t explain why he’s decidedly anti-racist, bit of a missed opportunity there.
Worldbuilding is generally not something I give a shit about unless it’s done obscenely bad, ahem, but it’s done very well in Mushoku Tensei. It feels full and fleshed out, there’s countries, continents, gods, races, history, it’s everything that my D&D campaigns aren't. It’s also delivered rather well, there’s not a ton of examples of shit just getting explained to you when its convenient to do so. This is some shit that even the best video games can’t do right.
Here’s my favorite part of Mushoku Tensei:
Almost every single character is thoughtfully put together and compelling.
Unlike every other series from the genre of isekai, the characters have, arcs. And, reasons to exist. Whether its the pure archetypes like Paul and Roxy or the characters with proper development like Eris and Ruijerd, there’s very few characters who only exist to further the plot and not enhance it, and for the few that are, one of them is Ghislaine, so I don't really mind.
Here’s my least favorite part of Mushoku Tensei:
Almost every character is thoughtfully put together and compelling.
Lets talk about Rudeus.
For the weirdo who is reading this review without having seen the show, Rudeus is the protagonist of mushoku tensei. In his past life, before he was sepuku’d into fantasy land, Rudeus was a reclusive 30 year old loser who makes up for his lack of career prospects and friends with a porn addiction of untold magnitude. After being reincarnated as Rudeus Greyrat, low-ranking noble with a bitch dad, a bitchin’ mom, and a magics, Rudeus is determined to make up for his wasted life and succeed in this brand new fantasy world.
Much like the rest of the show, there’s a lot they do right with Rudeus. First thing being, his old life still exists in this new world. In most isekai, the protagonist’s previous life kind of becomes this non-factor that only comes into play in giant bursts when it’s convenient. It gets pushed aside in favor of “oooh, viewer, look upon her size of chest, look viewer, and be amazed as we- JUSTIFY SLAVERY.” It’s one of the only strengths of the genre, and its mostly used very well here. Rudeus’ flaws and trauma travel with him into his new reality. Being scared of simple social shit for seemingly no reason, being generally dumb, and saying lots of corny anime bullshit that would probably get him laughed at if he looked his age, the only reason he isn’t ostracized in his current world is because he looks like a child. If he looked his age, everyone would probably think he’s really weird, and he wouldn’t get nearly as much leeway in his life otherwise. It’s a dramatic irony that would probably work if the show had any self awareness about the character they’ve created.
I’m not a brainlet who needs my protagonist to be a perfect bastion of justice and hot babes. A lot of my favorite series center on pathetic, barely functional, downright shitty people. Thing is, for these protagonists to work, it requires the writers to know that the character’s flaws and shortcomings are not the same thing, and through the course of the story, they should either show how the protagonist’s besting of their flaws stops them from overcoming their shortcomings, or should show how their failure to overcome their flaws stops them from beating their shortcomings. And if its neither of those, it atleast shouldn’t be handled like it is here.
Rudeus’ flaws are the things we don’t like about him, things that he does that hinders others. He routinely creeps on girls of prepubescent age and valiantly declares his intention to groom Sylphie within the first like, 3 episodes. He forgets alot of the time that this world is as real as it gets, going around and playing the hero without thinking about anyone else except when it advantages him, which it often does because Rudeus suffers from being the center of the observable universe. He’s as shallow as a nanoparticle, gladly maintaining that to the bitter end, AND he plays Dizzy in Accent Core. These are the things that make Rudeus a shitty person. These are the things that make Rudeus undeserving of a happy ending or redemption. His flaws not the same as his shortcomings.
Rudeus’ shortcomings are the things that halt him on his course, not to better himself ethically, but bettering his life materially or otherwise. He can’t leave the house because of trauma from his past life, his sudoku family was teleported to the other end of the planet, and… I think that's it actually. These are the things that make Rudeus unhappy, we don’t hate Rudeus for these things. If your friend had their family teleported to opposite ends of the planet, you’d want them to overcome that, I think.
Ideally, a show with an unpleasant protagonist like this either takes the path of fixing their flaws which leads to them overcoming their shortcomings, or fixing neither and showing how they work against the character and their goals.
Mushoku Tensei goobs this part up, hard.
Throughout the course of these two seasons (oh, sorry weirdo, COURS), Rudeus overcomes his social anxiety, acquires magical prowess unheard of for a… you know, “child”, and finds a place in the world.
And it all feels deeply unearned because, even though he’s stronger, he’s still just as shit as he was at the beginning. He still creeps on prepubescent girls, he’s still a shallow pervert even outside of that, and you KNOW he’d be poppin’ this shit.
In the end it’s all just for nothing, like every other garbage isekai power fantasy. Rudeus gets rewarded despite his shitty behavior with no real consequence, he goes about gropin’ and peepin’ and groomin’ and stealin’ with the only repercussion being the fact that sometimes he gets hit on the head for it and we all laugh like they didn’t do this exact same thing every 5 minutes through the last 12 episodes.
Its been well documented that I haven’t laughed since the rodeo incident in 2007, but the number of times that Rudeus’ and others sexual assault is played for a laugh ranged from annoying to straight up gross. I guess it’s characterization, but all it achieves past the first 20 times it happens is reminding me that Rudeus still hasn’t improved past his old life and doesn’t deserve a happy ending.
There are moments where Rudeus appears to improve, the night where he nearly (arguably not-so nearly) rapes Eris stands out. He has this weird moment of self reflection after she knocks his ass to the corner. For that bit, you think for a moment that Rudeus is done being a pedophile and has joined the rest of the world in being the absolute least that a person can be. Its a good scene, up until it isn’t, and if Rudeus had gone on to show that this experience had revealed to him how weird and fucked up he is, it would’ve been a great scene up until it wasnt. But Rudeus stays exactly the same. The only difference being that instead of groping and stealing Eris’ panties, he downgrades to watching her bathe and jerking off to her. An improvement, I guess, but only in the way that this video is an improvement to my vernal edge review (who put that link there?), they’re still shit.
I understand that the show has other shit that it wants to do, but at the end of 23 episodes, 13 years in Mushoku Standard Time, Rudeus is still as pedophilic as he was when he was born- that sounds weird. If 13 years of hot moms and hot maids and hot illiterate feral samurai women, on top of the general moral reprehensibility of what you’ve become, aren’t enough to make you the bare minimum, I don’t know what else can be done for you, Rudeus.
I’d point out some of the stuff they could have cut to give Rudeus some time to improve his character, but they literally don’t have to.
There’s plenty of places throughout the show that seem like areas where they intend Rudeus to undergrow some sort of growth, and he just, doesn’t.
There’s the scene with Eris I mentioned earlier where it seemed like his pedo days were maybe behind him, and if not that, his deviancy, but there’s also this example, which is admittedly less gross, but truly hurts way more because of how Rudeus’ failure to grow absolutely neuters what would have probably been the best part of the entire series.
Episode 16, Family Squabbles, is such a genuinely great episode. Rudeus and Co arrive in the city of… of… uh… Paul’s city, the city Paul is in.
After being on the road for literal years, Rudeus finally finds Paul, his (uh, adoptive?) father. Rudeus cheerfully tells him of all the anime-bullshit adventures he’s been on since the teleportation, befriending a kind-hearted demon warrior with his love interest / cousin / student / 10 year old cousin… Fuck sake.
This provokes Paul to just absolutely lay into Rudeus about how he’s a dumbfuck who was too busy ~~grooming~~ living in his bullshit fantasy world to let his family know that he isn’t dead. In the years he and his family have been missing, Rudeus hasn’t even thought to contact Paul or Roxy or, anyone, once. He punches Rudeus, his 10 year old son he hasn’t seen in X years, in the middle of a bar, and everyone, rightfully, is like, “dude, he’s like, 5.” And that’s what I love about this episode. Paul, the womanizing rapist child-beater, is right. He goes about it like the piece of shit he is, but he’s right. Everyone in the tavern rules in Rudeus’ favor, after all, he’s just a kid. But he’s not just a kid, and Paul knows that. He doesn’t literally know it, all the eesaikii stuff, but he knows that Rudeus is NOT a kid. He knows that Rudeus is more than that, Paul is the only person who can treat Rudeus like he should be treated.
When it’s all said and done, Rudeus goes about justifying his actions to himself in his room, declaring his righteousness, right before getting hit with a stab of emotion so deep he pukes.
Episode 16 is one of the realest depictions of familial conflict I’ve ever seen (minus the uh, literal physical violence part) and then we get episode 17, reunion.
In the first draft of this script I railed on episode 17. Initially it seems like it's trying to backtrack on what it said about Rudeus in the previous episode but I think I was just blinded by hatred. It ends up just being a conclusion to the familial conflict theme, with the extremely genuine depiction of apologizing to a family member when you’ve both had enough time to convince yourselves that you’re in the wrong. The flashback sequence is a little bit jarring but, it's a nice way to put the viewer into Paul’s shoes.
The same as the whole thing with Eris, Rudeus doesn’t end up changing from this experience in any meaningful way. He finds a nobleman who kidnapped Rudeus’... step mom? sure. Said nobleman traps him in an unbreakable magic bubble and proclaims his intention to rape Roxy which Rudeus reacts to with all of concern of me getting in my car after the friendly passerby asks me how much I’ve had to drink.
These two episodes showcase the best of Mushoku Tensei, and that’s what makes them hurt.
You know why I haven’t put 14 pages of word to paper about Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files Rail Zeppelin Grace note? Because Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files Rail Zeppelin Grace Notes didn’t have any moments like these. Where the brilliance shines through the cracks with such glare you can’t possibly ignore it. I didn’t think it did when I started making this video but, Mushoku Tensei deserves all the praise it gets, and despite that I still can’t stand it because of their terrible implementation of a morally bankrupt protagonist.
And its a shame that Rudeus’ prevalence overshadows a lot of the genuinely good aspects and characters for me. Ruijerd, Eris, Paul, not Lillia(actually, that whole scene where she praises Rudeus for stealing Roxy's panties and says that he's above her own daughter is pretty fucking stupid), and Roxy are all very enjoyable for a lot of different reasons, but I can’t shake Rudeus’ influence and aura.
I’m probably gonna watch season 2. I don’t have much hope for it, especially after the finale, where Rudeus leaves the rest of the cast behind to go off on his own, and also where Rudeus bangs his love interest / cousin / student / 10 year old cousin. Like I said 3 or so pages ago, I don’t know if I’ll forgive this show even if Rudeus is fixed by the end, but I do know that even if he isn’t, I might get to see Ghislaine again.
63.5 out of 106 users liked this review
