

This Review Contains Spoilers
The first season pushed Mushoku Tensei into my top 10 anime of all time, the second season however pulled the series out and left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
All of the negative traits you can attribute to Rudy in the first season, most notably his perversion, became less overriding aspects of his character as he grew and experienced more of his second life. When he was reborn into this world, he was the same timid pervert that he was in the previous. As the season went on, you saw Rudy shed more and more of that person he once was as he became more confident and respectful. At the end of the first season when Eris approached Rudy in his tent to sleep with him, Rudy did not jump at the opportunity as the Rudy of a couple years earlier surely would have. Actually, Rudy thought that he would be taking advantage of her in that moment and practically said no despite wanting to just go along with it. Rudy progressed as a person along his journey, culminating in this moment. Rudy changed. Seemingly.
I do not know what happened with Season 2. The core motivating factor in the first half was curing Rudy's erectile dysfunction. Not only was this the inciting incident that got Rudy to the university in the first place, but it really was the most important thing to Rudy for this whole half of the season. The audience had just seen Rudy turn down the chance to have sex for the first time in his life during the climax of Season 1. Now the entirety of Rudy's being is based around getting a boner again? This absurd premise was not even explored in an interesting way. I would be more open to it if the season had Rudy exploring what it meant to be a man, perhaps learning you don't need to perform sexually to be a confident and upstanding man in this world. However every single guy that he spoke to about his erectile dysfunction reaffirmed how important it was to solve the issue. I don't understand how this could make for a compelling story or character arc. Rudy has regressed, now sex is the most important thing in his life even more so than it was in the past. This regression and emphasis on sex would be less of a betrayal of season 1 if the story did not reward Rudy for his perversion, yet it does every step of the way this season. But I would not have such a strong dislike for this season if it was only the immature erectile dysfunction part.
By far the biggest issue I have with season 2 came more notably in the second half. The female characters are written as if they're practically groveling at the feet of Rudy and men in general, it's honestly weird as fuck.
None of the examples I listed seem like nitpicks to me, these are fundamental parts of the story that come off as super weird because they are. I don't need Rudy to be a morally incorruptible character, it can be very interesting to have your protagonist be a shitty person. But the world around Rudy also caters to his shitty nature and THAT is what makes it gross. I can definitely say I'm not into the whole "harem" genre but if it's for stupid fun then sure do whatever. To sum it up, what makes Mushoku Tensei worse to me is it masquerades as something deeper while containing the same weird sexual fantasy stuff.
Also there was a big step back from the world building and magic in general that I thought made season 1 pretty cool.
If you agree, disagree, let me hear! Please write a post on my profile right under "activity", I wish reviews had a comment section but that's as good as it gets right now.
Thanks for reading.
147 out of 208 users liked this review