Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. The isekai genre has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years. It’s given us great animes like Konosuba, Shield Hero, Slime, Overlord, and many more, but also given us lazy and uninteresting animes such as Fruit of Evolution, Isekai Cheat Magician, Smartphone isekai, and many more. Just when it seems like everyone is fed up with the genre and you think it’s going to die, a new isekai would come out that would make you reconsider. For a lot of people that isekai is Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation. Also just known as Mushoku Tensei, this series got started as a novel in 2012 before becoming a light novel in 2014-2022. The series was written by Rifujin na Magonote and would go on to be considered the best isekai story of all time. It received multiple awards and nominations and sold over 10 million copies. With the popularity of the series, an anime was announced for 2021 and it would be done by a new studio called Bind. A studio that was the joint venture between White Fox and Egg Firm. In fact, this studio was formed for the sole purpose of adapting this novel into an anime. It wouldn’t be the first time Japan did this. The anime was a success and would go on to be one of the best animes in 2021 for its story, characters, and plot. With the second season around the corner now seems like a good time to review the first season and give my thoughts on it. Let’s get ready for the most thrilling isekai of all time. This is Mushoku Tensei.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening is “Tabibito no Uta” by Yuiko Ohara. A very beautiful and peaceful song to listen to. Every time I hear this song I just close my eyes and imagine myself going off on a journey in another world. The song invokes so many images in my mind. I also like how the anime doesn’t really have any opening animation to go with the song. The song integrates itself into the episode as it’s starting and not once does it feel out of place.
The ending is “Only” by Yuiko Ohara. Pulling double duty. Another great song that perfectly embodies Mushoku Tensei. If somebody were asking what Mushoku Tensei is all about I would have them listen to this song. Everything you need to know about this series can be summed up with this song.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts with our protagonist getting hit by a truck (Truck-kun strikes again) after saving some students and dying. We find out that he’s 34 years old and spent most of life being a NEET and living in his parent’s place until his family had enough and kicked him out (they got the patience of saints cause I would have kicked him out at the age of 18. No son of mine is going to be a lazy bum). He soon gets reincarnated into another world as Rudy voiced by Yumi Uchiyama (Puck from Re:Zero) and Tomokazu Sugita (Yusuke from Persona 5 the Animation), the son of two adventurers named Paul and Zenith (a warrior and priestess by the looks of it). Despite being a baby he still has the mind of a perverted 34-year-old man and figures out how to use magic. In this world, everyone is under the impression that your magic powers are set in stone at birth (https://youtu.be/WrjwaqZfjIY), but Rudy discovers that’s a load of BS. It turns out that magic power grows the more you use it and it can work without reciting incantations. As time went on he continues to learn how to set the size and speed of spells as well as move on to more advanced magic (than the water bubble spell we’ve been seeing him to do). Once his parents discover his high aptitude for magic (scene here: https://youtu.be/yBim-Lx3VD0), they hire a magic tutor from the capital named Roxy where at first she thinks the trip is waste of time, but once Rudy tells her he usually skips incantations when performing magic she starts to take a keen interest in him. They have a welcome party for Roxy where at the party Rudy decides he’s going to get serious about his life this time around and not waste it.
In episode 2 six months have gone by since Roxy arrived (where we discover that she’s into voyeurism as she spied on Rudy’s parents going at it like rabbits in heat. Normally, I wouldn’t mind, but the mom is a screamer. How is anybody supposed to sleep and not know what they’re doing with her screaming? Scene here: https://youtu.be/YKJO3bK35-w) and Rudy’s lessons have been going well. We discover that Roxy is actually a demon known as a Superd, a demon race that came to be despised by humans and demons because of their ruthless attacks on both sides. As Rudy continues his magic lessons with Roxy, he also learns swordsmanship from his dad. As the days go by we discover that Rudy is actually afraid to go outside because in his former life he was tormented very badly by others. At school he was stripped naked in his classroom and laughed at by his classmates and for graduation they chained him naked to the school gate for everyone to laugh at him. This torment traumatized him to the point that he refused to go outside as he was afraid that people were waiting outside to torment him (you know, you really should have gotten him therapy instead of just letting him hide in his room for 20 years and degrade). On the day of his graduation, Roxy takes him out of the village where at first he’s scared, but quickly gets over it when he sees nobody is making fun of him. She takes him to a hill where she’ll show him a secret spell and his final exam is to copy it. Rudy easily copies the spell and thus graduates. Roxy leaves deciding to journey the world and gives Rudy a necklace from her hometown as a graduation gift and Rudy with tears in his eyes thanks her for everything.
In episode 3 Rudy heads outside to do some exploring where he comes across a group of kids bullying another kid. Rudy steps in to save the kid from the bullies and chases them off with his water spell. Rudy soon befriends the bullied child who is named Sylph who appears to be an elf (and has a girly face that would make any boy fall in love with him). Rudy and Sylph spend their days playing with each other and Rudy even teaches him how to do magic including skipping incantations and just doing magic (and you thought he was special. Scene here: https://youtu.be/v5_IZNoMEQs). There’s one good scene where one of the bullies’ mom tells Paul that Rudy hit her child and he confronts Rudy about this where he’s actually happy Rudy acted out. Because Rudy is so smart and mature for his age, Paul has never really gotten the chance to truly act like a father to Rudy until now (only wish the circumstances could have been different). Stuck in his own thoughts, Paul doesn’t give Rudy the chance to explain himself and smacks his son for acting out. Rudy turns the tables on him in a rather smart way while also telling him what really happened to put Paul in his place and makes him realize the mistake he made (yeah, you trusted the words of a stranger over the words of your own son). Later on, Rudy discovers Sylph is actually a girl instead of a cute boy (childhood sweetheart confirmed) which puts a small strain on their friendship as he forcefully discovered this, but they wind up patching things up at the end of the episode (scene here: https://youtu.be/NSqarRW5D-Q?t=152).
At the start of episode 4 Rudy’s mom is pregnant (glad to see all those wild nights paid off) and so is the maid, Lilia (you manwhore! Why the hell would you cheat!?). This puts Zenith in a tight spot as she’s very angry about this and Lilia plans to take complete responsibility by resigning once her baby is born and return to her village which is a one-month trip from their current location (I guess this world hasn’t mastered teleportation magic yet). A trip like that would obviously kill Lilia and the child, and this has Zenith torn on what to do. She can’t forgive Lilia and Paul for what they did, but at the same time she can’t just send Lilia and her child off to their deaths not after everything she’s done for them. Rudy, not wanting to say goodbye to Lilia steps up for her. He manages to push all the blame onto Paul (he kind of deserves it. You and your wife go at it like jackrabbits every night. Hell, I’m sure the neighbors would come over and complain about the noise if they didn’t feel so awkward about the whole thing) and says he doesn’t want to lose Lilia or his new brother or sister which manages to win Zenith over and she allows Lilia to stay (scene here: https://youtu.be/5PUkxcTJkP4). Time goes by and both ladies give birth to healthy girls named Norn (Zenith’s child) and Aisha (Lilia’s child) where Lilia plans to raise Aisha to be Rudy’s loyal servant as a way to repay him for saving her. After this, we see Rudy kind of come at a standstill on what he wants to do. He’s not really advancing in his swordsmanship and it’s only a matter of time before Sylph surpasses him in magic, so what’s a guy to do? He could leave and go to school, but he can’t bring himself to leave Sylph behind because that would just break her (that and the last thing Rudy wants is for some guy to swoop in and take her away). He decides to just play it safe and live out in the village where he’ll most likely marry Sylph, but after he receives a letter from Roxy on how she’s advanced in her magic and how she has high hopes for him he rethinks on his future. He decides to go for broke and leave to study magic, but he wants to take Sylph with him as well all while having Paul pay for both of their tuition (https://youtu.be/GGn25URIss8). Paul of course says no, so Rudy just asks Paul for a job that pays well as he still plans on going to school with Sylph even if that means having to pay for her tuition himself. Paul agrees to this and calls up his friend, Ghislaine a beast person (she’s got abs for days). Paul knocks out Rudy and hands him over to Ghislaine where he’ll be working under her for the time being (scene here: https://youtu.be/90hV2SG9MR4). Also, a little bit of trivia from this episode as well. We find out that Lilia and Paul both trained together in swordsmanship and she had skills that rivaled Paul. Why the hell is she a maid? Well, the anime skips over it, but in the manga she stopped the assassination of a princess which resulted in her injuring her leg. With her leg injured her career was over and she was let go where Paul and Zenith took her in as their maid.
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 we find out that Paul got Rudy a job, tutoring a girl in Roa (kids tutoring kids. We are in odd times). He’ll be tutoring her for 5 years and during that time he’ll be learning to swordfight with Ghislaine while also teaching her and he’s forbidden from writing letters to them and Sylph. Despite having reservations, Rudy is fine with this arrangement as it’ll keep him from depending on Sylph and vice-versa allowing both of them to grow into their own person. Rudy and Ghislaine arrive in Roa where we find out that the person Rudy will be tutoring is Eris the daughter of Paul’s cousin, Phillip, who happens to be a noble (oh shit, Paul comes from money. Well this explains the playboy attitude). Rudy gets to meet Eris where she fights him and beats him up (I think it’s fair to say she’s going to be a warrior or monk class fighter when she gets older. Seriously, she was throwing hooks harder than Mike Tyson. Scene here: https://youtu.be/VfCIcnm21mg). In order to win her respect and show her that violence isn’t the answer, Rudy sets up an event for the two to get kidnapped only for the two to really get kidnapped by bandits. It takes Rudy a second to realize they were both really captured (it finally hit him when one of the bandits beat the crap out of Eris) and escapes with Eris after making her promise not to hit him or shout (scene here: https://youtu.be/17Y0f0gE_kw). The two make it back to Roa where the bandits followed them and kidnap Eris again. Rudy saves Eris and fights off the bandits long enough for Ghislaine to come in and kill them (scene here: https://youtu.be/md-SFrpreUA). They return back to the mansion where Rudy managed to earn some points with Eris as she’ll accept him as her tutor.
In episode 6 we get to meet grandpa Greyrat (and see where Eris’s willful personality comes from. It’s a perfect of example of show don’t tell) and he wants Rudy to teach Eris how to use magic (scene here: https://youtu.be/Gthu3kUnj4c). Rudy teaches Eris (and Ghislaine) some magic where she shows a good amount of enthusiasm for it, but refuses to take any of Rudy’s other lessons until Ghislaine talks about a nightmarish past experience because she didn’t know math. From there, Eris starts to take the lessons more seriously (scene here: https://youtu.be/PRKpgdXpeoE). Not much really happens after that as the months go by and they take a day off to explore the marketplace of Roa. There is one funny moment near the end where Eris unknowingly buys an aphrodisiac potion for Rudy using her own allowance and he has to talk his way out of explaining what an aphrodisiac is.
Nothing much happens in episode 7. Eris’s birthday is only six months away and as customary, she must dance. The problem is she sucks at dancing and at her party she falls embarrassing herself in front of everyone until Rudy steps in and dances with her telling her to dance like she practices her swordsmanship (good idea. A lot of sports are composed of dance moves). This works and Eris dances excellently and Rudy gets the attention of a lot of females (scenes here: https://youtu.be/clUNdcDh8Ss and https://youtu.be/l156NWTLTd8).
In episode 8 its Rudy’s 10th birthday and Eris goes all out in giving him the best gift for him, a staff created by the finest craftsmen (scene here: https://youtu.be/qskb-5q3ic4). There’s also the fact that she comes to his room at night where he does a few perverted things before she punches him and leaves saying he’ll have to wait 5 years before they can go any further (and then we’ll add Sylphy into the mix). We also get this funny scene that makes me laugh (scene here: https://youtu.be/lz7Na9cEFKg). After that, we go to Rudy’s home where we see the reason his parents didn’t come is because a lot of monsters have been appearing in the region and it’s not just there, they’ve been appearing all over the kingdom and it has something to do with a distortion in mana. While in the fields, Rudy, Eris and Ghislaine get attacked by a guy named Almanfi who has come by orders of the legendary hero Perugius to slay Rudy as it’s believed he’s the cause of this distortion. Ghislaine fights him off and says Rudy had nothing to do with this (scene here: https://youtu.be/9oZ0PnBuSRc). Almanfi believes her for now and takes his leave when all of a sudden a powerful beam hits the ground and begins heading towards the group.
Episodes 9-11
Episode 9 starts off with Rudy in a dream back in his adult form (ugh, I prefer your reincarnated look) where he meets the Man-God. In this world there are three gods who watch over the land. There’s the Man-God who created humans, the Dragon-God who created demihumans, and the Demon-God who created demons. The Man-God talks to Rudy and tells him of the coming danger and how it will destroy all unless he acts now. The Man-God tells him to rely on the man he sees when he wakes up. Rudy wakes up and finds himself and Eris in an unknown location on the Demon continent thanks to that powerful beam which was a mana disaster. Rudy sees that the man who saved him was a Superd named Ruijerd who is surprisingly nice (I mean the guy managed to befriend Eris in one night. That just shows how patient and kind he is) and even offers to escort him and Eris home (scene here: https://youtu.be/Jktls1eJRSw). They make it to a village which is actually the hometown of Roxy and we meet her dad where we find out she hasn’t made contact with them for 20 years (geez, and my mom panics when I don’t call her once a week). While resting in the village we find out that Ruijerd’s goal is to move the Superd’s reputation in the positive direction and clear their name. We find out that Superds were betrayed by a demon named Laplace, a hero who was said to have unified the demon race and won rights from the humans. During the war, Laplace gave the Superds new spears. To a Superd, the spear is a representation of their soul and a weapon they’re bound to no matter what. Laplace convinced the Superd to use his new spears and they became stronger. However, it began to change them, it turned them into uncontrollable beasts that attacked friend or foe without hesitation. Before long they began attacking each other where Ruijerd was saved by his son who gave his life to free him from the curse (scene here: https://youtu.be/ckAhm5oyBdg). After hearing the story and remembering his dream, Rudy decides to help Ruijerd clear the name of the Superd.
In episode 10 Rudy, Eris and Ruijerd make it to the city of Rikarisu. They manage to sneak Ruijerd in by making his hair blue and become adventurers to earn money and improve the Superd’s reputation. While sleeping, Rudy receives a visit from the Man-God again (who at this point I’m convinced is related to the Game Master from I’m Standing on 1,000,000 Lives or they’re the same person. I’m not sure yet. I have some theories which I will share with you never) who tells him to accept the request to find the lost kitten saying that all their worries will go away if they succeed. They find the kitten which is really a panther (biggest kitten I’ve ever seen) and find other animals as well who were kidnapped by other adventurers and then returned to their owners for money (that’s actually pretty clever). They catch the adventurers where one of them gets killed by Ruijerd after he kicked Rudy (turn it down a little Ruijerd). Rather than turn the adventurers in and expose them, Rudy instead teams up with them. They’ll trade jobs which will allow Rudy and the others to go on more challenging jobs to earn more money and these guys can handle the low-ranking jobs and help spread the good reputation about Superds. Ruijerd doesn’t like this arrangement (which I don’t blame him, this is low and underhanded), but he swallows his pride in order to continue his original objective which was helping Rudy and Eris get home.
In the final episode of the first half, we find out that everyone from Rudy’s family aside from Paul and Norn have gone missing and Paul reaches out to his contacts begging them for help in finding his family. Back with Rudy and the others they go on a quest to slay a monster where they encounter two other parties searching for the monster as well. One of the parties gets ambushed and Rudy sits back and does nothing as the party is mercilessly killed. He even lets the second party get wiped out before taking action and killing the monster (that’s messed up Rudy). When they return back to Rikarisu, they get confronted by another adventurer who knows what they’re doing and threatens to expose him. Rudy decides that in order to protect Eris and keep Ruijerd’s dream alive, he prepares to kill the man himself only for Ruijerd to reveal his identity and threaten the adventurer with his life. With Ruijerd’s identity revealed, the three decide to leave the city where Rudy and Ruijerd reconcile and Ruijerd even shaves his head bald to keep his Superd heritage a secret and not let it hinder their travels. We end with the group arriving in a coastal city unaware that Roxy is also there looking for them and traveling with her are two of Paul’s old companions.
And we’ve reached the halfway point of this anime. Let’s stop here for today and continue next time. What do you think of the anime so far? Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.