Mushoku Tensei is one of those controversial animes, some people hate it, some people love it, and it seems like this latter category is the majority since this anime is ranked quite high on myanimelist.
Is this a good anime ? Yes definitely, I enjoyed watching this and started watching the other seasons right after. But before we go any further, you should be aware of something IMPORTANT : the controversy is justified and while there aren't any shocking scenes per se, some choices made regarding the main character and his traits are questionnable to say the least. The MC is depicted as a true ... pervert, and in this isekai setting, this will involve moments where the former 36 yo man will fantasize about minor girls he's interacting with in his new life as a young boy. I think that the show took this aspect too far and it hurts the anime, but I'll talk more about this later.
What are the good things about Mushoku ?
- The story delivers. Simply put, many isekais feel generic and uninspired, because it's always the same settings, with more or less the same goals given to the main character, who will quickly form a party and take on a quest to defeat an evil figure in the new world. You can put away all those clichés here because Mushoku Tensei doesn't take the reincarnation feat lightly : we'll follow the new life of the character litteraly from his birth. We quicly understand that this show's narration won't be linear and many things will happen throughout the episodes, many characters will interact with the MC, it's simply refreshing to watch an original story with coherent world building.
- The animation is beautiful. The scenery changes a lot, it's colorful, the character design does the job, the fights are dynamic. Once again, although this is an isekai, it's clearly not playing in the same league as the generic isekais we see each season.
- The ost is amazing as well, and we can praise the anime for its choice regarding the opening, or lack of I should say. What "serves" as an opening is usually a song playing with beautiful landscapes or even scenes that show us small discussions in the daily life of the charcters.
What are the bad things about Mushoku ?
There's really only one BIG problem with the show, and to this day, I can't seem to find a sane explanation for this.
As mentioned above, the man who reincarnated as the main character was a 36 year old creep, a recluse hikkikomori that suffered in his teen years and became "human trash" because of that. In his new life as Rudeus, he's still conscious of his old life, and he kept those virgin's sexual urges and weird fetishes. But what's the point of those, what does it bring for the story ? Well nothing much, that's the problem. Except to appeal to some weird viewers, all those scenes are pointless, even worse, they hurt the show's credibility later on. ( If the anime insists on showing us that Rudeus is a lolicon, how are we supposed to believe that he genuinely wants to help other, protect children etc... in other episodes ? )
To be fair, the idea of giving a second chance at life to a trash human being, and that he's still fighting his inner demons while living his second life is an interesting idea, that justifies the isekai genre and should be used more often. But why did it have to be "this" extreme ? There could have been other ways to make us hate the MC in his previous life if that's really what this is about, and likewise, there could have been other ways to justify his behavior than going for the extreme sexual bullying in his highschool years... It's even more frustrating when you consider the rest of the anime that is almost flawless in every other aspect.
To qualify a bit, the first part of the first season is the worst regarding those cringe scenes, they are less frequent or less questionnable in the other seasons.
All in all, this show is still worth to watch, because it's clearly standing above many other isekais, the story is original and interesting to follow, and the animation as well as the music are also pretty good. However, there is a huge drawback, this anime has a few questionnable scenes where the MC will fantasize about little girls, and no matter how you put it, it's just wrong, don't believe other people that try to give it a meaning, there's no sane justification for this bs and it's hurting the show's coherence that was perfect otherwise. Without those perverted scenes, I would have probably given a 10 to this show, but the anime insists too much with this. The silver lining being that if you can get over those cringe moments, they are less frequent in the next seasons, and the anime changes its tune to give Rudeus a pervert trait that leans more toward the usual comedic relief jokes rather than the full on degenerate mood they decided to pick for this first season.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Jobless Reincarnation: I Will Seriously Try If I Go To Another World Japanese: 無職転生 ~異世界行ったら本気だす~ Information Type: TV Episodes: 11 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Jan 11, 2021 to Mar 22, 2021 Premiered: Winter 2021 Broadcast: Mondays at 00:00 (JST) Producers: Frontier Works, TOHO, TOHO animation, Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, BS11, Egg Firm, Kadokawa, GREE, Toho Music Licensors: Funimation Studios: Studio Bind Source: Light novel Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity) Statistics Score: 8.371 (scored by 810,618 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #2012 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #101 Members: 1,311,478 Favorites: 33,584 Available AtResources |
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