Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation (Episode 5) – Ranoa University of Magic
Rudeus and Elinalise arrive at Ranoa University of Magic where Rudeus has been invited to become a special student. He hopes to find some answers to the teleportation event and his own personal problem!
Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation (Episode 5) – Ranoa University of Magic
What did you watch?
At the end of the last episode, Rudeus left the North behind and headed to Ranoa University of Magic with Elinalise. I think this marks the beginning of the next arc and we can finally leave Rudeus’ funk behind. He was one moppy git for the longest amount of time with the occasional flash of the guy we know he is so I’m looking forward to seeing him fully return, make some new friends, find some old friends, and walk in on Elinalise while she’s preoccupied…
What happened?
Rudeus arrived in Ranoa and went to see Jenius, the teacher that invited him to attend the university. Of course, he would like to see Rudeus’ ability to cast without incantations before fully accepting him. Luckily, they have another student who is also able to cast without incantations so he arranges for them to have a mock duel to show him what he’s capable of. The other student is a white-haired elf called Fitz… Rudeus begins the duel by using Disrupt. It’s a spell that interferes with another caster’s spell. He quickly wins and then apologises to Fitz for possibly showing him up.
At the school assembly, he sees the student president, Princess Ariel and a guy that reminds him of Paul. After that, he heads to homeroom which is the only class he has to attend. There he meets some interesting individuals. The first is a familiar face – Zanoba who hasn’t forgotten about Rudeus’ figurine of Roxy. Then, he meets Linia Dedoldia who is the daughter of Gyes, the chief of Doldia tribe and Pursena Adoldia, another beast girl. There’s also Cliff Grimoire, a self-appointed magical genius and then there’s another who doesn’t usually attend homeroom.
Rudeus begins to search the library for clues about the mass teleportation event and runs into Fitz. He’s a little concerned about their first encounter, but Fitz doesn’t seem the least bothered. He even seems pleased when Rudeus says he’s searching for a friend that was teleported. Fitz offers some books for him to read before leaving. On the way home from the library, Rudeus happens upon a pair of panties falling from the sky. When he catches them, he’s accused of being a panty thief and the dorm leader, a gorilla beast girl threatens to make an example of him. Fitz arrives to sort out the problem and even threatens the gorilla girl.
What did you think?
So, this episode was all about setting up things for this arc, however, there were a number of juicy nuggets of information and a lot of things came together which I hope will make this arc that much more exciting, especially as school arcs are generally my least favourite, especially in a fantasy setting. Anyhow, we learnt a little more about Elinalise and how she’s cursed which requires her to sleep with men. I think that may have gotten her into the school too as Jenius did say they research curses. I had to laugh when Rudeus was helping her with her slutty schoolgirl look and recommended pulling up her skirt and wearing thigh-high socks so she doesn’t get cold. Rudeus is so far in the friend zone that he can’t see anything else now.
What was your favourite moment?
One of my favourite things about the overpowered protagonist trope is when others see what they can do. In this instance, it was when Rudeus had the mock duel with Fitz and obliterated her… I mean him. It wasn’t even close and everyone else was standing there completely dumbfounded. Even Jenius looked stunned. I’m hoping there will be more of this and that no one ever gets comfortable with his ability to cast spells this way. I was a little surprised that Fitz didn’t reveal who he really was, especially as there were several chances for her to do so. I guess we’ll have to wait and by then Rudeus will probably have gotten himself into some sort of ridiculous situation that makes him look bad.
Who was the most impactful character?
Not necessarily impactful in the usual sense, but I felt like the scene where Rudeus met his cousin, Luke Notos Greyrat is going to be one that leads to something big. From my memory, I understand that Paul has been kind of shunned for his actions and should be the heir to the family. I might be wrong, but I definitely got the feeling that Luke doesn’t like Rudeus. I’d kind of like to see Rudeus put him in his place because he’s got one hell of an attitude problem.
Was there any conflict?
Other than the brief moment with Luke, there was the scene with the falling panties. Of course, Rudeus was there to catch them and had somehow wandered into the girl’s dormitory area after dark. So, when he was surrounded by angry girls, still clutching the panties that fell from the sky, Rudeus was understandably dumbstruck. Then, the appearance of Goriarde who was itching to do some damage to him left him with nothing to say or do. I understand that fighting back in that situation may have made things worse, but I really want him to stand up for himself more. These were two similar yet different situations but both had someone who was just looking for an excuse to fight and had set their sights on someone they perceived to be weaker than them.
What have you learnt?
I think we’ve waltzed into the school arc without really considering the last time Rudeus was at school. It was in his past life and it did not go well. I wonder whether he’ll end up having some flashbacks to his past life and the horrid time he had there. Will this time be any better or will his fortune swing the other way? It would be understandable to see him target those that would abuse their powers to make the weak feel small. After all, it was standing up for someone else that started his school ordeal in the past life. This could end up being a very interesting arc.
Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Part 1
- Episode 1 – Jobless Reincarnation
- Episode 2 – Master
- Episode 3 – A Friend
- Episode 4 – Emergency Family Meeting
- Episode 5 – A Young Lady and Violence
- Episode 6 – A Day Off in Roa
- Episode 7 – What Lies Beyond Effort
- Episode 8 – Turning Point 1
- Episode 9 – A Chance Encounter
- Episode 10 – The Value of a Life and the First Job
- Episode 11 – Children and Warriors
- Part 2
- Episode 12 – The Woman with the Demon Eyes
- Episode 13 – Missed Connections
- Episode 14 – No Such Thing As a Free Lunch
- Episode 15 – Slow Life in the Doldia Village
- Episode 16 – Family Squabble
- Episode 17 – Reunion
- Episode 18 – Separate Journeys
- Episode 19 – Route Selection
- Episode 20 – The Birth of My Little Sister, the Maid
- Episode 21 – Turning Point 2
- Episode 22 – Dreams and Reality
- Episode 23 – Wake Up and Take a Step
- OVA
- Part 1
- Season Two
- Part 1
- Episode 0 – Guardian Fitz
- Episode 1 – The Brokenhearted Mage
- Episode 2 – The Forest in the Dead of Night
- Episode 3 – Abrupt Approach
- Episode 4 – Letter of Invitation
- Episode 5 – Ranoa University of Magic
- Episode 6 – I Don’t Want to Die
- Episode 7 – The Kidnapping and Confinement of Beast Girls
- Episode 8 – The Fiancé of Despair
- Episode 9 – The White Mask
- Episode 10 – These Feelings
- Episode 11 – To You
- Episode 12 – I Want to Tell You
- Part 2
- Part 1
Series Information
| English Title | Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation |
| Japanese Title | Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu |
| Medium | Anime |
| Released | Season 1 Part 1: Winter 2021 Part 2: Fall 2021 Season 2 Part 1: Summer 2023 Part 2: Spring 2024 |
| Episodes | Season 1 Part 1: 11 Part 2: 12 + OVA Season 2 Part 1: OVA + 12 Part 2: 12 |
| Animation Studios | Studio Bind |
| Genres | Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Isekai, Magic |
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I get the impression that Rudy does not believe Elinalise about her “curse,” and I am getting more and more poleaxed each time he does not take these things at face value, despite gaining more experience in this world. I imagine if she ever gets her curse lifted, she will suddenly go on a streak of abstinence.
Sylphie left me dumbfounded as well. I mean… I simply cannot conceive of why she wouldn’t just tell Rudy the truth of herself! Why draw this out?!
Otherwise, I must admit, I completely forgot about Rudy’s last time in school. I would think that everything he’s experienced since reincarnating would have cleared up most of his trauma, but I am suddenly uncertain, especially with a slight bit of spoilers I picked up online, concerning events to come which might or might not forcibly remind him of all of that.
Luke seems to have a grudge against Rudy, and it’s been long enough for him to have interacted with Eris, who may be a bit bemused at this point concerning her and Rudy. As far as she knew, she gave her first time to Rudy, then parted ways under much better circumstances than he experienced. She still loves him, and probably remembers a certain promise made concerning when he turned fifteen, which, he is now.
Meeting the daughter of that beastman chief is an interesting detail. You know something is going to come of that, though her attitude as an alpha in his face is a bit unwarranted. I wonder how she’ll react when she learns that Rudy is a friend of her people.
Finally, this has to be the first time that Rudy has been perfectly innocent of any perverted behavior of which he has been accused, ie, the whole panty thing outside the girls’ dorm. But being innocent probably just irritated that gorilla girl even more. We have not seen the last of her, I am certain.
Oh, and I have to laugh.
This is the second time Rudy has thought Sylphie was a guy.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that here, but did comment on Crow’s post. It certainly makes it believable that Rudeus would think Fitz was a guy.
Rudeus seems to swing back and forth between being quite perceptive and diligent in his studies. He taught himself the beast and demon language after all, but he can be so completely clueless sometimes.
Saying that, I can’t see a reason why Sylphie would keep it a secret other than to see what sort of a person he has become. I do wonder if it might backfire when he does find out.
Of course, there’s Cliff Grimoire too who hates Rudeus after Eris shot him down and didn’t stop going on about how good Rudeus is. I’d like to see him put Cliff in his place too, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern for Rudeus. He can be surprisingly mature sometimes and then a buffoon at other times. I think that’s why he so interesting.
I don’t think Fitz’s defense of him will help in the long term. None of the girls seemed to want to believe that he was innocent, even though, as you say, he was perfectly innocent.
I just can’t see this being a warm and cuddly school arc and I’ve managed to avoid all spoilers about this one so I can really enjoy it.
Great to see the series getting back on track animation wise. I figured they did the Sara arc, which isn’t very important in the big-picture of the series, last and dumped the money into this stuff. It looks great.
I said in my posts that this entire section of the story is Rudy going through his grieving process. We’ve seen sadness, frustration and now we see the process of moving on and then rebirth. It’s good shit.
I’ve not been too bothered by the animation quality. Sure, some has appeared lazy, but it’s not been enough to put me off the story so I’m not worried.
I’ve not read any of the books so have no idea what’s coming, but I feel like there’s going to be a relapse of sorts before he’s ready to move forward. I really want him to realise just how strong he is. It really is a great series.