Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation (Season Two) – Part 1
Rudeus continued his search for his family which took him into the Northern territories. He’s struggled to cope with life since Eris left and things aren’t looking any better. Surely, something is going to go his way!
Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation (Season Two) – Part 1
What did you watch?
The first season was incredible. It set a new bar for Isekai anime and fantasy anime alike. The depth of storytelling and world-building was on another level. It had ups and downs and oftentimes, you had no idea which we were heading towards until it happened. I originally binge-watched the first part and then rewatched it so that I could review the entire series episodically. This was in large part so that I could avoid spoilers and quite frankly the internet is full of them, especially for this series, and that’s if you can avoid the light novel fans who seem determined to ruin it for anyone who isn’t reading the books. Anyhow, let’s look at season two, part one.
What happened?
Rudeus was alone. He continued to search for his family although his heart wasn’t quite in it since Eris left him. He would charge into dangerous situations in the hope that it might not go his way and put him out of his misery. Surprisingly, however, he made new friends and found a new reason to live. He believed he was over Eris, but his body was not. After making a mess of things with an adventurer called Sara, he was invited to attend Ranoa University of Magic. He wasn’t going to go until Hitogami came to him in a vision and told him he would find a way to heal his body there.
Rudeus was quite the wonder at the university as one of only two mages who could cast incantationless magic. The other was Silent Fitz, a bodyguard for a princess. When Fitz discovered that Rudeus was looking into the mana disaster, he offered to help where he could. However, Fitz was really Sylphiette from his home town, but she was afraid to tell him who she was in case he had forgotten about her. Through his first year at Ranoa, Rudeus got into a number of situations. One had him in a duel with Badigadi, the Demon King, which he won. Despite this, he still grew no closer to curing his body and it was starting to look like Sylphiette would never muster the courage to reveal herself!
What did you think?
Firstly, I really enjoyed this season and was very happy to be able to follow these characters in this world once more. However, I do not like when a story takes a character who is excelling in a fantasy world and throws them into a school. It feels like an easy way to get around developing the story. Do you need your character to learn something? Maybe you want them to meet new people? Send them to school! Yes, it works, but it can all be achieved in a different setting. It’s just incredibly boring seeing these characters sitting behind desks in lecture theatres instead of battling monsters and dragons.
Hopefully, that’s the school arc done and we can get back to exploring this world. There’s so much going on that we need to get involved in, and not least the conflict between Hitogami, the Man-God, and Orsted, the Demon-God. I liked the conclusion of the Rudeus and Sylphiette arc, but the way we got there was a little infuriating.
What was your favourite moment?
One thing with this season compared to the last one is that I find myself unsure of what my favourite moment was, and not because there were so many amazing moments, like last season. There were some nice moments early on when Rudeus was falling to pieces and then found the strength to carry on in the middle of a battle. I liked the moment he went into the wilds alone to save Sara. It seemed like he was coming back. He was certainly more nonchalant with his magic once more.
Unfortunately, there’s no room for Sara in this story so she was pushed aside in a fairly tragic set of circumstances which was a result of their inability to talk to one another openly. It was a tough moment for Rudeus, but it did set him on the path to finding Sylphie again.
What was your least favourite moment?
Unfortunately, this season ended up with more moments that could fit into this section, so I’m just going to quickly touch on a couple of them. I bet you can’t guess which ones they were.
Firstly, there was the episode with the slave market where Rudeus bought a young apprentice… Now, the act alone is horrific, but it was the way it was depicted in the episode that left me feeling quite uncomfortable. We’ve listened to Rudeus talk about all sorts of things in his head. It’s often been a good way to understand exactly how he feels about something. This was surprisingly absent in the slave market. It wouldn’t have taken much to show him hating it, but realising he wasn’t in a position to change it at that point.
Then, there was the scene where he defeated Rinia and Pursena and then tied them up in his room and groped them. Again, Rudeus’ attitude seemed remarkably unremorseful. He went through stuff like that in his past life and there was little to no awareness of what he was doing and how that would impact them. Given how wonderfully the last season drew on those memories of his past life, I was surprised to see something like this happen without looking back.
Who was your favourite character?
The absence of Ghislain and Eris was felt this season. I like Sylphiette, but she’s not the same sort of character. There were a number of notable side characters such as Soldat and Suzanne who Rudeus met in the North. Princess Ariel and Luke get some credit for finally stepping in and helping Sylphiette move things forward with Rudeus. I liked Rinia and Pursena, but they too didn’t get much time. Badigadi was a blast when he showed up.
All that said, the character I enjoyed the most every time they were on the screen was Elinalise. She has a fairly tragic backstory, but she’s surprisingly all right with that and does what she needs to do to survive.
Who was your least favourite character?
I’m not a huge fan of Cliff Grimoire, but that’s mostly because of how dull he is as a character. Sure, he may have gotten Elinalise to settle down for a while, but that doesn’t make me like him either.
Strangely, I think it might actually be Shizuku Nanahoshi. I found her attitude towards the new world to be quite jarring, especially when you consider the way Rudeus has embraced it as his new home. Sure, being able to use magic may be a big part of it, but that doesn’t really explain why she was such an awkward person to deal with. She seemed to lack any sort of warmth or humanity. Maybe there’s a reason for that, which would make for some fine foreshadowing.
Would you like some more?
Even with a school arc mercilessly crammed into the middle of an epic fantasy adventure, I am completely sold on this story and will be here for the duration. I think it would take something pretty serious to stop me from watching anymore. I think the next part will probably be more of a return to the adventuring side of things and I’m quite excited about that. It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out with Sylphiette, Roxy, and Eris.
What have you learned?
It goes to show that if you get the characters and the world right, you can almost get away with anything. For the recorded, I don’t think you should abuse that power and this part was probably a little guilty of that, but I also understand the target audience and the relateability of a school arc. The best thing about this part was probably the way it dealt with Rudeus’ mental issues from the end of the last season. We saw him hitting rock bottom. He wanted to die. At one point, he almost threw himself on his sword, and would have succeded if Soldat hadn’t stopped him.
We then saw him go from this position to slowly rebuilding his confidence and his lust to learn about the world and challenge its preconceptions. It was all gradual which was brilliant. He didn’t just wake up one day and he was better. Even at the end, we saw his fragility reappear when he thought for a second that Sylphiette had abandoned him as Eris did. He’s mostly over things, but he could slip back at any time if the situation called for it.
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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