Mushoku Tensei II: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu

Everything this anime was praised for in the first season--high production values, cinematic direction, extensive worldbuilding and engaging turning points--is now nonexistent as it hones in on all the things that made this a nauseatingly unpalatable work from the very beginning. The only thing that remains this season is what Mushoku Tensei has always been at its core: An unsophisticated and unprofessional generic power fantasy isekai with fetishistic eroticism as its defining characteristic. Mushoku Tensei wants to have its cake and eat it by being a pensive fantasy epic about redemption with immersive worldbuilding whilst incorporating trashy seasonal ecchi power fantasy elements operating on hentailogic into its narrative. Instead, the former narrative style gets engulfed by the latter because the author can’t help himself and the end result is a sum lesser than the parts that reads like a degenerate fanfiction masquerading as a coming-of-age story. This disconnect plagued the first season and jeopardized any prospect of Mushoku Tensei being a serious story, but the second season thoroughly exposes this tonal and thematic mess as the failed assimilation of the two antithetical storytelling approaches that it is; this season only serving to expand the MC’s forced harem. To some, the insufferably grating MC is part of what makes this isekai special. In actuality, the series shows no signs of meta-commentary about this character chasing underage girls as a 21st-century first-world Japanese male inside a medieval fantasy world. The show instead fully embraces it and I suppose its only half-hearted attempt at self-awareness is always playing it off as laughs with the overreliance on vulgar humour. As with any joke, it stops being funny the nth time it's used. Rudeus is continuously shown to still have the mental age and awareness of a 34-year-old contemporary otaku through various forms of dialogue and his interactions with Man-God even depict him in his past-life state to reinforce that fact, yet the story does nothing meaningful about it in order to justify the very concept in which it's founded upon and lets him fully pursue his perversion. Moreover, it’s awfully convenient how the worldbuilding of this extremely derivative medieval fantasy setting is fine-tuned to the MC’s tastes (whilst pretending it’s vice-versa), such as the low age of consent, society’s liberal attitudes towards it, physically ageless lolis for him to obsess over (e.g. Roxy), etc. Getting killed by a truck was the best thing to happen to him because not only can he and does he finally act on his pent-up perversions with no repercussions, but he also immediately jumps from the rock-bottom of the social hierarchy to high-value with no effort and self-improvement whilst being a natural prodigy for everyone to revolve around. Rudeus is such a skilled badass that even while depressed, the leader of an S-ranked Adventurer party mistakes his low energy as him hiding his power level due to looking down on his peers and thus develops an inferiority-complex towards him. This is totally not a wish-fulfilment series. It's a shame Soldat's character among many others has to be brought down like this in order to inauthentically raise the MC up. Redemption story this is not, and in line with the insipid conventions of modern isekai, au contraire is the normalization of escapism and the promotion of docility. Straight off the bat, this arc is about the MC’s erectile dysfunction. The 34-year-old psyche inside a healthy teenage body is now impotent from the shame and trauma of his underage cousin leaving him after bedding her last season. There is no shame in the act of bedding his underage cousin itself and using that instead as an opportunity for the MC to grow, of course; which was instead celebrated due to everything I have already established about the type of series this is. The new ED premise is farcical on multiple layers. It’s the start of a new story despite the one thus far being left unfinished, and the plot immediately degenerates into aimless, feeble meandering with lethargic pacing that reads more like the author’s escapist hentai fanfiction than ever before. It takes an inoperative veer from Rudeus having to escape an alien continent and reuniting his family into him breezing through a magic academy in laxity (as if one extremely derivative setting for this series wasn’t enough) and hoping he’ll somehow cure his impotence there. There is no defined act structure nor genuine narrative drive and momentum, and it feels like a tedious detour from the initial story. More importantly, however, is that this entire premise is made all the more laughable by the fact that it’s based on the dopey contrivance of Eris’ unrealistically stupidly written letter and irrational decision to abandon Rudeus. The author struggles to write believable character flaws. Thus, the story here is not only nonsensical, unengaging, moves at glacial speed and is tonally dissonant from pre-established plot-points, but its very foundation is contrived and it should never exist. In fact, the erectile dysfunction arc is so bad and borders on filler that the manga skipped it entirely and reduced it to supplemental content. And the worst part about all this is the resolution through familiarity - operating on the aforementioned hentai logic that in any other story would read as a cop-out if this entire arc wasn’t just an excuse to add a collectable to the expansive harem. As I said, this season only serves to expand Rudeus' forced harem because that is the type of series Mushoku Tensei ultimately is - a generic power fantasy harem of which the fantastical elements merely orbit. Otherwise, the narrative wouldn’t be so unfocused and riddled with inconsequential subplots. The author should’ve simply played to his strengths of writing a fantasy epic (as flawed as it already was) instead of trying to write character-driven introspectives, since he can’t write believable characters and character dynamics. Dialogues are extremely corny and all the characters seem to have IQs on the left end of the bell curve in order for the plot to progress based on unintelligent character decisions, accidental happenings, poor character drama as well as plot conveniences as if the causality of this world flows to the tune of Rudeus. A good example of this is the embarrassing feud between Rudeus and Sara, but there isn’t a more egregious one than the entire “will-they-won’t-they” plotline between Rudeus and Sylphiette which is excruciatingly self-aggrandized into seven episodes of non-happenings between an apparently dunce MC who (still) lacks any social cues and a love interest who apparently only now is discovering the basics of life; dragged on so the finale can serve as a “reward” for the viewer because this anime knows exactly the people it caters to. The main cast is just exaggerated isomorphs of trite and vapid anime archetypes whilst most of the rest of the cast are one-notes who will typically be used for comedy relief that stops being funny the second or third time the joke is made--such as Elinalise, who's entire character revolves around sex and represents everything vulgar about the series. One might've thought Eris was the most annoying female in the series for her muscle-brained tsundere demeanour, but turns out Sylphiette and Elinalise are even worse. Seems as though every season there’s only one respectable, dynamic character in the narrative. Last season this was Ruijierd and this time it seems to be Ariel, though it's too bad she's unable to carry like the former. TL;DR: Inconsistent and mediocre production values, bad compositing, no directional finesse, dreadful and bloated storyboards, lethargic pacing, repulsive thematics, drenched in plot contrivances, good character designs with annoyingly awful character-writing and even worse character drama, extremely derivative world, infantile humour, and atrocious dialogue. Mushoku Tensei takes a subgenre of anime culture that’s always been tawdry, packages it in a fantasy epic, and the package starts leaking and creasing to the inside contents. Any sophistication that the show suggested it might have in the first season is thrown out the window, and production values can't save it this time. If you want an immersive and cinematic fantasy epic, watch Wit's Attack on Titan or Ufotable's Fate/Zero. If you seek an introspective coming-of-age anime with themes of the importance of bonds/family/kinship, there are a plethora of titles in this medium across genres that do that better. Unfortunately, Mushoku Tensei fails to fulfil the niche of being a hybrid competently; which is a shame because Rifujin is not unable to write a good narrative and Mushoku Tensei had potential to be something good.

This very well might be the most controversial anime of the last few years. I want to make one thing clear though. Mushoku Tensei is an anime and Light Novel, NOT a political statement. Are the controversial aspects of MT cause for concern and gaping holes in the consistency of the show? Depends on how you look at it. But it isn't fair to the series if it is judged based on today's standards as it is clearly in some medieval/fantasy world. Mushoku Tensei season two can be separated into two arcs essentially, the post-Eris adventuring arc and then the Ronoa school of magic arc.The first arc is standard Mushoku Tensei, business as usual. Rudy, being the stud that he is, goes adventuring solo, finds a group of people, and does his thing. Obviously, I don't want to spoil things but then he finds himself at a school. Here, the style changes, there is less action and an increased emphasis on humor, more than what was typically present in episodes past. There is also a large romance element at play as well. Towards the end of the season, there are some major plot developments that keep viewers guessing. Sound, animation, and voice acting are all TOP NOTCH, I need not say anything further, the production team absolutely killed it yet again. Now on to my criticisms, first off is the story. I know that Mushoku Tensei is an adventuring story but there is no real tension in the series, there really isn't any end goal. This is a major issue because it just saps a lot of the tension and excitement from the series. I guess it is fun to watch Rudy and his friends/lovers run about and have fun but there is no goal for Rudy, which is made evidently clear at one point later in this season. We get almost nothing about Hitogami and Orsted in this season which is yet another bummer. Rudy is also stupid overpowered so we know he's probably not going to die as he is eons more powerful than anybody and everybody on campus. The main purpose and moral that Mushoku Tensei is trying to push is that Rudeus, having been reincarnated into this world, has turned over a new leaf and actually wants to work to improve himself unlike in his previous life as a shut-in. Here's where the controversies of MT finally become a cause for concern. Rudy is SUPPOSEDLY trying to fix himself but almost everything he does is contradictory to that very goal whether that is worshipping literal panties or groping random girl's breasts, it just hurts to see no sign of improvement in a character that I try to support and defend. In the first cour or two, yeah, I can understand some lapses in judgment but in season two we don't get any of those inner character shifts where he strives to become better. Moments like Paul's reunion and Rudy's bond with Eris were very beautiful parts of the first and second cour but it seems like most of these moments are just gone in season two. Remember how I said that Rudy has no end goal? Let me tie that back here because, in season two, the world just feels like Rudy's playground. The inspiring story of the shut-in on his way to start fresh in another world is paused so that he can let his degenerate fantasies of old run free with his newfound power in his new world. That sentence alone encapsulates what goes wrong with Mushoku Tensei season two. If you love Mushoku Tensei, you'll most likely love this. If you were skeptical about the first and/or second cour. You might want to steer clear of season two. Final Score: 7/10

no matter what no one says i will defend this show with everything i have. i seen the tiktok jokes about the show and decided to give it a chance; i literally called out of work just so i can watch the 1st clue + s2 over the weekend and i can confirm that if u can get past the FEW questionable things the mc does then this anime is actually peak fiction. this anime single-handedly changed what i thought an isekai was. i don’t know whether it’s the production, the story telling, the animation, or what but i genuinely love this animanga

Mushoku Tensei II: Welcome to Incel Hogwarts Just watch Ep4, Ep9, Ep11 and Ep12 and you'll miss absolutely nothing of consequence. This season has all the trappings of a filler arc, but I'm told it is actually a quite condensed version of what happens in the manga. God knows what dreck they must have cut if THIS is what we're left with. Story: This season the plot alternates between Rudy crying and Rudy assaulting a series of teenage girls in an attempt to reclaim his manhood. His erectile dysfunction is a physical manifestation of his depression and anxiety, but the episodes spend an inordinate amount of timefocusing on the symptom and not on the cause. Artwork: Basically fine. The cracks show during fast-paced action sequences involving magic as it seems like there are frames missing from character movement - but don't worry, there are only a handful of those across 12 episodes. There's clearly some talent, particularly in the character design, but much of the season takes place in one environment so there isn't much variety. Characters: This season introduces a string of forgettable side characters and resurrects a couple that should have stayed forgotten. Per tradition, the female cast barely have a single complete personality between them, but the men don't fare much better. There really isn't anything for anyone do other than react to Rudy. What can I say that's positive? The opening credits music is solid.

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