I’ll be the first to say that this series isn’t setting out to break any new ground with the isekai genre, as it does have a fair share of the familiar cliches and character types you can expect out of it, including Rudeus being well aware of the cliches for it when he shares his internal thoughts on situations to the audience. But what I can appreciate from Mushoku Tensei is that it does actually take the time to set up world building and explore its characters instead of immediately jumping into adventures. The series introduces and fleshes out many of the various characters that Rudeus encounters with members of his new family, friends, and companions as the series explores the first 10 years of his life in the new world. Some characters are still a bit underdeveloped compared to others, but do appreciate how some of them contribute to Rudeus’ growth in varying ways within this series. The series also dabbles into some of the norms and customs found within this world like the celebration of birthdays in every fifth year of life, discrimination against different species, and polyamory seeming to be a norm. The third element I’ll touch on a little later in this review, as that has been known to be a somewhat divisive element among those who have seen the series. The only other gripe I have with this series is its lack of a proper ending, though the title’s second half and a second season of Mushoku Tensei help continue the story.
The heart of this series is the development of Rudeus’ character as he settles into life within his new world and tries to better himself. In a departure from many recent isekai titles, Rudeus doesn’t come off as a flawless character who can seemingly achieve everything flawlessly and easily win the hearts of anyone who meets with him. Having isolated himself from the outside world in his former life due to bullying, Rudeus does find himself unaccustomed to handling a number of situations within the medieval world he is in between both his lack of experience interacting with others and the different setting he is in. Plus while being a prodigy in magic and being mature for his age with knowledge, his inexperience with the medieval world and feeling like he has to do all the thinking for others does occasionally overwhelm him in heated situations. In addition with the series more focused on exploring its characters, the series is focused on the first ten years of our lead character’s new life as he befriends some of his world’s inhabitants and comes to learn valuable lessons as he interacts with them. This focus on fleshing out Rudeus gives his character a bit more dimension and allows the audience to build a connection with him because of the growth he undergoes.
As mentioned, the one area that has proven somewhat controversial with Mushoku Tensei is the setting’s rather frank view of sex. Nobles within the world of the series are known to have mistresses they have affairs with, can have multiple wives, and some of them, especially among Rudeus’ family, are shown to have their fetishes for women they want to have their way with. Plus, the society isn’t averse to having minors as young as 10 engage in sex, a fact that shocks Rudeus during a later story arc when he gets into this sort of predicament. On the one hand, this does believably depict how sex was approached by nobles during medieval times, women having little say in what men do to them due to their lower societal status, and children being recognized as adults once they turn 13. On the other hand, these story elements can come off rather unsettling when approaching the series with modern sensibilities and is likely not to be everyone’s cup of tea. While I largely didn’t mind this given the setting, my only gripes with this angle to the series was Rudeus’ occasional moments of perversion when he was having lewd thoughts of the female characters and attempting to peep on or molest them, that made him look more in line with the cliched anime pervert.
While not breaking any new ground, I’ll admit I did get a good amount of engagement to Mushoku Tensei thanks to the effort put into fleshing out and developing Rudeus and other characters within the world of the series, especially notable as many recent isekai titles I’ve seen are more in the habit of milking overdone cliches at the expense of giving themselves any kind of depth. The series does have some issues I can’t overlook with some of the typical cliches of the isekai genre rearing their ugly head and the medieval setting’s frank thoughts on sex. But despite my gripes, I’ll admit that this series had more meat to its storytelling than I was expecting and plan to dabble into its second half at some point.
