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This was one of the most eagerly anticipated episodes for the Mushoku Tensei anime, and for very good reason: It’s where all the seeds of conflict finally come to a head for Rudeus, but not in the way you’d initially expect. Even though Sauros’s death several episodes ago should have tipped off the viewer that things weren’t peachy back at home, the messenger of bad news takes the unexpected form of Rudeus’s deadbeat dad. A family reunion seems like a natural development for an adventure story, but not this early in the journey, and certainly not this harshly.
The meat of this episode is a fight between two very flawed people, both struggling to figure out how they’re supposed to act with each other. Paul and Rudeus have not interacted in years, and they’re both very different people now. For his part, Paul looks like he’s aged around 15 years since his last appearance just before the displacement, even though only around 18 months have actually passed. As for Rudeus, he’s a child prodigy who has had the benefit of a previous life, so while on the surface it may look like he’s excelling, he’s also constrained by decades of bad habits. The circumstances are too extraordinary for the two to have a normal father-son relationship, but that just makes the fallout even harder for them to deal with. The addition of Rudeus’s little sister into this equation, whom Rudeus has not seen since she was a newborn infant, reinforces the cruel dilemma. How are you supposed to be around family when they might as well be strangers?
It’s interesting that both father and son in this scenario have lived enough years to consider themselves adults, but neither of them know how to actually be adults. Mushoku Tensei appears to be set in a world where children are expected to grow up fast, but that doesn’t mean that growing up is easy. For all his extra years of life in his previous world, none of Rudeus’s experiences have prepared him for this kind of messy situation, where neither side is completely right or wrong. Personally, I do think Paul was unjustified in berating his preteen son and then punching him in a moment of frustration, but it’s because he expressed his feelings in such a human and messy way that the nugget of truth in his anger feels all the more understandable: He’s right in saying that Rudeus did not consider the fates of anyone outside his immediate sphere of vision.
The drama is perhaps all the more effective because of how disarming this episode is in its buildup. Much like the opening episode of this cour, the episode begins with a montage of lush scenic shots of the exotic new locale. Things are also relatively chill when Rudeus spots what appears to be a kidnapping in progress and decides to play the part of an ally of justice. Coming right off the kidnapped beast children subplot, the underlying assumption was that things would just work themselves out by the end. There’s also the silly interlude where Rudeus dons a pair of panties and gets distracted by (very well-animated) boob jiggles. It really did seem like “business as usual” for Mushoku Tensei until it wasn’t.
Rating:
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation 2nd Part is currently streaming on
Funimation.
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