Rudeus returns! And unlike the introduction to part one of season two, he has a smile on his face… Oh, right—the first cours of season two ended with Rudeus being “cured” of an ailment that was more than just physical (but certainly was that!) by his childhood friend-turned-lover Syphiette, and now he’s excited to let the world know that he’s restored to health and happiness! But his treatment came with a condition—Rudy will marry Sylphie, which means that, according to Cliff, he’ll need to buy a house. Well, there just so happens to be a grand estate available at a premium! The only problem? It’s haunted, of course. Maybe the trio of Rudy, Cliff, and Zanoba will be able to destroy the monster lying in wait and clear the way for what’s certain to be a long-lasting, happy marriage. Right? RIGHT?
The second cours of Mushoku Tensei Season 2 begins in the most Mushoku Tensei of ways, with Rudy literally worshipping at the altar of his sensei’s panties, smiling a most lascivious smile, and lots of sex jokes. It’s honestly not the best start to the cours, reminding me of the stuff in this series that made me drop it early in its run and which still bother me. Mushoku Tensei is one of the most hardcore cases of a legitimately excellent series that wants to have its cake and eat it too. It’s in Rudy’s character to be sex-crazed and gross like the stereotype of an otaku, and the series has always leaned into this—sometimes in graphic ways and basically for fanservice reasons, and other times to show his development and for consistency’s sake. By this point, though, it’s become more obnoxious, obviously for titillation in most cases rather than for plot’s sake. I don’t want to revel in the MC’s perversity as the series constantly tries to remind us that he’s growing and becoming a fine person.
Thankfully, the episode quickly moves on from here and into what’s more of a transitional episode leading into the main plot of this cours, which, I assume, is going to have to do with grief somehow, because look—as Rudy mentions, he still needs to reconnect his lost family. And also there’s this: he’s about to marry Sylphie, and that just can’t end well. I’ll give you three reasons (and there are surely more): Sylphie is a childhood friend character; Eris, the great love of his life, is still out there somewhere; and Rudy can’t be happy for long in a series that loves to hurt him. I am eager to see how this all plays out, because Syphie is a lovely character and her relationship with Rudy, as broken as it may be because of the circumstances under which it came about, has heart, as demonstrated by the beautiful final minutes of this episode. I’m also interested because I want to see if I was right about this show—is it the masterpiece I once thought it was, or does it falter under the higher standard of excellent fantasy series that have an authenticity and realism beyond what most fantasy anime offer? Syphie being treated as just a character to throw under the bus matches the norm for many action and fantasy anime that tend toward grimdark, but it’s also usually bad writing to use a character that way instead of making them and their journeys more fully realized. I look forward to reevaluating this series in a few months when we get to the end of this arc of the journey.
Mushoku Tensei Season 2 Part 2 can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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