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@theplokoonyreview
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This is hard to review.
In some episodes the characters click, and then combined with the incredible world building and beautiful animation it becomes an experience which I’m completely engaged in. In some episodes, the ecchi gets way too heavy handed and ends up sexualizing pre teens. From a writing perspective, this objectification makes these characters feel like a tool rather than people, and from an I don’t know from a humanitarian perspective it’s gross.
This is a very difficult love-hate relationship, I can go on rants about the parts I love but I can do the exact same for the bad parts. I want to recommend it, but I also want people to stay far away from it. It’s difficult to give this a definite score since it’s positive and negatives are night and day, but let’s a go.
Positive: World Building
Mushoku has a passion for exploring it’s own world. In the first half alone, it’s communicated through the main characters excitement at discovery and the patient unravelling of its own world. When a show sets up and skims over too many ideas, it’s hard to settle into what it’s trying to develop. This lack of refinement leads to an uncomfortable disconnect where it’s too uninteresting to care for, or provoke questions. Patient storytelling is vital to the shows success in the first bit, not only do the characters have time to turn into dynamic and interesting people, but their connections to the world are also exposed and small hints of exciting exposition is alluded. It gives itself time to set up the magic
system of this show as well, I really dislike when shows just assume the viewer knows the magic system since they’re using a really basic one. Even a basic magic system can be fascinating if there’s a passion to explore it, and Mushoku really made me excited to watch Rudeus learn magic even though the system does have many similarities to other shows.
Focusing on part 2 of the show, the characters travel the world so areas don’t get the same individual development as they did in part 1. Despite this, it does create a really fun sense of adventure that demonstrates just how vast this world is, meanwhile seeing the same locations be mentioned and explored by different characters leads to the feeling that everything is connected.
The later portion of the show benefits from the foundation the first 5-6 episodes create, stuff that’s offhandedly referenced ends up being revisited. With this subtle foreshadowing and then payoff, it creates a sense of satisfying wholeness. Also, the dedication to making this world interesting is remarkable. There are 3 established languages that all sound different from each other, and the voice
actors took courses on how to properly speak these fictional languages. Creating these languages is commendable alone, but to have actors take courses on how to speak them shows a rare kind of love for its own world. It ends up being a detail, but it’s a fascinating one and every time a character used one of these languages I was in total awe.
Despite my mixed feelings, I do want to see more of this world and I’m certain I’ll be watching season 2. Also, the second half of season 2 moved away from ecchi and got surprisingly genuine, which gives me hope that it could stay this way.
Positive: Animation
An entire animation studio was created to focus on the quality of this adaptation. With an entire studio putting all its efforts into making this ad visually appealing as possible, the show ends up looking incredible. The backdrops are heavy with details that effortlessly liven environments. Meanwhile, everything is coated over with a polish of detail. The mixing of realistic colours in every scenery can convey something as vibrant as a lush field or as hotly exhausting as a scorched desert. Character details also carry this excessive amount of details and realistic colourization, fitting in nicely with environment.
This consistent visual quality benefits the atmosphere of any scene, whether it be meditative or exciting it makes everything satisfying to watch. Aside from the perverted stuff that goes into uncomfortable territory, the animation quality actually ends up making that part worse.
Positive: When the characters are good
Hypothesis: Whenever Rudeus is around girls his own age, show gets yucky. Aside from Sylphie.
I found this stayed mainly true up until the last 2-3 episodes, because when he’s matched with any other character a dynamic bond is formed. Rudeus and his father is a great example, their points of contention provide engaging scenarios where each of them try to work past their own pride and insecurities. Seeing the dad, Paul, manage being a father despite his flawed nature makes for a much
content, and heartfelt emotion in one bond, being a demonstration of the show atalso one of the shows best uses of ecchi, Paul and Rudeus actually bond over this, becoming an unorthodox way of bonding, providing humour, while alluding to Paul’s greatest flaw which appears in later parts of the show and become a source of conflict for their relationship. It effectively presents comedy, perverted content, and heartfelt emotion in one bond, being a demonstration of the show at its best.
Roxy and Rudeus also have a decent dynamic that gets built up with an endearing amount of character growth in the first couple episodes. But, Roxy’s character becomes more and more interesting as an individual in the second season rather than being attached to Rudeus. It’s nice to see a female character have independent insecurities, family difficulties, and charming quirks, all while feeling contained within its own world by directly implementing fantasy elements into her characterization. She has enough depth to be a main character and sometimes I wish she was, taking a break from the perverted main character and focusing on her for a while became a really sweet distraction.
I had said and I am going to say a lot more bad things about Rudeus, but near the end of the show, his internal conflict was much better explored. The show sprinkles in some reminders that the anxiety from his previous life still comes back to haunt him, at the end this ongoing device comes to a climax and gives his character a tangible struggle. It’s vulnerable and self loathing, there’s no humour or distractions to lighten the scene. It takes on the difficult task of portraying PTSD and does a sensitive, multi layered job. This happened at the end of part 2, so I’m looking forward to seeing if it stays in this serious direction in the future.
The only other character I feel is important to mention here is Ruijerd, since he’s in the party of three which goes on the adventure in the second season. However, it’s hard to come up with anything outstandingly positive or negative to say, he’s typically stoic, remaining more as an overpowered sidekick with a strict code of ethics than a compelling character. He has some good moments, but an
equal amount of underwhelming ones where he’s delegated to the sidelines of the main conflict. I wouldn’t say he’s a bad character, he’s just a few emotional beats away from being actually compelling.
Negative: When the characters are BAD
Definition: Ecchi is an often used slang term in the Japanese language for erotic fantasy and sexual innuendoes. Ecchi is far from my favourite genre, the over-reliance that some anime have on it singlehandedly has ruined these shows for me. The show held back on the ecchi at some critical moments and hinted at a more serious direction at the end of part 2, which saved the show for me.
Eris is the victim of most of this shows ecchi moments. Her individual conflict and strength is undermined by how she’s no more than a side character with minimal input. Then, when she has a moment with Rudeus, it always becomes perverted as she’s objectified for a laugh or a lewd shot. It’s boringly (and grossly) repetitive as it shows her through the same basic lens time and time again, undermining any potential her character had in that moment. This basic portrait makes it hard
to see her as anything more than just the tsundere archetype pasted into the shows adventure. But this isn’t the part that makes it hard to watch, her character is canonically 15 by the end of part 2 and the ecchi stuff begins happening with her around age 13. Watching a show shamelessly do this so a pre teen crosses moral boundaries, it also makes Rudeus’s character nearly unsalvageable since he has the mental age of a 40 year old and he’s instigating all the gross stuff.
On another note, there’s a couple different species of people in the show and one of them is the beast people. This species is consistently used as either fan service or sex icons, even in situations where it’s not appropriate. There’s a part where young beast girls are held captive by criminals. They’ve been beaten, one has been killed, and their in a horrible state of mind. When Rudeus comes to save them, he just lustfully looks over them while the show does close ups on cleavage. It throws the tone into spirals, sacrificing what could’ve been an emotional moment of selflessness for Rudeus for another ecchi moment. Also, I’m season 2 there’s a subplot where the main group spends time with a beast people village. I just found this part to have overall poor character management. Eris’s conflict is the main focus and it’s a really petty one that she doesn’t even start, a side character does and she just has to respond. Despite being a part of the adventure, Ruijerd doesn’t show up throughout this subplot
which further prevents the audience from learning more about him. Meanwhile, Rudeus comes in like a hero and gives Eris the perfect advice for how to deal with the conflict. This all feels redundant, despite focusing more on Eris she only plays a reactionary role and even then she gets help. Ruijerd is ignored when he needed the extra characterization, meanwhile Rudeus saves the day like a glorified life coach. This isn’t really ecchi, I just didn’t know where else to put it.
This positives and negatives are polarizing, making it hard to give a score for the overall experience. In the end, a 7 accounts for the quality in the world building, animation, and a lot of the character writing. However, it’s hard to give it anything higher with how destructive the negatives can be to the entire experience.
I’ll probably watch season 2, the end of part 2 was one of the highlights of the entire show and left me looking forward to what’s next. If the next season upholds the current quality and focuses on developing what helps the show rather than hurts it, season 2 has a realistic chance at a score ranging from 8-9.
Entertainment and critical rating: 7/10
Final rating: 7/10
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