Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation is the second season based upon the light novel series. The season is 25 episodes long and the first episode shows off the effects of the teleportation disaster from the previous season from another viewpoint. It can seem unrelated at first. Then it goes back to Rudeus who is continuing his journey to try and find his mother. He is severely affected by Eris’s decision to leave him last season, and this causes him to be depressed.
Rudeus’ depression has a significant impact on the season’s tone at first. Everything seems down and worse. Rudeus is struggling hard, not only in his objective, but also in his social interactions. It’s not something that is easy to get out of, and it takes some time before the other characters he meets in his adventuring life help turn him around (to be fair, it doesn’t take that long at all).
Like the first season, the plot isn’t obvious in the direction that it’s going. It is like a slice-of-life anime, where Rudeus takes it as it comes. He doesn’t know where he wants to go, what he wants to do, and how he wants to go about it. Even his quest to try to find his mother is soon put in the background and Rudeus moves onto the next phase of his life. While it doesn’t get to the point of feeling aimless, there are times where you wonder if the author had any idea where they wanted it to go.
Nevertheless, Rudeus continues to get more powerful, but not obviously so. He was already strong, although his experience with death in the previous season had shaken him, he’s still considerably stronger than all his peers. It’s interesting to see the setting change back to something more akin to a high school setting, with the vague promise that Rudeus will be able to find out what he needs to know.
The anime is not shy with its themes. It wasn’t as obvious in the first season although it started to show up towards the end. This second season straight up shows the sexual issues that Rudeus has, and the effect it has on him. While its depiction isn’t realistic, there are times where it reflects on how it would impact his ego. This ends up driving more of his motivations in progressing in life than finding his mother…
All that being said, Rudeus makes progress towards finding out the cause of the mass teleportation accident that sparked a lot of the events of the anime. He finds out something that viewers would have suspected, or at least not be too surprised about when it is revealed. It’s still light on details on what exactly happened, but it successfully dangles the carrot in promising we will eventually understand.
If you were expecting epic scenes or big payoffs, this is not the anime for you. It’s slow-going and despite the difficulties that Rudeus finds himself having to overcome, it never really feels demanding or challenging enough. He never really drops down to the worst, so when things end up going his way, and his life gets much much better, it has that feeling you get from isekai where the protagonist has it a bit too easy. Rudeus is currently the more powerful than most, he’s finding his true love, and on the verge of having his own family.
Even when fate shows its cruel side and throws Rudeus a curveball when he is most happy, it still feels he has it okay. That’s fine, especially as Rudeus is shown to not be a perfect character. There are some cringeworthy moments where he doesn’t deal with situations with the care and finesse that he should have, and that reflect his previous life. Despite being in this world from being a baby to adulthood, he is still very clearly influenced by his previous life.
Maybe it’s because even after 17 years of living and growing up in this new world, he still constantly thinks and speaks in his past life’s voice, a 34-year-old adult male, it is very creepy and inappropriate with a lot of his thoughts. It gets quite uncomfortable at times, and despite his years of experience, he still makes questionable decisions such that when things happen, it is squarely on his shoulders and no one else’s fault, so you can’t sympathize with him at all.
The season finale hits it the worst. A bit of action which is fine, and it seems that Rudeous may be achieving his supposed goal (before being severely sidetracked). He supposedly encounters a big loss in his life (which is partially his fault anyway for not listening), but this ends up being the story trying its hardest to justify his harem. This just makes the character even more horrible, and no matter how hard the anime tries to dress it up, there is no justifying it and it’s just some sort of twisted fantasy of the author.
Overall, Mushoku Tensei II: Jobless Reincarnation emphasizes the glaring flaws of the story. The first season wasn’t great in terms of its themes and implications, but it could still be glossed over. The second season doubles down on that, so Rudeous is truly a creepy and horrible person. Although it’s made worse by the anime trying very hard to justify those actions. The animation is good… but everything else about it is not. It’s hard to root for a character who doesn’t deserve it.
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