English Dub Review: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation: “The Woman with the Demon Eyes”

Overview: Rudeus (Madeleine Morris, Ben Phillips), Eris (Lindsay Seidel) and Ruijerd (Christopher Wehkamp) come together to try to solve their monetary issues as they try to sail the continent.  

Our Take: Similarly so with the warm, freshly-brewed cup of coffee in my hands, Rudeus’ ever hungry libido along with Eris’ wide-eyed innocence is a perfect gift to wake up to as I reunited with these beloved characters.

What emphasized this feeling even more are the constant money troubles Rudeus, Eris and Ruijerd continue to have on their merry adventures. It’s long until it eventually diverts off the beaten path into Human-God once again tantalizing Rudeus with some grand gifts should he follow his advice. There’s a constant guessing game that goes on with Human-God and which advice to follow or not follow, not to mention how to interpret as well. This makes his role a constant delight as besides his constant poking and prodding, there’s a factor of unpredictability of him being either antagonistic or beneficial. In this case, it falls on the latter with a new character being introduced and Rudeus obtaining a new power. 

Coming off of her tease from the last season, the Demon Lord, Kishirika, finally makes her debut. She is a fun, energetic ball of spirit that takes no time at all to charm the pants off of you. But even with her demeanor and her younger characteristics, Kishirika also maintains a certain wisdom that comes from her many years of experience. From the gecko, it’s hard not to love her, as well as being intrigued. Specifically, with their being an air of mystery as to why exactly she’s wandering the world and she hasn’t conquered any land if she’s a Demon Lord. Or the one surrounding the spare demon eyes she seemingly just keeps in her pocket and her incredibly violent and gory delivery of it into Rudeus’s skull. 

Rudeus has been established as one of the fastest developing sorcerers with immense potential and an incredible aptitude for magic as a whole. But now even his one weakness that he’s always been a step behind compared to Eris is no more with his new demonic eye seemingly having foresight of an opponent’s next moves. It’s nice that it does come with its potential drawbacks in a sensory overload of too many possible future outcomes. The fight is also stunningly animated with Studio Bind once again bringing their continuing incredible batting average.  

As stunning and surprisingly satisfying Rudeus’s win over Eris was, it was the feelings it brought up in our characters that truly made it shine. Eris is constantly bursting with exuberance, but her insecurity of her abilities compared to Rudeus has always been a soft spot. A common internal struggle of not living up to others’ standards with it not being abruptly solved and/or swept under the rug but being a continuing issue that eats away continues to showcase how understandably complex each character is developed to be in the Isekai. On all fronts, Mushoku Tensei pushes its characters to learn and grow. Rudeus subconsciously lets his selfishness get in the way of helping the group with their financial issues, as he comes to realize the difference of how the power of the demon eye was bestowed upon him rather than earned. Ruijerd is willing to sacrifice parts of himself so Rudeus doesn’t have to continue to be the only one doing so, all while being openly honest about it. This highlights their phenomenal friendship as well, with them being so much more heartfelt and plainly spoken than the stereotypical male relationships that can be reinforced with simple bravado and posturing. 

While all of this is going on, Roxy and Rudeus continue to play a rousing game of ring-around-the-rosey in the port as they narrowly avoid running into each other and go in circles. With that in mind, it can only mean we’re leading up to a momentous reunion of master and student that the fantastic start of Jobless Reincarnation’s second cour has established.