English Dub Review: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation “The Brokenhearted Mage”

Overview:

Rudeus journeys to the harsh northlands in search of his lost mother. Or at least, that’s what he tells himself. The scars of his parting from Eris run deep, and getting back on his feet may not be so easy.

Our Take:

I am really excited to get to review this one. Mushoku Tensei is my favorite light novel series and hands down my favorite isekai. Once you get past the beginning though it’s less of an isekai and more of just a fantasy show. Yes, Rudeus often comments on his past life but unlike a lot of modern isekai, no one knows that he is from another world. Rudeus also has some of the best character development in any story I’ve read or watched, if you can get past his initial umm… grossness?

Studio Bind is the studio behind animating Mushoku Tensei and they are a fairly new studio. What is interesting about this studio is that so far they’ve only really done Mushoku Tensei and I believe that they were formed specifically for this series so I hope we get to see the whole series animated. Not only that but they are really good, I don’t know how to describe the animation style but it’s almost like water paint but more cohesive.

The voice acting is phenomenal but there is one nitpick I have. Madeline Morris does the voice of Rudeus and she did fantastic and season one and I suspect we will see her do great in this season as well. It does feel like her voice doesn’t suit the character as well as it used to and as Rudeus gets older I think the problem will just get worse. I don’t know if they have a plan to get a new voice but I am interested to see what they do.

Rudeus is dealing with some terrible depression and I like how he gets out of it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he is better after this one episode but he has taken the most steps towards improvement. It does a really good job of showing just how awful a beast depression can be. I know a lot of people dislike Rudeus as a character but I think that he shows a lot of growth as the series progresses.