English Dub Review: Mushoku Tensei “The Flying Fortress”
Overview:
Rudeus seeks an audience with the hero Perugius, hoping to find a cure for his mother’s condition.
Our Take(Spoilers):
Remember how I said that I had read the light novel, but it was so long ago that I don’t remember a lot of things that happened? Boy, was I correct on that one, because there were two big things I forgot about, so let’s get into them.
First and foremost, we learned that Elinalise went through the same thing that Zenith did. That’s how she got cursed. We learned a fair bit more of her backstory here, and I felt legitimately bad for her. I know that we like to clown on her curse because it’s mostly just her having to get laid. I think most people would take that “curse,” but you know what they say about too much of a good thing.
Rudeus wondered why she kept it from him, since he thought they were close. Part of the reason is that she’d been keeping an eye on Zenith, and when Zenith didn’t become a giant horndog, she figured maybe it wasn’t as similar as she thought. But they then talked it out, and now they’re back on even terms. I completely forgot that Elinalise had gone through something like that, and that’s one of the things I love most about this show.
What this show does well is that it can take a character like Elinalise, who seems one-note, and then adds a bit more nuance to them. It’s no secret that Rudeus is about as problematic as protagonists come, but he’s also not always painted in this perfect light. When we first meet Elinalise, we’re led to believe that she’s in that seductress elf archetype. While that’s not necessarily wrong, there’s also a whole lot more to it than what’s shown on the surface. She would love to settle down, but because of her curse, who could want to be with someone who might have to sleep with other men to survive?
The other thing I forgot about was Nanahoshi’s medical condition. For whatever reason, she can’t handle the mana that’s everywhere in this world. I think the main reason Rudeus is fine is that he was reborn there, whereas Nanahoshi was essentially teleported. This means that everyone has to be careful when using healing magic on her because it pumps mana into her and could cause more harm than good. Sylphie helps her by using magic on her, but while she’s doing that, Nanahoshi begins to puke up blood. That’s where our episode ends, but I hope that Nanahoshi is okay after this, and I don’t think Sylphie did it on purpose because she was jealous.
We were finally introduced to Perugius, the Armored Dragon King, which, as far as names go, might be the most badass one ever. I forgot that he immediately disliked Rudeus because his mana felt similar to Laplace. In case you don’t remember, Laplace was a powerful demon who waged war against humanity. Perugius fought in that war, so he would know what Laplace’s mana feels like. Does this mean that Rudeus might be a reincarnation of Laplace? That fact alone is intriguing to me.
