English Dub Review: Mushoku Tensei “Lament”

Overview:

Nanahoshi contracts an ancient disease. Seeing her lose hope, Rudeus races to find help.

Our Take(Spoilers):that’

I understand that Mushoku Tensei was one of the first modern isekai stories. So when I say that it does something unique, that might not be the best way to put it, but that’s how it makes sense to me. The way they handle and describe Nanahoshi’s medical issues is pretty interesting to me. It made me realize that this show so far doesn’t have some sort of big bad villain but instead focuses on how Rudeus learns to live in a world so different from his own.

For Rudeus, it was significantly easier because he has people that he cares about here. Since he was “born” in this world, he is naturalized to any sort of diseases that could arise here. With magic being so prevalent in this world, it makes the idea of cleaning wounds and using disinfectant something that doesn’t even occur to the people here, and because of that, Nanahoshi has been living in fear. Since healing magic doesn’t help her like it does everyone else, if she gets sick, that could be a death sentence for her. While Rudeus has been living his best life here in the new world, Nanahoshi has been having a hard time.

What makes this such an interesting topic to handle is that when you think about it, that’s what would probably happen. When Europeans came to the Americas, they got the natives incredibly sick because they had never encountered the diseases the Europeans had. I think it’s fair to say that if you were suddenly transported to an entirely new world, that might be something that would kill you.

Since Rudeus was technically born and raised in this world, he was able to build up an immunity to any issues. Not only that, but mana isn’t deadly to him like it is to Nanahoshi, so if he does get sick, he can clear it up right away.

I’ve seen some people rip into Nanahoshi because of how she treated Rudeus in this episode. While I do think she was a bit out of line, I can understand why she’s so upset. We’ve always been led to believe that getting sent to another world is something awesome that happens. But what if it wasn’t? What if you couldn’t get back, and everything in the world could kill you, even the microscopic organisms you can’t see? All I’m saying is I hope that Rudeus can help her out before it’s too late.