Mushoku Tensei

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (Japanese: 無職転生 〜異世界行ったら本気だす〜, Hepburn: Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu, lit. "Jobless Reincarnation: Giving His Best When Transferred to Another World") is a Japanese light novel series by Rifujin na Magonote and illustrated by Shirotaka. The series is about a jobless overweight man who dies after having a withdrawn life and reincarnates in a fantasy world while keeping his memories of his previous life, determined to enjoy his new life without regrets under the name Rudeus Greyrat.

Originally published on the internet web novel website Shōsetsuka ni Narō in November 2012, a year later it was announced the series would receive a print release under Media Factory's MF Books imprint with illustrations done by a Pixiv user called Shirotaka. A manga adaptation by Yuka Fujikawa began serialization in the June 2014 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper while three spin-offs were also released. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the tankōbon volumes of the manga for localization in North America. The company also has licensed the original light novels. An anime television series adaptation produced by Studio Bind aired from January to December 2021. A second season premiered in July 2023.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation has become a success, with its web novel published from Syosetu's rankings has made cumulative appearances as the most popular work on the website, and later expands into a franchise began in 2014. By June 2023, the franchise had over 13 million copies in circulation. Although early volumes of the light novels were the subject of controversy due to sexual themes leading to censorship and complaints, the latter chapters of the series were subject of praise for the development and handling of Rudeus' growth.

Plot

An unnamed obese 34-year-old Japanese NEET is evicted from his home by his four siblings following his parents' deaths and skipping the funeral service. Upon some self-introspection, he concluded his life was ultimately pointless but still intercepts a speeding truck heading towards a group of teenagers in an attempt to do something meaningful for once in his life and manages to pull one of them out of harm's way before dying. Awakening in a baby's body, he realizes he's been reincarnated in a world of sword and sorcery and resolves to become successful in his new life, discarding his past identity for his new life as Rudeus Greyrat. Due to inherited affinity and early training, Rudeus becomes highly skilled at magic. During his childhood, he becomes a student of demon magician Roxy Migurdia, a friend to demihuman Sylphiette, and a magic teacher to noble heiress Eris Boreas Greyrat.

As Rudeus finally feels like he has found his place in the world, a major magical catastrophe destroys his nation, teleporting and stranding hundreds of thousands of people far from home‚ some into dangerous places or situations, resulting in their deaths due to murder, war, execution, monster attack, or exposure to the elements. Stranded practically on the other side of the world in a foreign land, Rudeus resolves to escort Eris home with aid by a befriended strong warrior named Ruijerd Superdia. During his thousands-of-miles-long journey, Rudeus is contacted by a mysterious being, the Man-God, who gives him questionable advice for an unknown agenda. After three years of struggle—including being defeated by a mighty world-class warrior named Orsted—Rudeus successfully escorts Eris home to the remains of his shattered homeland. Unfortunately, political events and a personal misunderstanding with Eris ultimately leave Rudeus heartbroken.

Two years later, the incident with Eris has made Rudeus impotent, so he enrolls in Ranoa Magic University under the Man-God's advice. He is reunited with Sylphiette, who heals his impotence, and the two are wedded shortly after. Rudeus rejoins his father's quest to save his mother, ignoring the Man-God's advice, reuniting and developing a romantic relationship with Roxy during the adventure and taking her as his second wife. He is then visited by a dying future version of himself, warning him that the Man-God will cause the deaths of everyone he cares about. To appease the Man-God, Rudeus attempts to kill Orsted, one of Man-God's enemies. However, Rudeus offers his allegiance to Orsted in exchange for his family's protection instead. Shortly after, Rudeus takes Eris as his third wife, following a reconciliation for the misunderstanding. The series continues episodically with a series of story arcs based around Rudeus' work with Orsted to ensure the Man-God's precise demise, as well as his daily life and growing family. Finally, after a large-scale attack on Rudeus' life fails, the Man-God gives up on his plans against him, opting to scheme against Rudeus's descendants instead. In the end, Rudeus lives the rest of his life peacefully before his natural death at the age of 74.

Production

After graduating university in 2007, Rifujin na Magonote began submitting manuscripts to publishers, but after getting no results, he quit wanting to become an author. Some years later, he was reading Kanekiru Kogitsune's Re:Monster where he learned of the web fiction website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. After reading some of the serials on the website, thinking he would not be ridiculed for his writing, he began submitting there. Rifujin na Magonote said it was a little strange for the hero who had ruined his entire life because of his failure at school in his life to call the school "a place where he can fail". Rifujin na Magonote had thought that he should give such impression. However, he also wanted to depict a student who fails at school trying to have another chance at life through this series. The setting of the work was created by adding elements of other Naro-kei works that were already popular to the story that he had wanted to write for a long time. From that time on, so-called Isekai stories were popular, and the approach was "If I were you, I would do this", such as "If I'm going to be reincarnated, I should write about my childhood properly" or "Is it possible to make use of the settings before reincarnation?" The author thought about it. During his youth, Rifujin was a fan of fighting games he often played in arcades. He often had regrets of leaving his hometown and facing people stronger than him. When Rifujin took up writing Mushoku Tensei he channeled that sorrow as a driving force to overcome all the difficulties while writing and to continue the story all the way till the end. He revealed that he was influenced by Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and Parasyte, which focused on family and human relationships.

Rifujin commented that he created Rudeus aware of his controversial personality. He intended Rudeus' actions would be more meaningful in the process. He had no issue criticizing Rudeus at an early stage and left it to the audience to judge him. Magonote wanted the audience to pay attention to a specific side of his character and be able to relate to him. Earlier, he said that he felt a big response in episodes 6 to 7 of the web version of the novels, but that was just when Roxy took Rudeus out. Thanks to her, Rudeus overcomes the trauma. Such a story gave a warm impression to his readers and made him think, "Let's grow in this direction." Rifujin stated that he wrote every chapter from his personal computer in an old fashioned way rather than modern writers. When dealing with his characters, the author struggles with giving them good actions in order to make them come across as attractive to the reader such as Rudeus' love interests or the ones with a notable backstory. Ever since the novel started, Rifujin had the overall plot elaborated. The human spirit that Rudeus interacts with and the setting the protagonist explored remained the same. The series' message involves how people should live and the possibility that everybody can make mistakes.

After publishing the first parts of his work, Rifujin wrote that he intended the series to last at least a hundred chapters. Due to criticism towards his work, Rifujin considered ending the series prematurely but was inspired to continue when his work reached the first place on Syosetu's daily rankings. Originally, the story arc where Rudeus' reunites with Aisha was supposed to be completely different from the published work. The author intended to have Lilia die off-screen, and Aisha to be hiding under a different identity. However, he found Lilia's death anticlimactic and decided against it; thus, he had to rewrite the story arc to make sense of her survival and lack of contact. Rifujin stated the story arc might be bizarre due to the changes but expresses no regrets in his decision; he noted Lilia's survival made him reconsider Zenith's condition in the story. The climax was influenced by Re:Zero. Regarding the ending of this novel, Rifujin was thinking of writing until Rudeus died, and at the same time, writing until Rudeus turned 34 because he died at the age of 34. He also said that since the prologue is about an unemployed man who is kicked out of his house, he did not want the story to end with someone being beaten up. In addition, even if he continued the story, it would just be a repetition.

Adaptation

Director Manabu Okamoto found the novel controversial but at the same time first rate. He noticed it attracted several readers which gave him an interest in adapting it into an anime. However, due to the length of the novels, Okamoto found it difficult to adapt in to the anime format. The constant change of areas and designs also resulted in more problems. The most difficult change was Rudeus' constant growth from a toddler to teenager in the first story arcs which the staff decided to make subtle rather than make time-skips. In order to characterize Rudeus properly, Okamoto decided to give him two voice actors: Tomokazu Sugita for his thoughts and Yumi Uchiyama for his dialogues. The composer Yoshiaki Fujisawa wanted to use modern background themes to fit the classic fantasy world.

For the second season, Hiroki Hirano replaced Okamoto as director. He said that he aims to develop Rudeus again from a low point as the first season ends up with Rudeus falling into depression after losing all his allies. He hopes he and the development staff will properly be able to address the growth of the character. Producer Nobuhiro Osawa expressed doubts about whether or not the team was sure about including more sidestories from the original series that helped in developing more Rudeus.

Media

Web novel and light novel

Rifujin na Magonote published his work on the online web novel website, Shōsetsuka ni Narō; the first chapter was uploaded on November 22, 2012. In November 2013, the author announced his work was to be released as a light novel under Media Factory's MF Books imprint; regardless, the author stated his intentions to continue publishing his chapters online. The illustrator for the light novel is a Pixiv user called SiroTaka. Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the light novels for publication in North America. They made localization changes in their translations of the light novels, such as toning down Rudeus' perverted behavior and removing references to rape. They later decided to "re-evaluate" their localization decisions. An audiobook version of the series narrated by Cliff Kurt started being released by Seven Seas Entertainment on September 26, 2023.

Rifujin intends to create a sequel to the web novel series based in the Six-Sided Universe. On January 15, 2021, the author stated that he plans to finish the Orc Eroica web novel first. He also suffers from health problems and plans to heal before starting the new work.

Manga

In the May 2014 issue of Monthly Comic Flapper, it was announced that the manga adaptation of Mushoku Tensei by Yuka Fujikawa would premiere in the June issue; though Yuka is the author of the manga series, character designs are credited to SiroTaka. Media Works collected the individual chapters into tankōbon volumes; the first volume was released in October 2014. In January 2015, Seven Seas Entertainment announced its licensing of the manga series for localization in North America under the title Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.

A second manga series illustrated by Kazusa Yoneda, titled Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu - Shitsui no Majutsushi-hen (無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～ 失意の魔術師編, lit. "Jobless Reincarnation: Giving His Best When Transferred to Another World - Depressed Magician Arc") began serialization on NTT Solmare's Comic Cmoa website on December 20, 2021. It adapts the light novel's seventh volume.

Spin-offs

A spin-off manga illustrated by Shoko Iwami, titled Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious (無職転生 ～ロキシーだって本気です～, Mushoku Tensei: Rokishī Datte Honki Desu), was serialized online in Kadokawa Shoten's ComicWalker website from December 21, 2017, to July 14, 2023. Twelve tankōbon volumes were published from March 22, 2018, to August 23, 2023. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the manga in September 2019 for print and digital release.

A second spin-off manga illustrated by Kaede Nogiwa, titled Mushoku Tensei: 4-koma ni Natte mo Honki Dasu (無職転生 ～4コマになっても本気だす～, lit. "Jobless Reincarnation: I'll Be Serious Even in 4-koma"), was serialized in ASCII Media Works' Comic Dengeki Daioh "g" magazine from October 25, 2018, to August 27, 2020. Three tankōbon volumes were published from October 26, 2019, to December 26, 2020.

A third spin-off manga illustrated by Take Higake, titled Mushoku Tensei: Eris Sharpens Her Fangs (無職転生～エリスは本気で牙を砥ぐ～, Mushoku Tensei: Eris wa Honki de Kiba o Togu), was serialized online on Square Enix's Gangan Online service from March 15 to October 11, 2022. It was compiled into a single tankōbon volume, published on November 25 of the same year. Square Enix's Manga Up! service published the manga in English on November 24, 2023.

An anthology manga illustrated by various artists was published by Media Factory in three volumes: Side: Roxy on March 22, 2019, and Side: Eris and Side: Sylphie on December 23, 2020.

Anime

On March 15, 2019, the official website of MF Books announced that an anime adaptation of Mushoku Tensei would be produced. The anime was later announced on October 18, 2019, to be a television series, which is directed by Manabu Okamoto and animated by Studio Bind, with Kazutaka Sugiyama designing the characters, and Yoshiaki Fujisawa composing the music. Egg Firm is credited for production. The series was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020, but it was delayed until January 2021. The first half aired from January 11 to March 22, 2021, on Tokyo MX, KBS, BS11, and SUN.

At the conclusion of the first half of the series on March 22, 2021, a second half was announced. The second half was originally set to premiere in July 2021, but was delayed to October 2021. The second half aired from October 4 to December 20, 2021. Toho released both parts of the first season on Blu-ray across 4 volumes, with the first volume releasing on April 21, 2021. The anime's fourth Blu-ray volume was released on March 16, 2022, and included an unaired episode.

The first opening theme song is "The Traveler's Song" (旅人の唄, Tabibito no Uta). The second opening theme song is "The Awakening Song" (目覚めの唄, Mezame no Uta). The third opening theme song is "The Inheritance Song" (継承の唄, Keishō no Uta). The fourth opening theme song is "The Prayer Song" (祈りの唄, Inori no Uta). The fifth opening theme song is "A Distant Child Guard Song" (遠くの子守の唄, Tōku no Komori no Uta). The first ending theme song is "Only" (オンリー, Onrī). The second ending theme song is "The Way to Go With the Wind" (風と行く道, Kaze to Iku Michi). All of the openings and endings were performed by Yuiko Ōhara.

Funimation licensed the series and streamed it on its website in North America, Mexico, Brazil and the British Isles, in parts of Europe, Central Asia and North Africa through Wakanim, and in Australia and New Zealand through AnimeLab. The series also streamed on Hulu in the United States. On February 13, 2021, Funimation announced the series would be receiving an English dub, with the first episode premiering the next day. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll released the first 11 episodes on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on December 5, 2022, with the latter 12 episodes a well as the unaired episode being released by the company on March 7, 2023. Crunchyroll also released the first season across two Blu-ray volumes in the United Kingdom and across two Blu-ray and DVD volumes in Australia.

Muse Communication has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia and streamed it on their Muse Asia YouTube channel and its respective regional variants, and on iQIYI, Bilibili and WeTV in Southeast Asia, Netflix in South Asia and Southeast Asia, Catchplay in Indonesia and Singapore, meWATCH in Singapore, and Sushiroll in Indonesia.

On March 6, 2022, it was announced that a second season has been green-lit. It is directed by Hiroki Hirano, with scripts supervised by Toshiya Ono, and character designs handled by Sanae Shimada. The season will run for two split cours. The first part of the second season aired from July 3 to September 25, 2023. The second part premiered on April 8, 2024, with Ryōsuke Shibuya replacing Hirano as the director. The opening theme song is "Spiral" by Longman, while the ending theme song is "Musubime" (ムスビメ) by Yuiko Ōhara. The second season will be collected into a total of four Blu-ray volumes in Japan between October 18, 2023, and September 18, 2024.

Audio drama

An audio drama adaptation, titled Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu - Ten'i Meikyū-hen (無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～ 転移迷宮編), was released by Frontier Works on April 26, 2017. The story involves Rudeus who was voiced by Hiro Shimono. The actor enjoyed the work despite being unfamiliar with the novels. He still expressed difficulties in delivering certain lines where the character yells. Rudeus' father Paul was voiced by Eiji Takemoto who wanted to connect with his "son" which led him to connect with Shimono during recording. Shimono stated that he felt the audio drama to be quite dark, despite his beliefs of the original novel being more comical.

Video games

A smartphone game developed by Aiming Co., Ltd. titled Mushoku Tensei: Game ni Natte mo Honki Dasu (無職転生 ～ゲームになっても本気だす～, lit. "Jobless Reincarnation - I'll Seriously Try Even If It's Made Into a Game") was released on Android and iOS on March 27, 2021. The game ended service on August 31, 2022. The light novel artist served as supervisor, especially in the "Paul Gaiden" scenario.

A role-playing video game, titled Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation – Quest of Memories, has been announced for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. It will be developed by Lancarse and published by Bushiroad Games, and is set to be released on June 20, 2024.

Characters of Mushoku Tensei have also appeared in the smartphone title The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross.

Reception

Web and light novel

In the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2017 by Takarajimasha, Mushoku Tensei reached the fourth place in the ranking. It is ranked seventh for the 2018 edition; and for the 2019 edition, the series is placed eighth. On Syosetu's rankings, the web novel made cumulative appearances as the most popular work on the website. The light novels have appeared on Oricon's charts and have also ranked on T-site's novel popularity polls. By August 2021, the light novels reached 8.5 million copies in circulation. By February 2022, the series had over 10 million copies in circulation. By June 2023, the series had over 13 million copies in circulation.

The main character of the series Rudeus, has been criticized for being overtly perverted. Anime News Network found Rudeus hard to sympathize, as in early chapters he barely develops connections. However, the way Rudeus interacts with Roxy during his training as a mage was noted to benefit him, was the subject of praise. Real Sound was concerned about how the narrative portrays Rudeus' previous life as it appears to focus highly on retired school students and issues they had at school comparing it to the famous light novel series Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World. Nevertheless, Rudeus commitment to surpassing his flaws in his new life was noted to turn him into a more sympathetic main character. Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World novelist Tappei Nagatsuki said that one of the strongest points of Mushoku Tensei was the handling of Rudeus who is noted to suffer in a similar fashion to the main character from the visual novel Clannad. Mindo Manihar Pasaribu from Institutional Repository of the University of North Sumatra notes Rudeus, who was previously a cowardly, weak, insecure character into a hard-working, strong, or fearless character who is more confident and compassionate; This makes the novels of Mushoku Tensei served as a major appeal to the audience. Writer Niji Kusano from Real Sound said that the key to Mushoku Tensei's success was how deep is the success Rudeus achieved in his new life despite how common it is in Isekai stories. Another element that helps the novel outstand is the mix of realism Rudeus is often seen while being mixed with the popular high-fantasy style.

Anime

The anime adaptation received positive responses from both critics and audiences, having considered one of the best anime of 2021. IGN gave a positive review, writing, "In a time where every type of isekai is being developed, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation takes a joyful and wholehearted approach to the genre."

At the Anime Trending Awards, the series receives 18 nominations in total, with seven wins. It receives four nominations, including Best Fantasy category thrice in three consecutive years, at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Wiriting for the first season, Irfan Ghani Muhammad from Universitas Kiai Haji Achmad Siddiq Jember noticed Mushoku Tensei often tests Rudeus' morality from different point of views. His fears of the outside world change when Roxy starts training him and takes him through a ride across the town which changes the protagonist's point of view of how society works. The scholar mentions Roxy's character faces a similar arc due to her differences from her people. HITC found the anime properly followed the novel's narrative, most importantly Rudeus' coming-of-age story, which appealed to the audience. Comic Book Resources saw the focus on Rudeus' emotions as what marks the series a major departure from other isekai storylines.

The early episodes of the second season earned controversial responses due to the more miserable portrayal of Rudeus while highlighting a decrease in the animation values. Positive response focused on how more depth was given to Rudeus as he was now alone and tried interacting with new characters.

The Japanese Blu-rays often appeared in Oricon charts.

Controversies

Aisha Greyrat's after-story

One of the web novel short stories from the after-story collection Redundant Reincarnation, titled "The Moment Aisha Greyrat Stopped Being a Maid", sparked a lot of controversy among its Japanese readers. In response, the author had initially planned to make some revisions, but figured it would not be good enough, and after receiving a notice from Shōsetsuka ni Narō management that it violated their terms of service, on February 24, 2016, the author announced that he had decided to scrap the short story altogether and would write a remake in the future.

LexBurner's controversy

On February 8, 2021, before the premiere of the fifth episode of the anime adaptation, a Chinese streaming network, Bilibili, temporarily halted the streaming of the anime on the grounds of a "technical failure." According to fan speculation, it might have been linked to the actions of the popular Chinese influencer LexBurner, who insulted the series and its fans, with one of his remarks saying that it is "for bottom-feeders in the social hierarchy." Incited by his words, his followers went to the media-reviewing website, Douban, to review-bomb the series with a 1-star rating; although the series concurrently enjoyed a 9.2/10 rating on Bilibili. This has led to LexBurner, who was one of Bilibili's top streamers, being banned from the site. Later, author Rifujin na Magonote commented on LexBurner's actions as follows: "His words are only his personal opinion, and he is free to hold whatever views he likes. Although I am displeased at how he has insulted other viewers, anime is not made only for successful people, so I hope that those who can enjoy it will enjoy it." He further commented: "If that is the kind of online presence he is, that's just the way it is sometimes. Even in Japan, there are plenty of people like him, although they might not have his influence. As far as I am concerned, instead of engaging with him, I think it is more important to ignore him and grow your own communities. Thank you!".

Notes

References

External links

• Web novel at Shōsetsuka ni Narō (in Japanese)
• Official light novel website (in Japanese)
• Official manga website (in Japanese)
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Mushoku Tensei (light novel) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia