「ターニングポイント1」 (Taaningu Pointo 1)
“Turning Point 1”

This episode followed a structure that went along the lines of silly, serious, silly, before throwing everything out of the window by steamrolling through our preconceived notions.

We go through a two year time skip, bringing us from the 10th birthday celebrations for Eris to the 10th birthday celebrations for Rudeus. Honestly, I’m a bit bummed out that they cut out passages of the development of relations between Eris and Rudeus through these years, because it helps us understand how they’ve come to care about each other so much more. And it also reveals their good sides. However, I think it’s a small price to pay for moving the story along considering the current pace has been tidy.

I found it fascinating how the show dived deeper into this veneer of aristocracy intra-family politics with the Greyrat family. How there were four main branches, and that Phillip lost a succession battle – which culminated in all of his sons being taken away to be raised by the dominant family branch. It’s pretty chilling how Phillip seems he always had this ulterior motive, to fashion Rudeus into a weapon to usurp the dominant family branch. And with his latent magical talents, I reckon it’s quite a smart gamble from Phillip, all things considered.

This also explains why Hilda behaved so disdainfully towards Rudeus. For all these years, she had her two sons taken away from her. But here we have a Notos Greyrat waltzing in, essentially being treated like the son in the household. And when Rudeus puts on a public display, breaking down in tears and confessing he felt insecure about his place in the Boreas Greyrat household, she realises she’s mistreated him for reasons outside his control and also begins tearing up, coddling the boy as if he was her long lost son. Well, I guess we can see where Eris got her tsun from.

However, it would seem that all this politics is going to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. That mysterious orb floating in the sky last episode? Turns out it was nothing good. Almanfi the Radiant comes to visit them, a servant to the mythical legendary hero from the sky, who mistakenly believes that Rudeus is the cause of the event. And he very well would have killed Rudeus on the spot, if not for Ghislaine barely fending off Almanfi and swearing he wasn’t involved on the honour of her Swordmaster’s name. But it’s too late. The orb expands, creating a bright blue explosion of light which engulfs the entire Fittoa region. Ghislaine gets caught in the blast proximity, and Rudeus attempts to flee. But Eris collapses to her knees, unable to move. Inevitably, he leaps back to save her – getting caught along in the process.

I’ve been waiting for this moment since Mushoku Tensei began airing. Everything we’ve seen so far has been a mere prelude to the greater machinations within a magical world where even someone special like Rudeus is a mere grain of sand, powerless to fight against the wind or waves that rip him away. There’s scale to this world, and our protagonist are not untouchable demigods. They are very much mortal, and powerless to contest whatever greater beings desire from this plane of reality. And I can’t wait to see how they adapt to the way their situation will be changed forever. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to talk about. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!

22 Comments

  1. whats with scantily-clad loli-demonlords, first Milim and now this?
    https://randomc.net/image/Mushoku%20Tensei/Mushoku%20Tensei%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
    apart from that we see -tumbling and all- but progress of Rudeus from inlovable sex maniac, to well, loveable sex maniac… He dodges the cringy wedding-with-tied up-girl proposal, tries something ecchi himself, but manages to stop (with little fist-hint from Eris) short of actual deed, and then goes on to do heroic sacrifice (of course they will survive the spell, but he could not know that when he jumped to protect Eris)
    In more serious news, there seem to be a few super-powerful entities introduced, including dragon-taming mage and demon lord mentioned above, and of course the retired badass hero in his floating castle, who almost killed Rudy by his proxy. Slightly unheroic move, though, kill anyone suspicious, ask questions later….

    ewok40k
    1. I’d venture a guess, but said scantily-clad loli demon sounds like Yuuki Aoi… who voices another scantily-clad loli demon (Shuten Douji from F/GO).

      That said, looks like this is where things get real. Pretty excited how this goes.

      Magnus Tancred
  2. Great review, great episode! I found it interesting how Anime has subtly shown Aisha’s maturity in relation to Norn. Being of the same age, I was left with the feeling that Aisha could also be a reincarnate.

    Mars
  3. Ok I need to be honest, the family part is kinda messed up since I watch the episode 3 or four. Also I heard the next novel will involve a time paradox that the character will prevent the main character reincarnation and create a new or old timeline. Preventing all this.

  4. no it doesnt, the next novels, involve a proper, journey, followed by magic school. It is a very long time till redeus being reincarnated even comes up at all many arcs.

    Ishkander

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