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EP. REVIEW: Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation II

Tangentially related it sure is convenient that all of Rudeus' primary love interests gave their virginities to him and have no romantic experience with any other guy besides him despite how terminally horny this entire world is....

Akcoll99 wrote:

I can see how an anime-only viewer might not get all that when the only relationships shown so far have been Paul/Zenith and Cliff/Elinalise, which are both monogamous. I think the anime's biggest failing is in not making that cultural dynamic clearer.

I think it's come up a few times in the thread; I don't think I ever commented on it, though, and it's OK to restate it, anyway. I agree the anime is oddly understated about it, but I don't think it would have changed my thoughts for it to paint the world as highly polyamorous, because I think the key issue here is the betrayal of trust / cheating and how the story resolves that, not whether Sylphie would ultimately be down for bringing in a third partner. i.e., it's about broken trust and honesty, which if anything seems more important in a multi-partner romance.

Mami-kouga wrote:

Tangentially related it sure is convenient that all of Rudeus' primary love interests gave their virginities to him and have no romantic experience with any other guy besides him despite how terminally horny this entire world is....

I'm still processing my thoughts on whether polyamory in the sense people are using is meaningful to what's going on here (except by comparison), but as far as the "entire world" being terminally horny, I'll point out that with Elinalise's backstory, how moved she was by Cliff accepting all of her, the discrimination her son experienced just for being related to her, and how worried she was the being related to her would change how Rudy felt about Sylphy, hints at Asura's libertine attitudes not being universal. And that there's probably a double standard for men and women too.

Edit: Though on a more practical level, Eris was with him the entire time, Sylphy stayed in love/obsessed with him the entire time they were apart, and Roxy simply looks like a child to all but her fellow Migurda that she feels alienated from because of her lack of telepathy; it probably never occurred to her that the solution was to get to know a young boy so his memories of her would be of an "older girl", then come back years later to find that he still thought of her as older than him despite her physical appearance.

So I guess Rudy can't heal his hand back or at least there isn't a powerful enough healer at the academy/town to finish what he started

Aisha sure does have strong self control to hold herself back, though it's sad she feels like she needs to do so

I don't know if it's the hair or what, but when we first saw Sylphie I thought she aged 10 years Laughing Maybe they're just trying to give her a more mature/motherly look?

Why were Norn and Aisha in the room when marrying Roxy was brought up? Lilia had the wherewithal to leave and she should have taken those two with her.

We know Sylphy had been having sex with the Princess, so she's not adverse to that aspect of things.

I'm pretty sure that while Sylphy was sleeping with Ariel, it was not in a euphemistic sense. Though Ariel made the attempt.

Is that confirmed in the novels? They sure were dressed in sexy nightwear when that assassin found them together. And Ariel apparently in the books has a tendency to have sex with all her female staff.

Yeah whether or not polyamory is considered the norm is irrelevant, even from the start Sylphie suggested extra parties in their relationship. I was similarly annoyed with Norn's complaints being brushed aside because "Well he's not a follower of Millis" (yet it was him that insisted over and over that he'd be monogamous only for the teacher he hadn't reunited with in a decade to become someone he loved just as much as his wife) when the Millis point is the least relevant part of the issue.

Honestly if both the Roxy romance and the cheating resolution weren't so half-assed I would have been more interested in what the story was cooking,

Mami-kouga wrote:

Yeah whether or not polyamory is considered the norm is irrelevant, even from the start Sylphie suggested extra parties in their relationship. I was similarly annoyed with Norn's complaints being brushed aside because "Well he's not a follower of Millis" (yet it was him that insisted over and over that he'd be monogamous only for the teacher he hadn't reunited with in a decade to become someone he loved just as much as his wife) when the Millis point is the least relevant part of the issue. Honestly if both the Roxy romance and the cheating resolution weren't so half-assed I would have been more interested in what the story was cooking,

A couple things worth clarifying here:

Sylphie was open to Rudeus taking a concubine if she couldn't conceive. Having a second wife for other reasons didn't come up until Roxy came home with him. But she even ad,it's that it was a possibility given how much respect and admiration he had for Roxy and she was open to that. She even went so far as to settle the issue on her own terms which was a fantastic moment in the episode for me.

Rudest may not have seen Roxy for a decade but he clearly loved her the whole time. He generates her underwear in a shrine he built for purpose! It was just a different kind of love than what he had for Sylphy. Even his proposal to marry Roxy was more borne out of what would make her happy rather than whether it was something he wanted. He idolized her and is always grateful for what she did for him. This is him returning the favor in the best way he knows how.

Norn's feelings weren't really brushed aside just because of her religion. She was allowed to be angry and vent at the situation. She didn't immediately forgive Rudeus even when Sylphy settled the matter. We can see it took a while for her to come around and only when she realized that her father who she loved so much did the same thing -- and has a sister as a result -- with Paul still being devoted to both wives that she was able to accept Roxy. She had to process the grief and anger at her own pace. The religious aspect was just background.

As far as pacing goes this was not rushed. It was nearly two full episodes of grappling with the situation and multiple days in universe. We saw every involved character have their feelings known and worked them out to reach the point we are here. And it threaded the needle of being both in character and delivered in a sympathetic manner this called for. All the consequences were flushed out as well. This is a great example of concise but deep writing and the ending was quite satisfying.